Michael Jackson’s death overwhelmed various Internet sites

Linnie Rawlinson and Nick Hunt:

How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it’s just one—if that one is Michael Jackson.

NY Times article skimmer prototype

It presents each section of the Times as if you had opened the paper on a dining table, and allows you to skim the section with headlines and brief synopses of the articles.

Excellent idea.  I hope they make it permanent.

NBC to give Leno 10pm hour every weeknight

Wow.  NBC has basically given up on prime time.  That’s five less hours that they have to program, which means five less shows that need to be around.  It makes some sense since NBC is doing so poorly in the ratings and competition from cable is getting worse every day (or should I say better?).  Sometimes a little revolution is a good thing.

I’m not sure how well this idea’s going to do.  For the most part, people watch Leno and Letterman as they’re going to bed because they just happen to be on.  I can’t think of anyone I know who actually plans to watch either show because they really like them.  I’m not sure that people are going to follow Leno around and sit down and watch him at 10pm versus some of the other shows that are on, like C.S.I.  Besides, if I watched them, it’d be tough to watch Leno for an hour, then the news, then O’Brien.  I tend to think that O’Brien is pretty pissed at this news.

How a Google News mix-up messed-up United’s stock price

Google News picked up a 6+ year old story, and no one who read it bothered to see it was from 2002, and it just snowballed from there.  United stock price went from $12/share to $3/share before partially recovering at $11/share.  Everyone’s pointing fingers, but the real party to blame are the people who blindly followed a news article from years ago without bothering to look at the dates.

Mars Phoenix lander finds ice

First public news was a Twitter tweet:

Are you ready to celebrate? Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!

After digging in a spot, several crumbs of material disappeared, melted, indicating water based ice.  Precisely what Phoenix was looking for.

P. S. Yes, the lander said, “w00t”.

“Final Salute” photographs

The New York Times published a slide show of images from “Final Salute”, a book based on the Pulitzer Prize winning Rocky Mountain News story from November 2005 which follows a U.S. Marine casualty assistance calls officer for a year (which Janet Maslin reviewed). The photographs and captions are heartbreaking, but the real heartbreak comes from reading the full article.  Make sure you have tissues handy.

Don’t forget, President Bush tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers by giving up golf.

Note: I linked to the NY Times slide show instead of the Rocky Mountain News version because its format is laid out better.