First it was Canada. Now it's the U.K.

England's Alton Towers Resort -- which describes itself as the U.K.'s best-loved theme park -- is finishing up a one-week pilot program aimed at keeping adults' attention on kids and fun, I'm guessing, rather than texting friends, emailing work or checking the current sports scores.

As the park's Web site explains:

The "PDA Free Zone" is to encourage parents to disconnect from the office and reconnect fully with their families. PDA police will be onsite to enforce the ban and any adult caught using a PDA whilst [ed. note -- got to love the English way with words] at the Resort will be asked to report to one of five "PDA Drop Off Zones" where they can safely leave their PDA's for the day. If the scheme is successful, it will be introduced full time.

"What we have here is the ultimate short break location where every member of the family can unwind and have fun. We feel it's so important for parents and kids to focus on nothing more than having the best possible time, we are prepared to take drastic action to ensure that parents really leave their work behind!" said Russell Barnes, divisional director for the Alton Towers Resort.

Wouldn't you love to see Busch Gardens or Six Flags and even, oooh, Disney World, Just try this in the U.S. They'd be burning Mickey's ears and chasing the little people out the It's a Small World world.

I mean we're a country that gets upset when Burger King supposedly eliminates the Whopper from its menu (which was a pretty funny marketing campaign) and whose Internet community just forced Dunkin Donuts to pull a Rachael Ray commercial because some scarf she was wearing was deemed offensive.

So I gotta hand it to the Brits, and I can't wait to hear about its effectiveness.

I also thought the Web site pic of the program was darn cute.

Who knew that storage devices could be sassy and sexy, slinky and stylish?

Apparently someone over at Iomega.

The hard drive maker's latest product line promises to jazz up everyone's desktop with some spark and sizzle.

Gone gray tone and black boxes. Be gone with you now.

Instead ... drum roll...

Here she is, the Iomega eGo 1TB Desktop Hard Drive, in several vibrant colors like blue and red, as well as new camouflage and leather-wrapped models.

So whoever said storage isn't sexy is clearly wrong ;)

Remember when those reports came out years back that said cellphones caused brain cancer?

I wasn't shocked by it.

I figured people who spent hours a day on cellphones, devices that intermittently cut off callers every three minutes, must have some brain damage after all.

But now come reports that people are claiming they are allergic to wireless transmissions.

Yup, you read that right.

Residents in New Mexico claim they get heart tugs, shortness of breath and numb thumbs when exposed to WiFi.

Numb thumbs? Ok then.

Stop cracking the jokes about New Mexico, how hot it's there.. all those alien sightings... the lack of smog.

It seems there is a small group of people who claim their health is being affected by what's being called Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS).

It's a malady that causes pain to people who are highly sensitive to electromagnetic fields.

Yet no study has proved anything conclusive.

All I know is that the dream of getting a cell tower within 20 miles of my home is now further away then ever.

I'm doomed to be standing in the rain out in my driveway for years to come to talk on my cellphone.

I'd trade that for the coziness of my couch for a little thumb numbness anyday.

Just when you thought maybe the revolving door at Motorola's executive offices had finally been shut down comes news that Richard Nottenburg, executive VP and chief strategy officer, has resigned and left the building.

According to a Motorola spokesperson, "Nottenburg decided to leave Motorola to return to the New York area to be with his family and pursue new opportunities."

Dan Moloney will now be running Motorola Labs "which will continue to support all Motorola businesses, with the dual focus of developing advanced solutions in support of the businesses’ product roadmaps as well as researching innovative, next-generation technologies."

Up until that point you kind of have the idea that Nottenburg made the decision to leave. But then read this final note from Motorola corporate PR:

"These changes support our continued efforts to more closely align technology development with our businesses."

It may seem like just another VP persona jumping ship before the ship sinks.

But it's really much more than that given Nottenburg's pedigree.

Nottenburg, who oversaw corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, Motorola Ventures, business intelligence and new initiatives, joined Moto as an advisor in 2004 and then came onboard fultime as senior VP and chief strategy officer.

Prior to Motor he was VP and GM at Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: VTSS) after it merged with Multilink Technology Corporation in 2003.

For eight years he served as president and CEOof Multilink, a publicly traded company and leading provider of advanced mixed-signal and VLSI solutions that accelerate the deployment of 10Gb/s optical networks.

