Legendary B.C. radio broadcaster Rafe Mair did his first Internet-based broadcast today. Here's a blurb from his site: Rafelive.com:

This is not a “radio” show as I’ve been accustomed to but something quite different. There’ll be no newscasts, sports and weather – and no ads during the one hour program!

The show will always start with the editorial as I have done over my radio career. You will always be invited to respond by phone or by email (numbers and email addresses to be provided soon). In fact, once we get rolling the theme of the show will be your feedback. We will try to have one guest per show with, again, your feedback welcome either on the phone or online.

At this point just let me close by saying that “netcasting” is the way of the present and future. I'm very glad to be 'online' and streaming live to you 3 times per week.

He also had this to say in a Tyee article:

The experiment is worth running, Mair says, because the offerings of today's advertising-dependent corporate media are so tepid. "Looking for an opinion has become like finding a needle in a haystack," he says. "We'll be all about holding government's feet to the fire."

For more than two decades, MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence service, kept an eye on George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. They suspected him of being a communist. Hey, the guy dressed like a bohemian. He was practically begging to be put under state surveillance.

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Virtually the entire economic foundation of the online publishing business rests on advertising. So let me tell you about a little program called AdBlock.

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And by doing so, Google preps the ground for selling ads alongside the content on its fully-automated news aggregator.

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From CP via globeandmail.com:

She's run a newsroom at a daily newspaper but now she wants to build a co-op brothel, run by and for prostitutes.

Jody Paterson chuckles when she considers the career change from managing editor to madame of Victoria.

But she says it was the people and stories she encountered on the news beat that ultimately led her to help the people she considers society's classic underdogs, sex workers.

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Some interesting factoids from a Globe and Mail story:

• Farmers spray hops with various pesticides an average of 14 times in a growing season
• One could power a TV set for 20 minutes with the electricity used to make a glass bottle. In comparison, making an aluminum beer can would take 180 minutes' worth.
• Paper-free labels are another way to reduce the eco-footprint of a bottle of beer.

"In the name of the environment (and, arguably, flavour), opt for unpasteurized, unfiltered, certified organic beer, free of preservatives and additives. ... Ultimately, supporting your local microbrewery will also drastically cut back on the amount of fossil fuels used to truck that beer to your fridge."

U.S. and British troops have reportedly recovered Chinese weapons after clashes with the Taliban. Britain would like China to explain how this could be so.

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Starbucks' pumpkin-and-cream-cheese muffin is back. Starbucks never sells that unless it's (gulp) ... fall!!