Episode 50 - Timely, Topical, Terrifying and Tom

Live from MMPR 2019, it's Tangential Convergence! Yeah, so I'm typing this up on the Sunday before we all meetup for the goodbye breakfast of MMPR. It was good fun. It was Ken's first TC, and Tom's as well. We talked about the history of military parades, what with the oddness of the recent July 4 parade. The audio is ok, there was some music playing in the background, and it was a little loud. Apparently also the audience couldn't hear us..... We hope you enjoy the episode. mp3 download

Episode 49 - I Can't Even Throw Away Paint

Hey look, it's us! Also, we streamed this one live. Sorta cool right? Of course we peaked at three listeners, still... Evil Bond villain Elon Musk launched a bunch of satellites. It's pretty crazy. SpaceX is like the British East India Company, or the Company of a Hundred Associates. Elon Musk may be odd, but, he never ran the Congo or anything. Oh these satellites might change our night sky. mp3 download

Episode 48 - You Need Three People For Propaganda

OK, we're back after a long hiatus. Ken has merged with a new kidney, and he's doing much better thank you. We started out by talking about the SNC Lavalin affair here in Canada at the request of friend of the show, Tom Merritt. We gave our impressions on the affair. This got us to talking about fake news, and the recent BuzzFeed News Article about how the olds share more fake news. Then we got to Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. mp3 download

Episode 47 - Ward Cleaver Was Really Into Cock Fighting

Hey, we're back! If anything gets us back to talking it is overreach by a company with a bit of copyright! I'm using too many exclamation points! So, a guy who had bought a movie from Apple went to re download his purchase, and it turns out, he didn't really buy the movie. He bought a license to download it, depending on its availability in the iTunes store. Plus, the EU is going all crazy again..... We talked Dr. Johnson, dystopias, the future of newspapers and the Peninsular Wars. Enjoy. mp3 download

Episode 46 - A Warehouse Full of Minitel Terminals

Yup, we're back. Don't worry, we just took a little break. So, today is Isabelle's birthday, so there's that. Our topic though, is not birthdays, but, the recent fine the European Union has slapped on Google. The deal here is, that if you make an Android phone, and you want to use the google play store, you can't fork Android. I mean, you CAN, but then you don't get the play store. The EU doesn't like this much. This brought me in mind of the unequal treaties imposed on China, Japan and Korea (by Japan no less). Mercantilism, Autarky, and even the future! Oh yeah, the singularity is silly. mp3 download

Episode 45 - Sending Your Scribe to John Grisham's Place

Everyone sing along. It's Tom Merritt's birthday. Today, or tonight really, we're tackling a topic we've spoken of before, cloud computing. Yeah, that was back in episode 12, that file is long gone.... Today at work there was a presentation about G Suite for education. Hey the university gets google tools for free! Also, no ads, and no data collected. So that's cool, and that's why we're talking about this tonight. What's the deal on those things that Picard signs? Is he accepting TOSs? Hey, wait, in TOS Kirk was always signing things! We like the cloud stuff, and we're pretty excited about the whole thing coming to the university. We also talked a bit about Luba Goy and Billy Van. Hey, Isabelle took pictures of us! mp3 download

Episode 44 - Churchill as a Service

Look, another episode! Look, another episode about copyrights! Look, the EU is being silly again! Is it censorship? I dunno. I'm sure Ken will know much more about this than I, because of his librarianosity. What if you could make copies of people's consciousness? Would you? What about renting out someone's 'soul' to be used as, oh say, a university administrator. Oh, Ken's daughter graduated from grade 8, congrats to her. We hope you enjoy our ramblings. mp3 download

Episode 43 - The Small Pencil Manufacturing Trade Association Has a Grievance

Do you have it? Can you feel it? Election fever has gripped Ontario! OK, look, I'm not so sure I have election fever, it might just be some bad clams. As I write this it looks like it'll be four years of bad clams. Oh for the first time we had voting machines! The company that made them is Canadian and has no ties to Russia, that we know of.... However, elections are a great podcast topic. So, that's what we did. Ancient Greece, Rome, the Polish monarchy, the Galactic Senate, me quitting as AU Senate speaker, the Federation, the Klingon High Council, all great stuff. OK, when I quit as senate speaker it might not have been my finest hour. mp3 download

Episode 42 - Quarter Poundor

Another week, another episode of The Expanse, and, another TC. Oh remember, you heard it here first that the Expanse was going to be picked up by Amazon. Speaking of Amazon, this article on Engadget caught our eyes. FAKES! Apparently there's a lot of stuff on Amazon that is fake. I remember eBay dealing with that a lot when I was a seller back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I promised my Russian friend Dan that I'd mention him, and The Warlock in Spite of Himself series. I have now fulfilled my contractual obligation. I bet we talk about Altered Carbon. It's just a guess, but I bet we do. Visit Elne France, those poor people. The theme is too loud this week, sorry about that.... mp3 download

Episode 41- Parking Tickets For Their Shuttlepods

I just announced on twitter that I'm currently writing this post, so I guess I ought to get to it. So, how about that Trump/Kim summit? Yeah, no, that's not happening. I don't know about you, but it strikes me that this was Kim's plan all along. Try for ridiculous concessions (US troops out of South Korea) then when that doesn't happen, embarrass Trump! Who knew a reality TV star could get pwned by a guy who, while evil, has been training for this role his whole life? This lead us into some fine discussions about summits in general. Klingons and the Federation for example. Oh you've got your 'peace in our time' summit too, that one worked out well. Of course, B5 came up. Also, North Korea, it's got a vaguely 1984 feeling. By vaguely, I mean EXACTLY LIKE 1984. mp3 download