The BBC and the Guardian both have interesting interactives showing how the tsunamis developed.

If you come across any other cool interactives, please leave a note below. [ /30 ]

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The BBC also did a section in its year-in-review on blogs. I use the story as an opportunity to do some opining of my own.

First things first. The last two paragraphs of the BBC story might well be the most salient:

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Four BBC journalists look back on the year that was in Africa: The good, bad and amusing news.

They also try to identify the emerging news from there in 2005.

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A BBC journalist, who is Chechen, has put together a photo essay to try and show the human side of her damned little republic.

Here is the introduction:

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The Globe and Mail's Andre Picard, an award-winning public health journalist and author, has written a useful article on how to make medical reporting better.

However, substitute the word  'health' or 'medical' for virtually another ...   more »

This NYT story talks about a new U.S. survey which finds that the average U.S. Internet user spends about three hours per day online -- a block of time which is cutting into (gasp!) TV watching ...   more »

This NYT article tells an interesting story about the gowing social instability in China over the ever-widening gap between rich and poor -- one exacerbated by corruption and cronyism.

Welcome to capitalism, folks!

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Just saw this at Ianking.ca:  This Magazine's blog ranks Canada's political columnists -- I'm presuming it's a collectivist effort. :)

Here's the top of the class:

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CTV colleague and fellow blogger David Akin posted a link to this article to CAJ-L. It's from Direct Marketing and it's about the U.S. magazine industry

An excerpt:

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Here's a few links to photo galleries showing the destruction. Please post a link below if you know of more.

Thanks.

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That's the subtitle of a BBC story on why Asian stock markets essentially shrugged off the biggest catastrophe in the continent's history.

An excerpt:

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There's a bar-sized one near the intersection of Kensington and St. Peter's St. It has lots of colourful stickers on it.

They would include: Hashish: Mind chocolate; Work-free drug place and  Thank you for pot smoking.

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Journalismnet, if you don't know about it, is a deep resource for journalists, helping them make the best  research use of the Internet. The site was created by author and consultant Julien Sher.

Here's his top 10 list for cool Internet tools for 2004:

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Argentina's been back in the news again. The New York Times had a Dec. 26 story entitled Argentina's Economic Rally Defies Forecasts.

The story was about 1,300 words long, and didn't use any of them to talk about the workers' co-operatives that sprang up as a result of the country's economic meltdown in late 2001. That's why you need films like The Take.

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No sooner do I ask a question about how blogging would rate as a media development than I get an answer. At Online Journalism Review, blogs are the biggest thing since the Big Bang.

An ...   more »

In a WashingtonPost.com online questionnaire, the biggest tech story of 2004 was outsourcing. IPod mania was number two, but bloggers trumped the Google IPO.

See the graphic below or view it online (I'm not sure ...   more »

Humble little Craigslist was started as a free service back in 1995 -- about the same time that visionaries in the newspaper biz were wondering if their papers should even be on the Internet.

Craigslist ...   more »

This NYT story talks about some of the vivid reporting coming out of the disaster zone around the Indian Ocean as a result of Saturday's earthquake and resulting tsunamis.

An excerpt:

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This NYT article looks at the person behind anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com, supposedly a highly-paid partner of an L.A. law firm.

While people in the U.S. law biz swear it reflects their reality to them, the blog is actually ...   more »

This is an imperfect but useful look at some of the issues surrounding 60 Minutes II and the infamous memos about Dubya in the Texas Air National Guard.

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Philip Meyer, a pioneer of computer-assisted reporting in the U.S. and a sage commentator on the economics of the news business, is back with another essay, this time in Columbia Journalism Review.

In some ways, it's a re-working of an essay he wrote for American Journalism Review about nine years ago on the need for publishers to accept lower profits. Anway, read them both, then you can decide. :)

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Toronto Star media columnist Antonia Zerbisias looks at the year in North American media and rates it better than 2003. Among the victims she IDs: Kitty Kelley (?!?!).

Here's an exerpt:

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The headline says it all. [ /30 ]   more »

I'm taking a Christmas break from blogging. I'll likely be back on either Boxing Day or Monday.

In the meantime, have a great Christmas! While I'm approaching it as a secular humanist, that still goes for those who view it as a religious occasion. :)

Peace on earth. Goodwill towards everyone. May the guns and bombs be silent for a day -- just as a start. [ /30 ]

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This is the first-hand account of Frank Gardner, a BBC reporter gunned down in Saudi Arabia earlier this year by Islamist militants. His cameraman was killed.

It's sobering and not very festive, but it reminds you of the tenuous and precious nature of life -- and how destructive blind hatred is.

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If there's two screaming kids on a three-hour-plus flight from Edmonton to Toronto, what's the odds both of them would be one row behind me?

Apparently, pretty good, to which I say: Happy flying, Charlie Brown! :)

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It'll be dark in Toronto in about two hours (I'm writing this at 12:10 p.m. MST). For God's sake, go to the Lantern Festival in Kensington Market tonight!!   more »

While our Brit friends may quaff the most in the G7 at Christmas, Germany and Canada come in strong second, says a BBC story.

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A BBC story on the issue of limits to freedom of expression in the wake of a play's cancellation in Birmingham, England following violent protests by some members of the Sikh community there.

It's a competent ...   more »

The NYT has weighed in on the recent court judgments jailing U.S. reporters for failing to identify to the courts sources to whom they had promised confidentiality.

An excerpt:

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Microsoft has rid itself of Slate, the online publication it created in 1996 as part of its corporate plunge into the content pool.

I believe Slate and MSNBC are the only ones of Microsoft's content efforts to survive from those heady days  (see the comments below).

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The Toronto Star's Sunday edition is getting ready to unveil a new look and the National Post already has, but both papers deny they'll be jumping on the tabloid bandwagon, says a Globe and Mail article.

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