"Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."

Alfred Hitchcock

Note to self. The list of countries to avoid visiting grows in 2010 with the entry of Ireland, a green country where people speak with a funny accent and drink good spirits. These are not at all reasons to avoid a visit. Instead, I find it sufficient the new law in force since January 1st against blasphemy. The law condemns the publishing or expression of content offensive or insulting religions (not just the Catholic one) with fines up to 25,000 euros.

Rather than writing down my new year's resolution, I find it more constructive to look back at the past year and draw some conclusions on it. I have already done some analysis concerning this blog in a recent post; this one is a more personal view of what happened to me in 2009, and you might well consider it not interesting at all for you -but it is my blog, and it belongs here.

So, let me start with my family. In 2009 neither I, nor my wife or my children, had any major health problem. That is for sure an important thing of which I consider myself quite lucky. Heck, I did not even have to run to the emergency room once! (If you have small kids you know this does happen).

No, not a modification of the now classic "Say of the week" series. Rather, a quote from a very famous Physical Review article which is of relevance to a couple of questions I offered here and here this week: