So, as it turns out, there actually IS a video cast for everything…

This one in particular struck me as rather decent. Is it corny? You bet. Do they have shockingly high production values? No. On the other hand, they don’t spend too much time with imaginary “hooks” that have nothing to do with their content, and I give them credit for that (There’s some stupid-popular podcast out there… I think it’s called “French Maid TV” or something. Arguably, they’re a technology show; but the fake, thick french accents and scantily-clad women act as more of a draw and distraction than anything else; so far as I can tell).

The segment length for this actually felt about right - they weren’t squeezing too hard to get everything in, and at the same time they didn’t seem to be getting bored with it and having to throw in too much filler.

I wonder if this isn’t going to be the way of educational or informative media - a selection of 5 minute videos. Imagine a situation where you get the top 10 headlines in 30 second segments, then you can select a few topics to get a full grounding in. You’re probably getting as much or more value out of that as you would out of a 1 hour newscast (I’ve seen the noontime newscast for this region… they clearly don’t have enough things to fill the hour…) but it’s probably done and settled within 20 minutes. How many people really understand what’s going on when you hear, “another flare-up between Israel and Palestine occurred today” - in a longer newscast it’s just a headline, but if they had 5 minutes to devote to the topic they’d at least be able to put it into some level of perspective.

From a broadcaster perspective, it would let you know exactly what stories are of interest to particular groups or regions. Imagine being able to tell your advertisers, “This story targets 18-25 year old males in the KW Region”. This level of particularistic focus just isn’t possible if all you can see is who is tuning into the 1 hour show. I suppose it’s the Google focus - instead of showing you a lot of advertisements, they try and show you that one perfect ad that will really motivate you. That dream gets a lot closer when you know what eyeballs you’re reaching.

What will it take to make this happen? An infrastructure of TV boxes capable of on-demand media (which is happening now) and buy-in from traditional broadcasters (like it or not, it’s the traditional broadcasters which are capable of putting together high quality material day in and day out).

What do people think? Am I way off-base, predicting the end of the 1 hour newscast?

So, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is willing to pass a motion that urges municipalities to no longer sell bottled water in public facilities.

I disagree that this is the way to go about it. I think such a process should start at the top - show up to a few council meetings and see what councilors are drinking. I’d wager that, a lot of the time, it’s bottled water.

I also think that any municipality that so much as considers banning water in public facilities should be required to put up a water fountain beside every pop machine with a spout to fill up reusable bottles (the Student Life Center here has one; and it’s really convenient - no more half-filling your bottle as it’s tipped over; and no more waiting for 10 minutes while the guy in front of you futzes around with his bottle).

If you had a water fountain beside every pop machine, I think instantly you’d see more people showing up with water from home; and most of the people who are walking up to the machine to get something cold would probably say, “Oh, why not just take a sip of free water?”.

As it is now, trying to find a drink in most buildings open to the public is like some horrible game of Where’s Waldo. I was in the Metro Toronto Convention Center just recently, and there simply were no water fountains available; and even in the washrooms they had those automatic taps that only dispense warm water. The only cold, free water available was in the toilets. In such a situation, why would anyone bring a reusable bottle from home? You’ve got to lug it around indefinitely and once you’ve drank it all you STILL have to lug it around.

Guarantee water will be available; and people will start drinking it. You can’t make buckets of money from pop machines by denying people water fountains, then cry foul when people start buying bottled water.

Crap. When I came back home from my 3 day trip; I found a visitor on my kitchen counter:

Man, I hate ants. I just put down some ant traps; I hope it works - I just don’t have any idea where they’re coming from.

Anyone have any success with the “Raid” style traps? Do they actually work?

Probably the most impressive water tower I’ve ever seen resides in Kingston:

I’ve been putting out bird feed for a while now - for the sparrows and the squirrels. Then I found some particularly unimpressive partakers: .

Stupid geese.

Deep inside a food manufacturing company…

Manager: “Hey, you know that cheese in a jar stuff? I think they call it…” Lawyer: “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Don’t say it!” Manager: “Don’t say what? Cheese W…” Lawyer: “I don’t make the rules - I’m just here to be paranoid about ‘em” Manager: “Well, what will we call it, then? We need something that says, ‘straight from your childhood; but tasty and cheaper’… maybe we can get ‘organic’ in there somewhere?” Marketing Douche: “No worries man, I’ve got the perfect name - whimsical but grounded; edgy but familiar.” Manager: “Allright, get it to me for approvals by Friday” Marketing Douche: “No way man! Art takes fucking time, there’s no way I can go through the approvals process - I’ll submit it directly to the manufacturer” Manager: “Allright, there’s no way this can possibly go wrong”

It’s got all the flair of an industrial park; including all the reminders of its entirely artificial qualities.