TV

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Entertainment Link-Off: Panormous

kate-winslet-esquireuk15-05bHi folks. Steve here for the intro. Jackie’s off on a world tour or something like that right now so he got me to cover off the intro for this week’s ELO. Don’t worry about the actual links. Jackie had that covered before handing it off to me so you don’t have to worry about that.

This weekend is fairly quiet at theatres. Pan is really the only noteworthy film unless you’re located near an advanced screening of Steve Jobs. Maybe you’d prefer to stay in and watch the season premiere of The Walking Dead. We have a link about TWD along with stories about The Martian, superhero movies, some movie trailers and more.

But first, let’s kick off the links with Kate Winslet who will be in Steve Jobs.

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Entertainment Link-Off: Wibbly Wobbly

jenna-coleman-polochallenge15-01Welcome, my friends, to the show that never ends. Jackie’s cashing in the favour I asked last week when he covered the SLO so I’m doing the entertainment links this week. I’ve actually got a pretty good week this week. Doctor Who is back today/tonight (depending on where you live) and most of the rest of TV is back next week.

And since Doctor Who is back and we have some links about her in this post, let’s kick off the links with Jenna Coleman.

After the jump, we have some Doctor Who-ish links, a look at the late-night landscape, a smattering of showbiz updates and more.

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Sunday Link-Off: Spoilers

jessica-lowndes-bretterickson15-01Despite the fact that I wrote way too much about the current state of women’s wrestling in the WWE, I actually have quite a few links for today’s linkdump. As usual, it’s a lot about politics but there isn’t much about gun control this time. I’m hoping to pull together those links for the next post.

Anyway, it’s Sunday so it’s time for links. Since we have a lot of Canadian themed links, I think that it’s only appropriate to kick-off with Canadian actress Jessica Lowndes.

George Bush doesn’t care about black people: The Definitive History (Huffington Post)

The Canadian military is part of operations against IS in the Middle East. Don’t ask the Kurds what Canada has been up to because Canadian involvement is a surprise to them. (MacLean’s)

What’s the most underplayed story in this year’s Canadian election? The destruction of Canadian election laws and Elections Canada by the current government. (The Guardian)

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Sunday Link-Off: Selfie

Hello and welcome to The Lowdown Blog. Okay, that’s the podcast intro but we recorded an episode yesterday and I’m going to start the editing soon. Hopefully, I’ll have it up this week. If not, we’ll be missing some E3 coverage. At least that’ll be on the blog.

Anyway, it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s change things up and kick things off with Kate Hudson.

You’ve probably heard the term about how the rich get richer but it’s actually true. Even the IRS helps the rich get richer as they make more money. (Washington Post)

How did the Americans make their latest strike against ISIS? By back-tracking a selfie. (Washington Times)

Penn Jillette has been watching official videos from Presidential candidates and has found out what might make Bernie Sanders the most formidable candidate on the trail. (CNN)

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Wednesday Link-Off: Power and Politics

taylor-swift-glamouruk15-01Politics isn’t an easy arena to be in. Unless you’re exceptionally popular or just happen to luck into it, chances are that more than half of your constituents will disagree with whatever you do or say. I can’t say that I can understand how someone could hate themselves so much to put up with it unless they legitimately think they can help people more than the next man. Of course, if you aren’t in it for public service, I won’t vote for you. I can think of plenty of politicians who I wouldn’t vote for.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday which means that it’s time for us to do the links. Considering the controversial nature of politics, it’s only fitting that the controversial Taylor Swift opens up this post.

Amid the coverage of the Baltimore riots on Fox News, Shep Smith once again proves that he is the station’s only voice of reason. (Salon)

The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments to decide if gay marriage should be legalized in America. Support for it has increased by 50% since 1988. (Washington Post)

Watch out, Hilary! Bernie Sanders is coming for you! (VPR)

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Sunday Link-Off: Not Safe for Work

rosie-huntington-whiteley-esquireuk15-03After taking last Wednesday off to spend my time writing the Formula One season previews, it’s time for my editions of the link-off to resume normal service. While the title might say NSFW, there aren’t any NSFW links. There are some people with some NSFW professions being talked about but wouldn’t reading about that be the fun part of your day.

