OPEN SOURCE IMAGE PROCESSING: “While ESA slowly releases images from Huygens, full collections of Huygens imagery have already been processed and refined well beyond anything ESA has done – and you can download them yourself.”

I HAVEN’T READ MALCOLM GLADWELL’S NEW BOOK, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, but here’s a blog review by someone who has.

UPDATE: More reviews, by David Brooks and Richard Posner. (Via Oxblog).

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here from Ann Althouse.

DEVELOPERS ARE BUILDING UNDERGROUND extensively, but not paying enough attention to potential disasters. It usually takes a large, multiple-fatality accident to wake people up. I hope that’s not true here, too.

UNSCAM UPDATE:

Kofi Annan was once known as the “Teflon secretary general” of the United Nations, because nothing bad seemed to stick to him. But that was then. These days, pretty much everything seems to be sticking to the 66-year-old Ghanaian diplomat.

For Annan, 2004 devolved into what he called an ” annus horribilis .” No fewer than eight investigations were initiated into corruption allegations within the U.N.’s former “oil-for-food” program in Iraq. Among those stung by the allegations was Annan’s son Kojo, who was paid by a Swiss firm that held a U.N. food contract. Some in Congress called on Annan to resign. At the same time, tensions with President Bush grew over the U.N.’s reluctance to play a larger role in Iraq and over U.S. assertions that Annan was meddling in American politics. U.N. diplomats felt Bush allowed Annan to twist in the wind before reaffirming administration support in December. U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, meanwhile, were accused of raping young women. And back at headquarters, U.N. staffers were enraged over Annan’s purportedly dismissive handling of misconduct allegations against his senior aides.

He’s under fire for his handling of the tsunami, too. And don’t miss this story on UNScam, claiming that it’s about to come to a boil.

BUSH: Not that interested in the Federal Marriage Amendment.

I hate to say “I told you so,” but — Oh, who am I kidding? Like every other blogger, I love to say “I told you so!” — well, I did:

William Kelly objects that Bush’s support for the Federal Marriage Amendment isn’t “vague.” He’s right. A better term would be “lukewarm.” He’s said he’s for it, but he hasn’t exactly pushed it. Kind of like, to pick one of my issues, his support for a renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban, which was equally pro forma. In both cases, I think he’s wrong, and he’s pandering — to different constituencies, of course — but it’s awfully weak pandering, and thus not worth getting too excited about.

And so it is, and so it was.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg is doing the I-told-you-so dance on the assault weapons ban.

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, a contrary view here: “I just see it as waiting for the right time.”

I HOPE THAT THIS IS TRUE:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets, The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.

The article, by award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, said the secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites.

On the other hand, the source is somewhat dubious.

UPDATE: Charles Johnson:

I’m no longer surprised that journalists lack an internal regulatory mechanism (sometimes called “ethics” or another quaint old-fashioned term that no longer applies, “patriotism”) to prevent the release of information that could damage their own country. On the contrary, they actively search for that information and release it with great relish.

But it’s discouraging that our government apparently lacks the will to prosecute leaks like this as some form of treason or sedition. Hersh is only doing what a mainstream journalist in the 21st century does—feeding off the bottom—but the ones who are really to blame are the consultants and intelligence officials who talk to him.

Indeed. And where is the journalistic outrage that accompanied the Plame story?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Forget outrage, writes reader Matt Whitney: “Where are the prosecutions?”

SOME EXCELLENT PHOTOS FROM AFGHANISTAN, by photographers Keirón Allen and Rupert Edis.

LANCE FRIZZELL: “Just in case anyone from the UN is reading, here’s what helping people looks like.”

TIM “DON’T HATE ME BECAUSE I’M BEAUTIFUL” BLAIR offers an amusing critique of David Von Drehle’s redstate report. It’s not quite Lileks’ Olive Garden Fisking (what is?) but it’s pretty funny.

And, really, take a look at this picture: could anyone hate Tim because he’s beautiful?

UPDATE: Patrick Ruffini has more thoughts on the Von Drehle piece, in a more serious vein.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Michael Sullivan sends a lengthy email. Click “read more” to read it. And there are more comments here, from Ginny.

(more…)

BILL QUICK pronounces his group-blog conversion a success. I liked InstaPundit’s group-blog interval, too, though reader reaction was mixed.

UNSCAM UPDATE: According to U.S. News, the oil-for-food scandal is “about to come to full boil.”

MY COLLEAGUE JOAN HEMINWAY is guest-blogging over at The Conglomerate.

Hey, she’s not just my colleague — she’s Bainbridge-approved!

MUSIC UPDATE: A while back, I mentioned that I didn’t like Joey Kingpin’s Stereo Thriller as much as his earlier album A Beat Down in Hell Town. But I have to say that I’ve had ’em both on the iPod (they’re good workout tunes) and while I don’t like A Beat Down any less, I’ve come to like Stereo Thriller a lot more. Maybe it’s the headphones.

