Vacation timeshares started becoming popular in the 1970s because it’s a great way of spending a vacation without paying too much.

But even a “budget” level vacation option is getting a drubbing because of the recession. According to the American Resort Develpment Association, timeshares sales may drop by 30 percent this year, compared to sales figures posted last year. The Association also said that selling timeshares will be a big challenge for the next 18 months.

I think that these are obvious conclusions. With so many people defaulting on their mortgages and losing jobs, buying a timeshare in some vacation locale is just a bad decision. Timeshares are considered “perpetual vacations” and with everyone scrambling to save every precious dollar, vacations should be farthest on their minds.

Talk about a knee-jerk reaction.

Reacting to the swine flu scare, Egypt President Hosni Mubarak ordered the slaughter of the country’s 300,000 pigs. Unfortunately, the government has also forgotten one crucial fact — those same pigs are helping the country by eating its organic waste.

Now that those pig “cleaners” are in hog heaven, the country’s garbage is beginning to pile up, it has also affected the livelihood of the zabaleen — freelance trash collectors and pig farmers. An estimated 70,000 families are now suffering from this short-sighted government response to the swine flu scare.

Experts say that the Egyptian government failed to consider the economic ramifications of their kill-all-pigs policy and its people are suffering because of it.

Epic fail, Egyptian government.

The announcement that Disney has acquired Marvel for $4 billion came as a shock to many people.

The family-oriented company successfully made its buyout offer for Marvel Comics, which currently has over 5,000 characters in its stable. This includes, of course, such popular characters as Spider-man, The X-Men, The Hulk and Iron Man.

The thought of the Magic Kingdom coopting some of the most bad-ass characters existing today leaves me cold. Disney’s been known to “kid-ify” its properties. I don’t want to see my beloved comic book characters starting to pull punches just because of Walt’s evil influence. Yup, you read it right Disney’s the devil. Looks like the Marvel super heroes have one tough fight to deal with and it’s going to be from Mickey and friends. As far as I’m concerned I’m all for Wolverine goring Mickey’s ass.