Hey folks: I'm on holidays for a week and don't anticipate doing any posting in that time. I suspect I'll be back behind the keyboard on Oct. 4.

And unlike bloggers who just say they've gone fishing, I may actually do some fishing.

A Spanish terror trial has sent a Syrian man to jail for helping al Qaeda organize the 9/11 attack -- but it also jailed an al-Jazeera journalist for seven years.

Not too small, not too big, appears to have been the guiding principle behind a redesign of The Guardian.

The financial success of March of the Penguins is helping create a brighter future for documentary filmmakers.

Iraqi stringers have been doing most of the dirty, dangerous work for the Western media, and more and more of them are being accused of being collaborators with the insurgents.

Apparently some U.S. social conservatives love the March of the Penguins because it promotes family values.

I don't think so.

This film by Korean director Chan-Wook Park is bleak, violent, compelling and damned near unforgettable.

The Chinese government is trying to encourage "healthy and civilized" news on the Internet.

Josh Rushing -- who viewers of the documentary Control Room might remember as the fresh-faced, open-minded, team-playerish media relations officer for U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar -- has taken a job with Al-Jazeera International.

Richard Gizbert and ABC News are duking it out in a London tribunal. He claims he was sacked for refusing work in Iraq. ABC News said it was budget considerations.

The scoop at Media Guardian (reg. req'd).

Here's an earlier posting.

John Gushue, who gets up at least 1.5 hours earlier than I do (living in Newfoundland and all), has already compiled an excellent roundup of lockout news.

Go visit him. Stop bugging me.

This Toronto Star story looks at the gas panic (one I may have contributed to through this space) that erupted here Thursday evening.

The Houston Chronicle invited local bloggers to contribute dispatches about then-approaching hurricane Rita to a blog -- without editorial intervention -- plus another blog for its staff.

The rest of this AP article talks about how technology was used in other ways to enhance the online journalism experience. An excerpt:

This Salon blog posting talks about how the U.S. Congress is going to come up with $200 billion to pay for hurricane Katrina's damages: By cutting funding for things they don't like.

John Gushue of dot-dot-dot reports that the Canadian Media Guild tabled an offer of settlement Thursday -- one that was batted away by CBC management.

It's a comprehensive post by John that talks about lockout-related rumour, innuendo and gossip from a wide variety of sources. :)

On Tuesday night, the Canadian Journalism Foundation hosted a session called Bloggers Rising: Shamans or shams? (note: that page allows you to access an archived webcast of the event).

While I appreciate the fact the CFJ puts these sessions on, this would have been a better event two years ago. The agenda has moved forward.

I was just updating my opus on the CJF blogging event when a spider dropped from the ceiling, about 30 cm away from me. He lowered himself to about the height of my navel.

Then, he stopped, reversed course and climbed back up to the ceiling.

I would estimate he lifted himself over a metre. With a body length of four millimetres (I'm guessing), that's like climbing a rope at least 250 times its body length.

In my case, that would be like climbing a rope over 476 metres long in about 15 to 20 seconds. Needless to say, that wouldn't happen -- although I don't have eight limbs. But I still think I'd have trouble with a 238-metre straight-up climb.

Actually, I think I'd have trouble with a 2.38-metre straight-up climb. :)

So while that's an impressive display by the spider, do they actually climb their own silk strands in these situations, or do they have some internal fishing-reel like structure that reels them upward?

Wikipedia tells me spiders have glands called spinnerets which produce the silk strand, but the strand wasn't left hanging there.

The Salon blurb: George Clooney's second directorial project refuses to sacrifice craftsmanship to polemics, even as it kicks the pants of the contemporary media.

Robin Rowland, a locked-out CBCer, was quick with the 'print screen' button last weekend after finding the Ottawa Citizen website had been hacked.

A story about cow poop dominated. See the image here.

People on a JetBlue flight in the Los Angeles area, their plane crippled by a stuck nose wheel, got to see the whole situation live on television.

This is what he'd ask Dubya, according to an interview published in The Independent (thanks Kevin).

According to an article in The Hill, not necessarily -- especially with the older U.S. lawmakers (seen via Crooks and Liars).

In Thursday's Globe and Mail, former CBC chairman Patrick Watson blasts current CBC management and calls for putting public broadcasting out to tender -- while the CBC board endorses the management team.

On average, you can currently buy gas for about $1.02 to $1.04 per litre. By tomorrow morning, thanks to hurricane Rita, that's expected to hit close to two bucks per litre.

Here's a CTV.ca story.

Actually, in Stratford, Ont., the price started the day at $2.24 per litre before dropping, according to this globeandmail.com story.

Mother Nature has apparently anticipated my fall driving holiday of next week. :) / :(

An EKOS Research Associates poll finds evidence of shifting driving habits in response to higher fuel prices. Interestingly, there's a bit of a gender gap.

As I write this note at 12:14 a.m., on the very cusp of fall, it's 20 degrees Celsius outside.

Yessiree, Toronto really pissed in the cornflakes of the weather gods this year, folks.

Here are some capsule reviews of what I saw at TIFF, in chronological order (links to full postings where appropriate):

At last week's Toronto International Film Festival, I saw Midnight Madness: From the margins to the mainstream. It was an affectionate look at the heyday of what we could call cult cinema.

But I'm afraid the panelists they had to talk about it afterwards are stuck in the past.