From the BBC:

Australia has announced plans to ban incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy efficient fluorescent bulbs.

The environment minister said the move could cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tonnes by 2012.

"It's a little thing but it's a massive change," Malcolm Turnbull said.

The decision will make Australia the first country to ban the light bulbs, although the idea has also been proposed in the US state of California.

The news should make at least one Canadian blogger very happy.

From the BBC:

EU environment ministers have agreed in principle to cut greenhouse emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020.

The ministers, meeting in Brussels, also agreed to seek a 30% cut worldwide if matched by other developed nations.

The proposals, outlined by the European Commission in January, are seen as a key measure to curb climate change.

The EU must still decide how to make cuts, allowing for a possible compromise with member states opposed to mandatory targets.

Hungary and Poland, who joined the EU in 2004, are said to have opposed the cuts.

Finland has also reportedly voiced opposition to the Commission's targets.

In the March issue of The Walrus, Alanna Mitchell talks about the impact of abrupt climate change, focusing on a historic precedent.

Writing in The Globe and Mail, British economist Nicholas Stern warns the clock is ticking on controlling global warming.

From the BBC:

The Indian government is planning to set up a network of cradles around the country where parents can leave unwanted baby girls.

The minister for women and child development, Renuka Chowdhury, told BBC News the cradles would be "everywhere".

It is the latest initiative to try to wipe out the practice of female foeticide and female infanticide.

A girl child is often viewed as inferior to a boy. A bride's dowry can also cripple a family financially.

Research for the year 2001 showed that for every 1,000 male babies born in India, there were just 933 girls.

Research published last year estimating that the number of female abortions was as high as 500,000 a year was disputed by the Indian Medical Association.

Some people are finding self-discipline by publicly blogging about their credit card profligacy.

The NYT's Richard Siklos on the battle to control video on the Web. Basically, it's GoogleTube vs. the media companies.

The NYT chats with Drew Shindell, physicist and climatologist with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He doesn't like the phrase "global warming." He'd prefer "climate meltdown."

A tiny TV news station in Santa Rosa, Ca. has gassed its news staff and wants to replace them with user-generated content from the community.

From the BBC:

An Italian judge has ordered 26 US citizens - most of them CIA agents - to stand trial over the kidnap of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.

Osama Mustafa Hassan was allegedly seized by the CIA and flown to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.

Seven Italians were also indicted, including Italy's ex-military intelligence chief, Nicolo Pollari.

The case would be the first criminal trial over the secret US practice known as "extraordinary rendition".

The BBC has a series called The Conspiracy Files.  It covers all your favourites: Princess Di, plus upcoming episodes on the Oklahoma City bombing, weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly and (wait for it) ... 9/11!!

Unfortunately, Elvis and UFOs seem to be passé.

There's a conspiracy quiz plus articles on why we love a good conspiracy theory and the roots of such theories.

Say, why do you suppose the Beeb is really looking into this topic? I have a theory ... :^)

From the BBC:

A group representing UK media companies has called on the BBC Trust not to allow adverts to be published on its international websites.

The British Internet Publishers Alliance (BIPA) said the plan would hit revenue its members could make online.

Showing adverts to non-UK readers of BBC websites would also undermine the BBC's "worldwide reputation for integrity and impartiality," it added.

The BBC argues that readers outside the UK should contribute towards the costs.

While UK users pay for the website through their licence fee, international audiences are getting the service for free, the corporation says.

From TheStar.com:

New Mexico is hoping to keep drunks off the road by lecturing them at the last place they usually stop before getting behind the wheel: the urinal.

The state recently paid $21 (U.S.) each for about 500 talking urinal-deodorizer cakes and put them in men's rooms in bars and restaurants.

When a man steps up, the motion-sensitive plastic device says, in a woman's voice that is flirty, then stern: "Hey, big guy. Having a few drinks? Think you had one too many? Then it's time to call a cab or call a sober friend for a ride home."

The recorded message ends: "Remember, your future is in your hand."

