Happy July Fourth!!

Independence Day is a Federal holiday celebrating the Declaration of Independence of the fledgling United States of America from England. A bit disturbing, perhaps, is a recent news item where 26% of Americans polled didn't know from whom we sought independence in 1776. I weep for the future.
Feel pretty good today, all things considered. I'm still getting acclimated to the pressure stocking. It's pretty uncomfortable to wear, but it's a million times better than the pain and swelling that result from not wearing it. At this point, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to suck it up for the 12 hour work night. I'm going to go up early in any case to give myself a breather from the long drive up.
I'm not in gaming trim yet by any means. I find now that sitting up in my usual gaming seat hurts my lower back, so I'm going to have to figure out something to let me game. I might have to move upstairs to the other Xbox 360 so I can sit upright with a lot of back pain. Moving on...

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Zombie' mode confirmed? Interesting... It would please a lot of folks who played and enjoyed the original World at War zombies.
• Download Call of Duty for the Wii. Caveat emptor.

• Valve's Robin Walker teases that 'something big' is coming to Team Fortress 2.
• Halo: Reach space combat footage.
• Kane and Lynch 2 'Arcade' mode screenies.
• Crackdown 2 unlocks 'Agent 4' in Perfect Dark XBLA multiplayer.
• GameSpot Singularity review.
• Predators iPhone game review.

• Just in time for the Fourth: A mouse mat so good you can grill burgers on it.
• GameTrailers' Pach-Attack: Pachter discusses the differences between Steam, PSNet, and Xbox Live.
• StarCraft 2 to get 3D support post-launch.
• Fun with photoshopped Kinect ads. They can't be more ridiculous looking than actual pictures of people flailing away in front of their TV.

• Just switch to HDMI? Good. Now get ready for HDbaseT.
• Apple to fix iPhone 4 reception problem.
• Verizon iPhone deal would give Apple $1 billion to App Store sales.
• The first real video shot on an iPhone 4. (Thanks to @techdelight for the tweeted link.)
• 8 new things you can learn on your iPad. Typing one-handed doesn't count.
• Hulu versus Netflix.
• IGN's 10 Greatest Movie Predators.
• Infographic: The CSI Effect.

Fourth of July Links:

• Spectral imaging of original draft of Declaration of Independence shows Jefferson crossed out 'subjects', replaced it with 'citizens'.
• Thirteen Racks which made America Great. (Safe for work.)
• Seven things that will definitely happen at your family Fourth of July BBQ.
• How your Best Friend should greet you on the Fourth of July.