This is what happens when you do too many blogs: A New Yorker Keeping Up With 15,250 Forums and 375 blogs Dies From Starvation.

The 54-year-old, an account executive at a New York online media company, simply couldn't tear himself away from the PC, even to eat:

"Computer forensic specialists from SUNY at Cortland discovered that Wanamaker was subscribed to 48 different forums and networking communities... They also found that he posted a comment into one forum or another on an average of two per minute every hour of the day for the past seven weeks."

(If you don't believe this one, how about the one about a young Georgia bride-to-be who was abducted by suburban kidnappers?)

Verizon shuts down free Wi-Fi phone booths

A Tiger at the Apple store in SoHo

Found City: Folkmapping urban spaces

The New York Public Library's new motto? The People's University

Fred's Head: NYC Commute Photoblog

Jason Kottke on The High Line Problem

The Official New York Star Wars Line

Frankie Boots: NYC Photoblog

From Crain's New York: Internet-based lead generation company SilverCarrot of Manhattan has received $7 million in Series B venture capital funding from a group of investors led by Dolphin Equity Partners.

So what exactly is Internet-based lead generation? Well, SilverCarrot buys banner ads offering deals in order to drive visitors to sites it owns and operates. On these sites, registered visitors are asked about their preferences and whether they would like to receive more information on certain topics. SilverCarrot then passes on those leads to client. Presto! Lots of qualified leads, thanks to the magic of the Internet.

J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism announced the ten winners of its New Voices awards. These winners will receive $12,000 grants to launch innovative local media ventures across the country.

The one winner from New York City was Loisaida Speaks, from the Lower East Side Girls Club. The organization will use funding to train 32 young women to produce weekly podcasts on community news and issues. In the future, these podcasters will build a network of teen podcast correspondents to cover local issues and events.

For more on why podcasting has the potential to change the market reality for traditonal radio broadcasters, check out Buzz Machine's posting on the new all-podcasting radio station (YOURadio) launched by Infinity Broadcasting:

"YOURadio is big news and good news for a few reasons... First, it is big media recognizing that it's time to listen -- and do more than listen: Let the people speak. It is big media recognizing the value of citizens' media.

Second, it is an admission that the old, one-size-fits-all, top-down, one-way models of programming are broken and the audience can do it better.

Third, it an admission that the old business models are soon to break and that the people can provide more talent for less than the old talent could."

The New York Post's Page Six, a must-read for guys and gals who gossip, has contemplated life as a blog -- but don't expect any major changes any time soon. Richard Johnson, the editor of Page Six, responds to a question from I Want Media:

"When would we have time to write a blog? We are too busy gathering info, reporting and writing Page Six. And we find ourselves increasingly busy reading all those blogs out there, some of which actually contain new and accurate stories. Most don't. They are filled with criticism and opinion. I'm sure when there is a market for a Page Six blog, the Post will launch one. It's probably only a matter of time."

(Hat tip: Micro Persuasion)

Kottke points to Waiting for Fares, a photoessay from the New York Times that shows how NYC cab drivers "spend their time waiting for someone to drive somewhere." There are Russians playing soccer, Muslims praying and Haitian drivers playing dominoes.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer must be tired of tangling with Wall Street firms, pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies... Now, he's turning his attention to the Internet sector and suing Los Angeles-based spyware firm Intermix Media, which stands accused of installing spyware on the personal computers of 3.7 million New Yorkers. Spitzer comments:

"Spyware and adware are more than an annoyance. These fraudulent programs foul machines, undermine productivity and in many cases frustrate consumers' efforts to remove them from their computers. These issues can serve to be a hindrance to the growth of e-commerce."

The only question: will spyware or e-commerce become a campaign issue during Spitzer's gubernatorial bid?

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg released a comprehensive new report called Telecommunications and Economic Development in New York City. The 74-page PDF document highlighted 21 key initiatives that the city should undertake over the next two to five years, including steps to make broadband access available for all city residents and businesses:

"Although New York City residents and businesses have access to an array of high-speed telecommunications connections and services that no other city can match, there are specific parts of the City where access is limited, such as Hunts Point in the Bronx and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. If New York City is to maintain its role as a world center of finance, communications and culture, we have to extend access to broadband communications to all, as well as continuously improve the reliability of our telecommunications networks and take advantage of emerging technologies."

For anyone interested in the future of telecom and broadband in New York: the Committee on Technology in Government is holding a hearing on May 2 to discuss the city's telecom infrastructure and the impact of broadband deployment on economic development. The key question is whether the recently released telecom plan went far enough in making sure that affordable broadband access will be available to all New Yorkers.

Sirius Satellite Radio reported a whopping $193.6 million loss for the quarter, but Wall Street analysts have reason to be upbeat. Why? Well, the company is still on track to meet its subscriber growth targets for 2005:

"The company again raised its 2005 year-end subscriber estimate, now forecasting more than 2.7 million subscribers at year-end, up from previous guidance of over 2.5 million, due to strong subscriber growth trends and continued demand for its service."

The company had 1.45 million subscribers as of March 31. Adding to the good news: as a result of solid subscriber growth over the past year, revenue quadrupled for the quarter, from $9.3 million a year ago to $43.2 million this year. More ears, more dollars. Once Howard Stern and Martha Stewart start revving up their programming for Sirius sometime in 2006, look for those numbers to improve even more.

Infinity Broadcasting, a division of media conglomerate Viacom, announced the creation of the world's first-ever podcasting radio station: KYOURADIO. The station will launch in the San Francisco area on May 16. For all you do-it-yourselfers out there, it's worth pointing out that all of KYOURADIO's content will be "created exclusively by its listeners." In fact, in its press release, the head of Infinity Broadcasting goes to great lengths to point out the importance of finding and nurturing the "creativity of undiscovered talent from all walks of life."

If this little podcasting experiment by the Bay works out, it's conceivable that New York City could also become the home to homegrown podcasting stations. Not just 1-2 individual podcasts mixed in for the fun of it -- but a 24/7 radio station comprised totally of user-generated content. That's kinda cool, especially since big media companies like Viacom usually don't do this kind of thing until they're forced to...

In his Wired column this week, NYU assistant professor Adam Penenberg weighs in on whether or not the nation's top journalism programs should change how and what they teach in order to keep up with the changin' times: "With newspapers hemorrhaging readers and people migrating to the web for their daily news fix, should we consider changing the way we teach journalism?"

The key, says Penenberg, is keeping up with new technology - whether it be blogs or wikis or whatever -- while preserving the cornerstones of traditional journalism:

"That's why I think that NYU should continue to teach the basics but also experiment with novel ways to approach reporting and writing. There will always be a market for young reporters who know how to gather facts and write them up in a clear, convincing manner. For that, you can't do much better than showing students in our introductory classes how to craft a killer lede, a well-honed nut graf and an airtight structure."

The New York Times has yet another article about iPod subway crime: some people are becoming so afraid of riding the subway with their iPods that they are buying different types of earphones (the white earbuds are just too obvious), stashing their iPods deep into their bags and otherwise holding on to them for dear life. According to the New York Police Department, the steep increase in subway crime this year was "driven almost entirely by a sharp rise in robberies and thefts of cellphones and especially of iPods, which have become a totem of prosperous urban life."

The numbers are a bit deceptive, though: there were zero iPod thefts reported in 2004 and already 50 iPod abductions through the first four months of this year. Gothamist has more on why status gizmos make New Yorkers targets.

With this disturbing upswing in subway crime in mind, the MTA is now getting into the fray, with a series of safety announcements for riders. (Although it seems at times that the MTA is just as worried about their crime figures as they are about people actually losing their iPods).

Everybody knows that the tech industry produces a constant stream of buzzwords and jargon. With that in mind, this month's issue of IEEE Spectrum provides a look at the newest terms and catchphrases that will be showing up soon at a Web site near you:

PPMT (Pre- and Post-Mail Tension): waiting impatiently for e-mail replies from other people

Nanopretenders: companies that have nothing to do with nanotechnology that are attempting to cash in on the nanotech craze

Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF): features added to electronic gizmos and gadgets that make them more appealing to women

Gak factor: the tendency for some online sites (e.g. porn sites) to lose business once a parent or spouse discovers a number of unexplained credit card charges

For more terms and the latest neologisms, be sure to check out the Word Spy site run by Paul McFedries.

Wired News profiles the Wooster Collective, a New York City-based Web site that showcases an array of graffiti and street art from around the world: "Artists and camera-happy passersby send in photos of their works and sightings, and site creators put them up in blog-style postings that ensure the pictures take center stage."

Newsday is the latest New York-area newspaper to jump on the podcasting bandwagon. Podcasting may not yet be a mainstream technology, but the promise is boundless, according to one academic at Columbia University interviewed for the story. Already, there are 4,500 podcasts and 6 million podcast listeners nationwide, plus a vast untapped international marketplace.

What's cool is that initial efforts to integrate podcasting into a broader overall business strategy have been successful. The New York Sharks women's professional football team, for example, has found that podcasting has been a relatively cheap way to extend their audience and brand to new markets. At WNYC/93.9 FM, which started podcasting earlier this year, the results have been especially impressive:

"On the Media, the first NPR podcast, doubled its online listeners in four weeks and each show now gets 11,000 downloads... That rivals a midsize media market, like Kansas City or St. Louis."

