Pioneer papers online

The Washington State Library is now making available online digital reproductions of the state's oldest newspapers. You can read more about the project in this P-I story.

The archive is starting off with The Columbian (the then-territory's first newspaper, founded in 1852), the Washington Pioneer and the Walla Walla Statesman. The special browser plug-in you need to view the archive, LizardTech's DjVu plug-in, allows you to zoom in up to 1,200 percent -- quite useful since the images, taken from old microfilms, often aren't of very high quality.

The papers that ultimately combined to become the Post-Intelligencer, the Gazette and Weekly Intelligencer, are among those on the library's list to be "added next."

Get off the blogtrain

Bob Cauthorn is typically blunt, pointed and compellingly persuasive in this post to Rebuilding Media, his new Corante blog: Memo to mainstream media: You don't get to blog.

You have a publishing apparatus. So you don't get to blog. You have a broadcasting apparatus. So you don't get to blog.

In case you missed this the point while you were reading up on youth slang, I'll repeat it for emphasis. You. Do. Not. Get. To. Blog.

Not that you won't try. Currently, there's a rush among traditional media outlets to get into that wicked bitchin', snaps inducing “blogging thing.” Almost all of these efforts are agonizingly misguided. ...

Fact: Most major media players couldn't lose their audience faster if they were chasing them with a stick. And rather than reform and transform, major media - in some kind of manic pratfall - responds by further exposing the public to the very same cast of characters that the audience has already rejected. Staff blogs. Wow.

OK, I'll answer the obvious question: since I am writing a blog for a mainstream media organization, what do I think of Bob's comments? While I don't necessarily agree with his contention that anyone should be restricted from blogging as a matter of principle (let's face it, some of the more intriguing blogs are written by people whom everyone listens to).

Basically, however, I think he's right. Blogging can't be treated as just another publishing fad to be exploited and eventually, in a few years, forgotten. I'm convinced that it's developing into a distinct, different and quite possibly permanent part of the mediascape. Exactly where it's going, I don't pretend to know and I'm skeptical of predictions by anyone who claims to know. (Four years ago, did anyone predict the popularity of "baby blogs"?)

But, clueless publishers who try to jump on the bandwagon in a vain quest to be hip or relevant will likely fail because they'll miss the point. Blogging is all about showcasing new voices and telling stories in new ways (collaboratively, for example).

And I think that the mainstream media can -- and, more importantly, should -- blog. The tools, techniques and, yes, even the philosophy and attitude of blogging have a place in our toolbox. It all depends on how a given media outlet uses its blogs, what drives its blogging efforts and how those blogs evolve over time. You have to try something different from what you do in your primary medium. And you have to engage and involve the audience, opening up and taking part in a conversation that's at least two-way. The results needn't be as "important" as the standard news product but it should add extra dimensions and insights, or include other voices, or at least be entertaining.

You're all better qualified than me to judge how well SeattlePI.com's experiments in blogging have worked out, but I think we've done a credible job at all three. For example, Mike Thompson's Mariners blog is essentially a free-wheeling discussion space for his readers (they've contributed 90 times as many comments as he has posts). Reporter Todd Bishop's blog on all things Microsoft, on the other hand, is sort of a running DVD-style commentary for his regular coverage of the Redmond titan, including lots of "backstage" tidbits and insights that don't fit into the structure of a conventional news story. And over the past three weeks, "TV Gal" Melanie McFarland's blogging from the TV networks' summer press tour has given readers a pretty good idea of just why critics seem to consider it an ordeal akin to the Bataan death march.

For more of Bob's thoughts on the current state of the mainstream media -- and in case you're wondering whether he comes across the same in person as he does in "print" -- check out his recent lecture on "The Changing Rules of Journalism" at UC Berkeley (QuickTime).

Death hanging in the air

The accidental electrocutions at this year's Boy Scout Jamboree of four men whose tentpole touched a power line raises an obvious question: Don't power lines have insulation?

As Daniel Engber explains at Slate:

No, they don't—at least the ones that run aboveground. Most of the hundreds of thousands of miles of high-voltage transmission lines in this country are made solely of metal—either aluminum or aluminum wrapped around a steel core. Adding a layer of insulation to every line would be pricey and has been deemed unnecessary given how high the lines are off the ground. (Underground lines are insulated, both for the safety of the walkers above and to protect the lines from shovels and the like.)

Why all the sci-fi?

"TV Gal" Melanie McFarland ponders the reasons behind the surprise explosion of science fiction and horror shows coming to prime time this fall. The easiest explanation is that other networks are hoping to copy the phenomenal success of ABC's "Lost." But there may be deeper issues at play, too:

Look at television schedules and film releases throughout their history, and you'll see this has happened before, usually following periods of culturewide tension and global threats. Director Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator," "Fortress") pointed this out to the television press a couple of weeks ago during an appearance for [Showtime's] "Masters of Horror."

"My theory is that it's a result of 9/11," he said. "People expected that after 9/11, people were going to want light comedies and so forth, but instead it's been horror. ... There's so much tension in the world that people need a chance to get it out of their systems."

