If you harbour any interest at all in doing freelance non-fiction radio work, especially if it involves storytelling, then I strongly recommend –

– no, actually: I command –

– that you hie thee over to Tod Maffin’s upcoming “How to Be a Radio Storyteller” seminar, coming to Toronto and Vancouver:
I’m thrilled to announce that I will be conducting two seminars (one in Toronto and one… Read more...

Just taking a break from a project, and headed over to the best break-taking place on the planet: Fafblog.
A. Well if you want, the president can stop the illegal wiretapping just for you.
Q. Really? Well thanks, that’d be great!
A. And then the terrorists can come and eat you.
Q. Wait! What?
A. Cause without the wiretaps there’s nothin to stop the terrorists from eatin you, yknow… Read more...

From The Register:
Cingular, the United States’ largest mobile phone network this week applied to patent emoticons, better known as smileys.

The application refers to selecting emoticons on mobile phones or handheld devices over a wireless, and makes 35 claims in all. Although it uses the word ‘emoticon’, the application doesn’t acknowledge that mutant punctuation has been livening up online communications since at least 1961.
Actually, The Register… Read more...

You can spend a lot of time memorizing the rules of public relations. (“#15. Don’t say your target audience will blow money intended for their kids on beer and popcorn.”) But nothing drives the lesson home quite like the odious example of what happens when people break those rules.

Enter the Bad Pitch Blog. It’s a form of vengeance against clueless PR practitioners who send godawful pitches to… Read more...

Google’s recent decision to comply with Chinese government demands that it restrict search results in that country sounds troubling at an abstract level. But it isn’t until you see the actual, practical results that you really understand what’s on the line.

Have a look at this comparison of Google searches about Falun Gong: one conducted using Google’s uncensored service, and the other adhering to Chinese law… Read more...

John Bowman’s Blog Report at CBC.ca:
Some blogs – like this one, I guess – have a limited lifespan and will be shutting down soon.
That’s a shame. Not to go crazy with claims about the influence or reach of Canadian blogging, but it’s a nice, deep well of opinion and (every once in a while) insight from policy wonks, partisans and even ordinary, non-aligned people who just want… Read more...

Remember that CBC story about Paul Weyrich, the American who calls Canada “liberal and hedonistic” and uses the term “cultural Marxism”? You may recall the reporter offers this mild corrective:
A U.S. right-wing strategist says Canadians are “so liberal and hedonistic” that Stephen Harper can’t hope to change their philosophy of “cultural Marxism” right away.

Given time, however, the Conservative prime minister-designate may straighten them out, Paul Weyrich… Read more...

I haven’t cared about the show since Sorkin left, but the best response to the cancellation of The West Wing can be found at The Onion:
The Democrats are even out of fake power?… Read more...