Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo: Feature Smackdown - quick, useful guide with accompanying screenshots, includes tools and features for shopping, local, travel, music and health.

More on J.D. Salinger’s lawsuit: Salinger, 90, has sued to enjoin the publication of a sequel of sorts to his most famous and celebrated novel, Catcher in the Rye. The sequel, called 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, is written by a purported American living in Sweden named John David California. The novel portrays a 76-year old Holden Caulfield--the famed protagonist of the original work--wandering the streets of New York after having escaped from a retirement home. Reads the lawsuit: “The Sequel is not a parody and it does not comment upon or criticize the original . . . It is a ripoff pure and simple.” Reached by the AP, a man identifying himself as California said that he lived outside of Goteborg, Sweden. He called the legal action “a little bit insane.” Said California: “To me, this is a story about an old man. It's a love story, a story about an author and his character,” adding that John David California was his pen name. “I did not mean to cause him any trouble.” WSJ Law Blog June 2, 2009

Federal regulators and antismoking groups are taking steps that could snuff out electronic cigarettes, the smokeless nicotine products embraced by a growing number of people trying to kick the habit or avoid bans on smoking in public. Electronic cigarettes typically consist of a metal tube containing an atomizer, a battery and a cartridge filled with liquid nicotine. When a user sucks on an e-cigarette, a light-emitting diode causes the tip to glow and the atomizer turns the liquid nicotine into a vapor--thus it is called vaping instead of smoking. The vapor can be inhaled and then exhaled, creating a cloud that resembles cigarette smoke but dissipates more quickly and doesn't have the lingering odor. The American Lung Association, along with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, recently called for e-cigarettes to be removed from the market. The groups say e-cigarettes have yet to be proven safe and that kids may be attracted to the products, some of which come in flavors like chocolate and strawberry. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124390176699074609.html

The New Deal gave the country the CCC, the TVA and the WPA. The waning days of the Bush administration produced TARP, for Troubled Asset Relief Program, also currently known as "the bailout." The stimulus package, the name of which is already a source of sniggers, has brought to life the RAT Board, LUST Trust and ARPA-E.
Government spending plans seem to result in a surplus of acronyms. For decades, generations of American history classes have wrestled with memorizing the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Works Progress Administration, later renamed the Work Projects Administration, and dozens of other acronym agencies created under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aka FDR.
The problem is, in this era of big government spending accompanied by promises of transparency, outbreaks of acronyms can be variously confusing, awkward and accidentally self-mocking. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124390651321174431.html

Monterey Bay Aquarium's ecological tracking program tallies research from around the globe on threatened species and then recommends which fish to buy, and which to avoid. The Aquarium's Web site, www.seafoodwatch.org, is packed with fascinating information, and new research material is constantly added. You'll also find information and links to sites which focus on contamination difficulties with fresh water and salt water fish. Their pocket guide for selecting fish is available in national and regional formats. Here's the link to get the guide. They've also created an App to send recommendations sent to your iPhone. Weeknight Kitchen from the Splendid Table

To your health
Sea Beans grow wild all over coastal North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Sometimes called "poor man's asparagus," sea beans are not seaweed, as it is often mistakenly described, nor is it a bean, which it slightly resembles. Sea Beans can be eaten raw or cooked, with a flavor that can best be described as intensely salty, with a fresh asparagus-like aftertaste. When fresh, Sea Beans are crisp and crunchy like snap peas. If slightly wilted, sea beans can be refreshed with a brief plunge in ice water. http://www.earthy.com/Fresh_Sea_Beans__8_oz_P1513C12.cfm

June 5 is the birthday of spy novelist Ken Follett, (books by this author) born in Cardiff, Wales (1949. After his car broke down, he decided to start writing fiction to earn cash. He wrote under the pseudonym Simon Myles and quickly published a thriller novel, The Big Needle (1974), about drug dealers. It didn't sell spectacularly, but he paid for his car repair and quit his job at a tabloid, accepting an editorial position at the place that published his novel. There, he studied what sorts of things made fiction books big best sellers, and after work at night, he would go home and write his own fiction.
He had his big breakthrough, in 1978, with Eye of the Needle (1978), a spy novel set during World War II. It only took him three months to write the novel. In an interview Follett said that he writes at home from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., five days a week, six if he gets "excited." He aims for writing 3,000 "publishable" words a day, and he doesn't rewrite more than once. The Writer’s Almanac