This existential angst draws upon our belief in possibility and the fascination with "other," and the ways in which that concept conjures up images that are benign, frightening or just plain odd.

"We're living in an aftermath world," [Shaun Cassidy, creator of ABC's "Invasion,"] offered. "... And very, very, very terrible tragedies have come and there hasn't been a rulebook for the aftermath. Trying to figure out what to do next, trying to find our way, trying to put the pieces back together in a more productive way, those are the themes of our show."

Hunting happy hours

Where to find the best happy-hour deals in town? Ask Katja Kloepfer.

Fraud with flowers

Yes, even the Nigerian scam evolves over time. MSNBC.com's Bob Sullivan says Nigerian con artists are now using "sweetheart scams" that hinge on earning the trust of lonely singles over time. Yet another hazard of "dating" in the Internet age.

Doing the Wayback

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has become so useful to lawyers seeking evidence of online malfeasance that its name has become part of their daily jargon -- e.g., "Can you do a Wayback on that?" -- according to the Wall Street Journal.

Evil is as evil does

Silly quiz time: How evil are you?

Worst writing of 2005

The winners (?) of this year's Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for worst-written English-language sentence are out.

The grand prize goes to Dan McKay of Fargo, N.D. His (fortunately) peerless prose:

As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual.

If you're really in the mood for more bad prose, the contest site lists 45 other winners, runners-up and dishonorable mentions in a variety of categories.

4,000 days later

"Senior maverick" Kevin Kelly wrote a great piece for Wired magazine reflecting on just how much the Internet has changed the world in the past 10 years. He goes beyond the usual history, nostalgic musings and grass-roots futurist boosterism to point out that the most crucial innovations were social, not technological:

What we all failed to see was how much of this new world would be manufactured by users, not corporate interests. ...

The electricity of participation nudges ordinary folks to invest huge hunks of energy and time into making free encyclopedias, creating public tutorials for changing a flat tire, or cataloging the votes in the Senate. More and more of the Web runs in this mode. One study found that only 40 percent of the Web is commercial. The rest runs on duty or passion.

As you may have guessed from that quote, another of Kelly's main points is how poorly everyone predicted the future direction of the "information superhighway" in 1995:

A little over a decade ago, a phone survey by Macworld asked a few hundred people what they thought would be worth $10 per month on the information superhighway. The participants started with uplifting services: educational courses, reference books, electronic voting, and library information. The bottom of the list ended with sports statistics, role-playing games, gambling, and dating. Ten years later what folks actually use the Internet for is inverted. According to a 2004 Stanford study, people use the Internet for (in order): playing games, "just surfing," shopping -- the list ends with responsible activities like politics and banking.

Energy-saving time?

Slate answers the timely question, Does daylight-saving time really save energy?

Pans and packages, oh my

Is There an Extra Ingredient in Nonstick Pans? is a rather disturbing, yet useful, New York Times story looking at the possibility that the things we use to cook and store our food are exposing us to a chemical that causes cancer in lab animals.

The substance at issue is perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and 90 percent of Americans have some in their blood, according to one study. The EPA and FDA are studying the potential risks of PFOA, which can be produced when certain chemicals used in common food packaging, including some paper plates, break down.

For those who don't want to wait for definitive answers from the government, the Environmental Working Group has some suggestions: Use Teflon pans at lower temperatures, and never put them on the stove to heat without food or liquid inside. Greasy food that is heated in a microwave oven in a cardboard container is a potential source of PFOA; take the food out of the container and heat it in glass or ceramic.

For popcorn in the microwave, the group suggests the following: Place a quarter-cup of good quality popcorn in a standard brown paper lunch bag; mix with oil and seasoning; seal the bag with a single staple (one staple does not contain enough metal to cause a spark) and heat for two to three minutes. Alton Brown, who cooks on the Food Network, uses this method.

Another solution is to cook the old-fashioned way. If cast iron pans are seasoned and heated properly, very little oil is needed for browning. Chefs generally do not use nonstick pans because they do not think they do as good a job of cooking as cast iron and stainless steel, especially for browning.

Instant replay TV

Yes, TV networks are rushing whole-season and series compilations out on DVD faster than ever, the Christian Science Monitor confirms. And viewers are biting: Variety reports that sales of TV shows on DVD hit nearly $3 billion last year, up from a mere $160 million in 2000.

Mediaweek.com columnist Marc Berman lists the many pros for viewers: "they don't have to sit through the commercials, the quality is digital so it's great, and they can watch their favorite shows all the way through to the end of the season. They don't have to wait."

Plus, they get all those nifty extras ...

Wasting time at work

If you're not working frantically throughout the workday, you're hardly alone:

The average American worker admits to wasting 2.09 hours per day at work, not counting lunch. So says a recent Web survey by America Online and Salary.com.

While most human-resource managers expect the average employee to waste about an hour a day, the results of this survey were startling. These 2.09 hours per person per day add up to $759 billion in salaries.

The No. 1 reason cited for lack of productivity: not having enough work to do.

