All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

President Obama's response to the government crackdown has been criticized by some Republicans as timid.

Wednesday, in an exclusive interview with CBS News, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair came to his defense, saying he believes the protesters understand the tough position the president is in.

Hi everyone. Katie's off. I'm Seth Doane.

You've seen the video: tens of thousands of protesters packing the streets and squares of Tehran One crowd claiming election fraud and demanding a new vote. Another insisting that last week's results were fair and accurate.

This battle is being waged, not just in Iran's capital, but in cyber space. Activists on both sides are getting out their messages by using Twitter, Facebook, and other sites.

Those who dissent risk prison. Iran's government has ordered bloggers to remove anything that would quote, "create tension." But with some Iranian reporters under arrest and foreign correspondents now banned from covering demonstrations in person, these citizen journalists are there to tell the world what they see.

They are passionate and often manage to get around government restrictions on cell phones and the internet by using the technological revolution to fight a political one.

I'm Seth Doane. CBS News.

Phil Hirschkorn is a CBS News producer based in New York.

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The tight-knit community of September 11th victims family members who became activists mourned the loss of one of their own Friday, when it became known that Beverly Eckert was a passenger aboard Continental Flight 3407, which crashed in Buffalo.

She was on her way to celebrate what would have been her late husband Sean’s 58th birthday with family and friends, and to attend the presentation of a scholarship she had established in his memory at Canisius High School, where they’d met at a dance at age 16, only to become a lifelong couple.

"All of us are in shock,” said Carie Lemack, who lost her mother, Judy Larocque, on a plane in America’s worst terrorist attack, who channeled her grief into activism along with Beverly.

Beverly’s husband and high school sweetheart, Sean Rooney, then 50, was among the more than 200 people who died at work for insurer Aon Corp in the World Trade Center’s south tower – trapped above where the second plane struck on Sept. 11, 2001 ...

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Over at Tech Talk, our sister blog, science and technology correspondent (and self-proclaimed "digital nomad") Daniel Sieberg has given us a little previewa of his story on tonight's CBS Evening News. It's about grade-school kids using the Web not just to share too much information about themselves - but to share potentially-illegal video tips on how to deceive their teachers and cheat on tests.

Here's a taste:

It's no secret that young people make mistakes; it's a necessary part of growing up. But the Internet - and specifically the rise of video-sharing Web sites - opened a new portal for potential pitfalls. On tonight's CBS Evening News with Katie Couric we're looking at how teens are posting controversial videos on sites like YouTube, often in the hopes of getting noticed or showing off. But in the process they may be setting themselves up for real-world consequences in the future.

For our story we talked to two young people about their decision to post "how to cheat on a test" videos on YouTube. Both of our subjects are unrepentant about their decision - but they also do not want us to use their real names. Both said they're seeking attention and aren't worried about being caught because "adults don't use YouTube."

Wait, adults don't use YouTube? Huh. Somebody must have forgotten to tell Oprah, Charlie Rose, and, or course, Katie. Anyway, check out the rest of Daniel's blog post right here, and don't forget to watch tonight at 6:30 ET.

It's a landmark case in Internet law. You may remember the Missouri woman accused of posing as a teenage boy on MySpace. Using the fake identity, she allegedly began taunting a 13-year-old neighborhood girl who eventually committed suicide.

Lori Drew was called a monster, a predator, a cyber bully ... but she's not charged in the girl's death. Missouri prosecutors said no laws were broken. Instead, Drew is now on trial in Los Angeles for allegedly violating her MySpace agreement. Some say it's a legal stretch, while others can't understand why she isn't being tried for a much more serious offense.

It's a reminder that our laws don't always keep up with ever-changing technology. Every day people post things on-line they would never say in person. But those digital words matter, a lesson Lori Drew found out the hard way, and a 13-year-old girl is dead.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy ushered in the era of the television presidency. Millions watched together as he took the oath of office, declaring "ask not what your country can do for you." The medium proved as powerful as the message.

Today, that medium is the Internet. The number of Americans who get their political news primarily from the Web tripled since the 2004 election.

Barack Obama successfully captured young voters by finding them where they hang out online. The Obama campaign used Facebook, YouTube, and even text messaging to seal the deal.

The election is over, but the new administration has sent signals it intends to stay wired.

If Obama could motivate young people to step away from the keyboards and vote, maybe he could ask them to volunteer, or tutor, or recycle.

All that modern technology could be used to revive a very old-fashioned value, civic responsibility. As John F. Kennedy said, "what you can do for your country."

Government health experts have a new way to try to stay ahead of flu outbreaks across the country. Just Google it.

A new site, Google.org/flutrends, keeps track of search terms like "flu symptoms" or "muscle aches" and produces a map highlighting places where more people are downloading flu information.

A check of the site today shows flu activity is low in most of the nation, but a little higher in Mississippi, Maine, Delaware and Hawaii.

Google thinks it can detect regional outbreaks a week to 10 days before they're reported to the CDC. Last winter, for example, there were more searches about the flu in mid Atlantic states two weeks before the government reported a spike in cases there.

Doctors say this could save lives. We can wash our hands more and take other precautions if we know flu is spreading. With 30 or 40 million case each year, that's nothing to sneeze at.

Hey, guys! As you know, in addition to anchoring the CBS Evening News, I also report stories for other CBS programs like 60 Minutes, or in this case, CBS Sunday Morning. I had a chance to interview Sarah Silverman who is very much the comedienne of the moment. Her irreverent, and maybe even demented, sense of humor might repel as many fans as it attracts. A friend described her humor as "just wrong." Maybe that's why it's so funny – because it's so outrageous.

We had so much good material that I didn't want to see go to waste, so here's an extended play remix! We talked about her troubled adolescence, how she developed that offbeat sense of humor, and, of course, Jimmy Kimmel ... even though I know she did not want me to go there.

Oh, well. What's a girl to do?

Enjoy!

Daniel Sieberg is CBS News' science and technology correspondent.

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In the age of the Internet, it sometimes seems that nothing's private. But what if EVERYTHING - including gossip, name-calling, and slander - was fair game?

On some Web sites - particularly one popular with college students called JuicyCampus.com - that sort of thing is thriving. Anything goes.

Tonight, I'll take an in-depth look tonight at the Web Site that's giving plenty of college students - and their parents - nightmares.

For an early peek, just click below.

A lot of parents I know are worried about their kids and the Internet - and not just because of chat rooms or porn sites.

At Facebook, for example, you can opt to put an "honesty box" on your page, for anonymous insults from "friends."

Or consider Juicycampus.com, where college kids post anonymous gossip. For the rest of my Notebook, just click on the monitor.