During his earlier days as a tenured associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California he built a successful research program funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Air Force and industrial sources.

Back in the 80s, while at AT&T Bell Laboratories, he co-invented 988 was the world's fastest transistor.

Now Moloney isn't any lightweight either - heck he's managed to hang on at Motorola since joining in 1983 as part of the corporate financial and planning staff.

Up until last week he was running the company's Home & Networks Mobility business.

All I do know for sure is that the person in charge of keeping business cards up to date must be yearning for a needed vacation at this point.

Motorola chief Greg Brown has to have a bouncy step this week as he roams the halls switching out leaders, chaffing over strategy and trying to find that special someone to lead the mobile division.

He's also likely saying a few thank you prayers to the stock gods for inspiring Carl Icahn to back off Motorola and jump on Yahoo.

It's not something anyone would wish on someone -- seriously, letting loose a cannonball the likes of Icahn on a public company is a formidable action.

The man wields power and influence the likes of how Frank Perdue knew chicken.

I'm sure Brown's saying a few prayers for Yahoo's Jerry Yang cause, after all, they're both leaders trying to figure out what's best for their companies.

It's what they're paid the big bucks for by shareholders like Icahn.

What I don't understand, and that may be because I don't have a MBA, is why hostile action is considered viable when companies are clearly at a crucial strategy point.

As my mother used to tell me, fighting about something never gets you anywhere except off the topic. And then she would repeat that old adage: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

I guess I just don't see corporate raiding or threats to take over a company, as being part of the solution.

But again, I'm no MBA and I don't see the allure Carl Icahn obviously sees in picking a fight.

I have no personal beef with Icahn. Money and power and influence are clearly his favorite toys and you can't knock the guy for knowing how to play the SEC guidelines with stock buying and selling.

I guess what I do knock is taking what I think is a low road on a supposed high-road quest to keep companies successful.

No one knows Yahoo like Jerry Yang.

No one except those involved in the Microsoft meetings knows what was discussed and why the talks fell flat.

No one should have anything except respect for companies like Yahoo and Motorola.

I realize Icahn isn't looking to burn down the building, and maybe he did have dinner and drinks with Yang before igniting his battle plans to talk a less hostile strategy.

I just hope those supportive Yahoo shareholders and board members behind Icahn realize one thing.

This is Carl Icahn's playing field and he makes the rules.

It sounded too good to be true.

Free wireless while you're enjoying a java decaffe latte supremo bean grande with whip cream. (Ok, I made the drink up. I'm an instant whatever's on sale high caffer myself).

A news release said AT&T would be deploying free wireless to AT&T subscribers at 7,000 Starbucks nationwide as of May 1st. I wrote about it on Feb. 13th.

Well, it's May 12th.

The Starbucks near me doesn't have it. People have come in for it, tried logging on and had no luck getting in. The baristas don't know anything except it was supposed to be on, and now it isn't, and they don't know when it will be.

AT&T, when contacted today, said it wasn't commenting on reports that the service wasn't available. I'm waiting on further clarification. Starbucks hasn't returned my call or email as yet.

Meanwhile there's no mention on the Starbucks site, though AT&T still has its official release up on its site.

So something hit a snag. What's the big deal in just saying what and why and when it's coming?

Think enterprise storage and visions of white boxes, tall server farms, sprawling data centers come to mind.

I doubt the iPod, a MP3 player or that cute blue USB flash drive hanging around your colleague's neck come to mind.

But given the results of a new report from Credant Technologies, they all should pop into view as all could be posing the newest threat to data today.

Take a gander at some top findings from a Credant study about these little technology terrors:

86% polled say the USB flash drive is most often used to store data exchanged between computers, data-centric phones with SD cards came in second.

Yet, when it comes to serving as a source of data leakage, the iPod is emerging as a main threat, with data-centric phones just slightly ahead.

While the iPod is used to store lots of data, it seems enterprises don't seem too knowledgeable about the posed threat as 61% have never heard of “pod slurping” — the downloading of corporate data to an iPod.

Most surprisingly, though, is while tech leaders acknowledge the threat the devices pose, nearly half polled -- 49% of all respondents -- aren't ready to take any preventative action until they know that the devices are more widely used to store business data on them.

Hmmmm.