Seriously?

Hundreds of voters in upstate New York received absentee ballots with the name 'Barack Osama' in place of 'Barack Obama'.

Election officially assure it was a typo and have shredded all remaining ballots with the misprint and resent new ones.

So out of all the letters in the alphabet, and out of all the letters in his name, some how, some way, the typo was the one and only possible way Obama could be directly linked with the most infamous terrorist in the world.

The letters 's' and 'b' aren't even near each other on the keyboard, and look nothing alike. If you're proofing this document, that's pretty much the one mistake that cannot be made.

I mean, seriously.

The New Face of Louis Vuitton is Sir Sean Connery

The 78-year-old is photographed for Louis Vuitton by Annie Leibovitz on the beach near his home in the Bahamas.

Well played, LV. Well played.

Microsoft To Acquire RIM?

The BlackBerry might be getting even more corporate than it already is with Microsoft ready to buy out its maker, Research In Motion.

A Debilitating Disease That Is Often Unknown

Celiac Disease affects at least 1 percent of the population, but only a fraction of cases are diagnosed.

Ingesting even small quantities of gluten causes the immune system to attack the lining of the small intestine in celiacs, hampering the absorption of vital nutrients like iron, calcium and fat.

Untreated, it can lead to a wide range of problems including anemia, infertility, osteoporosis and cancer.

The only known treatment is a gluten-free diet, making pharmaceutical backing non-existent, which explains the lack of research, medical education and public awareness into the disease.

HPV Vaccine Used by 25% of Girls 13 to 17

The figures represent the government’s first substantial study of vaccination rates for the vaccine, Gardasil, which is Merck & Company’s heavily advertised three-shot series that goes after the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV. The vaccine protects against strains of the virus that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers.

Health officials recommend that girls get the shots when they are 11 or 12, if possible, before they become sexually active. Also, 11 is the age when children are generally due for a round of vaccinations.

The survey covered children only from 13 to 17.

Proponents of the vaccine had been hoping for much higher vaccination rates, saying the shots could significantly reduce the nearly 4,000 cervical cancer deaths that occur each year in the United States.

Toyota May Make Prius a Brand and Widen the Model Lineup

Toyota Motor may create a separate brand for its Prius hybrid car and could add both larger and smaller Prius models to the lineup. Toyota is also said to be working on a crossover version as well.

Toyota plans to introduce the next-generation version of Prius at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show in January, where it also will unveil a new hybrid car for its Lexus luxury brand.

In Buddha’s Path on the Streets of San Francisco

A block off Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown — beyond the well-worn path tourists take past souvenir shops, restaurants and a dive saloon called the Buddha Bar — begins a historical tour of a more spiritual nature.

Duck into a nondescript doorway at 125 Waverly Place, ascend five narrow flights and step into the first and oldest Buddhist temple in the United States.

Brian Eno does the iPhone

Leave it to Brian Eno to turn the iPhone into an ambient musical instrument. This week, iTunes released an iPhone application called Bloom, created by Eno and his Spore collaborator Peter Chilvers.

Bloom has two operating modes: Create, in which you play all the notes yourself, and Listen, in which it plays along with you (or all by itself).

The way to play is simple: Touch the screen, and the iPhone makes a pinging sound and shows an expanding colored bubble. Make pings of different pitches by touching the screen in different vertical locations. Customize the settings, create a pattern, and within minutes, you've got a nice little demo to shop.

Introducing The Electric Porsche

Ruf Automobile has gone public with its stunning electric eRUF concept car, which is obviously based on a Porsche 911. The automobile packs a three-phase electric motor that puts out around 200-horsepower and 480 lb.-ft. of torque, and it can reportedly go from nothing to sixty in under seven ticks. The juice is provided by a Li-ion phosphate battery pack that produces 317-volts / 480-amps and is constructed from 96 individual cells, and combined with the power garnered by the regenerative braking system, it can cruise up to 180 miles before needing a ten-hour recharge.

Vice Squad

We’re in love. It’s like Sacha Baron Cohen got so drunk he forgot how to do Ali G and combined Borat with Bruno.

Stuff White People Like - #33 Marijuana

People from many cultures like marijuana (South East Asian, Jamaica, India, Morrocco, Mexico, etc), but white people take it to an entirely new level.

