Today was Groundhog Day.  Puxatawny Phil did see his shadow - six more weeks of winter.  We were in Santa Barbara today, and the weather was perfect.  Why would anyone not live in Southern California?

The Columbia disaster continues to attract huge amounts of attention, both in the media and the blogosphere.  For me personally I am very sad, but this has not affected me the same way as the Challenger disaster in 1986.  I don't know why, but it doesn't have that "where were you when you heard the news" quality.

Here's a great article about the current state of the Iraq situation, from an English perspective.  Among other things they think the bombing will start on March 4, a new moon.  Let's hope Saddam seems the light, but it seems doubtful.  Iraq's latest: "U.S. will fabricate proof".

This is incredible.  "I really don't see how believing in the evolution of humanity has anything to do with studying science."  Uh, right.

John Snyder, president of Artist House records and a 32-time Grammy nominee, wrote this great article for Salon called Embrace File Sharing or Die.  He hits so many nails on the head I can't list them all.  My favorite: people pay for bottled water even though tap water is free, and they pay for Starbucks even though their office has free coffee.  People will pay for great, even if good is free. You just won’t get them to pay for not-as-good when good is free.  Meanwhile this interesting article on Slate says that recordable DVDs will be superced by network connections between your TV and your PC.

Did you watch the Pro Bowl?  I never do...  seems totally anticlimactic after the Super Bowl.  It is time for me to morph into a basketball fan again.

Finally, I implemented a little archive facility, to let you get to any day's stuff, any's weeks, or any month's.  The home page will now display only the last fourteen days' postings.  (As before, you may also search for anything you want...)