Voice vs. text

The sound of a human voice can convey so much than mere written words, no matter how powerful the composition. Witness Hsiao-Ching Chou's podcast reading of her column today, a powerful tribute to her late father.

Loving Greg Nickels

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels may be building a fan following overseas, judging by this commentary in The Guardian by Caroline Hodgson:

I'd nearly given up hope of finding an American politician I could admire. They all seemed spineless, their resolves only stiffened by corporate dollars and the lust for re-election. But then I discovered that American mayors are revolting - and it's all Greg Nickels's fault. ...

(Thanks to Dave in Winchester for the link.)

A ring that's really you

And in the Macabre-Yet-Fascinating Department:

Why go to Tiffany's for a wedding band when you have one grown from your own bones? That's what five British couples did this spring, starting with a trip to the hospital for a quick jaw biopsy to retrieve bone cells....

College 'kids' these days

College students aren't what they used to be, reports The Boston Globe:

Forget famous professors, bulging course catalogs, and ivy-cloaked campuses. It's extras like on-campus child care, evening office hours, and commuter lounges that count most with a growing breed of undergraduates: the independent or ''nontraditional" student.

Public universities and private ones, many of which did little for these students in the past, are scrambling to accommodate them because their numbers have become far too large to ignore. Broadly defined as financially independent, working adults, nontraditional students age 25 and up now make up 38 percent of postsecondary enrollment, compared with 28 percent in 1970, according to US Department of Education estimates. On many campuses, they have become the majority. Only about a quarter of the nation's 14.9 million undergraduates fit the ''traditional" mold of enrolling right out of high school, attending full time, and relying on their parents' purse strings.

Revenge of sneakernet

If memory serves, ubiquitous high-speed networks (especially of the wireless variety) were supposed to do away with the need for sneakernet. But, between flash drives, PDAs, iPods and the like, many of us are probably carrying about a lot more data these days than we ever thought possible.

And that can lead to real problems, as The Washington Post notes:

The ability to carry vast amounts of data in small but easily misplaced items such as computer memory sticks and mobile e-mail devices has transformed the way Americans work, but it has also increased the risk that a forgotten BlackBerry or lost cell phone could amount to a major security breach.

Worried that sensitive information could ride off in the back of a taxicab or be left in a hotel room, companies are peeling back some of the convenience of mobile devices in favor of extra layers of password protection and other restrictions. Some are installing software on their networks to make it impossible to download corporate information to a portable device or a memory stick, which is a plug-in device that holds data for use on other computers. Wireless providers are developing weapons to use against their own products, like digital "neutron bombs" that can wipe out information from long distance so one misplaced device doesn't translate into corporate disaster.

It's a nightmare that individuals and corporations fret about when their mobile e-mail or handheld devices go missing or fall into the wrong hands. With the swift stroke of a keypad, someone's e-mail, corporate data and business contacts can be laid bare for others to see -- and potentially abuse.

How credit scores work

Syndicated columnist Michelle Singletary delves into the mysteries of the credit-scoring algorithm.

World affairs, Unix-style

The War on Terror (as viewed from the Bourne shell) is an inspired bit of geek humor.

Note: Familiarity with Unix required.

(Via Boing Boing.)

Mapping the personals

This was inevitable: HotOrNot + Google Maps.

The printer as spy tool?

Is your printer leaving a unique digital "fingerprint" on every page it prints, one that could be traced directly back to you? Sounds absurd, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that it might well be happening:

In an effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you're using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what's worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse. ...

No more froggy evenings

Horrors! The WB has given spokestoon Michigan J. Frog the hook!

Our own "TV Gal," Melanie McFarland, recalls the highs and lows of his five-decade career in a nice obituary.

Blog spin-offs

You knew this was going to happen: someone has turned her blog into a book and TV series deal, the New York Times reports. In this case, it's Greek Tragedy's Stephanie Klein.

On a new post to the aforementioned blog, she reflects on how being a cyber-celeb has changed her life:

When people ask me how my life has changed, I just shrug. It hasn't really. I mean, I'm still coming home to Linus every night. Yes, sometimes I get the "Are you Stephanie Klein?" thing. But overall, it's still me in here, ya know. Yeah, these events, articles, deals, whatever, they're all happening around me, but really I feel like an observer to it all, as well.

Great example: right now. It's 6:49am on Saturday. I still haven't slept, reading emails, catching up on my blog reading, and boom. I hit a blog entry on my friend Derek's site about me. I hit this place where I'm "Stephanie Klein" this object that stands for something, being written about in windows. That is how my life has changed.

Still a secret

Sure, we now know who Deep Throat was but Colonel Sanders' fried chicken recipe remains one of the best-kept secrets of the 20th century. As the Associated Press reports:

Only a few people know the recipe and are sworn to secrecy. Some are KFC employees, but the company won’t reveal their names. Two companies supply the herbs and spices, but each formulates only part of the ingredients, Dedrick said, and neither supplier knows the other’s identity.

The Colonel’s own handwritten recipe is tucked away in a safe at KFC headquarters, with portions locked away in safe deposit boxes at undisclosed locations as backup.

