Author: Steve Murray

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Sunday Link-Off: Welcome to the New Year, Same as the Old Year

jenna-coleman-interview15-06I was so busy working on the next episode of The Lowdown podcast that I nearly forgot to do the links. My target is getting the podcast up on Tuesday but I have nearly three hours of audio to comb through in putting this together so I think I’ll be cutting it close. It’ll come out this week for sure, though. The one thing I can tell from early edits is Jackie is louder than me so I’m going to have to turn up my mic for future podcasts.

Anyway, it’s the last Sunday of my Christmas break so I suppose that we should do some links. Since there was a Doctor Who Christmas special over the last couple of weeks, let’s kick things off with Jenna Coleman (who was not in said Christmas special nor even mentioned).

Nearly 1,000 Americans were fatally shot by police last year. One in ten were unarmed. (Washington Post)

Fact checkers are very busy with the current crop of political candidates but it doesn’t seem to be doing any good. (Politico)

You’ve heard the tale of Donald Trump but do you know about the tragic tale of Donald’s oldest brother, Freddy, who was largely cut out of the family? (New York Times)

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The Lowdown Annual: 2015

With another year having come and gone, I thought it was time to look back at the best of the past 12 months here on The Lowdown Blog. We integrated more video game and entertainment content. The Hottest Canadian bracket made a comeback this year. There were a few theme weeks and long-form content posted this year. No, this might not have been our most read year in the blog’s history but I’m quite happy with the content we’ve been putting out.

So let’s look back at the year with our most read posts from 2015 and the most read posts overall in 2015.

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How to be a Google Pro (Infographic)

I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions but if I was to pick a specific point in time to say that I must endeavor to improve myself, I suppose that it would be when I change the calendar. One thing I do know about self-improvement is that my best friend is always going to be Google. If I’m ever going to get better at anything, the answers will be a quick Google away. That’s why I want to get better at Google. It’s the perfect plan.

To help us all get better at using Google, we have this handy little infographic for you.

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Wednesday Link-Off: The Other Eve Eve

anna-kendrick-variety15-01I just realized that people are more than willing to call December 23rd “Christmas Eve Eve” but no one calls December 30th “New Year’s Eve Eve.” It doesn’t really make sense to call one date an “eve eve” but not the other. Hell, you even have to do last-minute shopping on both eve eves. Granted, one is for gifts and this one is solely to get you drunk. Priorities, right?

Anyway, it’s the last Wednesday of 2015 which means that it’s time for us to do the links. Since it’s the last linkdump of the year, we have to lead off this post with our woman of the year. Using the scientific analysis criteria of the blog’s traffic, posts, comments and so on, for the second consecutive year, our woman of the year is Anna Kendrick.

Are those who want to limit free speech as a weapon to combat terrorism themselves a form of terrorist? It’s an interesting little debate. (The Intercept)

As we gear up for Presidential primaries starting next year, we witness the ongoing death of the Republican Party as a political group and the rise of an anti-establishment cultural movement in its stead. (Washington Post)

Why does everyone seem more scared of everything thing this year than last? Because the TV news is exploiting your fear for ratings. (Rolling Stone)

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Fails of the Year 2015

Usually, when we do our fails posts, it’s the best fails we’ve found from the last short stretch of time. This week, we have some compilations of the best fails from the past twelve months in the Fails of the Year.

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Worst of Music Retrospective: United States of Pop 2015

I don’t think that we’ve done a Worst of Music post since this time last year. It’s not that music has gotten any better. I’m just avoiding any of the hits stations as much as possible. If you go off the Billboard path, you can find some pretty good music. This year, I’ve discovered Deafheaven and Sleater Kinney so it’s not like music is all terrible. Just mostly terrible.

Since most of the internet has gone into year-in-review mode, I thought that we’d do our usual retrospective of the worst music of 2015. But why do I have to do anything when I can use DJ Earworm’s annual mashup of the top 50 pop hits of the year to recap the year in bad music. Apart from Adele. She’s alright.

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Sunday Link-Off: When the Wallet Breaks

pia-wurtzbach-01The timing of holidays can really mess you up if you aren’t keeping on top of your calendar. For example, it wasn’t until late last night that I realized that yesterday was Saturday. All I knew about yesterday was that I had some shopping that needed to be done since the best deals of the year were on Boxing Day. I bought more than I wanted to, saved more than I care to admit and still didn’t buy much in the way of impulse buy items (I really want one of those colour changing party speakers but can’t justify the price). I don’t think anyone is looking forward to their credit card bills in January.

Anyway, since it’s apparently Sunday, we have to do the links and hopefully make me a penny or two towards my Christmas bills. Let’s kick things off with Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach.

Ted Cruz was right about something. The more ex-felons are Democrats than Republicans. The problem is that’s not what he said. To say that most violent criminals are Democrats isn’t exactly true nor does it deviate from the general population. (Washington Post)

Anonymous’ cyberwar on ISIS has now turned the focus to its allies. They recently took down the internet in Turkey for their support of ISIS. (The Hill)

Internet freedom in America is dying. This isn’t just about CISA being included in the recently passed omnibus budget. (Motherboard)

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Santa With Muscles

It’s sort of a Christmas tradition at The Lowdown to feature terrible Christmas movies on Christmas Day. I think this year’s might not just be one of the worst Christmas movies of all-time but one of the worst movies period of all-time.

At one point in time, Hulk Hogan wanted to be a big movie star. The Hollywood moniker he used as a heel wasn’t too far off the mark. While the Hulkster would pave the way for The Rock to become Hollywood’s biggest draw, Hogan’s career film never escaped kid’s movies and basically died in 1996  when he made the children’s Christmas disaster known as Santa with Muscles.

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What if the Star Wars Prequels Were Good?

When I was looking for content for the run up to The Force Awakens, I came across a couple of videos with hypothetical re-writes of the Star Wars prequels by Belated Media. Now that I’ve finally seen The Force Awakens and (spoilers) found out that the prequels really had no impact on the new trilogy so far, I think it would be fun to go back and reexamine the prequels.

So the suggested re-writes aren’t perfect but they’re a reasonably good summation of what went wrong with the prequels and what could be done better.

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Wednesday Link-Off: Eve Eve

You know, I really think that this Christmas Eve Eve and yesterday’s Christmas Eve Eve Eve shit is just dumb. Today is December 23rd. If you need help remembering that it’s the day before the day before Christmas, I’m not sure that calling it Christmas Eve Eve will be that much of a benefit to you in the long run. I probably sound like a surly old bastard but kids these days just don’t make any sense. I wonder if they think they’re being funny. That’s not how humour works.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday so it’s time for us to do the links. Normally, I’d kick off with someone but I didn’t find anyone before I dozed off watching StarCraft last night. More on that at the bottom of the post.

Donald Trump could win the Republican primary but could he beat anyone in an election. A new poll has Bernie Sanders 13 points ahead of Trump. (The Hill)

Many Canadians can’t afford homes and blame foreign buyers. Will banning them help at all? (Quartz)

PostMedia is disintegrating from the inside. Maybe if they focused a bit on journalism and being a news organization, things would be different right now. (iPolitics)

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