A bit of shameless promotion: the article also highlights Gregory Narain (a Corante contributor and podcasting pioneer) and his efforts to bring podcasting to the masses.

You failed to make your numbers this quarter? Fuh-get about a raise then. That's the story at IBM, where the company's top 50 managers will give up pay increases this year after the company had trouble making its sales numbers last quarter. Instead of blaming the overall economic environment or any other external factors, CEO Sam Palmisano was brutally frank:

"We found ourselves struggling in the first quarter. We attribute most of it to our own execution. It was us. It was our inability to close deals."

There could be a bit of bloodletting, too, if recent moves to boost the company's stock price fail to pay off. The New York Daily News reports that IBM is mulling over the prospect of cutting up to 10,000 jobs.

Mary Meeker, the queen bee Internet analyst at investment bank Morgan Stanley, spoke at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco and offered some rousing support for the future of Internet advertising:

"Describing the Internet as 'the most underutilized advertising medium that's out there,' Morgan Stanley managing director Mary Meeker said broadband adoption, mobile device usage and international growth are opening up a variety of opportunities for marketers, entrepreneurs and investors."

Once broadband Internet penetration rates in the U.S. reach 40-50%, watch out. That's when things really get interesting. According to Meeker, the Internet has "nowhere to go but up."

The New York Stock Exchange recently announced a merger with the electronic trading network Archipelago, and Nasdaq followed that up just days later with a deal for Instinet's electronic trading network. As I argue over at Tech Central Station, the two moves spell the extinction of the Wall Street floor trader:

"In fact, the floor trader could be extinct by the year 2010: according to an informal Wall Street Journal Online survey conducted immediately after news of the NYSE-Archipelago merger broke, a majority of readers expected that the position of the Wall Street floor trader would no longer exist within five years. When that happens, the trading floor of the NYSE -- one of the last remaining places in the world where men wearing peculiar jackets wave pieces of paper in the air, run around frantically between the ringing of bells, and shout out orders into a delirious bedlam of money-making -- will become nothing more than a museum floor for 21st century capitalism, a quaint historical anachronism that failed to keep up with rapidly-changing technology and the needs of market participants."

New York City has 34 biotech companies and Long Island has 20 biotech companies, but did you know that Westchester County is home to 18 public and private companies that employ 1,900 people and generate more than $215 million in revenues each year? Moreover, there's room for even more growth:

"The Westchester biotech cluster could be on the cusp of a healthy growth spurt that could create more jobs and attract even more biotech firms to the area."

Network World published its annual list of 10 Start-ups to Watch - the up-and-coming tech companies with the types of innovative technologies that can solve networking's toughest problems. The only company from New York was OpTier, which develops software for managing transaction workloads.

Now that blogging is "trendy" in some circles, it looks like deep-pocketed media types are actually considering the idea of for-profit blog media publications. According to Gothamist, these celebrity blogging publications - like the one being launched by Arianna Huffington - may not be built for the long-haul:

"[The Huffington Post] seems less that than a celebrity vanity project like, oh, we don't know...maybe like an episode of The Love Boat with more street cred and an ability for readers to comments... Sure, it'll be cool to read what Walter Cronkite thinks, but we fear he'll get bogged down with despamming the system. And don't get us started on wondering if certain celebrities are actually posting or making a minion post for them."

The Wall Street Journal reports that the 800-pound gorillas of the tech sector are ready to wage a bruising, nasty war for the right to control your living room... PC companies are ready to beat up on the consumer electronics companies while the telephone giants are lining up against the cable giants.

Looks like Mel Karmazin of Sirius Satellite Radio is once again floating the idea of melding together satellite radio and MP3 players like the Apple iPod to create the next "killer app." At least, that's the story he's telling CNN/Money. The article notes, however, that "there is no evidence" to suggest that such a union is any closer than it was a few months ago, when execs at Sirius Satellite Radio apparently approached Steve Jobs with the idea. In the meantime, Wall Street analysts continue to salivate over the prospect of such a deal:

"The iPod is the biggest, baddest thing around and satellite radio is this small, cool device. Put them together and it's the ultimate."

Primedia is in talks with investment bankers at Credit Suisse First Boston to sell its Primedia Business Information unit. The unit, which consists of 70 B2B publications, 100+ Web sites and 25 special events, was responsible for about 15-20% of the company's overall revenue last year ($224.8 million of a total $1.3 billion). The move comes amid efforts by the company to slim down and re-focus its energies: in February, for example, Primedia sold off its About.com unit to the New York Times for $410 million.

From the Dow Jones Newswires: New York-based Internet advertising firm DoubleClick has signed a deal to be acquired for $1.1 billion by a West Coast private equity firm. Details are to be released at a 10:00 am conference call, but initial reports suggest that CEO Kevin Ryan could be departing the company once the deal is finalized. The deal values DoubleClick at $8.50 a share. Before rumors of the deal surfaced, shares of the company were trading around the $7.50 mark.

Lenore Skenazy reminds us that it's TV-Turnoff Week... In order to celebrate the end of TV (at least for the next seven days), Skenazy picks up her TV-B-Gone and steps out on the town, zapping TVs in Penn Station and the Hotel Pennsylvania.

The New York Daily News explains that the celebrity blog is more than just another vanity of highly-paid Hollywood starlets. These blogs represent a new way of breaking news and communicating with the fan base, essentially erasing the need for PR handlers, publicists and tabloid editors. According to one New York-based PR expert, "It's an extremely effective way to make certain announcements because it reaches directly to the fan... It's information that is conceived by the public to be coming straight from the celebrity."

Anyone notice that iPod lingo is quickly making its way into our everyday lexicon? Take this example from the Chicago Tribune: "It's clear that Moby's career was in shuffle mode long before the iPod was a blip on the consumer consciousness." (italics added for emphasis) There's also been talk of "pod people" to describe self-absorbed iPod listeners -- a term that has roots in 1980's sci-fi horror films.

What's next? Boxers describing how they gave a "clickwheel" punch instead of a "roundhouse" punch? The "Icky iPod Shuffle" replacing the "Icky Shuffle" as a football endzone dance?

A bunch of New York Stock Exchange insiders, led by former NYSE Chief Executive Richard Grasso and Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, could be putting together a rival bid to head off any attempt by the NYSE to merge with Archipelago, says the New York Post. From the article, it sounds like the bid is motivated as much by bad blood between these executives and Goldman Sachs than by any real desire to create shareholder value or improve the efficiency of the open-outcry auction model.

By now, it's the worst-kept secret in the blogosphere, but it looks like Arianna Huffington really is starting a blog media project that will feature 250 of the "most creative minds" in the country -- including 88-year-old Walter Cronkite and a host of big names from the worlds of entertainment, media and politics. She's calling it the Huffington Post.

The New York Times takes a closer look at the city's Trips123.com Web site, which was originally scheduled to launch in 1999 and has already cost taxpayers upwards of $20 million. Trips123.com, which provides up-to-date information on travel routes and public transportation schedules, is a creation of the MTA and Port Authority as well as 14 other regional agencies. Eventually, the site will offer $5.95/month subscriptions for travelers who positively, absolutely must have the latest travel info delivered to them as soon as possible.

It's worth pointing out that, despite all this time, effort, and collaboration that went into Trips123.com, another (privately-financed) Web site, HopStop.com, offers much of the same information.

Picking out the perfect running shoe is harder than it sounds, so JackRabbit Sports in Park Slope has installed a video camera and a treadmill in the store so that runners can analyze their running form before selecting the perfect shoe for a particular foot, stride or weight. The sidebar for the New York Times article includes a summary of shoes that were selected by the expert salespersons for a cross-section of customers visiting the store on a recent Saturday.

Can lab rats be trained to detect explosives? That's the premise behind experiments being conducted at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn: "Roborats may someday be the terrorist's worst nightmare —keen, furtive little spies that can be guided into a building through, say, an air duct and then allowed to roam freely to sniff out explosives, toxic chemicals, or other bad stuff."

The U.S. Defense Department is already interested in the experiments, and is encouraging researchers to find other "nosy little creatures for the perilous job, including rats, wasps, honeybees, and even yeast (yes, yeast)."

Fortune takes a look at media mogul Sumner Redstone's strategy to save the $22.5 billion "content colossus" Viacom. It's not clear whether he can pull it off -- and it's certainly not clear whether media conglomerates like Viacom are built to last in today's rapidly-shifting media environment. Over at Tech Central Station, I asked the question that must be dogging Redstone as he scrambles to save his media empire: "Is Viacom Viable?":

"Media conglomerates like Viacom are struggling with a rapidly-shifting media landscape and a number of external forces that threaten to make their former business models obsolete. Technologies like the Internet, TiVo and satellite radio continue to erode traditional broadcast audiences, while at the same time, forcing marketers to rethink how to allocate their advertising dollars. After an $18.4 billion write-down of its assets in February; the exit of senior executive Mel Karmazin last year and the imminent departure of Howard Stern next year (both to Sirius Satellite Radio); and the lingering bad taste created by the news scandals surrounding Dan Rather at CBS News, Viacom is under pressure like never before. In order to adjust to this changing media world, Viacom will need to act quickly and decisively..."

