Isn't New York magazine supposed to be a weekly?

So far this year, they've done 8 "double issues," some of which don't even seem much bigger than a regular issue.

In May, it was reported that the value of the magazine's ad pages had fallen 38.6% since the beginning of 2009.

The wedding video everyone is linking to each other

7 million views on YouTube and counting

Family Guy spinoff trailer

Well, here it is: our first glimpse of The Cleveland Show. It might look like a flimsy rip-off of Family Guy, but then didn't Family Guy first look like a flimsy rip-off of The Simpsons?

I get it, Hollywood

little girls are creepy

an INTERESTING discussion on affirmative action

Don't let that title fool you; Rachel Maddow doesn't "SLAM" anything.

Sears Tower became "Willis Tower" yesterday

The Sears Tower will henceforth be officially known as the "Willis Tower." Whatever.

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amazing new optical illusion

The blue and green spirals are actually the same color! Click here for proof

Alanis Morissette and Alicia Silverstone mock indie movies

Alanis Morissette and Alicia Silverstone have teamed up to mock indie movies' overreliance on twee music in this fake trailer. Funny!

My Mother's Red Hat w/Alicia Silverstone & Alanis Morissette from Alicia Silverstone

correct way to open a banana

Cool site: alice.com

Alice.com is a great site for buying household essentials. Shipping is free, and the prices are generally the same or cheaper than what you find at the store. The layout is simple, and you can refine searches by price, etc. Also, there are a lot of coupons sprinkled in. The only caveats are a little tax on each order, and you have to get 6+ items on each order (but not the first time you use it).

Eddie Bauer bankrupt

Clothing retailer Eddie Bauer filed for bankruptcy today, having lost about $45 million in the first quarter of '09. Sad.

But, it will retain most of its stores and employees. As CEO Neil Fiske puts it, "Eddie Bauer is a good company with a great brand and a bad balance sheet."

The company was started as a fishing shop in Seattle nearly 90 years ago. The first American to climb Everest, James Whittaker, was wearing an Eddie Bauer parka when he reached the summit.

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"The Daily Show" does segment on struggling NY Times

For some reason, the New York Times allowed "Daily Show" correspondent Jason Jones to film a segment in their main offices and interview a couple of their high-up editors. The result was hilarious, very uncomfortable, and damn sad as Jones mocked the paper for being outdated and broke.

Check it out here if you feel like squirming.

Ann Coulter on Obama's speech in Cairo

No matter what you think of her, Ann Coulter can come up with some great zingers in her weekly column. This week, she had this to say about Obama's Cairo speech:

"Obama bravely told the Cairo audience that 9/11 was a very nasty thing for Muslims to do to us, but on the other hand, they are victims of colonization. Except we didn't colonize them. The French and the British did. So why are Arabs flying planes into our buildings and not the Arc de Triomphe?"

"...Obama said, 'Now let me be clear, issues of women's equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam.' No, he said, 'the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life.' So on one hand, 12-year-old girls are stoned to death for the crime of being raped in Muslim countries. But on the other hand, we still don't have enough female firefighters here in America."

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FYI: the unhealthiest item on the McDonald's menu is...

...the Triple Thick Chocolate Shake!

It's the nutritional equivalent of pouring 80 pixie stix over a stick of butter. Seriously!

eeeeeeewwwwww

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Notable statistic

In the past 25 years, the average college tuition has gone up by 440% - over 4 times the inflation rate.

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Restaurant psychology: take out the "$" to make more $$

A new study done at an upscale restaurant in Hyde Park, NY revealed that customers spent on average 8% more when the prices on the menu appeared without a dollar sign.

It was theorized that the omission of the dollar sign created a greater distance between the customer and their perception of money spent. (Duh!)

Odd but true

The "HOW" section of Twitter's home page calls it "a modern antidote to information overload."

Really?

President Obama speech in Cairo: 6-4-09

Bad news at the Boston Globe

All employees at the Boston Globe are being threatened with a 23% pay cut, which could begin as early as next week. The measure is the result of ongoing disagreement between union members and the paper's owner, The New York Times Company, over effective ways to cut back on spending.

The Boston Globe lost $50 million last year, and is projected to lose $85 million in 2009.

Bad times!

(taken from NYT article - link here)

Ryan Seacrest as a kid - ha!

(thanks Perez)

FDA to regulate cigarette industry

This week, a bill allowing the FDA to regulate the cigarette industry for the first time will likely pass the Senate. Once signed into law, the bill will allow the FDA to:

-measure/restrict the chemical components in cigarette products
-review new tobacco products
-prohibit use of terms like "light" and "low tar" if deemed misleading
-establish larger health warnings on cigarette packs
-tighten restrictions on marketing/advertising

(taken from NYT article - link here)

NEXT BIG THING!

Introducing the WEARABLE TOWEL!

Cool site for photos: psykopaint.com

Psykopaint.com is a good/free site for giving your photos an impressionist effect. It has six modes to choose from, but "brush" and "particles" seem to be best. There are a lot of very technical ways to adjust each tool, but they're too slight to be all that necessary. Here's a (somewhat bad) example of the creepy stuff you can do with it:

Oh no!

The Grammys just announced they will no longer give out an award for Best Polka Album.

Cool site for booking flights: bing.com/travel

When you search for flights online, sites like Kayak and Expedia do a good job bringing you right to the cheapest prices, but they don't tell how rates are likely to change in the near future. The new bing.com/travel does. When you do a search, look for the "7-Day Price Predictor" in the top left corner of the results page. It recommends whether or not to buy tickets immediately and includes supporting information like a confidence-level percentage.

Caveats:

-This feature only works for major cities. When you type a city or airport into the search page, eligible locations show up as bold in the dropdown menu that appears.

-According to a third-party audit, the predictions are 74.5% accurate. Which means that 25.5% of the time they're bloody INaccurate.

Lazy-ass movie reviews by Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers

"Lynch parodies every film noir from Double Indemnity to The Devil Thumbs a Ride and gets himself a double dose of temptress in Arquette, who gives off enough come-on carnality to singe the screen." -review of Lost Highway 3-16-1997

"Russo gives off enough carnal heat to singe the screen." -review of The Thomas Crown Affair 9-2-1999

"Before that, Lane and Martinez turn on enough carnality to singe the screen." -review of Unfaithful 6-6-2002

"Johansson is tart and terrific, exuding enough come-on carnality to singe the screen." -review of Match Point 12-15-2005

"Once he tells her he has a thing for mojitos, they're off to Cuba in a speedboat — a scene of dizzying glamour — drinking, dancing and going at each other with enough carnality to singe the screen." -review of Miami Vice 8-10-2006