The BBC has extensive coverage of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the end of the Vietnam War (something I skipped class to watch live on TV in my high school library).

A photographer reminisces about his photo that came to define the fall of Vietnam -- and the misconception about it that persisted for decades.

The report into the shooting of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena by U.S. troops in Iraq has now been released.

Hey, radio industry watchers: Is modern rock a dying radio format in Canada the way this NYT story suggests it is in the U.S.?

This Thomas L. Friedman column talks about the U.S.'s broken educational system and how it will hamper young Americans from competing for good jobs in the new global economy, but I suspect it could apply to Canada too.

If not, tell me why.

This BBC Online report is about a proposed 'Disneyland on the Ganges'.

If you follow this blog regularly, or at least over the last few days, you'll have seen a lot of stories about readers abandoning newspapers -- especially highly coveted 18-34 demographic.

But on Tuesday, there was a session in Toronto that discussed a different approach to journalism -- civic journalism.

This is actually a serious story and according to a BBC Online article, caused a commotion in very catholic Peru, with some arguing the young woman -- who didn't go through with it --  was just carrying out a publicity stunt.

Brett Lamb, one-half of the duo behind Better Living Centre (now on hiatus), has a blog about the HotDocs film festival. He's also the festival's art director.

Here's a link to the main HotDocs website.

After eight years of service, my printer is done. As a result, I thought I'd use part of my day off to shop for a new one.

It was not the best use of my afternoon.

Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena spoke with Democracy Now! on Wednesday about a coming report on a March 4 incident in which the car taking her to Baghdad International Airport was shot up by U.S. troops.

Nicola Calipari, a senior Italian intelligence agent who helped free Sgrena from some Iraqi militants, was killed in the incident. Sgrena is still recovering from her wounds.

The Democracy Now! blurb: Dahr Jamail, one of the few independent, unembedded journalists reporting in Iraq for months, joins us in our firehouse studio to discuss the siege of Fallujah, detention of Iraqis, so-called "reconstruction" and much more.

So you're not an adventure businessperson, and the thought of getting shot up in Baghdad or Orlando (see below) leaves you queasy.

So where are the really, really, really safe places to go in this crazy world and hawk your services and/or wares? Read this BBC article and find out!

The state of Florida has passed a "stand your ground law," which allows people to blast away at potential threats in public spaces without trying to escape first.

Okay, so dim sum only covers off a few parts of the food pyramid, like meat, seafood and rice noodles. But a claim by Hong Kong's government that eating certain types of dim sum a little too regularly is bad for you has provoked a backlash.

On April 13, global media titan Rupert Murdoch gave a speech to the American Association of Newspaper Editors that didn't paint an optimistic picture for the future of the newsprint medium.

If you've ever harboured a secret desire to become a Flash animation whiz, journalism educator Mindy McAdams may well have your candy.

Richard Gwyn, writing in the Toronto Star, says France could very well vote 'no' in the European Union constitution ratification referendum in a few weeks.

This a bad omen because it was the French who came up with the idea of the EU in the first place. But that was in a different time ...

OK, it's from the Onion, which means while it's not technically true, there may be some truth to it. And that makes it even more amusing!

It just keeps going and going and going ... Whacking Uday and Qusay, capturing Saddam, holding elections -- all these things were supposed to take the steam out of the insurgency, but top a U.S. military leader admits that isn't happening.

An NYT editorial on the video appearance of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist at Justice Sunday, a judge-bashing rally held in Lousville, Ky. on Sunday.

Real estate is not normally a top-of-mind issue to me, but when you hear the crazy stories about how house prices have gone up, up, up, you gotta wonder when the correction is going to occur.

To add to the cavalcade of bad news about newspapers, here's an April 25 column by the Toronto Star's Antonia Zerbisias.

The U.S.'s chief weapons inspector says he could find no proof that Iraq shipped WMDs to Syria.

To the surprise of no one, the U.S. has decided its soldiers in Iraq did nothing wrong when they shot up a car carrying a just-freed Italian journalist to Baghdad's airport.

And just as not surprisingly, the Italian government isn't accepting the U.S.'s version as the gospel truth of what happened that night. Sgrena herself has blasted the findings in a front-page story in Il Manifesto, the newspaper that employs her.

I know what I'll do: I'll make it a theme night of newspapers bitching about not getting rich enough! :)

Anyway, this NYT article looks at how U.S. advertisers are starting to turn their noses ...   more »

This story from Tuesday's Globe and Mail has newspaper publishers singing the blues about making money off their online operations.

According to news reports, NDP Leader Jack Layton has given PM PM until Tuesday to decide whether to gas almost $5 billion in corporate tax cuts in exchange for NDP support on the federal budget.

Yet another catch-up post. This was a column last week by the Toronto Star's Rick Westhead on Steve Nash, the superlative point guard for the NBA's Phoenix Suns.

But that's not what make Nash, a Canadian, admirable to me. Read on:

Sad news from Friday -- Creemore Springs, one of my two favourite Ontario microbrews (the other being Steamwhistle), is now the property of Molson Canada.

This NYT piece talks to Simpsons creator Matt Groening, who insists his show has found a second wind.

The NYT's David Brooks looks at the news that being a little overweight is a good thing, longevity-wise, and why TV is more cognitively challenging than ever before.

This story could be seen as the beginning of the end of the golden age of blogging. Salon columnist Ariana Huffington wants to start a celebrity group blog.

If you saw the TV footage of Messrs. Harper, Martin and Layton at Khalsa Day celebrations, you would swear, swear the writ had been dropped! :)

I was amused by this quote from Conservative Leader Stephen Harper: The Prime Minister's already campaigning so I have to catch up with him on the campaign he's not running.

This is a story of an intriguing blend of old and new technologies, plus the journalistic and the political, in Ecuador.

Want to improve your brain? Toss your BlackBerry and start smoking dope, implies a study that got some media attention this week (surprise, surprise).

NYT public editor Daniel Okrent on the hypersensitive Israel-Palestine beat.

Stevie Cameron is a Canadian journalist who currently living in Israel -- Jerusalem, to be exact. This April 21 posting from her blog provides an interesting look into daily Israeli life.

In its editorial Election threatens a year of progress, the Toronto Star again argues for the Martin Liberals to be allowed to pass the federal budget and for Gomery to report before there's an election.

Anecdote 1: On Friday night, I'm minding my own business, heading home from work, when one young, bushy-haired blonde guy helped his ill-looking (OK, drunk-as-a-skunk) red-headed friend onto the subway.