Do you have a Kindle? Do you know anyone who does? I've seen people on airplanes with them but haven't personally talked to anyone who has one to know whether they like them or not. The reason I ask is that a a reader placed a comment on an old post and made reference to the new device while bemoaning the contraction of this newspaper's print circulation area.

We just returned from the Washington North Beach area (Pacific Beach, Washington); however this visit I was sorry to find I could no-longer purchase a TNT news-stand newspaper in the town of Pacific Beach (the two news-stands have been removed since our last visit just a couple of months ago), but I did have my AmazonKindle with me; as a result, and the Kindle data network I could purchase single copies of the The Seattle Times newspaper in Kindle format and with the Kindle I was able look at some TNT articles on-line (but not in a good client presentation format for free at Pacific Beach State Park)

So, my suggestion to your TNT with the removal of newsstand papers available; it follows, the TNT should buy a AmazonKindle, see how the other publishers of newspapers do it, what fee they charge for the Kindle delivery, how the Kindle content is set up for client view, and resume so TNT delivery areas that have been abandon for the cost of printed paper delivery.

We're taking the suggestion and acting on it. We've ordered a Kindle and will begin to experiment with how to deliver news and information on this new platform, not fully knowing whether this device is more iPhone or Newton.

Filed under "how cool is that?" I offer the latest advancement in web video. It's a technology called DimP, which stands for Direct Manipulation Video Player, meaning the user can control subjects in the video. Check out this demonstration:

More information and a longer video is here, and you can read the Techcrunch take on it here.

One part of my job here is to advise the reporters who use blogs to cover their beats. Which can be a little tricky when I don't spend much time practicing what I preach. But I like to think I'm a better coach than a player, so occasionally I'll forward some insight or information that I think will help them improve their blogging.

Since a fair amount of the readers of this blog also have their own blogs, I thought I'd share my latest offering. It's from Mike Davidson, the founder of Newsvine, who dissects a prototypical linkblogger named Jason Kottke to highlight what makes his work so compelling.

What separates good linkbloggers from great linkbloggers is a little more subtle though: it’s all about the setup. And this is where Kottke excels.

A linkblogger, for those not familiar with the term, is someone who is fanatical about scanning the web for interesting news, comment, photos and video and then shares the best of what they find with their blog readers. The posts can be short and only provide a link, or the linkblogger can provide analysis and context and tie together seemingly separate links in a way that adds value for the blog reader.

All bloggers link to other material in some fashion and with some frequency, so even if your blog is not primarily a linkblog, you will benefit from Davidson's analysis. "Linkbloggers remember," he writes, "The setup is everything."

That is the question that a group of driving instructors, State Patrol troopers and volunteers will put to the test this week, according to this article on the P-I's web site.

Personally, I think so. But it probably has more to due with the volume of cars on the roads in Seattle vs. Tacoma, and not necessarily with personal driving talent or disposition. The more cars on the road, the more chance of someone cutting you off.

And only Seattle has the triple-lane-change move required to get to the Mercer exit from 520.

We've been writing a fair amount about cars on the road lately, including Sunday's story on the 10 intersections with the most crashes (not coincidentally, the intersections with the most cars) and a piece a few weeks back about road rage in Pierce County.

As gas prices continue to rise and tempers flare, maybe we should all just take the bus like Andrew.

UPDATE: We've posted our own news story now.

UPDATED UPDATE: And the results are in.

Reporter Ian Demsky, who wrote our big Sunday story this week on Tacoma's terrible intersections, had a great idea to use the web to invite feedback and interaction on the story. So he worked with our resident computer whiz kid, Aaron Ritchey, to produce this interactive map that allows anyone to mark an intersection that drives them made and explain why it's so bad.

So we will add the bad intersection map to our growing list of other interactive maps, that include free wifi hotspots, TNT readers traveling abroad, environmental stewardship projects, places to buy the newspaper, skareboard parks and hiking trails.

Do you have an idea for our next map project? Let me know with an email or comment.

One of the cool demos I saw last week at the Kelsey Conference in Seattle was from Microsoft's Live Maps team. The team has done serious work in trying to close the gap with Mapquest, Yahoo and Google with its new mapping service.

(Side note: Doing a bit of research for this post, I was quite surprised to learn that Mapquest commands more than 50% of the market share for online maps (while Microsoft has less than four percent). Personally, I thought Mapquest went the way of Alta Vista and Netscape. I haven't used it in years.

The demo I saw last week featured lots of little extra features on the Live Maps service (although I still don't get the whole "Live" branding). My favorite was a layer of traffic flow data that can be applied to any map which gives the user a key piece of information. So the search I ran for "barbecue" in "Tacoma" (see above screenshot) not only produced 21 locations, but could also be drawn with traffic flow information that would help me figure out how long it would take to get to one of the locations. A user simply needs to click "Traffic" from the tools menu (see inset).

Mashing up data from different sources is not new on the web. But I expect to see more efforts like this that do it in a scalable and useful manner. What's your favorite data/map mashup?

Ed Murrieta's restaurant blog received some nice recognition this week. It was honored with second place in the Best of the West journalism contest for Best Blog Writing. Here are the judge's comments:

Ed's Diner is a refreshing twist on food writing and restaurant reviews. I love how he defines his food universe: from the dead pig to the memorial beer to being so "un-American."

The writer has fun with this blog, making it both engaging and addictive. The blog has a vocal audience, and the writer mixes it up with them by routinely going into the comments to respond to questions and comments. I particularly enjoyed the blog's "theme song" - my interpretation, not his - penned by the writer himself.

The "You Plate Special" is a nice touch. This writer is confident - and community-minded - enough to turn over the reins of the blog to his users.

Congratulations, Ed!

Here's a breakdown of the most popular content on thenewstribune.com last month:

NEWS STORIES

MULTIMEDIA

BLOGS

1. Seahawks Insider
2. Lights & Sirens
3. Ed's Diner
4. Political Buzz
5. Bring the Noise
6. Sonics Insider
7. Biz Buzz
8. Mariners Insider
9. Open House
10. Huskies Insider

"Newspapers that are poorly run are going to fail, and that's going to create a tremendous business opportunity for everyone here."

That was the message from Merrill Brown, who helped launch MSNBC.com in 1996, during a morning session at the Kelsey Group's Local Marketplace conference in Seattle today.

"Newspaper, TV and magazine companies are some of the saddest places you can walk through these days," Brown said. "The death of the American newspaper is the elephant in the room. We are about to enter an extraordinarily turbulent time in American media, not unlike what the American auto industry - among others - has gone through. And, it may not be a surprise, but the U.S. newspaper business isn't covering this news very well."

Brown said this is a time of "extraordinary change" that presents "extraordinary opportunity" for local online companies, which 20 years ago was limited to yellow pages and newspapers. Now, of course, the web has opened up this market to a dizzying number of players and both yellow pages and newspapers need to adapt. The yellow pages companies were at this conference, learning about new ideas and business models. But where are the newspapers (and other local publishing and broadcast companies)?

Conference organizers told me that 475 people attended this week. I glanced through the attendee list and found FIVE newspaper brands/companies represented (that were not journalists covering the conference, like John Cook whose excellent coverage can be found here).

This is where the new business models are going to come from, and yet only 5 newspaper companies are engaged in this conversation? All the competition is here (Google, AutoTrader, etc.) but other than panel presentations by the Seattle Times and L.A. Times, all the talk about newspapers echoed what Brown was telling the crowd: newspapers are going away, so who's going to replace them?

The pace of innovation on the content side of the news business seems to be far outpacing the pace of innovation on the business side. And that doesn't bode well for the business as a whole.