What will they think of next?

New gadgets, new ideas from around the world:

• Cell phone plans that let you pre-schedule calls to rescue you from bad dates.

• Using water to keep spacecraft from burning up on re-entry.

• An electric gun that can fire up to a million rounds a minute.

• A snowman that uses solar power to stay cool.

You can't make this stuff up

• A Georgia lawmaker wants to make it a misdemeanor for a restaurant to not offer sweetened iced tea.

• Israel has declared a snack food called Bamba -- described as a "peanut-buttery puff" -- a vital staple food. That ensures production will continue in case of a missile attack.

• Three men in Mombasa, Kenya, died while trying to recover a cell phone dropped in a toilet pit.

• What's in a name? Students at Bagdad Elementary School in Austin, Texas, are learning the answer.

• Having five Starbucks stores in a three-block radius is apparently considered newsworthy elsewhere in the country.

What a week it was, aside from the war

Here's a quick rundown of 5 big local stories that had nothing to do with the war:

• King County has its first two suspected local cases of SARS, the "mystery illness" from Asia that has killed more than 50 people worldwide.

• Builders are pushing a new bill in Olympia that would limit condo owners' ability to sue for damage from faulty construction.

• As the state's budget outlook worsens, lawmakers are eyeing tax increases to soften the blow. A gas tax hike looks likely.

• Olympic Pipe Line Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

• Gary Ridgway was charged with three more of the Green River killings.

You learn something new (almost) every day

• Tuesday: California is the most Starbucked state, with 500 stores; home base Washington has a mere 280.

• Wednesday: The clay-based dust blown in by a Persian Gulf storm can turn into a kind of concrete when it gets wet.

• Thursday: Southwest and JetBlue as the nation's two largest airlines? It could happen, an expert says.

• Friday: There are something like 570 licensed drinking establishments in Seattle -- and two guys visited them all in one year.

Words to live by (my favorite verbiage of the week)

"Putting a bike trail through an industrial area is like chocolate on a hot dog."

-- Andy Pishue, sounding off on the ongoing debate over extending the Burke-Gilman Trail through the Shilshole waterfront industrial area

"It's been like a military zone, a war zone out there."

-- K.L. Shannon, leader of People's Coalition for Justice, complaining about how Seattle police handled recent anti-war demonstrations

Ikon was a tug-of-war nut who loved to swim and was so enthusiastic about tracking down criminals that fellow police officers called him "psycho dog."

-- reporter Jennifer Langston, writing about an Everett police dog who died in the line of duty

Book titles that turn heads

Publishers send lots of books to newspapers for review. Leafing through recent submissions, I spotted these titles that are hard to pass up:

• "Lummox: The Trials and Triumph of a Modern Man With More Muscle Than Money ..." by Mike Magnuson, Harperperennial Library (More info and prices)
• "Hamlet II: Ophelia's Revenge" by David Bergantino, Pocket Books (More info and prices)
• "The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes" by Chuck Zerby, Touchstone Books (More info and prices)

Merchant and pricing information courtesy of Glenn Fleishman's invaluable isbn.nu.

March of Progress Dept.: 4 new ideas & inventions

New scientific and technological ideas worth checking out:

• Researchers say they can divine the power structure of an organization just by examining who sends e-mail to whom.

• It's not quite a universal translator a la "Star Trek" but SpeechGear's portable speech translator works well enough to have caught the U.S. Navy's interest.

• A cell phone powered by shots of vodka? Could happen.

• Or, if you'd rather put the vodka to some other use, a U.K. company has developed a way to recharge electronic devices without cords or plugs.

