Fighting a Crowd for a $50 Laptop
An estimated 5,500 people turned out at the Richmond International Raceway in hopes of getting their hands on one of the 4-year-old Apple iBooks offered for $50 apiece recently. The Henrico County school system was selling 1,000 of the computers to county residents. New iBooks cost between $999 and $1,299. […]
Wireless Dreams Coming True
A few years ago, cities wanted to be wired. Now it’s all about being wireless. Tempe is at the forefront of what is going to be the next big thing in municipal oneupmanship: Making your entire city a WiFi hot spot. Tom Gibbons writes in the East Valley Tribune yesterday. […]
Wouldn’t It Help to See a Photo on the Map?
David Utter in Web Pro News reports on the latest in search engine schemes. Showing actual photos of the blocks and stores you might find when you use their mapping features. “Fargo, ND, made it onto the list of major cities getting the Block View treatment from Amazon’s search engine, […]
A Recipe for Keeping Newspapers Alive
Michael Socolow, a professor at Brandeis, serves up a recipe for success, and explains some of why newspapers are in so much trouble in this article from the Baltimore Sun. “Yet other key, but too often ignored, issues in the history of the newspaper business have played a role in […]
Cindy’s Impeachment Tour Stops in Crawford
Tom Engelhardt writes on tomdispatch.com about the phenomena of the Soldier’s mother who is haunting Bush on his long Texas vacation. “And then, if matters weren’t bad enough, there was Cindy Sheehan. She drove to Crawford with a few supporters in a caravan of perhaps a dozen vehicles and an […]
The War Is Over on the Happiest Day in History
From Garrison Keillor’s wonderful poetry and writing website Writer’s Almanac came this today. “Today is the 60th anniversary of the day on which President Harry Truman announced that the Second World War had come to an end. You might argue that more human beings were happy on this day in […]
Under Size Me? Losing Weight at Mickie D’s
Today’s Boston Globe incuded this Associated Press story: One person went so far as to make her own independent film about dieting at McDonald’s. “Me and Mickey D” follows Soso Whaley, of Kensington, N.H., as she spends three 30-day periods on the diet. She dropped from 175 to 139 pounds, […]
Americans to Bush: We’re Outta There!
Frank Rich writes that the war is already over, but President Bush doesn’t know it yet. “What lies ahead now in Iraq instead is not victory, which Mr. Bush has never clearly defined anyway, but an exit (or triage) strategy that may echo Johnson’s March 1968 plan for retreat in […]
Gross Spam as "Comments" on my Blog!
I just opened my email to find comments posted about yesterday’s post about Chinese Sweet Wormwood. BUT IT WAS SPAM! Some freakin’ auto loan outfit put up ‘comments’ pitching new car loans….in the guise of blog comments. This is a sinister development, one which I hope can be stopped. I […]
There’s Something About Sweet Wormwood
Howard W. French writes in today’s NY Times about the acres and acres of a new crop, called qinqhat, or sweet wormwood, that’s become a huge cash producer in China–Because Novartis is making anti-malarial drugs with its active ingredient. “Even peasants closely associated with these efforts, however, say they are […]
Just Don’t Try to Buy it in Manhattan
Target is taking over the New Yorker next week, buying all available ad space. But they don’t have any stores in Manhattan! New York Times’ Stuart Elliot wrote. “Many of Target’s special ads are aimed at New York City for reasons that include a desire to burnish the image of […]
Filling the Gas Tank with Plants
Every week I get an email from E magazine. Sometimes these folks cry hysterically, such as when they claimed that every baby in the world is born polluted on the inside. But often they have good news about alternative ways to do things. Roddy Scheer reports today: “Biofuels” such as […]
The Boston Herald: GoNOMAD In the News
Today we finally saw the first press mention as a result of the Associated Press story filed on Monday. The Boston Herald ran the short item in their “Take Offs” section, the story said in part…”Off the beaten path Far from the world of all-inclusive resorts, motorcoach tours, and standard […]
Howling at the Moon about Burning Man
Gadling is a highter tier blog, and Erik does a great job. Here is his howl to the moon about Burning Man, the famous fall desert extravaganza. “Yes, dear people, the official countdown has begun. The raggedy hordes are assembling, brightening their tattoos, oiling their dreadlocks, and buffing their bongs, […]
Who Is This Nut?
Abe Hirschfeld once attempted, in 1993, to run the New York Post for 16 days. Finally, a full-scale staff revolt published an entire issue trashing him, including a page 1 picture of Post founder Alexander Hamilton shedding a tear. The eccentric self-made millionaire, who died this week, was famous for […]