Question: How do you show your annoyance to a talking urinal puck?

NYT media columnist David Carr on the remake of the cheeky New York Observer, which has produced some of the most amusing reporting about the Apple's media scene.

From the NYT:

For the second time in a week, an automaker has agreed to stop running a television commercial that several mental health organizations criticized as making light of suicide.

Volkswagen of America said yesterday that it would withdraw a commercial that four organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, had labeled as irresponsible.

The spot, by Crispin, Porter & Bogusky in Miami, part of MDC Partners, was titled “Jumper” and showed a man contemplating suicide until he learned about new lower prices on Volkswagens.

Last week, General Motors agreed to stop running a commercial, first shown during Super Bowl XLI, that presented a factory robot driven to suicide after losing its job for making a mistake. G.M. said it would edit the spot to remove the suicide scene. The robot commercial was created by the Marina del Rey, Calif., office of Deutsch, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

Beeb environmental analyst Roger Harrabin on the key parts of the informal climate deal reached that will go to the G8 this summer -- and may form the basis of Kyoto II.

Question: Is it ambitious enough?

From the BBC:

A meeting in Washington of global political leaders has reached a new agreement on tackling climate change.

Delegates agreed that developing countries will have to face targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions as well as rich countries.

The informal meeting also agreed that a global market should be formed to cap and trade carbon dioxide emissions.

The non-binding declaration is seen as vital in influencing a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, correspondents say.

The forum's closing statement said man-made climate change was now "beyond doubt".

In a related story:

EU energy ministers have agreed to increase the share of biofuels used in transport to 10% by 2020.

But at a meeting in Brussels they were unable to decide whether a target of getting 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 should be binding.

I was resetting my Google preferences when I noticed they had an 'Elmer Fudd' preference under languages. Observe:

And here's bork, bork, bork!

It just shows what can be accomplished when you have a bunch of clever developers with time on their hands. :)

And, perhaps by design, it leads to brand exposure for Google as bloggers like me -- again, with too much time on our hands -- highlight such trivialities. :)

My CTV.ca colleague Phil Stavrou went to the T.O. International Auto Show and this is what he found: A new generation of green autos emerging -- even luxury ones.

Russell Smith writes in The Globe and Mail about the role of publicists in the modern media age -- and what journalists should do about it.

From Slate.com:

The editors of the swimsuit issue have perfected a genteel notion of female sexuality. You might call it Minivan Cheesecake. That is, the magazine is just tasteful enough to be enjoyed comfortably by a middle-aged man who operates a minivan. This year's crop of 18 supermodels would look right at home in a Subaru commercial. They never reveal anything more than a stray nipple—and then it's tucked beneath a translucent swimsuit (Page 75) or body paint (Page 78). In return, the SI cameras maintain a discreet distance from the babes—none of the too-close-up shots you find in Playboy or Penthouse. The models seem to smile a lot morethan they do in the skin magazines, and they stop to pay tribute to inspirational heroes like Jane Goodall and Brett Favre. Why, there's even a special treat for the kids: supermodel trading cards!

The family-room aesthetic was handed down by Andre Laguerre, a raffish Frenchman and ex-DeGaulle associate who edited Sports Illustrated from 1960to 1974. Laguerre, who believed that a good deal of all magazine business should be conducted from inside a bar, found himself with a minor editorial problem: He had no compelling sporting events to cover during the winter months. In 1964, he had a brainstorm: He would supplement sport with skin. Laguerre summoned a young fashion reporter named Jule Campbell to his office and laid down the intellectual roots of the issue. He asked Campbell, "How would you like to go to some beautiful place and put a pretty girl on the cover?"

Macleans.ca has an interesting new feature. They have a panel called the Macleans 50.

From the blurb:

A diverse field of Canada’s most well known and respected personalities from journalists to politicians offering their comments on the issues of the day, everyday.

Essentially, the M-50, which includes Macleans journalists, can post comments on the stories Macleans.ca is covering that day.

