THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED from the weekend: A free trip to space via FreeSpaceShot.com, the new Books For Kids Blog, with lots of book recommendations for everything from young kids to teenagers, and another U.N. scandal.

STOP THE PRESSES: Hillary says she’ll win.

A DRAFT FRED THOMPSON SITE.

THE NIKON 18-200 VR LENS: Ken Rockwell loves his. I’d be interested, but they’re pretty hard to get.

UPDATE: Rick Lee has one, loves it, and posts some photos and a review. He emails: “It’s like a miracle. Mind you, this is the first VR lens I’ve owned so it’s all new to me, even though this isn’t really new technology. That VR (vibration reduction) stuff works. Plain and simple, you can shoot at much lower shutter speeds than usual and the pictures look like you used a tripod. I’m glad to have a lens that’s this good with such a wide focal length range. Before, I was constantly switching between my 12-24mm and my 24-85mm and my 70-300mm. 12mm is really wide and you don’t need that all the time. 18mm is pretty wide so most jobs I can do with this one lens. ”

He says that it’s easier to get them through actual camera stores than through big retailers like Amazon or BH. Maybe I’ll check the one near me.

SNOWFLAKES: Maybe not as unique as previously thought.

IRAN: Tomatoes up, oil down. Ahmadinejad unhappy. “The price of tomatoes has tripled in the past month in the Iranian capital. Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday proposed cutting the oil price on which the next budget is based to protect Iran from ‘enemies’ trying to hurt the economy by lowering international crude prices.”

ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, NEVER OUTGUNNED: Today’s New York Times has five letters responding to my column from earlier this week. Not surprisingly, most disagree, and Robert Spitzer accuses me of fomenting “vigilantism.” I guess he means something like this from Schenectady:

Ralph Schulenburg Sr. feared if he didn’t take action, the two armed intruders would kill everyone inside his Division Street home.

The pair, he said, made no attempt to hide their faces, and one of them even boldly gave his name as “Charlie” when one of Schulenburg’s sons asked.

“I wasn’t about to just sit there,” Schulenburg, 50, said Saturday as he recounted the events that played out inside 421 Division St. on Friday afternoon.

But he said it was his son, Ralph Schulenburg Jr., 23, who grabbed an old Mauser rifle and shot the intruders during a fierce gunbattle.

Aaron Peavy, 21, of Albany, was shot in the heart and killed. His alleged accomplice, Charles E. Little III, 20, of Troy, was shot in the left hand and lost at least one finger. It was the fourth time since early December that alleged intruders have been shot inside homes they targeted in Schenectady.

I can live with this kind of vigilantism. Home invaders, not so much. As for the Harvard research, well, I’m always skeptical of “public health” research on guns, for good reason, and I’ve noted the funding source here. It’s not necessarily unethical, but I can only imagine the outcry if the NRA were sponsoring research of this sort. (Thanks to reader Chris O’Brien for the Schenectady story).

MORE CRITICISM FOR BUSH, from disappointed hawks who think he should be doing more.

UPDATE: If the Republicans lose Hugh Hewitt, who’s left?

ANOTHER UPDATE: At Captain’s Journal, more criticism of the Rules of Engagement.

CHINA MILITARIZES SPACE: StrategyPage looks at the space debris problem:

While China has now demonstrated its ability to destroy satellites (at the cost of a launcher and a maneuverable KillSat), it has also caused a major stink among the dozens of nations that own, or use (usually via leasing arrangements) the several hundred satellites in orbit. That’s because this Chinese test increased the amount of dangerous space debris by about eight percent. That’s a lot. By common agreement, nations that put up satellites, include the capability for the bird, once it has reached the end of its useful life, will slowly move closer to earth, until it burns up as it enters the thicker atmosphere. This approach leaves no debris, which can collide with other satellites, behind. Even a small piece of satellite debris can, when hitting another satellite at high speed, destroy, or fatally damage, it.

That’s a short-term PR problem. Over the longer term, if the ASAT weapon really works, China has an advantage, of course, in that the United States is far more dependent on satellites than, well, anyone else, making us more vulnerable to an asymmetric attack. I’ve had some thoughts on space weaponry here and here.

