I’m interested in the juxtaposition of these two items (thanks again, Romenesko).

Exhibit 1: A part-time St. Paul Pioneer-Press copy editor gets suspended for three days without pay for attending a peace rally in Washington, DC. Mind you, he’s not a 20-something sneaker beatnik. Tim Mahoney made the trip with his parish. He served in Vietnam. Without glorifying him, he’s at least seen war, and one can guess he doesn’t take up arms lightly.

Exhibit 2: Eight executives of The New York Times receive Boston Red Sox World Series rings as “gifts.” The Times company, parent to my former employer, owns a 17-percent stake in the Red Sox and the park they play in, and an 80-percent stake of the TV station that broadcasts games. Oh, and they cover the team through the Boston Globe. Did I mention the rings are essentially priceless?

Let me see if I can draw an industry message from this. How about, conflicts of interest are OK if masked by cross-ownership and an embarrassment of cash? Uh, no, that sounds too cynical. Maybe the message is, believe in nothing and you’ll go far in this business.

The site was out for several hours this morning for reasons unrelated to Hurricane Wilma. The storm predictions posted earlier for this area were spot on. The winds didn’t get bad, and the rain pelted the roof all night. It was barely enough to disturb my sleep.

Of course, other areas of Florida weren’t so lucky. (The latest from the AP.) And the season’s not over.

I don’t have the gear to test wind speed, but wunderground predicts wind speeds for this area up to 40 mph. It doesn’t say anything about gusts. The Weather Channel says expect gusts up to 60 mph.

Wilma’s also bringing plenty of rain. I couldn’t find predictions online, but again the Weather Channel tells me four inches over the next 24 hours. Somehow, that seems conservative. A rain band’s passing over right now and I’d bet we’ve gotten an inch or so already.

The storm has a 45-mile eye and forecasters expect it to hit around 140 miles south of St. Petersburg (as the crow and hurricane fly).

The Weather Channel said at 10:43 p.m. that it had become a Category 3. In the 11 p.m. update, NOAA confirms that.

The Web connection, cable and power seem fine, but I’ll unplug everything before I go to sleep. In the meantime, I’m raising a beer to hunkering down.

Now the NOAA has Wilma on a path to hit Florida mid-Sunday. How inconsiderate.

When I first started following the storm Tuesday, landfall was expected overnight Saturday. Friday and Saturday are my current weekend days, so that made things simple: find higher land in Ocala, and come back for work Sunday afternoon. Well that plan’s out the window. Now it appears the worst of it will come while I work Sunday.

I have yet to find out what a mandatory evacuation order, if it comes, means for my current position. But, the St. Petersburg Times, like all newspapers, prints 24/7/365, so I imagine I’ll be compelled to stay. Coworkers in brick houses are volunteering to put up those of us who live in older wood frame abodes. That may be my best option.

The current tracking maps have it hitting about 100 miles south of here, but forecasting is notoriously sketchy this far out. A low pressure area in the Gulf could move north, and this area’d be, pardon my French, fuct.

In the meantime, check out this. It’s the Tampa Tribune‘s doomsday scenario series for the bay area, which includes details of how St. Petersburg might become an island and an interactive fly-through of downtown Tampa after a 20-foot storm surge.

Thanks to Sticks of Fire for pointing it out to me.

Here’s hoping that Wilma goes astray. If she carves St. Petersburg into a primitive island isolated from the mainland, I’d hate to have to resort to cannibalism. Again.

Just weeks after the release of the iPod Nano, Apple updates the iPod line with video capability. Even if I had a flush pocket of cash, I think I’d wait.

Maybe it’s a function of age – I’m not 16. I don’t doubt that Steve Jobs brought this new gadget to market knowing that it, in fact, had a market. Still, I can’t think of the last time I was out and about and thought, Boy, I wish I had yesterday’s episode of Lost to watch on a screen not much bigger than the one on my mobile phone.

(Right here, people that know me are snickering. The appeal of Lost and other TV sensations is limited for me. Now, give me a catalog of zombie films, and we’re talking.)

I’m not much for text messaging either. I don’t have the patience for typing away on my mobile – not when it’s quicker for me to simply call. I do recognize that select circumstances make text messaging useful. That’s when I resort to it.

Similarly, I recognize that circumstance might convince me that screwing my eyes to a 2.5-inch digital screen for the latest Desperate Housewives episode is convenient. All I’m saying is that, for me, I see those circumstances as few.

Mobile content is an inevitable precipice. But, the new iPods don’t yet include the content I want.

Gimme Google. Gimme email. Gimme wireless.

Add wi-fi to an iPod, and we’re talking. While I can’t remember wanting an on-demand video micro-snack on the go, often when I’m away from home I need directions (no snickering, please), an address, the time the next movie is playing at the overpriced multiplex, or simply a news update.

Take Palm’s LifeDrive for example. My criticism of that device, though, is that the hard drive is too small. Palm calls the 4 GB hard drive “huge.” When was the last time computer buffs considered 4 GB huge, even for a traveling hard drive? Palm would have me stuff my life into that 4 GB space. My music alone in 23 GB.

I guess that leaves me waiting on Apple to add a wireless card to its iPod line. Maybe in the next update.

Finally, a badly needed battery for my iBook.

It’s kind of odd how constricting a sketchy juice box can be. Free your leash, and your ass will follow.