See this one on Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach arguing for federal climate change money, as an example.

Now, how about the hoi polloi -- you know, you and I? Can we chip in to the conversation? Well, er, no. At least, not that I can see.

This feature is strictly for those with something to actually say. But the lessers are welcome to press their nose to the glass.

While I'm not really down with that principle (I don't think journalists should be above talking with their readers), it is potentially an interesting and useful way to broaden out a story.

For one thing, now reporters won't have to call sources for reaction! They just post now! Woo-hoo!! :)

However, I wonder what obligation has been imposed on the M-50 to post comments, or how they find out about new posts.

For example, there's a story up on Parliament passing the Kyoto bill. I wouldn't mind seeing what John Duffy, Mr. Climate Liberal himself, has to say about it. As I write this, however, no comment from Mr. Duffy.

Am I expected to click on the story several more times over the course of the day to see what his reaction might be? How long does Macleans think visitors will put up with that? I don't want to repeatedly revisit the same story just to see if an M-50 has deigned to comment.*

* In fairness, the Macleans.ca home page as a column in the centre that can accommodate the latest five M-50 comments. But you still have to check. A quick-and-dirty check shows RSS feeds for news categories, but not comments.

However, I suppose we shall see how it all unfolds over time. In any event, giving more voice to those with a voice can't be seen as a bad thing. :)

Afterword

Duffy never did comment on that story, although Tory blogger Stephen Taylor did.

Allan Rock, a one-time Liberal justice minister, is one of the M-50. There was a story posted on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's desire to appoint law-and-order-friendly judges. You'd think he'd be a natural.

It might have been interesting to see him mix it up over the issue with Guy Giorno, former chief of staff to Mike Harris, or John Reynolds, a former Conservative MP turned backroom player.

Alas, it didn't happen. 

I clicked on the bio of Adam Radwanski, managing editor of Macleans.ca, and he hasn't issued a comment for a week. A couple Macleans staffers haven't commented at all, which drops it to the M-48 at the very least. :)

The U.S. electrical industry can't see getting GHG emissions down below 1990 levels until some time in the 2020s.

Firedoglake.com has a team of six bloggers covering the Scooter Libby perjury trial. Their only real disappointment? The defence won't put the Scootmeister or Cheney on the stand.

Once upon a time, U.S. war planners envisioned about 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by early 2007.

A troop surge wasn't even a twinkle in Dubya's eye back then.

The Beeb has coverage of a recent seminar in London on Afghanistan. One speaker was Norine McDonald of the Senlis Council, which put out a provocative report last fall.

However, that's old news. Check out what Dr. David Kilcullen, chief strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism at the US State Department, has to say.

From the BBC:

The European parliament has approved a damning report on secret CIA flights, condemning member states which colluded in the operations.

The UK, Germany and Italy were among 13 states which allowed the US to forcibly remove terror suspects, lawmakers said.

The EU parliament voted to accept a resolution condemning member states which accepted or ignored the practice.

The EU report said the CIA had operated 1,245 flights, some taking suspects to states where they could face torture.

The report was adopted by a large majority, with 382 MEPs voting in favour, 256 against and 74 abstaining.

Addendum

The Beeb followed up with CIA flights controversy here to stay.

An excerpt from the AP story on CTV.ca:

A court on Tuesday ruled in favour of Belgian newspapers that sued Google Inc., claiming that the Web search Internet search leader infringed copyright laws and demanded it remove their stories.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company that operates the world's most-used search engine immediately said it would appeal, claiming its Google News service was "entirely legal."

A Brussels court ruled in favor of Copiepresse, a copyright protection group representing 18 mostly French-language newspapers that complained the search engine's "cached" links offered free access to archived articles that the papers usually sell on a subscription basis.

It ordered Google to remove any articles, photos or links from its sites -- including Google News -- that it displays without the newspapers' permission.

But in the future, it said it would be up to copyright owners to get in touch with Google by e-mail to complain if the site was posting content that belonged to them. Google would then have 24 hours to withdraw the content or face a daily fine of 1,000 euros (US$1,295).

