I'm intrigued by this Time Out review of Kitchen Front, a restaurant at London's Imperial War museum that serves accurate re-creations of the (mostly horrible) food eaten in Britain during WWII's rationing period. Time Out gave it two star for food quality and full marks for accuracy (in the print edition, at least -- they haven't recreated this online). It sounds like a uniquely wonderful and horrible dining experience, especially as the food is prepared by a well-loved firm of caterers who've really gotten into the spirit of things. Salt was the dominant flavour of 'Mrs Harwood's lentil and cheese pie'. It tasted floury and bland - my grandmother used to make the same dish. I couldn't fault it for authenticity. It came with a dollop of sludgy green pease pudding, just as it might have been in the war years. The baked potato, though, was quite good, served with a fishy filling and a proper 1940s salad - English lettuce, rings of spring onion, no dressing. Sweets include scones filled with 'mock cream' made from margarine beaten with caster sugar, tasting exactly as you'd imagine it to, ie nothing like cream at all... [B]e warned that for a more fortunate generation brought up on meat, sweets, fats and deftly used spices, the drabness of austerity cooking can come as a bit of a shock I've subscribed to the print edition of Time Out for a few years now here in London -- it's the only print magazine I still subscribe to, in fact -- and I just love it to pieces. As aspirational reading about all the things I would do if I wasn't all the time running around like my ass was on fire, it can't be beat. And every now and again I get to actually follow some of its advice (I've been trying a lot of the coffee mentioned in its Best London Coffee feature last month -- yum!) and I'm never disappointed. Kitchen Front Previously:WWII rationing ephemera Hospital Food Photo Blog Going For An English, classic Goodness Gracious Me sketch - Boing ... Fresh Green: Worst Packaging, Human Shrub Attacks English Town ... Terrifying huge breakfast is free if you eat it in 20 minutes ......

Having now written two books about my failures in work, life and love, I think I’m qualified to say that the only difference between a memoirist and a prostitute is timing.

A prostitute sells sex for money – that money being payable either immediately before or immediately after the act. A memoirist also receives money for having sex – but our payment comes via a publisher, months or years later, once we’ve recounted the amusing or titillating details in print. In the final analysis, really, we’re all whores.

And yet, in terms of public perception, the distinction of payment and timing is vital. Actual prostitutes are – generally speaking – looked down on by society: labels like ‘whore’ and ‘hooker’ being, almost without exception, used pejoratively. Memoirists, on the other hand, tend to be reasonably well regarded, not least by themselves. For that reason, accidentally calling a hooker a memoirist is unlikely to cause offense, but accidentally call a memoirist a hooker and… hoo boy…

This time last week, my friend Zoe Margolis – who writes as the Girl With A One Track Mind – was asked by the UK’s Independent on Sunday (IoS) newspaper to write a column about how she went from being an anonymous sex blogger to a widely-recognised advice columnist and memoirist. Zoe, I should emphasise, does not have sex for money. I know this for a fact: we shared a house at SXSW a couple of years ago and she stubbornly refused to sleep with me, despite the fact that I paid for all of our groceries at Whole Foods.

And yet, thanks to an astonishing but – I hope – innocent piece of lazy subediting, when the IoS published her column they did so under the unambiguously libellous headline “I was a hooker who became an agony aunt“.

Hoo boy.

The IoS reaslised its mistake (for want of a better word for “misquoting one of our writers as calling herself a whore”) within an hour of the paper going to press and quickly changed the headline in print and online. But of course the damage was already done. Although, according to the paper, only a couple of thousand hard copies had been dispatched to news stands, the web version had already been syndicated to dozens of other sites – including Yahoo! – and such far-flung newspaper websites as the Times of India. Worse still, it took several more hours – and increasingly vocal complaints by Zoe – before the IoS changed the story’s URL which still contained the full wording of the original headline.

An embarrassing screw up for the Independent – but one that other papers can learn from, right?

Not so much.

