I think this is just a case of her cashing in on her celebrity. And I don’t blame her for doing it. Governing during a recession is difficult. Lots of tough decisions to make and little upside. I think that by leaving now, she’ll be able to accept speaking fees from her base and perhaps parlay this into a radio hosting gig.

From CNN.com: Ocean trash problem ‘far from being solved,’ U.N. says

Scientists have been watching trash pile up in the world’s oceans for about a half-century, when plastics came into widespread use. Since plastics don’t biodegrade, or do so very slowly, the trash tends to remain in the ocean, where circling currents collect the material in several marine “garbage patches.

One of these trashy areas is said to be roughly the size of Texas. The water in these at-sea landfills is thick like a plastic soup, oceanographers told CNN.
…
Plastics and cigarette butts are the most common types of ocean litter, with plastic making up about 80 percent of the ocean trash collected in some areas of the world, a U.N. news release says.

This makes me sick to think of this.

From Wired.com: Photograph Fireworks

Some tips for photographing fireworks.  Even includes tips for the iPhone!

Cool picture of the F-22 Raptor breaking the sound barrier.

From NYTimes.com: Palin: I’d Come Out Ahead in Run Against Obama

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she’d come out ahead if she went one-on-one with fellow jogger President Barack Obama in a long run, according to an interview published online Tuesday.

”I betcha I’d have more endurance,” she told Runner’s World magazine. ”My one claim to fame in my own little internal running circle is a sub-four marathon. What I lacked in physical strength or skill, I made up for in determination and endurance.”

Ha ha.  NY Times, you made me click this article.

I actually doubt that Palin could beat Obama in a long run, but her chances are much better than trying to beat Obama in a Presidential run.

From NYTimes.com: A Green Way to Dump Low-Tech Electronics

Since 2004, 18 states and New York City have approved laws that make manufacturers responsible for recycling electronics, and similar statutes were introduced in 13 other states this year. The laws are intended to prevent a torrent of toxic and outdated electronic equipment — television sets, computers, monitors, printers, fax machines — from ending up in landfills where they can leach chemicals into groundwater and potentially pose a danger to public health.
…
“If you make it easy, they will recycle their stuff,” said Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, a nonprofit group based in San Francisco. If products are recycled rather then dumped, parts of the machines are refurbished for new use where possible; if not, they are disassembled, their glass and precious metals are recycled, and the plastics, which have no reuse market, are often shipped overseas to developing countries for disposal.

So, “green” means disposing the most toxic parts of the computer in overseas developing countries.  You know that they’re just burning it or tossing it into a landfill over there.  We’re stripping the electronics of all the valuable and easy to recycle parts and sending the most toxic parts off for others to deal with.  I guess it beats throwing it straight in the trash.

From NYTimes.com: Ex-Edwards Aide to Write Tell-All

A man who was one of former Senator John Edwards’s closest aides has a deal to write a book claiming that Mr. Edwards said he “would be taken care of for life” in return for falsely claiming he was the father of the baby carried by Mr. Edwards’s mistress, Rielle Hunter.

The aide, Andrew Young, sold his book proposal to St. Martin’s Press for an undisclosed price late last week. In his proposal, Mr. Young quotes Mr. Edwards, a Democrat who was his party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2004 and ran for president last year, as begging him to confess to fathering Ms. Hunter’s baby.

Did anyone actually believe that Andrew Young was the father of the baby?  As soon as the story came out it seemed preposterous.  So, John Edwards was having an affair with a woman, but the father of the baby is actually one of his closest aides?  Pretty pathetic attempt at a cover-up.

CNN report on the prisoners in the Philippines creating their new tribute to Michael Jackson.  Look what you can do when you’re “forced to dance four hours a day”.

Philippines prisoners performing “We are the World”.

Time.com: Oscars to Double Best-Picture Nominations for 2009

Are there really 10 movies worth a Best-Picture Nomination every year?  I think five was a pretty reasonable number and even then, it usually comes down to a couple films anyways.  This just serves to devalue what being nominated means.