Current Affairs: August 2003 Archives

Ed Cone got an weblog-exclusive email interview with North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. It shows how much power this new P2P publishing model is gaining.

Almost 10 years after the plugged-in people of Quebec adopted it, France has embraced "courriel" as an official translation for "e-mail", a web-friendly version of the clumsy "courrier electronique" that authorities had tried to enforce. "It turns out that 'courriel' went down well here and has started being used, so we've made the abbreviation official," said Florence Desmouliere of the official French division of the Culture Ministry that helps coin new words. The use of "courriel" is now obligatory for French civil servants, but France's language gurus turned up their collective noses at some of Quebec's other offerings.

French Canadian surfers use "pourriel" for spam, mixing "poubelle" (garbage) and "electronique". Chat is "clavardage", from "clavier" (keyboard) and "bavardage" (chattering). But the arbiters of what is and isn't French have rejected these -- for the moment. "The language in Quebec is slightly more familiar than ours," explained Desmouliere. "It's different, more colourful. We like it a lot, but we don't quite have the same criteria. (Reuters)

Christopher Lydon was my favorite WGBH talk show host and despite the fact that I still listen to "The Connection", I prefered his approach. Naturally, I wondered where he was. So, today, I was pleased to find the Whole Wide World with Christopher Lydon, a seven series radio program on globalization. The project is described like this:

The Whole Wide World with Christopher Lydon decodes the riddles of the new race, the new map, the post-Cold War 21st century system known as "globalization". Through the voices of artists, economists, refugees, historians and plain folk, we created this seven-part series to encompass the trends that could kill us — viruses, habitat collapse, starvation, terrorism and war — and the technologies and cultural connections that could rescue us. Each program features voices both famous and obscure, such as that of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, psychologist Steven Pinker, novelist Zadie Smith, and prophetic political scientist Samuel P. Huntington. Our programs weave literary voices and an extraordinary range of musical texture into every hour and engage listeners in critical topics of discussion.

In addition, Chris has a weblog called "Christopher Lydon".