Don't Worry About the City Council, Google Might Close Your Library Down

Businesses across the nation have found themselves permanently closed due to misinformation on Google Places, Google's answer to the Yellow Pages.  Due to a "report a problem" bug, anyone can label any business found on Google Places as "closed."  If the information is not corrected, Google will place a "permanently closed" mark on the business, effectively taking the business off Google's local search. NYTimes

With all the news about libraries closing, I did not think we needed help.  This scares the crap out of me.  Think if your disgruntled patrons found out about this.  One fine on a book the "mysteriously" vanished under a car seat and you get wiped off the information super highway.  Of course, I guess it beats the tips on the Banned Library Places page: "Nonfiction is a great place to spy on chicks" and "Tell Nicki in stall #3 that you saw this tip and get $5 off a dime bag."

College Students Can Now Rent Text-eBooks from Amazon

Amazon announced a new opportunity for college students to rent their textbooks as ebooks through its Kindle platform instead of buying the books outright.  The ebook rental prices will at times be as much as 80% less than the retail value of the books.  I can see this affecting students in three ways:

1. Students will no longer give Christmas presents to their families or be able to go home for the summer.  The valuable income that comes at the end of the semester when students sell back the books their parents or student loans paid for will be lost as the text-ebooks vanish into the ether.

2.  Students will no longer have a proper reminder for classes.  Waking up at the crack of noon, stumbling over to the mini-fridge to get that first brew, then BAM!  Your big toe cracks into the edge of your Algebra II book.  As you collapse to the floor in pain, you remember that your final for Civics is tomorrow.  How?  The girl that saw you vomit off the balcony onto the goat that time is in both your Algebra and Civics class.  Without the book, you would never remember.

3.  Rolling joints and doing blow on a Kindle sucks the big one.  Seriously, have you ever tried to cut anything on the screen of that eInk stuff?  Cuts it right up.  And remember how happy you were to shake out the book and find a toothpick's worth of weed in the cracks of the pages?  So happy.

[ComputerWorld]