Over the weekend, Stephen Colbert spoke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The appearance has been put up on YouTube in 3 separate parts embedded below. (Each part is between 7 and 9 minutes long.) Choice quote: "I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least, and by these standards, we have setup a fabulous government in Iraq."
The trial over potential plagiarism in the creation of the Da Vinci Code book is over, but the judge who presided over the trial decided to have a little fun with the final judgement.
Seemingly random italicised letters were included in the 71-page judgement given by Mr Justice Peter Smith, which apparently spell out a message. Justice Smith said he would confirm the code if someone broke it.
"I can't discuss the judgement, but I don't see why a judgement should not be a matter of fun," he said.
Italicised letters in the first few pages spell out "Smithy Code", while the following pages also contain marked out letters.
Although he would not be drawn on his code and its meaning, Mr Justice Smith said he would probably confirm it if someone cracked it, which was "not a difficult thing to do".
In March, he presided over a High Court case brought by authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claimed Dan Brown plagiarised their own historical book for The Da Vinci Code.
The full text of the code reads 'smithcodeJaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz', so give it your best shot!
Update: The BBC article had a typo...the first message is "Smith Code," not "Smithy Code."
Update 2: More conflicting information - several people are claiming there is an italicized "y," so it is Smithy Code.
Update 3: The code has been cracked. It was a reference to a Navy admiral.
The offal that has critics talking is a pasta dish served with black truffles, coxcombs and duck testicles, priced at $30. "They're delicious, they don't taste like anything you've had before. They're whole and they're white," Batali said.
Known to fans of his television cooking shows as "Super Mario," Batali has opened a string of Italian eateries in Manhattan to critical acclaim. But his latest venture, Del Posto, has attracted as much attention for the price of valet parking, $29, as for the quality of the food.
A feud with the landlord over the lease has also kept the food gossips chattering, and the fact that Batali spent $12 million on the cavernous marble and mahogany space has left some wondering if things are getting out of hand.
"The extreme pomp of the place -- the footstools for ladies' purses, the high-tea piano music, the miles of marble, the fleets of flatware -- can feel like a put on," The New Yorker magazine said in a review of Del Posto, which opened in January.
The restaurant has a staff of 150 and feeds around 320 diners a night. The wine list has 1,700 wines -- all Italian except for the Champagnes -- and Batali's chefs make everything from bread to salamis on site.
He defends the price of a seafood risotto at $60, noting that critics generally fail to mention it is to be shared by two people. "It's a little bit more than a Happy Meal, and it took 150 people to get it to you," he said.
Mike Salmon, host of a food talk show on Air America radio, said the attention to detail at Del Posto was beyond reproach -- from the exquisite olives in the martinis to fancy metal stirrers in the Diet Coke -- but despite excellent food, it didn't quite live up to his expectations.
"While everything was very good, it didn't wow me at all," Salmon said. "It was lacking a certain personality."
He recalled that as he was eating, he heard a woman at the bar screeching loudly and when he asked what happened, the waiter quipped: "I don't know, maybe she just saw the check."
European-based Airbus is pitching a standing-room-only option for Asian carriers. The proposal calls for passengers to be propped against a padded backboard and held in place with a harness. Thinner seats will also give passengers more legroom.
However, so far, no Asian airlines have agreed to the idea and there's no word yet as to what American carriers think of the idea.
While several news sources picked up on this "rumor," Airbus denied it shortly after the rumor began to spread.
The New York Times reported that Airbus has quietly pitched the standing-room-only option to Asian carriers, though none have agreed to it yet. But a spokeswoman for Airbus flatly denied the report Tuesday, going so far as to call it "crap."
"Our passengers and customers want more and more comfort," said Barbara Kracht a spokeswoman for the European aircraft maker. "We're going in the direction of more comfort, not in that direction."
The paper, quoting experts who it said had seen a proposal, reported that if the standing room option is used, passengers would be propped against a padded backboard, held in place with a harness.
