CNW is taking the step -- and it's one that bloggers and users of various social software tools, like Facebook, Twitter and the like, may find useful. It just launched a service called "Social Media Release" that builds on a traditional press release by providing audio and visual materials in addition to harnessing various social software tools that let users annotate, share, and build on the information provided by the CNW client...   more »

CBC reports that watermelon in northern Labrador is going for $55 a melon. Honest.

Scotia Capital economist Adrienne Warren takes a look at some recent residential real estate data from both Canada and the U.S. She says the crisis in the U.S. appears to moderating although she's not ready to call an end to the housing downturn there.... The volume of homes for sale in Canada’s resale market has also been moving up, and combined with softer demand, has lifted the national ratio of new listings to sales from an average of 1.6 in 2007 to 2.0 in June.... There are significant regional differences,however, with new-listings-to-sales ratios in several of Canada’s previously hottest markets, including Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver, now favouring home buyers, with greater inherent downside price risk.

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Why, just this morning, Jim Flaherty, the federal Finance Minister and a sworn enemy of paying for anything remotely resembling a boondogle, just cut a $460,000 cheque, on behalf of his colleague Josée Verner, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, to the Textile Museum of Canada. The Textile Museum of Canada will use this $460,000 to create a section on its Web site called "In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture, and Art." "Canadians have made tremendous contributions to the arts, especially in the area of textiles, and now our rich culture and history will be proudly on display for all to see," said Flaherty in a press release announcing the contribution. Heritage Canada says "this site will engage people of all ages in exploring our rich cultural diversity through textiles.

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The Conservative government, though it committed to From the Times' article: A growing array of military leaders, Arctic experts and lawmakers say the United States is losing its ability to patrol and safeguard Arctic waters even as climate change and high energy prices have triggered a burst of shipping and oil and gas exploration in the thawing region.... Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, who toured Alaska’s Arctic shores two weeks ago with the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, said that whatever mix of natural and human factors is causing the ice retreats, the Arctic is clearly opening to commerce — and potential conflict and hazards — like never before.

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Most often Health Canada and other federal regulators of the foods and drugs used in this country take their approvals cue from the larger, better-funded U.S. Food and Drug Administration.... Now, the Washington Post reports today that the U.S. FDA has chimed in and declared BPA to pose no threat to human health: FDA Draft Report: No Risk From BPA In Food Containers Some stores are stocking water bottles that do not contain bisphenol A (BPA), one of the most widely used synthetic chemicals. A controversial chemical commonly found in can linings, baby bottles and other household products does not pose a health hazard when used in food containers, according to a draft assessment released by the Food and Drug Administration yesterday.

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And my colleague Liz Thompson has the pic to prove it.

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Here's the first: Jayson Myers, the president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), had a meeting on July 3, two days after the new reporting requirement kicked in, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his Public Works Minister Christian Paradis, and International Trade Minister Michael Fortier.... Individual companies pay a fee to belong to his organization -- they have more than a few thousand members who, collectively, account for 90 per cent of Canada's exports and 75 per cent of Canada's manufacturing capacity --- and at annual or regional conferences, Jay will spend a lot of time making sure that members understand the value they're getting by staying signed up with his organization.... Note to self: Next time you talk to Buzz, ask him why, with the auto industry crumbling about us, he chose to talk to the prime minister about aboriginal affairs rather than those dastardly foreign imports that are ruining it for Ford, Chrysler and GM.

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David writes how it took five months for DND to respond to one of his questions and the response essentially consisted of pointing him to a web link on DND's site.... The new director of communication (no 's' on that) is Kory Teneycke and, in the four weeks or so he's been on the job, he's demonstrated that he's taking a significantly different path in terms of control of the information disseminated by communications shops other than his own.... Still, if some associated with the military want to blame the media [John Scott Cowan, who holds a doctorate in something or other and is the current president of a defence lobby group funded by Department of National Defence, comes to mind for one of the most ignorant and vitriolic attacks on my profession, many of whom are, in fact, risking life and limb in the world's hot spots precisely to gain a better understanding of what our military men and women are facing every day....

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Defence lawyers for Omar Khadr and several other defendants in war crimes trials here at Guantanamo Naval Station in Cuba think the special military commissions process set up to try terrorism-related cases is flawed, that the rules of evidence and procedure are geared to produce wins for the prosecution.... (In fact, a report by Human Rights First, a group which opposes the Guantanamo trials, concludes that the U.S. government has had much more success in Federal Court in securing convictions in terrorism-related cases than it has using the military commissions process.).... The combination of a relatively light sentence in the Hamdan case and, now, the double-censure of a top Pentagon official charged with overseeing the whole process, has some political implications for those trying to build support for the commissions process.

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