Of course, some claim to have unraveled the mystery.

See this article at Top Secret Recipes for more on closely guarded corporate culinary treasures.

Pet ID wars

Is it possible for any technology to enter into common use without a knock-down, drag-out standards fight? One of the latest such bloody battles, according to the New York Times, involves identification microchips implanted in pets.

One path to success

I've always been fascinated by the often convoluted and singular paths that lead entrepreneurs toward creating businesses that gain attention in the media or the marketplace.

Case in point: Erna Portteus Patrawke, biochemist, vintner and now maker of all-natural soaps.

Like many enterpreneurs, she started young, running an Anchorage lemonade stand at age 13 -- that was shut down by the police because she didn't have the proper licenses! Clearly, that little setback didn't stop her.

Say what?

If you're a regular reader of Buzzworthy, "podcasting," "RSS" and "phishing" are probably familiar terms to you.

Which puts you squarely in the minority of Americans, according to a new Pew Internet survey (full report PDF). More than half of those polled said they were "not really sure" what those three terms meant. "Phishing" was the best-known of the three, with 29 percent of the sample saying they "had a good idea" what it meant while just 9 percent said that about "RSS feeds" (and 26 percent claimed to have never heard the term before at all).

Even "podcasting," despite all the hoopla, was well-known to just 13 percent of those surveyed.

Perhaps most surprisingly, just 52 percent had a good idea of what "adware" meant, even though people have been complaining about it for much longer. But, at least, 88 percent had a pretty good idea what "spam" is, while "spyware" was familiar to 78 percent.

As the authors note:

The findings are another reminder that new and exciting technology developments that seize the interest of industry officials and journalists such as podcasting and RSS feeds usually take a while to register in the wider public. In addition, it is also clear that public awareness of emerging online threats like those posed by phishing scams takes a while to emerge.

Defining 'podcast'

Definitions of podcasting are easy to find nowadays, but I'm particularly taken with P-I features writer Christina Asavareungchai's explanation in a story about KEXP 90.3/91.7 FM's getting into the act:

Podcasts don't involve peas and broken legs. Rather, they're segments of sound, news or music available for downloading off the Internet and easily transferable to your iPod or MP3 player.

Muni Wi-Fi open to all

Security, or lack thereof, is shaping up as a major failing of municipal Wi-Fi networks, Frank Bulk writes in Network Computing:

It seems that municipal wireless networks based on 802.11 technologies have defaulted to a different approach--let's leave the access medium totally open-- than the incumbent wireline service providers. (I should add that the backhaul from the outdoor-mounted access point or node is usually encrypted.) What previously necessitated physical access to the copper wire and expensive decoding equipment now involves nothing more than a wirelessly enabled laptop with a freely downloadable copy of Ethereal. It requires minimal effort for your 'neighbor' two houses down to capture all your data packets from the comfort of his or her home. Even if the wireless broadband network requires authentication via a portal, the access link likely remains in the clear.

Local wireless guru Glenn Fleishman weighs in with some additional thoughts.

Not worth stealing

My favorite quote of the week (so far) comes from Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing:

The release of the Garbage Pail Kids movie on DVD marks an exciting new anti-piracy technique from our friends in Hollywood: releasing DVDs of unwatchably bad movies that you'd be hard pressed to find a reason to download.

It's funny, but also makes an interesting point about digital content piracy: some stuff is so bad that no one will want to go to the trouble of stealing it. On the other hand, the copyright owners are probably quite correct in thinking that they can find people to pay money for it.

Human nature is a curious thing.

Office chat boundaries

Some subjects still aren't acceptable discussion topics, at least in the workplace, according to the Wall Street Journal:

Even today, when actors routinely have sex on TV and the headlines feature sensitive topics ranging from libido-enhancing drugs to euthanasia, there are some things bosses and co-workers just don't want to know. But what are those things? A societal shift toward more diversity in lifestyles has changed the rules on what is OK to talk about at work and what isn't. ...

As seen on TV

In a pair of dispatches from the TV critics' summer press tour, Melanie McFarland explains how one new show -- CBS's "Threshold" -- serves as a yardstick for measuring "social progress in TV land." It seems that dwarves are making strides; smart women, not so much.

Apple and adult podcasts

As everyone expected, the new podcast directory on Apple's iTunes Music Store has helped some previously low-profile 'casters become overnight sensations.

The directory has also helped publicize the wide array of sex-oriented podcasts available, according to The Wall Street Journal. And this raises some important questions about the potential pitfalls as big-brand companies start dealing with grassroots media:

As podcasting reaches a more mainstream audience, the more risque audio shows -- and Apple's role in distributing them -- could come under greater scrutiny. Apple declined to say whether any of its users have complained about the adult podcasts, which can be downloaded by anyone regardless of age. The company said it could potentially pull programs that it deems too explicit, but declined to say whether it has done so yet.