To simply purchase, roll and smoke marijuana is not enough for white people. They need to make sure they know all the different strains, cultivation technique, and methods for smoking it. They even have an entire magazine devoted those where they actually have centerfolds of plants that people have grown.

White people are also willing to spend over $500 on smoking devices just to find new and more expensive ways to smoke weed.

It is worth noting that at every white person, at some point, has written a high school or college paper about the history of how the DuPont industry helped make weed illegal. This paper also teaches them about how hemp can be used to fuel cars, make clothing, create food, cure cancer, and solve every single problem on earth.

While you would assume that most white people smoke weed between 14-28 (and act as though they are the first generation to do so), the reality is that white people smoke weed well into old age. They also smoke weed with their kids! This is not a joke. White people love weed so much that they consider it a ‘gift’ to share with their kids. Leading to a generation that was not allowed to watch Power Rangers, but was allowed to toke up.

All white people believe marijuana should be legalized, and they consider the Netherlands to a pinnacle of enlightenment. Also, every white person has had their most profound weed smoking experience in Amsterdam, so it’s a good idea to fabricate a story about your own experience there so you can quickly forge a bond. Traditional tales uses the following words: hostel, brownie, girl/guy from Hungary, crazy, locked out, chill dudes from Ireland.

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should ever imply that people just smoke weed to get high, they do it for medical/spiritual/social reasons, etc, or that there are any negative consequences. This will likely alienate you from white people.

On the plus side, white people are always looking for higher quality, more potent, more organic marijuana. If you promise to hook them up with a special selection from your home country, they will likely pay a high premium.

Fail of the Day

No, Cher will not be playing Catwoman

The screenwriter for Batman 3, David Goyer, has (thankfully) confirmed with MTV that all the rumors surrounding the Dark Knight sequel are completely false.

Honestly, though, whomever came up with Cher playing Catwoman must've been doing it just see how far and how fast a rumor so ridiculous could spread.

As for Johnny Depp as the Riddler and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin, not so bad, but a bit high-profile and predictable for a revamped franchise that has thus far prided itself on unexpected and near-flawless casting.*

*Katie Holmes should be digitally erased from Batman Begins, and as for Maggie Gyllenhaal...let's just say I'm glad they killed off that character to avoid strike three.

GNR's 'Chinese Democracy' Gets Release Date

Best Buy is set to exclusively release the album November 23, 2008.

Dr. Pepper, who promised to buy every citizen in America a Dr. Pepper if the album was released this year, is probably kicking themselves right about now.

Face Time

New York Magazine explores the (not so) many faces of our Presidential and VP candidates.

Apple To Reveal New Laptops October 14th

Apple is staging an invitation-only Town Hall event in Cupertino next Tuesday, October 14th at 10AM PST and it's absolutely safe to say they'll be showing off new laptops.

Riding The Eco-Friendly Wave

This summer Jeff Bushman and Kyle Bernhardt launched the Country Feeling Surfboards line, which uses "soy- and sugar-based foams, plant-based and solar-activated resins, and hemp, silk, and bamboo cloth," according to their press release.

Among other emission-reducing measures, Country Feelings uses soy-based foam blanks from Homeblown USA and sugar-based blanks from Ice-Nine Foamworks for its shapes, which include fishes, single-fins, twin-fins, funboards, longboards, and stand-up paddleboards.

The cost of going green -- $695 to $995 retail -- is slightly higher than the typical foam-and-fiberglass board you'd find in a shop, Bernhardt says: "It's maybe $50 to $100 than your average board, depending on the shop's pricing." While you can see cool surfing photos on their website, the best way to reach the shapers is by phone at (808) 638-7192 or via email, info@countryfeelingsurfboards.com.

Kristen Bell Tells Us What She's Voting For

Vice Squad

Hey guy, your erect cock is sticking out of your pants. Oh wait, you are an erect cock sticking out of your pants.

Stuff White People Like - #24 Wine

There are a lot of cultures that like wine, but the way white people like wine is on a whole different level.

Within white culture, you are expected to know what a good wine is, what wine is not acceptable to like, and the names of prominent wine growing regions.

But because there are thousands of wineries, thousands of wines, and a limited time to try them or learn about it, often times, white people need to fake knowledge. If they are exposed as not being knowledgeable, they will look like fools and their peers will consistently make jokes about them liking Boone’s Farm, Thunderbird, Steeler, or Lakeport. This humiliation can crush a white person for years.