In partnership with Movielink, Verizon is rolling out a new service for broadband customers that will allow Verizon DSL customers to download movies directly to their laptops. The cost of "renting" a movie from Movielink will be $2.99 to $4.99, with a selection offered at 99 cents per download. Once a movie has been downloaded, customers have the option of watching it as many times as they want during any 24-hour period. After 30 days, the movie disappears from the computer.

As a Verizon DSL customer, I haven't been offered this deal, but I hope to test-drive the service sometime in the near future. From the CNET article, it sounds like the all-in cost of watching a movie will be at least $3.98 (99 cents to download, and then $2.99 to rent), which is comparable to what Blockbuster charges ($3.99) at the neighborhood rental store.

Led by Council Member Gale Brewer, the New York City Council is moving ahead with plans to create a nine-member broadband task force to study how affordable broadband access can be made available to all New York City residents, nonprofit organizations and businesses. Over a twelve-month period, the temporary task force will advise the mayor and the city council speaker as to the technical, legal, environmental and economic feasibility of providing affordable, city-wide broadband access.

What's cool is that "affordable broadband" could mean "affordable wireless broadband." The press release from Council Member Brewer specifically mentions the "Wireless Philadelphia" initiative to build and manage a citywide wireless broadband network:

"New York City has much to learn from the ‘Wireless Philadelphia’ initiative. Our challenges are different and our process will likely yield a different solution. But, Philadelphia had the courage and foresight to tackle the most difficult issues surrounding telecommunications, and we must do the same. We must balance New Yorkers’ right to the benefits that broadband access brings with responsible telecommunications growth and policy."

For ongoing coverage of New York's and Philly's plans, stay tuned to Glenn Fleishman at Wi-Fi Net News and Esme Vos at MuniWireless.com.

Obviously, someone has been spiking the happy hour punch bowl over at McGraw-Hill. Business Week is running a cover story on how blogs will change your business.

Cablevision's last-minute $17.1 billion all-cash bid for Adelphia was not enough, according to Bloomberg News. Comcast and Time Warner agreed to buy the bankrupt cable company for $17.6 billion in cash and stock: $12.7 billion in cash and $4.9 billion worth of shares in a cable company Time Warner plans to spin off. According to Bloomberg, the deal will "reinforce Comcast and Time Warner Cable's dominance in the industry."

The New York Post has the scoop on some trashy technology. Queens will be the new home for 50 solar-powered compacting trash cans known as "Big Bellies." These big bellies have big appetites: "Each 50-inch-tall, wireless machine contains solar panels, sensors and internal compaction systems that allow it to hold 300 gallons of compacted garbage." (Traditional garbage cans only handle 40 gallons of garbage.)

The New York Post is speculating that DoubleClick has found a potential West Coast buyer:

"DoubleClick, the one-time darling of dot-com advertising, is nearing an agreement to be sold to Hellman & Friedman in a potential deal that could be worth around $1.2 billion."

Single click, $600 million. Double click, $1.2 billion.

Big news out of the canyons of Wall Street: the New York Stock Exchange will merge its operations with Chicago-based Archipelago, one of the biggest electronic trading systems, to form the NYSE Group. It's a final acknowledgement that the open-outcry system of trading stocks (lots of sweaty guys running around with pieces of paper in their hands and gesticulating wildly) may not be superior to anonymous trading handled electronically:

"The merger is the most significant acknowledgement yet that the Big Board's traditional market, driven by human traders, might not be able to survive in an era increasingly dominated by instantaneous electronic trades."

No doubt the timing of the deal has something to do with news that Nasdaq has been flirting with an acquisition of Instinet, another electronic trading system.

Remember Danny from "The Apprentice"? The guy who composed funky advertising jingles while playing on his guitar? At the Digital Marketing Conference & Expo in New York, he was a featured speaker on the art of selling air:

"Mr. Kastner's presentation, "Selling Air: A Real-time 'Mocumentary,'" will present a cohesive e-marketing strategy for fictitious client SkyAwry Inc. in its effort to sell its newly-patented innovation: air! Much like "The Apprentice," this lively session will start off with a bang when a SkyAwry marketing project manager is accused of incompetence, resulting in her firing in the company boardroom. Mr. Kastner will then engage the audience to help develop a fresh cutting edge approach- using the latest in digital technology- to bring the vaporous product to market."

A rogue Internet pharmacy was busted up in Queens, part of a nationwide crackdown on illegal Internet pharmacies by the FBI, FDA, and Customs. The Queens Internet pharmacy was suspected of shipping narcotics, steroids and other illegal substances to buyers (including kids) around the world. In a raid on a New York City warehouse, federal agents discovered "massive quantities of Indian-manufactured generic drugs" that were part of a $5 million Internet drug smuggling ring.

Kinda spooky, but the illegal Web site International-Pharmacy.com mentioned in the Newsday article is still up and running.

Jason Kottke asks an interesting question: Why did online traffic at the NewYorkTimes.com Web site hit record-breaking levels last month? While the New York Times has always been a favorite resource for bloggers and other online news junkies, it looks like the newspaper did little or nothing special to boost traffic. Kottke points to the New York Times press release and wonders aloud how "content" alone could have been responsible for the spike in traffic:

"Having some experience building and running content-based web sites, I'm skeptical the specific content offered by the NY Times is the whole story here. (This is a bit like Amazon saying their sales increased mostly because the quality of the books offered went up.)"

For those keeping track, the New York Times had 555 million page views in March, a nifty little 17% increase compared to the year-earlier period.

Marketing guru Joseph Jaffe has a new book available for pre-order on Amazon: Life After the 30-Second Spot: Energize Your Brand With a Bold Mix of Alternatives to Traditional Advertising. The old marketing is dead, time for the new marketing. Marketers who grew up with the 30-second TV commercial now need to reach consumers at a time when many TV viewers can simply TiVo past any commercial. That is -- if consumers are even watching TV anymore... The book won't be available until mid-May, but if his presentation at the New York Digital Marketing Conference and Expo yesterday is any indication of what's in the book, it's a keeper.

Jaffe was a whirlwind of top-level strategic thinking ("horizontal integration" vs. "vertical integration"), buzzwords ("interconsumpatibility), humor, funky graphics, marketing speak, word games and a load of metaphors. What is the Internet? Is it a medium? A technology? An enabler? An integrator? Or maybe it's Grand Central Station... (think about that one for awhile)

You can check out more of Jaffe's ideas at his Jaffe Juice blog.

After reportedly scuttling plans to build a new 1.9 million square foot tower in Battery Park City, Goldman Sachs is now looking around for a midtown alternative, according to the New York Post. The only problem, say insiders, is that another alternative in Manhattan may not exist: "Try finding a site than can immediately accommodate a nearly 2 million square-foot tower." For now, Plan B appears to be something along the lines of the Hotel Pennsylvania site on Seventh Avenue at 33rd Street -- but that would require demolishing the hotel and then designing and building a super-skyscraper from scratch. That's doable, of course, but Goldman needs a new HQ by 2008, when a number of downtown leases are set to expire.

New York-Presbyterian Hospital has made two RSS feeds available -- "Health in the News" and "Hospital News." (Hat tip: Micro Persuasion) Look for more companies and organizations to experiment with RSS as a way to keep customers in the loop.

Looks like Cablevision hasn't given up on its acquisition bid for Adelphia: Newsday reports that Cablevision has upped its offer to $17.1 billion in an attempt to outbid Time Warner and Comcast. The company's earlier all-cash offer was for $16.5 billion. So... the question for Adelphia (and its creditors) is whether the $18 billion cash-and-stock offer from Time Warner and Comcast is superior to the $17.1 billion all-cash bid from Cablevision.

Actually, it's not quite as easy as that. There's also the matter of the breakup fee:

"Adelphia has agreed that if it switches to a bidder other than Time Warner and Comcast, it will pay them a breakup fee of 2.5% of the sale price, equal to nearly $450 million at current bidding levels."

NBC executives are bouncing around the idea of giving blogs to the network's top news anchors as a way of retaining their TV audiences. That means Brian Williams and Katie Couric could soon join the blogosphere. NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker comments on the possible role of blogs at NBC:

"Over the next two years, network news is going to go through a lot more changes. This is one of the biggest issues facing traditional network news divisions. I don't know why Brian Williams isn't blogging right now. We should be looking for a more interactive component ... and be experimenting more."

ClickZ has details about a new 21-page DoubleClick report that takes a look back at the last decade in online advertising. According to ClickZ, the report highlights two macro trends: "A seller's market is emerging in online advertising and consumer control over media is escalating." The report, which was released at the Digital Marketing Conference & Expo in New York, also includes a look at rich media, search, and the exploding world of blogs.

