• One of the winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics is some American gal, Elinor Ostrom, who is the first lady economist ever to win. Something about communities and resources, anyway it was uncontroversial! [CNN]
• So our government is still working out the kinks in its system of telling when foreign people who visit here actually leave. [New York Times]
• Bombings, bombings, bombings all weekend in Pakistan, all thanks to the Taliban. [WSJ]
• There is a new song on the Internet from the dead, apparently self-referential pop star Michael Jackson called “This Is It.” [LA Times]
• A gang of British Greenpeace people had a sleepover party on the roof of the Palace of Westminster to let everyone know how much they despise climate change, and also politics. [Guardian]
• China is so excited to be able to sell Hummers soonish! There are some minor “regulatory emissions things” to figure out, but other than that, just pure excitement. [Reuters]

The Indecision Forever blog ranks this Newsbusters poll as “The Dumbest Piece of Internet Pollution This Earth Day,” which would be true, if it weren’t for the comments section immediately below it. MORE »

Oh George Bush is having quite a grand time at the annual G8 conference in Japan. He’s not molesting Angela Merkel this time, but he is embarrassing everyone: “The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: ‘Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.’ He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.” Punched the air? Best George W. Bush imagery ever. NEED SECRET VIDEO. [Telegraph]

COUNTDOWN TO NUPTIAL BLISS:“Could the last picture in Jenna’s unofficial wedding album be a study in normal American life? Maybe not. Her husband’s Baltimore job will be with an electric utility company that dumped 8bn pounds of polluted fly ash into the ground, contaminating drinking water for hundreds of nearby families.” [Guardian]

At today’s U.N. Climate Change Conference in Indonesia, China’s representative Su Wei said that there was absolutely no reason for China to do anything about its pollution, since they’re poor, have lots of people and need more time to economically develop before they bother with all of that silliness. Obviously, all the (pictured) smog in Beijing and stuff is the fault of those wacky prevailing winds blowing it over from California, but they’re not at all problematic for the health of their people, nosireebob, nothing to see here (and, there won’t be if they keep polluting like they are, but, hey, shhhh). [Yahoo News]

* DC’s the 11th most polluted U.S. city. [Urban Trekker]
* Pointless DC bar poll shows that bloggers like JR’s. [Subway State]
* “There is an opportunity to rethink the Greater Eastern Market area as a result of yesterday’s disaster. One thing is the Eastern Market Metro Plaza, which is now under DC control, rather than that of the National Park Service.” [Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space]
* One of our own. [panda head]
* DC’s #1 web novelist SethJ: “She produces a delicate bird of a hand and it flutters between three or four of the driver’s fingers before flying off. He is so afraid of breaking it, of shattering its neat, symmetrical bones, that he hardly dares to grasp; just a little bit of pressure to say…he can’t think of what to say.”

• Iraq war to be central issue in November, “it’s the other guy’s fault” speeches to intensify over next two months. [WP, NYT]

• Ohio preserving paper ballots from 2004 presidential election to “study irregularities.” [NYT]
• California to have strongest limits on greenhouse gasses in nation, and initiate “a 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.” [NYT, LAT, W$J]
• New Pentagon report reveals soldiers’ financial problems, use of predatory loan services. [USAT]
• Iran set to ignore today’s nuclear fuel production deadline, US set to push sanctions through UN. [NYT]
• Amount of nicotine in cigarettes up as much as 36% between 1998 and 2004, no word from cigarette companies on how that happened. [WP]
• Egyptian novelist and Nobel prize winner Naguib Mahfouz died yesterday at the age of 94. [WP]

* The Senate confirmation hearings for soon-to-be CIA Director Michael Hayden began this week. In the great tradition of the adult film industry, there will be two versions of the hearing; one for cable and one for pay-per-view, er, Senate Members’ Ears Only. We were actually pretty relieved that the hardcore hearings were closed, that shit was long enough. Finally, the denouement: he’s an idiot. MORE »

THIS IS THE GREATEST AD EVER CREATED. IT WILL SINGLE-HANDEDLY DOOM AL GORE’S POLITICAL COMEBACK. MORE »