The days are getting shorter. It's dark in the morning when I wake up in Wyoming now. The sun starts coming up as I walk to the train. Soon it will start coming up when I'm on the train.

Next week I think I will bring my tripod and take some twilight pictures around Darling Harbour and Circular Quay. For a brief time, I won't have to wait so long for sunset, and it won't be too early either.

Yesterday on the 7:30 Report, they interviewed former Director-General of MI5 Stella Rimington (mp4, windows media). I thought her criticism of the US handling of the "War on Terror"^[1] was fairly conservative and more plausible than some of the more shrieking critiques. Critical thinking of the "War of Terror" seems to come more easily now that the "War on Terror" has taken a back seat to the growing disaster which is the economy. What is the appropriate response to the "Global Financial Crisis"? One of the irrational responses to September 11 that I witnessed was when a former colleague of mine drove his family all the way to Florida (from New York State) and back instead of flying. What irrational things can we do in response to the GFC? Just now I was listening to NPR's Planet Money where they said that Americans were saving 5% of their income and that was actually pretty good compared to recent history. When I lived in New York I was definitely not saving that much, but now that I live in Australia I am saving much more. Maybe it is something in the water?

1. specifically including the framing of it as a "war"; Given the success of the "War on Drugs" and "War on Poverty" you'd think those in charge might learn