The Hour's Blog

I was at Toronto's MESH conference over the last couple days. One of the panel discussions was on the future of the audience. The discussion started out talking about music but quickly turned to a back and forth between members of the audience and Ethan Kaplan, of Warner Brothers records, on the music industry's practice of using DRM (digitial rights management).

Michael Geist took the first shot, asking why the industry persists in using DRM. Ethan Kaplan responded by saying keeping or dropping DRM wouldn't increase or decrease sales. "It's a small part of a larger problem he said."

"Is it fair to the consumer? Certainly not in some ways, in most ways," Kaplan said, adding that as a consumer he doesn't like DRM either.

It appears that at least some people at the major labels are thinking about dropping the idea. But Kaplan also said that he doesn't make the decisions on DRM. Maybe he should.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

My seat buddy Nick has just pointed out the Stinky Journalism investigation into the pig tale. For the full investigation check out the link on the arts and letters page. Here's a quick run down: Stinky Journalism enlisted the help of a retired NYU physicist and a "resident trick photography expert" and had them analyze the photos...the conclusion: Photoshop can do wonders for a wild hog. The hunter and his family still say the pig tale is totally accurate. Little J Jamison, alleged bagger of the alleged big boar, and his daddy set up a web site at www.monsterpig.com complete with pics of the skull and contact information for the taxidermist, nice! You decide...

Posted by Allison Brachman at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If this pig tale is to be believed, that hog is 9 feet long and weighs 1, 051 pounds. The kid beside it is J Jamison Stone. He "bagged" the hog with a .50-caliber revolver. Don't worry, his daddy and a few hunting guides had lots of fire power to back him up, he's only 11 after all. Now, half the people in our morning meeting and numerous bloggers are calling foul, saying there's no way in hell that hog is real. Daddy and little J Jamison say they did not doctor the photo, that's the real deal. Thoughts?
Now remember, they grow them big down south. "Hogzilla" was a 800-pound wild boar killed in Georgia in 2004. National Geographic sent a forensics team to dig that porker up, and they confirmed it really was that big.

Posted by Allison Brachman at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

The Big Donor Show is a new Dutch tv programme in which a dying woman chooses one of three patients to receive her kidneys. The Dutch government as well as the Dutch Donor Authority have been trying to get the show canceled, but the network, BNN, is going ahead with the project. They say it will highlight the shortage of donors in the Netherlands. The donor is identified only as Lisa. She will choose one patient based on his or her history, conversations with friends and family, and his or her profile. Viewers are asked to send in their advice to Lisa by text message. Kidney specialists say the show will not draw attention to the shortage of donors. They say the program does not remotely resemble the process by which donors are chosen and argue creating a false picture of how donation works won't help anyone.

Posted by Allison Brachman at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday I wrote a post about a new partnership between the CBC and Facebook. I wrote that I was surprised by the partnership because it comes as concerns about privacy on Facebook mount.

Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, read that post and wrote a response. You can read his full comment here. This is an excerpt:

We've seen a few strange alarmist posts come up now and again, usually based on strange interpretations of our policy or illogical connections (like in the video you link to). That's concerning to us because we have been leading the way among online sites in giving people control over their information.

Do you have concerns about privacy on Facebook? Maybe we could arrange to get Chris Kelly on the show to talk about this.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

George Lucas is taking his Clones to TV. It's going to take another two years but an animated version of The Clone Wars will make its debut with "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" and "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." No word yet on what network will air the series. You can see the trailer at starwars.com.

Posted by Allison Brachman at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We all have our own way of getting around the city. Some of us drive our cars -- convenient and fast. Some of us bike -- healthy and refreshing. Some of us walk -- fresh air and exercise. The following is not to criticize the form of travel we take, but merely to educate people on HOW to efficiently and responsibly travel without severely angering everyone around them. Each week and new set of tips will be released for each mode of transportation. I'm willing to take suggestions too, just comment below.

Tailgating is annoying, stupid, and ridiculously dangerous. It's funny how people don't realize they are controlling a massive hunk of metal that is capable of killing many people. If someone is going too slow for you, wait for an appropriate time to pass and do so. If they stop quickly, and you are 2 feet off their bumper, there is going to be an accident. And guess who is legally responsible? The person from behind! Don't be a jerk, don't tailgate.

Line up at the intersection! People who cut in lines are nobody's friend. If there is a line of bikes, at a red light, don't cut in front of them just because the light turned green. Cars line up at lights, as should bikes. When you cut in front of people, the odds of an accident rise dramatically.

