Link bucket: For news across the USA ...

Links in search of a good, hot meal:

• I'm late, as usual, responding to the massive overhaul of USAToday.com. On one hand, it is a big and gutsy step toward meshing news reporting with conversation. On the other, the gap between this site and, say, Digg is the latter does not confine seeding and ranking to its own content.
• Meanwhile, via VizEds, we learn something we could have guessed. The newspaper industry, says the Readership Institute, is full of aggressive-defensive, perfectionistic and oppositional people. What the @$#%&*! you talkin' about? Seriously, one line in this report describes a symptom that makes innovation harder in the news biz: "Compared to other industries, newspapers operate more as 'silos' both within and among departments, and produce lower-quality products and services."
• In a less dysfunctional field, the Happy Cog gang redesigned the AIGA site. Now you'd think this is a can't-miss combination: Jeffrey Zeldman's design gang working on a site for graphic arts professionals. And you'd be right. The redesign is both structurally immaculate and, as Web sites go, aesthetically satisfying. I just like how big things are -- navigation text, headers, spacing.
• Having just purchased a new MacBook Pro (love it) from my local Apple Store, I'm fascinated to read how much effort went into designing the total experience of these retail outlets. Oh, to have this kind of patience in product and service development.
• My brother is, perhaps chronically, running for president. On the Renaissance Redneck ticket. Living in Tennessee and all, it is appropriate that I am the campaign's Entire Staff of Volunteer (reg. U.S. pat. off.). Fortunately, WordPress is free, and so was the thoroughly patriotic theme I selected for the campaign site. It may be flagrantly unethical for a news industry guy to support political candidates, but in this case blood is thicker than black ink. Well, anyway, something's running pretty thick around here. ;-)