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The blog's new clothes

My name is Will.  This is what I clicked.

• September 5, 2006 |

OK, this is it, Clicked is officially moving to http://Clicked.MSNBC.MSN.com.  This page will no longer update.  Please adjust your bookmarks.

The direct RSS feed is http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/rss.aspx but see the new site for other syndication options. 

All of the past archives will continue to be stored .

I'll continue to receive mail at Spotter@MSNBC.com.

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I'm blogging .  It's the new home for Clicked that I mentioned on Friday.  I'm still getting a feel for the new workflow, so this is a soft launch.  I appreciate your feedback on it from a reader perspective.  I'll have a bit more on the new features once I get in the swing of it.  In the meantime, feel free to you have and take note of the .

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Re: Column frequency

Will replies:  Hi Jerry, sorry to be such a slacker.  The answer is that I've been on paternity leave for August so I've just been trying to keep the blog warm so I don't totally lose all my readers while I'm out.

What's more, this week I'm on an actual vacation without regular Internet access (I'm at a Barnes and Noble right now).  I thought I'd be able to keep working from the road but that's not worked out as I planned after all, so this week has been a dead fish.

The good news is that I'm not fired or cancelled or anything like that.  I'll be back in full force (actually with more time to blog because we re-arranged some of my work responsibilities) after Labor Day.

As further good news (I hope) we're going to migrate Clicked to some more traditional blogware, which means smaller entries, categories, comments, RSS feed, etc.  I hope to make that happen as early as next week.  I'll be back in regular Internet range on Monday and hopefully I'll put up an entry in a few minutes before my quarter runs out here at the bookstore.

Thanks for your interest,
Will

What I clicked before I entered the naked airless space of Internet disconnectedness:

LaShawn Barber that the recent case of with Middle Eastern looking men on board is a symptom of a lack of confidence in authorities' abilities to ensure our safety.  I think there is also an element of the public being asked to contribute to the effort but not really being trained how to do it.  In New York City we have signs on the subway that say, "If you see something, say something."  But of course, if you say something you could tie up the city in security alerts that could cascade into a dip in the global economy.  It's a fascinating parallel with what news agencies are wrestling with as they try to incorporate public news reports and photos.  How to solicit help from the public without jamming the system with junk, and how to separate the useful stuff from the not-useful stuff.  Of course, no trains blow up if we publish a bogus cell phone camera photo.  With a movement toward participatory media and participatory journalism and participatory security (and ), when will we begin to see discussion of Democracy 2.0?

Actually, there already is something called .  It's an exercise in participatory legislation in wiki form.  If the country were starting from scratch, what laws should we have?

— As I write this there are only 955.  They want you to add your own reasons to the list.  As might be expected, the list is a little messy toward the end.

Slate presents:  — It's done comic book style.

— very pretty hand grenades.

would I have to store up in the winter in order to air condition my house all summer?  Short answer:  a million pounds of ice, or a cube the size of your house.

— A chart showing the value of the dollar against its value in 1913.  "In 2002, for example, it took $17.89 to buy what $1 bought in 1913."

"The legendary economist "Free to Choose" is now available on Google Video for free."

— Hysterical revolutionary war flag parody around 1:50.  The Sally Struthers slide at 2:20 is good too.  No nudity.

They ridiculous story of the .

Tracing the fine line in marketing between treating your customers well and being a manipulative lying jerk just out to make a buck.  Seeks to answer the question of without being one of those people/companies who are always pushing their stuff.  I found this interesting because I hate being marketed to, but if I had something to sell, how would I do it without marketing?

Speaking of trying to sell you something, — The note on number 4 says, "A rule of thumb: always initiate your own purchases and never let anyone else start the process for you."

.  (Yes, they work.)

Even as shapes up, it's hard to ignore a couple months ago and last year's record.  While the first chart at this link is interesting in showing storm rates, the second graphic map of ocean temperatures is particularly intriguing.  Mostly normal water temperatures with a lot of areas cooler than normal, but the northern waters are where the temperatures are higher than normal.  I wonder if melting ice at the poles can keep down water temps elsewhere and mitigate some of the forecasted turmoil.

With northern spottings I would have expected more red on the water temperature averages map on the East Coast.

