I'm Gina Smith

Norovirus at Java One (but I was in Seoul)

Just got back from Seoul (the excellent Seoul Digital Forum). I was reticent at first, worried about N. Korea's pointing nukes at Seoul at all. But I went and had a blast. Will post pictures later ...

And I'M SO GLAD I MISSED JAVA ONE this year. What if you held a conference and the noro-virus dropped by to visit? Hey, if you were a victim I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks to John C. Dvorak, who had the good fortune to be in Seoul with me, for this one.

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=17760

Plane Crash Info -- a most disturbing site.

Click here for a site with plane crash cockpit recordings and transcripts. It's called Plane Crash Info. But be forewarned. If you're afraid of flying, don't even think of visiting this site. Man.

What the Internet wrought.

The last lecture. (from dying Carnegie Mellon professor)

Did you hear about the touching lecture on how to live life and achieve your childhood dreams, delivered by a dying young professor with amazing joy and candor at Carnegie Mellon. Here is Dr. Pausch's page -- which will live on surely -- and on it is the full video of his lecture. I give it my highest recommendations.

Click here.

Good news for a change ...

... from the Environmental Defense Action Org.

The gorgeous American bald eagle is off the extinction list!

Click here and consider joining this group's email list, where just one click get you to sign petitions, write letters to CEOs, really make a difference.

I once did a story on Good Morning America on how the Internet would change politics, but man, I never imagined it ballooning into this.

Carcinogenic chemicals in makeup banned in EU, allowed here.

Of the 100 plus products banned in Europe, only four are banned here. Thanks to our puppet FDA.

I found this out during an interview I did with Jeanne Rizzo (The Breast Cancer Fund) on a documentary for LinkTV.

See if your personal products are posing a danger. www.safecosmetics.org. Click on the box on the side that says Skin Deep. You can type in a product you use (makeup, moisturizer, sunscreen, nail polish, shampoo, contact solution, you name it) and find out how chemically dangerous it is.

Outrageous. For instance, if you use Renu as your contact solution, this site rates it as among the most dangerous.

Brush with Death.

I should make that -- Brush with Death -- a new category on the blog.

What reminded me is how all the wind damaged those jet airliners' windshields today. Quite a disaster.

In the mid 90s, I was on a United SFO to LAX flight to get down  for some computer party. At 30,000 feet -- and with no explanation from anyone -- plane went into a nose dive.

You could not have heard an earring drop. There was no screaming. I was in first class and looked frantically at the stewardess across from me, she was strapped in with her eyes closed.

The guy next to me was a few years older, as I recall. A lawyer from LA. And he said, well, you wanna call anybody? We both had phones in our seats. Neither us made a call. He said keep looking out the window and look for strips of highway or flat areas he can land us. But nothing. Just mountains.Meanwhile, he chanted the words to every Jim Morrison and the Doors song he ever knew.

We all thought we were gonners, but then the plane started rocking side to side, violently first, and then more gently and then our nose was level again.

Pilot got on, apologized for not explaining earlier. Said a bird hit the windshield (the first layer) at 30,000 feet. He just had to get us down as far as possible so we wouldn't get sucked out.

We finally landed at SFO.

They immediately took all of us -- tunneled us to another waiting plane back at SFO -- put us in our same seats and we were off in like, two minutes. Everyone wanted to talk about the hair-raising experience, but we had a new crew and captain obviously instructed not to talk about it. Very weird.

My paper I worked for - The SF Chronicle/Examiner Sunday -- ran a paragraph about an emergency landing. My editor knew the whole story and thought it was funny. Sure we were at risk, but no one will sue you for "brush with death" if you make light of it. I mean, no one was hurt.

Another pilot later told me that our pilot must've been great, because to be able to get stable after a 5 or 10 minute nose dive from that height is really impressive.

So that's one of my brushes. Yep. Think I'll make it a topic. I'd like to hear yours.