Ryerson University j-prof John Miller takes a contrarian stance on the recent court decision ordering the National Post to turn over a 'Shawinigate' scandal.

Spectator is the name of the new blog.

As to its game, Douglas Bell describes his mission statement thusly:

If Spectator aspires to a voice, it’s that of Jedediah Leland: a smirking suggestion of ridicule in the face of towering egos. In this blog, I aspire to cast a gimlet eye on the stories of power—of money and media and influence. These days, conventional journalism is full to brimming with pompous windbaggery and is, as ever, in need of knocking down a peg or two. Here you will gain insight into the New York Times’ latest cave-in to vested interests, the Toronto Star’s latest bleeding heart lament, Chatelaine’s latest firing, Gerry Schwartz’s latest buyout, Heather Reisman’s latest faux pas and David Thomson’s latest… whatever.

(h/t to J-source)

The BBC's Barbara Plett had a Feb. 29 story on how Pakistan's army had success taming the Swat Valley.

She left out how many troops were involved. According to a Dec. 22, 2007 NYT story, there were 20,000 Pakistani soldiers involved in the Swat Valley operation.

According to Wikipedia, the Swat Valley is about 1,772 square kilometres in size.

Kandahar is about 54,000 square kilometres in size, and there are 2,500 Canadian troops there, according calculations I did in the post Afghanistan by the numbers.

The Pakistan army had 11,287 soldiers per 1,000 square kilometres in Swat.

In Kandahar, Canada has about 46 soldiers per 1,000 square km.

That's based on the full contingent. According to a weekend Globe and Mail article, only about 600 Canadian troops are involved in security operations "outside the wire" at any one time.

While Pakistan's army claimed success, on Saturday, a suicide bomber killed 38 people in Mingora, the Swat Valley's main centre.