What Caught My Eye Today

Asteroids - With all the doom and gloom surrounding the global economy, I found this story may help to put things into proper perspective. An asteroid about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago just buzzed the Earth. The asteroid named 2009 DD45 was about 48,800 miles from Earth when it zipped past early Monday. The space rock measured between 69 feet and 154 feet in diameter, about the same size as the asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and leveled more than 800 square miles of forest. So sure your 40l(k) may have vaporized over the past several months (I know mine has), but look on the bright side...at least you haven't.

Great Britain - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the United States to harness historic global goodwill to pull the world out of its economic slump and lead the charge against climate change. I assume by the term 'historic', the good Prime Minister was referring to the historically low global goodwill toward the United States. President Barack Obama's historic election has given "the whole world renewed hope in itself," he said, adding that "now more than ever the rest of the world wants to work with you" including "your friend Europe." Oh right, that goodwill. I forgot, people outside the United States still think of Obama as a rock star. Brown pushed lawmakers to embrace his "global New Deal" plan for overhauling the rules of international finance and share the wealth of a world economy he promised would double over the next 20 years. Lauding the United States as "the indispensable nation," Brown said US leadership in fighting climate change was critical to forging "a historic agreement" at December UN talks in Denmark's capital Copenhagen. Whoa, boyfriend. Don't you think you are laying it on just a tad thick? I know we're allies and all, but really. Even our own President, Mr. "Yes We Can" himself, is talking about the tough times ahead. I'm all for hope, but you have to account for a little thing called reality in all that optimism. That being said, you can visit the U.S. anytime you like as far as I am concerned. There aren't too many folks out there that have nice things to say about us.

Sudan - The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. He is the first sitting head of state the court has ordered arrested. Bravo, Mr. President. Bravo. You must have really distinguished yourself to claim this distinction. Al-Bashir's government denounced the warrant as part of a Western conspiracy aimed at destabilizing the vast oil-rich nation south of Egypt. The U.N. said Sudan had ordered the expulsion of six to 10 humanitarian groups from Darfur including Oxfam, Solidarities and Mercy Corps, and seized assets. Yeah, teach those oppressive Western governments a lesson. Throw out all those aid workers trying to feed your people. Al-Bashir denies the war crimes accusations and refuses to deal with the court. Sudan does not recognize its jurisdiction and refuses to arrest suspects and there is currently no international mechanism to arrest al-Bashir. Guess what other country doesn't recognize the ICC either? I'll give you a hint. The first initial is "U", the second is "S", and the third is "A".

Lent - In case you feel like you haven't give up enough already, Lent started last week and the Catholic Church has a great suggestion for those of you who feel that you still have too much excess in your lives. Roman Catholic bishops in Italy are urging the faithful to go on a high-tech fast for Lent, switching off modern appliances from cars to iPods and abstaining from surfing the Web or text messaging until Easter. The suggestion goes far beyond no-meat Fridays, giving a modern twist to traditional forms of abstinence in the five-week period Christians set aside for fasting and prayer ahead of Easter. You know, my initial reaction was that this was kind of a dumb suggestion, but then I thought about it. In the U.S. alone. more than 75 billion text messages are sent each month. Some of those were from my boss asking me to do more work. A 40 day break from that...yeah, that works for me.