When a white person offers you wine, you take a small sip and then say “ooh, that’s nice. What country is it from?” then they will say the name of the country and you say “I love wines from that country, I would love to get a villa in the wine region there.” White people will nod in agreement as they all want to have a second home in a wine region like Napa, Tuscany or Santa Barbara.

It is also a good idea to say that your favorite wine is from a small winery called [make up name like 'Spotswood,' 'Red Duck,' Random Spanish name] in [Australia, Argentina, France, California, or Chile] that is hard to get in whatever country you are in. White people will be impressed that they have not heard of this wine and consider you to be a very smart person. They will also make a note to try to find that wine, and when they can’t find it, your status will rise even higher.

Wines that are acceptable: Red, White (less so)

Wines that are unacceptable (unless to be consumed in an ironic fashion): White Zinfandel, wine in a box, Rose, Fortified Wine, Arbor Mist, Chinese Cooking Wine.

Fail of the Day

Banksy Not So Bankable

Works by Banksy and other graffiti painters failed to sell in London today as buyers stayed away from an auction of contemporary and urban art.

Less than a third of the 270 lots found buyers at Lyon & Turnbull's sale, which was the latest gauge of demand for street art after prices surged to records in the last three years. Dealers said demand, reduced by worries about the economy and confusion about the authentication of Banksy's pictures, may be an ominous sign for the mainstream art market.

Fox to redo 'Absolutely Fabulous'

Edina and Patsy are ready to take on L.A.

Fox is developing a redo of Jennifer Saunders' enduring Britcom "Absolutely Fabulous," to be executive produced by Mitch Hurwitz (of Arrested Development fame), Eric Tannenbaum, and Kim Tannenbaum for Sony Pictures TV, Tantamount and BBC Worldwide America.

Christine Zander ("Saturday Night Live") is set to write the script and will executive produce along with the BBC's Ian Moffitt and original series creator Saunders.

The latest attempt at a U.S. rendition of "Ab Fab" will be transplanted to L.A. but retain the basic template of the original, revolving around the friendship of two boozy, over-40 best friends who are desperate to stay hip and youthful and who carry on under the disapproving eye of Edina's teenage daughter, Saffy.

Original series starred Saunders and Joanna Lumley. It was a big hit in Britain and successful import for Comedy Central. In the U.K., "Ab Fab" ran as a regular series from 1992-95, with a two-part finale airing in 1996. Saunders and Lumley reunited for further adventures with fresh segs produced in 2001 and 2003.

Triple Cobra - "Live Fast & Die Beautiful"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa0DRgHC0_8

Sydney, Australia - Part 3 of 3

Google Puts Tunes From YouTube a Click Away

In its continuing effort to find a way to make money from its YouTube unit, Google introduced on Tuesday a type of e-commerce ad that YouTube users can click to buy digital goods from Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.com.

Under the new program, viewers of a video with a music track, for example, would be able to click on an icon to download that song from one of the two music stores.

Ad Campaign To Fight Homophobic Language

The campaign urges an end to using derogatory language, particularly labeling anything deemed negative or unpleasant as “so gay.” That is underlined by the theme of the campaign: “When you say, ‘That’s so gay,’ do you realize what you say? Knock it off.”

Some print ads are taking a similar tack. “That’s so ‘Jock who can complete a pass but not a sentence,’ ” one headline reads. Another says, “That’s so ‘Gamer guy who has more video games than friends.’ ” The ads end this way: “Think that’s mean? How do you think ‘That’s so gay’ sounds? Hurtful. So, knock it off.”

There will be television and radio commercials, print and outdoor ads and a special Web site devoted to the campaign (thinkb4youspeak.com). Some spots feature celebrities, the young actress Hilary Duff and the comedian Wanda Sykes, delivering the message.

Experts Conclude Pfizer Manipulated Studies

The drug maker Pfizer earlier this decade manipulated the publication of scientific studies to bolster the use of its epilepsy drug Neurontin for other disorders, while suppressing research that did not support those uses, according to experts who reviewed thousands of company documents for plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the company.

Pfizer’s tactics included delaying the publication of studies that had found no evidence the drug worked for some other disorders, “spinning” negative data to place it in a more positive light, and bundling negative findings with positive studies to neutralize the results, according to written reports by the experts, who analyzed the documents at the request of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Table Service

A London restaurant and bar called Inamo is making patrons' dining experiences digital by projecting colorful menus and aesthetic patterns onto touch-sensitive tabletops. When browsing, patrons can preview the food as if it were on the plate in front of them. They can also order their meals, look up neighborhood services, and select one of seven visual vibes without ever interacting with carbon-based lifeforms.