Two way traffic isn't just for cars! If you're walking down the street and you think to yourself, 'Wow, I'd really like to get around these slow walkers in front me', understand this. There is a flow of pedestrian traffic and there are people coming the opposite way. When you fill up the gap (that is their 'traffic lane') you force them off the sidewalk, which is incredibly shmucky. Likewise, if you're in a large group of people and walking on the sidewalks, try to walk 2 by 2...not 4 in a row. Share the sidewalk!

Posted by Andrew Phillips at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

The CBC announced a partnership with Facebook this morning. The deal has the CBC promoting a Facebook group called 'the Great Canadian Wish List.'

The site will encourage people to submit their ideas and dreams for the country. Interesting ideas will be handpicked and featured on TV and radio. At last check the group has 783 members. If you don't have a Facebook account you can keep track of developments on this blog.

What surprises me about this announcement is that it comes as concerns about privacy on Facebook mount. A few days ago Facebook announced a new privacy policy Here's a few snippets (Note these are from the old policy):

When you enter Facebook, we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all Facebook visitors... Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.

On the same day that the privacy policy was released, Facebook also launched a new set of developer tools which allows third parties to make use of Facebook personal data on other sites (such as this). Wired has an article on that here.

If you have concerns about your privacy on Facebook you may want to check out this video (via strombo.com). I haven't verified the content of that video, so I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but if it's true it does raise some concerns.

Maybe someone should post a idea to the Great Canadian Wish List to tighten up Facebook's privacy policy.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

The Toronto FC, Canada's professional soccer club, puts on a good show.

I went to my first professional soccer game last night. It was fun, entertaining and very unlike Toronto. Fans were actually excited to be there. At most professional sporting events in this city, most people barely look alive let alone excited. I once went to a Leafs game and thought I was at a funeral.

Last night, the stands were shaking as fans stomped, clapped, waved and screamed at the top of their lungs. People even had special songs and claps prepared for their favorite players.
The highlight of the night; the players took off their sweaty jerseys and threw them out to die hard fans in the stands. One player even threw his socks to a gleeful fan. To each their own.

It should be a great summer at BMO field.

Posted by Alana Hurov at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week we aired a beautiful piece on John Baton, a model train hobbyist. We put the video on Youtube and surprisingly it got lots of hits, as I write this it's got almost 40,000 views. So John's become a bit of internet celebrity, the irony is that he's never even used the internet.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

We all have our own way of getting around the city. Some of us drive our cars -- convenient and fast. Some of us bike -- healthy and refreshing. Some of us walk -- fresh air and exercise. The following is not to criticize the form of travel we take, but merely to educate people on HOW to efficiently and responsibly travel without severely angering everyone around them. Each week and new set of tips will be released for each mode of transportation. I'm willing to take suggestions too, just comment below.

Don't block intersections! This is probably my biggest pet peeve. If traffic is heavy and you can't make your way through the intersection, don't go into the intersection! Cause when you get stuck there, you screw over the people going the other way!

Don't bike on the sidewalks! Bikes are vehicles, so you should ride them like you drive a car. When you ride your bike on the sidewalks, pedestrians get angry and motorists get confused. Drivers are suppose to look for bicyclists on the streets...not coming in on the sidewalks.

Jaywalk only if you're fast enough! I'm not condoning jaywalking, but almost everyone does it. The key is that you have to be fast. Recognize that you are not suppose to be doing what you're doing. If you want to cross the street at a casual pace, do it at an assigned crosswalk.

Posted by Andrew Phillips at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

American preacher Jerry Falwell died this week. The American networks immedietly went into reverent casket watch mode for the 'controversial' preacher. The only one to break ranks was Anderson Cooper. Cooper and his staff booked Christopher Hitchens on their show. This is what Hitchens had to say:

COOPER: Christopher, I'm not sure if you believe in heaven, but if you do, do you think Jerry Falwell is in it?
HITCHENS: No. And I think it's a pity there isn't a hell for him to go to.
COOPER: What is it about him that brings up such vitriol?
HITCHENS: The empty life of this ugly little charlatan proves only one thing, that you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you will just get yourself called reverend.

If you care, you can watch the whole interview below:

Christopher Hitchens will be on The Hour on June 13th.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Tonight the Ottawa Senators, Canada's last remaining Stanley Cup contender, play the Buffalo Sabres. Ottawa's trying for a four-game sweep of the series.

