In the sometimes desperate hours following Katrina's landfall, experts in geographic information services -- GIS -- helped search and rescue crews reach more than 75 stranded survivors in Mississippi.

CNN: 'Geocoding' used to locate Katrina survivors

Above all, they had hoped for a verdict on the war's last 60 hours, when a desperate last push deep into south Lebanon gained nothing but the deaths of 33 soldiers, a quarter of the war's total Israeli losses (some 1, 400 Lebanese are reckoned to have died).

ECONOMIST: Israel's war in Lebanon

For reasons both practical and symbolic, the government was desperate to get trains running again, and within twenty-four hours it declared the line back in business.

NEWYORKER: Boss Rail

We hear complaints that it's possible for someone on the West Coast to get a friend on the East Coast to beam them "Desperate Housewives" three hours ahead of time.

ENGADGET: The Engadget Interview: Blake Krikorian, CEO of Sling Media

He was endearingly trusting when, a few days before giving a landmark lecture this week on Conservative crime policy, he allowed a pair of complete strangers supposedly desperate for a pee into his house in the early hours of the morning.

ECONOMIST: Oliver Letwin's big new idea about crime

The past 24 hours have taught us that Facebook is increasingly desperate to monetize its user-base.

FORBES: A Scenario for Abandoning Facebook As An Ad Medium

The IPP deals were made in the early 1990s, when the country was desperate for generating capacity amid blackouts of as long as 12 hours a day.

CNN: Up from the Ocean