BLOGROLL UPDATE: With some help from reader David Milam, the blogroll has been updated, purged of bad links, etc. If I accidentally deleted your blog and it’s not dead, let me know.

PAKISTAN: Not so friendly.

I like what I’m hearing about Azerbaijan, though.

And here’s more news from Afghanistan, courtesy of Major John Tammes.

MOHAMMED FADHIL reports on the surge. “From where I sit in Baghdad I see clearly that those who talk about last chances are in fact rushing failure in Iraq. What they wish to do is to set up a very high bar that is technically impossible jump over within a few months or even a year. Instead we need to identify what we really want to accomplish and can realistically accomplish through this plan. Total victory over militias and terrorists is a fantasy, and there are several examples of advanced nations that still suffer from persistent armed factions as in Spain or even the UK.”

DANNY GLOVER’S AIRCONGRESS has all the video announcements from all the Presidential candidates over the past week, available for your perusal.

And Glover emails: “One thing is certain from all of the activity: Democrats are winning the race online. Their use of technology is much more innovative, and it’s evidence of an Internet-friendly strategy partywide.”

HILLARY CLINTON AS MARGARET THATCHER? Professor Bainbridge says not so fast!

IN THE MAIL: David Clary’s new book, Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution.

FACT-CHECKING THE AP AND JAMIL HUSSEIN: Michelle Malkin has photos from Iraq.

She’s also got a column in the New York Post where she reports: “The Sunni mosques that as Hussein claimed and AP reported as ‘destroyed,’ ‘torched’ and ‘burned and [blown] up’ are all still standing. So the credibility of every AP story relying on Jamil Hussein remains dubious.” That’s what the photos are about.

UPDATE: More AP problems here.

THE LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION now has a blog.

DAN RIEHL ON RELIABLE SOURCES: Allah has the video.

DUKE (NON) RAPE UPDATE: K.C. Johnson posts a Sunday roundup on this continuing disgrace.

AUDIO/VIDEO QUALITY ON WINDOWS VISTA: Microsoft responds to critics, but judging from the comments, the critics aren’t satisfied.

I’m in no hurry to upgrade, especially after reading this (I don’t like the whole gadgets-as-tyrants paradigm), but what’s interesting about Vista’s reduced quality for protected commercial content is that it appears it will make the quality of unprotected amateur video, etc., noticeably better than the big-media stuff with copy protection. My big worry about Vista was that its copy-protection schemes would make producing my own content harder. Maybe they will, I’m not sure, but it seems pretty clear that the end result of all this copy protection will actually be a quality advantage, from the viewer’s perspective, on the part of unprotected content. Now you’ll be able to tell the “professional” product because it looks worse than amateur products. That’s hilarious. And with things like Sony’s new HD network that’s open to amateur content, this may make a big difference in what people watch, especially as I note that once you get an HDTV you become much more sensitive to issues of video quality. So perhaps all the fancy HDTVs people are buying will be showing homemade video because it looks better. Maybe this is all a clever Microsoft plan to take Hollywood down, all while appearing to do its bidding . . . .

UPDATE: Reader David Aldridge emails:

Your point that user-generated content will be the only true HD content available on Windows Vista is interesting, but I think misses the larger issue: the stark demarcation that will arise between legal vs. pirated movies. On Windows Vista, the only way to get true HD movie and TV content from your $2000 home-theater PC will be to download illegal pirated content!

I cannot believe Microsoft/Hollywood haven’t seen this coming – it’s not like pirated movie downloads are an unknown problem; they’re ~35% of all internet traffic. HD content is an increasing portion of that. Blu-Ray and HDDVD protection schemes are likely to be completely broken in a matter of months, and once that happens, the various crippled features in Vista will only affect one type of user – the law-abiding ones who would never pirate a movie. Those users will suffer, while the pirates will party on. What’s the point, Microsoft?

I think it’s all an insidiously clever plan.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More thoughts here:

From my point of view and, I think, that of many other consumers, the issue isn’t whether the delivered resolution is better than a standard DVD. It’s whether the delivered resolution is what we expect it to be when the format promises an HD image.