Top picks, top clicks for the week that was

Here are the most e-mailed and most read stories for March 17-23, 2003:

Most e-mailed

1. Administration cozies up with al-Jazeera network
2. Intense sand, dust storms due in Iraq next week
3. Local protester dies in Gaza
4. Rachel Corrie put a local face on faraway suffering
5. Resentment mitigates Canada's instincts to help a friend
6. Bush beats back the cries for peace
7. Gore Joining Board of Apple Computer
8. Benefits Cap May Help Treat Drug Costs
9. Preventive war sets perilous precedent
10. Making sure the chemo isn't worse than the cancer

Most read

1. Intense sand, dust storms due in Iraq next week
2. Administration cozies up with al-Jazeera network
3. Creator of 'COPS' feared dead in fall from Oregon Coast cliff
4. Local protester dies in Gaza
5. Seahawks Notebook: Holliday time for Hawks' 'D'?
6. No thanks, smokers say to test that figures cancer risk
7. Students protest cartoon of Rachel Corrie
8. Bush not bothered by inconsistencies
9. KING delivers after speech, but KIRO bungles it a bit
10. Seahawks/NFL Beat: Hawks won't rush to spend on any DE

Words to live by

Another collection of my favorite verbiage from the week that was:

"You have to stay down-to-earth to be an attractive person."

-- Amber Lancaster, Seahawks cheerleader and "Are You Hot?" finalist, telling her life story to Jim Moore
Hold the cheers for Amber

"Dating is a numbers game."

-- Adele Testani, president of HurryDate, which helps people pair up for three-minute mini-dates
Speed dating turns on the afterburners in Belltown

"It is pretty hard to run a company when you have a great product and good employees but you keep getting sued all of the time."

-- Dennis Tevlin, CEO of Fullplay Media Systems
Citing legal fees, Fullplay files for bankruptcy

"Shock? Awww."

-- TV critic Melanie McFarland, making fun of the Overused Catchphrase of the Week
No 'shock and awe,' but newscasts coped

A much-needed look at the lighter side of the news

My apologies for the lack of updates the past couple of days; we've been preoccupied with various weighty matters.

If you're looking for a change of pace, here's some totally frivolous stuff happening around the world:

• A man is on trial for cheating his way to victory in the British version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" His defense: he never heard the "coded" coughs made by an alleged accomplice.

• The U.S. government's official site on how to prepare for terorrist attacks has spawned a wave of online parodies. This one's my favorite.

• An Olympia anti-war protester chained himself to the wrong building earlier this week. Didn't have the key, either.

• Monica Lewinsky is beginning her climb back to respectability: she'll host a new reality TV show for the Fox network called "Mr. Personality."

• Want to chat with French President Jacques Chirac about the war in Iraq. Try phoning him and claiming to be Jerry Lewis. Well, it worked for one radio personality.

What your ZIP code reveals about you

Ever wonder just how much marketers know about you (or think they know) based on where you live?

To find out, go to You Are Where You Live and type in your ZIP code.

You'll get a summary of the key demographic groups associated with your neighborhood.

Mediasweep: Local activist killed in Gaza

Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old woman from Olympia, became the first American peace activist killed protesting the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip. Most of the basic details are available on our site and many others.

For further perspective and background, check out these links:

• Scoop, a "disintermediated news" site based in New Zealand, offers Rachel Corrie in her own words, featuring the last e-mail Corrie sent her parents about her experiences in Gaza.

• Peter Bohmer, an instructor at Evergreen who had known Rachel since she was a child, remembered her longtime activism in an essay at The Electronic Intifida.

• For images from her life before going to the Mideast, see her hometown paper, The Olympian. The paper also reports that others from Olympia have also joined the ranks of "internationals" in the occupied territories.

• You can learn more about the International Solidarity Movement at its Web site, which documents her final hours.

• At WorkingForChange.com, Geov Parrish reflects on the key, if largely unsung, role that international volunteers like Rachel have played in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Reuters reports on how local Palestinians remembered her today with a symbolic funeral.

Top picks, top clicks for March 10-15

It's always interesting to compare the stories that people read on our site with the ones they deem worthy of passing along to friends and family.