A link to the DoubleClick PDF report is available at Rick Bruner's Executive Summary blog. (Rick is the research director at DoubleClick)

At the annual meeting of Dow Jones shareholders, a number of top institutional investors could try to flex their muscles, according to the New York Post: " Major shareholders may try today to break through the wall surrounding the Wall Street Journal's family controlled empire." A number of items are on the agenda -- voting against a bylaw change that would strengthen the hand of the Bancroft founding family, acting to strip CEO Peter Kann of his chairman position, and casting a no-confidence vote against absentee board member Vernon Jordan.

In These Times asks a provocative question -- Is Low-Cost Wi-Fi Un-American? -- in order to point out that representatives from Verizon, Qwest, Comcast and a bevy of other telecom heavies are doing their best to stamp out free or low-cost Wi-Fi:

"Just as the notion of affordable broadband for all was beginning to take hold in towns and cities across the country, the patriots at Verizon, Qwest, Comcast, Bell South and SBC Communications have created legislation that will stop the creeping socialism of broadband community Internet before it invades our homes...

Telecommunications giants have mobilized a well-funded army of coin-operated think tanks, pliant legislators and lazy journalists who stand ready to paint community Internet as an affront to American innovation and free enterprise. Their weapon of choice is industry-crafted legislation that restricts local governments from offering public service Internet access at reasonable rates..."

Hot off the presses: on April 20, the New York City Podcasting Association will hold its first-ever meeting at Kamen Entertainment Group's recording studios in Times Square.

After a recent New York Times piece about bloggers getting fired for sharing tidbits about their workplaces, BL Ochman's What's Next blog is conducting an interesting experiment about the ability of the blogosphere to propagate ideas throughout the mainstream media:

"I've decided to start an unscientific project tracking how long it takes a story to get from the blogosphere to The New York Times. In the case of bloggers getting fired for what they write on their personal blogs, it's been about five months, according to this BlogPulse conversation tracker."

(Hat tip: BlogRunner )

Martha Stewart may still be under house arrest, but that didn't stop her from inking an exclusive four-year, multi-million deal with Sirius Satellite Radio to create and launch a new satellite radio channel. Martha's newest creation will offer classic Martha Stewart programming (cooking, gardening, housekeeping) 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In just the past six weeks, she has already signed deals to create two new television programs ("The Apprentice" and "Everyday Food"). Now there's satellite radio. What's next -- a Martha Stewart podcast series?

UPDATE: Business Week says the four-year deal is worth $30 million.

As seen on AdRants: ZDNet is auctioning off advertising time on podcasts hosted by David Berlind via eBay. The winning bidder will receive a 60 second sponsorship slot on five of the podcasts. It's all for a good cause since proceeds go to tsunami relief.

CIO Magazine profiles Verizon's chief information officer, Shaygan Kheradpir, in a nice feature called "Sleepless in Manhattan." So what's an average day like for Kheradpir? He works 10 or 12 hours a day, takes a break, and then goes back online for three or four hours every night. Oh, and don't forget about the conference calls that happen around midnight, the e-mails sent out at times during the night when most people are catching up on their REM sleep, and the morning phone calls that take place literally "first thing" in the morning.

If you need more than two or three hours' worth of power from the batteries powering your laptop computer, NY1's Adam Balkin has some good news for you:

"IBM and Sanyo have teamed up to create a prototype fuel cell battery for laptop computers that promises up to eight hours of life – that's double, maybe even triple what you get now. If this all sounds familiar that's because this is the same type of fuel cell technology being tested out for cars right now, such as the Toyota Prius."

The article points out that Hitachi and Toshiba are also working on fuel cell batteries that may be able to power cell phones, PDAs and MP3 players.

Perhaps emboldened by the news that Paris Hilton plans to launch her own podcast series starting April 29 as a tie-in to her new movie ("House of Wax"), the New York Post tries to make sense of the podcasting craze:

"Podcasting sounds like something you'd do with a rod and a reel, but it's actually the latest iPod phenomenon. A sort of on-demand radio broadcast downloaded straight to your MP3 player, podcasts give you the freedom to roam around the city - even underground - listening to your favorite radio program."

In New York, WNYC is one of the first radio stations experimenting with podcasting, and the station's director of programming explains why podcasting's style of do-it-yourself radio is catching on: "The appeal of podcasts is that they are a way for people to be empowered with their media - they get to listen to the things they want to hear, when they want to hear it."

Alan Meckler weighs in on the advertising "slump" at the Wall Street Journal and New York Times:

"Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are having a rough go with traditional ad space revenues. Both companies blame less tech and financial ad spending. There is truth in this assertion. But the problem is deeper. The Internet is grabbing more and more ad dollars."

Meckler than explains how a number of trends are creating the perfect storm for traditional newspapers. In response, look for forward-thinking publishers like Rupert Murdoch to shake things up and experiment with new ideas in response to the changing times:

"Newspapers will always be with us, but as more and more people use the Internet, newspapers are going to become smaller and smaller and will have to rely on Web traffic to work in tandem with the print editions in order to be economically viable."

How many strategic partners can an early-stage start-up really work with? According to New York VC Ed Sim, the answer is one. That's right, one. Sim explains:

"I can't tell you how many early stage companies I talk to tout their great list of partners. I always step back in amazement at how a small company can support more than one, really large partner in the beginning."

If an early-stage company claims to have a handful of partners, take a closer look to see whether the partner is really adding anything to the bottom line. If the partner is just there for show (i.e. another pretty face on a Web site), then the partnership is really nothing more than a "Barney press release":

"In my mind, if you and your partner are not generating revenue for each other than it isn't a real partnership but rather just a Barney press release. Yeah, you know the "I love you, you love me" kind of partnership that sucks precious resources from a startup and yields no value and no customers."

With that in mind, Sim provides five rules of engagement for making any strategic partnership work. It's hard work, and the fun is just starting once the two parties sign on the dotted line.

In Sunday's New York Times, James Fallows (a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly) provides a "Where are they now?" update on some cool gadgets & gizmos that have previously appeared in the paper, like Skype, Google Maps (now with satellite imagery), and mind-mapping software for the Mac.

The Globe and Mail points out that some tourists are now using their cellphones as tour guides:

"Move over dusty ol' guidebook, there's a new kid in town: the cellphone. Our beloved gadgets are now leading us through zoos, and allowing celebrities such as Steven Tyler and Sigourney Weaver to show us around Boston and New York."

Audio guides for the cellphone are available for $5.95 at TalkingStreet.com, which offers the option of Sigourney Weaver narrating a tour of Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site and Jerry Stiller providing audio commentary for a tour of the Lower East Side.

The creator of Talking Street, Miles Kronby, explains the appeal of using the cellphone as a tour guide: "Our interest is to make these tours as rich as possible, with other voices, not just dry readings from a guide book into a phone. We're aiming for something well beyond that. Something vivid and interactive, to make you feel like you're in the middle of it all."

Paul Tharp of the New York Post has details on how Peter Kann is reorganizing the management team at the Wall Street Journal in response to a four-year "ad slump." (Just asking: At the four-year mark, doesn't a "slump" get promoted to something a bit more serious?) Here's how Kann avoided getting Kanned:

"Kann yesterday promoted the Journal's top marketing and ad executive, Scott Schulman, to take over a new post of chief strategy officer at the parent, Dow Jones & Co. Replacing Schulman is Judy Barry, a former ace ad executive at the New York Times until she was poached by the Journal six months ago to help stop its steep ad decline. Schulman will report directly to Kann on the rescue strategy, while Barry will report directly to Kann's wife, Karen House, the Journal's publisher."

That might be part of the problem -- Kann's wife is part of the management team? In the immortal words of Captain Kirk, "Kaannn!"

Tom Watson has a great post on why the new "Thursday Styles" section of the New York Times (which replaced the popular "Circuits" section) is DOA after only one issue:

"The hapless, befuddled executive editor of The New York Times and his primogeniture-cursed boss have added the pathetic ThursdayStyles to their lineup of special sections, replacing the popular Circuits, which covered consumer technology. The result is a public humiliation for the newspaper, happy guffaws thumping from the chests of rivals, chump change from advertisers peddling luxe goods, and more evidence that the citadel on West 43rd Street is even further out of touch with the world than even its harshest critics previously believed..."

It's too bad that tech advertising has dried up for the Times. With a need to pander to a whole new class of advertiser looking to move product, the once venerable Grey Lady is forced to compromise her integrity with articles about "the new peacocks" (i.e. dandies) and shaving brushes.

The past six months have been rough for the MTA, so it's perhaps no surprise that the MTA announced that "controversial plans to have computers guide the trains have been postponed until next year." The MTA has already poured more than $300 million into creating a Robo-Train for the L line -- but is still not convinced that a new computerized train would be safe enough for New Yorkers.

MoviebankUSA is rolling out an "automated, anonymous, all-night movie rental outlet" on the corner of Houston and Wooster in SoHo. According to the New York Daily News, the all-night kiosk-style booths allow users to swipe a card, choose from a menu of movies and then pick up movies at a pickup window. Judging by early reviews, the system is easy-to-use, convenient and private. In fact, the new kiosk-stores are already so popular in Europe that an unnamed French company "has plans to install dozens of outlets around the city."

