HOW TO UPDATE YOUR Blu-Ray and HD-DVD firmware.

THOUGHTS ON THE TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Monica Lewinsky affair. Would anybody have thought, then, that Bill Clinton would still be wagging his finger for the 2008 elections? Plus this: “Events raise the question, if Hillary’s campaign can’t control Bill, whether Hillary’s White House could.”

MICHAEL GRAHAM SAYS THAT IF OBAMA WINS S.C., he’ll wind up losing.

That would have to disappoint Obama’s future attorney general . . . John Edwards?

THE SOUTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY: A huge roundup by Pajamas Media, which will be updated as the day goes on.

THE TESLA ROADSTER is now street-legal.

THE EVER-EXPANDING pickup truck logo.

DIGITAL CAMERAS GALORE: Gizmodo’s coverage of the 2008 PMA show.

A NEW TREND IN CAR DESIGN: Vanishing ashtrays and cigarette lighters.

GETTING PAID for losing weight.

HMM: “The newly launched Knoxville startup aims to be a family-friendly Web site by allowing users to block their accounts’ access to books. If enough customers are blocking a certain book, Abunga.com removes it from the site entirely.”

Can’t say I’d want to shop there, but for those who don’t like it there’s always Amazon.

A NEW TV AD FROM THE MARINES:

SINCE PEOPLE LIKED THE FLASHLIGHT-BLOGGING OF A WHILE AGO, I guess I should mention this. “Not intrinsically safe.”

OBAMA’S PROBLEM with white women. Is Oprah the cure? Not so far.

SHOW AND TELL FOR RICH UNIVERSITIES: “Now that the Senate finance committee has requested – the New York Times said ‘demanded’ – that the nation’s wealthiest colleges and universities supply detailed information about their endowments and financial practices, it seems clear that college cost is emerging as a long-running, popular and bipartisan issue.” One might ask why this is any of Congress’s business, but universities are, at this point, in a poor position to raise such objections.

OUCH: “Here’s how to deal with a recession: A federal government which is already spending more than its income should borrow even more money, so as to give lots of people a tax rebate. This is the bipartisan plan of President Bush and Congress. They are taking a leaf from the presidency of Jimmy Carter. . . . But the 2008 tax rebate brings us full circle back to 1980, as the final year of the Bush administration increasingly resembles the final year of the Carter administration– including national malaise, getting tough on Israel but not on Palestinian terrorists, support for the DC handgun ban, the Olympics hosted by a communist regime with contempt for human rights, and a consensus that the current adminstration is lacking in competence.” I guess it’s Sucking in the Seventies: The Sequel. Oh, goody.

THE SWIFT VETS: Hollywood’s greatest CGI triumph?

CYBERWARFARE in international law.

THE THREE POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE PIGS: What’s amazing is how people are willing to make fools of themselves to avoid imaginary offense. Nobody worries that much about offending me.

CARVILLE AND BEGALA BOOTED FROM CNN due to complaints from Obama? “One wonders as well what’s going to happen in the general election if Hillary Clinton is the nominee…will CNN continue to ban Carville, Begala, and Zimmerman so that they can’t play shenanigans against the Republican candidate?”

FROM KOSOVO TO COLD WAR:

The Kosovo war isn’t over. At the moment, Serbian ballots take precedence over bullets; democratic electoral politics are a blessing in Serbia and Kosovo, just like they are in Iraq.

But make no mistake: Sunday’s first-round 2008 presidential vote in Serbia was another battle in the Kosovo War, and it will not be the last. . . . The process has brought Vladimir Putin’s muscular Kremlin into open conflict with Germany, Great Britain, France and the United States.

Read the whole thing. And somebody should ask Bill Clinton if this is all according to plan.

GOVERNMENT: AN ITALIAN PERSPECTIVE:

ME: There’s no government?

Barman: Right.

ME: So what are we going to do?

Barman: God willing it’ll last until January and we won’t pay taxes…

But how likely is that, ever?

A WAVE OF SOCIALISM IN LATIN AMERICA? Not so much, says Raphael Rosen.

MCCAIN-FEINGOLD: No barrier to endless spending on commercials attacking Bill Clinton!

A PETITION TO SUPPORT CUBAN DISSIDENTS, from Lech Walesa.

WELL, THIS IS COMFORTING: “At the current rate of progress, Chinese military technology will match that of the United States in a decade or so.”