Tennessean Senior Editor Deborah Fisher mentioned during her presentation to the Nashville PRSA chapter yesterday that the paper plans to operate a “24/7 newsroom” within six months that will publish local updates to its Web site around the clock.

Currently, the paper publishes about 100 breaking news updates each day beginning at 6 a.m. Fisher’s goal is for the site to be “dynamic and refreshing constantly.” “Update, update, update is our mantra,” she said.

I’m glad to see this move by the paper. As a media junkie, I say the more news, the better, and it’s always encouraging to see additional local content arriving online.

If you have a problem with Al Gore living in a colossal Belle Meade Mansion and generating high electric bills while traveling the world to discuss the dangers of global warming, that’s fine. Whether or not Gore is a hypocrite, we need to be aware of our energy consumption and consider how we can change the way we generate the power we depend on.

As today’s Tennessean reports on Gore’s MTSU address yesterday, scientists aren’t questioning whether we need to change our habits. They’re looking for ways to solve the challenges we face:

A 10-year University of California study found that essentially zero percent of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles disagreed that global warming exists, whereas, another study found that 53 percent of mainstream newspaper articles disagreed the global warming premise.

He noted that recently the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fourth unanimous report calling on world leaders to take action on global warming.

In my opinion, it’s not worth abandoning strategies for smarter, greener energy just because Gore may–or may not–be saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Want to peek inside the Preds’ locker room? Sports Illustrated writer Michael Farber has written a great story that includes plenty of details about the team’s behind-the-scenes atmosphere:

[Barry] Trotz, the only coach in Predators history, mixes realism with an inveterate optimism. In the days leading to Saturday’s game, Predators’ coaches were forbidden to bring up their Thursday-night loss to the Montreal Canadiens, in which Nashville squandered three two-goal leads and lost in a shootout. Anyone caught talking about how Nashville had kicked away a precious point would have been expected to contribute to the Negativity Fund — a so-labeled plastic container in the coaches’ office that staff members pay into for spreading bad vibes. On Friday associate coach Brent Peterson wrote energy and patience on a whiteboard as coaching guidelines for practice. Then he began to write NO S-A-R.. before stopping. “How,” he asked, “do you spell sarcasm?”

The stakes will be high over the next few weeks as the Preds continue their playoff run, but Farber reveals that the team engages in other matchups with nearly the same intensity:

The most riveting pre-Red Wings activity came on Friday at the clubhouse Ping-Pong table at which Forsberg, who says he was unbeaten during his season and a half with the Flyers, dropped games to winger Martin Erat and to goaltender Tomas Vokoun, before avenging the loss to Vokoun as teammates yelped. When the table tennis ended, hockey practice began: a sprightly, energetic session. No negativity anywhere.

Forsberg may have his hands full on the ping-pong table, but it looks like he’s starting to fit in just fine in the locker room and on the ice. I’ve loved watching this team on the ice since year one in 1998, and it’s great to hear a little bit about how things play out away from the rink, too.