Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Daily Archives: November 22, 2008

Organizing a Bell / Rogers Media Boycott

The CRTC recently announced that it will not take action against Bell Canada and Rogers as they throttle users of the Canadian Internet.  They have failed Canadian consumers and the thousands of small businesses and technology concerns that rely on the Internet for their success.

And this article goes so far as to question whether or not Canada’s newly emerging social media network will be able to survive such tactics.

I like to think we are beyond the tipping point and that we WILL be able to overcome this myopic view of the Internet as a cash-cow for Bell and Rogers and not a tool for the wide array of people and organizations that are actively seeking social change.

This issue requires action on behalf of all of us:

  1. Make a donation to SaveOurNet.ca
  2. Contact your MP or Finckenstein at the CRTC
  3. Track efforts to throttle your connection (a wonderful application of the social web)
  4. Update the Canadian Wiki which tracks throttling efforts
  5. Boycott any Bell or Rogers products

It’s the last option that I would like to talk about.

Bell, Rogers and other media companies don’t just deliver Internet, but they also own a wide array of publications and web sites that represent a critical source of revenue for them.

With that in mind, we all have to him them where it will really hurt:  the bottom line.

Eliminating Sympatico, TSN, CTV, MSN, Rogers magazine sites (eg. Chatelaine.com), Yahoo Canada and other affiliated sites is an easy and painless maneuvre and will send a very clear signal that we are very pissed off about this nonsense.  If you’re a buyer or planner and make decisionsof this nature, it’s as easy as deleting a line from your Excel spreadsheet.

Let’s start with this blog, but post your suggestions about the following:

  1. A full list of media properties that these companies control
  2. Products and services that you can cancel
  3. Social actions that will have the greatest impact

Thanks for your help.

Newsladder: For the info-junkies in all of us

In the US, a group called the Media Consortium has recently launched a product called ‘Newsladder ‘.

If you’re a news junkie, be careful.  There are 22 news feeds and this is likely to grow now that they’ve launched their product.  I didn’t notice a feed devoted to Canada or Canadian publishers, but I’m sure it won’t be long before there is one.  Maybe one for ProgressiveBloggers.ca ?

And if you want the speedball version:  real time feeds going to Twitter!  Click here to follow all updates with Newsladder. Phew!!  Honestly, this feels like one of the first genuine applications for Twitter that I can imagine.

What are your thoughts?

Using Melamine to Boost Protein

This site offers some background information concerning the use of melamine in foods made and delivered from China.

The ‘bottom line’ provided sums everything up nicely:

Know where your food comes from and how it’s produced. This may sound like an impossible task, and in many cases it will be. Particularly if you depend on processed and commercially farmed foods.

However, if you purchase your raw dairy , grass-fed meats , and free-range eggs from local farmers that adhere to organic farming practices, you can eliminate much of these worries since their livestock must be put out to pasture and eat what God intended for most part of the year, instead of relying on potentially contaminated animal feed.

This reference page contains links to a long list of organizations that can help you find local sources for high quality organic foods.

In other words, when shopping for food, always ask these three questions:

  1. Why should I trust any food from China?
  2. Why should I purchase any food that has been processed?
  3. Why would I buy anything but food from people I know?

As the author admits, there are obvious challenges to these questions.  Sometimes, people simply need basic processed food to get them through a busy day.  I appreciate that because we’re all time-pressed.  And getting to know everyone on your food supply chain?  Pretty much impossible, isn’t it?

Well, I think it’s worth the effort when faced the risk of being poisoned for profit.