Yes. It may be that to Microsoft a less-than-HD image can still provide “a great user experience,” but as always the question is “compared to what?” Compared to true HD, not so great — and that’s the comparison people will be making. Meanwhile, reader Charlie Nixon emails:

Though I’ve been reading your site for years, this is the first time I’ve ever felt compelled to write in. I’ve got a lot of experience with all type of Digital Media players. I’ve used most of the Media Center software out there, and except for the xbox media center (xbmc), Microsoft’s Media Center is definitely the best out there. This harping about DRM is just classic Microsoft-bashing. People are going to want view protected HD content through their computers. Microsoft is constrained by the law to follow the DRM restrictions associated with the HD technologies. They don’t go one step beyond what’s required by the blu-ray or HD-DVD or Cablecard spec. What was Microsoft supposed to do? Not offer HD playback? Allow illegal playback of content? Somehow “force” content producers to back down from DRM? None of those scenarios are reasonable or likely.The fact is DRM is here to stay. Instead of hysterically insisting that all media be DRM-free, perhaps we should focus on building a consensus of what a reasonable DRM scheme would look like.

Content creators dictate the DRM schemes. Our lawmakers are responsible for passing anti-consumer laws. Consumers should take responsibility for buying DRM-laced content. Player manufacturers (Microsoft) are simply hamstrung by a confluence of the law and consumer demands. Consumers who don’t like the DRM included with Windows Vista have a cheap, trivially easy solution: don’t buy media that requires DRM. (For additional points, write them and let them know why you’re boycotting their products.) The content companies are the “bad guys” here, not the player manufacturers.

Er, okay, but then don’t call it a “great user experience.” And, actually, if Microsoft didn’t support HD content because of crippling DRM, it might well have influence.

RENT A DEMONSTRATOR — you can even do it online! (Via Kaus.)

RON ROSENBAUM: I like Hillary because she’s mean.

I think that’s what Jack Balkin was getting at.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn is unpersuaded: “I yield to no-one in my respect for the Clintons’ ruthless brutal demolition of Newt, and that guy who succeeded Newt for 20 minutes, and Gennifer and Kathleen and all the rest. But there’s no evidence to suggest either Clinton has any interest in applying these techniques to tougher adversaries beyond these shores.” Hmm. Well, Hillary has been pretty good on the war — she’s gotten wimpier of late as a matter of political positioning, but less so than, say, Chuck Hagel.

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, Saturday Night Live is ripping her.

DON SURBER ON ROBERT BYRD AND PORK:

Seeing a federal judge sentence Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., to eight years in prison may have sobered some people up. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion for accepting $2.4 million in bribes for steering defense contracts to MZM Inc.

And the bloggers on the Internet, led by Daily Kos on the left and Instapundit on the right, are demanding better transparency on the budget. It is their money. They want to know where their money goes.

Byrd may be agreeing with them. It is hard to tell.

This week, Byrd made an eloquent defense of secret appropriations by senior senators who are wiser than their colleagues on the spending of the federal dollar.

But he also seemed to say he will change the earmark process.

I’ll always remember Byrd for this speech, but maybe if he does something about earmarks that’ll change. I guess it could happen: Only Nixon could go to China, right? I like this observation, too: “How safe is a seat in Congress? When Democrats lost control of the House in 1994, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., lost his gig as House appropriations chairman. This month, Obey returned as appropriations chairman.”

A LOOK AT BLOGS AND THE ’08 ELECTION:

Kissing babies? Old hat. Shaking hands? How very 20th century. The 2008 campaign is going to be all about blogging, podcasts and YouTube.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton announced they were running on the Internet, following the lead of ex-Sen. John Edwards and ex-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

The road to the White House goes through Cyberspace now.

A recent Pew report found that nearly 20% of voters in the 2004 election relied primarily on the Internet to get their political news. That’s going to soar.

I think that’s right.

NEWS FROM SOMALIA: “The last major warlord to withhold support from Somalia’s government surrendered his weapons and militiamen on Saturday — a boost for a fledgling leadership that still faces threats of guerrilla attacks from the Islamic movement that fled the capital.”