Several weeks ago I wrote about a radio documentary I co-produced in 1989 called The Emotions of Activism.

I’ve digitized another of the raw interviews I taped for the documentary, this one with Richard Hamilton.

I met Richard for the first time on the same day I met Ken Hone. Richard, like Kenny, was one of the instigators of Projects for Change, and through that group we became friends. Several years later, after I had moved to Texas and Montreal, and then back to Peterborough, Richard was one of my roommates in a big house on George Street. Catherine was my next-door neighbour. The rest is history.

Richard is a straight-talking, no-nonsense guy who came by his activism honestly.

The tape is unedited from the original. As an added bonus, you can hear my old dog Penny barking in the background about half way through.

If you can find the raw video of Michael Moore’s question and answer session post-Oscar, watch it. He’s a well-spoken advocate of ideas that run contrary to just about anything you’ll see and hear on CNN.

I just stumbled upon the CBC’s Content Retention Policy. It says, in part:

In order to provide added value to its radio and television programs offering, CBC carries online elements of some of its radio and television programs. The purpose of online material retention is only to ease consultation by Internet users and not to set up nor to provide archives, unless when explicitly stated.

This is a shame, because to make the jump from “handy reference” to “valuable national news archive” would be so easy.

Compare this to the BBC’s description of its own website:

It launched in November 1997 and has since published approaching one and a half million full multi-media news pages, all but a handful of which are still available from the site’s search engine (top right of almost every page).

Why is Deepak Chopra writing about golf? To quote from the description of Golf for Enlightenment:

But Golf for Enlightenment is also an engrossing story about Adam, an Everyman who is playing a terrible round of golf when he meets a mysterious young teaching pro named Leela. In seven short but profound lessons detailing spiritual strategies, she teaches Adam the essence of a game that has much to explain about life itself.

Personally I’ve always thought that all golfers should be exiled to Australia. If they’re going to get all spiritual about it, on top of everything else, we might have to accelerate this program.

In a move that has stunned even conservative pundits, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer today announced that, effective immediately, communications activities related to the White House will be taken over by AOL Time Warner.

“We realize this may appear to be an unusual move,” said Fleischer, “however we feel that the synergies that this arrangement affords us both are simply too attractive to pass up.”

Don Logan, Chairman of AOL Time Warner’s Media & Communications Group, echoed Fleischer’s sentiments: “We believe in the mission of the White House, and I think we’ve been effectively communicating that through our vertical markets for some time now. This new arrangement is simply the next logical step for us both.”

In a hastily assembled news conference at the newly christened “Jack Warner West Wing Press Dome,” Fleischer and Logan briefed members of the press on the specifics of the outsourcing agreement.

More details as they are revealed.

A priceless story of diplomacy from Rob Paterson. Rob’s weblog has undergone a dramatic turn in the past 24 hours, best summarized by “more Rob, fewer links.” That’s a Good Thing.

You can now purchase Mott’s Natural Style Apple Juice at the Atlantic Superstore (but not at Sobeys) in Charlottetown. It’s 100% juice, not from concentrate. The difference between this apple juice and regular old apple juice is analogous to the difference in orange juice between drinking Old South and drinking Tropicana. It’s great stuff.

While on the subject of Tropicana: pay attention when buying their products. While their orange juice is not-from-concentrate, many of their juice blends, which come in similar packages and are sold in the same area, are from concentrate.

Interesting historical note: Tropicana used to be a unit of Seagram Co., controlled by the Bronfman family. The Bronfmans funded the CRB Foundation Heritage Project, and one of the projects funded by the Foundation was the National Heritage Fair. When the Fair was held here in Charlottetown in 1995, the Word Came Down from On High that the cafeteria needed to provide only Tropicana-brand juices to the participants.

Here is an old page about the 1995 Heritage Fair season. The map of PEI was ripped directly from www.gov.pe.ca. I know this because it was one of the first graphics created for the site. It’s an ugly mottled map. And for a while you could find everyone and their uncle ripping it off to use on their websites. Thankfully, better tools, and better maps. came along, and this outpost is one of the few places the map remains.

I’ve been hearing all about some technique called “shaqinaw” for the past two days on television. I assumed it was some technical term, perhaps coined by General Shaqinaw of the Cavalry, to describe a way of attacking the enemy.

It wasn’t until I read it in print that I realized the term is “shock and awe,” which is described as:

…necessary effects arising from application of military power… aimed at destroying the will of an adversary to resist.

That, apparently, is what the Big Bombs will be used to inflict on the people of Iraq.

I take back what I said about the CBC’s war coverage earlier today: I’ve just watched The National, and they had some of their best reporting ever, and certainly the best reporting on The War I’ve seen anywhere. I could still do without Mansbridge, and the talking “retired military officer” heads, but reporters like Adrienne Arsenault are doing a fine job.

Just for the record, the last company on earth I would ever purchase a subscription anti-virus service from is Aliant. They are currently spamming their High Speed Internet customers with a subscription offer. Why would I trust a company that can’t calculate my cell phone bill properly with the security of my computer?