Apple allows podcasters to submit their own audio shows for inclusion in iTunes. Those who discuss adult material are asked to mark their podcasts as "explicit" by checking a box; Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said the service has no specific guidelines as to what constitutes explicit content. She said Apple tries to review as many submissions as it can for "really obvious" adult content. Listeners can click on a button marked "Report a Concern" if they feel that a podcast isn't marked as explicit and should be. "If for some reason we miss it, customers usually catch it," Ms. Kerris said.

Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research who covers consumer technology and the music industry, says there are risks in Apple's willingness to accept content from amateur users. "Apple needs to be careful to protect its brand here," he said. "The editorial function is just getting more and more important." Apple declined to comment.

Vista on the horizon

So it's official: Microsoft's "Longhorn" operating system will be called Windows Vista.

Anyone else think that sounds like the name of a car?

Of course, I always thought Longhorn sounded like a sandwich ...

(See Todd Bishop's blog for reaction to the name.)

Trust today

Another sign of the times: GeoTrust is pitching what amounts to a seal of approval that will mark legitimate companies when they turn up in search results that might also include fraudulent firms.

So, we've reached the point where we need a third party to tell us whether a link is worth the trouble -- or risk -- of clicking.

Fear and finance

Brain damage -- at least of a certain type -- could be good for your investment portfolio, The Wall Street Journal notes:

People with certain kinds of brain damage may make better investment decisions. That is the conclusion of a new study offering some compelling evidence that mixing emotion with investing can lead to bad outcomes.

By linking brain science to investment behavior, researchers concluded that people with an impaired ability to experience emotions could actually make better financial decisions than other people under certain circumstances. The research is part of a fast-growing interdisciplinary field called "neuroeconomics" that explores the role biology plays in economic decision making, by combining insights from cognitive neuroscience, psychology and economics. ...

The study suggests the participants' lack of emotional responsiveness actually gave them an advantage when they played a simple investment game. The emotionally impaired players were more willing to take gambles that had high payoffs because they lacked fear. Players with undamaged brain wiring, however, were more cautious and reactive during the game, and wound up with less money at the end.

Anyone can publish ... a book

Sure, the Web has made it easier than ever for anyone to publish online but some people still prefer to put their works out in book form. (Among other advantages, people still pay money for hard-copy books.) The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently looked at the boom in authors who self-publish:

There are 86,000 small or self-publishers in the United States, according to Para Publishing, an author consulting firm. And 8,000 to 11,000 new publishers spring up annually, said R.R. Bowker, which assigns a unique catalog number - an ISBN - to track books nationwide.

Remembering Scotty

The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame will host a public memorial for James Doohan tonight at 7 p.m.

That big summer festival

Seafair: Do you love it or loathe it?

DYI armchair media

How did citizen journalists perform in covering today's bombings in London? Not that great, according to Vincent Maher, a multimedia journalism instructor at Rhodes University who was looking for good examples.

Roots of terror

An interesting -- and important -- foreign policy insight, courtesy of Fred Kaplan at Slate:

Three new studies, by very different authors taking very different tacks, reach much the same conclusion about modern terrorism: that its practitioners, especially its foot soldiers, are motivated not so much by Islamic fantasies of the caliphate's restoration and the snuffing of freedom, but rather by resistance to foreign occupation of Arab lands.

Nothing about this conclusion makes terrorist acts more justified, or less abhorrent, or a slighter assault on the bonds of civilization. Understanding is not the same as excusing. Still, understanding can be a useful tool for devising a cogent response and an effective policy. ...

Sounding better

Voice makeovers are growing in popularity, according to The New York Times:

A beautiful and commanding voice has always been important to actors and singers. But now many others want one. And why not? If gorgeous hair, sculptured torsos, flawless skin and sparkling white teeth are worthy of pursuit, why shouldn't a richer, more sonorous voice be one more item on the checklist of perfection?

You are who knows you

The Washington Post examines an inevitable side effect of the boom in sites and software built around social networks: "Online popularity is the state-of-the-art measure of vanity."

Costco's art dealer

Yes, you can buy an original Picasso on Costco.com. WSJ.com tells the interesting story behind that.

Hip? Not cool

A Los Angeles Times story on why being hip is out -- being called a hipster is now "the worst of insults," one culture-watcher opines -- includes this interesting look at just what the term has come to mean in today's high-speed culture:

Just what is hip has become nebulous in a digital age of microtrends, when a cultural blip goes from underground to overexposed in one season. Likewise, the original concept of hip as something outside the purview of the mainstream has been replaced by the hipstream: mainstream cool packaged by corporate marketing departments.

The inevitable backlash — not against the bohemian veritas but the sycophantic consumer of cool — is well underway.

Cutting out discounts

Those weekly specials at the supermarket may be another relic of 20th-century life that won't survive long into the 21st. The Wall Street Journal reports that a number of grocery chains are cutting everyday prices for a variety of reasons:

Bowing to busy consumers who are less willing to spend time searching for deals, some traditional grocery stores are cutting back on promotional discounts and moving toward the everyday low prices of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other discounters.

In recent months, several regional grocery chains have reduced prices on everything from Kraft macaroni & cheese to Ragu pasta sauce in an effort to lure back shoppers who have defected to discount grocers. In most cases, the stores also stopped offering weekly bargains on items like cereal or yogurt.

