Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
There was an unnatural wailing noise when the College St. car rolled into the Spadina stop (I was returning from lunch on Baldwin Street). One child got on with his mom. He wasn't the source. Ditto the second kid. So what was the source? A woman, possibly in her late 50s, looking to be in [...]
Wed, May 31 2006 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
I live in Toronto and don't own a car. As such, the TTC is my transportation lifeline. Monday's walkout was quite survivable, as my employers granted me a work-at-home day, cutting my total commuting time from about 2.5 hours to nothing. While it ain't the same as being there, I got my job done. However, [...]
Wed, May 31 2006 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, who literally wrote the book on the Taliban, offers an analysis of how the U.S. and NATO forces have fallen short in Afghanistan. An excerpt from the BBC commentary: Here is a checklist of failures in the south that the US, Nato, the UN and the Afghan government should be discussing [...]
Wed, May 31 2006 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
From CTV.ca: A Jordanian court on Tuesday sentenced the editors of two weekly newspapers to two months in jail for harming religious feelings by reprinting offensive caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The lawyer for Jihad al-Momani, chief editor of the Shihan, and Hashim al-Khalidi, chief editor of al-Mihwar, said he would appeal the decision and [...]
Wed, May 31 2006 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Lieut. Commander Steve Tatham, former head of the British Royal Navy's Media Operations in the Northern Arabian Gulf, was involved in the media planning for Iraq invasion. He's written a book — Losing Arab Hearts and Minds: The Coalition, Al Jazeera and Muslim Public Opinion — and spoke about it Monday with Democracy Now! An [...]
Tue, May 30 2006 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Cameraman Doug Vogt, who was seriously injured earlier this year in Iraq, talked about his friends with CBS who died in Iraq on Monday. Some excerpts from the CTV.ca story: Canadian cameraman Doug Vogt says two CBS journalists and close friends of his who died Monday covering the war in Iraq weren't heroes, and weren't supermen. [...]
Tue, May 30 2006 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Citizen journalism evangelist Dan Gillmor has been writing fairly regulary for the Beeb's website. This entry is actually from a few weeks ago. It's one of his responses to readers columns. This is a glum little excerpt: Reader: Organisations that produce newspapers have an enormous head start over any new entrants because they have the [...]
Tue, May 30 2006 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
From the BBC: Online journalists have the same rights as traditional reporters, a Californian court has ruled. The decision was made in a case brought by Apple against a number of reporters who published information online about a future Apple product launch. Apple filed the lawsuit to find out the source of the reporter's information. [...]
Tue, May 30 2006 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
From the BBC: In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya. The new-look Batwoman is just one of a wave of ethnically and sexually diverse characters entering the DC Comics universe. Others include Mexican teenager Blue Beetle – who replaces the [...]
Tue, May 30 2006 » Main Page » Comments Off
CTV colleague David Akin reminisces about about being in the little leagues of journalism before he got a desk with a view in Ottawa. :)