Dead birds dropping from the sky

Here are five stories that may have slipped under the radar of your newspaper:

Nation: In the Dec. 27 Staten Island Advance, read about seven more birds found dead after 50 dropped from the sky over Great Kills on Dec. 21.

Tech: From the Jan. 1 Winston-Salem Journal,a story on GPS-smart advertising via cell phones that will bring you offers related to the store you’re nearest to at the moment. Big brother, meet big personal shopper.

Business: In today’s Bloomberg News, an analysis of the importance of this year’s presidential election on the world economy. It may be the most important election since the Cold War, they say.

Health: In today’s Guardian,we learn that more than 2 million people have caught a severe 48-hour stomach bug (aka norovirus) across the UK. It’s the worst outbreak of the bug in five years there, they say.

World: The Washington Post reported Dec. 28 that a Saudi Arabian blogger who criticized religious extremism in his country had been arrested Dec. 10.

O P I N I O N

Do us writers a favor tonight and watch the film “Junebug” on Lifetime instead of “The Celebrity Apprentice.” You may think that the writers’ strike in Hollywood means little more than your favorite TV series in in limbo. This stand is one for all of us, from journalists to screenwriters.
     The writers of the Emmy-winning series “The Office,” for example, were not only writing (and in some cases, acting in) episodes, they were creating blogs and webisodes for the official Web site but were not being compensated for their work.
     In today’s world of corporate greed, workers are expected to do several jobs yet receive pay for one. Before I resigned my post, for example, I was an editorial writer/section editor/blogger/web updater/forum moderator/copy editor and was about to be trained as a videographer. My salary was less than a beginning teacher here. My raise for 2007 was 2.5 percent. I worked on average more than 58 hours a week and because I was salaried, received no overtime pay.
     Clearly our work as writers is valued less and less each year. With current trends, it will not be surprising if the newspaper of the near future is entirely written/illustrated with content submitted by readers for free as the publisher makes $$$ off advertising dollars. Sic transit gloria “journalism”!

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1.7 pages