Kyoto Treaty Goes To Work...and Hockey Doesn't

Most places (except the United States, of course), the world is acknowledging the debut of the Kyoto Protocol for environmental protection. The U.S., of course, hasn't signed on, not yet convinced that global warming is global or all that hot.

Here's an interesting observation. Remember in October, when health officials were warning of a potential influenza epidemic because of a shortage of flu vaccines? And have you noticed that flu hasn't been much of an issue at all this winter? The following BlogPulse trend chart plots flu-related terms against the common cold...during the weeks when influenza usually hits its peak.



Elsewhere, fans at bemoaning the official cancellation of the National Hockey League's season, or what would have been left of it. Commissioner Gary Bettman is taking plenty of heat.

And why does "suicide prevention" show up as today's No. 2 key phrase? Because it's a topic that can be talked about, apparently, only in the context of heterosexuality? Today's burstiest person, Ron Bloodworth is a panelist at a Feb. 28 Portland (OR) workshop on suicide prevention, and his session deals specifically with the higher-than-normal suicide rates among gays (two similar workshops were held elsewhere in the U.S. prior to Nov. 2, 2004). But now the federal agency (read: Bush Administration) that provides funding to mental health agencies participating in the conference say they won't be sending a representative if the worskhop title contains the words "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender." Even though that's what the workshop's about. (This from the same same administration whose own "reporter" in the White House ran gay porn web sites?)

Over at the Just One Minute blog, you can find an interesting essay on the left-vs.-right "battle for the blogosphere."

Other bloggers are swarming around the case of Bassim Chmait, a student who was shot by Douglas Bates,an off-duty U.S. customs officer, on Feb. 5 in Mission Viejo, California. No charges have been filed, and relatives and friends are wondering why.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: As excitment builds around the upcoming Academy Awards show, which best-actor nominees are getting the most buzz?