Groups see chance to restore key valley: "Environmentalists are seizing on San Francisco's plan to rebuild and expand its Hetch Hetchy water system to reach a goal set nearly a century ago: to see the spectacular valley returned to its original state."

Amid drought, businesses adapt: "Businesses across this region are spending millions of dollars and carefully studying even the simplest tasks in an effort to adapt to a four-year drought."

Far-reaching drought chokes much of U.S.: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared the entire state of Utah and numerous counties in Colorado, California, New Mexico and Arizona agricultural disaster areas, making farmers and ranchers in those regions eligible for federal emergency loans. The last major drought in the United States occurred in the late 1980s and had an estimated economic impact of nearly $40 billion. The economic impact of the current drought differs among regions and sectors, Mark Svoboda, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska said, 'but I think it's safe to say when it's all said and done, this one is going to be right up there. When we start looking at all the impacts, it's going to be in the billions of dollars.'"

Its off to the ultrasound we go!

A Web Outfit with Socks Appeal: "Everybody talks about focus, but few companies practice it with as much zeal as Blacksocks, an e-commerce outfit based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Blacksocks sells black socks. That's it. Nothing else. Don't ask for red socks or green socks. There aren't any in its inventory -- though, in a major strategic departure, the Web site plans to launch a line of white socks in August."

The Time Travel Fund: "We establish a fund in current time. You make a small contribution to the fund, and in a few hundred years that small amount grows to a very large amount. From that fund, moneys will be taken and used to retrieve you, perhaps seconds after you join, perhaps even moments before your recorded death, perhaps some other point in your lifetime. Further, the fund may even pay to have you "rejuvenated" medically (assuming this is scientifically possible at that time,) and support you financially for a number of years. (Note: Retrieving you just before the moment of death is just one possible scenario, but one that would avoid any Star Trek(TM) type paradoxes. There are an unlimited number of other possibilities, and we do not know what they will do, we can only make reasonably informed guesses.)"

The Coming Water Crisis: "In a nation where abundant, clear, and cheap drinking water has been taken for granted for generations, it is hard to imagine residents of a major city adjusting to life without it. But Atlanta's water woes won't seem so unusual in the years ahead. Across the country, long-neglected mains and pipes, many more than a century old, are reaching the end of their life span. When pipes fail, pressure drops and sucks dirt, debris, and often bacteria and other pathogens into the huge underground arteries that deliver water. Officials handle each isolated incident by flushing out contaminants and upping the chlorine dose (Atlanta says its water meets health standards despite its sometimes unappetizing appearance), but no one sees this as a long-term solution. America's aging water infrastructure needs huge new investment, and soon."

Good evening boys and girls. I'll be away on vacation for a few days. Am going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. See you all when we get back. I'll bring pictures.

Wow. There's america.google.com, europe.google.com, asia.google.com but no africa.google.com.

Dinner with the mind behind the mind of God: "Meeting Sergey Brin, the cofounder and president of technology at Google, is disorienting--a little like encountering one of those Japanese soldiers who were flushed from South Sea islands as recently as the '70s. But whereas finding Captain Nakahira must have been a fairly negative experience for everyone concerned, having dinner with Sergey Brin--if you like technology and startups--is uninterruptedly sunny. For Mr. Brin, it's still the late '90s."