"To call it a seat would be misleading," Volker Mellert, a physics professor at Oldenburg University in Germany, told the paper. Mellert has done research on airline seat comfort and has seen the design, according to the Times report. Mellert could not be reached for comment by CNNMoney.com Tuesday.
The paper said that the use of standing room would allow the new A380 double-decker jet that Airbus is in the process of introducing to hold up to 853 passengers, compared to about 500 passengers if they were given traditional seats.
But Airbus' Kracht said that the A380 has been approved to hold 853 passengers and a crew of 20 all fully seated, albeit all in coach-class seating. The lower capacity is if the plane is divided into traditional three-class service with first- and business-class sections.
The Palm Beach Post has an article about how David Copperfield and 2 of his assistants were robbed after a show. The assistants gave up the cash, passports, and other things they were carrying after having a gun pointed at them, but Copperfield managed to conceal his wallet, passport, and cellphone while still pulling out his pockets to prove he had nothing on him.
"Call it reverse pickpocketing," Copperfield said.
Copperfield read the license plate to [his assistant] Daly as she called 911. Daly also described the suspects to the operator as "very urban-like" and cops pulled over the car at 45th Street and Broadway at 11:25 p.m. Copperfield and the women were taken quickly to the location in a squad car, and they identified the handcuffed youths as the robbers. The loot was recovered.
Copperfield explained that he signed several autographs and took pictures with fans earlier on the fateful walk, and first assumed when the robbers came that they, too, wanted his signature.
"I could tell they didn't know me," he said. So, is he soured on WPB? "We look forward to coming back to Palm Beach in the future," Copperfield said. "Obviously, we are safe there."
D.C. United enjoyed plenty of entertaining moments during its 4-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday at Giants Stadium, a result that kept the club undefeated after four matches and left its rivals still searching for a win.
There was a natty passing combination that led to Alecko Eskandarian's second goal, a 35-yard rocket by Facundo Erpen and a clinical finish by Jamil Walker. But the most amusing element of the one-sided match unfolded just before halftime, when Eskandarian broke a scoreless tie with his first goal, a 13-yard stab past Tony Meola made possible by a sloppy New York clearing attempt that fell into his path.
After scoring, Eskandarian, who missed most of last season with post-concussion syndrome, charged toward the United bench. From the sideline, Walker, who had yet to enter the game, flipped him a can of Red Bull, the energy drink created by an Austrian company that recently bought the operating rights to New York's MLS franchise.
Eskandarian popped it open, took a big swig and then spit the contents onto the turf.
New York Coach Mo Johnston said afterward that he wasn't offended. United's coaching staff, however, was disappointed by the antic, which was written up in the game officials' report and could result in a fine.
"By no means was that trying to offend anyone," Eskandarian said. "It was just something funny for the guys to laugh at in the locker room. They're our rival. It was a joke."
When a trial attorney asked to use [Dr. Alan] Hirsch's research about food preferences and personality to help pick a jury, Hirsch had a warning: "I told him not to pick people who like cheese curls," he says. "They're very moral, have very high standards and see things in black-and-white. You don't want this person on a jury, especially if your guy might be guilty.The one word that describes them is 'integrity.' "
Hirsch, a psychiatrist and neurologist, has written a book, "What's Your Food Sign? How To Use Food Clues To Find Lasting Love."
As founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Hirsch is best-known for his work with odors — how some turn you on or help you lose weight, while others keep you awake at night. He's done more than 180 studies on sensory phenomena and disorders and has 80 others in the works.
With all due respect, it sounded a smidge like a junior-high science-fair project to me, albeit one that spanned 20 years and involved 18,631 people. Hirsch began by giving people a battery of personality tests, then asked their food preferences. Then he took that data and looked for correlations. He found clear links between what people ate and how they acted, and at least one finding took him totally by surprise.
"People who liked foods I would consider to be very blah and bland, like vanilla or pretzels, turned out to be the personalities that were the most spicy and craved novelty," he says. "It's almost like, if they have it in their personalities, they don't need to have it in their food."