DAVID HOGBERG writes that Social Security reform is a done deal. “Am I being too bold in my prediction? Maybe. But when your recent track record is so damn good, you can afford to be.”

He’s certainly laid down a marker.

HERE’S A REPORT from the comfy-chair revolution’s fast-moving front lines:

Co-founded by graphic designer Mike Matas and programmer Wil Shipley, the company’s first title, Delicious Library, was launched in November 2004. It generated $250,000 worth of sales in its first month, and the company has a crowded, popular booth here at Macworld.

But its four main employees meet every day at the popular Zoka coffee shop in Seattle’s university district.

“It’s cheap rent and a fun environment,” said Matas. “We go down there every day with our laptops and work. It’s an incredible place. They have two or three of the top baristas in the country (the awards are on the wall). We pay our rent by buying coffee…. They love us. We’re some of their best customers.”

As well as creamy lattes, the coffee shop offers wireless internet access and big, bench-like tables that several people can gather around. Often, Delicious Monster’s entire seven-person staff will work there.

There’s a lot of this going on, I think.

UPDATE: Greg Piper notes that the revolution has its costs. Hey, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs!

HEH. Indeed.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, RatherBiased.com has a transcript and video of the Saturday Night Live skit lampooning Dan Rather.

LAW PROFESSOR KENNETH ANDERSON writes that The Washington Post doesn’t understand the Geneva Conventions, and says that the Post makes a crucial error in today’s editorial:

My guess is that the editorial writers have never actually read the relevant article of the conventions, but instead have simply relied on press releases from various rights groups that tell the WaPo what it wants to hear. . . .

The point, then, is that the Post editorial repeats a error oft-heard across MSM, that by failing to provide individualized hearings, the US is in violation of the Geneva Conventions. As a policy matter, and indeed as a matter of basic fairness, it should do so. As a matter of international law, that, I’m afraid, amounts to a MSM urban legend.

I can’t say I find this surprising. Anderson is quite critical of the Bush Administration’s stance as a matter of policy, but notes that it is nonetheless not a violation. In too many minds, however, the Conventions are simply a wish-fulfillment tool, or a slogan.

UPDATE: Read this post, too.

JOHN COLE: “A much as it pains me to say this, I think that Kos and company are not being treated fairly regarding this Dean payment nonsense.”

UPDATE: Chris Nolan has more thoughts on what’s going on.

HERE’S A ROUNDUP OF EDUCATION-BLOGGERS. That’s a topic that I don’t address much, but it’s important nonetheless. Hey, I can’t cover everything!

And Mickey Kaus notes some interesting education developments in California, linking this column by Susan Estrich.

AS LONGTIME READERS KNOW, I’m a huge fan of Gilligan’s Island. (The real Gilligan’s Island, that is, though I honor the latter-day imitators appropriately). But it seems to me that Mr. Sun has veered off into obsession.

THE NEW TIME POLL has some good news for Bush:

President Bush’s approval rating has risen to 53%, according to the latest TIME poll conducted January 12 and 13. His approval rating is up 4 points from his Dec. 13-14 approval rating of 49%. The President’s approval numbers have improved across a variety of issues, including his handling of the economy (51% approve, up from 40% approve in September), his handling of the situation in Iraq (45% approve, up from 41% approval in September), and his handling of the war on terrorism (56% approve, up from 49% in September).

Numbers on Social Security reform, however, are not as good: “When asked if they favor President Bush’s plan to allow people to invest part of their social security payroll tax in stocks and bonds, 47% oppose the plan while 44% support it.” Then again, these may well be high by historical standards.

Meanwhile, Jason van Steenwyk notes a poll that hasn’t gotten much attention — an Army Times poll of the troops:

The Army Times has published the results of the latest survey of Army Times subscribers, more than 2/3rds of whom are on active duty.

Here are the highlights:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Pres. Bush is handling the situation in Iraq?

Approve: 63%
Disapprove: 20%
No opinion: 8%
Declined to answer: 9%

Notably, Bush’s approval ratings on the war have increased substantially among this group, rising from 56% in 2003 to 63% in 2004.

Apparently, they think things are going better than the news reports would have us believe. Jason also notes that almost nobody reported this poll.

UPDATE: Matt Rustler is critical of the Army Times poll, but I suspect that it would have gotten more attention had it gone the other way.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Trent Telenko has more thoughts on the Army Times poll, and on war reporting generally.

MORE: Jason van Steenwyk responds to Rustler, noting that the survey results match a broader Annenberg study, and observes:

One can kvetch about the methodology. But there’s no getting around the yawning chasm between the way the war is perceived by those fighting it and those watching it on TV.

It does seem that way.

SOME INTERESTING demographic debunking.

“I MADE AN INDIAN GIRL CRY — YOU CAN DO IT TOO!” The Times of India looks at racism in the anti-outsourcing movement. (Via Amit Varma). A reader wonders if any of these people are involved.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

N.Z. BEAR is asking for help with an Apache/PHP problem.