Now we've had quite a few discussions in this office about this amazing run by the Senators. But we've also had quite a few discussions about the fans. One of my co-workers wrote recently about the subdued Sens fans, and that had me thinking about the famous 'Red Mile' in Calgary during their Stanley Cup run. Why isn't there a Red Mile in Ottawa?

Well it turns out, some fans want a 'Red Mile', but it hasn't been organized yet.

That may soon change. The Ottawa Citizen is saying a Sens fan group on Facebook is trying to organize a celebration at Elgin and MacLaren if the Senators win tonight. Link

And in case you're wondering or bored, here's links to a few more Sens facebook groups (you'll need a facebook account to get in):
Canada Suports the Ottawa Senators
God Red!
BE RED (Sens Playoff Run 2007!)

Posted by Paul McGrath at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Google is censoring some satellite images. This wiki page lists places on Google Maps which have had their imagery blurred out. It's an odd list, some are high profile locations, and others seem mundane, the Rochester airport for instance, or William Hurt's house. I'm guessing some of these have been blurred out by request.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

This week the Pentagon announced it was banning a bunch of web sites on its networks including Myspace and Youtube. The Pentagon said the sites posed a: "significant operational security challenge."

Ironically the U.S. military itself has a channel on Youtube. How they will post videos there now is a mystery, but anyway here's a video from the site:

If you're having trouble playing this it may be because you're a member of the U.S. military.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Black Heart Magazine made a Voki for George. Voki's are avatars that you can marry with an audio file and get them to 'voice' it. This is George urging you fight AIDS.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week, we had a guy named Richard Dawkins on the program. Richard Dawkins is arguably the world's most famous atheist. Well, you guys really liked the interview. It got 25,000 hits on our website, and a tons of comments on this blog.

One of those comments was from Mark Regis. He says:

"Dawkins' atheist perspective has interesting insights. If you want to hear a reasoned Christian response to him, check out Dr. Alister McGrath also of Oxford University, a scientist and former atheist."

So, we looked into it and decided to have Alister McGrath on the show. McGrath was born in Ireland, in Belfast - a politically charged and religiously violent city. He used to be a staunch atheist. He studied math, physics and chemistry and later became a scientist at Oxford University.

Then, his life took an unlikely turn. He got into theology, became religious. He was ordained a priest. And now, he writes about faith and religion. And he's got a real beef with the ideas of that famous atheist, Richard Dawkins. Alister McGrath's latest book is called: "The Dawkins Delusion: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine." Watch the interview tonight on The Hour.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

Michael Buble is on the show tonight. I'd never sat down and watched an interview with Buble until today, and I must say he's funny, charming, and a very natural entertaining guy. He's got a great story about meeting the late Aaron Spelling. Watch it tonight on the show, it's funny.

Also for you fans out there, there's a couple more pictures after the jump. Click the permalink button below.

These two shots are of George and Michael chatting before shooting the show opening.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin Short was on the show the other day, and I just noticed this little bit of comedic gold when I was going through the pictures.

After being introduced and shaking George's hand, he sniffed his hand. What a quick and funny little joke. You can watch the bit on Youtube here.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Neatorama has a link to a cool site called flickrvision. It's a map of the world that turns out a constant stream of photos as they get uploaded to flickr. Check it out.

Posted by Nick McCabe at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We were having a few laughs in the office over this site. It's called Ask Peter. You can use it to convince your friends that their computer is alive. Check it out.

• make sure to type a period in the box first,
• then you can type in any message you want get 'Ask Peter' to spit out,
• the site masks your message with the text: "Peter, please answer the following question:"
• then type in your viewable question and hit enter.
• It will look like the computer is alive.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Myspace's founder Tom Anderson is coming on the show on Monday. Myspace is one of the most popular site on the internet. Tom Anderson alone has 140 million friends.

Now I know tons of people love it, and it's helped out lots of bands, but I hate myspace. I just can't get over the horribly designed pages.

So in honour of Tom Anderson coming on the show on Monday, let's have a little contest. The top five most horribly designed myspace pages. Send in your favourites, we'll post the results on the blog here on Monday.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and presidential candidate, was on the show on Thursday. David Newland took this remarkable picture of him in the green room. I've searched around on the internet for Ralph Nader shots, and this is one of the best I've seen.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been twenty years since Dinosaur Jr. released their first album, now they're back together and touring again. The new album is called Beyond. George has been listening to it the last few days and he's really liking it. You can listen to it on their web site. Their Canadian tour dates are also posted there.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

The CBC has launched a Youtube channel. It's at www.youtube.com/cbc. There's not a lot there right now, but I expect they'll be moving clips over as Google winds down Google video. It would be great if they posted clips from the CBC's archives, like this one.