In its Spring 2005 education supplement, The Village Voice has a special feature on professors and other academics who are embracing blogs and "blog culture." Just think what would have happened, asks Geeta Dayal, "if the great thinkers of the past could have blogged, bouncing ideas off each other in real time, engaging in rapid-fire debates across borders. Would it have led to some kind of intellectual utopia, or total chaos?"

The Voice references a number of boldfaced names -- Jay Rosen of NYU, Lawrence Lessig of Stanford, Cameron Marlow of MIT, and Danah Boyd of UC-Berkeley -- as well as the types of academics you might not ordinarily associate with blogging, like the lecturer in ethnomusicology at Brown or the theoretical physicist at the University of Chicago.

There's a legal battle brewing between a Long Island entrepreneur and Google over the use of the name "Froogle." According to Newsday, it's really a question of "who oogled first":

In December 2000, Long Island's Richard Wolfe registered his Internet shopping site, Froogles.com. Two years later, when Google launched a comparison-shopping site of its own, Froogle.com, the company faced a legal backlash from Wolfe, who argued that the Froogle.com name infringed on the Froogles.com name he'd been using for two years.

The case is now going to federal court, where Google will argue that it is the "senior user of marks that incorporate the formative '--OOGLE' for Internet search services."

Advertising revenue at the Wall Street Journal is down, and that's casting a pall of gloom over Dow Jones, according to Brand Republic. The problem, quite simply, is that financial and IT advertising -- considered the lifeblood of a publication like the WSJ -- is mired in a persistent slump. As a result, analysts are decidedly bearish: "Dow Jones and The New York Times were pretty much as bad as expected and the outlook for Dow Jones remains grim..."

How bad is it? The New York Post says that the weak performance at Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal could cost Peter Kann his job.

Google goes with the DaVinci Code look today...

Grace Glueck of the New York Times reviews the exhibition of high-performance materials at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Some cool stuff, like the Vanguard Vector racing dinghy, protective gloves and suits for astronauts and firefighters, the WilliamsF1 BMW FW26 racing car and the Ursack bear-resistant food bag ("claw- and tooth-proofed by virtue of its impenetrable fabric of woven polyethylene filament.")

IT Conversations has audio of Malcolm Gladwell's talk at this year's SXSW event in Austin for streaming or download. (Hat tip: Kottke)

Looks like the New York Times has partnered with Jiwire to provide a comprehensive listing of the city's Wi-Fi hotspots (864 and counting...). (Link found on the New York Times Technology page)

Rupert Murdoch's speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington outlined how and why entrenched media companies must respond to fundamental changes occurring in the world of media. Murdoch emphasized the importance of the Internet for today's news editors, using an extended metaphor about "immigrants" and "natives" to make his point clear. In many ways, "digital immigrants" must strive to catch up with the new generation of "digital natives" who are already at home on the Internet.

Blogs, not surprisingly, could play an important part in how Murdoch's own media empire bridges the gap between the 'natives' and the 'immigrants':

"Our internet site will have to do still more to be competitive. For some, it may have to become the place for conversation. The digital native doesn’t send a letter to the editor anymore. She goes online, and starts a blog. We need to be the destination for those bloggers...

At the same time, we may want to experiment with the concept of using bloggers to supplement our daily coverage of news on the Net... [Bloggers] may still serve a valuable purpose; broadening our coverage of the news; giving us new and fresh perspectives to issues; deepening our relationship to the communities we serve..."

For more perspective on what the speech means, Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine has extensive commentary. The mainstream media is also picking up on the story. Newsday, for example, has more on how Murdoch might shake up the Web site of the New York Post.

Shhh, don't tell anyone, but it looks like John Battelle (founder of The Industry Standard) is trying to launch some kind of blog media venture called FM Publishing. (The "FM" stands for "Federated Media," not for "Frequency Modulation") Anyway, Alarm:Clock is calling it a "stealth sister-site to John Battelle's SearchBlog." The new media company has been so stealthy, in fact, that the venture has "gone largely un-noticed in the blogosphere."

Here's one guess: the company will remain in super-stealth mode until Battelle finishes his long-awaited and oft-promised book on Google.

In response to recent insensitive remarks by Harvard's Lawrence Summers about the under-representation of women in the sciences and mathematics, the New York Academy of Sciences is sponsoring a panel discussion on the theme "Women in Science: Are They Being Held Back?" tonight at 7:00. The moderator of the panel will be the former science editor of The New York Times, Cornelia Dean. (Oh, and three of the five panelists will also be women)

IBM has made its patented data-management mining and analysis technologies available to analyze data collected from in-car electronic components. According to the Journal News, it's a move that will enable automobile manufacturers to more readily analyze and collect huge reams of vehicle diagnostics data. The goal is to make it easier to detect problems with electrical or electronic systems that result in automobile breakdowns. An IBM researcher who helped develop the technology explains:

"With an approach like this, data can be preserved and used to develop automated analysis routines to help all mechanics correctly diagnose the same type of problem as well as to provide an early warning system to identify major issues affecting many vehicles."

Crain's New York has the latest on the problems at ImClone Systems... (No, they don't involve Martha.) Shares of the company fell by as much as 12.3% in Wednesday trading after ImClone and its marketing partner Bristol-Myers Squibb put U.S. FDA approval for new uses of their Erbitux cancer drug on hold. However, the two companies still plan to move forward with a U.S. FDA application that would enable them to market Erbitux as a treatment for certain types of throat cancer sometime later this year.

Tempted by the opportunity to download DVD-quality movies within 30 seconds or less, college kids across America have been illegally downloading music and video using Internet2 networks, says the Recording Industry Association of America. According to the New York Daily News, a total of 38 college kids at Columbia and NYU were among the 405 file-swappers nationwide who were caught red-handed: "At least 25 Columbia and 13 New York University students who thought they could get away with swapping movies and music over their schools' super high-speed Internet networks are to be sued today."

The head of the Motion Picture Association (which also plans to sue a number of students) has a warning for anyone else even thinking about illegal downloads:

"Our message to these thieves is clear - you are not anonymous and you will be held responsible. You can click, but you cannot hide."

Business Ethics magazine has released its list of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens in the U.S. The top-ranked company in the New York area is none other than Sirius Satellite Radio, coming in at #21. Of course, that's before Howard Stern joins 'em next year... (Hat tip: Treowth)

The new Corante podcasting blog points to Podcasting @ WNYC , a special web feature from New York public radio dedicated to helping listeners navigate the podcasting landscape. The site includes a summary of WNYC's podcasts (e.g. "On the Media"), links to podcasts worth checking out elsewhere on the Web, and a Podcasting 101 Help section.

New York-based private equity firm Baker Capital has acquired full control of MusicNet, the digital-music service formed in early 2001 by RealNetworks and a consortium of big music labels like EMI and Sony. While the change in control will not result in a "radical change for the company," according to CNET, the deal does highlight "the big music labels' retreat from selling music directly on the Net, in favor of letting brands such as Apple Computer, Microsoft and Napster serve as online song stores."

Paid Content follows up on the Baker Capital - MusicNet deal, speculating that the price tag could have been as high as $50 million. After speaking with industry insiders and sources close to the story, Rafat Ali comments on what the deal means for MusicNet:

"This move is probably best for the survival of the company, as the ownership structure was very complicated. With multiple labels involved, and with RealNetworks owning about 25 percent of the company, any innovation meant getting all the owners involved, a nightmare to say the least (and RNWK's own efforts at parallel with MusicNet)."

New York Web sites landed a total of 43 nominations for this year's Webby Awards, with a particularly strong showing in the financial, lifestyle and youth-oriented categories. Perhaps coincidentally, the Webby Awards will be held in New York this year for the first time ever. Crain's New York has the details:

"Of the more than 300 global Web sites nominated in more than 60 categories for the awards--which honor Web sites for their design and usability--about one in seven are from New York. Local companies were nominated in 25 areas, ranging from fashion to politics."

Joshua Schachter, the founder of del.icio.us, has some exciting news about a recent infusion of VC money:

"As you may know, I left my job a few weeks ago in order to devote myself full-time to del.icio.us. In order to make that posssible, I accepted an investment from a group of thoughtful and influential investors. The group I chose to work with understands my commitment to maintaining the integrity of the service and the security of your data. They were also willing to take a minority stake, which will keep me in control of the future of del.icio.us.

Union Square Ventures leads the investment group, and the other members are Amazon.com, Marc Andreessen, BV Capital, Esther Dyson, Seth Goldstein, Josh Koppelman, Howard Morgan, Tim O'Reilly, and Bob Young."

In his post "Del.icio.us Dollars," Om Malik speculates that del.icio.us received somewhere around $2 million in VC financing. "Open media dollars are coming thick and fast," he writes.

Paul Boutin points to a Google zoom movie from Pat Di Justo that creates the sensation of blasting off into outer space from the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

In his notes from a recent online journalism symposium in Austin, JD Lasica hints that Len Apcar and the New York Times could be considering a number of moves to tap into the grassroots media phenomenon:

"The Times is well aware of the grassroots media phenomenon, and is looking at sensible ways of incorporating grassroots media into the website. It'll happen gradually."