For decades, most traditional supermarkets have lured price-conscious shoppers with cheap weekly specials and made up the lost profit by keeping nonsale prices substantially higher. Now, the prevalence of shops such as Costco Wholesale Corp., dollar stores and discounters such as Wal-Mart has conditioned consumers to expect inexpensive goods every day.

Geopolitically speaking

danah boyd finds some entertaining parallels between Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, and various 20th-century nation-states:

Microsoft is Germany. They did some pretty evil things a while back but you don't remember the details, you just know that you really hate them. Even though they're really no worse than any other large corporpation/country, you can't help but distrust them permanently because, well, you always have.

Yahoo is Japan. It had an economic crisis that almost destroyed it and it plays too nice with all of the other evil empires, supporting the most evil endeavors. It hasn't really innovated for a while, but it tries to improve on known products to support average people. It's currently trying to sell culture in the form of animated cutesy iconic images which you kinda like and kinda despise.

Google is the United States. It has never seen trouble on home turf. It is arrogant and loved by the elite. You know you're supposed to respect them for being better than everyone else, because they think they are, but you actually kinda resent them for being so rich and powerful. Yet, you really like their cool toys.

Also see how her readers pick up the idea and run with it.

To the Moon ...

Google Moon is an amusing interactive tribute to the first manned lunar landing 36 years ago today. Using the same interface as the terrestrially oriented Google Maps, it offers a zoomable, pannable map of the Moon's surface, highlighting the sites where the six Apollo missions touched down.

For the amusing bit, zoom in all the way on one of those sites.

Oh yeah, the answer to Question No. 4 on the FAQ offers a (cough, cough) rare glimpse at Google's far-future expansion plans.

The chilling effect of blogs

Not all bloggers crave -- or even welcome -- celebrity and/or infamy, let alone the "opportunities" that come with it.

Being able to broadcast your words and your thoughts to the whole world can be liberating and empowering. But when the whole world suddenly starts paying attention, the end result can be a chilling effect that leads to self-censorship.

For example, take "Tessy," whose blog cost her a job and earned her what amounts to a public smearing by her former employer in The New York Times. (Her rebuttal's here, by the way.) She won't quit blogging but says she'll "always blog anonymously from now on." In other words, she's learned the harsh lesson that her thoughts, her views, her life are things to be disavowed in public.

Tragic.

Beware e-cards

Even e-mailed greeting cards are suspect nowadays, it seems. An IDG News Service warns of how faked e-cards are being used to install malicious software.

Personal Pygmalions

You can add lifestyle designer to the list of new occupations for the 21st century, according to The Wall Street Journal:

In a world where people are finding no end to the pressure to be stylish, the booming market for upscale personal services has spawned a new, even more rarefied creature: the self-described lifestyle designer.

Not to be confused with butlers, personal concierges or even image consultants, these advisers consider themselves general contractors of good taste. For as much as $450 an hour, they will insert themselves into a client's life and begin parsing everything from wardrobe and home decor to party planning, gift-giving and picking out the perfect car. About the only thing they won't do is run errands.

The Dork Ages

Gosh! It's cool to be dorky right now! Well, it's about time ...

(Yup, we have an open Sound Off on this topic, too.)

Political placeholders

In Washington, D.C., at least, you can make decent money standing in line in the halls of power.

Dreams in the last days

Newsweek takes a fascinating look at the dreams people have before they die:

As a hospice chaplain for 10 years, the Rev. Patricia Bulkley confronted the raw emotions of the dying—their terror at the approaching end, their unresolved family problems, their crises of faith. ...

As Bulkley reveals in a slender but powerful new book, "Dreaming Beyond Death," many people have extraordinary dreams in their final days and weeks. These dreams can help the dying grapple with their fears, find the larger meaning in their lives, even mend fences with relatives. Yet all too often, caregivers dismiss them as delusional or unworthy of attention. Not Bulkley, who often discussed dreams with patients at the Hospice of Marin in California. Her experiences were the inspiration for the book, which she coauthored with her son Kelly Bulkeley, a past president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. It is the first volume devoted to the (paradoxically) life-affirming power of pre-death dreams. And though the research is still preliminary, the authors inject level-headed analysis into an arena often dominated by seekers of the paranormal.

Harsh faces of HDTV

You may have heard that some performers and on-air personalities are nervous about how HDTV all too literally gives viewers a "warts and all" view of every last facial blemish. But you probably haven't heard it framed in sweeping socio-historical terms:

"There are careers that end when new technologies come along," said Dr. Toby Miller, director of the Film and Visual Culture program at the University of California, Riverside. "The men get older and more distinguished and women get younger and less experienced. There will be nips and tucks and makeup. All that will be valued with women is youthfulness and beauty."

That dispiriting quote comes from an engaging Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about the topic.

Incidentally, the story also points to TVPredictions.com's lists of the top celebrities who will look worse, look better and look just plain scary on high-def sets.

Rating games

Is the system for rating video games any less arbitrary and capricious than the one that seems to be used for rating movies? You probably already guessed the answer to that, but Slate delivers the gory details.

