The Ides of April*

Having nearly been burned last year, we filed our tax return on March 31, by mail.

Today, the IRS deposited our refund.

Damn, that's not bad!

* Of course, the Ides of April actually falls on April 13, not April 15, as Victor Estevez will gladly tell you.

Solar Tadpoles

Using NASA's TRACE spacecraft last year, scientists observed dark features resembling Earth-sized tadpoles swimming in the atmosphere of the sun following an enormous explosion. The explosion produced the powerful "X-class" solar flare, which releases about as much energy as a billion one-megaton nuclear bombs. While matter around the solar flare usually moves away from the sun, the tadpoles -- which scientists now believe are superheated magnetic voids in the plasma -- unexpectedly swim back to the solar surface.

Homeland Security Dept. Fills Privacy Post with former DoubleClick privacy officer

The wacky thing is, this may actually work out okay. According to the article, Nuala O'Connor Kelly came on board when DoubleClick was embroiled in consumer privacy controversy and headed up the department responsible for cleaning that up. If she brings the sort of consensus-building and concern for input from the consumer privacy groups she showed at DC to D.C., this could end up being the most progressive part of the Mother^H^H^H^H Homeland Security Dept.

Or we could end up with usage-tracking ads stapled to our eyeballs. One of the two.