Happy Monday, y'all...  yes, I know, nobody says Happy Monday, sorry.  What could be less happy than a Monday, right?  Especially a Monday following the Olympics' end, and with the kids back in school. Still...

Today is my daughter Alexis' 15th birthday, so that's worth celebrating!  Happy Birthday, Alex!!  In typical teen fashion we didn't see much of her - she spent the whole day in school and with friends - but it is her birthday and we are celebrating.  Yay.

Have you ever noticed that when a company folds, the founders always say they had the right vision.  Maybe they couldn't raise money, or the market wasn't ready, or the competition was too tough, or maybe even they didn't execute, but always they still have the right vision.  It is weird, because to me most companies fail because they had the wrong vision; they thought they had a market opportunity but they didn't.  Either the value proposition wasn't there, or the dogs didn't eat the dog food. 

Want some actual facts about global warming?  Then check out Global Temperature Trends 2500 B.C. to 2008 A.D.  Not quite what you expected?  Blame the mainstream media who can't be bothered to do this kind of research.  The [incredibly detailed] chart at left contains the punch line; please click to enbiggen. 

I find myself completely uninterested in the Democratic Party convention now taking place in Denver.  It is dominating the news, but nothing that happens there will matter; Obama and Biden will be nominated, McCain will be attacked, and on we go in election 2008.  I refuse to blog about it further. 

JPL are hosting an awesome documentary on The Beginnings of the Space Age.  Really cool.  I love all that old equipment - much of it analog - really makes you realize how amazing it was that people were able to launch satellites into space "back then".  It is hard enough with today's technology! 

Speaking of today's technology, here's an awesome picture of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, with Earth in the background (click to enlarge).  We have come a long way...  and in many ways the space shuttles are old technology too; the epitome of our technology today would be recent unmanned spacecraft like Cassini and Huygens, and the Mars Rovers and Mars Explorer...  all that has happened in less than 50 years.  What will space technology be like 50 years from today?  The mind boggles... 

Oh, and guess what?  Iran hopes to send astronaut into space.  Within ten years.  In this they join China, and others... this interesting chart shows the relative spending by Nasa compared to other countries.  So far Iran is not even on the list, but good luck with that!  

Russell Beattie notes the missing iPhone apps are appearing, and gives an example: Henny makes beat on the iPhone 3G using beatmaker.  You have to see this video to believe it...  not only for the coolness of the app, but for the complexity; who knew such a program could even exist?  There is a whole world out there - many whole worlds - which are so different to mine. 

Here we have 45 beautiful motion blur photos.  Yes they are artistically blurred... and they are beautiful, all right... 

Finally, if you haven't said goodbye to the Beijing Olympics yet, Jason Kottke links to a bunch of great photos, including the Big Picture at the Boston Globe.  For me, I'm Olympic-ed out, so I'm not even going to copy one here, but please click away if you're interested...