Back when I was in graduate school, Business 2.0 was required reading for dot-com insiders & wanna-be insiders. Then the bubble burst, the ad budgets dried up, the magazine got skinny, the writing became glum, and it got sold to Time Warner.

Business 2.0's dumbest moments in tech - February 1, 2006

 

Topping the list for technology biz are the Sony root kit issue, and  a couple of jabs at Google.

But my favorite comes from the full list,

5. So that's why they call it a CrackBerry.

A study by the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry, commissioned by Hewlett-Packard, finds that "an average worker's functioning IQ falls 10 points when distracted by ringing telephones and incoming e-mails ... more than double the four-point drop seen following studies on the impact of smoking marijuana."

 

• Tracking the path of Hurricane Rita with MSN Virtual Earth. Opening this site over the past several days has let me see the path the hurricane is following, and its easy to use the map features to gauge the storm's path against areas where my family lives.
• Links to traffic cams directly from map locations have allowed me to get a direct-eye view of the hurricane's approach and departure from areas I'm familiar with in the Houston area.
• Houston Chronicles Stormwatchers' blog. Reading posts from "citizen journalists" (spare me, HC) gave me my first sense of relief to see that, in spite of dramatic news headlines and photos of tragic fires, it appears that Houston was for the most part spared, and that the posting residents who stayed in town are safe and in good spirits. And apparently, have power & data in spite of the winds & rain.
• Flickr photos of Hurricane Rita. Over 600 shots and counting. From the comments surrounding posts, many Flickr members express relief & gratitude that the storm was as sparing as it was.
• MSNBC's Virtually There. Interactive map with links to news and related coverage
• Brian William's blog. Anchor for NBC Nightly News posts from Louisana posts via Blackberry, "No power here, but Blackberries are operating. In its role in helping us cover storms, it ranks right up there with the invention of the Power Bar."
• On a related note, Hurricane Havoc is a blog from two other NBC reports, posting from Houston.  
• MSNBC Hurricane news homepage - frequent updates & list of archived news links.

Finally, no help at all, as Josh Belzman points out, is the NOAA’s National Hurricane Center Web site. As of this posting,  the site has some limited Rita coverage now, Belzman reports that:

Despite seeing a four-fold increase in traffic in the weeks since Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast and with Rita threatening the region with fresh calamity, the top story Thursday on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Web site was the rescue of four dolphins washed into the Mississippi River by Hurricane Katrina.

The storm topping NOAA’s National Hurricane Center Web site? Tropical Storm Philippe, a small system forecast to bypass the United States by more than 1,000 miles.

Flash back three weeks ago: As Katrina strengthened into a Category 5 monster and local and federal officials pleaded with Gulf Coast residents to take evacuation orders seriously, NOAA’s home page led with the story of how the agency’s historians had debunked a 142-year-old Civil War legend involving a cannon and a cat.

 Fitful night last night, watching news network coverage of Katrina survivors. Pretty disturbing stuff.

Somewhere between MSNBC, CNN, & Headline news, I dozed off and dreamed my whole family volunteered to go help out with the clean-up & recovery efforts. Hurricane disaster still feels pretty personal to me, with family living in the hurricane-prone south-east coastal regions (although mercifully not in Katrina's path).

This morning upon arriving at work, I was pleased to see e-mail from our company's executives letting us know how we're using our resources to help in the recovery. The mail also encouraged us to give financial support, and reminded us that our contributions will be matched by the company dollar-for-dollar. This was also the topic of conversation over coffee with coworkers this morning.

Among the organizations that are dispersing Katrina recovery aid, I chose to support the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Details on UMCOR's Katrina recovery efforts available here.

For over-all Katrina aftermath news, take a look at MSNBC - Katrina: Regional Aftermath, an interactive map with quotes, pictures, and links to additional news stories.

This weekend marks the passing of two 20th century pop icons, teen movie idol Sandra Dee, and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Both were 63.

The coincidental juxtaposition of their deaths draws a stark contrast between their lives and the cultural legacy they leave behind: while Sandra Dee's squeaky-clean good-girl image came to represent all that post-war middle-class American wanted to beleive about their teenage children, Hunter S. Thompson's unappologetic approach to drugs, alcohol, and defying convention gave voice to the rebellious, change-the-rules nature of the Boomer generation.

You may not be familiar with their work, but chances are you've been influenced by both of them.

