The Origin of Self

If it looks like Nathan Petrelli, acts like Nathan Petrelli and thinks it’s Nathan Petrelli, is it Nathan Petrelli? This is the question Heroes fans were left with last Monday, which boils down to a philosophical debate about the nature of the self. On the disturbing season finale, Nathan Petrelli, New York Senator, son of Angela and Arthur Petrelli, brother of Peter Petrelli, and father of Monty and Simon Petrelli and Claire Bennet, was violently murdered, bringing many tears to the eyes of this wannabe-intern. And who better to shape shift into Nathan and be convinced that he is, in fact, Politian and family man? None other than his own murderer, the show’s own token evil guy. Gabriel Gray.

In Defence of the Herbert Syndrome [argument by starlight]

Some may argue that the underlying force guiding authors of multiple novels set in the same universe is that of monetary compensation. As a life-long reader of science fiction who is still working on the Dune and Wheel of Time series’, I would say that this motive is over-simplified at best. If a universe still has possibilities for commentary on the nature of our world, why shouldn’t it be used to tell more stories about the human race?

Music Industry Reformation

For the past few years, the Canadian government has been cracking down on illegal file sharing. Several music downloading sites have been threatened with legal action by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) for allowing Canadians to take advantage of free music. The outcome is that Canadian traffic has been banned from these sites. According to the CRIA website, their purpose is to “represent the interests of companies that create, manufacture, and market sound recordings.” However, many people are misled by the media to believe that the purpose of the organization is to protect the artists from those ungrateful thieves who would steal their music. The fans. Most artists view the internet as a new medium through which they can share their art. It is the managers and record labels who are really trying to squeeze every last dime out of an album, with no regard for the artists or the fans.