Pathetic Editorial Priorities, Cont'd

Tuesday, 7:20pm, Google News:

"Thai police detail JonBenet suspect investigation (all 3,895 related>>)"
"Iran says it has opened way for serious nuclear talks (all 1,793 related>>)"
"Bush OKs involuntary Marine recall (all 253 related>>)"

What a damning display of what corporate journalism has wrought. American soldiers involuntarily recalled for an additional 12-18 months of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet the JonBenet story merits 15 TIMES as many news stories. That is just sad. Sad and pathetic.

Sorry State of Journalism (cont'd)

From Google News, 10:26 a.m. Saturday:

"JonBenet Suspect to Return to U.S. (all 5,470 related>>)"
"Judge Declares Wiretapping Illegal (all 1,249 related>>)"

Yeah, that makes sense.

Fascinating and Troubling Story

Buried in a list of 20 million Web search queries collected by AOL and recently released on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number was assigned by the company to protect the searcher’s anonymity, but it was not much of a shield.

No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from “numb fingers” to “60 single men” to “dog that urinates on everything.”

And search by search, click by click, the identity of AOL user No. 4417749 became easier to discern. There are queries for “landscapers in Lilburn, Ga,” several people with the last name Arnold and “homes sold in shadow lake subdivision gwinnett county georgia.”

It did not take much investigating to follow that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Ga., frequently researches her friends’ medical ailments and loves her three dogs.

“Those are my searches,” she said, after a reporter read part of the list to her.

Whoa. [Read full story...]

Best. Photo. Ever.

Photo caption on front page of NYTimes.com right now: "After the Lieberman campaign Web site crashed today, Mike Wence tried to fix the problem at Lieberman headquarters in Rocky Hill, Conn."

That dude looks very, very, very unhappy.

Oh My, This Amused Me

Have to be a real James Earl Jones aficionado to get all the references, but funny as hell nonetheless: The Vader Sessions