Cutting edge Canadian media

Seems our neighbors to the north are pretty tech savvy. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation last month became the world's first broadcaster to partner with blog search giant Technorati. The CBC's Web site features a new section, which highlights the news stories generating the most buzz from among the 86 million blogs tracked by Technorati. And in May the CBC created an initiative with FaceBook called the Great Canadian Wish List (See my post from June 18).

I haven't seen much like it here in the state. Go figure, eh.

A sick stragety for covering up "Sicko"

Michael Moore's latest documentary "Sicko" takes on HMOs and the sorry state of health care in the United States. Another thing that makes me ill, in addition to the condition of our health care, is Google and its attempts to inoculate the health care industry against this movie -- for a fee of course.

According to Boingboing.net:

Google's "Health Advertising Team" is trying to sell the health industry on buying ads to be shown opposite searches for "Sicko." The idea is to counter Michael Moore's amazing, enraging, must-see indictment of the health industry's grip on American society by running ads over search results for Sicko.

Another approach would be to reform the practices that Moore criticises in the film -- for example, refusing to pay for an insured individual's surgery because she didn't mention a 15-year-old yeast infection on her application; denying MRIs to patients with brain tumors; and paying medical directors bonuses for denying claims.

But why make your customers healthier -- at shareholder expense -- when you can just give money to Google to FUD and astroturf the issue?