Vice Squad

You might want to consider sparing the rest of the gene pool your contribution if you're too lazy to be a cop but too much of an asshole to just be a mailman.

Stuff White People Like - #21 Writer’s Workshops

It’s no secret. White people want to be writers. Why wouldn’t they? Work 10 hours a week from a country house in Maine or England. Get called a genius by other white people, and maybe get your book made into a film.

Every single white person harbors this dream. No matter what they tell you, all of them have at least one chapter of a novel stashed away somewhere.

Being a marginally crafty race, white people will often seek out every possible route to achieving this goal, and one of the most popular methods has been writers workshops.

These are expensive mini go-to-school type vacations. Where you talk with a published writer (often someone you haven’t heard of, but they have a book on Amazon) who will tell you how they became writers. If there is time, they will listen to you read your stuff and tell that you it’s good but it needs work on a) structure, b) characters, c) dialogue. Then they will collect their check and go back to their country house or studio apartment in New York.

Fail of the Day

Sydney, Australia - Part 2 of 3

Bittersweet Royalties: Adding Insult To Injury

Andrew Loog Oldham has derided The Verve over their use of a Rolling Stones sample in their 1997 classic 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'.

The legendary former manager of The Rolling Stones joked that he has bought "a pretty presentable watch strap" with the royalties that he has earned from the song.

"They [Mick Jagger and Keith Richards] have the watch and I have a pretty presentable watch strap. That's my little piece," he told our sister title.

'Bitter Sweet Symphony' uses an Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of 'The Last Time' for its orchestral hook, and was the subject of a legal challenge by The Rolling Stones shortly after its release.

Loog Oldham, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have since received all of the royalty payments from the song, after it was successfully argued that although The Verve had negotiated to use a sample, they had used "too much".

"As for Richard Ashcroft, well, I don't know how an artist can be severely damaged by that experience. Songwriters have learned to call songs their children, and he thinks he wrote something. He didn't. I hope he's got over it. It takes a while," Loog Oldham added.

Mike Patton + TV On The Radio = Aural Gold

Members of TV On The Radio, Subtle and Faith No More's Mike Patton have joined forces to form a supergroup.

TV On The Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe has revealed that he is working on an album with Patton and Adam Drucker of Subtle.

The singer said that the threesome are hoping to wrap up an album by the end of the year.

"It came from an idea that Adam had, to have the three of us just, basically, mess around vocally and see what comes of it," he explained.

The trio are yet to name their group or confirm a release date.

Stop Drugging Your Children Already

Children under 4 should not be given over-the-counter cough and cold remedies, drug companies said Tuesday in a concession to pediatricians who doubt the drugs do much good and worry about risks.

The voluntary change in advice to parents comes less than a week after federal health officials said they also saw little evidence that the drugs work. But government officials were afraid that taking the medicines off store shelves might prompt parents to give their children adult medicines.

Cough and cold products have been given to children for decades, but it turns out the medicines were never scientifically tested to see how well they work in kids. And recent research has found some untoward side effects, mostly stemming from accidental overdoses.

A New Approach To Solar Power

The next wave of solar power technology may be a skinny glass tube that looks like a fluorescent light bulb painted black.

The tube contains 150 solar cells, wrapped around the inside of the glass. Designed and built by Fremont startup Solyndra, the tube can absorb light from any direction and convert it to electricity. Placed in a rooftop rack, the tube can even collect light bouncing off the roof.

Solyndra's highly automated factory assembles the tubes and mounts them in panels, each containing 40 tubes. The panels are placed on racks that keep the tubes a few inches above the roof. The racks aren't bolted to the roof and can be quickly deployed or removed.

Largest Contemporary Chinese Art Collection On Display in Berkeley

Uli Sigg, a businessman and former Swiss ambassador to China, has assembled the world's largest collection of contemporary art made in China. "Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art From the Sigg Collection" fills the entire Berkeley Art Museum, yet comprises only a fraction of his holdings.

Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art From the Sigg Collection: Painting, sculpture, photography and video. Through Jan. 4. Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.

