Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.
Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.
Like I told my professor shortly after some grad student had killed himself and his academic advisor: "Rob, " I said, "you know, if I ever decide o go off half-cocked and take you out, I just want you to know I'm not going with you. I'll be laying on a beach in South America before the body's even cold."