XplanaZine

First, here’s our take on news that matters heading into the week.

• The bears are starting to bet on a crash. No, I’m not talking about the Chicago Bears but rather the conservative doomsayers of the stock market. The bears’ outlook, which more optimistic market players often shrug off, appears to be gaining credence. The reason: The obstacles confronting stocks, ranging from rising interest rates to the threat of higher inflation to soaring home-heating costs and debt-choked consumers, keep mounting.
• Of course, the stock market isn’t the only potential horror story in the news. The Fog lead at the box office over the weekend, garnering more than $12 million.
• And, politicians aren’t the only ones who have to put up with the power of blogs. With heavy student usage, a growing number of teachers and professors are experimenting with this phenomenon in the classroom. The exact number is hard to pin down but it’s well into the thousands,
  said
  href=”http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.weblogg-ed.com%2F&siteId=3&oId=2100-1032-5895779&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex”
  target=_blank>Will Richardson, author of “An Educator’s Guide to Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Cool New Web Tools that are Transforming the Classroom,” which is
  href=”http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.weblogg-ed.com%2Fbook&siteId=3&oId=2100-1032-5895779&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex”
  target=_blank>set for publication next year.
• Another nightmare scenario loom son the horizon for many workers — it’s called outsourcing. According to Nandan M. Nilekani, the chief executive of Infosys Technologies (India’s second-largest technology outsourcing company), if your job can be done over a wire, you may get outsourced.
• And now we find out that it’s not just Google or Microsoft interested in a piece of AOL. Yahoo is in talks with AOL, according to an article on TheStreet.com, which
  cited unidentified sources. The prize: AOL’s millions of search and portal users
  and the related $380 million in ad revenue that now goes Google’s way.
• Finally, a deal that makes sense for the consumers! Palm and RIM just inked a licensing deal that will let users of the popular Treo 650 connect with Blackberry e-mail services.
• One last thing — even if you’re not up on all the political happenings pertaining to the White House, just try to remember the name Scooter Libby. The CIA leak business keeps getting nastier and someone’s going to have to take a fall. Karl Rove is an easy target, but Libby is the one with true insider power.

Now, here’s a recap of our favorite posts from the edublogging community from the past 48 hours.

• From D’Arcy Norman : Post on using and removing Adsense from his blog.
• From George Siemens : Post on best practices for hosted learning solutions.
• From Lanny Arvan : Post on writing, blogging, and podcasting.
• From Stephen Downes : Post on public schools and private markets.
• From Albert Ip : Post on top-down and bottom-up approaches to e-learning.
• From Will Richardson: Post on the uneasy classroom space