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This is a test of live video software that we are experimenting with.

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So far, 1,158 of you have voted. I'd love to double that by Friday. You have voted for 554 different pets. Because you can vote for as many pets as you want, there have been 2,562 votes cast. So most of you are voting for two different pets.

Voting started Monday, and runs through Friday at 6 p.m., at which time we'll know the 15 finalists. The final round of voting starts next Monday. 

It's Saturday morning, the snowstorm is bearing down on us, and I'm at the Science Bloggers conference at the Sigma Xi center at RTP. Despite the threat of bad weather, attendance looks to be pretty substantial. And the crowd looks to be people who are way smarter than me.

People like Paul Jones from UNC, who already gave me a few valuable insights before I finished my coffee. You hang out with smart people, you learn something.

More as the day progresses. The conference web site is here.

We got an email last week from Iraq about a UNC Chapel Hill graduate, Capt. Jeffrey Donaldson, who is working as part of an 11-member team of soldiers with an Iraqi infantry battalion. The team leader, a Major Steve Carpenter, sent us a photo, which I have posted on this site. But I thought I would also reprint here the full message that Major Carpenter sent to give you a sense of what they are doing. We'd like to get more photos posted here about local folks who are serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and in other places around the world. You can post them on this site yourself, or, if you need help, we can put them up. We'd like to hear, in the own words, what they are experiencing.

Including Alamar, the pumpkin-eating tortoise and an English bulldog named Lolita Sugarlump.

We have heard from some folks that they have having a problem posting their pet photos. Email mike.williams@newsobserver.com if that's the case. He can help.

Deadline for contest entries is Jan. 16.  See the link on the front of Share.

In the Adorable Pet contest. In two days. And we were sitting around last month, me, David Feld and Mike Williams, worrying that we might only get a handful of entries. Yeah, that didn't turn out to be a problem. Keep 'em coming.

Catherine Ernst, a 16-year-old trombone player, is in Southern California with around 180 Broughton band members getting ready to march in the Rose Parade. Check out her blog posts here. She has uploaded pictures to the blog. The band marches New Year's Day.

Check out a gallery that our multimedia folks put together of what they considered the best photos that you took in 2007.  Go here to see the gallery.