Hot off the Press: Free oil! edition

Once confined to just four fonts, web designers now have over 2,000 to choose from when placing text on webpages: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2010/05/the-changing-typography-of-the-web.html. Now I know why Arial, Verdana, Georgia, and Times were among the eight fonts available on Blogger.

Through some miracle, it seems Buick (the brand of car I most associate with small town, elderly, Lutherans; anyone on my mom's side of the family with white hair seemed to drive a Buick) is now appealing to a "younger" crowd: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-buick-20100506,0,1940550.story. In 30 years, the only people in my generation who will even consider buying a Buick (if we're still driving cars by then) will be the same small town Lutherans who have no other nearby options.

NYT op-ed piece about proposals to weaken criminal rights in the wake of the Times Square bomb scare: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/opinion/06thu1.html?hp.

Let's revisit the Prince William Sound to see how well it has (not) recovered from the Exxon Valdez spill 21 years ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/us/06alaska.html?hpw.

Chemical dispersants being used for the Gulf oil leak are, it seems, about as bad for the environment as the oil: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/science/earth/06dispersants.html?ref=us.

And while most environmentalists support the application of dispersants as a necessary evil to limit the damage, some have assailed an industry policy that guards their chemical makeup. Keeping the exact mix secret makes it harder to evaluate the risks to marine ecosystems and to know what side effects to look for as the crisis unfolds.

What is more, the main dispersants applied so far, from a product line called Corexit, had their approval rescinded in Britain a decade ago because laboratory tests found them harmful to sea life that inhabits rocky shores, like limpets, said Mark Kirby, a scientific adviser to the British government on the testing, use and approval of oil spill treatment options.

Tom Brokaw, who majored in "beer and co-eds" during his two years in Iowa City, will be awarded an honorary degree from the UI along with former women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100506/NEWS01/5060322/1079.

I have decided to cancel my Facebook account this week: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/technology/internet/06facebook.html. I don't use it at all, and I don't want what little information I have there to be made public against my will.

The Times' auto reviewer Jeremy Clarkson thinks a dearth of parking and overabundance of parking tickets and enforcement are to blame for the down fall of High Streets, the UK version of US Main Streets: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article7120493.ece. I have to agree it's part of the issue, but that's common sense, at least in the US. It must have been a slow week for Clarkson.

Some twentysomthings (comme moi) are becoming less comfortable divulging their personal lives online: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/fashion/09privacy.html?ref=us.

America's most unusual toxic waste site is far from being completely clean: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-chem-bomb-20100510,0,3617170.story.

Farmers are now having to battle superweeds, which are resistant to Roundup: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html.

In 18 months there will be no more conventional IP address: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10105978.stm.