I hope everyone had a good turkey/tofurkey day.

I took the leap. A Fuji Film F810 is being shipped to me. It was pricey ($380) compared to the 550 (same lens and digital chip, 250$ after rebates). But I put a pretty high priority on being able to pocket the camera. The F810 is not as small as my easily pocketed Dimage XT, but I think the gains are worth the extra size (great wide lens, 4x optical zoom, fast startup & focus, AF lamp, 6mp native/12mp interpol, lots of manual options, USB2, and a travel charger). The interesting thing about the camera is that it has a wide screen shooting mode & lcd. Doesn’t make much difference, as it is an internal crop, but it might be nice for visualization.

Interesting news: Paralyzed woman walks again after stem cell therapy

Russian archaeologists have announced that they have found the remains of a 4,000-year-old structure that they compare to England’s Stonehenge.

Your biomimicry of the day: Airplane wings that change shape like a bird’s have scales like a fish

Scientific experiments claiming that distant intercessory prayer produces salubrious effects are deeply flawed

Not sure if this works, but it might be worth a try: iPod – restore and maximize battery life

Hopefully they realized that this idea was insane: Bush denied nuclear bunker-buster funds

More privacy issue super happy fun time: Airlines Cough Up Passenger Data

The US dollar continues to drop. Snow is singing the strong dollar song, but others arent buying it. Some say it will just be higher inflation and interest rates, others are a lot more alarmist.

ZAP got the green light to import the 60-mpg smartcars in U.S. – Smart USA only had plans to sell the SUV version.

The Aireo2 looks pretty snazzy, but I wonder what the battery life will be with the wifi on.

Anna, Pete, Paul, and myself hiked up Iron Mountain in Poway. It was a great hike, and a terrific view from the top. Our bodies did better than expected, as we have been slack on exercising for the past 3 weeks. We will have to try out some more local trails to get up to speed.

Anna and I tried out a lot of the gear we would be wearing and using in Peru; all of it worked quite well. If you find Smartwool stuff on sale, get it. It is heavier than poly tech stuff, but feels nice and doesn’t get stinky. I am really happy with my socks, tshirt and boxers. We both really like the Mountainsmith Ghost and Wraith packs. They are really lightweight and comfortable.

Bush says he stands for a strong dollar, but it is pretty clean that everyone else thinks the US sees a lower dollar as inevitable. It also might bring the Euros in to help negotiate with China over its yuan peg to the dollar. “The truth is that the U.S. fiscal and monetary excesses, which have been essential to keeping the global economy afloat in recent years, are no longer tolerated in the foreign-exchange markets” More at the CS Monitor.

Lately, the drug war has taken a back seat to conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it’s still being fought, and statistically, at least, it’s being won. Yet behind the numbers, the drug war is changing – into a terror war of its own. And the success of that fight is harder to quantify.

Story on Salon: Privatization follies. Halliburton fraud. IRS tax-collection shenanigans. Voting-machine madness. There’s got to be a better way.

Damn, that’s cool: Make your own Altoids mp3 player

Not a user of it myself, but you can force the Google desktop search to check out other file types.

PBS Frontline has an interesting interview with Clotaire Rapaille. He believes all purchasing decisions really lie beyond conscious thinking and emotion and reside at a primal core in human beings – our reptilian core.

Wow. I’m sure I’m late to the party, but I just now stumbled on the art of Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison by way of an article at the CS Monitor. I was fascinated, so I looked up some of their work. I love it all, really great stuff:

I figured it was about time for a quick update on my laser eye surgery: Every once and a while when I am very sleepy, I wake up and wonder where my glasses are. It is a funny feeling, but ultimately something that is nice to experence. Everything seems to be healing quite well. The halos are getting better, and I no longer get ‘over-exposed’ on bright objects (a white shirt in the sun for example). I am slightly better than 20-20 with both eyes, but my right eye still seems weaker. Hopefully that will keep getting better.

My night vision isn’t as good as it was, but time will tell if that is permanent or not. Halos and glare are bigger than when I wore glasses, and as a result I don’t have as much contrast – things like reflective signs are slightly harder to see. My vision is more than enough to drive, I just notice the little things because I had very good night vision with glasses. Must be my enormous pupils.

I am happy with the surgery so far.

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Ugh. The lawsuit also seeks an order declaring the Nov. 2 election illegal, and a third order for a special election pitting the two primary-election survivors – Mayor Dick Murphy and county Supervisor Ron Roberts – against each other. Frye would be barred from participating. Looks like some people are not too happy about Donna Frye & the write-in vote.

Global warming has disrupted the lives of dozens of types of animals, birds and insects in the United States and will soon make the Arctic nearly unrecognizable, according to two reports released this week. And from the BBC: Polar people ‘will need to adapt’

Susan Reimer goes to town:
Apparently, if you are more worried about a Super Bowl halftime show than about the fact that the United States invaded a sovereign nation without provocation, you’ve got values.

If you are more offended by two guys kissing than by the fact that 100,000 Iraqi citizens have died while being liberated, you have values.

And if you care more about a single, fertilized egg in some deep freeze somewhere than about all the children with diabetes and all the grandparents with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, you have values.

If you care more about your exclusive and personal relationship with God than you do about his admonition to care for the poor and the weak, you have values.