Times are tough. Library funding is down, library use is up, and people are asking more and more questions demanding more and more time from their public library staff. In response to these increasing demands on library resources, Library Development staff at the Washington State Library have been c...

[Dave Birch] One of my most frequent criticisms of the UK's national identity card scheme is that it is backward-looking, an electronic simulation of a Victorian ID card rather than an ID card for the 21st century. I gave an example of this in a talk recently by using the case of OpenID, noting that...

Financial literacy workshop series helps college students master saving and control spending. Published in Wire Tap Magazine. (This story originally appeared on Black College Wire ) When he was 18, John Hope Bryant spent six months homeless. He lived in his car until he could find another place to l...

What's this, our friend Ashley Dupre, nee Spitzer, has taken up yoga and is hanging with Russell Simmons developing "inner strength?" Pish posh! You need to focus, Ashley. You'll ruin everything. Ashley has a new 'blog' today! What's she been up to? Oh yoga and this and that, etc.: In great part, di...

"Is it racist for white people to shoot black zombies?" asks the prestigious Wall Street Journal. It's a touchy issue, and we all have our opinions. But are those opinions stupid? This zombie racism controversy has arisen because "Resident Evil 5" features a white hero shooting African zombies, beca...

We’ve been through the schedule for the upcoming South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, a few times. In fact between our own scouring of the schedule and the countless emails from publicists, producers and directors — which we like because they make us think that people like us —...

Meet Officer Vaughan Ettienne, the bodybuilder who learned the hard way you shouldn't write like a thug online, or a jury might just suspect you of mistreating a suspect. Ettienne (not pictured above, that's Herc from The Wire) once posted the following under a video clip of a cop punching a handcuf...

As research for the book I’m writing on public speaking, I’ve been listening to tons of famous speeches and various CDs of collected speeches. Recently I found a list of the top 100 speeches of all time and I’m working my way through it. Interesting observations: We have technology...

Via email from Newt at American Solutions for Winning the Future Today, the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, or “Card Check” was introduced in the U.S. Congress. This bill would effectively eliminate our right to vote by private ballot when deciding whether to join a union, and underm...

Food and sex: two great tastes that taste great together. Throw in a little exhibitionism and, well, you've either got a description of our last few weekends, or this sweet roundup of sex in supermarkets. Unfortunately for you, dear reader, we'll be keeping out extracurricular adventures private&mda...