This is not about IT or IT security, but it is still an interesting perspective.  From Business week…

The Real Question: Should Oil Be Cheap?

…Amite Foundry’s resurgence is just one of countless examples of a deeper truth: Expensive energy, in many ways, is good. Why? When the price of oil goes up, people will use less, find substitutes, and develop new supplies. Those effects are just basic economics. Things are so painful now, many economists say, because of the past two decades of cheap oil. Prices stayed low in part because they didn’t reflect the full cost of extras such as pollution, so there was little incentive to use energy more wisely. If those extras had been counted, the country would be better prepared for both today’s soaring prices and the day that global oil production begins to decline.

That’s why there is growing interest, from both the left and right, in a policy that uses taxes to put a floor under the price of oil. Above a certain level—say $90—there would be no tax. But if the world market price dropped below that, taxes would kick in to make U.S. users pay the target amount.

How to Approach Access Control in the Social Networking AgeLike instant messaging and e-mail before it, social networking can cause worries to companies that haven’t learned to adapt - and real trouble to companies that haven’t learned how to manage it.
Enterprises are beginning to adopt social networking applications. They’re doing it for the same reasons millions of consumers do: because they offer a fast, easy-to-use way to keep in touch, organize activities and share ideas.
However, businesses and IT executives are wary, and for good reason. Whether they like it or not, employees are signing up for these tools regardless of whether it’s company policy or not. Younger employees joining the work force have grown up with social networking technologies, and businesses are being forced to play catch-up.

Disaster-Recovery Lessons from Vancouver Fire - Headline Watch

If you’re working on a disaster-recovery plan, you might take a note from a massive fire in downtown Vancouver, B.C.

CBCNews.ca reports that power isn’t expected to be restored to the area until sometime Tuesday after the explosion of an underground transformer started the fire Monday. The fire created so much heat and smoke that crews from BC Hydro couldn’t inspect the damage until more than seven hours later, according to the Vancouver Sun.

E-mail provider Hushmail reports on its Web site that [name removed] its hosting company switched over to generators. But the fire department drew so much water to fight the fire that it reduced water pressure in the mains to the point that [the] water-cooled generator couldn’t operate. Then it was lights out in more ways than one.

Happily, Hushmail reports its service has since been restored.

FOXNews.com - Companies Scramble to Stop Cell Phone Trafficking

For less than $15, you can buy a cell phone loaded with minutes. You can buy more as you go whenever those minutes run out. Best of all, you aren’t locked into a long-term contract.  But in South Florida, New York, California, Georgia, Texas and elsewhere, traffickers have figured out they can make big profits by purchasing thousands of these low-cost phones and tweaking the software so that calls can be made on any cell network. The altered phones are then sold all over the world — costing the phone companies tens of millions of dollars.