All the News That's Fit to Blog: "The purpose of journalism is to inform -- first about basic facts (news gathering) and then about the meaning of those facts (news analysis, commentary, and opinion). Much of the business of news gathering has been commoditized by the Associated Press, Dow Jones, and Reuters... What further distinguishes bloggers is their understanding of the peer communities that they serve. For one thing, bloggers assume that their readers are as smart as they are, if not smarter. What a refreshing notion! When they're not focused on themselves, mainstream journalists spend most of their time sucking up to sources and writing with a keen eye toward source protection. Bloggers spend most of their time engaged in constant communication with their readers. In so doing, they create a network of sources who are always on the lookout for interesting articles, columns, stories, and items. Reynolds, in particular, makes use of this jury-rigged stringer system to alert his readers to articles that would otherwise go unnoticed. "

A Practical Guide for the 19th Century American Man: "The new middle class wanted to purchase appropriate manners, just as they could purchase fashionable homes, stylish clothing or the latest domestic gadget. From the 1850s on, the market was flooded with etiquette books which laid out to people who had never been exposed to such things, the rules of 'polite society'. In many cases, they also did not describe 19th Century America as it was, but as the author hoped it could become."

Newsweek on Google: "Why did they resist the temptation to become a media giant with sports pages, localized weather, e-shops and ad banners up the yahoo? Why didn't they drop a few million on Super Bowl ads? 'Because,' says Schmidt, 'they were cheap.'"

Internet Marketing for Local Small Businesses: "Set up joint ventures with local businesses to give away a ticket for a free two-night, three-day vacation drawing to their customers as a way of saying thank you for doing business with them. You provide the free vacation drawing tickets and they give them to their customers."

Yellow Pages Advertising Quick Tips: "Ad Placement, Color, Headline, Open 24-7, Research Proven, Target Market, 365 Days A Year"

Odyssey finds widespread water on Mars: "Mars is icy. Not just on its white-capped poles, according to the first images beamed back from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft."

Part of the U.S. government's secret Nuclear Posture Review that was leaked to the press last week is now online: "A broader array of capability is needed to dissuade states from undertaking political, military or technical courses of action that would threaten U.S. and allied security. U.S. forces must pose a credible deterrent to potential adversaries who have access to modern military technology, including NBC weapons and the means to deliver them over long distances."

What's Buzzin' in My Garden? If you don't know a a bee from a wasp, a hornet, or a yellow jacket, you will after you visit this site.

John Polkinghorne has won the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities.

Don't forget that Yahoo Groups will be down down this weekend: "The Yahoo! Groups service will be down Friday March 15 9:00 PM PST (GMT-8) as we move our servers to a new facility. We expect the service to be back up the morning of Sunday March 17."