The greatest week in rock history?  We're talking mid-December, 1969.  And it is tough to argue - albums from the Beatles ("Abbey Road"), Led Zeppelin ("Led Zeppelin II"), Creedence Clearwater ("Green River"), the Rolling Stones ("Let it Bleed"), and the Temptations ("People Puzzle") were released, along with the debut albums of Santana, Blood Sweat & Tears, and Crosby, Stills, & Nash.  Wow.

Wired reports Heat Telescope Shows Cool Sights.  More space goodness from my alma mater, CalTech.  "The new telescope will not orbit Earth, but rather will trail behind the planet as it circles the sun, away from its heat."  That's an, er, cool picture of galaxy M81 over on the right; infrared converted to false color.  Wow.

David Burbridge on the Flynn Effect, namely that intelligence test scores in most industrialized countries have risen substantially over a period of decades.  Interesting stuff!

Dave Winer blogs his attendance at a Howard Dean event.  I tell you, I get way more political information about candidates from bloggers than I do from "big media".  And it is more honest, too.  At least bloggers are open about their bias, and more or less self-correcting.

Hey, guess what?  IPOs are back!  This is good news because with a public exit as a possibility, investors will be more willing to invest in startups, thereby fostering more innovation.

J. William Gurley explains why a recent court decision may inadvertently delay the progress of the Internet in the United States by certainly years and potentially decades.  The core issue is whether Internet services are considered a "telecommunications service" by regulators...

Auren Hoffman: There is no consolidation... period.  "U.S. consumers and businesses have more choices when buying products than they ever did before.  That competition translates into lower prices, better features, and higher quality."  I fully agree.

Brian Briggs reviews Digital Music Stores.  All of them!  Napster, BuyMusic, eMusic, MusicMatch, Wal-Mart, Rhapsody, and of course iTunes.

Boo hoo.  So SCO lost money this quarter, due primarily to legal fees :)  Even if you can stomach them on moral grounds, which I can't, you certainly have to feel they're a lousy investment.

Think you have a tough job?  How would you like to convert a C++ application to COBOL?  Wow, that's real work.  [ thanks, David ]

Robert Scoble goes through airport security:

I was wearing my "I'm blogging this" PDC shirt in the airport.  I was going through the security line in Seattle.  Here's the exchange that happened:

Security guard #1: "What's a blog?"
Security guard #2, before I could answer, said: "It's a weblog", and launched into an explanation.

I love it!

Okay, finally, three men from Yemen sue NASA for invading Mars.  [ via Xeni Jardin ]  I am not making this up, but it sure sounds like a headline from the Onion, doesn't it!