As Lewis Black harangued about last night on The Daily Show, there is some seriously silly newly-minted Barack Obama merchandise. Like those horribly cheesy collectible plates, and all the newspapers in the land that have become "November 5th Edition" souvenir stores. And now, from beautifully blue Michigan, come the tiniest and perhaps most "really reaching here, guys" of Obama-associated products. They're called Nanobamas and they're each smaller than a grain of sand.
And, OK, they're not technically for sale, but they're still weird! A mechanical engineering professor at the University of Michigan created the minuscule Obama portraits "to raise awareness of nanotechnology and science." Yes, there needs to be more awareness of science! Like about what science is and why it can be used, for some reason, to make wee portraits of our newest president-elect. The coolest part of the whole project, though? How cool everyone who worked on them is:
"Developments like this are an excellent way to bring the concepts of nanotechnology to a broader audience," said [creator John] Hart, who made the portraits with his colleagues by working late on a Friday evening. "Also, we thought it would be fun."
Scientists are talking about how a "living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million," 
Your Gmail sponsored link that will make you hate Democrats of the day: "Mama Voted For Obama." It's precisely the idiotic indoctrinating garbage you think it is, except for 
Faux-conservative political pundit comedian Stephen Colbert is ending a banner year—what with the election and all—with a folksy little homage to Christmas specials of yesteryear, called A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All. Judging from the clips we've seen, it looks really funny and refreshingly not completely about politics, and hey! His old Daily Show boss Jon Stewart even stops by for a song. And Stewart can sing. Who knew? Get a snippet of his vocal chops in the above clip. Listen as Good Morning America host Diane Sawyer marvels!
Antisemitism in Europe has been on a curious and troubling upswing for the past few years, mostly in central Europe, but now it's moving its way west. Some charming under-21 rugby players at Oxford (that's in England) decided to throw a party with a "bring a fit Jew" theme. The young men put on fake payot and carried around bags of money for the fun, splashy event. The University found out and tried to block it, but the kids sneaked their way around it and had the party anyway. The captain of the team, a lad named Phil Boon, has commented on behalf of the students:
Here's a nice thing. Shepard Fairey, that skateboarding RISD-trained artist who created that now-iconic 
Tumblrer 
In case you didn't obsessively compare election results to his site in real time, it's worth noting that baseball stat whiz Nate Silver wholly justified his 
Sienna Miller filed a lawsuit against a London-based paparazzo Darryn Lyons and his Big Pictures agency in the High Court of London to prevent them from taking photographs of her. Whether she's filing the lawsuit because she's upset about her pending split with Balthazar Getty or because she just hates the paps that much, the British legal system is about to establish another interesting precedent. Since celebrities can't retaliate any other way but in the courts, paparazzi fanfiction is here to let them settle the score.
But filing a lawsuit and dragging this guy through a lengthy legal process doesn't sound like much of a solution. We recommend Sienna take up the following prescription from our favorite fanfiction site, AdultFanfiction.Net. The following encounter by user 'Achtung Baby' suggests one possible solution to the pap problem, and features 
Eliza was stepping back now, putting away her weapon while the men turned over and bagged the dead buck. Gary took a shot of the dead animal, then another of Eliza and her knife. He then moved to the side, hoping for a better angle for his next frame.
As magazines like Radar and Men's Vogue 
Oh happy day! 30 Rock, Tina Fey's funniest-show-on-TV backstage screwball fest, isn't scheduled to premiere until next week. But, because sometimes the internet is a wondrous and giving technodiety, the season opener is now available on Hulu! (Thank you New York Observer, for 
Finally, some good news from television! At least, we think it's good news. Showtime has renewed their serial killer with a heart of gold drama Dexter 
Joergen Geerds' epic New York panoramas are on display 
The "goofy white guy acting goofy in comparison to cool black people" is, in my mind, the single most annoying trope in all of advertising. Under the guise of (incredibly tired) humor, it purports to poke fun at goofy white people. But it's actually kind of racist. "Black people: so much cooler than us whites! Well, we'll just have to make do with controlling the power structure, while they maintain their supremacy in song and dance!" So I have to give extra special props to Holiday Inn Express for 
Some people see gossip as a nasty vice that should be curbed. Not us! 
If you are stressed out and broke and afraid of the future (like me!) and you just need to take a break and make some lovely art, may I suggest you visit 
Oh, good: at the same time that parents nationwide find that their savings have evaporated, their children are becoming increasingly strident about harassing them to buy solar panels, hybrid cars, and organic produce. Not only that, but apparently our tax dollars are funding public schools that turn out an army of little Green giants ready to scream over watered lawns and plastic bags. You can almost see their parents smiling tightly through gritted teeth: "That's...good, very good." But as soon as a 
Or computer program or whatever. Not like we need anyone to tell us, really, but actor James Franco has the most perfect face in the world. So says science, at least. A new computer program uses mathematical formulas to take one photo (left) and turn it into a more traditionally aesthetically pleasing face (right). And, um, Franco's face pretty much stayed exactly the same when the New York Times conducted the experiment. So good for him. Getting his MFA, has movie star riches, and is, as proven by science, perfect looking. Now if he could just get rid of those 
Hey, here's what we're sick of: middle classness! While some of your elite coastal media obsess over some made-up standard of "authenticity" (Sarah Palin's got it! That's all you need to know!), the new hot trend is "caring about the middle class." This is something Democrats are good at! They used to be good at appealing to the "working class" but now no one is sure how to define "working class," at all really. But we all know how to define the middle-class! It's everyone in America!
AMC's Mad Men, about Madison Avenue ad execs in the early 1960's, is meticulous in its period detailing—just the right mod sofa is moored in every living room, the ladies could have purchased their outfits on 5th Avenue just that afternoon, even the food is done retro (heavy, simple, ew). So it's sort of hilarious to see a dedicated fan of the show nitpick over its tiny details, finding cracks in its carefully put together 1960's veneer. Mark Simonson 
After slogging through The Fountain, a strenuous mindfuck dirge about death and time travel and Ponce de León (sort of?), and watching its resounding failure at the box office, it was easy to think that the film's writer/director/envisioner Darren Aronofsky might never be trusted with a film again. And certainly the exciting director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream's next effort, The Wrestler, is significantly scaled back from the tens-of-millions of dollars fountain of youth blunderbuss, but it's 
Guerrilla artist 
Is Sarah Palin ovulating? It's a personal question, but we need to know. Last year, a 
Tom Brokaw of all people has a funny 
The "Top Shit" is all pretty Lol, but be sure not to miss
Every election season, commentators trot out the old statistics about how more education makes people more likely to support Democrats, more studies are published on how liberal Daily Show viewers are so well-informed, and various smart people try to explain why anyone would ever vote for a Republican, against their "self-interest." This month has seen three alarming and remarkable scientific investigations into Americans' inexplicable habit of voting for George Bush and John McCain. Which means: trend! Hooray! Let's take a look at what America's top scienticians say about fucking idiot flyover losers and their stupid voting:
At a time when our young people are getting STDs from playing 
Home-schooling? So over. Try city-schooling your kids at the Met and trendy bars. That's what The Professors' Wives' Club author Joanne Rendell is doing. How does an un-schooled Manhattan five-year-old spend his days? It has its advantages: "Un-kindergarten for us means Benny can sleep late so I can write. It means we don't have to worry about bedtimes and can go out on the town with friends any night of the week. We can go to Europe and visit my family when the flights are cheap..."
A couple months ago, we 
