Top Stories for the Week of July 25-29, 2011

Here's a theory: Technology is the new smoking. That is to say, checking your messages is a habit that certain inconsiderate people do at the table and others excuse themselves to do privately, and which just may be an addiction. "We've all been there; You're at an outing with friends but itching to check your email or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Google+ or Yammer or whatever digital hit of serotonin you prefer," says TechCrunch. TC cites a new British study where investigators cut off access for 1,000 people and 53 percent felt "deprived" and some likened it to "quitting drinking or smoking." So that makes it an addiction, supposedly. "Add this to the yet un-proven concerns that smartphone usage leads to Cancer and the smoking analogy becomes more and more apt," TC adds. Well, that's a stretch. But, look, it has been a weird, sad week where few things made sense.

Amy Winehouse's death at age 27 stunned everyone, even though her addiction problem was real and well known. Hollywood Reporter rounded up reactions on social media from "the industry." Winehouse friend Kelly Osbourne grieved: "I can't even breathe right now I'm crying so hard I just lost 1 of my best friends. I love you forever Amy & will never forget the real you!" Ashton Kutcher: " I nevr know wht 2 post after paying respect 2 sum1 who died. Just seems lk anything funny is inappropriate. mayB I'll just go C Harry Potter." Really, Ash, ya think funny is inappropriate? Good call. Some rock-and-roll numerologists have noted that Winehouse's sudden death at 27 puts her in eerie "club" that includes dead-at-27 rock legends Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Brian Jones. Spooky (though John Lennon was 40 and Buddy Holly was 22). The Marquee Blog notes that singer M.I.A. already has released a tribute song titled "27" where she sings: "All rock stars go to heaven, you said you'll be dead at 27."

Marquee asks: "So how'd she get the song out so soon after Winehouse's passing? M.I.A. notes in a Twitter post that she'd already recorded the unfinished song." What?! Business Insider suggests Amy's demise was a day the music died, or at least something about the music business died: "No longer can an artist be simply brilliant, churning out albums every few years and doing the occasional drugged-out concert tour and disoriented 'meet-and-greet.' ... Amy Winehouse may have died before our eyes. But so has the music industry of the 'past.' Look forward to more bleaching, boringness, and blandness."

Then there was the horrific massacre in Oslo, Norway by a deranged individual, whom various commentators have tried to put into a one group or another group for convenient blaming. Though early reports eyed Muslims it turned out that the sociopath Anders Breikiv claimed to be a Christian (sort of). Fox News opinionator Bill O'Reilly blamed the liberal media for making too much of that: "Breivik is not a Christian. That's impossible. No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder," O'Reilly said. Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast says "now let's concede one point here, a point I made myself yesterday: The notion that Breivik is a 'Christian fundamentalist' seems unfair to those genuine Christian fundamentalists who seek no power over others (except proselytizing), but merely seek to live their own lives in accord with a literal belief in the words of the Bible." Meanwhile, one of the British tabloids that still exists ran a "face of evil" photo of Brievik that put him in league with Satan, with glowing red eyes. BagNews Notes responds: "First, it's not evil we're dealing with here, it's hate ... Second (and a hat tip to photographer David Brabyn on this), although it's obvious why, he notes how unusual it is that a photo wouldn't be retouched to eliminate the red-eye."

In Washington, DC, the rancor kept its hot streak alive as the people running the nation couldn't agree on anything again. The public is getting steamed, and here's the part where we need a bad-language warning: Jeff Jarvis, proprietor of the tech business blog BuzzMachine, drank some wine and watched the TV news and went on Twitter to vent his frustration with Washington. As he explains in his blog (here come the bad words): "After dinner, I tweeted: 'Hey, Washington assholes, it's our country, our economy, our money. Stop fucking with it.' It was the pinot talking (sounding more like a zinfandel) ...I had no grand design on a revolution ...And then it exploded as I never could have predicted." Yes, his foul-mouthed hashtag, #f***youwashington (maybe it's late to start now with the asterisks?) began trending bigtime. TechPresident called it a "flash protest sweeping over twitter" and explains: "The thing is, @jeffjarvis has 75,000-some-odd followers. So when he strikes a chord that resonates with the national tune ... he can draw a lot of people into the jam session, very quickly."

Not sure if legislators are getting the message from its 140-character constituents , but The Next Web says someone in the White House with access to the button (the tweeting button) apparently injected some humor into the DC deadlock using Twitter. After Twitter user David Wiggs sent out a message that "This WH correspondence briefing isn't nearly as entertaining as yesterday's," the White House tweeted an official reply with a mysterious tinyURL pointing to "something more fun." It turned out to me a Rickroll - that Rick Astley music video. Funny. At this point, stupid Internet memes may be all we have left to believe in.

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