Welcome to The Faster Times update. In today's edition, we bring you Abkhazia, Charlie Sheen's legacy, "location" in social media, Apple's iGuilt, and fantasy basketball picks. Enjoy!

Marshrutkas come in all shapes and sizes.

There are the shiny new Mercedes mini-buses like the one I took from Tbilisi to Zugdidi, and there are sputtering old commuter wagons with DIY seats, which, like the rest of the vehicle, are held together by duct tape, twine and prayer. There are sedans that also technically qualify – mostly 60’s model Volgas and Zhigulis– where every non-claustrophobic person in the neighborhood packs in and rides along a specific route, either splitting the fare or paying a set fee (the word “marshrutka” is short for “marshrutnoe taksi” – a fixed-route taxi in Russian).

After eight seasons on the air, the last few of them increasingly tumultuous behind the scenes, CBS announced on February 24 that it has stopped production of TV’s top-rated comedy, “Two and a Half Men.” In the past year or so, Charlie Sheen, the show’s highly paid star (reportedly just south of $2 million per episode) seems to have been taking Method acting to the extreme, frequently making his boozing, womanizing alter ego Charlie Harper look like a nerd fit for “The Big Bang Theory.”

Location, location, location. It’s the mantra for determining how many bucks you’re going to shell out for your new dream home, but how much does where you are in space really matter in the social media world? I propose that it matters a lot, and it matters not a bit. Simultaneously.

Apple has recently admitted the truth behind the claims being made about Chinese factory workers being exposed to poisonous chemicals while working on the production of the company’s suite of electronics, including the iPad, iPod, and iPhone. Concerns about the poisonous contents, of some of the elements, involved in the construction of these personal technology tools have been voiced for years by advocacy groups, including China Labor Watch. The chief cause of illness has been exposure to a chemical called n-hexane, which was used instead of ethanol because it evaporates quickly, an asset to speedy touchscreen production.

TRADES! TRADES! TRADES!

The trade deadline has passed and the biggest thing to take away is that the east now has 6 good teams that can genuinely compete with the playoff teams of the west. Let’s break down each trade.