Photos, Round 1

So we're in Playa del Carmen at the moment, taking advantage of some free wi-fi. We haven't yet been here a week, but we're super-happy to be missing the snow-dump happening on the east coast at the moment. :)

Anyway, Mexico is warm and beautiful, and I don't have the time or inclination to regale you all with wondrous stories (that, and nothing too particularly exciting has really happened yet). So, without further ado, here is the link to some pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonsiegel

It will be updated with new pics as they are taken and, perhaps more importantly, as I come across more wi-fi hotspots.

As they say here in Mexico, paz.

Suggestions?

We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected, primarily because developing countries, like China and India, saw a huge surge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal.

Wonderful.  Seriously, does anyone, anywhere, have any ideas how to actually fix this thing?  Who's going to convince China to stop using energy?

Read the whole article here.

Spam, Glorious Spam

Whoa. Check out this little nugget, from a histrionic article about all the various things we should be afraid of:

"Spam—unsolicited E-mail that can contain malicious software—now accounts for 81 percent of all E-mail. . . ."

WTF? 4 out of 5 emails sent are SPAM?!?! Praise Google for their Gmail spam-filter, then. Jeez.

Senator Two Stupid First Names

Senator Gregg is a schmuck. He goes out there seeking a job, namely Secretary of Commerce, then turns around after Obama has decided to throw a little more sand in the liberals' faces and actually appointed Gregg, he decides he's actually a Republican after all, and doesn't want the job. Now it comes out that he will vote against the stimulus package.

Nevermind the fact that there is no actual brain behind the idea of voting against the bill, it's just the Republican thing to do. But Judd Gregg is just a class-A ass. And hopefully New Hampshire will wise up to his ass-ness and vote him out in 2010.

On a slightly broader note, I'm still heartedned by O's attempts at post- or bi-partisanship, but the ignorant stonewall he's getting from the mindless Rush-following Right has also stoked some bloodlust... after all, we did win, right?

Secretary of the Treasury

I don't trust this punk as far as I can throw him. Which is not very far.

But he was in charge of the NY Fed when all this BS began, and now it looks like he's fought off some of Team-O's good sense. (See NYTimes article here.)

I know you've gotta delegate and all, and we want the best people and all that, but really? Geithner opposes regulating the funds? Opposes limits on executive compensation? Where's the Change, Barack?

Potheads (pronounced 'po-theeds')

According to an article on HuffPo, all the cats listed below are tokers:

Louisa May Alcott
Jennifer Aniston
Bing Crosby
Laura Bush
The Beatles
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Johnny Carson
President Bill Clinton
Johnny Depp
Harrison Ford
Bill Gates
President Andrew Jackson
President Thomas Jefferson
Steve Jobs
President John Kennedy
Stephen King
Ann Landers
President James Madison
Madonna
John Stuart Mill
President James Monroe
Mozart
Friedrich Nietzsche
Peggy Noonan
President Barack Obama
Sarah Palin
Governor George Pataki
Pablo Picasso
President Franklin Pierce
Brad Pitt
Oliver Sacks
Arnold Schwarzenegger
William Shakespeare
Barbra Streisand
George Soros
President Zachary Taylor
Queen Victoria
President George Washington
John Wayne

All of them should read this some e-card.  

Stop Scaring Us, Dick Cheney!

That's all. Just stop being a fear-mongerer. And don't even TRY to quote Idioteque at me.