"Len [the editor of the New York Times on the Web] is particularly interested in social networking and has even visited Tribe.net in San Francisco with Martin Nisenholz to get a first-hand glimpse of a market leader. Sounded like the Times is still early in the process of determining how they might want to incorporate social networking into the Times network."

"Len said that he and the Times don't want to be seen as one-way, take-it-or-leave-it big media, and they're constantly looking at ways to bring readers into a burgeoning conversation."

A 19-page PDF white paper ("Connecting the Public: The Truth About Municipal Broadband") is available to the public at the Media Access Project Web site. The paper argues that it makes sense for municipal governments to serve their citizens by deploying broadband networks:

"As broadband becomes a necessary utility, local governments must remain free to play their traditional role as a safety net for their residents and businesses. Just as municipalities provided power a century ago when private companies did not move fast enough, so to will local governments provide broadband in a timely manner."

David Pogue of the New York Times reviews Google's new search tool for mobile phones:

"In the What box, type in what you're looking for, like "Italian restaurant." In the Where box, put your Zip code (or city and state). Click search, and boom — Google shows you the Yellow Pages and Web results, in a list and even on a map (which you can scroll or zoom). By highlighting a result, you can click to place a phone call to that place, or get driving directions from your current location. It's all free, and there are no ads..."

Carat Interactive is planning to launch a new blog practice focused on blog advertising, blog creation and blog monitoring. The national media director at Carat Interactive explains why the firm is turning its attention to the blogosphere:

"We see it as the fastest growing area of the Internet. We're interested in it, our clients are interested in it. We see it as a great opportunity for two-way communication between our clients and their consumers."

Spring is the high season for birdwatchers, so the San Francisco Chronicle wonders what's in store this spring for New York City's two most famous hawks - Pale Male and Lola. The good news is that more hawks could be on the way:

"There are one to three eggs in the nest with the posh Manhattan address, and chicks are expected to hatch within the next two weeks, according to avid bird-watchers who monitor the nest daily and report the activity on the Internet."

For those interested, PaleMale.com has constant updates (and photos) of Pale Male and Lola.

More than a dozen New Yorkers made the Time 100 list of the world's "most influential" people, including Malcom Gladwell of The New Yorker, Martha Stewart, Eliot Spitzer, Jeffrey Sachs and a handful of names from the world of entertainment and culture (Alicia Keys, Jon Stewart, Dave Eggers, etc.).

The New York Times Magazine profiles the popular Flavorpill, which now has more than 50,000 online subscribers for its e-mail newsletters. So what makes Flavorpill so popular with New Yorkers? Well, for one, Flavorpill contributors provide a value-added service by filtering hundreds -- if not thousands -- of entertainment and culture offerings each week into a workable list of 20 or fewer "things to do" and "places to be seen." In addition, Flavorpill is popular with trendsetters for its "vaguely secretive, in-the-know vibe." Advertising sponsors certainly have noticed -- big names like Sony and Absolut have already ponied up to pitch their products to a young, trendy audience.

From ClickZ: AOL has signed a deal with DoubleClick to use the company's ad management platform (DFP) across all of AOL's online properties, including AOL.com, AOL Instant Messenger, Compuserve, Netscape, Mapquest, Moviefone, Time Inc. Interactive, CNN, CNNMoney, and icq. It's a big win for DoubleClick, says ClickZ, since these AOL properties have a total audience reach of more than 104 million users.

Sports Illustrated has the details on a settlement that involves major league baseball's Web site, a sports memorabilia firm and the New York City government. After a "deceptive" e-mail promotion that involved selling autographed baseballs at above-market prices, MLB Advanced Media and Steiner Sports Memorabilia are making amends with the city by funding the full cost of fixing up a Manhattan Little League field, providing money for Little League uniforms and equipment, paying $60,000 in cash and kicking in tens of thousands of dollars worth of autographed baseballs and other memorabilia.

Crain's New York reports that top-ranking New York business leaders will "attempt to cultivate ties with China and attract money from cash-rich state-owned enterprises" at the upcoming U.S.-China Investment and Trade Forum, to be hosted by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce on April 12. The list of speakers includes the chairman of the AIG Consumer Finance Group and the director of Empire State Development Corp.

The New York Times considers how something as simple and unassuming as a Google text ad can lead to "sublime justice" for white-collar criminals. One example is disgraced Enron chairman Ken Lay, who is paying Google about $25 a day to be able to serve up text ads telling his side of the Enron scandal. The only problem for Mr. Lay, though, is that disgruntled Enron employees and shareholders now have a way literally to "nickle-and-dime" him to death by clicking repeatedly on these Google ads:

"For some former Enron workers, who had nothing to do with the shenanigans at the top but who saw their nest egg of company stock destroyed, the invitation to make Mr. Lay pay, even a little, was too good to pass up. A former executive of the company acknowledges that when he first heard about the AdWords arrangement, "I just clicked three or four times, you know; Ka-ching! Ka-ching! Ka-ching!"

It seems like this story pops up every few months or so... The New York Daily News is running yet another story about Internet bullies and what kids and parents can do to protect themselves from harrassment online. According to the Daily News, the Internet has enabled a new breed of online bullies, the so-called "cyberbullies," to wreak havoc with the city's teenagers:

"Instead of yelling insults across the lunchroom, kids send vicious E-mails and create Web sites that ridicule. Instead of writing something sordid about a classmate on the bathroom wall, kids sneak photo phones into the locker room, take pictures and forward the shots to all their friends."

With that in mind, the New York Daily News provides a few online resources parents & kids can check out, and lists "five things kids can do about cyberbullying."

Cablevision announced plans to shut down its money-losing satellite service Voom, effective April 30, but the New York Post is not so sure that it's all gloom and doom for Voom. CEO Chuck Dolan may still find a way to keep Voom alive: "A source close to the company said he would be surprised if [Chuck] does not have another move in mind to keep his satellite business afloat." In the past, remember, Cablevision has pledged to shut down Voom, before Chuck Dolan found a way to rescue his "pet project."

On Sunday, Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen and Nichelle Stephens of Nichelle Newsletter will kick-off their Brown Blog Series with a discussion on "Color or Content: Does Race Matter When You Blog?" at Lava Gina Lounge on Avenue C. Sabater and Stephens will address "how race affects a bloggers' perspective for an African-American and Latino audience."

On Monday, Media Access Project and Free Press plan to release a white paper "defending the right of municipalities to offer broadband services, and rebutting the various industry attacks on muni systems." In addition, Free Press intends to take on Verizon's negative claims about municipal broadband offerings.

As an aside: Free Press is also sponsoring the New York City Grassroots Media Conference at the New School this weekend (April 9-10).

Looks like Cablevision's $16.5 billion bid for Adelphia was a case of too little, too late: Comcast and Time Warner Cable announced plans to buy Adelphia for $18 billion yesterday, and it looks like the offer will be accepted by Adelphia's board and the bankruptcy judge presiding over the case. According to the New York Times, the offer includes $13.5 billion in cash and $4.5 billion in stock (the Wall Street Journal, though, is reporting a $12 billion/$6 billion mix).

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is ready to move on after a Google-related snafu: apparently, his campaign team was buying ad keywords like "AIG" on Google. Thus, whenever an Internet browser searched for news about American International Group (AIG), Spitzer's latest white-collar crime target, text ads for Spitzer's gubernatorial campaign (Spitzer2006.com) popped up. Spitzer blamed a "relatively low-level campaign staffer responsible for promoting Spitzer's campaign Web site."

At Business Week Online, S&P's Scott Kessler writes that IAC/InterActiveCorp is facing a classic Catch-22 situation: Barry Diller is trying to build an Internet juggernaut, but with two entirely different strategies that are at loggerheads with each other. On one hand, Diller is trying to carve out a strategy to meld together an "alphabet of brands," by taking steps like bundling together all his travel-related assets. On the other hand, he is attempting to accelerate growth through a hodgepodge acquisition strategy in order to fend off "intense competition" in different market segments.

Kessler explains: "Ultimately, at S&P we believe IAC faces a Catch-22: Clarity or growth? Interestingly, we think it has decided on the former, which is completely counter to IAC's corporate history and culture. We're cautious about IAC's apparent new emphasis on synergies and innovation..."

Hot off the presses: the TopCast podcasting awards show is scheduled for New York City in November, another sign that the podcasting trend is starting to turn into something more -- like a full-fledged industry. According to the founder of the TopCast awards show, "A media market such as Podcasting deserves its own event to recognize industry pioneers, leaders and top program talent." Overall, there will be 30 award categories, ranging from "Best Podcast Host" to "Best Local Podcast."

After Pfizer warned that it may suspend sales of its arthritis drug Bextra and possibly discourage sales of the pain killer Celebrex, Moody's countered with a warning that it might cut the company's top debt ratings. Moody is concerned first and foremost with the company's cash flow: lower sales mean less cash means a reduced capacity to service debt. There doesn't appear to be much to worry about, though: Pfizer is one of a handful of companies in the United States with a triple-A debt rating.

