From an NYT editorial:

It was almost inevitable that a combination of $4-a-gallon gas, public anxiety and politicians eager to win votes or repair legacies would produce political pandering on an epic scale. So it has, the latest instance being President Bush’s decision to ask Congress to end the federal ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along much of America’s continental shelf.

This is worse than a dumb idea. It is cruelly misleading. It will make only a modest difference, at best, to prices at the pump, and even then the benefits will be years away. It greatly exaggerates America’s leverage over world oil prices. It is based on dubious statistics. It diverts the public from the tough decisions that need to be made about conservation. ...

... The Congressional moratoriums on offshore drilling were put in place in 1981 and reaffirmed by subsequent Congresses to protect coastal economies that depend on clean water and clean coastlines. This was also the essential purpose of supplemental executive orders, the first of which was issued by Mr. Bush’s father in 1990 after the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill the year before.

Given the huge resources available to the energy industry, there is no reason to undo these protections now.

This snippet of a June 18 Globe and Mail story, ostensibly about a tax case, caught my eye:

When Henry Rachfalowski joined Canada Life Financial Corp. in 1998 as a senior executive, the firm offered to pay for a golf club membership as part of his employment package. But there was just one problem: He hated golf.

Mr. Rachfalowski asked whether the company could give him cash instead or pay for a membership at a curling club. His bosses refused, saying he would look like a maverick or rebel and wouldn't fit in (emphasis mine - BD) if he didn't join a golf club.

Companies say they want "diversity" -- just not in the choice of leisure activities. :)

I'm particularly sympathetic to Rachfalowski because golf leaves me cold. :)

The Associated Press wants to tighten up how its stuff is quoted in the blogosphere (it's not unknown to see entire articles reproduced on some blogs). The reaction has been entirely predictable. AP has backed off somewhat.

From the Globe and Mail's Ingram 2.0 column of June 17:

NowPublic.com, a leading Vancouver-based "citizen-journalism" site that allows users from around the world to post their comments, photos and video of news events, has relaunched its website with new features. Among them is the ranking of contributors to the site on the basis of their activity level, so that other users can gauge how trustworthy their contributions are likely to be. ...

Another new feature is that NowPublic users can now pull in their content from other social-media sites such as Flickr and YouTube instead of having to post their photos or videos or stories in several different places at the same time. NowPublic chief executive officer Leonard Brody says the site calls this a "presence stream." Users are also able to create a customized "news dashboard" on their profile pages at the site, with the photos, news and video they are interested in from sources they can specify.

BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen on the mindset journalists must cultivate if they want to function in war zones.

From the BBC (posted June 16):

A memorial to journalists killed while doing their work has been unveiled by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The 10m (32ft) glass and steel cone on top of BBC Broadcasting House in central London will shine a beam of light into the sky every night at 2200.

It is dedicated to all news journalists and those who have worked with them, including drivers and translators.

Over the past 10 years an estimated two war reporters per week have died, with many more killed covering corruption.

From the BBC:

Prolific Italian TV prankster and condom advocate Gabriele Paolini faces a prison sentence unless he behaves.

Mr Paolini has made a career of popping up uninvited behind unwitting on-air TV reporters promoting condom use.

Guinness World Records says Mr Paolini is the world's most successful TV hijacker, interrupting 20,000 link-ups.

But now Italy's Supreme Court has upheld a three-month suspended sentence on him for interrupting a report on the state broadcaster RAI in June 2001.

The court has also ruled that anyone who deliberately gets onto TV while standing in a public place can commit an offence even if they are silent and immobile.