For example, here's the list of most e-mailed stories of the week that just ended:

1. School's 'poverty program' offers food for thought
2. French fries get new name in Congress
3. Westlake gag order raises outcries of protest
4. '3-Apple-a-Day' diet could win someone $500,000
5. Finding may lead to diabetes treatment
6. How Northwest crows get the drop on others
7. School ban on tribal nicknames upheld
8. 'Silent earthquake' in parts of state, B.C.
9. Bush signs anti-telemarketing bill
10. On Architecture: IDX Tower a tall, cool one

Now, contrast that with the most read stories for the same period:

1. Military doesn't want to go green
2. Go 2 Guy: Hot enough? When it comes to this Sea Gal, it's your call
3. Douglas still considering Seahawks
4. Regrets? Rangers' Rodriguez has two
5. Good and bad news for Hawks
6. Boeing's four alternatives in Renton
7. M's go right for help
8. Boeing ponders 717 stretch
9. Westlake gag order raises outcries of protest
10. Free agents' song remains the same

More news almost too weird to be true

• In Rome, the Mother-in-Law From Hell isn't just an old joke, she's legitimate grounds for divorce.

• Alcohol can power cars, so why not laptops?

• An ATM in Fargo, N.D., went haywire and started spitting out extra cash. But honest customers returned the free money.

• In a bid to stress the commonalities between the two cultures, there's a project gearing up to translate the Koran into Irish.

E-commerce assumptions tested, found wanting

For trend-watchers, new studies suggest:

• Taxing online sales won't generate a big windfall for the states.

• Consumers will pay a premium for digital music that they can copy.

Mediasweep: Hot topics about war coverage

With the prospect of war in Iraq still looming, let's look at three topics that seem to spur lots of questions when people talk about media coverage:

• Major opinion polls are usually based on samples of a few hundred to a few thousand people. One Briton argues that the Internet could survey the whole population. But, the experts point out, it's not the number of people you poll that matters; it's how you select them.

• Where do crowd size estimates come from? The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, recently looked at the various methods, and the ethical questions they pose.

• Our own M.L. Lyke is blogging her experiences as an "embedded" journalist aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf.

  What exactly is an embedded journalist? The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz offers a good overview while the Miami Herald looks at the differences between how print and broadcast media are using the opportunity.

  Questions have been raised about whether the "embeds" might become pawns of the Pentagon and some journalists are entering the potential war zone on their own. But, Jack Shafer argues in Slate that the notion of an "objective" battlefield correspondent is a myth anyway.

Take this job and ...

Post-bubble burst, laid-off tech workers are scrambling for any job they can get. Well, maybe not any job. In fact, many of the jobs being offered are so crummy that someone has created a Web site dedicated to showing off the worst of the worst.

The reality check's in the mail

• Is requiring men to wear ties to work unfair discrimination? In Britain, the answer looks like ... a definite maybe. One U.K. court ruled that it is, while a different court ruled that it's not.

• A New Mexico lawmaker has proposed creating an official day to honor extraterrestrial visitors.

• Who needs lawyers? The CEOs of two New Zealand telecoms settled a business dispute with an arm wrestling match. (See, the free-wheeling dot-com spirit isn't dead!)

• Seeking an alternative to eldercare, a Norwegian woman took out an ad offering to give her father away to "a good-natured lady."

Do you know where your identity is?

• An identity thief can do a lot worse than damage your credit. How about racking up a criminal record in your name?

• On a timely note, USA Today columnist Sandra Block offers some helpful tips on how to pick a reputable tax preparer.

From cells to genes, time to sweat the small stuff

• The one with the smallest cell phone wins. It's one of those subtle contests played out all across our modern world. But when do gadgets become just too small?

• Does selling your country's gene pool to the highest bidder sound like a good idea for a business? Estonia thinks the answer is yes, and it's not alone.

News too good to pass up

• 'Shut up, you monkey. Curse be upon your mustache.' I just like the headline -- but the story's interesting, too.

• A new Harris Poll found that although 69 percent of Americans believe in hell, only 1 percent expect to go there.

• Apparently, citing Osama bin Laden's past humanitarian efforts isn't the worst thing a politician can do. An Ohio congresswoman ignited a firestorm after apparently comparing bin Laden to America's founding fathers. But she says she has no regrets about the resulting dialogue.

• A British activist who legally changed his name to Free R Cannabis was sent to jail for two months for selling -- well, guess what?

Finding inspiration in the most mundane of crimes

Check out the Arcata Eye Police Log. Trust me, you've never seen a police blotter quite like this.