From the BBC:

The provincial government in north-west Pakistan has agreed to pull troops out of a valley under a peace agreement signed with pro-Taleban militants.

The authorities say they will also allow the militants to impose Sharia law in Swat in return for promises to close training camps and end attacks.

The deal is the first since a new government came to power promising to negotiate to end violence in the area.

Nato and the US say such deals have helped al Qaeda and the Taleban.

Sounds like "peace" on the militants' terms. For those interested in Afghanistan, this bears watching.

Here's another BBC story where Pakistan's army claims success in battling Taliban militants in South Waziristan.

Gas could be in the $1.40 to $1.50 per litre range this summer.

Crude oil's price broke US$135 per barrel in overnight trading before settling down today.

How can we cope?

If you're in the auto industry, follow the consumers and build vehicles that use less fuel -- a decision that Ford announced today:

I made a couple WOT-related posts today (here and here), and they reinforced what I've been thinking in the past few days: If al Qaeda doesn't blow something up soon, Osama bin Laden risks becoming a sad, forgotten nobody.

I'm starting to have visions of him sitting in some east Danforth donut stop telling anyone who'll listen: "I used to be the most wanted terrorist in the world! The Great Satan of the Crusaders would have paid $50 million to have me killed!"

Whatever, buddy. Just let me eat my cruller in peace.

Addendum

Here's a Valentine's Day posting on why al Qaeda can't win.

I was out and about in the nabe. I felt an overpowering urge to get some scallops from Chippy's. I succumbed to the urge.

I retired across the street to a Trinity Bellwoods park bench to enjoy the repast.

While sitting there, a flock of pigeons arrived. One of them apparently thought something on my boot looked edible, so it came over and started pecking on it -- with my foot still in the boot, and my foot still attached to my body.

Terrorism is said by some to be the greatest existential threat since the Soviet Union, but a new study claims that if you discount Iraq, the number of people dying in terror attacks fell last year.

In his latest messages, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden talked up the Israel-Palestine issue and barely mentioned Iraq. This has security analysts buzzing.

I first saw Blue Velvet in early 1987 and have probably seen it 10 times since. I just saw it again tonight at the Bloor (a new print!) and I sat through it without one watch check.

Here's a post from February 2006 on the film's 20th anniversary. It says much of what I have to say about the film.

However,  in addition to what I wrote there, allow me to praise its art direction, performances and David Lynch's creative vision. He's created a uniquely American (but still universal), hilarious, disturbing, small-town nightmare for the ages -- one that never fails to engage and one in which you can always find some new, interesting detail.

And that, folks, is why I call it a masterpiece.

Bob Hughes, former managing editor, sports columnist and publisher with the Regina Leader-Post, has filed his last column after getting busted for plagiarism.

From the NYT:

While gloom haunts the newspaper industry in the United States and Europe, the business is flourishing in much of the developing world.

New newspapers — some backed by governments, others by business moguls and international conglomerates — are springing up from Rwanda to Tajikistan, attracting readers and advertising money.

In many of these markets, rising literacy rates dovetail with growing disposable income to create millions of potential readers. Circulation is rising by double-digit percentages at existing papers, while some Western media companies are forging partnerships and trying their hand at start-up companies as well.

From the NYT:

Arjun N. Murti remembers the pain of the oil shocks of the 1970s. But he is bracing for something far worse now: He foresees a “super spike” — a price surge that will soon drive crude oil to $200 a barrel.

Mr. Murti, who has a bit of a green streak, is not bothered much by the prospect of even higher oil prices, figuring it might finally prompt America to become more energy efficient.

An analyst at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Murti has become the talk of the oil market by issuing one sensational forecast after another. A few years ago, rivals scoffed when he predicted oil would breach $100 a barrel. Few are laughing now. Oil shattered yet another record on Tuesday, touching $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas at $4 a gallon is arriving just in time for those long summer drives.

Mr. Murti, 39, argues that the world’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for oil means prices will keep rising from here and stay above $100 into 2011. Others disagree, arguing that prices could abruptly tumble if speculators in the market rush for the exits. But the grim calculus of Mr. Murti’s prediction, issued in March and reconfirmed two weeks ago, is enough to give anyone pause: in an America of $200 oil, gasoline could cost more than $6 a gallon.

Afterthought

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that last week, TD Bank chief executive Ed Clark said his instititution's policy on lending in western Canada is based on the belief that current commodities prices are too high.

New Jersey housewife Jane Novak has been vilified by allies of Yemen's government for her defence, via a blog that is banned in Yemen, of a journalist there charged with sedition.

Eye Weekly and Now enjoy sneering at the MSM, but when it comes to holding onto their own audiences, they aren't doing much better.

From the Globe and Mail:

Electronic information provider Thomson Reuters Corp [TRI-T] is cutting 835 jobs as it moves to integrate its operations following the purchase of Reuters Group PLC by Thomson Corp. last month.

On the way home from work Sunday, I perused the movie listings. To my delight, I saw that A Clockwork Orange was playing at the Bloor cinema at 9:30 p.m. I'm always up for a black-humoured, dystopian movie, so I went.

Across the aisle to my left was a young couple. They were chatting and giggling in an overly-loud voice. One fellow tried shushing them, but to no avail.

However, they did quiet down when they started canoodling, which is fine -- young people have been necking at movies since there's been movies, although I don't necessarily think of ACO as a romantic date flick.

But the one group sex and two rape scenes in the film must have stirred some urgings in them, because the next time I look, they are lying on the floor between the seats. The guy's on top, his bare ass is showing, and he's moving his hips in a motion consistent with sexual activity.

I try to mind my own business, but finally I go up and tell one of the theatre workers. "Jesus," he whistled.

