Welcome to The Faster Times update. In today's edition, we bring you a Japan update, the end of Glenn Beck, no-fly zones, engagement rings, and The Hunger Games. Enjoy!

Raging fires, violent aftershocks, 30 foot waves sweeping away entire towns, roads shorn in half, millions without power, dazed survivors stranded on rooftops — these are the scenes people around the globe have been seeing as they tune in to find out about the massive earthquake that struck northeastern Japan at 2:46 p.m. on Friday, March 11th.

This economic recovery will be bad for the pawn shop business but it will be even worse for the Depressionary-Industrial Complex. Yes, you may want to let all those domain names you bought with the word Armageddon in them just expire.

My friend Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Director of Policy Planning at the State Department and now back teaching at Princeton University, has written a compelling, passionate call for the US to immediately push for a UN Resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. She outlines the reasons some are reticent about a no-fly zone, but in her response to critics, she doesn’t solve the core problem that a no-fly zone doesn’t help the Libyan opposition prevail.

You know the scene. The bended knee, the glittering stone. The initial astonishment and subsequent answer in the enthusiastic affirmative. And the ring—always the ring—ready at hand, set, mounted, slipped on. A perfect fit. But most people I know don’t do the scene. Or the scene comes after a lot of talking and budgeting and Googling and bargaining. You never see the bargaining, neither the relationship bargaining nor the diamond bargaining.

If you haven’t read The Hunger Games series, get a move on: you’re far behind the times. Here’s a quick recap for you slackers: Set in a dystopian society, the villagers of 12 districts in Panem must choose one boy and one girl to fight to the death on live television to serve as entertainment for the ruling Capitol. Currently the hottest role on the market for any young actress is the series’ protagonist, Katniss Everdeen— a strong, fiery, hunter who defends her family and braves the harshest challenges of the Games.