Outsourcing Child Abuse:
Katharine Weber in the NYT reviews the long history of children,
working brutal hours in factories in inhumane and unsafe working
conditions, who have died in avoidable factory fires. She ends with a plea to buy local.
Living High on the Brink of Poverty: A perceptive article by James Kunstler reveals how many Americans with high five and six figure incomes need every penny of it to pay accumulated debts and ongoing obligations, and would be devastated if (when) it suddenly stopped. Thanks to Jon Husband for the link.
Scott McLellan's Turn to Insult Canadians:
The current meeting of new Canadian PM Harper with Bush and Mexican
President Fox has been an unmitigated disaster for him -- Fox is now
publicly insisting that Canadians,
not Mexican bandits, slaughtered two Canadian tourists in Cancun last
month, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, tainting the
ongoing investigation. Bush has reiterated his plans to make all
Canadian visitors to the US carry American-issued ID cards and be
fingerprinted, and reaffirmed his refusal to repay the $5B
court-ordered illegally-obtained US duties on Canadian softwood lumber
(though he's willing to "reopen negotiations" on the subject -- picture
Charles Manson refusing to accept the jury's "guilty of murder" verdict
but accept that he would be willing to try to negotiate some
settlement). If that weren't bad enough for Harper, US Press Secretary
McLellan, supposedly prepped for the meeting, doesn't even know who the Canadian PM is. Thanks to Michael Stickings for the link.
How the Rest of the World Sees the US: A unique and very valuable translator and news aggregator site, Watching America lets Americans discover what those in non-English speaking countries really think of them, and their government.
Bunchball Blurs the Distinction Between Games and Website Apps:
The Bunchball site started with some novel games that you could play
interactively with others on their site, but then they discovered you
could port some of these little game apps to your own website or blog.
Now the 'games' include an mp3 player app, an interactive photo-posting
app, IM and chat apps, and a virtual pig that 'travels' among your site
viewers' machines and gives and collects 'gifts' to and from them.
Thanks to Umair Haque for the link.
Buy Print Cartidges Cheap and Support Charity at the Same Time: That's what LaserMonks lets you do. Thanks to reader Kenn for the link.
Unique Views of the World: See maps of the world 'distorted' to show proportional population, immigration, production, resources and lots more, using Worldmapper. Thanks to James Pargiter for the link.
All the Science News You Can Handle: That's the promise of World Science, which includes a comprehensive science news aggregator and its own analyses and 'close ups' on topical science news.
...And Now For Something Completely Different
No News Here, Just Lovely Writing:
Every once in awhile I stumble on speeches or essays that are so
brilliantly crafted that I want to print them out and paste them on the
fridge door as a reminder of what great writing is. This week I've
found four, a veritable bonanza. Please click on the links below and read these, just for the sheer enjoyment of the prose:
What I Live For:
The final chapter of James Kunstler's book Home from Nowhere: Teaser:
"I believe that rhetoric is undervalued these days. My own generation
had much to do with devaluing it back in the 60s, when all public talk
seemed mendacious. Part of what I do these days is an attempt to
resuscitate rhetoric as an honorable and worthy feature of public life
in this country. I am sensible that rhetoric sometimes changes the
world."
The World is Not Flat:
Nora Ephron takes on the pomposity and self-adulation of Internet
Conferences and their 'panels'. Ouch, touché. Teaser: "This is the new
conventional wisdom: there's a lot of advertising money out there, and
all you have to do is provide "content" so that the ads have something
to run alongside of. It crossed my mind that the actual definition
of "content" for an Internet company was "something you can run an ad
alongside of." I found this a depressing insight, even though my
conviction that all conventional wisdom about the Internet turns out to
be untrue rescued me somewhat from a slough of despond on the subject."
Thanks to Doc Searls for the link.
Hello. By the Way. Whatever.:
Nora again, this time satirizing (and defending) bloggers. Teaser: "And
one of the most delicious things about the profoundly parasitical world
of blogs is that you don't have to have anything much to say. Or you
just have to have a little tiny thing to say. You just might want to
say hello. I'm here. And by the way. On the other hand. Nevertheless.
Did you see this? Whatever. A blog is sort of like an exhale. What you
hope is that whatever you're saying is true for about as long as you're
saying it. Even if it's not much."
The Evolution of Truth:
One of many stunning poems by NZ's Pohangina Pete McGregor. I could
spend all day on this amazing poet/photographer's site. The photo above
is his, too.
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
