The BBC says it has had an advance look at a report on U.S. secret flights for terror suspects, and that the report will say up to 14 countries colluded with the CIA.

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On June 7, 1981, 10 Israeli military aircraft took off and took out Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.

The BBC has a retrospective on the strike:

Factfile: How Osirak was bombed

Osirak: Over the reactor (the pilots' story)

Israeli attack 'jumpstarted nuclear programme' (Iraqi scientist)

Osirak: Threats real and imagined

Investigative journalist Andrew Mitrovica had a fine cautionary commentary in Tuesday's Toronto Star.

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From the BBC: "The fear of the number 666 is known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia."

The queasy feeling in my stomach started when I saw Edmonton Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson lying on the ice after two players ran into him late in the third period of Game 1 in the Stanley Cup finals.

I can't say seeing Ty Conklin going into net against the revived Carolina Hurricanes had the same effect on me as taking Gravol.

And then seeing Conklin help create the worst Oilers goal-against in 20 years -- the Oilers lost 5-4 -- had me thinking this series could be a lot shorter than expected.

'Canes goalie Cam Ward has been comparable to Roloson. He lead Rolo in goals against average by 0.03 goals per game, but Rolo had the higher save percentage -- 0.927 vs. .919. Anything over .900 (stopping more than nine shots in 10) is pretty solid.

Frankly, I'd be surprised if Ty Conklin and Jussi Markkanen are able to step into Roloson's shoes, but I'm dying to be proven wrong.

If they can't, this series is all but done. In the NHL playoffs, so much comes down to who's got the hot goalie. Great goaltending just lifts a team and gives them the confidence to take chances.

And we saw last night what bad goaltending does. :(

An NYT story correctly notes how far ahead the Toronto Star was of everyone else in its coverage of the terror suspects arrests.

Here's a tidbit as to why:

The Star's success, which also included the reporting of several details, like potential bomb targets, that continued to elude other news organizations, did not attract much in the way of congratulations from rivals.

That includes The National Post, which hastily reworked a scheduled story about terrorists to include a basic outline of the raids. When asked how The Star managed to so outflank its competition, Stephen Meurice, the managing editor for news, replied, "I can't possibly tell you."

The answer, said Giles Gherson, The Star's editor in chief, was mainly hard work by a single reporter.

About two years ago, before Mr. Gherson joined the paper, The Star's editors assigned Michelle Shephard, a police reporter, to cover national security issues.

Mr. Gherson acknowledged there were times when the decision to commit a reporter to that beat full time did not always seem wise. "There have been a number of cases she has covered that didn't amount to anything at all," he said.

If you wish, check out a CTV.ca News feature I wrote on the Conservative government and climate change.

The 17th anniversary is today.

A village in Indiana wants to power itself completely with renewable fuels.

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The soccer world has seen a surge in discriminatory behaviour towards black players, says this NYT story.

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I was starving after work tonight and jumped off the subway at Yonge St. to grab a hot dog, thinking I'll take the Blue Light Special bus down Bloor the rest of the way west.

Everything was going to plan. However, while approaching Spadina, some street guy, who bore a strong resemblance to the Reverend Jim character of Taxi (Wow: Did I just date myself or what?! :) ), was cussin' up a storm in the back.

"Excuse me!" the driver said on the intercom. "There's ladies on this bus. If you want to use that kind of language, you'll have to get off."

Then, with an ominous edge, he said: "I only give one warning."

"I'm sorry, sir," the guy babbled.

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to the ladies," was the driver's curt reply.

"I'm sorry," the guy says to the bus. "I wouldn't have done it except my little brother is with me."

There was a pregnant pause.

"Well, I guess I can't blame him either."

Write the name Shillong down somewhere as the answer to the above question.

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If you wish, check out a feature I wrote for CTV.ca on why we shouldn't be surprised about a possible domestic terror threat to Canada.

The U.S. finds its troops did not kill 11 civilians in a village north of Baghdad. The Iraqi government says, not so fast.

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Check out the new CBC.ca -- the first redesign since 2000, or in terms of web years, the first redesign in a century. :)

Here's the launch letter from Sue Gardner, head of CBC.ca.

Here's the old CBC.ca look, courtesy of the wayback machine.

