Two interesting stories from tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal about the London blasts: (Both are free) “Amid Crisis, Phones Jammed,?But Text Messages Worked” and “What Did London’s Cameras See?”

Food quote: It didn’t seem appropriate earlier today to link to this story about a restaurant down the street from my office closing. (I’m quoted in it.) The original Houston’s Restaurant — the first of a successful chain of 35 restaurants — is closing. It is probably the smallest location in the chain, and I’m sure one of the least profitable. But there is still always a crowd and the food is consistently good (as fern bar food goes). I guess they’ll tear it down and build a Walgreens so there will be two Walgreens next door to each other.

Nose Job: A crew began washing the granite faces of Mount Rushmore today to remove decades of dirt, grime and lichens that can damage the complexion of the four presidents.

(via: AP)

Scoble & Ballmer hang out: Microsoft blogger/evangelist Robert Scoble interviews CEO Steve Ballmer and posts the video on Channel 9, the MS developer network. Down & dirty production values (this is anti-slick) give it authenticity and believability. It even has a few seconds that will probably be sampled and mashed up — but this time around Ballmer is in on the joke. Robert admits he was a little nervous and it shows (hey, I get nervous hanging out with billionaires, myself) but, again, the believability factor ratchets up with the Wayne’s World approach.

Still catching up: While on vacation, I missed this announcement about NashvillesNews.net. (notice there’s an “s” in the middle of the URL)

Dave Barry blogs from London: He’s vacationing with family. All are well.

Eyewitness photos of London blasts:

From the BBC

Flickr tags: blasts bombs terrorist

Flickr Groups: London Bomb Blasts/Pool, London Explosions/Pool

Buzznet buzzwords: London

This free Wall Street Journal article has more links

Eyewitness photos from NowPublic.com

The downside of “cute”: Technorati’s recent re-design incorporates ever-changing cartoon illustrations representing, well, something. Unfortunately, the juxtaposition of the comic illustration with breaking, tragic news can be somewhat jarring — as it is this morning.