Today Shirley and I both received nice things in the mail - she got some beautiful serving bowls, and I got a half-case of great wine.  These things were similar in that they were both Italian, not French.  Shirley has given up ordering French bowls, and I've given up ordering French wine.  No loss.

{By the way, thanks Ottmar for recommending Castello dei Rampolla Sammarco.  It was terrific!}

So, what's happening?  Well...

So what did you think of Bush's speech?  Do you think we should spend another $87B to fight terrorism?  My thoughts - we have to.  Next Thursday is the second anniversary of 9/11, and that cost a lot, in lives as well as money.  We can't afford to be passive.

Quote of the Day, from Winston Churchill:  "I see it said that leaders should keep their ears to the ground.  All I can say is that the British nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are detected in that somewhat ungainly posture."

In the wake of Mahmoud Abbas' resignation and an escalation of violence by both Israelis and Palestinians, the WP says "Ditch the Road Map, Just Get There, Already."  Interesting suggestions.  [ via Tim Bray, who also posted The Road Map itself ]

This is excellent: Glenn Sacks on The Daddy Tax.  [ via Glenn Reynolds ]

I'm sure you saw this - today Apple announced new iMac models, and larger iPods.  40GB for music?  Well, maybe.  But 40GB for video?  Yeah, baby!  You know that's where they're going...

Speaking of where Apple is going, the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) just sold its 10 millionth song.  (Appropriately, it was "Complicated", by Avril Lavigne.)  Considering iTMS is only for Mac users at the moment, that's quite a milestone.

Tabula PC: Why Apple is Cool and the Tablet PC is Not.  "Right now, the majority of Tablet PCs are downright fugly."  I'm not sure they nail the "why", but they definitely nail the "what".  Tablet PCs are not cool and I don't know why.  Someday someone will make a cool Tablet - maybe Apple - and we'll all look at it and say "oooh, coool!".

Sony just announced a camcorder which burns video direct to DVD.  It looks a bit big.  I'm not sure this is the technology combination of the future.

The future of cell phones, as envisioned by various manufacturers.  They all seem to involve video, that's clearly the Next Big Thing.  Excellent!

Spaceflight Now has a story about a NASA program to develop a supersonic jet which doesn't cause sonic booms.  "The team was confident the design would work, but field measurements of sonic booms are notoriously difficult.  We were all blown away by the clarity of what we measured."  Now that's cool.

Hey, Google loves me!  For some reason, the number of search hits I've gotten today is about three times higher than average.  It started with the weird "Arnold Oui" thing (I am still the #1 result if you search for "Arnold Oui"), but now all sorts of stuff is pointing to me.  Whatever!