Daily Cup O Google

Your day according to Google: Here in the eye of the holiday storm, the week between Christmas and New Year’s, it’s a time for sports, near disasters and trashing politicians. On the sports front, Googlers relived the Music City Bowl in which Clemson beat the University of Kentucky 21-13 and they pondered the makeup of the Super Bowl after some decisive wins clinched wild card slots yesterday. The one many of us dscribers followed was the heartbreaking loss of the Denver Broncos to the Philadelphia Eagles by a field goal in the last few minutes of the game.

More serious news was also afoot, including an article in the Arkansas Law Review challenging the 1993 convictions of three men in the murders of three 8-year-old Cub Scouts.

The “West Memphis 3,” as Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were dubbed by the media, may well be innocent based on new analysis of DNA evidence. Highway officials blew up the Lake Champlain Bridge connecting New York to Vermont. The 80-year-old bridge was closed in October when its concrete supports were found to be dangerously eroded.

And there were numerous searches for “PETN bomb,” the substance used in a botched attempt to bring down a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day by a Nigerian claiming to be an Al Qaeda member. PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, can’t be detonated without a blasting cap; it’s the same substance used by Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, who tried to set his PETN off with matches. The incident also spurred searches for new security restrictions at airports, which will, at a minimum, add time you spend in line waiting for security screening. There was also interest in Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano, who said on Sunday that the aviation screening procedures worked, and then said on Monday that they didn’t.

Lighter fare included the surfacing of a JFK photo in which President Kennedy is seen frolicking like Austin Powers on a boat with several nude women (shock!), and the ongoing debate about whether Sen. Max Baucus was drunk during debate about the health care bill last week. The skinny? Baucus, a Montana Democrat, is being attacked by conservatives for his support of health care reform and now they’ve leaped on his slurry words during the floor discussion. Even the state patrol would be required to give the senator a Breathalyzer before any court could convict him of being drunk, but he court of public opinion has far lower standards, as the comments on this dscriber story indicate.

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About this dscriber.com column: Like a horoscope, but applicable to anyone with an Internet connection, Daily Cup O'Google reaches into the collective consciousness of frequently googled search terms each morning to predict, at a glance, what conversations will dominate your day and shape the 24-hour news cycle.

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