Aside

Gadling reports that one of my favorite small businesses from my hometown is closing its doors at the end of May. Everything is 20 percent off until then. Although I only went in there a few times, they always had what I wanted and were helpful and friendly. I bought my Melbourne Lonely Planet there in 2002. I’ll be sure to stop in when I’m home next month. You might want to consider health insurance for travelers if you’re going…

Go find your nearest Ben & Jerry’s. Wait about 20 minutes. Enjoy said free ice cream.

I really want a copy of this map to hang on my wall, to replace my National Geographic world map. It combines a political and physical map, along with Internet top level domains and country calling codes. Damn cool! You can buy it in four different flavors: 48-inch — 24-inch (122cm — 61cm) Laminated: $63.75 Unlaminated: $40 34-inch — 17-inch (86cm — 43cm) Laminated: $40 Unlaminated: $25 Oh man, I’m so tempted to buy this. For now, I’ve just made…

Bush is in the Oval office when Rummy walks in. “Sit down, I have some bad news,” says Rummy. Bush sits. “8 Brazilian soldiers were killed by insurgents in Iraq,” he says. Bush goes pale, puts his hands on the desk, bows his head. “Are you Ok?” asks Rummy. “I’m Ok,” says Bush. “I’ll be alright. Wow. 8 Brazilian. Wow. Just one question. How many is a Brazilian?”

“GETTING THERE”, The New Yorker; April 17, 2006: A map is a piece of art. It is also a form of language — a rendering of information. A good map can occupy the eye and the mind longer than almost any other single page of data, including Scripture, poetry, sheet music, and baseball box scores. A map contains multitudes.

The toughest, most demanding and most ultimately rewarding professor I ever had, Sam Freedman, has just come out with his latest book, Letters to a Young Journalist. Poynter (a clearinghouse of journalism industry happenings) has a great interview with him: You’re tough on bloggers, FOX News and citizen journalists. As a former New Yorke Times reporter and tenured professor at Columbia Journalism School, what separates you from charges that you’re an elitist scold? I don’t mind being called an elitist…

Variety reported last night that J.J. Abrams (the mastermind behind “Alias”, “Lost”, and the soon-to-be-released “Mission:Impossible III”) and his team from “Lost” is going to make the next “Star Trek” feature film, to be released in 2008. Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk, Abrams’ producing team from “Lost,” also will produce the yet-to-be-titled feature. Project, to be penned by Abrams and “MI3” scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, will center on the early days of seminal “Trek” characters James T. Kirk…

Clive Thompson is at it again — this time he’s just penned a long piece on Google in China for The New York Times Magazine: It was difficult for me to know exactly how [Kai-Fu Lee, head of operations for Google in China] felt about the company’s arrangement with China’s authoritarian leadership. As a condition of our meeting, Google had demanded that I not raise the issue of government relations; only the executives in Google’s California head office were allowed…

No, I wasn’t imagining things. After 13 months of use, my iBook battery has cycled 279 times, thus reducing its capacity. It now can run on the battery for about one hour. A new battery is about $100 – $120. Damn. So that reduces the resale value of this iBook when I sell it, whenever the new MacBooks come out.

In journo-speak that means that The World isn’t airing it. It happens all the time, but it still sucks. They were kind enough to provide me with the mixed version of it, as it would have aired. You can listen to it here. Here’s the intro, that would have been read by the show’s host: Over the last few years, wireless Internet access, known as WiFi, has become more and more widespread. Various cities, ranging from Philadelphia to Paris are…