Freyburg

Ouch. Not pretty, and it has a ring of snarky truth about it. Not that Gawker’s ever been known for sunshine and lollipops, mind you.

Vice Magazine is a snarky and somewhat pretentious rag that’s funny for about ten minutes, but gradually becomes annoying after you’ve read the tenth faux-rebellious article about hipsters or some band you’ve never heard of, wedged up against an ad for some expensive perfume. VBS.TV, Vice’s video arm, VBS.TV, is a different beast entirely, with great documentaries that delve into the world’s hot spots and go past the usual surface gloss of the Six O’Clock News (no surprise there, since no-one under 40 watches the nightly news anymore.) This report on the gun markets of Pakistan is particularly decent.

Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek’s resident smart foreign policy guy. has a corker of an article about what the world will be like once developing economies like India, China and Russia all develop to the point where they equal or surpass the United States. This will be a turning point in history, Zakaria says, and he’s right. It’s inevitable that the US won’t be on the top forever, and Zakaria remains hopeful that the transition will be somewhat peaceful. It’s all excerpted from his new book, “The Post-American World,” due out in May.

The New Yorker has a great article up about the dire straits the newspaper industry finds itself in, and how they can best move past what is clearly a dying business model.

The New Music Express has alternatively championed and derided every major form of music to come out of the UK since the 1970s, but according the Time of London, the august tome might finally due to expire. Meanwhile, music critics surprisingly hate the artists beloved by the public, and vice versa.

Today on the Lab with Leo I did a segment about refilling ink cartridges. Throughout the course of the day magenta ink spread from my workstation to pretty much everyone and everything in the station. My hand took the brunt of the inky assault, as you can see here….

…but mostly at Techvibes, so go check out my wordsmithing over there.

And with that Variety-esque headline, here’s a story abut how the Washington Post (paper version) and the washingtonpost.com (series of tubes) don’t get along all that well. I’m not privy to the WashPo as a paper, but I know the website is doing good work on the net, including a heavy emphasis on video.

I don’t often put work related stuff on the blog, but I figured it’s probably a good idea to show what I’ve been up to for the last little while. First, here’s a promo I cut together for Chow Restaurant (through Industryblender.com):

Second, I’m continuing to do video work for Urban Mixer TV:

And third, I just started Monday at a new full-time gig as the Tech Content Producer at “The Lab with Leo“, a technology show that airs on CityTV and Tech TV here in Canada. I’ll be finding guests, creating segments, reviewing gadgets, and appearing alongside Leo Laporte as one of his co-hosts. The shooting schedule is structured in such a way that you won’t see any on-air appearances from me for a couple of months yet, but stay on the lookout for your favorite bald, Doctor Who loving nerd.

update: Here’s an excerpt from the show, also starring Kris Krug, Vancouver tech renaissance man.

Good news everyone! (said like Professor Farnsworth) The Atlantic, one of the best magazines in print, is finally tearing down its paywall. Presumably they did the math and figured they’d get more out of advertising than they would from charging people to read the site, but no matter what the reason for the change, I’m happy to report their excellent articles are now free for the reading.