The-End-of-the-World-as-We-Know-It Watch.

* There's only one way out of the financial mess: spend, spend, spend. Democratic lawmakers are said to be already on this, with a special December session planned following the likely Obama victory next month. The bill is likely to focus around infrastructure, and that's good, but it needs to be green infrastructure—as I wrote last week, a "green recovery" is our best bet to fix both the economic and environmental crises in one go.

* The food crisis is reaching cataclysmic proportions in the Caribbean, with Cuba limiting sales and poverty-stricken Haitians forced to literally eat dirt to survive. Michael Pollan argues in the Times that food will be a central issue for the next administration despite its receiving almost no attention in the campaign.

* The situation in Iceland continues to astound. Britain has declared Iceland a terror-sponsoring state (seriously) as a pretext for seizing control of Icelandic assets within the U.K., while there's some talk that Russia may bail them out, presumably in exchange for Arctic access. I hope Matt's right and Canada eats Iceland before things get too crazy.

* But don't lose your heads—Stephen Hawking assures us that if we manage to survive the next 200 years, we'll be just fine.

Evening linkage.

* George Bush's disapproval rating has hit a historic low of 70%—worse than any president since Gallup changed the wording of this question in 1938.

* Google, amazingly ten years old, is letting people search 2001's Internet.

* The 50 things that every comics collection truly needs.

* Matt Yglesias has your banking collapse brackets and your Galaxy-class starship military tactics.

* Stephen Hawking says it's time to go back to space.

The human race has existed as a separate species for about two million years. Civilisation began about 10,000 years ago, and the rate of development has been steadily increasing. But, if the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before.

* George Will: Palin is "obviously not qualified to be President," he remarked, describing her interview on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric as a "disaster.

* And solar legislation continues to stagnate in Congress. This is an inexcusable failure of leadership.

Quick hits:

* 'To shoot a man because you disagree with him about Hegel's dialectic is after all to honour the human spirit.' —George Steiner

* Via Posthuman Blues, Centauri Dreams looks at Stephen Hawking's recent speech on space exploration and 'the long result.'

"We cannot envision visiting [Earth-like planets around other stars] with current technology, but we should make interstellar travel a long-term aim," he said. "By long term, I mean over the next 200 to 500 years."

* Attention universe: please stop making me sort of respect Jenna Bush.