What a fascinating modern age we live in.

On the one hand, this is fascinating, and a great example of using modern technology to collate information usefully and accessibly.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how good it is for anybody's peace of mind to be able to hit "refresh" on a map of swine flu cases.

Still -- fascinating. And more interesting to me than the CDCEmergency Twitter feed.

more linky

Both of these are at least tangentially writing-related.

First, the humor: "Six Writers Who Accidentally Crapped Out Masterpieces"

Second, the analysis: Daily Kos on Dollhouse. Not normally a place I look for writing about TV, but I found it an interesting post. Truth is, I haven't been watching Dollhouse, not because I think it sounds bad, but because I think it sounds like a concept that's doomed to failure given the environment of TV production, and I don't want to get attached to it only to have it pulled out from under me. But I suspect the analysis given there isn't far off the mark. It doesn't automatically negate the criticisms I've also heard -- just because Whedon is trying to do this kind of thing doesn't mean he's succeeding -- but I'm thinking of opening a betting pool as to how many papers on Dollhouse there will be at next year's ICFA.