Chanel’s Mobile Art Exhibit Settles in Central Park

Construction workers in Rumsey Playfield are currently putting together this structure — the Greatest Handbag Pavilion Known to Man — in earnest. The exhibit, which showcases Chanel-handbag-inspired art, opens to the public on October 20. The structure designed by Zaha Hadid takes three weeks to assemble. As you see, Chanel has provided construction workers with some mighty fine hard hats. Steal one before Chanel starts selling them in stores for thousands of dollars.

The Long Wait Is Over: 'Brocabulary' Publishes Today

A new book, Brocabulary: The New Man-i-festo of Dude Talk, has set forth everything you ever wanted to know about bros and the bros who love them in. The New York Times calls it “an anthem to the joys of male bonding,” and of course much of that bonding occurs at bars and eateries. Here are some words you can use next time you’re at an impresstaurant and you bust out your shred-it card (a credit card that will likely be shredded by the maître d’ when it fails to cover the chef’s tasting).

Bar par – The number of drinks that it’s appropriate to consume at a given drinking establishment: “Dude, drink up, we’re at Off the Wagon — the bar par is five Jäger shots and a beer funnel.”

Dimbibement – Drinking in a dimly lit place such as Elettaria — a good idea on a first date, but during a bromantic rendez-dudes, it’s not about mood lighting, it’s about dude lighting: frat-screen TVs and Miller Lite signs all the way.

Maximum cockupancy – When you walk into a place, usually a douchetination, and it’s all guys: “Dude, where did all the girls go? This place is at maximum cockupancy.”

Peanuts envy – What you suffer from when bar-nacles attach themselves to the bar and hog all the bar food.

Shamburger – A veggie burger that also qualifies as a ma’amburger because chicks are the only ones who’d order it.

Smashedication – Eating while drunk, like David Hasselhoff trying to pick up a cheeseburger.

For more (highly satirical, and definitely R-rated) advice on the manly arts — including how to be a taparator (a total player who operates on the gaggles of girls at tapas bars), buy Brocabulary online or wherever fine books (as well as this one!) are sold.

Gluten-Free Heaven on Manhattan's Upper East Side

Opus, which opens for dinner tomorrow night, is the vision of chef Giuseppe Lentini who has spent the past 20 years cooking Italian food in this town, 17 of them as executive chef of Elio’s restaurant. At Opus, which is located on the Upper East Side, he’s turning out an extensive menu of pastas and homestyle Italian fare. And here’s a curious fact about the restaurant: its menu of pizzas and pastas will be served until 5 am.

In addition to over a dozen gluten-free pizzas (in three sizes and about a dozen varieties), and pastas—spaghetti with sea urchin, saffron and lemon zest ($17), bucatini with fresh sardines, raisins, pignoli nuts, roasted bread crumbs and tomatoes ($18) and gnocchi with sweet sausage and porcini in a light tomato sauce ($17)—the menu includes bar snacks like panzerrotti (mini calzones filled with mozzarella and tomato, $6), salads like shaved fennel, arugula, and shrimp, in a grapefruit citrus vinaigrette ($11), and entrees like sea bream with leafy parsley, crushed plum tomatoes, and garlic ($24), and veal scaloppini with gorgonzola and Parmesan ($20).

The restaurant will also feature a line of homemade gelato, sorbets, and dairy-free desserts. Another bonus: some of Opus’ gluten-free pastas will be available retail by the pound daily for those who would love to make it at home for dinner. They will also sell a line of gluten-free specialty products like pretzels, brown rice, breakfast bars, cookies, wafers and chocolate bars.

Opus will open for dinner tomorrow night and is located at 1574 Second Avenue, near 82nd Street, 212.772.2220.

Radiohead Lead New U.K. Musician Advocacy Group

The Featured Artists Coalition is a new artist's advocacy group that "campaigns for the protection of performers' and musicians' rights.

The group's mission statement says, "We want all artists to have more control of their music and a much fairer share of the profits it generates in the digital age. We speak with one voice to help artists strike a new bargain with record companies, digital distributors and others, and are campaigning for specific changes."

More than 60 acts have already signed on, including Radiohead, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd Gang of Four, Klaxons, the Verve and frontman Richard Ashcroft, Chrissie Hynde, Kaiser Chiefs, Travis, the Cribs, Billy Bragg, and Kate Nash.

The Coalition will soon begin lobbying for changes in laws that affect the British music industry. Their six-point plan can be found here.