It's anybody's guess what the Dolans are up to at Cablevision. First, there was the internecine struggle between Chuck Dolan and Jimmy Dolan over Voom. Then, there was the tiff with Mayor Bloomberg over the West Side stadium. Now, there's noise again from Cablevision's corner, this time related to the company's $16.5 billion all-cash bid for bankrupt cable operator Adelphia.

Pick a different Wall Street analyst, and you'll get a different explanation for the bid. Most likely, it has something to do with the company's ongoing squabble with Time Warner Cable. Anyway, investors don't approve -- on news of the Adelphia bid, shares of the company sank 3.5%, to close at $26.85 on Wednesday.

Vertical search company Oodle launched in late March, and that raises the perhaps not-so-obvious question: How many other Internet search-related companies are playing off positive associations of the Google name by also including the "oo" sound in their names?

There's Oodle, of course. And Kanoodle. And Accoona, which launched to great fanfare a few months ago. And ooBdoo, which re-launched on April 6 to include new MP3 and image search functionality. Searchblog lists a handful of other search companies with the "oo" -- Mooter, Sootle, Soople and (if you stretch things) LookSmart. The original, of course, was Yahoo.

What is this "oo" sound called? Doing a quick search on Google turned up a few possibilities -- the "variant vowel oo" and the "digraph oo." Any phonetics or linguistics experts out there who can help?

It reminded me of the Wikipedia entry for the heavy metal umlaut, in which one single sound carried a number of connotations and implied meanings: "A heavy metal umlaut is an umlaut over a letter in the name of a heavy metal band. Umlauts and other diacritics with a blackletter style typeface are a form of foreign branding intended to give a band's logo a Germanic or Nordic "toughness". It is a form of marketing that invokes stereotypes of boldness and strength commonly attributed to peoples such as the Vikings."

With that in mind, what does the "Internet oo" connote?

Yesterday, MTV offered more details about its plans for MTV Overdrive, "a Web channel through www.MTV.com offering more advanced viewing and video-on-demand capabilities for an audience accustomed to instantaneous content."

MTV Overdrive, which has a scheuled launch date of April 25, will offer continuous MTV News updates, artist interviews, music videos, live music performances, original and newly created short-form programing, MTV and MTV2 show footage, movie trailers, and whatever else the folks at Viacom can think up.

As seen on GameSpy.com: Nintendo is opening a new superstore (the Nintendo World Store) in Rockefeller Center:

"The Nintendo World Store will be a two story complex showcasing Nintendo's latest and greatest. Nintendo World will also be the home of Pokemon Center, the headquarters of the world of Pokemon and will feature exclusive Pokemon products and will play host to special Pokemon Events."

Earlier in the week, former AOL Chairman Steve Case announced that he was putting $500 million of his own money into Revolution, which will own controlling stakes in companies that provide health care services, leisure travel services and wellness-related products and services.

Within 48 hours, he found a suitable investment target -- Wisdom Media, which operates media properties in the health & wellness category. According to Crain's New York, the company acquired West Virginia-based Wisdom, with the intention of moving the company to NYC. Over the next few months, Case will work some Internet magic on the company to re-brand and re-launch it.

New York's Trisha Brown Dance Company is in Arizona to participate in motion{+e}, an interdisciplinary, multimedia presentation that mixes dance and computers with living visual art:

"Dancers will be monitored by infrared cameras and their motion processed in computers and projected on a scrim in front of the stage, creating an interaction between the live motion of the dancers and the visual imagery created in the computers. The accompanying music will also be affected by the motion of the dancers."

After its premiere in Arizona, the show will be moving back to the East Coast for a Trisha Brown tribute event at Lincoln Center from April 13-16.

The New York Academy of Sciences is commemorating 100 years of the Einstein Papers and celebrating the relationship between The City College of New York and Einstein with a Student Research Conference on April 11-12. Special guests at the conference will include City College Nobel Laureates.

Nick Denton's Gawker Media blog empire has launched a new blog, Sploid.com, that will challenge Matt Drudge for leadership in the "online news/gossip/investigative reporting/scaremongering Web space."

Nick Denton, named by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year as one of the newsmakers to watch in 2005, describes what he has in mind for Sploid:

"Sploid is a news site with a tabloid mentality -- top stories up top, played big, as fast as they break. If there's a political line, it's anarcho-capitalist -- sniffing out hypocrisy and absurdity, whether from salon left or religious right... We want to occupy the space between the whiny left and the ranting right. Drudge is very good. It will probably take us 10 years to catch up with his level of traffic."

For more on the trashy, sensationalist blogging that's ready to take over New York publishing circles, check out the New York Observer article called "Bloggorhea." The name says it all...

FreshDirect has become the online grocery service of choice for New Yorkers, says the New York Times. In 2004, the company posted $100 million in sales and in the past two years, FreshDirect has made more than 2 million deliveries in the New York area. If you're a big Zagat fan, then you'll also appreciate the following: 52% of New Yorkers filling out the annual Zagat Survey reported that they ordered online groceries last year (a big jump from 16% in 2003).

A cool resource for bloggers: The Annotated New York Times, which tracks blog postings that cite articles published by The New York Times. These blog fragments are then grouped by author or by topic "to form virtual, distributed conversations that span multiple sites and that center around the coverage of news events as reported by the Times." (Hat tip: Wizbang)

If you've got a pain in the knee or hip, check out the Knee and Hip Pain Blog, from New York's own Dr. Ronald Grelsamer, MD. He's the chief of hip and knee reconstruction at Maimonides Medical Center, and a noted staff orthopaedic specialist at the NYU's Hospital for Joint Diseases / Orthopaedic Institute.

Vertical search is hot, and vertical travel search is hotter still. Sabre Holdings (the owner of Travelocity and the Sabre Travel Network) has acquired Manhattan-based IgoUgo.com, an online travel community and searchable database of travel reviews, for an undisclosed sum. SearchEngineWatch.com has more on how Sabre plans to enhance the IgoUgo.com property by developing its own proprietary vertical search technology.

CBS MarketWatch explains how Sabre's vertical travel search will work:

"Type in the word "Java," and IgoUgo pulls up only sites with information about the Indonesian island, rather than coffee or computers. Further, IgoUgo also culls Java information from its database of reviews and travel journals written by IgoUgo's 350,000 members..."

Satellite radio is on pace to have 8 million subscribers by the end of the year, making it "one of the fastest-growing technologies ever - faster, for example, than cellphones." It's a threat that traditional radio is finally starting to take seriously:

"Broadcasters are cutting commercials, adding hundreds of songs to once-rigid playlists, introducing new formats and beefing up their Internet offerings. A long-awaited move to digital radio could give existing stations as many as five signals each, with which they could introduce their own subscription services - but with a local flavor that satellite is hard pressed to match..."

The only question is whether the two leading satellite radio players -- XM and Sirius -- can keep up the furious pace of subscriber growth.

The Webby Awards, known as the "Oscars of the Internet," will take place in midtown Manhattan on June 6 at Gotham Hall. This will be the 9th Webby Awards ceremony -- and the first one ever in New York (the first six were in San Francisco and the last two years have been hosted online only). The awards ceremony, to be emceed by a comedian affiliated with "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," will hand out Webbys in 65 different categories.

A group of 21 kids from the South Bronx won the state Robotic Championship in February (beating out smarty pants from some of the city's elite schools), and are now raising money to make the trip to the national competition in Atlanta. The South Bronx robo-kids designed a LEGO robot that shoots basketballs, climbs stairs and serves food, all in less than 3 minutes.

Last week at The New School University's Milano Graduate School, Mayor Bloomberg spoke on the topic of "U.S. Mayors and Innovative Leadership." The Gotham Gazette has a full transcript of the speech, which included a review of the mayor's initiatives related to the economy, taxes, homeland security and education. Oh, and also a nice mention of the city's 311 hotline, which recently celebrated its second anniversary:

"New York has clearly loved 311, and it's great for the public who can never find ways to interact with government. If you look in the phone book there is something like 11 pages with listings for New York government. And I defy anyone to guess which agency they should go to... But if you call 311 with service in 170 languages, we can probably get you a reasonably accurate answer or access or tell you where to go."

How do traditional radio stations compete with the wider-ranging playlists and more diverse formats of satellite radio stations? Here's one solution: split yourself into two different radio stations, one that plays mainstream stuff and another that plays less mainstream stuff. According to the New York Daily News, WXRK (92.3 FM) has "split itself in half, expanding its on-air playlist to include more vintage rock while launching an Internet-only twin, K-Rock 2, that will focus on new music."

Rob Cross, the station's program director, explains why the move is good for listeners: "One of the great things about K-Rock 2... is that it gives more exposure to new bands while allowing the on-air K-Rock to loosen up. You create expectations for listeners. When they are used to a certain sound, you violate that expectation if you play, say, a Van Halen song. Now we have the freedom to do that."

