Palin to resign amid ethics inquiries; possible 2012 run?

Alaska Governor and one-time vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin announced that she will resign her office July 25 and will not seek re-election in 2010. While the governor did not cite a specific reason, there is speculation that she is setting herself up for a 2012 bid for president. The resignation will also allow her to travel the country more freely without facing the repeated ethics inquiries that have mired her post-November political career.

World Conquered, someone should call the Orkin Man

An Ant Mega-Colony has taken over the world. Seriously, there's like one giant gaggle of ants, hanging out all over the place, and they are buddies. From the BBC:

it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.

Researchers in Japan and Spain led by Eiriki Sunamura of the University of Tokyo found that Argentine ants living in Europe, Japan and California shared a strikingly similar chemical profile of hydrocarbons on their cuticles.

But further experiments revealed the true extent of the insects' global ambition.

The team selected wild ants from the main European super-colony, from another smaller one called the Catalonian super-colony which lives on the Iberian coast, the Californian super-colony and from the super-colony in west Japan, as well as another in Kobe, Japan.

They then matched up the ants in a series of one-on-one tests to see how aggressive individuals from different colonies would be to one another.

Ants from the smaller super-colonies were always aggressive to one another. So ants from the west coast of Japan fought their rivals from Kobe, while ants from the European super-colony didn't get on with those from the Iberian colony.

Great, just great; Argentina again. Clearly, Sanford did this.

And just because we all want to see Ants kicking some insane ass:

XKCD: Qwertial Aphasia

The Mark Sanford Affair: immortalized in a poem

One poet was moved to pen a poem capturing and commemorating Mark Sanford's salacious seductions. Oh, what beauty! Enjoy.

On the Appalachian trail
hangs an Argentinian tale.
a trail-rhyme romance of which Chaucer
might well have been a rude endorser.
Alibis in Appalachia,
more consistent with males' nature
than the nature you may find
on the nature trail remind
the people who're in Carolina
that their Governor's a finer
lover than they thought when they
elected him. Now let us pray
for him, and nature of the male,
trailing in pursuit of tail,
and all the best of Argentina's
Ninas friendly to the penis.

Colbert Report: Cynthia Davis & Fox News

In which Stephen Colbert commends Cynthia Davis for coming out against subsidizing school lunches for low-income children in summer months because "Hunger can be a positive motivator" and then chastises Fox News for calling Mark Sanford a Democrat.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - Cynthia Davis & Fox News
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

Coleman concedes; Franken next MN Senator

After a long and protracted legal contest, former Republican Senator Norm Coleman conceded and Al Franken is the next Senator from Minnesota. The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected Norm Coleman's petition in a decision released earlier today. The Democrats now expect to have a 60 member supermajority, including Franken, of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party and two independents who normally caucus with the Dems.

XKCD: Idiocracy

"People aren't going to change, for better or for worse. Technology is going to be so cool. All in all, the future will be okay! Except climate; we fucked that one up." We can only hope.

Google under scrutiny by DOJ

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

"'Competition is a click away,' says Dana Wagner of Google, who has been on a public relations mission for the company."

As with many successful companies, Google finds itself falling under the watchful eye of the U.S. Department of Justice and regulators concerned about potential monopolistic practices. The company has around two-thirds of the Internet search market, YouTube is 10 times the size of the next biggest competitor, and it sold $22 billion in advertising in 2008. Dana Wagner, Google's Senior Competition Council and a former D.O.J. trustbuster, is tasked with explaining how Google is a relatively small company that has had success because its constant innovation has lead to superior products, but that it could fall to its competitors should that trend ever change.