• If you've ever seen "Greece," you probably know that Sandra Dee song.
• If you've ever read a magazine or newspaper article that places the journalist as the cenrtral figure in the story that's being reported on, you're feeling the influence of Hunter S. Thompson's "gonzo" journalism style, which morphed into "new journalism"

"First hand journalism" is what people in journalism meant when they said "new journalism" before the Internet made everything new again...and now, with the Blog revolution, it could even be said to be yet another extension of the trend, compelling individuals and everyday Jo's like me give their first-hand experience on events in the news, like this,

Let it be known that, while I am saddened by their passing, I am not a big fan of either indivual. Perusing Sandra Dee's filmography on IMDB, I realize I haven't seen a single one of her movies. Likewise, reading Hunter S. Thompson's list of works on Amazon,  I haven't read a single one of them either. Granted, I read a few excerpts of his pieces in j-school, and right now I'm sitting here trying to watch the 1998 movie based on Thompson's work "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

But I'm just about to turn this movie off off. Johnny Depp turns in a pretty good performance, but like most other Terry Gilliam movies, it's not making any sense. And all the drug depictions are just making me sad. It's depressing, because Thompson seemed like a brilliant and gifted writer who wasted his talents on drugs and ohter vices. It might have looked glamorous in the 60's and 70's, but in the we-know-better-now present day, it just looks like a tragedy. And now, with Thompson's passing, I'll add him to the list of "Top 10 people who taught us GenX kids that it's just not smart to do drugs," somewhere below Ozzy Osbourne, and above Nancy Reagan.

Maybe tomorrow night, I'll pick up a Sandra Dee film. I hear they're more of a pick-me up... 

A friend of mine at work recently drew my attention to a world event of crisis unfolding in Africa.

I'm sorry to say that I, along with most other Americans, was too busy watching the Superbowl to allow this to catch our attention:

On Saturday, February 5, the President (read: dictator) of Togo died after 38 years in power. As the longest-reigning head of state in Africa, he ran the government of Togo under a nominal constitutional democracy, with periodic elections fraught with controversy and unrest.

Although the Togolese Constitution spells out a line of succession for interim leadership leading up to an election to be held 2 months after the event of a president's death, something of a coup (jury's still out on if it can actually be called a "coup") took place instead. While the interim leader was out of the country, the borders in and out of Togo were closed, the president's son was named his successor, and an emergency session of Parliament was convened in which the Constitution of Togo was rewritten to allow the ex-dictator's son to serve out the remainder of his father's term, through 2008.

I can't decide what's more shocking about this: the fact that in this day and age, a government (legit or not) can completely seal off all borders, appoint the son of a dictator to inherit his reign, and rewrite their Constitution, OR the fact that the rest of the world press doesn't pick up on it for five days.

Press coverage is still pretty sparse. For the first couple of days, reports were limited to two-paragraph wire releases and a few French-language publications. Today, however, the international reaction appears to be stirring. I'd recommend this coverage:

• For full historical run-down - BBC's country profile on Togo: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1064470.stm
• For first-hand reactions - BBC discussion forum: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4244357.stm  
• For an example of  how mainstream American press muddles it - Seattle PI: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apafrica_story.asp?category=1105&slug=Togo

To get up-to-date news as the story develops, check out MSN News:

• http://search.msn.com/news/results.aspx?FORM=NRRE&q=togo

As someone who may have taken hairstyling cues from Jennifer Aniston from time to time (but I swear this latest bob was my idea, long before I saw hers!), I can understand wanting to model your hair after a celebrity.

But here's one celeb 'do I won't be copying:

Goodyear, North America's largest tire maker, paid Detroit Pistons guard Richard Hamilton Hamilton to wear his hair in the style of a tread pattern.

Hamilton wore the hairstyle two days ago against the New York Knicks in Detroit and plans to keep it for about a week, company spokesman Ed Markey said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2002166490_nbanotes01.html

So many puns, so little time...

Recent study out just out from the UK National Radiological Protection Board  and picked up by The Times of London (and countless other blog-fodder sources, too) citing a growing body of evidence linking cell phones to all sorts of maladies, including brain tumors, cancer, cell damage, and "changes in cognitive function." Duhhhhh... 

The report is drawing massive criticism, especially from cell companies for whom the youth market is jeopardized by the special warning in the report to keep cell phones away from the fragile developing minds of kids.

The Times continues to caution its readers to wait for an exhaustive report on the subject in the works World Health Organization.

I think what cracks me up most about this story is that on, in classic fashion, a debate broke out over which data standard is better for you (GSM, of course!)