Anyway, let’s end the preamble and start the links. Let’s kick things off with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

If there’s a Ponzi scheme that shakes Canada and no one in Canada was shaken, did it really shake the country? (New York Times Magazine)

The 47 Republican Senators sent a letter to the leadership of Iran that effectively tried to threaten Iran out of signing the long-awaited nuclear agreement with America. Many pundits suggest this is close to treason. (Bloomberg)

And the “Iranian hardliners” sent a letter back. (Slate)

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Sunday Link-Off: What is Freedom of Expression?

cintia-dicker-dickerswimwear15-01I learned something this week. When you’re travelling, always prepare for the worst. I saw Air Canada take my luggage off the plane and wouldn’t take I’m catching a bus to another destination an hour after we land for a three-day suit-and-tie conference as a reason to put it back on. Took two days for my luggage to make one one-hour flight and a courier trip to my destination. Two days in jeans and a sweater. At least I could get by on souvenir store underclothes. Thanks Air Canada.

Anyway, that’s why I missed the WLO this week. I’m not missing the Sunday links. Let’s start with the return of blog favourite Cintia Dicker.

Don’t mess with Kevin Donovan. The Toronto Star reporter whose investigative takedowns include Rob Ford and Jian Ghomeshi now include Global TV anchor Leslie Roberts. (Toronto Star)

Following the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, freedom of expression has become a hot topic. However, even in Canada, expression is hardly free. (MacLean’s)

Telling the difference between real news and parody is hard. Just Greta Van Susteren and most of the news world who were fooled by an obviously fake North Korean news Twitter account. (Popehat)

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Entertainment Link-Off: Big Screen or Little Screen

adrianne-palicki-johnwick14-04Howdy folks. It’s Steve in for Jackie this week. He picked a good week for me to come in to do the links as a substitute because Marvel and DC are keeping us busy with their ongoing movie and TV efforts. The various six-year plans of the two comic publishers have me wondering what their TV plans are. DC are pushing TV over movies while Marvel aren’t putting any money into live-action TV. While DC is putting Justice League (including JLA/U and JLD) characters on TV, Marvel has licensed almost all their characters for movies so there isn’t much left for TV and they don’t want to give the big names recurring cameos on Agents of SHIELD which makes it look like an afterthought despite being really good this year.

Sorry, why am I here? Oh, right. It’s the entertainment links. Keeping with the Marvel theme, here’s Adrianne Palicki who is getting a stint on Agents of SHIELD and stars in John Wick.

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Wednesday Link-Off: Goodbye Summer

emily-ratajkowski-gonegirl14-05I don’t know about you guys but summer kinda sucked here in Northern Ontario. Last week had sustained good weather and temperatures above 20° which was so exceedingly rare during summer proper that I’m not sure it actually counts as summer. And just like real summer, last week’s reprisal seemed unusually busy so sorry if I’m a little lacking on longer form content this week.

Anyway, here’s Emily Ratajkowski who is apparently an actress now.

John Oliver may not want you to believe this but Last Week Tonight is doing some of the best real journalism on TV. (The Daily Beast)

The Republicans would support sending troops in to fight IS but the majority of the American people don’t. With midterms coming up, it’s not a good time to politic on policies opposite to what the people want. (Politico)

If you have money in Russia that you want to take out of the country, get on it fast. Their economy ministry is looking into capital controls to stem a cash outflow that could top $100 billion this year. (Bloomberg)

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Sunday Link-Off: Data Tracker

sabriane-brandao-wonderbra14-03Good news! Doctor Who returned last night with a new Doctor! Even better news! Formula One is back from its summer break this morning. Actually, barring a monsoon, a safety car or a red flag, they should be two-thirds of the way through the race. I’ll have the latter written up tomorrow and the former later this week.

For now, it’s Sunday so that means that we’re going to do the links. Let’s start with Canadian model Sabriane Brandao.

Given what’s happening in Ferguson, Missouri, it might surprise you to hear that statistics on police killings are surprisingly sparse. (FiveThirtyEight)

To help with that lack of police killing data, the folks at Deadspin are crowdsourcing data to answer that question. (Regressing)

Fark is trying to ban misogyny from the website. It’s not going particularly well. (Washington Post)

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