Entries by Andrew Odom

With print journalism among the industries most impacted by the Internet, panelists at a Silicon Valley event Friday debated what possibilities are in store for the news business.

Indeed, the Internet has brought about a revolution in how content is delivered and wreaked havoc on the traditional print ad business model. Panelists, with backgrounds at organizations like the Wall Street Journal and Google, recognized technology trends that could lead the way for journalism, such as e-reader devices like the Amazon Kindle as well as rich content versions of publications. They also pondered content delivery models including subscription-based Web publications and blogging. [Full story »] 

Port-au-Prince is now the subject of global relief efforts and media attention. The reason? Just before 5 p.m. an earthquake struck about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince.

The quake, with a magnitude estimated at 7.0, caused the collapse of the National Palace, leveled countless shantytown dwellings and brought more suffering to a nation that was already the hemisphere’s poorest and most disaster-prone. [Full story »] 

Every age produces its own sort of fables, and our age seems to have produced The White Messiah fable. [Full story »] 

Cadmium is a soft, whitish metal that occurs naturally in soil. It's perhaps best known as one half of rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries, but also is used in pigments, electroplating and plastic.

Lab testing organized by The Associated Press shows that it also is present in children's jewelry — sometimes at eye-popping levels exceeding 90 percent of the item's total weight. [Full story »] 

It seems that AARP no longer stands for American Association of Retired Persons. It is nothing more than four letters that read a brand, AARP. [Full story »] 

TIME has named Ben Bernanke person of the year for 2009.

Who is Bernanke you may ask? (Which, of course, I would respond with "Do you live under a rock?") [Full story »] 

Sometimes we have to be brave enough to state the obvious without fear of Newton's law or paradox or even being wrong. It is cold outside.

I awoke this morning to a thermometer seemingly frozen on 22 degrees and a weatherman telling me not to expect much more. [Full story »] 

Thomas College, a liberal arts school in Maine, advertises itself as Home of the Guaranteed Job! Students who can’t find work in their fields within six months of graduation can come back to take classes free, or have the college pay their student loans for a year.

The University of Louisiana, Lafayette, is eliminating its philosophy major, while Michigan State University is doing away with American studies and classics, after years of declining enrollments in those majors. [Full story »] 

The Transportation Security Administration is looking to increase the number of full-body scanners at U.S. airports over the next few years, as it reviews security procedures in the wake of the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight last week. [Full story »] 

Radical Islam’s mission is clear: destroy America.

It doesn't matter to the terrorists if they succeed in 2010 or 2110, as long as they ultimately triumph. [Full story »] 

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who has faced a heap of criticism for appearing to trade his vote on health care for millions in federal Medicaid money, said he's considering asking that the Nebraska deal be stripped from the bill.

But he said other senators are looking for special treatment in light of his success. [Full story »] 

Pike County firefighters, search and rescue teams as well as Pike sheriff's deputies and police responded to a structure fire at 15164 Hwy. 109 East around 9:30pm. Monday.
[Full story »] 

White House economic adviser Larry Summers says that everyone can agree the recession is over and Americans have “walked back from the brink,” as experts predict that the unemployment rate could climb higher. [Full story »] 

It is no secret that debt is a word secured in our syntax. We use it everyday, multiple times a day. We use to discuss personal finances, business finances and even political states.

But that does not mean that some of us still harbor the idea of living debt free. What would that even look like? Would debt free mean living a "cash on the barrel" existence in which your salary went to household/auto expenses and the payments due for a service? Would it mean not having a credit card balance...at all? [Full story »]