Earth Hour went global this week with cities around the world (including Chicago) turning off their lights for one hour in order to "clearly demonstrate in participating cities, the connection between energy usage and climate change". Sadly one enterprising blogger (via the Freakonomics blog) has found that the reported drop in energy usage during the earth hour was preceeded by a large power spike as people prepared for the event. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

In his book The Future of Reputation (available for free online), Daniel J Solove discusses some of the dangers of being a participant in an online world. One of his points is that even the most carefully honed personal privacy policies are subject to leaks from friends, family members or even complete strangers.

He also mentions that many companies are starting to take advantage of the availabilty of extra information by using Google searches to screen potential candidates - but I wonder if this is really the best approach.

I was a little freaked out when Google Streetview appeared on my street. This video shows the inevitable next step.

Music blog aggregator The Hype Machine and social music tracker last.fm have joined forces to allow you to record the songs you listen to with Hype Machines radio player to your last.fm profile.