INSTA-READERS LIKE TO SHOP ONLINE: So far, my holiday shopping poll has had about 2700 responses, and the results indicate that 27% plan to do all or nearly all of their shopping online, 28% plan to do most of their shopping online, and 27% plan to go half-and-half online vs. brick-and-mortar stores. Only 18% plan to do all or most of their shopping in traditional stores.

I’m sure this isn’t anywhere close to typical of shoppers in general, but I wonder how representative it is of blog readers?

ROGER SIMON reviews The Queen.

WHY DOES FLU SPREAD IN THE WINTER?

In a paper scheduled for publication next month in the journal Epidemiology and Infection, a Harvard University-led team proposes that a vitamin D deficiency caused by inadequate winter sun exposure may predispose people to infection.

If this theory proves correct, it would not only solve a long-standing mystery, but could also have major public health consequences.

Influenza kills an average 36,000 people in the U.S. each winter, mostly the very old and very young. If scientists could pinpoint the secret behind its seasonal recurrence and somehow alter it, “the potential impact would be far greater than the current influenza vaccine,” says Dowell. . . . In their new paper, which draws together strands from more than seven decades of vitamin and flu research, Cannell and his colleagues argue that vitamin D stimulates production of a natural infection-fighting substance in the body called cathelicidin.

Although cathelicidin has yet to be studied directly on influenza, recent research has shown that it attacks a variety of fungi, viruses, and bacteria – including the bug that causes tuberculosis, researchers reported last March in Science.

Just to be safe, I think I’ll plan a tropical vacation this winter. And wash down some cod liver oil capsules with a medicinal glass of red wine. Can’t be too careful.

MATT WELCH is underwhelmed by John McCain.

HEH.

MEGAN MCARDLE now has her own cool online store.

But it doesn’t offer subscriptions to The Economist.

“SCORNED AND SHUNNED:” Oh, no.

IT’S THREE, THREE, THREE BLOGS IN ONE — or maybe in three! It’s the new ProfessorBainbridge.com.

DISSING THE TROOPS AGAIN: Charles Rangel pulls a John Kerry, and I don’t think he’ll be able to explain this as a “botched joke.”

Karl Rove’s prayer: Get this guy on TV as much as possible!

DIGITAL CAMERA CARNIVAL, PART THREE: I wasn’t going to do a new installment of this, but people keep sending me stuff! Follow the links for Part One and Part Two if you happened to miss those earlier installments.

Reader Roger Baumgarten emails:

I’m a thrilled owner of the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Have produced amazing pix with this body coupled with the Canon 70-200 f/4L, Tamron 28-75 f/2.8, and my new Canon 85 f/1.8. Here’s a sample gallery, shot hand-held, no flash, ISO 1600!!! The lack of noise at high ISO is astonishing.

For general browsing of my XT photos: www.kodakgallery.com/baumgarten.

Yes, you get much lower noise at high ISO’s with digital SLRs than with pocket cameras, because of the larger sensor sizes and better noise-reduction circuitry.

Jonathan Gewirtz emails:

Once you get that neat new digital camera you will need to organize and edit the many photos that you will make. The right software makes doing this a lot easier. Photoshop is great, but for quick image adjustments, batch editing and organizing, as well as super-easy photo emailing and other features (slideshow making, print ordering), Google’s Picasa is hard to beat. It’s free, very well designed and the latest version allows you (finally!) to use your own directory hierarchy for organizing images. Because Picasa is so easy to use and doesn’t cost anything it’s worth trying even if you already have photo software that you like.

I’ve been meaning to give it a try. I use Photoshop CS for serious editing, and Photoshop Elements — or, on my laptop, the extremely elderly but still adequate Micrografx Picture Publisher — for lighter duty. I haven’t upgraded to the latest Photoshop Elements though. Maybe I should give Picasa a try. You can’t beat free.

Bill Hobbs emails with a question:

I have a Canon Digital Rebel with a 28-135mm image-stabilized zoom that I absolutely love – although I do crave the higher mega-pixel of the 30D.

My question is: My daughter, age 9, wants to start taking pictures, and I’m not wanting to hang my thousand-dollar camera around her neck, what the best point-and-shoot digital camera under $200 or even under $150?

