"The Tavis Smiley Show"

The Tavis Smiley Show, which concluded December 2004 when Smiley chose not to renew his NPR contract, is back on public radio. This time, his show is distributed by PRI (Public Radio International).

Knitted Digestive System

Oh my God, I just saw a link to this from Boing Boing and had to link to it here. It’s a knitted digestive system!

Made by craftster user “arrmatie”

You can also get plush microbes from ThinkGeek.com.

They come in pimple, syphillis, gonorrhea, flesh eating disease, bad breath, common cold, flu, HIV, mono, sore throat, stomach ache, ulcer, beer yeast, ebola and bookworm. Aww …

"WAL-MART" Documentary to Be Released

“Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs” has been a popular article to e-mail this week on the New York Times Web site. Which reminds me that the documentary “WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price” will be released the second week of November. The film is directed by Robert Greenwald, who also made “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” (which I haven’t seen). What I find exciting about “WAL-MART” is that it’s coming out on DVD, and Greenwald is encouraging people to host screenings in their towns. According to the screening list on the movie’s official Web site, “WAL-MART” will be shown in churches, schools, cafes and living rooms across the country. You can sign up to host a screening or register to attend one through the movie’s Web site.

Robert’s Snow for Cancer Research

If you live in Boston, you might want to attend the 2005 kickoff of Robert’s Snow. Robert’s Snow was founded by my friend Alice‘s sister, Grace, and Grace’s husband Robert, a two-time cancer survivor. Their campaign seeks to raise money for cancer research through the auctioning off of wooden snowflakes decorated by children’s book illustrators. Last year, artists such as Marc Brown (creator of Arthur), Ian Falconer (Olivia) and Chris Van Allsburg (The Polar Express) contributed snowflakes to the campaign. (Grace herself is a children’s book author and illustrator.)

For more information about the campaign, please visit http://www.robertssnow.com. The 2005 campaign kickoff will take place next Thursday, Nov. 3, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Locco Ritoro Gallery in Boston. The 200 snowflakes that will be auctioned off this year will be on display at the gallery. You can RSVP for the event on the Robert’s Snow Web site.

If you can’t attend the kickoff, you can still view this year’s snowflakes on the Robert’s Snow Web site. And, of course, you can bid on a snowflake or snowflakes. They will be auctioned off on eBay beginning Sunday, Nov. 6 (link TK on Robert’s Snow).

On Michelle Wie’s Disqualification

On this week’s edition of On the Media, they discussed the controversy surrounding Wie’s disqualification from her first tournament as a pro. Thought it was worth mentioning because it concerns an ethical dilemma faced by a journalist. More on this later.

I’ve also uploaded the photos that I took at the anti-war march in Washington, D.C., last month. You can view them at my Flickr site.