The alarming thing about the so-called swine flu is the number of variant viruses it has produced.
Tag: Media
Big Media Wins Pulitzer
Today’s big literary news is NOT the announcement of this year’s Pulitzer winners, but the fact that all the major winners were published by companies owned by media giant Bertelsmann.
The Trouble With TED
There’s something about TED. For a long time, I couldn’t place it. TED is “popular science” by smart people. I watch all those videos of upbeat optimistic speakers who can see on the horizon the vague outlines of a better future, like an EPCOT ride, and I get this feeling on the back of my neck, the same feeling I get when I hear somebody scraping fingernails across a blackboard.
Google Street View Coming To Canada
Google Street View (launched on May 25, 2007 in the U.S.) continues to expand its reach, providing service in France and Italy on July 02, 2008 and in Australia and Japan on August 4th, 2008. Google has overcome privacy hurdles in the UK and photographing has begun there. While Canada’s Privacy Commissioner voiced concerns nearly…
Percy Saltzman Dies, Leaves Questionable Blog
Percy Saltzman died a week ago at the age of 91. Just about every Canadian of a certain age remembers Percy as our national weatherman, who delivered the forecasts — good or bad — with panache … or was it chutzpah! And there was his signature sign-off — throwing up the chalk and catching it.
The Future of the Page
How does one read a book whose fundamental premise is its own demise? It feels a bit like visiting an elderly relation in the old folks home. The conversation is at times awkward, at other times nostalgic and entertaining. After all, when someone (or something) has been around for quite a number of years, it…
What’s A Memoir Supposed To Remember
When I first heard that Oprah Windy was going to interview James Frey, author of the memoir, A Million Little Pieces, that she was angry and felt betrayed because Mr. Frey’s account appeared to deviate significantly from the truth, that she was going to haul him onto the carpet and call him to account in a million little living rooms across America—when I heard all this righteous indignation rising up from the south—I chalked it up to another instance of maudlin-sappy-slightly-self-indulgent-Oprah-strutting.
Being There First
The greatest opportunity of the blogosphere (according to an army of self-proclaimed, twenty-something pundits) is its democratization of front-line journalism. Anybody with a phone cam and some server space can, by virtue of being there first, break the next big story.
The Lost Book of the Bible
I went to the airport to pick up my in-laws from vacation, and because their flight was delayed, I went to the nearest news stand to find something to read. I couldn’t help but notice the headline for the “Sun: Found in Dead Sea Cave … Lost Book of the Bible”.
What is this thing called blog?
Looking back on some of my earliest rants, I see that I was personal, and reading them now makes me wince (a little like watching an interview of Anne Heche shortly after she had broken up with Ellen Degeneres).
Obscenity
Just as I was ruing the plight of the human mind at the hands of publicly instituted censors, I received this delightful piece of unsolicited advertising in my mailbox. “You’ll do anything to protect your kids from inappropriate content.”