Can that camera

J.D. Lasica has compiled a great roundup of what folks in the blogosphere and the mainstream media are saying about a reported ban on camera phones at U.S. military compounds in Iraq.

I can understand the views of those who are upset at the prospect that military personnel might no longer be able to document possible malfeasance or evidence of official dissembling, but I have to wonder: Is the Pentagon's banning cameras really different, in principle, from a private employer doing the same?

After all, as Todd Bishop noted in his blog last fall, readers felt Microsoft was well within its rights to fire a contract worker for taking and posting unauthorized photos of Apple computers arriving at the shipping dock.

(Update: Wired News clarifies the situation: the Pentagon isn't banning phonecams exactly, but is telling commanders to clamp down on recording devices that don't meet official security requirements, such as encryption.)

What price Gmail?

One of my newest online guilty pleasures: seeing what nifty things people are offering on Gmail Swap. If you haven't seen it, the site's a clearinghouse where people who covet accounts on Google's still-in-beta free e-mail service can try to entice current users to invite them to join.

Turns out that people will give just about anything from a piece of the Great Wall of China to their soul. Some of the more interesting proposals I've seen so far include someone's complete spam collection, 70 minutes of "crazy ramblings of a humanities teacher," the location of Atlantis and " ".

What offers get takers? They range from novelties such as a cameo in a comic strip or your name written in a string of DNA, to practical stuff like 40 hours of professional copy-editing lessons. Well, it's nice to see that someone out there values copy editing.

You're full -- psych!

A "pacemaker" for the stomach could be the next big thing in weight-loss technology, Wired News reports. The implanted device stimulates nerves with electrical pulses to make patients feel like they're full even if they aren't. It won't help binge eaters who don't worry about little things like appetite cues, however.

Dog data

Seattle's gone to the dogs. According to a P-I analysis of pet licenses, canines outnumber felines in the Emerald City 27,989 to 21,346 (although there are undoubtedly many more unlicensed animals).

Other data points: Labrador retrievers are the most popular breed, and the most popular dog names are Max, Lucy, Maggie, Buddy and Molly.

The ties that sicken

Doctor's neckties are really unsuspected germ farms, a new study warns. It's easy for the dangling bits of ornamental fabric to get contaminated, especially since most men don't clean their ties as often as they do other articles of clothing. Yet another blow to the formal workplace.

Pop! goes the culture

A quick roundup of some interesting items from the world of entertainment:

• When celebrity bloggers became published authors, does it mean old media has firmly embraced the new, or just co-opting it? Or maybe, as The New Yorker explains, it's simply because one particular talent agent is a big fan of the blogosphere.
• The New York Times' Kate Aurthur examines how, and why, "American Idol" may be fundamentally broken. In a related sidebar, Sarah Hepola dishes on "Idol's" fascination with oldies -- and no, it's not because more recent songs are too costly to license, at least not entirely.
• Also in the Times, Robert Levine uses "The Simpsons'" 15th-season finale, which aired Sunday night, as a launch pad for analyzing the long-running series' distinctive narrative structure.
• Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have drawn flak for naming their new daughter Apple. But it's far from the worst monicker celebrities have inflicted upon unsuspecting children, the Arizona Republic notes.
• Leslie Gornstein, E! Online's Answer B!tch, explains how rappers get their odd-sounding stage names. Many, as it turns out, started as childhood nicknames originally given in derision. Keeping them displays humility and confers street cred.
• In "The Prisoner of Azkaban," Harry Potter starts growing up -- and so do his movies. Newsweek delves into new director Alfonso Cuaron's reinterpretation of the (now) teen wizard's world.
• Slate film critic David Edelstein waxes poetic as he reflects on the sheer terror and majesty that is the original "Gojira" (bastardized on these shores as "Godzilla: King of the Monsters"): "It's the most emotionally authentic fake monster movie ever made."

Hiatus over

After two months off to play full-time dad, I'm back at the keyboard.

We now resume normal programming.