Geez! The male Democratic presidential candidates all look exactly alike.

I said, come -- on -- Ahmadinejad...

A million points to Columbia University for inviting the man to speak. Obviously he's a terrible, unenlightened person, as the university's own president pointed out in his incisive opening remarks. But he is a leader, and a day of open academic discourse amidst a climate of hardball politics is a mighty step forward for the cause of world peace.

The dreaded Icelandic joke. More pictures coming soon.

A New Yorker essay on the mystique of the Leica camera is long, but eloquent and beautiful.

Asked how he thought of the Leica, [legendary photographer Henri] Cartier-Bresson said that it felt like "a big warm kiss, like a shot from a revolver, and like the psychoanalyst's couch."

Once again I found myself in an Apple retail store, seriously contemplating the purchase of a new computer. The next operating system, version 10.5, is to be released "in October." I wondered: if I bought a computer today, surely Apple wouldn't make me pay $130 to upgrade the OS when the new version comes out in a couple of weeks. But the salespeople confirmed my worst suspicion: yes they would. "If it's worth $130 to you, I'd wait."

I returned home empty-handed.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- Photojournalist Chris Usher usually relies on digital technology. When he wants something special, though, he reaches for a film camera.

''I shoot just as much digital as the next guy out of necessity,'' Usher said. ''I use film probably a third of the time, on personal projects 100 percent of the time. There's a richness and a depth of field that becomes more prevalent when you're shooting film as opposed to digital. It has a tangible feel to it.''

Even as the digital revolution is transforming photography, more than two-thirds of professional photographers in a survey released Wednesday said they still prefer using film for certain tasks, praising its ability to add an almost organic quality to pictures.

Who'd have thought this would happen! Mayor Menino is the new champion of cycling in Boston. I hereby take back nearly all the bad things I've ever said about the man.

Just got back from Reykjavik. What an amazing trip! Iceland is a hauntingly beautiful place inhabited by wonderful people. Stay tuned for more...

Wednesday 5 September
Icelandair's fleet consists entirely of narrowbody (single-aisle) Boeings. It sounds undesirable for trans-Atlantic travel, but with the stop-over in Reykjavik, the two halves of the trip are acceptably short. The food is not bad either. Our landing in Reykjavik coincides with sunrise and the effect is stunning. From the air, one can see glacial ice sparkling and steam rising from the earth.

For once there is no line at Heathrow immigration, and before I know it I'm walking in the front door of Jeff and Josh's new flat in Oxford. It's a nice little place, if you can forgive the strange quirks of British architecture (like vaulted ceilings that slope below head height). We grill some burgers and walk around Oxford a bit. Josh fixes tasty Skyline Chili for dinner. In spite of my overnight flight, I manage to rally for a Half-Moon pub lock-in.

Thursday 6 September
Nothing starts the day off right like the combination of jet lag and a hangover. After touring the office (posing for security as a visiting scientist from MIT) Josh and I return to London and tour around a bit. Dinner is Indian from Kensington Tandoori. Delicious!

Friday 7 September
Setup begins at the exhibition centre. The truss is assembled and ready to be flown, but little else goes right. All the tools were stolen in transit. The cables are found to be stuck in customs and new ones will have to be fabricated overnight. Truss clamps are missing. The power feed is not connected. The UK power cables for our lights did not arrive, so I walk into a local lighting supplier and (to the amusement of the cashier) fill my shopping basket with 13 amp UK mains plugs. Back at the centre, I am told to let the exhibit constructors handle the assembly of the giant backlit scrim ceiling piece. When I return from lunch, they have bolted together all four sides of the square box and are arguing over how to get the scrim inside it. I pick up the blueprints, which have as assembly instructions: "Step 1. Assemble 3 sides of the square. Step 2. Assemble scrim and slide it into the open side. Step 3. Now install the fourth side of the square." Complicated, isn't it.

Saturday 8 September
Everything comes together at the last minute. Cables and clamps show up late. Two pieces of equipment were early prototype versions with the unfortunate problem of blowing up upon connection to 230 V power. To the amazement of our marketing people I repaired them on the spot with a butane-powered soldering iron. Some problems with our control consoles (mostly due to human errors) lead to a late night at the convention center. Just as we were leaving for the night, the exhibit people drop off a huge box full of UK mains plugs. "I don't know what you wanted these for since it looks like you're all wired up now, but you ordered them a while ago!"

Sunday 9 September
The show opens. Business in Europe is strange. Many of the larger booths are giving out free alcohol, and by 11 AM most of the Germans in attendance are drinking beer. By 4 PM, half the attendees are in various states of inebriation. The slogan printed on the bags is "Mix business with PLASA," and I suppose they mean it. Jeff and Josh arrive in the afternoon and I sneak them into the show. Blanca joins us for dinner in Soho at Busaba Eathai. I unintentionally order the hottest item on the menu (Southern Lamb Curry) but it is extremely delicious and I manage to finish my meal with newly-cleared sinuses. We walk to some random and curiously empty pub not far from Trafalgar Square where we ponder the source of the distant loud beats. We would later discover that we were missing an outdoor Chemical Brothers concert just a few blocks away. Argh!

Monday 10 September
Today I sat in on a session about rigging for acrobatics given by the head riggers of Cirque du Soleil. Fascinating stuff! The show is so complex it nearly defies explanation. But unbelievable to watch, back-to-back, the "audience view" of the show together with night-vision videos of the riggers (of the Vegas show) 100 feet up on the grid and 50 feet below the stage in the trap room. It's incredible enough that they can pull off the show as it is, but on top of the normal requirements they have planned for handling every possible contingency of equipment failure and mid-air rescue without noticably disrupting the continuity of the show. The technical side of the show is run by a small army of people, with all the precision of a military operation. After the show, my coworkers and I rode the London Eye (lit by our products!) and ate dinner at a Tapas place near Piccadilly Circle. A good evening.

The T.S.A. has some curious advertising, doesn't it? (Notice how only lighters are pictured.) Anyway, it's time to hit the road again!

Sept 5 - 6: Oxford
Sept 6 - 12: London
Sept 12 - 18: Reykjavik and beyond

See you all in a couple of weeks.