A few days later, another UK paper – The Daily Mail – ran a story headlined “I posed as a girl of 14 on Facebook. What followed will sicken you …” The story was indeed sickening; written by a former police detective, it revealed how after signing up to Facebook as a young girl, he was immediately contacted by middle-aged men looking for sex. There was just one problem with the story: it wasn’t true.

For a start the story was ghost-written by a Mail journalist, loosely based on a phone interview with the detective. More importantly, the detective had made clear – repeatedly – that the social network in question wasn’t Facebook. In fact he’d actually praised Facebook for having put in place measures to protect young users against ‘grooming’ by adults. Unfortunately, the Mail seems to have a beef with Facebook – they previously accused the site of causing cancer – and so decided to name and shame it both in the article, and in the headline and – yup – in the URL. As with Zoe’s story, the headline was changed after a few hours (having already been widely syndicated) but the libellous URL remained uncorrected for more than a day.

In both cases, the result was the same – the Independent and the Mail each issued apologies and corrections in the next day’s paper and online but both Zoe and Facebook say they intend to take legal action both for the initial error but also for the further harm done by the time the papers took to correct their libellous URLs.

We’ll have to wait and see what comes of the proposed lawsuits, but in the meantime both cases illustrate a huge problem with the blurring of the line between old and new media. In the old days, editors understood how their papers worked. If a libellous story was printed, they would stop the presses (if it wasn’t already too late) and they would issue an apology the next day. Most readers would see the apology and all would be well. Yes, there might still be a libel action, but at least the publication could show that they’d halted the presses and issued the apology, thus mitigating some of the damage done.

Today, that’s no longer the case. The simple fact is that many editors have absolutely no idea how their papers work any more. According to the Guardian, when Charles Garside, assistant editor of the Daily Mail, was asked about the fact that the libellous URL was unchanged for more than 24 hours, he described it as “a technical matter”, adding: “We are removing elements of that”.

“A technical matter” – which of course is code for “I have absolutely no idea how the Internet works. We have geeks to do that kind of thing, and they were at home – probably masturbating or watching Battlestar Galactica – or both – when the story went up”

With those three words – “a technical matter” – Garside lays bare the problem newspapers face in moving online. Editors understand stories and they understand headlines, but today they also need to understand URLs and automatic syndication and all of the other “technical matters” that are just as much a part of the modern newspaper as standfirsts and pullquotes. This is a lesson I learned the hard way back in 2005 when I was hit with an enormous libel claim (and the possibility of imprisonment for contempt of court) when the publication I edited linked to a libellous story (published in France) about a certain English Premiership football player. Although we were careful not to name the player in our story, we were still held responsible for identifying him because the URL we published contained his surname. The fact that we’d used our in-house link-shortener to mask the true URL was no defence as the shortener was hosted on our own server and resolved to the correct address before the reader left our site. Since that day, I’ve understood that a URL can get you in just as much legal hot water as an ill-judged headline.

Unfortunately that seems to be a lesson that editors at certain major national newspapers are yet to learn. If I were the owner of the Independent, or the Mail, or any other newspaper I’d insist that my editors spend a few hours of their time learning how their papers work in the digital age. That means understanding not just how to stop presses and issue apologies but also how to get under the hood and change URLs; how automatic syndication works and how to ensure any subsequent apology is amended to every online version, and not just the one hosted on their main site.

Finally, the way that apologies and clarifications are published needs to be seriously re-thought. Publishing a correction in the next day’s paper, or as a separate item on the publication’s website, is a ridiculous anachronism. People no longer read the same paper every day: the fact that they stumbled across a story in the Independent or the Daily Mail once through Google News doesn’t mean they’ll ever read a story in that paper again. It certainly doesn’t mean they’ll see a correction published 24 hours later.

Whereas once a libel court could be satisfied that the publication of a printed apology would mitigate libel damages, that’s unlikely to hold much weight in any legal action concerning the stories about Zoe Margolis or Facebook. Both Zoe and Facebook made their reputation online and it’s online rather than in print that they have the most to lose.

