To be sure, such cases hardly render meaningless the severe penalties imposed on Armstrong last month by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

WSJ: Triathlons Part Waters for Lance Armstrong

So, I survived another Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and made it out of Vegas with most of my skin, and with the objectivity engendered by a couple of thousand miles of distance and a weekend, I can now render a verdict: there has been some evolution since last year in personal computing.

FORBES: CES Summary: Evolution Of User-Centric Computing

Since last year, the average time the VA takes to render an appeal decision has increased nearly 12 percent to 1, 299 days.

FORBES: Yes We Can Care For Disabled Veterans, 365 Days A Year

Yet as things stand, our impotence in the face of our extinction means that a vast amount of medical resources are expended in the last few weeks of people's lives purely in order to render our deaths insensible and insensate.

BBC: A Point of View: The biggest decision

During his presentation at Cambridge last week (see last post), Professor Paul Shellard mentioned that the new Planck data render many cyclic models, including the ekpyrotic universe, a lot less likely.

FORBES: Cosmic Inflation Model Gets A Boost From Planck Data