Instead of body/mass index, Researchers say may paint better picture of fitness.  "Ratios above 0.8 for women and 0.95 for men are linked to obesity-related complications and diseases."  So I've got to make sure my butt is bigger than my gut to pass the test.

"" — This is mostly jibberish to me, but it's the most explicit I've seen in showing what a security weakness looks like.  I've seen "watch what I can do" demos, but with these examples, even not understand the computer code you can see parts that make you say, "Oh, that's probably bad."

"With , actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view."  Given the filtering and automation performed on search databases, I'm not sure this solves anything.

—  Is there anything more exciting than an article that begins with "To the bafflement of insect experts..."

Aggregating peer reviewed .

Why the dark matter theory is .  By the way, everyone is pointing to as a good explanation of dark matter.  I'm copying the text out to read later when I'm back in the void of normal non-web space.

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No sooner did I click about progressives getting their heads out of the Lamont Lieberman race and moving on to other states than I clicked shot by of a stump speech by Tim Walz, Democratic challenger in a Minnesota congressional race.  After all the talk of candidates blogging and putting campaign ads online, I'm beginning to think the real online campaigning will be done by supporters with little, if any, guidance by the campaign itself.

Speaking of participatory media, — Steve does a good job of explaining it, but basically the Washington Post will act as a go-between, connecting advertisers with appropriate blogs.  The twist is that the Post will prominently feature blogs in the network on WashingtonPost.com, giving the whole thing a traffic goose.

I admit I didn't think the zombie flash mob thing would last as long as it has.  (I recall a zombie event last summer and there was a video of zombies fighting medieval recreationists floating around for a while.  Most recent is a .  These are the best photos of one of these I've seen.

" are balls of mud, molded by hand into perfect spheres, dried, and polished to an unbelievable luster."

I'm kind of blown away by that says that tobacco companies can't describe their cigarettes as "light" anymore.  What are they going to call the Marlboros in the white box?  How will smokers order a "pack of lights?"  Talk about the end of an era!

Steve Huff is and culling a lot of cool Web research.  Things like Karr's and teen Web lure site .

when they look at the NY Times.  This being from the Huffington Post, a liberal site, it's probably meant to offend conservatives, but I reckon they'd agree with some of it.

Kelly Clarkson, the guy from Yellowcard and a metal band called Metal Skool and eventually sing Guns N' Roses.  Somehow the only one on the stage who can sing ends up without a mic in her hand.  This walks the line between cool fun and waste of time depending on your disposition.  NOTE:  Some coarse language.

Speaking of metal singing, here's proof that it's possible to .

is finally out and it rocks.  So good, I'm afraid to see the movie.  (I love the lost Mars probe idea.  Don't tell me you're not secretly convinced there's more to that story.)

is "a blog network, and more recently a social network, targeting young, hip women."  I don't know much about female demographic code words, but reading through the site I'm thinking "young hip women" means teenage girls.  It iVillage 2.0.

hopes you'll use their service to keep track of your diet and fitness.  This totally works for some people who like to write things down and keep orderly track of their lives.  Personally, I'd log onto the computer, get side tracked and never make it to the gym and eat a bag of nachos while tinkering with my diet chart.

A possible sneak peek at Amazon's .  At the very bottom he explains how he found it.  Pretty clever.

If you know where Elvis is but haven't said anything about it, .

I've played this four times in a row.  Slammin'.

"SOM’s tower in Guangzhou, China, than it uses."  SOM is Skidmore, Owings & Merrill the architecture firm.  "The tower will harvest wind, humidity, and solar power from the environment and use it to maximum efficiency through myriad interwoven systems."  Click the slide show on the right for more specific examples of what they plan to do.  Then imagine a city of these.

At some point, at least once, everyone who has seen "Who wants to be a millionaire" has said, "Can you imagine if someone got the first question wrong?"  .

Remember that note from a reader the other day about guitar tab sites shutting down because of legal threats over copyright?  .

Dateline's utterly depressing feature on how kids are by the time they can speak.  They do a little experiment with three and four year olds to see how they're influenced by marketing icons.  At what age do we learn that everyone is a liar trying to sell us something?

In spite of the president's insistence that the country break its oil addiction, the nation's train system is apparently not a considered alternative.  their slow sag from hope to despair on a recent train trip.

A quick tour of the .

"If aliens landed in your backyard and gave you one minute to describe everything there is to know about human behavior, ?"

Free stream of the