Janetnews.com Blog

For Bloggers Seeking Name Recognition, Nothing Beats a Good Scandal
By TOM ZELLER Jr.

It’s a fair bet that, given a political scandal of a certain scale, the usual blogs - DailyKos, AmericaBlog, Instapundit and Wonkette - will draw traffic and links. Make it a media scandal, like Dan Rather’s “60 Minutes” fiasco or Jayson Blair’s fabrications at The New York Times, and other sites might bubble to the top: Romenesko or perhaps Gawker for a snideways view of things. And why not? As in any other medium, branding matters, and these sites have proven their mettle in scandals past.

But the blogosphere is expanding at a rate of 70,000 sites a day, according to Technorati, the blog search portal, which now tracks activity on more than 20 million blogs in real time - and the right bit of news can always catapult new sites into the limelight.

N.J. students ordered to take down blogs

NEWARK, N.J. — A Roman Catholic high school has ordered its students to remove personal blogs from the Internet in the name of protecting them from cyberpredators.

Students at Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta appear to be heeding a directive from the principal, the Rev. Kieran McHugh, to remove personal postings about the school or themselves from Web sites like myspace.com or xanga.com, even if they were posted from the students’ home computers.

BBC NEWS | Americas | New York dims lights to aid birds

The city that never sleeps is turning out the lights on dozens of skyscrapers in the hope of protecting birds distracted from migration paths. Every night in autumn, hundreds collide with Manhattan’s high-rise towers.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Cornwall | Harry Potter’s ‘flying’ car taken

The “flying” Ford Anglia used in the Harry Potter films has been stolen from studios in Cornwall.

Police said the rusting Ford Anglia, registration 7990 TD, went missing from the South West Film Studios in St Agnes on Wednesday night.

The car, which could not have been driven, could be seen from the road.

Paris 2005: Part II

Here is only a part of what I saw at the Louvre. I also kept taking video of the ceiling which you’ll see towards the end. The ceiling in the Louvre is just as striking as the art on the walls. The place is amazing and there really is no way to capture the emotions I felt when I roamed the Louvre’s halls.

The song used is Paris from Faith Hill’s newest CD: Fireflies

Yahoo Puts News, Blogs Side by Side
By Eric Auchard, Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)—Yahoo Inc. said on Monday it will begin featuring the work of self-published Web bloggers side by side with the work of professional journalists, leveling distinctions between the two.

Yahoo News, the world’s most popular Internet media destination, is set to begin testing on Tuesday an expanded news search system that includes not only news stories and blogs but also user-contributed photos and related Web links.

The move will further stoke the debate between media traditionalists who want to maintain strict walls between news and commentary and those who argue such boundaries are elitist and undervalue the work of “citizen journalists.”

Interesting article from the NYTimes.com:

Parents Fret That Dialing Up Interferes With Growing Up

A report on teenagers and technology released this summer by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that teenagers’ use of computers has increased significantly. More than half of teenage Internet users go online daily, up from 42 percent in 2000, the report said; 81 percent of those users play video games, up from 52 percent.

Instant messaging has become “the digital communication backbone of teens’ daily lives,” used by 75 percent of online teenagers, according to the Pew report. “Parents are really struggling with this,” said David Walsh, the president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, a nonprofit educational organization in Minneapolis that began a program this year to help families reduce screen time and increase physical activity. “As the gadgets keep evolving, they keep consuming more and more of our kids’ time. Our kids need a balanced diet of activity, and the problem is that it’s getting out of balance. I don’t think as a society we’re dealing with it yet.”

Bloggers Will Interpret News - for a Fee

Now, the Belmont, Calif., company has a new customized service that Masnick dubbed InfoAdvisor because it delivers tailored Web feeds from news outlets and blogs pertinent to a customer’s interest.

The key: Masnick’s corral of geeks — journalists, analysts and engineers — edit those feeds and provide their expert commentary, telling you who and what to trust. Traditional media mostly had a lock on that market before the Internet let loose an information flood.

Selling on eBay? Timing is important

But if you want your fair share of the cash, never offer an item on a Friday night or Saturday, says Dan Vnuk, whose family has sold more than 1,300 items on eBay. “People are just too busy. Sunday is the best day to start an auction, with success waning as the week goes on. Personally, I like Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.”

Donna and Janet on a London Streetcorner near the Holbert Underground station. I have NO idea why we were just standing there. Here’s a little background: It was our FIRST full day in London. We were really tired and we were giddy. That same night we thought we should go see the broadway show Mary Poppins. Boy, were we in for a surprise when Mary Poppins was NOT a spoonful of sugar, but more like a doseful of Ambien. This video shows Donna and me on a street corner, why, I’m not quite sure. Enjoy! More Europe is to come as I sort through our video.