I hope you will get a chance to take a look at
this afternoon's Poynter Online centerpiece, which I wrote after listening to Canada's "Big Three" TV news anchors.
While in Vancouver teaching at the RTNDA Canada convention over the weekend, I sat in on a unique panel discussion that included the three most recognizable faces in Canadian media.
They talked frankly about the future of TV news, the future of the evening newscast, their dislike of reporting about polls and the effect Katie Couric has had on Canada's chances of seeing a female main news anchor in the future.
UnderwaterTimes.com published a warning from the FBI telling dive shops and trainers to be alert to people who are asking for training or equipment that could be used by bad guys.
The alert says some of the suspicious activities include:
Requests for specialty training, including odd inquiries that are inconsistent with recreational diving. These may include:
Requests to dive in murky water or sewer pipes.
Inquires about procedures such as diver towing.
Requests to learn advanced skills associated with combat swimming, including:
Use of re-breathers and diver propulsion vehicles (DPVs).
Deep diving.
Conducting kick counts.
Receiving extra navigation training.
Requests for advanced diver training by applicants from countries where diving is not a common recreational activity. Similarly, training sponsored by groups or agencies such as religious organizations, cults, associations, or charitable agencies not normally associated with diving.
Potentially Suspicious Equipment Purchases or Rentals
Volume purchasing inquires related to Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDVs) and Diver Propulsion Vehicles (DPVs). SDVs are very expensive vehicles normally used for specialized military purposes, and usually are not available to recreational divers. Efforts to purchase DPVs, the more commonly available civilian counterpart to SDVs, could be associated with extending the range or payload capacity or a combat swimmer team.
Errant Golf Shots Increasingly Ping HomesThe New York Times has a fun story about how new golf equipment enables golfers, even bad ones, to hit longer shots. Increasingly those shots are crashing through the windows of homes built alongside the courses. The story reports:
The intersection of errant golf shots and private property is not a new phenomenon. But with new gear that enables average golfers to hit a ball 250 yards, and with golf communities sprouting nationwide -- 70 percent of new courses include housing -- it is becoming an increasingly prominent problem. Most homes built near this country's 16,000 golf courses may not be in the cross hairs of slicing duffers, but thousands are.
"It's not only an ongoing problem, it's been made worse by technologically advanced golf equipment that makes golf balls go farther -- and farther sideways," said David Mulvihill, a managing director at the
Urban Land Institute, who has studied golf course development.
"So homes that have been on a golf course for decades without incident are suddenly in the path of guys whacking giant-headed drivers. The golf course designers are trying to adjust with wider fairway corridors, but because of liability issues, no one is willing to put on paper what the acceptable setbacks are."
Simple Fix for Slow Grocery LinesWhole Foods has found a simple solution -- do what banks do. Create one line and feed many checkout counters. That way there is never a slow line.
See the story and the proof.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
If anyone is following up on this, it would be...
