Today began wonderfully, with the awesome TDF TTT, but I quickly descended into funk for some reason and could not recover; had a reasonably productive day of work, a nice hard ride, and a nice dinner, but nothing helped.  Some days are yellow, some are blue, on different days, I'm different too*

*obscure wisdom from Dr. Suess

Tonight I encountered a sad little scene, not sure why but it struck me.  I'm staying at a nice hotel in Carlsbad which has a "great room", a gathering place for guests, and it includes a TV and DVD player and toys and various other sources of entertainment, including an old bookcase filled with old books.  There they are, hundreds of little worlds - novels, nonfiction, mystery, romance, adventure, science fiction - sitting lonely, waiting to be appreciated.  For some reason it caught my eye, and I wondered: Who anymore has the time, the patience, the inclination to grab a book, sit down, and start reading?  If pressed I would say reading beachside or poolside or just in my living room is one of my favorite things, yet I do it rarely; most of my reading is done in bed, on my way to sleep, or as accompaniment to dinner when I'm traveling alone.  I don't know why but I find that quite sad. 

Onward!

Sarah Palin says she is not a quitter.  This, right after she resigned as governor of Alaska with over a year left on her term.  I believe she is descending into farce.  The sooner she leaves the public stage the better. 

Meg Whitman, rumored to be running for governor of California: "We do not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem of epic proportions."  Indeed.  Unfortunately the governor has little power over that spending... 

According to MSN, 50% more people watched Michael Jackson's funeral today than watched Barack Obama's inauguration.  And now tell me again that we're not descending into Idiocracy? 

Sean Bonner: Remember when CNN actually covered news?  Ouch. 

Richard Feynman explains how trains stay on their tracks.  It isn't what you think.  Can I just say that I love Richard Feynman?  Wow, what a wonderful fantastic intellect... 

I'm linking this just 'cause I love the headline: In space, no one can hear you blog.  "A new way of communicating with the International Space Station could lead to space's very own Internet."  I can't let you do that, Dave. 

I'm linking this just 'cause I love the picture: Sandia Labs' new SunCatcher power system resembles Magritte painting.  Aka, 'this is not a sky'. 

Oh goody: Technorati to unveil Twitterrati tomorrow.  The world waits with bated breath.  I on the other hand, yawn. 

You could definitely see this coming: the Chrome OS, a Linux distro that does little besides running the Chrome browser.  Will there even be a Windows 8? 

Optical illusion of the day / week / month / year; yes, the "blue" and the "green" in this picture are actually the same exact color.  It seems impossible, and yet...  Photoshop confirms the truth.  This illusion comes about because there are pink stripes in the "blue" and orange stripes in the "green".  Wow.  [ via Kottke ]