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The modern news consumer ignores Weblogs and online citizen journalism at his own peril. But not everyone has the time to keep track of what's going on the Web. With this blog we hope to track the highlights of what's being discussed online so when news breaks from the Web, we're ready.

Will Femia is a Weblog enthusiast who, through good fortune and dumb luck, was introduced to the form as his position as chat producer for MSNBC.com careered into obsolescence. On any given day, Will can be found having already spent an unhealthy amount of time squinting at a computer screen.

Send a message to Will at spotter@msnbc.com



When elements align

Posted: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 3:18 PM by Will Femia
Filed Under:

Salt water into fire - Very cool.  Very exciting.  Also neat that it has that "some guy in his garage" feeling to it.

Blocky is addictive because it's so easy to thrash through the early levels and new levels load so quickly.

100 words every high school graduate should know - They just list them.  Treat it like a test and see how many you know before you look them up yourself.

Google in 20 years - Remember that headline about Google wanting to run your life?  This may be a joke, but your OnStar can probably already find your keys, so why not Google?

The choice to switch to compact fluorescent bulbs may be made for you.

Speaking of green, will the green movement see a return to cobblestones? (And by the way, slide #6 is ridiculous, but I'm sure that's what they said about bottled water when it first came out.)

Tonight on Irrational Scare Program...  I've been laughing about that name all morning.  It sounds like one of those Japanese show names like "Super Happy Lucky Hour" but of course it's American, so Irrational Scare Program makes more sense.

This is a little old but it would have gone great with that Kottke item last week about lying to yourself.  It's a list of forms of cognitive bias.

Both Microsoft and Google have released street-level views of selected cities on their map sites.  It took me a minute to figure out how to use it on Live Maps.  Go to a city like New York and zoom way in, choose 3-D mode and then tilt the map flat.  It'd be cool if the next version of allows you to drive the streets in a little car. Google's is a bit easier.  Just click a blue street.

A hole in Mars.  Of course this is where they live. (Much more from Alan.)

"The Defense Department reports China is building cyberwarfare units and developing viruses."

You may be sick of Rosie O'Donnell by now but in the spirit of linking to items that are in the news, here's the video following her big blow-out on The View. Say what you will, her candor is refreshing.

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art - Fascinating but I'm not sure I see the lesson.

Lately I've been thinking about cutting my hair so I was quick to click this old clip of David Crosby doing "Almost Cut My Hair."

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Comments

The cognitive bias thing was great, but http://www.healthbolt.net/2006/12/20/232-star-wars-lines-improved-by-substituting-the-word-pants/ (on the same site) was even better!

Angela, Santa Monica CA (Sent Wednesday, May 30, 2007 7:04 PM)

So much effort is going into using flourescent lights in place of incandescent, but we need to do more to handle the dead flourescent bulbs. Most places won't accept them because of the mercury; yet when I took a bunch to my local WalMart (who are supposed to help recycle dead flourescent compacts), they had no idea what to do with them and wouldn't take them.

Eric, Madison WI (Sent Thursday, May 31, 2007 2:23 AM)

That first link is a good example of why we don't let news reporters design the technologies that we use every day. Yes, you can break down water (salt or otherwise) and get hydrogen that will burn. But how much energy went into his machine (that pair of white boxes) to release the hydrogen? Then, how efficiently can you use that heat energy that comes from burning the hydrogen? Unless it takes less energy to release the hydrogen than you can harness from the burning, it's a useless demonstration. That the reporter never asked how much power was being used to make the 'free' energy shows how little he understands science at all.

Todd H. (Sent Thursday, May 31, 2007 7:32 AM)

I am with Todd H on this. It is idiotic to report this as some miracle. He is pumping a lot of energy into the salt water via radio waves. He is doing this with salt water vs. fresh because the salt ions react to the radio waves (resonate) and so produces the disruption needed. Since it takes more energy than it gives off (in the form of free hydrogen and oxygen), it is not interesting as a power source (we sadly already know how to waste large amounts of energy producing less energy).

