The Big(ish) Apple

A recent report from the New York Planning Department finds that New York is 17 square miles smaller than previously believed. It seems that erosion and global warming have nothing to do with it, the area of the five boroughs was simply overestimated due to their complex shape. Incidentally, if that 17 square miles was tacked onto Manhattan, the land would be worth more than a trillion dollars and be home to around 1.1 million people.

Last week saw another hearing in the US Senate in which the top executives from the five largest oil companies where taken to task for crying poor (aka 'market forces') while reaping record profits. Although it is unlikely to bring any real change, it does set the backdrop for a great analysis piece about the politics of the oil business.

Bell Canada, in the middle of a regulatory fight over it's bandwidth throttling, has opened its own web video store. This is brutally bad timing and shows, I think, a complete disrespect for paying customers. It also makes their claims of a bandwidth crunch a flat, bald-faced lie. Good job.