As a Facebook spokesperson told the Guardian, a traditional correction can’t undo the ‘brand damage that has been done’. Perhaps, then, the Mail and the Independent should take a lesson in damage control from Zoe. Moments after the Independent published their apology, she tweeted out a link to it and asked her followers to ‘please retweet’. Many (including me) did, and still others republished it on their blogs. Not only did that spread the word that Zoe isn’t – and has never been – a hooker, but it also helped ensure that most of the Google results for “Zoe Margolis +hooker” point to the correction and not to the original libel.

Had the editors at the Mail and the Independent been quicker to update their libellous URLs, and had they used Twitter and other social networks to push out their apologies then perhaps they could have avoided what will quite possibly be some very costly legal action.

But then again that would require them to understand the first thing about the Internet and other “technical matters”. And if they’ve proved anything recently, it’s that they really – really – don’t.

"Every hard drive in the world will eventually fail. Assume that yours are all on the cusp of failure at all times." An Ode to DiskWarrior, SuperDuper, and Dropbox: John Gruber talks about his Mac's hard drive failing and how he was able to recover all of his data using DiskWarrior, a file recovery utility, SuperDuper!, a backup utility that creates a fully bootable backup, and the file syncing system DropBox. While his advice is Mac specific, you can get a similar system going on Windows with Acronis for backups and one of many free file recovery programs such as TestDisk (which also has a Mac version).
If you are not willing to spend the money on SuperDuper or Acronis, check out the free backup utilities Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac and Macrium Reflect Free for Windows.

More and more computer users are not storing files on their home computers and instead using web applications that keep a user's data safe for them (usually). Web applications are becoming popular enough that Google is creating an OS where only system files are stored on a user's computer.

Urban legend has it that when Atari’s sorry adaptation of “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” showed disappointing sales figures, they took the remaining copies from their warehouse and had them crushed into a cement cube at a landfill in New Mexico. If this is a fallacy, whoever still has that warehouse full of cartridges might have a potential buyer, after all.

Geekware, a quirky upstart out of Edmonton, Canada, has taken it upon themselves to repurpose technology as fashion, creating a boon of cool items for the geek niche — among them, analog clocks made from rescued Atari cartridges, currently available in Asteroids, Centipede, and Ms. Pac-Man models (24.95 USD). Numbering among those getting the clock treatment are vintage film reels, Commodore Vic-20 carts, microwaved CDs, and this blogger’s personal childhood fave, the Little Professor math tutorial toy.

5-inch floppy disks vie for their return to your desktop, as the front and back cover of a cute 100-page notebook (9.95 USD). A piece of advice — don’t put your secret formulas on the center of the first page. Also at the ready is a handy pocket-size 3.5-inch 50-page edition. We have it on good authority that if you put a magnet on top of these notebooks, the writing inside remains intact. Progress!

Keys from various models of Macs and PCs past have been made into keychains, pendants — even cufflinks. At 9.95 USD, a six-key refrigerator magnet set won’t be enough for you to replace your magnetic poetry, but if you were looking for a fun way to get rid of your latest six-figure bonus, this could be your calling — and, if you order over 49.99 USD worth of stuff, they’ll throw in the shipping.

Over the weekend, Frist Round Capital Entrepreneur in Residence Charlie O'Donnell wrote an interesting blog post that is making its way around the venture capital and startup communities and drawing a variety of responses. O'Donnell suggests that while some VCs began their careers as entrepreneurs, most native venture capitalists have trouble making the switch the other way. His reason behind this is that VCs operate with different goals, methods and mindsets which make the transition from VC to entrepreneur is an uphill climb.

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O'Donnell speaks from his own personal experiences as a VC who tried to start his own company, Path 101, which ultimately failed. "I learned a ton about what it really takes to drive a successful business forward--skills and a mindset that doesn't necessarily square with the way venture investors think of the world," he says.

One of the differences between VCs and entrepreneurs he points out is the type of employees each values. O'Donnell says VCs tend to look at the leadership and the entrepreneurs as the top priority employees, while entrepreneurs will tend to place higher importance on the people "in the trenches," doing the programming and development. "Not many VCs really know how to evaluate team talent if they haven't run a company before--and that's a critical skill as an entrepreneur," he says.

Another wedge between these two types of businessmen that he notes is that entrepreneurs focus much more about what they can do with the resources they have, while VCs are constantly looking at what a company needs. O'Donnell says switching these mindsets can be difficult and that he spent too much time thinking of creating the "next big thing," rather than focusing on short-term goals and creating a solid foundation upon which to build.

Of course, as he points out, there are exceptions to the notion that a VC can't become a successful entrepreneur. As a commenter on O'Donnell's post points out, Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon began as an investor at Arbitrade and Bessemer Venture Partners before starting his own companies. Another commenter argues that its hard to make assumptions about this topic when the sample size of VCs trying to become entrepreneurs is relatively small.

Whether O'Donnell's suggestion has validity or not is certainly an interesting discussion, but the real lesson to learn from his post comes from his personal experiences in failure. One of the reasons O'Donnell doesn't think VCs make good entrepreneurs is that they may be prone to approaching the situation with advice for how to succeed permeating their brains. The trick is, success can be the product of any of a million different variables, and there is no single proven path to success. Instead, the best way to get there is to avoid failures.

Focus on the errors that most unsuccessful startups make and go out of your way to avoid them; more often than not you will find yourself inching closer and closer towards your goal this way. Just remember that errors and failures are not always things that were done that went wrong, they are sometimes things that were never done in the first place.

The question of whether VCs have a difficult time become entrepreneurs has drawn a mixed response so far from O'Donnell's blog, so what do you think? Is the road between them marked by a one-way street? Or is one side just paved a little more smoothly? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Discuss

The accountant Ernst & Young is under scrutiny from Britain's auditing watchdog regarding its advice to Lehman Brothers on a procedure that allowed the investment bank to hide $50 billion ($£33 billion) in assets from its balance sheet.

It’s a brand new week, which means it’s time for Mashable’s guide to upcoming social media and web events, parties, and conferences. For more upcoming event listings, check out Mashable’s Events section.

Is your event not on this list? Contact us at least one month before your event and let’s establish a media partnership.

Mashable’s Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

March 15-16, 2010, London, UK: At Social Media World Forum, learn from social networks, brands, advertisers and analysts. Hear from leading social networks on their strategy, revenue models and how they are approaching the future. Worldwide case studies from global brands and corporations on their use of social media. Examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading analysts. Mention you are a Mashable reader to receive 15% discount.

March 17, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Join SF New Tech, the Bay Area’s largest and longest running monthly tech event, to get an early look at of some of the hottest new tech around. Famous for its sold out events where executives (and the occasional hacker or two) take to the stage to strut their stuff, SF New Tech is *the* place where early adaptors, developers, influnencers, venture capitalists, journalists, bloggers, and regular every-day folks converge to see the latest and greatest technology. Visit sfnewtech.com for details.

March 19, 2010, London, UK: Justmeans’ Social Media and Stakeholder Engagement Conference will bring together the top minds in sustainability, marketing, innovation and technology. This executive forum will explore how technology can enable sustainable business by involving stakeholders in the value creation process and will showcase examples of success and failure in this rapidly evolving market. Use this link for a 10% registration discount.

March 22-23, 2010, Paris, France: At Marketing 2.0 Conference, learn from brands’ social media initiatives, advertisers, researchers and analyst. Hear from leading people in the Social Media business on their strategy, revenue models and how they are approaching the upcoming trends in the Social Mediasphere. Worldwide case studies from global brands and corporations on their use of social media. Examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading researchers. The socialmash2010 discount code gives you €200 off.

March 22-23 & 25-26, 2010, Hong Kong & Singapore: Join us at the Social Media & PR conference. This comprehensive two-day event sees PR practitioners from leading global brands and agencies come together to share about the best practices, pitfalls to avoid, case studies, how-tos, measurement and ethics of social media in PR. See social media’s relevance to both B2B & B2C, discuss how new & traditional PR avenues can be integrated. Register today. Save 10% when you enter ‘Mashable‘ under ‘How did you know about this event’.

March 22-25, 2010, Dallas, TX: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute’s 17th Forum on Social Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results, to learn how to capture the power of social media in your organization, along with helpful tools, tips and techniques to get started. Hear practical advice, firsthand, from leading government agencies and organizations such as: Transportation Security Administration; NASA; Microsoft U.S. Public Sector, CDC; GovLoop; Southwest Airlines; National Institutes of Health; U.S. Army Reserve; City of Sugar Land, TX; Missouri River Regional Library; City of Reno, NV; Texas Parks & Wildlife Department; Deloitte Services, LP; GolinHarris; 2ndSix; & Panetta Communications. Mention Mashable when registering to save $200.

March 22-26, New York, NY: Go beyond search at the Search Engine Strategies. Learn the newest trends, strategic action plans, and technology that industry leaders are employing today. Our experts will trace the natural evolution of search exploring topics such as: digital asset optimization, mobile application development, transition from search to discovery and more. SAVE 15% with code MHNY15. Program will focus on cutting edge strategies, tips, and tactics that will be driving search in 2010. Hear from the leading voices in search and digital like Avinash Kaushik, David Meerman Scott, Tim Ash, Ray Comstock and more.

March 23, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Swagapalooza is an experiment in viral media. On March 23rd, the world’s most-followed bloggers, tweeters, and digital influencers will gather to judge five-minute auditions from the creators of the latest, greatest, and most unexpected new products. Are you one of the world’s top bloggers or tweeters? If so you deserve to be begged for your attention and your following. Your taste and discernment make you the perfect judge of these marketers who will come to cajole, beg, and bribe you with more free stuff than you can imagine... Tickets are free for those who qualify.

March 23, 2010, Sacramento, CA: Northern California Social Media Society Launch Party. Join NCSMS in celebrating their launch. Celebrate with cocktails, appetizers and door prizes; learn about the Society and network with other individuals and businesses. The NCSMS provides an opportunity for their members to collaborate with other individuals and advocates as well as continue to grow social media marketing skills and smarts. Whether you want to learn or lead, this is a great opportunity to be part of an organization which is dedicated to the advancement of social media. The event is free to those who register.

March 23-24, 2010, Berlin, Germany: Learn, discuss and explore the challenges and commercial opportunities that exist within the mobile internet ecosystem and make the most of best-practice perspectives over a two day period offering a programme packed with case studies, roundtable discussions, industry snapshots, masterclasses and fishbowl sessions. Significant discount for Mobile Operators, Online/Mobile Communities, and Content providers! Go to iir-mobileinternet.com/mashable for more information.

March 24, 2010, New York, NY: Social Reputation Management: Protecting and Strengthening Your Brand Across the Social Web is a conference that will share the best case studies on how communicators and marketers listen to conversations, monitor and comprehend what is being said, and engage through the social web. The case studies will be followed by moderated interactive roundtables. Use promo code MASH for a discounted rate of $155.

March 24, 2010, Rutherford, NJ: Learn about how you would grow your business, talk to your customers, interact and engage. Social Media will help your business grow, financially and in relation to your customers. Topics include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogging, etc. This workshop is geared for small businesses that want to grow their fanbase and reach potential customers and make your relationships better with by using the social web. Click over to socialbiz324.eventbrite.com to purchase tickets to the event and use the code mashable to save 50%.

March 24-25, 2010, San Francisco, CA: EyeforTravel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel conference goes beyond the ‘what is social media?’ debates (that were so 2008!) and examines the strategic importance of social media to travel brands. The 2 day conference will share leading case studies, hits, tips and advice from top travel companies including JetBlue, Hilton, Virgin America and more. Use the discount MASHABLE to save $100 on the registration fee!

March 25, 2010, Santa Monica, CA: Join us for more rock solid networking with tech geeks, VCs, entrepreneurs and good folks just like you. Schmoozd is an exclusive social mixer bringing together professionals in marketing, advertising, technology, social media and startups. The event is designed to facilitate knowledge sharing, relationship building and deal making. For more information, please visit www.schmoozd.com. Mashable readers get 50% off when registering via this link.

March 25, 2010, Toronto, ON: Join Nick La, creator of the popular blog Web Designer Wall, owner of N.Design Studio, IconDock, and Best Web Gallery for a one-day immersion into WordPress, the world’s most popular publishing platform. If you want to learn how to create your own WordPress themes, understand how to use template tags and conditional tags to format and display the data you want, or how to use WordPress as a content management system, Nick will take you from WordPress Zero to Hero in 7 hours flat.

March 25-26 2010, Atlanta, GA: REtechSouth: The only event in the Southeast that ties cutting edge social media concepts and practices, plus tips and tactics on existing technologies, to the unique challenges of the current real estate market. It’s worth attending just to absorb all the expertise that will be in the room, as real estate’s best and brightest direct their attention towards your needs. Presented by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. Save $29 off registration by using the code Mashable.

March 29, 2010, Portland OR: The social media conference for marketers, Social Fresh is not about concept, but focused purely on case studies from the front lines. Learn what social media can really do for business bottom lines. One day, 35 speakers from companies like Intel, Ford, Comcast, Nike and many more. As well as keynote Peter Shankman. Register now and use coupon code mashable for 15% off.

March 30, 2010, London, UK: The upcoming Hit Me! Social Media and Search event is designed for business owners and entrepreneurs who want to find out the latest practical business advice and information about Social Media and Search. Freshbusinessthinking.com has partnered with Microsoft to deliver this power-packed one day event featuring experts and leading practitioners from the world of social media and search. Stats published by Nielsen show that social media usage has increased by 82% in the last year. The challenge for organisations of all sizes is how to use social media to drive business. Over 1500 delegates have attended our one-day events and the average rating is 8.5 out of 10 – the next one is shaping up to be the best ever with a host of experts on hand to give you the information and advice you need to grow your business online. Mashable readers: get a discount entering promotional code MASHABLE.

March 30-April 1, 2010, San Jose, CA: Become Location Enabled at Where 2.0. Now in its sixth year, Where 2.0 is one of the world’s foremost events dedicated to exploring the emerging technologies in the geospatial industry. At Where 2.0, we expose the tools pushing the boundaries of the location frontier. Join us and meet the people behind the mashups, the people behind the platforms, and the people looking ahead to the future of geospatial. Find out what’s viable now, what’s lurking just below the radar and how to gain a competitive edge. Register now and save 15% at en.oreilly.com/where2010. Use code whr10mash.

April 5, 2010, New York, NY: You need to be a social media specialist. Today’s marketplace demands it. Content, regardless of medium or platform, is regularly created, curated, commented upon and shared by consumers. If you’re not strategizing to maximize the social component, you’re missing prime opportunities. Register for the IAB Social Media Marketplace to gain insights from Federated Media’s John Battelle, MediaLink’s Wenda Harris Millard, Del Monte’s Doug Chavez, Deep Focus’s Ian Schafer, GE’s Andrew Markowitz and more. Use code mashable to save $100.

April 7, 2010, Cincinnati, OH: BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media features 8 great case studies on the best social media programs at large corporations. AT&T, Dell, Duke Energy, General Mills, Hilton, Procter & Gamble, Rogers Communications, and Tyson Foods share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal. From GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council. Get $39 off registration by using the code ILoveMashable.

