Huh, well I'm *back*; seems like with all the travel and everything, I've been gone forever; silly of course, but that's how it feels.  Best thing that happened today: got my hair cut.  I love that.  Worst thing: took a really slow sore ride around the lake.  Sailing appears to use different muscles from cycling :P

Email spam is a weird thing, isn't it?  We now take it for granted...  I get hundreds of spams each day, and I have filters which deal with them, and so be it.  But if you ever wanted to send me an electronic greeting card, forget it; it would not get through.  Strange that this problem which afflicts every single Internet user has gone un-addressed.  Seems like someone would have figure out a way around it by now. 

What a concept!  LATimes suggests putting parents to work - caring for their own children.  This sounds like an Onion headline, but it's real.  Wow. 

This is way cool: The Architect's Journal selects the 10 coolest buildings from Star Wars.  They gave first place to the second Death Star, a worthy selection, but my personal favorite is the Sandcrawlers on Tatooine, from the first movie.  I so remember the way I felt when I first saw it on screen; awesome! 

Excellent: Venture Capital Industry Moves Quickly To Jump-Start IPOs.  This is longer-term stuff, it won't help immediately, but innovation in the U.S. crucially depends on VC funding of new ideas, which in turn is driven by the potential of IPO exits.  Without an IPO market, VC money will dry up, and new ideas won't get funded... all of which is bad.  Still, you can't force a market.  The key is going to be investor confidence... 

So, was 1959 the year everything changed?  Maybe.  I was born in 1958, that was a big change for me :) 

This is probably going to make you tear up in that "feels good to feel bad way": 10-year-old Cancer Patient Gets Request Granted Before Death.  "Colby Curtain of Huntington, Calif., received a special visit from Disney-Pixar studios, which flew the animated movie, 'Up,' for her to see; just hours before her death.  It was her last request since her infirmity disallowed her from seeing it in a theater."  How excellent of Pixar. 

HealthImaging.com reports: Study: Medical imaging increases U.S. life expectancy:  "Increased utilization of advanced medical imaging has improved the life expectancy of patients in the United States by nearly nine months, according to a study released this month from the National Bureau of Economic Research."  Wow, excellent.  And increased adoption of new modalities like digital pathology will increase life expectancy even more... 

Slate: Step aside Windows, the browser is coming to save the day.  A conventional "web is taking over" analysis, but I liked this: "There are two kinds of Web surfers in the world.  Some prefer to open new pages as tabs within the same browser window.  Others open each Web page as a new window, accumulating lots of entries on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.  On the face of it, this battle between Ctrl-T and Ctrl-N seems totally mundane.  A few years from now, however, I think we'll look back on the gradual drift to tabs as the browser's bid for emancipation."  Interesting.  I'm mostly in the Ctrl-N camp, unless I find myself on a small screen, and then I prefer Ctrl-T... 

Just in case you thought you've seen it all, here we have the Barbie Foosball table.  I am not making this up. 

ZooBorns of the day: baby skunks.  Proving that baby anythings are cute.