I’d go with the Ken Rockwell-recommended Canon Powershot A530 — at $149 it hits the under-150 price point, and Rockwell loves it.

Reader Andrew K emails:

I was wondering if you are into scuba at all. If so, any recommendations on a decent digital camera and case for underwater photography (down to recreational limits of about 120 ft.)?

I’m very much into scuba, and I generally rent my cameras from Cathy Church’s underwater photo center. You can see some of the stuff they use here. The pictures — and underwater video — for my Popular Mechanics rebreather piece were taken with the housed Olympus. It worked fine.

You can buy underwater housings — mostly designed for particular cameras — from Ikelite and other companies. I’d recommend renting, though, unless you plan to do a lot of photography over an extended period.

Reader Karen Baker emails:

I have a photoblog called Photos by Seawitch.

I’m including a couple of photos. Both of these were taken with my Nikon D50. I’ve been experimenting with a number of the settings to see what works best when. At my blog, the photos are from my HP Photosmart M407 and the Nikon D50. I switched to the Nikon D50 because I wanted to be able to use telephoto and macro lenses. I don’t have a macro lens yet, but very soon. A lot of my shots are of brown pelicans, least terns, and osprey. There’s also a lot that are of the damage done to my hometown of Gulfport and other cities along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I created three videos with some of the pictures I’ve taken.

Link This was done at the start of the hurricane season for 2006. It has before, during, and after shots of Hurricane Katrina

Link I did this one to thank all the volunteers, military, local, state, and federal officials, the utility companies, and the police and fire departments.

Link I did this for the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and it shows the progress that has been made.

The photos are a mix from both cameras and each one is set to music. The are between 4 1/2 to just under 5 minutes long.

I hope you’ll consider watching the videos and possibly linking to my photo blog. I realize you must receive many e-mails.

I sure have gotten a lot here! That’s it for this series, though. I’m carnivalled-out!

IF PEOPLE ARE SO WORRIED ABOUT MITT ROMNEY’S MORMONISM, why aren’t they just as worried about Harry Reid’s?

I’m pretty sure that if Republicans raised questions about Reid, they’d be accused of bigotry.

MARK STEYN looks at demographics and destiny.

AN INTERESTING COMPARISON OF what the BBC thinks is important vs. what its readers think is important.

(Via Jeff Jarvis.)

SOME GRIM MILESTONES are observed: “On a related note, at the current rate the US military death toll will surpass that of the 1.5-year long Mexican War (13283) in another 10 or 12 years or so.”

MILITARY RECRUITING: John McIntyre notes sloppiness and inaccuracy on the part of Paul Campos. For some people, it’s always 1968.

A LOOK AT ONE OF MIKE BLOOMBERG’S ANTI-GUN MAYORS: Jeez.

MORE INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN ANBAR, where the U.S. and local tribes seem to be going after Al Qaeda pretty hard all of a sudden.

JEEZ: “They’re here, they’re fat, and they want a department devoted to them.”

UPDATE: Tom Elia: “What if you’re not only fat, but also short and bald with a big nose? Do people like me get three academic departments, or one special, blended one?”

GATEWAY PUNDIT has a roundup on those massive anti-Chavez marches in Caracas.

Plus, here’s video from Venezuela News and Views, and more photos. Estimates are over a million people; such estimates are always iffy, of course, but these photos show a huge number of marchers.

MORE ON THE LONDON POISONING INCIDENT: Tom Maguire has a roundup.

MARK IN MEXICO continues to report on events in Oaxaca.

YOUTUBE joins the drug war.

ANOTHER WRONG-HOUSE NO-KNOCK RAID. Something needs to be done.

ANTISEMITISM AND DENIAL in Paris.

A BIT OF GOOD NEWS:

The Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar, the oldest and most highly respected institution in Sunni Islam; and the Grand Mufti of Egypt have released an official fatwa declaring the practice of female circumcision (also called female genital mutilation or female genital cutting) un-Islamic. The decision was made at a conference hosted in Egypt and attended by Muslim clergy from around the world.

Sadly, this counts as progress. But, you know, it does count as progress.