Just hanging out in a Marie Calendar's in Merced, driving to Bear Valley for the Death Ride, and thought I'd make a quick filter pass...

Today's technology for being "on the road" is quite amazing; today while driving I was monitoring events via my trusty Palm Pre, email and texts and voice, and a couple of times pulled off into a truck stop to eat and work.  Managed to get some important stuff done interleaved with making progress.  (And almost managed to get a haircut :)  On the road...

I am curiously unprepared mentally for the Death Ride tomorrow... you would think proper psychological preparation for such a nasty ride is essential - 130 miles and 18,000', spread over five mountain passes over 8,000' each - and you would be right.  Maybe it's that I have so much else going on in my life at the moment, or maybe it's because I've done this two years previously, and so I know what I'm in for...  we'll see how it goes! 

Tomorrow is a big day in the Tour de France, and also in the World Cup, with the third place game between Germany and Uruguay.  I'd have to pick Germany to win - they looked great until their loss to Spain - but I'm going to be rooting for Uruguay as the underdogs... 

Have you been following Paul the prognosticating octopus?  He's picking Germany tomorrow, and also Spain to win the World Cup final Sunday.  Stay tuned :) 

Related: BoingBoing notes the end of science reporting at CNN.  Of course many of us have felt CNN stopped reporting period some time ago...

Here's a helpful article: The best South African wines to drink while watching the World Cup.  I will be driving tomorrow night so I will not partake; but maybe for the final on Sunday... 

Evolution in action?  Two new fish species found walking at the site of the Gulf oil spill.  They are called pancake batfish, by the way, how great is that? 

Scott "Dilbert" Adams continues his string of thought-provoking posts as he considers Problems.  "I like problems. Where there are problems there are opportunities...  Please answer any one of these:  What problem does your company's product try to solve?  What is the biggest problem for people in your profession?  What is the biggest problem in your industry?  What is the biggest problem/constraint in your current project?"  Great stuff. 

Facebook have killed their gift shop, apparently a $100M baby.  You might be thinking the same as me, what, Facebook had a gift shop?  Who knew?  Virtual gifts? 

Here's a great question for me, while a on a long drive: What's the fastest you've driven?  I'll give you my answer on Sunday :)