Happy New Year!

January 1 began with a (relatively) quiet celebration with friends, which was followed by a bit of sleep and a good breakfast with some of those same friends. After getting home from tlttlotd and lyssabard's place, I got a couple miles of walking in, read a bit, relaxed a bit, fed some poetry to MegaHAL, and generally had a peaceful day. There are worse ways to start a new year.

I haven't decided yet how to spend today. Given how tired I am, there must be napping at some point. It's bright and sunny, though a bit cool at the moment, so it could be a good day for a walk if I can drag myself out of the house.

In the news (feeds)

From Slate: The 10 most outrageous civil liberties violations of 2006. Linked to by rssworldmag with the commentary: "The list ... seems to say Bush is the culprit and anathema to all Enlightenment's work (and the Reformation's). You make the call."

From scienceblog: 10 tips for spicing up your health in 2007. The fact that thyme seems to fight colds interests me, since I have gotten thyme cravings every single time I've had bronchitis.

Did you realize that the Mars rovers Spirit & Opportunity have been on the planet for three years? And according to this link from scienceblog, they keep getting smarter. Nifty!

Also in space news, space_com says This year, China is set to launch its first lunar orbiter, followed by the summer sendoff of a mega-powerful mooncraft from Japan. (By the way, this month the moon is called the Wolf Moon, so feel free to howl.)

From mind_hacks: a little bit on the cognitive neuroscience of music.

NewScientist.com's most popular news stories of 2006, The Weirdest Science Stories of 2006 , The Best Human Nature Stories of 2006, Top Health News of 2006.

I really want to do better at keeping up with the news in 2007.