Paid Content points to an article in Hollywood Reporter about Viacom's plans to leverage its existing media and entertainment assets by experimenting with technologies like wireless and interactive TV. Last week, the company announced the creation of a new CBS Digital Media unit to consolidate its Web properties, and there's apparently more to come (like a music download service from MTV):

"Viacom has been increasingly pushing into the Internet, wireless, video game and interactive TV services space to leverage its franchises. The creation of CBS Digital Media... was only the latest sign that Viacom has evolved into a formidable multiplatform player."

According to the New York Post, Goldman Sachs no longer plans to build a new $2 billion, 40-story tower in Battery Park City, "dealing a severe blow to downtown hopes for a commercial renaissance near the World Trade Center site." Mayor Bloomberg's office was "stunned" at the news. But was the move by Goldman just a clever negotiating tactic?:

"Goldman has bickered with the state over plans for a West Street tunnel adjacent to Ground Zero that might place wide entrance portals in front of the new headquarters. The bank's backing out could be a negotiating ploy to pressure the state to cancel the tunnel or move the portals north."

Google Maps has added a new satellite mapping option that enables users to zoom in on specific neighborhoods in New York City:

"Google believes most people will like the convenience of generating a satellite image with a few clicks of a computer mouse. The company envisions people using the service as a way to scout a hotel's proximity to the beach for a possible vacation or size up the neighborhood where an apartment is for rent..."

Buried in the middle of a story about a CIA recruiting session at NYU that was broken up by anti-war protestors: "The event – which was scheduled to include speakers from the CIA, a dinner, and a raffle for prizes such as an iPod Shuffle – was organized by students in an NYU marketing class whose classwork for the semester is to market the CIA to their peers at NYU."

One takeaway lesson, of course, is that the CIA is having such a hard time marketing itself to students that it has turned over the future of its marketing campaign to a bunch of B-school marketing types. (Each project team at NYU had a $2,500 budget) The other lesson, sadly, is that people will do just about anything for an iPod...

New York lawmakers have closed ranks behind a "first of its kind measure in the nation" to target the increasingly common practice of 'modem hijacking,' in which Internet criminals steal the dial-up modem connections of Internet users in order to make unauthorized international phone calls. In one variant of the hijacking scheme, computer users are tricked into checking a box in a pop-up window on the PC screen, inadvertently authorizing the downloading of modem software that then is remotely accessed to make international calls that are charged back to the computer user.

Each year, the practice is estimated to cost millions of dollars in unauthorized phone calls for Americans. Other states could soon be following New York's lead in dealing with the modem hijackers, thanks to the support of companies like Verizon and the support of federal officials.

Could a tech-savvy kid who happens to be homeless make it in New York City by living at Starbucks and Kinko's and depending on the kindness of strangers? An interview conducted at the Starbucks on 41st & Madison with New York City's Starbucks homeless nerd attempts to find out...

(NOTE: all of this apparently took place on April 1, so draw your own conclusions...)

"Corey turns 21 tomorrow. He won't be celebrating this rite of passage at '21' or over impetuous fistfuls of Jagermeister but will instead spend the night sleeping upright in a chair at a 24-hour Kinko's. Corey has been homeless in New York City for the past three and a half months.

He bathes in churches, spending $20 a week on mouthwash, shaving cream, and other necessities. The self-taught Midwestern transplant earns money by helping people with their computer problems at Kinko's come nightfall. During the day, he uses the ghetto-tech computer equipment, he discovered in a dumpster, to surf the Internet at Starbucks (picking up free wireless waves from the neighborhood)."

Better late than never... Newsday.com now offers RSS feeds in a number of categories, including 7 news feeds and 8 sports feeds. (Hat tip: Micro Persuasion)

According to the chairman of the New York Biotechnology Association, “New York is no longer becoming a great place for biotechnology, we already are [a great place]." New York State is now home to 123 biotech companies, including 40 companies in New York City and 24 companies on Long Island. Bio-IT World also notes that New York-based biotech companies raised more than $100 million in VC financing last year and received 11 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants in 2004.

The New York Times is justifiably famous for its slogan "All the news that's fit to print." Here's another suggestion, from an article about why the New York Times may need to start charging for online content: "All the news that fits, we print."

Bloomberg News takes a closer look at why satellite radio giants Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio pose such a competitive threat to traditional radio giants Clear Channel Communications and Viacom. In fact, within four years, the two satellite radio companies may have as many as 25 million to 30 million subscribers. Currently, Sirius and XM have a combined total of 4.8 million subscribers while Clear Channel and Viacom have a combined total of 170 million listeners, so it's clear that any audience gains will come at traditional radio's expense. The chief marketing officer at Booz Allen Hamilton explains what's going on:

"Today, satellite radio is where cable television was in the 1970s, a business with few subscribers compared with the traditional broadcast networks. Yet it has the potential to disrupt an industry."

In 1970, cable TV subscribers accounted for only 8% of all TV viewers; in 2004, though, cable TV subscribers accounted for 68% of all viewers. Satellite radio service has taken only four years to capture 4% of the market, while cable TV needed 13 years to capture the same share of the market.

In this week's "E-Commerce Report,"Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times explains that many online cigarette vendors are winding down operations or closing up shop entirely in the wake of a decision by major credit card companies to no longer accept payment for tobacco products bought online. "Not since the dot-com bust have so many sites gone south so quickly," according to Tedeschi. One back-of-the-envelope estimate predicts that over 2,000 workers from 30 online cigarette businesses could soon find themselves without jobs.

Google's Gmail is full of activity today as it celebrates its first birthday... Gmail is raising each user's storage limit from 1GB to 2GB as part of Google's new "Infinity + 1" storage plan and introducing new fonts, more colors, and additional formatting goodies. Happy birthday, Gmail!

If you're a PR flack looking for a surefire way to attract the attention of a journalist, why not try for the completely gratuitous iPod press release. At this week's New York Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, Mercedes-Benz must have felt a bit underappreciated -- it looks like they whipped up an iPod-related press release with just 48 hours remaining in the auto show:

"Mercedes-Benz USA is testing their first iPod-compatible Audio Books at the New York Auto Show... Designed to brief potential Mercedes buyers about new car features, Audio Books provide in-depth digital "walk-around" narrations through the familiar, easy-to-use iPod unit. Interested consumers at the show can download Mercedes-Benz Audio Books to their own iPod for $2.95 each, or they can experience the walk-around narrations without charge on loaner iPods."

EBay has canned its longtime advertising agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco, replacing them with New York-based BBDO. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, BBDO will now be responsible for integrating eBay's Internet marketing, direct marketing, and print and television advertising efforts. Other BBDO clients include Campbell's, GE, Gillette, Pepsi, Visa, Masterfoods and Frito Lay.

Starting in August, Monster.com will provide local data on online recruitment activity and job availability in top U.S. job markets like New York City. Until now, Monster has only provided cuts of data on a national and regional basis.

Larry Kramer, who founded MarketWatch.com in the mid-1990s, is joining Viacom as the president of a newly-formed division, CBS Digital Media. According to the New York Times, Kramer will oversee the content and sales of the network's online properties, including SportsLine.com, CBS.com, CBSNews.com and UPN.com. From various reports, it looks like Kramer's plan is to combine all of these Web sites into one group, in order to take advantage of the boomlet in online advertising.

Paid Content has a sneak peek at the behind-the-scenes maneuvering between the power players involved, while Lost Remote has a copy of the actual memo from Leslie Moonves to all CBS employees announcing the arrival of Larry Kramer as the head of CBS Digital Media.

On Thursday, the board of the MTA voted unanimously to sell control of the West Side railyards to the Jets. The New York Times calls the vote "a milestone in one of the most bitter land-use disputes in New York City in recent years." After this bitter, protracted debate over the future of the West Side railyards, rival bidder Cablevision is almost certain to throw up legal roadblocks to block construction of a new stadium for the Jets.

According to the New York Post, Time Warner Cable is preparing a TiVo-killer: "Time Warner Inc.'s cable-television unit plans to test a service that replays a TV program any time during its broadcast, an alternative to digital video recorders from companies including TiVo."

And Newsday says that it's not only Time Warner Cable... It looks like Cablevision is also preparing to "offer DVR-like services without the DVR box."

We hope this isn't an April Fool's Day prank... (it's from a blog called Poo-Poo Platter and it's April 1, so be forewarned). Levi's is looking for some rugged, handsome programmers and/or 3D animators who look good in a pair of jeans for a photo shoot in NYC on April 14:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION:

Please submit the following materials and mail them overnight to:

Barbara Bersell Casting
2698 Greenfield Ave
LA, CA 90064

OR EMAIL: bersellcast@earthlink.net

1. Please have all applicant dress themselves in jeans and a t-shirt and take 4 photos. 2 face shots and 2 full length shots. It is best to take the full lengths against a blank wall. NO HATS OR SUNGLASSES, NO OTHER PEOPLE OR ANIMALS IN PHOTOS. PLEASE WEAR A SHIRT.

2. Please write a short bio about about your experience as a programmer or 3D animator. Print out two copies.

Any further questions contact: 310-470-1670

***WE ARE LOOKING FOR MALES ONLY. DEADLINE TO SUBMIT IS FRIDAY APRIL 1ST***