Why.. hello.

The Starbucks economy

Forget about the millions of foreclosures, rising unemployment, gas and food price inflation -- you want to know how to tell the economy is really tanking?

Americans are cutting back on their morning lattes at Starbucks.

This tidbit comes to us from Time Magazine's Justin Fox, who writes in his "Curious Capitalist blog " that during a visit to Time's corporate offices on Monday, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said "For the first time in our history as a company, we have negative traffic this year vs. last."

New information from Al Gore

In Al Gore's brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of "generational mission" -- the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement -- to set it right. Gore's stirring presentation is followed by a brief Q&A in which he is asked for his verdict on the current political candidates' climate policies and on what role he himself might play in future. (WATCH VIDEO)

"Sex and the City" and the Photoshop

As the Sex and the City movie fast approaches (May 30, have you circled the day on your calendar with a big red pen yet?), new photos of the fabulous foursome have been released to promote the premiere. The ladies look like no time has passed since they first began sipping cosmos together on-screen a decade ago. Ah, Hollywood magic. Still, some news outlets are expressing surprise that the actresses may have been digitally enhanced in the promo pictures. Um, duh? (READ MORE)