Our fast-food nation is driven by corn. A couple of recent college graduates decide to learn more about the commodity by growing an acre in Greene, Iowa, and shooting a television program. "King Corn" airs this week on public television's Independent Lens.

The Des Moines Register's Philip Brasher says the film "is a warm, playful portrayal of Greene as well as its residents and farmers. At one point the woman behind the counter at a local bakery comments on the speed at which farmers can get their planting done with modern machinery: 'Then they're back twiddling their thumbs until it's time to spray something.'"

The film perhaps missed a good bit of the changing economics that the ethanol boom brought about, but then again much of the bloom is off that rose.

A county in eastern North Carolina invested in a community wireless internet system five years ago and already has lots to show for it: higher graduation rates and new businesses. With new technologies on the horizon, low-cost WiFi may soon be with reach for all rural communities.

How can rural communities prepare for deadly weather? Storm sirens are too localized and expensive. Radios and text messaging may save more lives.

The Federal Communications Commission and USDA today flipped the switch on a new website offering rural web-users help in getting better access to the Internet. “Broadband Opportunities for Rural America” pulls together information on types of broadband technology and ways to fund better service systems in rural areas.

The FCC and USDA also announced four workshops on rural broadband to be held later this year in Blacksburg, Virginia
 (Apr. 30), Saginaw, Michigan
 (June 19), Austin, Texas (Sept. 18), and Phoenix, Arizona (Nov. 20).

The workshops are set to consider a new pilot program on rural health care as well as internet access issues.

University of Louisville and Owensboro Medical Health System -- a hospital 100 miles west -- are bringing city physicians to the more rural hospital via a robot.

The doctor on wheels is RP-7, the 5' 6" invention of InTouch Health of Santa Barbara, Calif. Through remote control, a doctor in Louisville can evaluate patients long distance. "Using a joystick, camera and 360-degree infrared sensors, the UofL Health Care doctor can maneuver the robot through the hospital to a patient’s bedside and move the robot’s head to see" and hear, not only the patient, but medical staff in Owensboro, and "vital signs on monitors and charts" as well.

For now, the robot will be used to consult the Owensboro hospital in cases of stroke, pediatrics, and maternal fetal medicine. "I can listen to heart sounds ," said Louisville physician Dr. Kerri Remmel, pictured above on the tube. "I just need someone to put the stethoscope on a patient's chest."