The Beeb's Paul Reynolds opined that Israel's strike on Qana would pressure the U.S. into pushing for an early ceasefire.

He would appear to be wrong.

NATO is now responsible for military operations in southern Afghanistan. Here's the BBC story.

Here's a BBC streeter with Afghans asking about the presence of foreign troops on their soil.

From globeandmail.com:

Some solace for traditional news outlets worried about how to compete with the Internet: A survey finds slowing growth in the number of people who regularly go online for the news.

Almost three in 10 adults, or 31 per cent, regularly log in for news, a rate roughly the same as two years ago, according to the survey released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. People in their 40s were more likely to go online for news than the younger adults.

“The online news audience is maturing and at this point is wider than it is deep,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

“We have as many as 31 per cent who say they read news online regularly,” he said. “But they don't spend as much time doing it as they spend with more traditional media like newspapers, TV and radio.”

Here's the full report.

Some U.S. newspapers have signed up with an online news aggregation company to deliver content from competitors onto their own websites.

The new Will Ferrell comedy about a NASCAR driver figures prominently in both the editorial and advertising sections of the Aug. 4 issue of The Sporting News.

Increasing numbers of American men between 30 and 55 who got chopped in various downsizings are choosing to give up on work rather than take a demeaning gig. While those predominantly affected are undereducated blue-collar men, the ranks include dot-com-ers from the boom times and former executives.

If you go away, say on a Friday, and return on a Sunday evening, and it's August, and you live in Toronto, and it's hot, and you don't have air conditioning in your place, make sure your dehumidifier was completely drained on that day of departure and ready to suck moisture all weekend long.

Otherwise, you will return home to a fetid sauna.