Good morning!  I slept for 10 hours last night, crashed while watching a football game, and didn't move one muscle after that.  Guess I needed it...  anyways it is a beautiful day, albeit a little windy; a good day for de-Holiday-ifying; the lights are coming off the house, the tree is being un-decorated and dragged to the curb, and my todo lists are being updated.  Fortunately I have *energy* coming out of the 200K yesterday.  Still buzzed and happy.  Ultracycling isn't for everyone but I must tell you it has a definite magic; there's the physical exercise of course but also the mental flossing, and the feeling you have about yourself and the world after you finish a long ride cannot be matched...

So what do you think, will 2010 be better than 2009?  Instapundit is running a poll, and right now "worse" is winning, 40% to 28%...  that surprises me, people are usually optimists even when they don't have reason to be.  I suspect Obama's steep fall from grace is a factor.  Personally I think 2010 will be better, for undefined reasons... 

Some weird looking ahead: TechCrunch predicts the top ten digital M&A deals in 2010.  I don't see some of these at all; Cisco acquiring LinkedIn? 

Why tending topics are spectacularly useless.  And by implication, why "realtime search" results from Twitter are a fad.  I *still* don't get it, I'm trying, honestly I am, but everytime I try to read Tweets from anyone my brain turns to mush.  BTW as Facebook becomes more like Twitter, it is becoming less interesting.  Have you noticed this too? 

Cool space story of the decade: Mars rovers begin year seven on red planet.  Who knows, maybe they'll be the cool space story of the next decade, too.  In addition to being cool, they've been useful; here's a nice overview of what we have learned from the Mars Rover missions. 

Okay, enough blogging around; time to start the new year!