Most Recent Posts

A couple of nights ago I had just closed my book, turned off my light, and was drifting off to sleep when my cellphone started to shriek. I shot awake and groped for the phone. My sleep-befuddled brain was greeted with this message: "Boulevard, CA Amber Alert update." Then there was a license plate number, and a make and model of the car.

Groggily, I Google this town — Boulevard, Calif. — and discovered it was 541 miles away from my house. That's more than the distance between Washington, D.C., and Detroit. I was mystified. Why was I getting this?

And I wasn't the only Californian who was confused.

Jamie de Guerre is at Topsy, a firm that analyzes Twitter traffic and content for businesses. "We saw a very, very high spike in the number of people tweeting the phrase 'Amber Alert' and responding to having seen this on their phone," he says.

Before the alarm, that phrase was receiving a handful of mentions on Twitter, but in the hours immediately after the alert went out across California, it was mentioned in more than 160,000 tweets.

"The sentiment of the overall tweets was definitely negative," de Guerre says.

More than 21,000 tweets used the phrase "Amber Alert" and the word "scared." "OMFG" came up more than once, the word "annoying" more than 1,700 times.

"The last thing that wireless providers want to do is annoy their subscribers," says Brian Josef, who handles government affairs for CTIA, the wireless industry's lobbying association in Washington. "What we don't want to see is a car alarm syndrome where people disregard the alerts, or worse, they opt out."

Alerts Spark A Frenzy On Twitter

That Amber Alert tone you received on your cell phone might have scared some of you but we need all eyes out for this http://t.co/w9hfIq7Y2p

— CHP Southern Div. (@CHPsouthern) August 6, 2013

On the first Saturday of August, a funny thing happened to 150,000 people on their way to the Forum.

While a pianist and sax player set the mood, people looked upward and watched anxiously as acrobat Andrea Loreni made his way slowly on a tightrope stretched across Via dei Fori Imperiali, the wide avenue flanking the Roman Forum and leading to the Coliseum.

The acrobat's walk was meant as a metaphor, a bridge reuniting ancient squares.

Dictator Benito Mussolini built the avenue in the 1920's as a tribute to Fascism's imperial aspirations. In the process, he destroyed a densely populated neighborhood and separated the forums of the emperors Trajan, Augustus, Caesar and Nerva.

In 1953, the thoroughfare was immortalized by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck on a scooter ride in the movie Roman Holiday.

Since then, traffic has gotten out of control, with some 1,600 motorists an hour using it at peak times. But now, pedestrians won't have to plug their ears against beeping horns or duck for cover from speeding SUVs. The new restrictions mean the Coliseum is no longer a traffic circle.

Buses and taxis will still be able to use the via dei Fori Imperiali leading up to the Coliseum, but a 20 mile-per-hour speed limit has been put in place.

The mayor, Ignazio Marino, hopes to eventually close several more streets around the ancient monuments, ultimately leading to the Apian Way, to create what he calls the biggest archaeological park in the world.

Enlarge image i

A group is calling on back-to-school shoppers to boycott Macy's and Kroger stores in Texas this weekend, in retaliation for the national retailers' efforts to quash a bill that would have strengthened the state's wage discrimination law.

The bill was vetoed in June after winning bipartisan approval in the legislature. Its sponsors included state Sen. Wendy Davis, who told KERA, "if a woman didn't discover [a pay imbalance with her male colleagues] within her first 180 days of employment she has no cause of action in the State of Texas."

Gov. Rick Perry offered no explanation for the veto — but this week, the Houston Chronicle reported that Perry had received "letters against the measure from the Texas Retailers Association and five of its members," including the two companies.

From NPR member station KSTX, Ryan Poppe filed this Newscast report from Austin:

"Macy's department store and Kroger's groceries urged Texas Gov. Rick Perry to veto the Texas Fair Pay Act, which would have allowed women to sue employers for wage discrimination in state court. Ed Espinoza of Progress Texas is leading a boycott against the retailers.

"'Basically if they want to veto the legislation, we are saying you can veto the stores right back by not going to the stores this weekend,' he says.

"This particular weekend is the state's annual back-to-school tax-free holiday. Shoppers save the 6.25 percent sales tax on things like blue jeans and backpacks. Typically, Texas retailers bring in an extra 6-7 percent in sales revenue. Boycott backers want Macy's and Kroger's to miss out on some of that revenue bump this year."

A few weeks back, Sharon Roberts, who had been diagnosed with endometrial cancer last year, tweeted:

@teachdance11: the BRCA gene test is 2 parts. Aetna paid $300 part. Not the $7000 part. Gotta be rich to be in the know