FEMA, Google, Forbes. Take your pick.

Because I'm not particularly well versed in the Gomery revelations or the legal wherewithal to discuss the Alito nomination, I decide instead to pick on the incompetent, the behemoth, and the rich:

I'm homesick! This place sucks! Courtesy of Boing Boing and CNN

So a democrat on a committee investigating FEMA's feeble response to Hurricane Katria released a series of emails that then management chief Michael Brown was sending to contacts outside of Lousiana...and boy are they hilarious. Particularly amusing are those about his attire,

"Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"

and

"Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working." (italics mine).

The capper of course is, "Can I quit now? Can I come home?" that he sent to the deputy director of public affairs. Granted, there's a chance this was taken out of context, but seriously. You're on the ground supposedly directing a relief response and you sound like a 12-yr old homesick camper. WTF? and WHY is he still being paid? WHY? WHY? WHY?

Play fair, Google! Courtesy Boing Boing and Forbes

Google started the Google Print Library Project, whose aim is to provide snippets of the entire library of several US universities free online. This is not new. Rather, five publishing companies have come together to sue Google to halt this project.

This is a piece written in the Washington Times opposing the project. While I agree the definition of 'snippet' will need to be defined precisely (if not already done so), there's definitely a tone of fear of technology beneath it. Hell, I half-expected these two to come out and say that Google is communist because they want to provide free content...

Instead, we have this Forbes piece that argues that the Print Library Project may not be as scary as it seems. At the very least, it doesn't try to scare me into thinking that agreeing with Google will destroy the print industry as we know it. And managed properly, this online archive would be a great asset for students, researchers or infojunkies like me.

Communcation? Hello? What? Courtesy Forbes

This is a series of articles dealing with, well, communication. It runs the gamut of communication issues: in science, culture, etc. Plus interviews with the likes of Walter Kronkite, Stan Lee and Wil Wheaton! I'm still painstakingly reading through this, but do browse. There's gotta be an article or interview there to your interest.


And that's all the communicatin' I'm doin' tonight. Now i just need a good sign-off line like, "Good Luck, and Goodnight" but y'know, not plagarized.