This post is mainly for Dave, who's brother just got a job in alaska. USATODAY.com - Extensive new study details states' drug, alcohol use

Alaska has the nation's highest rate of illegal drug use; binge drinking is particularly prevalent in the upper Midwest; and Utah's reputation as a clean-living state is well-deserved, according to a landmark federal study.

Once again, there's something rotten in Denmark. From Gates vs Denmark on Groklaw, via BoingBoing it seems Bill Gates is close down 800 IT Jobs in Denmark if the country doesn't support the software patents directive (what a star trek-y title by the way). Let's hope Denmark's politicians don't cave in to this threat.

The founder of the world's largest software company, Bill Gates, is now ready to shut down Navision in Denmark and move around 800 developers behind Denmarks biggest software success to the US.

Message Overload:

The people who visit your site don't care about it nearly as much as you do. I'm thinking specifically of message areas.

At best, if you're providing your own messaging system, you should open it up so that users can get to it from outside your site. Email is probably a safe choice but Atom/RSS is another good, viable choice. Syndication can let your users get your messages in an aggregator and for those who are more comfortable in their inbox there are plenty of syndication-to-email services. RSS is probably a better choice also since it lets you focus on the content of the message, not its design, and you don't have to worry as much about getting through spam filters or dealing with dead or full inboxes.