Received in a spam message: "'I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.' -W(illiam) Somerset Maugham."  That's great.

In the New Yorker, James Surowiecki discusses Sponsoring Recklessness, a nice explanatory treastise on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and why and how they've gone adrift.  I learned a lot and agree with his analysis, even if I disagree with his conclusion (that they should both be nationalized). 

Ottmar Leibert hopes maybe it is not going to take decades...  before we look at overpopulation.  Perhaps the green movement will lead us there, as nothing is worse for the environment than too many people.  Except perhaps too many dumber people. 

Jason Kottke quotes Merlin Mann: "Some days, the web feels like 5 people trying to make something; 5k people turning it into a list; and 500MM people saying, FAIL."  Indeed. 

Wired reports on the Lagoons of Titan: "Earthlings might be scrambling to find liquid hydrocarbons buried in our planet, but Saturn's moon Titan has plenty to spare.  Scientists say that a dark, smooth surface feature spotted on the moon last year is definitely a lake filled primarily with liquid ethane, a simple hydrocarbon."  Awesome!  I can't wait to go there :) 

Here we have Zimbabwe currency on eBay; Z$100B notes are going for AU$87.  Perhaps Zimbabwe should give up on running a country - that isn't going too well anyway - and simply print paper to sell on eBay?  Pretty embarrasing, if you think about it, but then so is so much about the situation there...