Arm first, aim later?

An interesting story in today's Times looks at the state of America's much-vaunted defense system against incoming nuclear warheads. It's been installed, it's even being expanded, but the jury's still out on whether it actually works.

His job really is ...

Over the weekend, P-I "TV Gal" Melanie McFarland's been blogging some great tidbits from the midsummer press tour. For instance:

Night two was HBO’s outdoor “Rome” themed event. Artisanal cheeses you could drizzle with honey...but, why? Uncomfortable seating. Fabric remnants left over from the HBO central office’s interior renovation, offered to us as togas. Middle aged guys stumbling around in those togas.

The night’s most memorable star? A white horse some poor soul led around the party that a) was male and thinking about a sexy mare, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down; and b) full of fiber, which he proved by raising his tail a few feet away from a buffet table. An employee had to run up to Mr. Ed's backside with a bucket. That made me feel a lot better about my job.

I speak you for many of us there, Melanie.

Harry hype

You knew that there had to be an environmental angle to all the hoopla surrounding the new Harry Potter book.

On a related note, P-I features reporter (and devoted Harry fan) Rebekah Denn seeks an explanation for the exploding popularity and enduring appeal of the young wizard.

Inspired by Arfa

Todd Bishop's profile of Arfa Karim Randhawa, a 10-year-old girl who might well be the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, has inspired a lot of interesting discussion on Slashdot. Very wide-ranging discussion, too, covering topics from the definition of "genius" to rude poems about Bill Gates to interesting ruminations about why more men than women go into software development. Oh, and as you might expect, there's a lot of debate about whether Microsoft's certifications are worth anything at all.

About vlogging

Wired News is doing a three-part series on video blogging, or vlogging. In Part One, Katie Dean provides a nice blue-sky overview. In Part Two, Dean and David Cohn explain how to roll your own vlog.

We're making some changes

As frequent users of our forums have already noticed, we've made a few changes to them. It's part of an effort to standardize the look, feel and functionality of our on-site feedback systems. (And thanks to all those who have provided their feedback, sometimes quite vociferously. We have made, and will continue to make, changes based on your comments.)

The forum facelist is also part of a larger-scale effort to revamp the registration system on SeattlePI.com. In the near future, we plan on offering new features and services for registered users. Don't worry: You'll still be able to view our news stories, wire feeds, columns, blogs, sports statistics, calendar listings, photo galleries and other current content even if you don't register.

You will have to register, however, to take full advantage of our on-site search engine. If you're not registered, it will now only display results and links for stories that have been modified in the past three days. You'll need to sign up and log in to see older search results. You can still browse by date, however, even if you don't. (Full-text archives from the Post-Intelligencer newspaper prior to 1999 have always required registration for access.)

A 10-year-old's mantra

Courtesy of Todd Bishop: the meaning of life (MP3), according to 10-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa, the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional.

A need for understanding

Dan Gillmor weighs in with sound advice on the topic of online indiscretions coming back to haunt us:

The fact is that everyone has done or at least said something that is embarrassing. Who among us hasn't made an idle comment that we've come to deeply regret in retrospect, a comment that if blared to the world could be ruinous if not treated as the idle and foolish, and therefore forgivable, remark that it was?

I've said before, and repeat: We'd better start cutting each other some slack. People deserve some privacy, for starters, but they also deserve to be given leeway for what they've said when they were young, or in forums that have nothing to do with their employment.

The alternative is that we will hire and elect drones: people who were dull before and will be dull forever. I'm more interested in people who may sometimes go too far but who are at least taking risks, exploring what it means to expand their horizons.

Road rage from remotes

Our own TV Gal, Melanie McFarland, is blogging from the Television Critics Association summer press tour this month. No encounters with a drunken Lex Luthor so far this year, but she did share this interesting theory about the origins of road rage from classic TV comedian Sid Caesar:

Television brought an awful lot of things to our lives, but one thing it brought to our lives was the remote control. The remote control changed everything... The remote control took over the timing of the world. That's why you have road rage, you have people who have no patience, because you got immediate gratification. You got click, click, click, click, if it doesn't explode within three seconds, click, click, click, click, click, "Ah, nothing on."

From good to bad

Just as you've always suspected: things that medical science deems good for you often turn out to be bad for you in the long run, according to a new study.

Biometrics at the grocer

Paying for your groceries with your fingerprint is here, now, in the United States. South Carolina, to be exact, reports the Financial Times.

Excesses of citizen media

The London bombings have been hailed as a triumphant milestone for citizen journalism -- and rightly so, in the humble opinion of this observer.

However, they've also helped reveal the darker side of what happens when everyone can be a chronicler, commentator and publisher:

• Online Journalism Review's Mark Glaser asks, Did London bombings turn citizen journalists into citizen paparazzi? "That naked impulse to tell a disaster story, glaring kleig lights and all, was once the province of mainstream and tabloid news organizations. But no longer. Now, for better and worse, our fellow citizens stand by, cameraphones in pockets, ready to photograph us in our direst times."