And yes, in case you're wondering The Hour also has a youtube channel, it's here www.youtube.com/thehour

Posted by Paul McGrath at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

You guys know Kevin Sites right? He's that guy who's got the best job in the word? Sites travels to conflict zones and gets paid to video blog about it. He broke a big story a while back about an alleged shooting by U.S. troops of an unarmed man in an Iraqi mosque. Anyway he's got a cool list of all the gear he uses when he's out there takin' care of business. Check it out.

Posted by Nick McCabe at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We hear about suicide bombings all the time, but rarely hear what it's like being the victim of one. Tonight on The Hour we have a powerful interview with Kinneret Boosany.

Boosany was attacked by a suicide bomber in 2001, but unlike many victims, she beat the odds and survived. Here's an excerpt of an interview she did with Kevin Sites:

You only survive to live. You didn't care if you have legs, no legs, no eye, no skin. You don't care, as long as I'm alive. That's what matters. But as much as you start to come back to reality, which unfortunately reality is the material world. It's worship the money, worship the body. It becomes more confusing, hard, difficult... How will I do it? How will I manage in the house? How will I find, you know, a partner? Or whatever. How will I get a job? What will I do? But in the beginning that's the beautiful thing. It doesn't matter...

I'm more happy with the person I am today than I was before the bombing.

KS: You're happier now? Why?

KINNERET: I'm more peaceful. More calm. Less need to look around for stuff elsewhere. Now if I feel a lack of something I know I need to go into me. Not there. It's all inside.

The photo was taken by Shirley Barenholz

Posted by Paul McGrath at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Richard Dawkins was on the show Monday night. In case you don't know him, Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and the controversial author behind the book 'The God Delusion.'

Dawkins doesn't mince words. He's the world's most prominent atheist and says belief in God is irrational. He says religion has caused tons of harm to society, from the crusades to 9/11. He once said: "I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." Here is a famous clip of Dawkins describing God:

Dawkins recently issued an athiest's call to arms to fight the incursion of religion in politics and education. It was a controversial conversation. Watch it here on The Hour.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (64) | TrackBacks (0)

Last Monday an exhibit featuring photographer Chris Jordan's work opened in Second Life. The exhibit is called Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait, and it features works like this:

If you go to the exhibit in Second Life you'll see that there's more to this art than first appears. All of the photographs are made from consumer waste products.

There are 106,000 pop cans in the above photo, which is the number of cans used in the U.S. every thirty seconds.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I for one am glad to see that the Ontario government took the step to ban its employees from using Facebook while at work. Dalton McGuinty actually makes a very good point when he says that Facebook may have value as a social networking site, but it doesn't add value at work. (Unless amassing "friends" and "poking" people somehow adds value?) I'm wondering whether CBC will be next. According to Tod Maffin's site , there are 1,145 CBC employees on Facebook. That probably adds up to a lot of wasted time. Facebook says "we're puzzled by the Ontario government's decision to restrict access to Facebook. We are in contact with provincial officials and hope the situation will be resolved quickly." Puzzled? Really?

Posted by Julie List at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

I saw a video once of some goats who had a weird genetic flaw. They fainted when startled. Well it turns out that Fainting Goats come from Tennessee. So we went to visit Leon Oliver at his farm where he raises Fainters and other animals.

That little guy I'm holding is just three days old. He's still too little to faint. Leon says they start fainting at about three weeks of age. He also said that for the last three years they've been holding a Fainting Goats day in Marshall County. That's where Fainting Goats come from. Watch the story of the fainting goats tonight on The Hour.

Posted by Nick McCabe at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday the most popular social bookmarking on the internet was engulfed by a full scale revolt.

It all started when users got suspicious about submissions they'd made dissapearing off the site. The stories were on an HD-DVD encryption hack that bypasses the copy protection. Yestreday Digg CEO Jay Adelson tried to explain the deletions, saying they'd been served with a cease and desist notice.

Once the Digg community read his post they went nuts and flooded the site with stories on the encryption hack. Digg's administrators were left in quandry: either they could delete the hack stories and ban most of the their users, or they could fight the cease desist notice.

Last night Digg co-founder Kevin Rose posted another entry on the Digg blog. They are going to fight the cease and desist notice. "If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying," he says.

Posted by Paul McGrath at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)