April 7, 2010, New York, NY: Attend the Social Media Advertising Consortium’s April NYC Salon. Join SMAC members for a lively discussion on how brands are organized around social media. A panel of top brands including IBM and PepsiCo, and agencies will share insights, look at best practices, campaign successes and discuss what’s next in measurement and research. Discussion followed by networking, wine & light hors d’oeuvres. The cost is free for SMAC members and $45 for non-members. Mention Mashable when registering to save 10%. Space is limited so register early.

April 7-8, 2010, New York, NY: Strengthen your business with mobile marketing, apps, video, and content at Think Mobile, a conference focused on mobile strategy, marketing, and mobile apps. Learn how to get your brand in front of the right customers, how to handle mobile content, and how to make money in mobile. The full day dedicated to mobile apps will cover building an app team, designing user interfaces, marketing your app, and targeting development for specific platforms. Speakers represent AdMob, Pandora, Nielsen, Bravo, PCMag.com, and more. Register with promo code TMMASH and save 20%!

April 7-9, 2010 Sydney, Australia: ConnectNow is a three day event focusing on the intersection of social media, emerging technologies and enterprise. The first two days is conference, where you’ll learn from international specialists how to leverage off new trends in marketing innovation such as augmented reality, location based services, social search, the real-time web, mobile’s growing dominance and the importance of ’social capital’. Day three is workshop day specifically for non-profits, charities, Government and community groups. Attend ConnectNow and leave equipped with actionable strategies to implement to your business. Register online and email info@connectnow.net.au quoting: Mashablemates to get 10% discount!

April 8-10, 2010, Atlanta, GA: The 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference will bring together more than 1,000 nonprofit leaders, IT innovators, communications gurus, fundraising superstars and nonprofit staffers from all over. You’ll learn the latest trends, practical how-tos, and IT solutions that can optimize your organization’s use of technology and help you meet your mission to create more social good in the world — and you’ll have a good time, to boot. Select “Mashable” from the “How did you hear?” field to receive an $100 discount.

April 9, 2010, London, UK: Natural SEO, a thupr event, aims to resolve some of the myths around SEO. The event brings together people who blog (for themselves or on behalf of others) with tools designed to help them, and experts prepared to share their wisdom. There are discussion streams and the chance to try out some of the software on site in a relaxed, conversational environment. The event is free, but limited to 100 places.

April 12-15, 2010, Santa Clara, CA: The 6th annual MySQL Conference & Expo, presented by O’Reilly Media, brings over 2,000 open source and database enthusiasts together to harness the power of MySQL and celebrate the huge MySQL ecosystem. The O’Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo is a new event that builds on the tradition of past MySQL conferences (previous events were co-presented with MySQL AB and with Sun). This inclusive, innovative event will showcase the full spectrum of the MySQL ecosystem, from global corporations and diverse service vendors to start-ups and grassroots projects. Our growing lineup of speakers, program committee members, and sponsors represent a wide array of some of the most influential companies and projects in the MySQL community. Register now and save an additional 15% at: en.oreilly.com/mysql2010. Use discount code mys10msh.

April 12-15, 2010, Washington, DC: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute’s Forum on Social Media for Recruiting in Government & Defense: Using Web 2.0 Technologies To Attract, Retain, And Engage Top Talent To Become An Employer Of Choice, to learn how to incorporate the power of social media into your organization’s recruiting strategy, along with helpful tools, practical tips and techniques to get started. Hear practical advice, firsthand, from leading government agencies and organizations such as the: Internal Revenue Service; Library of Congress; Booz Allen Hamilton; Sodexo, Inc.; U.S. Air Force; Peace Corps; Arbita, Inc.; Panetta Communications; CollegeRecruiter.com; Bold Interactive; Campbell-Ewald; Brazen Careerist & CampusGov. Mention Mashable when registering to save $200.

April 12-16, 2010, New York, NY: Attend New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), a non-profit movement formed around a single belief: entrepreneurs change the world. The New York Entrepreneur Week movement gives you the opportunity to actively engage the foremost entrepreneurs, investors and dealmakers both in the State and from around the world. Now is the time for entrepreneurs who have the will and drive to prove they can achieve anything, to stand up and come together in New York State for another groundbreaking NYEW event. Receive 75% off with code: Mashable 2010.

