Warning: “This blogger, because he’s been known to eat french fries, probably contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer.”

(In doing a Google image search for something to accompany this post, I ran across another suggestion for a warning label to go on french fries.)

Something worth investigating? In a speech yesterday, I heard the editor of the Tennessean suggest that a newly hired reporter chose to come work at the Tennessean rather than accept a job with the New York Times. Not that resumé spinning is a crime, but isn’t it strange that the NYT is offering jobs to reporters at the same time it is laying them off?

Recovery 2.0 idea: I can’t tell you how many times during the past three weeks I was disappointed that the “block view” for New Orleans was not a part of A9 maps beta.

In the future, having such a building-by-building photo database could be extremely helpful in a Recovery 2.0 scenario.

The wiki-like Google maps mashup at www.scipionus.com combined with a building-by-building viewpoint could provide a unique visual interface for telling individual stories — and for helping those with connections to specific neighborhoods find out what’s taking place there.

tags: recovery2

Family stories for the ages: On the Keep Cookin’ weblog, we’ve been posting evacuation stories from the now widely dispersed staff of Louisiana Cookin’ Magazine. They make me realize there will be a million such stories that will one day be retold to people’s grandchildren’s grandchildren.

(About KeepCookin: Friends of Louisiana Cookin Magazine.)

tags: keepcookin, louisanacookin

Hyper-local political blogging: My Nashville Metro Councilman (and friend) Chris Whitson resigned from the council today because a new state statute could one day be used to interpret as a “conflict of interest” any work his law firm does on behalf of corporate clients who have any type of contract with the city.

While corrupt Tennessee lawmakers have displayed the need to enact laws like this, it is unfortunate that such actions have the unintended consequence of forcing the resignation of one of the good guys like Chris.

Our loss.

.Mac groups ain’t no iPod nano: As a longtime .Mac customer — I use it primarily to host photos appearing on this blog — I gave the new .Mac groups feature a 2-minute whirl today to see what it’s all about.

Call it the .Mac Groups Nono, because it allows you to set up a group that is accessible only by other paying .Mac customers. Talk about your gated community. This makes as much sense to me as, say, Apple eWorld.

Besides, it is an inexcusably lame knock-off of an incredibly wonderful web app, Backpack, that you can share with others who don’t have to pay for a membership.

Rebooting my newsreader: I give up. I returned from vacation yesterday and while I glanced at certain folders within my newsreader when I was away, I went a week letting many RSS feeds pile up. I now realize the only way to handle this backlog (backblog?) is to hit the “mark all read” button and forget trying to even glance at the headlines of many of my “read when you get a chance” feeds. Ah. Ignorance is bliss.

Update: My fingers almost mistyped “backlog” into “backblog” which I thought was a good word for the pile of unread RSS feeds in your newsreader. Apparently, it has another pseudo meaning, as well.

Update II: Dave Winer says I have a poorly designed newsreader. I would not fault the newsreader, but the reader - me. Actually, I think I have it set up in a real efficient manner that enabled me to review the flow of feeds I enjoy despite my spotty web access last week. I didn’t go fishing, but I was able to keep up with the flow.

My frustration today is with those RSS feeds piled into folders I call “read and review” . It was these “get-around-to-it” feeds I purged. I know there are some great posts in there but I don’t have the patience to catch-up with them.

Another thing, before I left for vacation, I spent several weeks unsubscribing to every e-mail newsletter that hit my inbox. For some who offer the same content via RSS, I switched. For those who don’t, well, bye-bye.

What Staci Kramer said: (From PaidContent.org) “Google and Bon Jovi are beginning to have a lot in common for me. You never know where they’ll show up.”

Those wild-and-crazy AP folks: Are offering their member newspapers the chance to reach young readers via a syndicated product called ASAP. We blog, you decide.