Byron Sonne quizzed over saved tweets, goat avatar

Denise sez, "Update on the trial of Byron Sonne, arrested in Toronto on explosives charges in advance of the G20 in June, 2010. This week, the Crown pulled up information off of Sonne's harddrives, including tweets from Clay Shirky and Oxblood Ruffin, 50-year-old U.S. military manuals and photos of goats. Much time was spent discussing why Sonne used a goat as his username/avatar."

On Monday, Nadeau also pressed Ouelette for his personal understanding of why there were photos of goats (one labeled “drunk goat”) on Sonne’s hard drive, and why the accused had used “Goatmaster” and “Toronto Goat” as his online usernames. Peter Copeland, one of Sonne’s lawyers, objected, saying that Ouelette wasn’t an expert on acronyms. Spies decided to hear the argument as “voir dire,” meaning she will decide later if it’s admissible as evidence. So, Ouelette opined that “Goat,” stood for “Greatest of All Time,” based on his knowledge of hockey, nicknames, and Wayne Gretzky.

Miles to go: Byron Sonne trial Continues (Thanks, Denise!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: authoritarianism • canada • farce • g20 • law • police • twitter • web theory

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Antinous / Moderator

This impelled me to check for goat pictures on my computer, but the closest that I could find was this one of Jemaine Clement. Perhaps some day I’ll have a prosecutor trying to figure out why I have pictures of Barnabas Collins, Katherine of Aragon and Twiggy.
- z7q2
  
  Of course my image collections of Borgnine, Ginsberg and Chomsky are extensive. They are important source material for the pictures I must make to keep myself from doing bad things.
  
  http://www.z7q2.com/dream.jpg (nsfw)
  - pKp
    
    That’s pretty scary, dude. I like it.
bugmaker

Is that goat chewing a stick of dynamite?
- taras
  
  No, it’s building a model rocket.
- invisiblemonkey
  
  It’s from the Big Thunder Mountain ride at Disneyland.
sam1148

Goats are evil, cantankerous and vindictive. It’s no accident that many cultures use them as a symbol for Satan.
Mitchell Glaser

I like to give Canada credit for greater sanity than the U.S. with the hope that I could move there some day if things got really crazy here. Then I read this.
- http://bhtooefr.org/ Eric Rucker
  
  There’s a reason why I donate to the Seasteading Foundation every now and then.
The Rizz

Is it bad that my brain parsed that as “goatse avatar”?
- http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios
  
  Yes. Yes, it is.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeff-Wilkinson/729709687 Jeff Wilkinson

“why a goat?” seems to be a recurring question…
sam1148

Do not taunt the dynamite goat.
- chellberty
  
  Dynamite goat was only Kidd-ing.
- Eark_the_Bunny
  
  Never yell BOO! at a dynamite fainting goat.
lakelady

the really important question here is who was staring at them
noah django

credit where credit is due dept.: AFAIK, LL Cool J came up with the GOAT/greatest of all time acronym for pic related (2000.) anyone know of an earlier one?
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/l/ll-cool-j/album-goat-featuring-james-t-smith-the-greatest-of-all-time.jpg
That_Anonymous_Coward

Lets all play Canadian Prosecutor!
Everyone work up your best nefarious meaning for the acronym GOAT.
Ethan Campbell

Grand Order of Anarcho-Terrorists ?

And moreover, goats are traditionally associated with witchcraft and pagan cults, meaning…

He’s a witch ! Burn him !
http://twitter.com/Kbkibbe Kevin

I’m just glad they didn’t find any duck photos cause we all know that if you have a photo of a duck it’s because you weight the same as a duck and therefor your a witch.
http://www.facebook.com/savagejen Jennifer Savage

Where do most people come up with their usernames? Half of them are just made up on the spot because you need one.
- penguinchris
  
  I don’t know, Jennifer Savage, sounds like you must be a savage terrorist.
  
  As for me, the origin of my username is far more sinister than you could possibly imagine. I did just make it up on the spot years ago, but that’s not important :)
- noah django
  
  pic related