Paul, Alamo, CA (Sent Thursday, May 31, 2007 12:23 PM)

Considering the hazardous materials involved in the production and disposal of CF bulbs, I can't believe anyone is pushing these. I'm looking into LED bulbs for use in my house. Just a few at first (they most definately are NOT cheap), and more if the light is good. I printed the list of 100 words, and I'm working my way through with highlighters. Yellow for words I can define, pink if I can't define them, but can use them in a sentence (yes, that's possible), green for words I need to look up. So far, lots of yellow, some pink, no green. All that reading was good for me, I guess.

Mnementh, Callahan FL (Sent Thursday, May 31, 2007 12:39 PM)

I assume you've read about Surface from Microsoft. Sounds pretty cool. Makes me wish I worked at T-mobile or something, so I could play with it. http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

John Doe, Seattle, Wash. (Sent Thursday, May 31, 2007 2:31 PM)

John, some links on that coming in tonight's post. I'm caught up trying to figure out how to tell the story of the LiveJournal fanfic mass deletions. Plus Google Gears... Just a lot of reading today.

Will Femia (Sent Thursday, May 31, 2007 5:54 PM)

Tibetan canned air? Are you kidding? I think the inventor watched Spaceballs too many times.

kindjal, Carolina, Puerto Rico (Sent Friday, June 01, 2007 8:10 AM)

Rosie's candor is refreshing? About what? If someone claimed that Christopher Columbus was guided by UFOs, do you applaud them for their candor? Well, no, you shouldn't. We may not know the truth about 9/11. The government may have been involved. Heck, George Bush may have even been involved. But there is nothing that Rosie and/or the Loose Change guys are claiming that point to that. Or, maybe you think that no one else in Hollywood is standing up to the "Rethuglicans"? Considering that the show is owned by Barbara Walters, someone who is decidely NOT a GWB fan, you could have equally applauded Elisabeth Hasselback for standing up for her very unpopular beliefs. Unless, of course, you do happen to think that Rosie is right about 9/11?

John (Sent Friday, June 01, 2007 11:31 AM)

John, I'm not sure what you think candor means but I was talking about her willingness to talk about the fight she had on the show and her feelings about it. I didn't see any frank and honest sharing on the matter from Hasselback. My feelings on 9/11 conspiracy theorists has been covered here before, so you should find a different windmill to waste your time tilting at.

Will Femia (Sent Friday, June 01, 2007 11:55 AM)

Holes in Mars!? Aliens!? Isn't it more likely that this just proves the big Red Swiss Cheese theory?

DanE (Sent Friday, June 01, 2007 3:32 PM)

I've seen those oxygen bars around already - in Las Vegas and San Francisco. I didn't understand them, but there were customers!

Gretchen, Windsor, CA (Sent Friday, June 01, 2007 7:13 PM)

Will, I know this is late but I've got to agree with John. I've listened to about 1/2 of the rosie link looking for candor and I'm not finding much candor. I know this is geeky, but which definition are you referring to? According to my dictionary 1) Whiteness, brilliance...no 2) freedom from prejudice or malice...well maybe there wasn't malice but rosie never seems free from prejudice and certainly not here. 3) unsistained purity...don't make me laugh 4) unreserved, honest, or sincere expression...sorry, I still felt that in the part I could stand to listen to, there was still an undercurrent of sarchasm in this piece. You see windmills but I see a complete waste of a society's time and effort. What I found most amazing about this whole event (and maybe someone else has pointed it out, but I haven't seen it) is that rosie called elizabeth a coward, then ran away to hide and never come back. But too much has been said about this person in the past and present, and unfortunately probably will be said in the future also.

KW (Sent Monday, June 04, 2007 1:50 PM)

I don't know what dictionary lists the first definition for candor as Whiteness, brilliance.

candor:
1.  Frankness or sincerity of expression; openness.

My point is nothing more than that you don't see big name TV people sitting in front of a web cam with no make-up to speak frankly and sincerely about a public scandal (or whatever) in which they were involved.  Famous people don't share their handlers with the public and they don't say what they really think.  They have publicists put out bland diplomatic statements.  So that's all I meant by saying Rosie's candor is refreshing.

The windmill is the liberal media boogie-man John thinks he's battling in trying to call me out for not applauding Hasselback.  In order to make a claim like that you have to willfully ignore not only the point I was making in that item (which had nothing to do with the substance of their argument) but things I've said in the past about 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

Will Femia (Sent Tuesday, June 05, 2007 5:08 PM)



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