I go back to my seat towards the front.  The theatre guy is standing back by the doors. I wave my arm "in a come-on-down" motion and point to where the passionate young romantics are still writhing.

He walks down, looks, purses his lips, goes to the row immediately downhill of them, walks close to the wall, then leans over the seats and flashes a flashlight beam at them several times. After he gets their attention, he waves his hand in a "you gotta go" motion.

They resignedly stagger off.

The Romeo comes back to reclaim his empties. But he then comes back a second time with some paper towel, drops to his knees, and starts wiping a particular part of the floor. "I hope that's not what I think it could be," I said inside my head.

After the movie, I chatted briefly with the employee, who said the duo were actually co-operative about leaving -- and that the girl was almost too drunk to walk.

"That's never happened here before!" he said about the couple's activities -- and did so with an embarrassed giggle.

If you're wondering, it was indeed a full moon in Toronto last night.

From the BBC:

An Afghan student journalist who was sentenced to death for blasphemy has told an appeals court that he confessed after being tortured.

Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh was convicted in January of insulting Islam.

But at the appeals court in Kabul the 24-year-old insisted he was innocent of all the charges.

He said he was tortured into confessing that he had disrupted university classes by asking questions about women's rights under Islam.

He was also convicted of distributing an article on the same subject, and adding three additional paragraphs.

He told the crowded, hour-long appeal hearing: "As a Muslim ... I never allow myself to do such a thing. These are totally lies."

I was hunting about for more information about Tony Burman, who left the CBC last year and has just been announced as the new managing director for al-Jazeera English.

At this CBC.ca page -- editor-in-chief biography -- I found the following:

I bought a can of Gillette ultra-moisturing shave gel at Dominion today for $3.49.

However, the regular moisturizing Gillette shave gel is also $3.49.

Did I get a steal of a deal, or is the regular version over-priced?

One would think ultra-moisturizing gel should sell for more than the pallid regular version.

In my posting below on the film Carny and some personal experiences I had on the road, I mentioned that I enjoyed listening to the ginsu pitchmen at the the PNE  in Vancouver. I used the word "geniuses," but perhaps "brilliant" would be better.

Fast-talking, authoritative, funny and convincing, they moved a lot of knives.

One of the little gadgets they had in their package deal was something that could drain juice from oranges. One of the pitchmen, who had a New York accent (real or contrived, I couldn't tell you), would tell people they could fill the orange with vodka to smuggle booze into sports stadiums, then use the gizmo to suck the vodka back out. "Believe me: Ain't nobody gonna bust you for suckin' on an orange," he assured the throngs of tittering bystanders.

Sorry, no video of these guys, but after poking around on YouTube, I present -- for your nostalgic, circa-1978 pleasure -- the original ginsu knife ad!

I was out last night and missed CBC TV News' At Issue panel on The National, which is usually quite engaging (although the May 7 special edition one on whether the U.S. primary system is better a better process than the one used to pick Canadian political leaders was a snoozer).

I go to CBC.ca's website and find the page that would host the online video version (A photo op too far?).

It's now at least 12 hours after the segment would have aired in the Eastern time zone last night, and it still hasn't been posted.

The page only promises it will be posted "Friday."

No rush. Not a problem. I'll just keep coming back -- it's good for CBC.ca's page views.

But I would note that somehow, my employer, CTV.ca News, manages to get such video posted within 20 minutes of airing, but that's just us. There's no reason other online news outlets have to be timely too.

I saw this in a Globe and Mail feature on the workout routines of high-profile people:

"Using the elliptical is a waste of workout time," says Mr. (Paul) Plakas (Edmonton based trainer, hosts the Slice network show X-Weighted) says. "The elliptical trainer makes your body dumb. It forces you into a restricted movement pattern that you would never use in any life activity." In his opinion, "The only person that should be using the elliptical is someone who's overweight, has no balance and can't walk."

Hey: I use an elliptical trainer! :)

I've actually seen some other anti-elliptical trainer references in other such articles, but haven't seen a detailed analysis, or suggestions as to what someone else should use in its place.

Riding the TTC might be the cheaper way in many respects, but the transit agency is already looking into the future and wondering how to cope with surging fuel prices in its next budget.

From the Globe and Mail:

The Department of National Defence sets quotas for how many times a year a military think tank it subsidizes must appear in the news media, a contract made public at the request of the NDP shows.

I saw a documentary called Carny tonight, and it brought back a few memories.

In a marked departure, China's news media have given open and aggressive coverage to the earthquake disaster in Sichuan province.

Headline in the Toronto Star today: Learn to love tourists this summer.

The Globe and Mail's Patricia Best relays a hilarious story about one of my favourite world leaders.

In this case, the negligent parents were two adult Canada geese.

I was heading home from work, riding south on one of the McCowan Street buses just south of Corporate Drive (the intersection with Extend The Brand Road is one of Toronto's hidden-gem intersections) when all of a sudden, everyone starts doing brakestands.

I look to see what the hell is going on, and two adult geese are crossing from west to east, with two awkward goslings in tow.

McCowan has three lanes of traffic going south, and three going north. Considering drivers don't even like stopping for pedestrians there, I'd say these geese got off easy.

At least I think they got off easy. The bus moved on before they tried crossing the northbound lanes.

The parents picked a crossing where there's a concrete divider that tapers down. They could go up and over easily enough, but one of the little ones was having some problems with this obstacle.

Bonne chance, my feathered, excrement-machine friends.

From CP via globeandmail.com:

Tony Burman, the one-time head of CBC news, has been appointed managing director of Al Jazeera's English operations.

The BBC's Paul Danahar on his efforts to stay out of the clutches of Burma's Special Branch police and keep reporting from the disaster-ridden country.