We finally posted a couple new shows today at BlogosphereRadio.com. The first is an interview with Wayne Hurlbert of Blog Business World. I meant to post it a long time ago, but you know how it goes – apologies Wayne! The second new show was recorded this afternoon and is a Blogosphere News episode, so check that out too.

Listen to Blogging With…Wayne Hurlbert
Listen to We’re Back!

Megan and I have looked at the details for our trip to Northern Voice in February and we want to get everything booked and confirmed relatively quickly. So if we have talked to you about making the trip with us, please let us know whether or not you are coming by Wednesday, January 26th.

And if you do decide to come, make sure you register for the conference. I should add a countdown script or something on here, I am getting excited!

An earthquake off Japan’s east coast has prompted a tsunami warning:

A tsunami warning was issued for a group of islands south of Tokyo after a strong earthquake off Japan’s eastern coast on Wednesday, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said. A magnitude 6.8 earthquake, the focus of which was about 6.2 miles below the seabed in the Pacific Ocean struck at around 3:11 p.m. (1:11 a.m. EST), the agency said.

Mother nature sure is upset lately!

Read: Reuters

And you thought the weather was warming up lately!

This is from a screenshot I took this afternoon of my website. On the left side I have a weather control from Weather Underground, and normally it is fairly accurate. Looks like some data was coming in funny from the Weather Underground service.

I found it rather amusing 🙂

The big news in Canadian hockey recently is that Sidney Crosby has decided not to attend the upcoming Top Prospects junior game, citing an injury and general fatigue. Lots of people are disappointed, but Crosby’s family, the head of the Canadian Hockey League, and the commissioner of the Quebec Junior League in which Crosby plays have all confirmed that Sidney is injured and disappointed that he cannot make the game.

Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo has been very vocal, calling Crosby’s move a “knock on the game”. He also felt that Crosby would play if the game were in Montreal or Toronto instead of Vancouver, and offered first class airfare and accomodations for Crosby and his family, which they declined. Toigo needs to relax. If Crosby and these other important people are saying he’s injured, he probably is. Would you want to play injured in a game where everyone else is going to be sizing you up and wanting to prove themselves against the number one prospect in North America? I don’t think so, the chances of making the injury worse are just too great.

Surprisingly, the correct comment on the situation comes from Don Cherry:

Don Cherry, who called Crosby a hotdog in his rookie season last winter, dismissed questions of the phenom’s absence. “You expect me to say a lot of things, but there are 40 guys here working their butts off to make it,” he said. “And I’d rather have the attention on those 40 guys. I don’t want to dwell on that one. I’m just going to talk about the kids who are here.”

Read: Vancouver Sun

I just finished watching the first episode of CBC’s new show, The Hour, hosted by George formerly of MuchMusic. I must say, I rather enjoyed it! George tells it like it is, and he covers the news that’s truly important, like how Canadian beer is better than American beer!

If you missed it tonight, check it out another night this week – The Hour runs every Monday through Thursday. I don’t watch that much TV, so I can’t say that I will become a faithful viewer, but I can see myself tuning in again…say tomorrow night! It also struck me while watching that George could really make this show unique for CBC – by podcasting it!

Zhao Ziyang, former leader of the Chinese Communist Party who was ousted for sympathizing with student activists at Tiananmen Square has died:

Zhao died today of “numerous respiratory and heart ailments,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a statement on its Web site. He had four sons and a daughter.

He was a rather important man, especially now that China is becoming more democratic (slowly but surely).

“Zhao was a symbol of China’s political change and transition from communism to democracy,” said Wu Guoguang, an associate professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, who wrote speeches for Zhao.

Interesting man if you read about him or if you’re interested in where China is headed.

Read: Bloomberg

In my last post on the topic, I argued that perhaps people should focus on helping out charities at home instead of donating blindly overseas. My main reasoning was that just because a country is rich does not mean it should have to donate. I also took issue with the fact that rich individuals wasted no time in throwing money overseas but they are hard-pressed to donate in Canada (or their respective countries). One such family are the owners of MusicWorld. I have been doing some more reading lately, and I have some new reasons to question the aid heading overseas. One article that sums up most of these reasons is from Economist.com, titled “A cautious offer, cautiously received.“

You have probably heard in the news that somewhere around $3.64 billion dollars (USD) has been pledged to the countries who were affected by the tsunami. What you probably have not heard, is that those same countries owe billions and billions of dollars in debt – Indonesia alone owes $48 billion to the so-called Paris Club of major lenders. In 2005, $5 billion in debt repayments were to be made, but the members of the Paris Club recently announced that they would freeze debt-repayments.

Sounds great right? But think about it for a minute. The countries in the area of the tsunami now effectively have over $8 billion dollars to play with. And yes, I mean play. Experts from around the world have already said that no more money is needed. It seems very unlikely that the amount of money that has been donated can all be spent on rebuilding. And these countries are already heavily-indebted, so who knows if they can be trusted to spend the money responsibly?

Such relief frees up resources, which a government can then devote to aid and reconstruction—or divert to anything else. Heavily indebted governments tend to be bad governments, sceptics argue. If they cannot borrow money prudently, why should we trust them to spend it well? Any money given to such countries should come with strings attached.

The only country that has indicated it will make its debt payment anyway is Thailand, and I hope that is indeed what they do. As for the other countries, like Indonesia who is ranked as the fifth most corrupt country of all countries tracked by Transparency International, the best we can hope for now is that they don’t waste the money.

Another reason that the huge amounts of aid are absurd? Remember the controversy and suggestions of fraud surrounding the UN’s oil-for-food program? Well the huge amounts of money being sent to tsunami-afflicted countries offer the perfect way for the UN to prove that it can indeed handle money transparently. So not only are there no strings attached, but the UN is eager to distance itself from the money. Perfect timing isn’t it? The one time the UN should be closely monitoring and directing money, it steps back for political purposes.

The amount of money heading overseas continues to grow, and with more benefit concerts and events coming up, it doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon. I hope the money is being spent wisely, but I won’t be surprised to see reports five years from now describing how aid money was used for other purposes.

Remember back on October when George Stroumboulopoulos was one of the people who hosted CBC’s “Greatest Canadian” show? Well apparently the move is now permanent. No longer is he George from MuchMusic, he’s George the host of the brand new CBC News: The Hour show.

CBC’s huge gain is Much’s big loss. Who knows, maybe George will even be able to make CBC hip again (or for the first time?). I think I’ll watch the show when the premiere airs tomorrow night at 6 PM MST, so already CBC is ahead!

Apparently some Canadians got together and took part in Canada For Asia. That’s nice, and I am sure there is a story there, but what I found funny was how Canoe introduced the article:

Some 150 celebrities, including the cream of Canadian show business and the arts, brought their time and talent to the CBC broadcasting centre Thursday evening to take part in Canada For Asia, a three-hour, history-making live telecast in support of relief efforts for the tsunami victims of South Asia.

Since when does Canada have that many celebrities?!