April 16-17, 2010, Royal Oak, MI: FutureMidwest, the region’s largest two-day technology and knowledge conference, is aimed at helping professionals successfully add digital strategies to their communications programs. Technology and online tools have dramatically changed the way we do business. FutureMidwest will highlight the effect this transition has had on companies. The conference will feature presentations, group breakout sessions, relationship-building opportunities and influencers who are redefining business in the digital age. For a 50% discount, e-mail your name to hello AT FutureMidwest DOT com with the subject line “It’s Happening Mashable.” Then go to the Web site and register as a student.

April 16-18, 2010 Montreal, Quebec, Canada: The iPhone Boot Camp offers a three day workshop on iPhone and iPad Development, covering basic to advanced features such as web services, database, core location and animation, audio and camera and augmented reality. The workshops are limited to fifteen developers and is a full 24 hours of training. The iPhone Boot Camp is a well established certificate training program that has trained over 200 iPhone developers in dozens of cities since 2008. Our instructors are all developers with several apps in the store and experienced trainers using proven course material. Most developers are able to develop an app for sale in the app store after completing the training. The(...)

Virginia AG Cuccinelli defends anti-gay advice in Sunday op-ed.

Federal health officials to reexamine 27-year-old ban on blood donations from gays.

Genderless: Australian becomes first in nation to be identified as neither male nor female.

Video: Lady Gaga comes close to fainting during concert.

Assessment due this week on implementing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in a "more humane" manner.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams called hypocrite for plans to attend St. Patrick's Day celebrations that exclude gays and women: "David Ford, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, said: 'Sinn Fein at home talks a lot about inclusivity and equality. On the face of it it seems Mr Adams applies different standards in the US.'"

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell rejects demands to push legislation, saying his unenforceable directive urging the state not to discriminate against gays and lesbians was sufficient: "I believe that takes care of it."

Will actual Italians be offended by the Guidos of Jersey Shore?

Watch: Mika kicks ass in new video.

Golden State Warriors hold first LGBT appreciation night, but don't announce it during game: "Just before the start of Thursday's game against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus stood at halfcourt in tuxedos and sang the national anthem. At halftime, the world's only gay-identified cheerleading team, Cheer SF, gave a high-octane performance, tossing male and female fliers into the air. Although no public announcement was made during the game that it was LGBT appreciation night, the audience clapped enthusiastically for the performers."

Rielle Hunter tells all to GQ about her relationship with John Edwards: "I mean, just for starters, I never 'hit on' Johnny. I'm not a predator, I'm not a gold digger, I'm not the stalker. I didn't have any power in that way in our relationship. He held all the power. And then, you know, um, Elizabeth's book tour and Johnny's interview [in August 2008 with ABC's Bob Woodruff] were devastating to me. But I also knew it didn't mean anything."

Sitges, Spain to hold first gay pride from July 9-13.

More signs of the apocalypse: Last week, a black penguin, this week a white puffin.

The Wishing Well: drop off an anonymous note.

Male model fix: Terron Wood.

Joe dioGuardi, father of American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, to oppose Kirsten Gillibrand in NY Senate race.

Some important points for LGBT people on filling out your 2010 Census.

Glee spoilers.

Wolves kill teacher while jogging in Alaska: "Her body was dragged off a rural road, leaving a bloody track, into the nearby bush and was surrounded by wolf tracks. Police said wolves in the area had been aggressive recently. If confirmed, it is believed to be the first fatal wolf attack in the US in 50 years."

Amazon drops Colorado affiliates Kristie McNealy blogs from her suburban Denver home about raising four children and health issues. Her husband, Rob, a floor installer, runs another Web site offering product reviews and advice on hardwood floors. It’s not just for fun. Whenever someone clicks on a link to buy a book or product that their sites [...]