Landon was looking up info on the “hollow.com” concept (because of that “vapid but greedy” dot com CEO report) and ran across this oddity: Hollow Planets Theory. Someone has published a book that discusses the possibility that Earth and other planets may be hollow. No, it’s not a joke. There are actually some scientific facts that make this a concept worth looking at. At the very least, it shakes up long-lived assumptions enough to spark some new thinking on the makeup of planets. All five Amazon.com reviews are very positive.

The Online Journalism Review has a commentary on What the Pulitzers Missed: What makes a Newspaper a Newspaper? They question why online news publications were not allowed to submit their work for consideration. The Pulitzer bias is clear: printed format is required. It matters not that the content of an electronic publication may be of (gasp!) higher quality than that of smudgeable newsprint which can be used to line the bird cage. What will it take for the Pulitzer administrators to consider online-only entries? Will printed newspapers and books have to go completely away? When will the web be taken seriously as a publication medium? It is already the primary news source for multitudes of people.

The abstract to Douglas Hofstadter’s talk at Berkeley Friday is interesting food for thought. As is typical (though he has a wide range of interests), he is speaking about language and thought. His focus will be on the use of the word “guy”, claiming that “this word is perhaps the most deeply sexist term in the entire English language, and the irony is that it is precisely because it seems so innocent that it is so insidious and such a trap, even for sophisticates.” The plural “guys” is often used, and accepted for use, with mixed groups. Heck, I’ve even used it with groups of all females. And I don’t like the word “gal” for some reason. This is an intriguing topic, laced with cultural oddities. As he states: “I cannot think of a single word that so epitomizes the complex relationship between language and thought as this one word in American English.”

Lesson learned, over and over. Realtors, stock brokers, recruiters… these people are all in sales. It’s easy to forget that fact when they’re helping you find what you want, giving you suggestions, and offering advice. And there certainly are nice people in sales professions, even those rare birds who will sacrifice their commissions to make sure you get what you truly need or want. But the only person who you can be absolutely sure of to purely look out for your own needs is you. So always listen to yourself. Don’t doubt yourself when working with people who have not yet earned your complete trust. If you feel manipulated when you’re working with someone in sales, you most definitely are being manipulated. They know what buttons to push to close a sale.

Dotcom CEOs vapid … but greedy. I laughed. I cried. I set up a trust fund for the cat. Forrester Research CEO and Chairman George F. Colony has written a blunt column criticizing the quality of dotcom CEOs. Their commitment and focus are on the short term, the IPO, the valuation, the marketing blitz, stuff I think of as the veneer of the company. There’s no substance, no sustainable business model, no long term employee culture or morale, and, worst of all (IMHO), no commitment to creating quality product for the customers. Isn’t that the point, after all? The users? sigh. Let the mergers & acquisitions begin.

Web Firms May Vastly Inflate Claims of ‘Hits’. (And some celebrities may actually use hairpieces! Oh horrors!) Even if a site uses an auditor, they try to pump their numbers up, asking search engine hits to be counted and so on. I don’t suppose the Nielson Rating method will ever work with the web. Grabbing a small percentage of the population to track web site popularity would be ludicrous. Right?

Interesting statistic from Medscape’s Women’s Health newsletter (sorry, registration required, so no direct link to the facts). According to statistics released last week, Canadian women abort almost one in four pregnancies. This is a rising trend that runs counter to a declining rate in the United States. The number has risen steadily since the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s antiabortion law in 1988. Does Canada’s vastly different health care system figure into this?

PC Week columnist, Peter Coffee, has written a few words about coders and, though he doesn’t label it as such, their philosophies about writing code. His thoughts could use some expansion and clarification, but his basic premise is that someone still has to write the code and that coders disagree on when it’s time to actually write it. I have two modes of operation. If I have time to do the design properly, I spend a chunk of time creating design documentation before any code is written, though I often do some “proof of concept” coding during that phase. If something is needed immediately or I’m “playing”, I can happily stare down a blank editor window for a few minutes and crank out a few class files without the term “UML” making even the tiniest flitter into my mind.

RIP Edward Gorey. I’d like to know what will be on his tombstone. Did he design one for himself?
“Once when he was asked why he wrote so much about murder and other forms of violence, Mr. Gorey answered: ‘Well, I don’t know. I guess I’m interested in real life.'” (from the NY Times obit)

Once again, it is Patriot’s Day, that unique Massachusetts holiday which I celebrated in college by standing outside my dorm for many hours, screaming my lungs out at the halfway point for the Boston Marathon. “Located between miles 12 and 13 is Wellesley College – an all women’s school. Commonly referred to as the ‘Screech Tunnel,’ the tremendous support offered by the female students has made this one of the loudest sections of the course. Fans and photographers interested in witnessing this spectacle are encouraged to view from the opposite side of the street to enjoy the full effect of students’ cheers and runners’ reactions.” I wouldn’t call it screeching. It’s just, well, high pitched ’cause it’s mostly women.