Herding Cats: Google Wallet, Mortgage Rates, Lost Pyramids and Hugging Cats

^{Image courtesy of ICanHasCheezburger}

This week Google enters the payment business--and gets sued for it, housing prices drop and nobody cares, going out of debt can still make you anxious--and we cover two geek-related stories about space and pyramids. 

Oh, and hugging cats.

Mashable: Google Reveals Mobile Payment System: Google Wallet - This week Google unveiled its platform for making payments via a smartphone - basically turning your smartphone into a debit card.  The service is not without controversy.  PayPal is now suing Google for stealing trade secrets.  Two execs at Google formerly worked at PayPal, so the claim isn't totally without merit.  Whatever the case, this is the beginning of the new frontier that will totally transform how people spend money.

Money Crashers: 5 Best Personal Finance Apps for the Android and iPhone - More on the subject - these apps won't be obsolete, but they'll definitely benefit from being integrated with paying through the phone itself.  Imagine an app that actually stops you from spending money--if you're trying to make a payment with a phone, it might conflict with the budget you've set on the app.  Also provides info on the PayPal app which currently allows users to pay each other just by tapping their phones. Pretty cool.

CNBC: If Mortgage Rates Keep Falling, Why Are Home Sales So Bad? - Is it time to buy a house?  In normal economic times, these are the rates people wait for before they plunk down a down payment.  The rates are low to spur the housing market back in action, but people are still timid.  Understandably so. Consumer confidence is down, jobs are more scarce, people worry about the investment keeping its value.  Unfortunately these things are likely to last--if not literally, then at least the feeling that this is the case, which is why a rebound takes so long.

Frugal Dad - Debt Free and Happy, but Where to Go from Here? - Sort of dispiriting post, but also instructive.  Dispiriting because even if you're able to become debt free and in the clear, it isn't exactly the end of your money troubles.  There's always the nagging worry of going back into debt.  It's enough to make a person a little obsessive.  It's also important to remember that anxiety about debt might be projected anxiety about something else entirely (bad marriage, problems at work, etc.), so fixing the debt won't necessarily fix all your troubles.  If you're debt free and still totally worried about money, something's amiss--because you should at least be able to enjoy the accomplishment.

Bargaineering: Your Take: Would You Pay To Fly In Space? Cool question:  Will daily trips to space be a reality fifty years from now?  What will Savings.com look like then?: Lunar Landing: $6,000 off.  10% off Mars Hotel Stays 4 Nights or More. Free Shipping (of yourself) to Jupiter! Man, I can't wait.  The question isn't just the cost of space travel, but what sort of training will you need before launch--what sort of health do passengers have to be in?  It'll have to be something a little less rocky than the Space Shuttle, which is why tourist flights to space are probably a way's off.

ABC News: Lost Pyramids: Peering Beneath Egypt's Surface With Satellite Images - In other super-nerd news, this is cool: the discovery of pyramids and an entire city using infra-red satellite imagery.  I thought they could only detect heat, but they can detect chemical composition as well.  Think of all the things that might exist beneath the surface across the Earth.  Atlantis anyone?  Even new dinosaur bones.  What's also cool, in an age where scientific research is being nixed due to budget cuts, this process is more efficient is actually more efficient and cheaper. So this is only the beginning of major discoveries.

Bonus: there are a lot of cat videos online, but this cat hugging video might be the best cat video to ever melt the internet.

Any (earthbound) travel plans for the Memorial Day weekend?