But correspondents say the ruling is unlikely to have an impact on the use by law enforcement agencies of another surveillance method, mobile phone tracking software.

Which, really, is way more scary than vehicle tracking.

We’re not talking about one of those “RIAA sues deaf Buddhist nun in monastery with no electricity for $9.8 million” cases here. And while I don’t doubt that thousands of legitimate users of Megaupload are genuinely shafted by this outcome, if the best restaurant in town turns out to be a mob front, hundreds of innocent diners are going to be denied that terrific Penne Arrabiata. So it goes.

I must admit, my initial reaction to the Megaupload shut down was that of slight outrage and "down with The Man"-itis.

But after taking a deep breath and thinking about it for a minute, it's pretty clear that these guys got what they deserved.

And look at it this way: if the copyright holders can shut down these sites now, then why do they need SOPA/PIPA?

It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

Such a striking article, especially considering one of my close friends came very close to death not too long ago. If it came down to it, I'd rather be in a hospice situation than be stuck in an ICU until and die a long, painful, costly death (or live a long, painful, costly life).

Chris Lundstrom is the single person most responsible for getting me across the finish line at my first marathon in the time I did. I have such a great respect for the man, and this post of his summing up his final professional race is a must-read for any distance runner.

Pretty sure this quote is a new personal favorite:

Fear? The marathon should be feared.

[T]here are no guarantees in life.  Our cup may not always runneth over.  If the time ever comes when you need to summon the hunter-gatherer spirit inside of you, it is important that you know a few basic skills.  One of those skills is how to field dress wild game.

I would never do this to a squirrel that I found within a 30 mile radius of my house.

But I'm always interested in learning new survival skills and hey, you never know when you'll need to capture and cook a squirrel.

(Note: this article contains some pretty gruesome photos of hacked-up animals, so yeah, don't read if you're eating or at work or anything)

Colbert’s super PAC is in a way an extended improvisation with no end in sight. It just keeps adding new layers. Why does he have a super PAC? Because he can and because it’s funny.

The entire article is a great biography of Stephen Colbert, but the part I loved the most was this bit about his super PAC. I'm glad somebody is doing something like that, both because it's good to have the inner workings of the political system exposed, and also because it's funny.

I always thought weight loss was hard because I’d witnessed people throw themselves at it hardcore and then fail just as hard. In contrast, I chose an easy, long-term, data-driven plan and stuck with it. Small changes over a long time make a big difference.

Chad Austin used The Hacker's Diet, which says if you eat 500 calories a day less than you burn, you'll lose one pound a week. Aggregate that over a few months and it seems like doing this diet is a real no-brainer.

I have my e-mail server configured here to combine e-mails sent from any address I choose @timbornholdt.com to be lumped into one main inbox.

This method may not have many advantages over one main e-mail (in fact, it's probably just overkill), but my primary reason for doing this is to allow specific companies access to only one e-mail address.

For example, my e-mail address on file with Best Buy is bestbuy@timbornholdt . com.

My e-mail address on file with the Minnesota Historical Society is mnhs@timbornholdt . com

By doing this, I can simply deny all e-mails sent to a specific address if I'm getting spammed or I can mark all e-mails sent to that address as read and auto-file them. I'm also making sure that any e-mail sent to my main personal e-mail on Gmail is actually important.

Plus, I think it's funny to sign up in stores and give my e-mail address as "cvs @timbornholdt . com."

But while I do have a personal @timbornholdt.com address, I almost always list my Gmail account for all my "important" accounts (like bank notifications, cell phone bill statements, etc).

It stuck me today that while I was signing up online with my insurance company, I was very hesitant to provide them with "insuranceco@timbornholdt.com".

Why am I so hesitant to use my @ timbornholdt.com e-mail address, an account for which I pay, as my primary e-mail address over Gmail, for which I pay nothing?

The old saying goes, "If you're not paying for something, then you're the product being sold." (pretty sure I first heard it from Marco Arment on his excellent Build and Analyze podcast)

I'm relying on Google to keep track of all my personal data, including credit card statements, work spreadsheets and much more. What would happen if, one day, they decided that they're going to start looking through that information? What if they decide to just shut down with no notice and delete all of my work?

Of course, the odds of that are very slim.

But it's scary enough to me at this point to start using my own domain as my primary e-mail address.

These days, I trust my host (and myself) a lot more than I trust Google.

Woody Harrelson's gonna be pissed.

We can debate when the slide began. But what seems beyond argument is that the U.S. political system becomes more polarized and more dysfunctional every cycle, at greater and greater human cost. The next Republican president will surely find himself or herself at least as stymied by this dysfunction as President Obama, as will the people the political system supposedly serves, who must feel they have been subjected to a psychological experiment gone horribly wrong, pressing the red button in 2004 and getting a zap, pressing blue in 2008 for another zap, and now agonizing whether there is any choice that won’t zap them again in 2012.

The whole article resonates with me, as someone who grew up leaning more right, but this last paragraph is exactly how I feel about this election season.