Web stew: flu, political polls, blogs
296022
How widespread is this year&#39;s flu, anyhow? We offer a site that shows the latest virus map, another that proves how hard it is to get the vaccine, and sites for tracking the political polls and starting your own blog.
329130
MADISONâIf you miss getting a flu shot this season and you want to fix blame when you&#39;re on your sickbed, take a look in the mirror.
503963
It's official. Weblogs matter. A few of them anyway. In the election cycle just ended, the blogs made a serious presidential candidate of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
410343
After spending a day with the old keyword page, and getting bored with it, I came up with a new way to look at news, something I've not tried before, that might be fun and/or useful http://nytimesriver.com/keywords.html  Since it's likely to change again soon, here's a screen shot. How it works. Every hour, as usual, it does the nytimesriver scan. Every story is linked to in the database undern all the keywords it references. Then the report, in HTML, is prepared, with the keywords in the left column, and links to all the stories in the right colum. The list is sorted by number of references, the keywords with the most references appear at the top of the list.  So today, baseball is the top item, with 15 references. The teams, the Cleveland Indians and Colorado Rockies, rank high. For some reason (heh) the Boston Red Sox don't appear, even though they're still in it, and the Yankees, even though they've been eliminated (yay!) are near the top at position 10.  It's another leaderboard! (Oh shit.) The stories age, and are removed after 24 hours. After all this is news, not olds.  If you have comments, post them under the screen shot, linked above. PS: Note that since the list just started up today, the initial stories, even though some are already 24 hours old, will remain in the queue until tomorrow morning at this time. So the list will be artificially fat today, it'll thin down tomorrow.
344093
What the Internet tells us about how the media, advertising and awareness months spread information on diseases and illnesses
166864
The sudden flu shortage in the United States has become a political issue, causing a headache for the Bush camp and a fever in the Kerry one.
242198
Opponents criticize Huckabee for agreeing to reduce sentences for meth offenders ... Giuliani heading home Thursday after hospital checkup for flu-like symptoms ... Bush offers guidance to '08 candidates, says GOP will hold the White House.
449607
roundup Plus: More colleges get cheap online music...Glitches hit some EarthLink-hosted sites...More money for fuel cells...Linux release features Windows support.
341791
Plus: Original blogger: You're doin' it wrong. Find out what people are saying on News.com Extra.
50939
If you're not ready to feverishly debate Iraq or the deficit in this bitterly divisive election year, you can always surf the Web, where politics is frequently nothing but a big joke.
388608
Having shown up at wired.com of all places just the other day, a story claiming that Paul's campaign staff or his supporters have been (email) spamming to get the message out. This is pure bullshit, and I'll explain why.
260415
Besides the usual fare of major media commentary, bloggers across the political spectrum will be busy posting their views during Thursday night&#39;s debate between President Bush and challenger John Kerry.
726000
Polls run by news sites to gauge public opinion of politicians are turning into partisan tools for political spin doctors. People voting, often repeatedly, in response to e-mails from their favored candidates can skew the results. By Louise Witt.
475304
Obama wins Wisconsin ... McCain inches closer to delegate goal ... Candidate wives' spar over remarks ... Candidates comment on Castro announcement ... ___
601560
Illness coincides with slump in US presidential poll ratings as tactics and friend's arrest hit chances
317951
Some readers gain new insight on Microsoft's music player from our resident Mac-o-philiac while others rant about Wi-Fi's potentially painful kiss. Plus: Links to our most popular blogs.
441763
Tycho:  With PAX coming up this weekend (!!!), we didn't really have time on Friday to invest in Virgil's Wikiscanner - that mystical oracle that takes a raw IP range and then excretes a list of that organization's Wikipedia edits.  This is the pulsing, possibly Martian device that dished up last week's awesome Electronic Arts edits.    I wasn't sure if we should feel sorry for them or not - now that EA is situated in the number two slot, does that make them the scrappy underdog? - but I quickly realized it probably doesn't matter.  They can come right out and say "Yes, we edit it all the time," mischaracterize the nature of the edits, and by the time it's on the second page the events in question never happened.  People don't remember anything these days that isn't on the first page of their feed aggregators. In any case, the entire affair is talking place  on Wikipedia.  Kudzu will grow over the propaganda soon enough.    Though time was indeed in short supply, we did fritter some portion of it pawing through ancient email headers, scraping for filth on old enemies.  Or enemies with whom we have resumed talks.  Or enemies who are now friends!  Even people I hope to make enemies in the future by my careless commentary must fall beneath the scanner's baleful eye.    Like a chugging trawler, we hauled up net after net of treasure onto the deck, sifting it on hands and knees.  I'd never expose it, of course - sparking a desperate arms race to find self-serving commentary is a conflict I'm likely to lose.  And with the deep catalogue of nemeses we've inspired worldwide (and even below the world, in the warrens of the pale Gambrya, where hate is eternal) it's not what I'd call a fabulous scenario.  For us, at least; no doubt, our foes have already begun their malevolent harvest.