The Beeb analyses why the Bushies and company finally negotiated a fairly soft deal with North Korea over that country's nuclear program.

From the Feb. 12 Washington Post article:

The growing Sunni-Shiite divide is roiling an Arab world as unsettled as at any time in a generation. Fought in speeches, newspaper columns, rumors swirling through cafes and the Internet, and occasional bursts of strife, the conflict is predominantly shaped by politics: a disintegrating Iraq, an ascendant Iran, a sense of Arab powerlessness and a persistent suspicion of American intentions. But the division has begun to seep into the region's social fabric, too. The sectarian fault line has long existed and sometimes ruptured, but never, perhaps, has it been revealed in such a stark, disruptive fashion.

Newspapers are replete with assertions, some little more than incendiary rumors, of Shiite aggressiveness. The Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustour, aligned with the government, wrote of a conspiracy last month to spread Shiism from India to Egypt. On the conspirators' agenda, it said: assassinating "prominent Sunni figures." The same day, an Algerian newspaper reported that parents were calling on the government to stop Shiite proselytizing in schools. An Egyptian columnist accused Iran of trying to convert Sunnis to Shiism in an attempt to revive the Persian Safavid dynasty, which came to power in the 16th century. ...

The violence remains confined to Iraq and, on a far smaller scale, Lebanon, but to some, the four-year-long entropy of Iraq offers a metaphor for the forces emerging across the region: People there watched the rise of sectarian identity, railed against it, blamed the United States and others for inflaming it, then were often helpless to stop the descent into bloodshed.

"This tension is the most dangerous problem now in the region," said Ghassan Charbel, editor of the Arabic-language daily al-Hayat.

From the AP story on CTV.ca:

A top U.S. general said Tuesday there was no evidence the Iranian government was supplying Iraqi insurgents with highly lethal roadside bombs, apparently contradicting claims by other U.S. military and administration officials.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces hunting down militant networks that produced roadside bombs had arrested Iranians and that some of the material used in the devices were made in Iran.

"That does not translate that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this," Pace told reporters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. "What it does say is that things made in Iran are being used in Iraq to kill coalition soldiers."

Democracy Now! talks to John "Rick" McArthur of Harper's magazine and Craig Unger, author of House of Saud, House of Bush, on the now-infamous NYT story by Michael R. Gordon about Iran's alleged supplying ...   more »

The NYT tries to capture the vibe of modern-day Phnom Penh.

Peter Silverman, veteran consumer affairs reporter with CityTV here in Toronto, got assaulted last week by an optician.

Silverman has done repeated stories on how the guy has allegedly been selling counterfeit frames and otherwise ripping off customers.

He went to visit Adam Plimmer of King West Opticians.

See what happens here. Here's CityTV's reaction story from Monday (no vid).

And here is the Toronto Star's take on it.

From the NYT editorial:

How little this administration has learned from its failures is a constant source of amazement. It seems the bigger the failure, the less it learns.

Consider last weekend’s supersecret briefing in Baghdad by a group of American military officials whose names could not be revealed to the voters who are paying for this war with their taxes and their children’s blood. The briefers tried to prove the White House’s case that Iran is shipping deadly weapons, including armor-piercing explosives, to Shiite militias in Iraq.

Unlike Colin Powell’s infamous prewar presentation on Iraq at the United Nations, this briefing had actual weapons to look at. And perhaps in time, the administration will be able to prove conclusively that the weapons came from arms factories in Iran.

But the officials offered no evidence to support their charge that “the highest levels of the Iranian government” had authorized smuggling these weapons into Iraq for use against American forces. Nor could they adequately explain why they had been sitting on this urgent evidence since 2004. The only thing that was not surprising was the refusal of any of the briefers to allow their names to be published. Mr. Powell is probably wondering why he didn’t insist on the same deal.

And here's a news story: Skeptics doubt U.S. evidence on Iran action in Iraq