  Glaser interviews Xeni Jardin, who observes: "These are ethical issues that we once thought only applied to a certain class of people who had adopted the role of news as a profession. Now that more of us have the ability to capture and disseminate evidence or documentation of history as a matter of course, as a matter of our daily lives -- as a casual gesture that takes very little time, no money, not a lot of skill -- those ethical issues become considerations for all of us."

• In the New York Times, Sarah Boxer observes how We're Not Afraid, which started out as "a mass pictorial response" showing solidarity and defiance after the attack, "seems to be turning into a place where the haves of the world can show that they're not afraid of the have-nots."

When guys hug

The most popular story on SeattlePI.com is a Denver Post pick-up on the growing popularity of male hugging.

It's gotten linked from quite a few sites, including Netscape's Home & Real Estate index (?) where it was featured until just a few minutes ago, as illustrated here.

If you're curious, here are the related articles shown in the screenshot:

• Oregon schools ban hugging
• Fathers are hugging children more

The brain as iPod

Neuron Network Goes Awry, and Brain Becomes an IPod is the you-can't-pass-this-up headline on a fascinating New York Times story about musical hallucinations.

Experts suspect the condition, where people hear songs playing in their heads even if they're deaf, is often undiagnosed.

Update: On a related note, here's an interesting item on why those voices some people hear tend to be sound male.

What makes risk takers tick

What do mountain climbers, firefighters, bank robbers and addicts have in common? A genetic predilection toward intense stimulation, according to behavioral scientists:

"They have in common this: They love taking risks," said Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, one of the nation's leading experts on behavioral reasons behind risky behavior. "For (climbers and criminals) it's the socialization that's mostly different. What were the outside influences?"

It's those influences, he said, that sometimes dictate between the paths of bank robbing or climbing El Capitan's vertical granite. ...

Zuckerman -- who coined the term "high sensation seeking" -- said research indicates that it "has a strong genetic component, more than most personality components."

Physiologically, this means such seekers either have an unusual number of neural receptors that process dopamine, which induces the feeling of pleasure, or they simply have highly reactive ones. The research isn't definitive. But researchers know this much: Such people are driven to repeat whatever unusually intense stimulation they receive.

"My theory is that they have more reactive dopamine receptors," Zuckerman said.

Generally, the high-sensation-seeking types fall into four broad categorizations. Some fill more than one: thrill and adventure seeking; experience seeking (non-conformity or impulsiveness, for example); disinhibition seeking (such as multiple sex partners, drugs or drinking); and boredom susceptibility.

Calling up a book

I've always been puzzled by how few information services there are for cell phone users that use text-to-speech technology.

So I was pleasantly surprised to discover Amabuddy, which Cory Doctorow highlighted on Boing Boing. If you have a book's or CD's ISBN number, you can dial a toll-free number (888-937-4462), type it in and get pricing and customer-rating information on it from Amazon.com.

Here's what Amabuddy told me (MP3) about a randomly selected book I read recently.

Gone but not forgotten

Many beloved local hangouts and neighborhood institutions around Seattle have closed in recent years, victims of changing times and a morphing cityscape. Which ones do you miss the most?

DVD standoff

Why can't Hollywood studios agree on a standard for higher-capacity DVDs? The New York Times explains:

Hollywood has been unable to throw its weight behind one format, and because the rival discs are largely incompatible, the studios have been unable to persuade the manufacturers to reach a compromise or to get one side to withdraw.

Compounding matters, many Hollywood executives have staked their reputations - both corporate and personal - on one technology or the other, making it politically difficult for them to switch sides.

Yet the studios, retailers and makers of electronics, computers and video games are still gearing up for a format war over the new technology, which promises high-definition video, enhanced audio and a slew of interactive features.

ICE in your pocket

Here's an interesting idea: storing emergency contact info on your cell phone for the benefit of paramedics and other aid workers.

The lake heats up

An in-depth report in today's P-I looks at how evidence of global warming is turning up in Seattle's back yard: the water temperature in Lake Washington has been rising over the past few decades. Just a degree or two, but it's enough to threaten the lake's entire ecosystem, writes environmental reporter Lisa Stiffler.

Tip clue to the real you

We are what we tip, posits Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Updyke:

OK, it's true that tipping isn't the most pressing money matter that people deal with. Yet it's sometimes one of the most contentious.

On one level, the disagreement is simple: We all place a different value on the services we receive. Your definition of appropriate may be my definition of stinginess.

But the tipping controversy goes beyond that: It's also about appearance and ego, a litmus test for the kind of person we're perceived to be, and the kind of person we perceive others to be. We want to come across as fair though not excessive, prudent yet not cheap.

It's a balancing act that, while it might not always be conscious, shapes the way we dole out gratuities. And when you and your dining companion are on different ends of the spectrum, the size of the tip can leave a bitter taste in your mouth after every meal.

Transient data debate

Conflicts between privacy issues and police powers -- often involving the design of our high-tech infrastructure -- have become pretty ubiquitous in this country since 9/11. One of the latest, however, comes from across the Atlantic: British police have requested that mobile phone carriers and ISPs