Radio-Canada.ca: Dans les entrailles d’un Québec disparu
Intéressant de voir autant d’événements liés à l’archéologie au Québec. Un engouement?
Qui sait, ce genre d’événement peut encore augmenter le nombre d’inscriptions en anthropologie…

Wired News: Gore’s Webby TV Network Debuts
Sounds a bit like ZeD. One of the advantages of ZeD is that it’s online community is rather active and artists do seem to submit their stuff.
The whole TV vs. ‘Net issue is still unraveling. With broadband, digital video recording, good compression schemes for video (H.264 looks pretty cool) and, maybe, new business models, online video content is becoming quite enticing. At the same time, television content has shifted away from some of the older formats such as daytime soaps and “sitcoms,” putting more emphasis on contests and “reality shows.” In such a context, personalised video content, vlogging (video blogging), and art videos may eventually make their way to mainstream television.

The World Today – Montreal: a tale of two cities

The only problem is actually working out where I am. I’ve been working for about 10 minutes and I’m too ashamed of my French to ask anybody. None of the signs seem to make much sense either.

En fait, il aurait probablement pu demander en anglais…

Jon Stewart interviews Rick Santorum
From the perspective of a cultural anthropologist, some intriguing bits in that interview, including interpretations of the history of “natural marriage” and notions of the State’s involvement in people’s lives.
A lucky thing is that despite a wide gap in point of view (which we might be able to intepret throught the so-called “Culture Wars”) the participants in the interview managed to hold a respectful honest debate. Nice to see such a thing, even if it has to come from a fake news show.

Playlist: Apple changes podcast rankings
Thing is, the very notion of ranking podcasts (or voting for them) seems to run against one of podcasting’s most interesting feature, related to the Long Tail principle. Specialized podcasts with few subscribers are as much part of the “success story” as those so-called “mainstream podcasts” which often attempt to mimmic the ways attitudes of mainstream radio from the US.
When you add the problem with bandwidth for small popular podcasts, it seems that being an obscure podcast only catering to a few like-minded people is the way to go as opposed to having the podcast with the most buzz.
Oh, but, yes, right, they’re thinking in this mindframe of eyeballs and eardrums. “The more listeners you get, the better your advertising revenues will be.” “What? Don’t have advertising yet? Well, this is your chance, got a great deal for you!” Talk about reification…

The Register: Olive conducts Symphony for classical music fans
Quite interesting concept. Let’s hope it doesn’t deceive and/or that other companies will offer similar products.
Was talking to a composer friend a couple of months ago about audio technology and sound quality. It can be a fascinating subject.
“Fidelity” or audio quality isn’t simply about “resolution” (as in sampling rate and bit depth). Fans of Western Art Music are probably more likely than other music listeners to be attracted to this type of technology but not all audiophiles are restricted to Western Art Music.
There might be a more general principle about taste, these days. Refinement in taste that doesn’t necessarily go with condescension. Actually, open-mindedness and refined taste can make a very powerful mix. In music, in food, in life.