1 DON’T TALK TO THE RACISTS IF YOU VALUE YOUR JOB. Meteorologist Rhonda Lee was fired from her job at a Louisiana TV station after responding to someone who complained about her hair. Lee responded with an interesting, measured comment about hair and how it affects the lives of African-American women. It was informative, thought-provoking and respectful, but it violated company policy so they fired her.
2 BACTERIAL CULTURE MEETS CORPORATE CULTURE MEETS INTERNET CULTURE. Once upon a time, Loblaws sold YoPRO Yogurt Bars. Then they stopped selling YoPRO. And then they came out with a product that YoPRO creators Amanda House and Chris Delaney found suspiciously similar to their product. So they put a video up on YouTube, explaining their plight and embarrassing Loblaws mightily in the process. And lo, Galen Weston has granted them an audience.
3 THE GUARDIAN REALIZES THAT FACEBOOK SUCKS. In 2011, UK newspaper The Guardian launched an experiment in leveraging the power of social media to drive traffic to their site, creating a mini-version of their paper embedded in a Facebook page. It worked for a while, until they realized that they were beholden to Facebook’s capricious algorithms. They wised up and shut it down.
4 A EULOGY FOR OCCUPY, OR MAYBE AN AUTOPSY. Quinn Norton, aka everyone’s favourite journalist named Quinn, wrote an excellent analysis of the Occupy movement. Read it.
5 PROOF THAT PETITIONS WORK. A petition calling for construction of a real, honest-to-sithness Death Star has reached 25,000 signatures – which means that the White House must respond within 30 days. See, kids? Democracy works if you want it to.
6 WE GENEROUS FEW. Saskatchewan is the 3rd most generous province in Canada. Right behind Prince Edward Island! But we’re better than PEI in so many other ways, so don’t let this news trouble you.