Michael Geist writes, "Canada and South Korea announced agreement on a comprehensive trade agreement earlier today. The focus is understandably on tariff issues, but the agreement also contains a full… Read the rest of the article: Canada and South Korea manage a free trade agreement without crazy copyright provisions

In Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism , Pulitzer-winning writer Ron Suskind tells the incredible story of how his son Owen disappeared into "regressive autism" at the… Read the rest of the article: How Disney movies gave an autistic boy his voice

One year ago today Principles for 21st century living: 1. Resilience instead of strength, which means you want to yield and allow failure and you bounce back instead of trying… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: 21st C principles; Dr Mario on universal health care; BB goes MT

Yesterday at SXSW, Barton Gellman and I did a one-hour introductory Q&A before Edward Snowden's appearance. Right after Snowden and his colleagues from the ACLU wrapped up, I sat down… Read the rest of the article: Snowden at SXSW: immediate impressions

Scott writes, "We've just received word that our documentary short, The Silly Bastard Next to the Bed, will be debuting at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC… Read the rest of the article: Documentary tracks down JFK's "Silly Bastard"

I've written a guest editorial for the new Guardian Cities site about the way that the offices that house the startups of London's famed "Silicon Roundabout" are being systematically demolished… Read the rest of the article: Guardian Cities: how Hackney council let developers demolish the startups of "Silicon Roundabout"

Tristan writes, "The Open Source Beehives project is a partnership between the Open Tech Collaborative and Fab Lab Barcelona crowd-sourcing a solution to the bee colony collapse issue.

One year ago today Review: Ghirardelli White Mocha Premium Beverage Mix: Drinking this stuff was a profoundly bad idea. Not bad in the way that drinking methanol is, but bad… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Review: Ghirardelli White Mocha Premium Beverage; Papercraft short stories

Nat writes, "A Dunedin, NZ, man lost a bet five years ago and changed his name by deed poll to the longest name he could make (99 characters, 1 shy… Read the rest of the article: Drunken bet results in 99-character name-change: "Full Metal Havok…"

I'm at SXSW, having just done the panel introducing Edward Snowden's first live address to the USA. He will be appearing momentarily. The livestream is provisioned for 1M simultaneous sessions… Read the rest of the article: Livestream: Edward Snowden at SXSW

You've probably seen Garfield Minus Garfield, a collection of Jim Davis Garfield strips in which Garfield himself has been removed, transforming the strip into a sinister portrait of Jon Arbuckle's… Read the rest of the article: Garfield without Garfield's thought-bubbles

ST Geotronics have exanded their Instructables project for building your own Arduino-based Enigma and turned it into a Kickstarter. $40 gets you some boards you can kit-bash with; $125 gets… Read the rest of the article: Kickstarting an Arduino-based Enigma machine

Reddditor Amzfx created a Putin butt-plug by way of commentary on Russia's invasion of Crimea, and he's selling them on Shapeways for €20.22. The print medium seems a little too… Read the rest of the article: Putin your butt

Next Saturday (Mar 15), the SF in SF people will host a screening of indie movie PIG, an award-winning sf movie, followed by a Q&A with producer Mark Stolaroff, founder… Read the rest of the article: See PIG in San Francisco

One year ago today US lawmaker uses neat flip phone trick to avoid talking to "pesky reporters": Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "is well known for pulling a flip phone out… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Senator's sneaky press-dodging flip-phone; Lost Dalek dredged from pond; We don't need social software to know who our friends are

The Public Prosecutor of Rome has unilaterally ordered Italy's ISPs to censor 46 sites, and it appears the ISPs are complying, even though no complaint had been lodged against the… Read the rest of the article: Public Prosecutor of Rome unilaterally orders ISPs to censor 46 sites

Last month, I wrote about the announcement of the $25 Firefox OS smartphone, aimed at developing world users who have never owned a smartphone and can't afford a high-end mobile… Read the rest of the article: Firefox OS and the unserved billions of the developing world

One year ago today Welcome to your Awesome Robot: instructional comic turns kids & cardboard boxes into AWESOME ROBOTS!: Welcome to Your Awesome Robot is a fantastic book for maker-kids… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Welcome to Your Awesome Robot; Broadcaster sets up torrent tracker; Can Klingon be copyrighted?

Edward Snowden is speaking at SXSW on Monday at an event that I'm also part of.Rep Mike Pompeo (R-KS), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee (and on whose watch… Read the rest of the article: Kansas Rep Pompeo wants to cancel Snowden's SXSW appearance

Janice writes, "The Harlequin Creature is a journal of poetry and prose that is hand-typed at typing bees by a circle of friend and volunteers from Los Angeles to Ann… Read the rest of the article: Harlequin Creature: a zine where every copy is individually hand-typed by volunteers