Happy Chinese New Year! Today marks the start of the Year of the Rooster, though I'll be writing Year of the Monkey on my checks for weeks still (I'll never get tired of that one). Apparently this is a Green Wood Chicken New Year if you delve further into it.

My New Year's Eve, as it were, was spent in a local town court, paying a debt to society that my right foot ran up for me a couple of months ago. As always, Officer Trooper was pleasant and professional, and my answer to his question of how fast I thought I was going ("probably a bit faster than you wrote me up for") seemed to be the correct one based on its honesty, and my plea bargain ended up as failure to observe a traffic sign, rather than speeding.

I have a further debt to pay today, as Dr. Toothy wanted me back, muttering something about not liking the state of my gums, which is not what you want to hear by a long stretch.

Finally, thanks Dan for sending this troubleshooting page: Flash TechNote - Macromedia Flash Player uses all CPU cycles during playback, which describes the 100% CPU problem some users are encountering here as illusory, saying that Flash will happily relinquish CPU cycles to applications that request them. Clearly the description of how these ads (the Splinter Cell ad has been specifically earmarked as problematic) are bogging down some users' systems demonstrates that this is not working as described. A reader named Majid described the problem as attributable to "poorly optimized" Flash, something echoed by Chris from AMDZone, so while still seeking out further info on this, I will look into this optimization question.

R.I.P.: Doobie Brothers Drummer Knudsen Dies. Thanks Mike Martinez.

Links of the Day:	Anti-crime Roadster. Thanks Devicer. The Cult of Mac Blog. Home of the phallic iPod battery icon. Thanks Devicer. Food Sculpture.
Stories of the Day:	Burglars get unwanted Valentine's card. Mohawk-Wearing Teen Survives Scalping. WTF? Couch potato contentment.
Science!:	Astronomers: Planets may be diamond makers. Mutation Makes Rats More Sensitive to Alcohol's Effects. Mutated rats make far more drunk calls. Eating Well Selling Wholesomeness in the Breakfast Bowl (registration required).
Images of the Day:	Apollo 11 - 17 Mission First man on the Moon - Fullscreen QTVR photo from panoramas.dk.
Follow-ups:	Cookie girls won't have to pay fine, Station raises money. Dolly's Creator Granted Human Cloning License. Slashdot | Fans Attempting to Pay for Enterprise. Enterprising plans.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.