Eubie's notes

N.Y. Times: “A new study says that almost half the ties worn by doctors in a Queens hospital proved to be carrying pathogens.”

N.Y. Times: In the Era of Cheap DVD’s, Anyone Can Be a Producer. The tech improvements that allow this to happen are interesting, but the marketing efforts mentioned in the article were very interesting. After all, it’s one things making a DVD; it’s another selling it.

If the movie is any good, it might make it to Cannes. Guardian Unlimited: $200 family film is festival hit.

Bizjournals: The best counties for quality of life.

The Business Journal of Minneapolis/St. Paul: Startup TV network taps stars of self-help

Current: Tell No One: A Novel by Harlan Corben.

The midwife’s apprentice by Karen Cushman. A Newberry book

Finished: The Firm by John Grisham.

Hope to Die: A Matthew Scudder novel by Lawrence Block

Audio
Current: Pertinent Essays on the literary life by Joseph Epstein

Finished: Winston Churchill by John Keegan

Yahoo adds Wi-Fi hot spots to its maps. Clever!

Bloglines, my choice, was one of several RSS readers discussed by Wired News. Bloglines’ best points are: web-based, disaposable emails for alerts, a good way to store and search items to read later and very easy to learn to use. Also it’s been improved greatly since I began using it last fall, such as managing my blogroll.

Gas-saving hybrids sounded good before gas topped $2 an hour, a 23-year-high (adjusted for inflation) says The Washington Post, but now they’re in demand while SUVs sit.

A co-worker bought a Civic hybrid this week, and I know someone else with a Toyota Prius. But actual fuel mileage is falling short, partially because of driving styles according to WiredNews. Coming in the fall: Honda Accord Hybrid.

I put my name on the list to try Google’s Gmail beta, but many can’t wait. Wired News: My Left Arm for a Gmail Account.

But since Yahoo! is raising the amount of storage it offers its webmail users to 100MB soon, it makes Gmail less appealing.

A follow to Journalists’ role when there is no gate: James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, writes in The N.Y. Times writes “The Twilight of the Information Middlemen”, about how blogs and easy access to much government data are eliminating much of the role previously filled by academic journals.

The article is not specific about the news media, but newspapers face similar flanking of the content they publish. More on this at E-Media Tidbits, Bob Stepno’s Other Journalism Weblog, and rexblog: Rex Hammock’s Weblog.