If you don't understand the climate change issue or are dubious about whether the human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases are causing the planet to catastrophically heat up, then you need to see this movie.

However, questions on how to make change happen -- and who is standing in the way -- are given short shrift, in my opinion.

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Director Deborah Scranton had 10 U.S. soldiers shoot 800 hours of video for her in Iraq. She took that footage, plus 200 hours of footage she shot with them and their families in the States, and the result is a 90-minute film called The War Tapes.

She did direct them: Through email and instant messaging.

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This French action film screened at TIFF last fall. It was one of my favourites then and now it's playing in T.O.! Here's my posting from the time.

Here's the NYT review, but reviewer Nathan Lee seems to have Damien, Cyril Raffaelli's undercover cop character, mixed up with that of Douglas Belle, who actually plays Leito, the slum-dwelling good guy.

Raffaelli is the martial artist while Belle is the parkour master. Watching the bad guys try to catch Belle is like watching someone trying to trap a drop of mercury.

If you're an action movie fan, put this on your to-see list.

BTW, the Toronto Star's Geoff Pevere gave it 2.5 stars out of four. In Now, Glen Sumi gave it four stars.

As a regular movie, I'm with Pevere. As an action movie, I'm with Sumi! :)

Check out this video set to Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth (seen first at Zerby's blog).

In some ways, it's a bit sad that a song about the struggles of 40 years ago can be so easily married to images from today.

A catch-up: Guy Goma, the poor dude who went to the BBC for a job interview on May 8 and wound up on live TV talking about the Apple vs. Apple lawsuit, has apparently been passed over for a gig by the Beeb.

However, a Dublin web has designer started a petition to ask the BBC to hire Goma, according to a May 31 Toronto Star story. The website can be found at guygoma.com.

According to a May 30 Daily Telegraph story, Goma's mistaken appearances on TV have led to ... more TV appearances: "... including The Jonathan Ross Show and manning the phones for the Prince's Trust broadcast.

He is also auctioning the lucky blue shirt he wore during the interview for Oxfam, at www.15minutesauction.com.

According to a June 1 Associated Press story carried by The Age in Sydney, Australia, Goma is thinking about a media career:

Goma is hoping for something more that the tech position he had applied for in the first place.

"My career will be moving in a different direction," he said. "I would like to move on in the media environment."

Goma hopes to host a program on economics.

I dunno. When I saw the original interview, I didn't think to myself, "A star is born!" If Guy got other appearances, it's because of the notoriety generated by the first one. However, if that's what he really wants to do now, good luck to him.

Jonathan Baker, who recently finished a five-year stint as the BBC's world news editor, talks about keeping journos safe in these dangerous times for the craft.

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The Globe and Mail's Kate Taylor looks at the New Yorker of editor David Remnick -- not to mention Remnick himself.

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Check out My-NHL .com's Knob Hockey episodes.

The three Oilers/Ducks related ones made me laugh (some coarse language in two of them),  but I didn't get the Buffalo one.

Thanks, t-dot!

Democracy Now! broadcast Wednesday from the TechSoup NetSquared Conference at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Ca. The conference's theme is “Remixing the web for social change.” The show talked to people active in creating citizen's media.

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In an op-ed piece, Village Voice columnist Anya Kamenetz issues some arguments why internships for college students should be paying gigs.

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Health club as meat market was a pop culture theme in the 1980s. Now, people go to work out -- quite often, to ward off cardio-vascular problems common to middle-aged boomers like themselves.

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Edward Greenspon, The Globe and Mail's editorial commander, will be doing a live chat online at noon EDT today.  I believe that will be a first for him in his current position.

As an fyi, here's a previous post on the subject. The Globe might have a first here in terms of online interaction with readers by a national Canadian news outlet.

If anyone knows of any other outlets that have put their top people in the hot seat, drop me a line.

A U.S. military officials describes Afghanistan as the "sleeper crisis" of this summer.

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Overheard on College St.:

Saucy-looking woman speaking to guy with a goatee:

"The most important organ in a man's body is his tongue, sweetheart!"

Former urbanite and writer Jon Katz holds forth on what he calls the Grunt and Grumble. (thanks, Kevin!)

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