When it comes to compatibility, however, things don't always make sense. Pretzel people, for example, who are quirky, fun, lively and energetic, are most compatible with other pretzel lovers, ambitious potato-chip people or cheese-curl fans. But it turns out that cheese-curl people are most compatible with either potato-chippers or the perfectionist tortilla-chip types.
The whole project originally was supposed to have psychiatric applications, but it turned out to be relevant in other realms, like jury selection and hiring practices. Hirsch recommends using his findings as a possible screening tool: "Take them out to lunch and see what they order." Hirsch says his results might be useful for finding out possible mates at cocktail parties or in singles bars. Just pay attention to the cheese shapes they choose or what kind of vodka they order.
As for cheese-curl fanatics, according to Hirsch's findings, they're fussy about cleanliness, keep spotless houses and never clutter their desks.
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried tops the list compiled by the Boston Phoenix's Web site. The list is a mix of entertainers, sports stars, even terrorists. Osama bin Laden is number eight on the list.
Of Gottfried, the Phoenix says "The parrot-voiced, pickled-face comic is to sexy what Kryptonite is to Superman."
The list fills out the top five with media personalities Roger Ebert, Dr. Phil, and Alan Colmes. Others on the unsexy list include Michael Jackson, Jerry Seinfeld, Ron Howard, and Clay Aiken. Of Aiken, the runner-up to Ruben Studdard on "American Idol 2," the site snarks "he still looks like someone's bratty little brother."
Other musicians show up on the list as well. Nickelback's Chad Kroeger gets dissed for "massive head, weird face, and bad hair," as well as for simply being in Nickelback, which the magazine calls "the worst band since the dawn of music." And My Chemical Romance member Gerard Way is labeled the "luckiest dude since Ringo."
Britney Spears' husband Kevin Federline ranks 99th, with the comment "Mooching hicks aren't so hot these days."
Phoenix readers are having their own say by commenting on the online article. Not all of them are thrilled with the choices or the methodology. Says one "There is 1 major problem with this list, 2 GUYS WROTE IT! Why are 2 guys writing the '100 most unsexy men list'?" Says another "First of all, Kevin Federline should be #1."
And Gilbert's reaction?
"I’m just glad to be number one on any list," says the comedian. "I’m just so proud I beat out Osama bin Laden. He’s a terrorist who hasn’t bathed in a few years and I’ve still beaten him. I say: In your face, al Qaeda! If he would have won unsexiest, the terrorists would have won."
But there’s one man Gottfried isn’t so happy to see appear beneath him. "I understand being less sexy than Osama bin Laden, but not less sexy than Carrot Top," he says. "That I find offensive."
Gottfried says he goes to the same gym as Meat Loaf (No. 77) but that he’s already feeling the pressure of maintaining his "unsexiest" crown. "I have to keep being number one each year. So I’ve started seeing the same plastic surgeon that Mickey Rourke goes to."
The spending choices are allowable under the guidelines of the Assistance to Firefighters grant administered by the Homeland Security Department, which has awarded nearly 250 grants since February totaling more than $25 million out of the current spending pot of $545 million.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff vowed to redirect grant spending based on risk of a terrorist attack, but Congress has ignored his pleas, federal officials say. "The administration has not supported the funding for physical fitness equipment as part of the fire grant program," says Marc Short, Homeland Security spokesman. "Physical fitness is an individual responsibility."
The Bush administration has specifically asked Congress not to allow funding for physical fitness, but the members who run Congress' appropriation committees keep inserting the language into the department's budget, officials say.
In Florida, the Plantation City Council recently voted to use its $28,000 grant for treadmills, stationary bikes and training machines for police and firefighters. The Crawfordsville Fire Department in Indiana is using its $55,000 to buy gym equipment, provide nutritional counseling and instruct firefighters on how to become fitness trainers. The LAFS for Life program which received a $69,000 grant, partners with the Des Moines, Iowa, fire department to teach fire safety through puppet and clown shows. The Onalaska Fire Department in Wisconsin also has an $8,000 grant for clowns and puppet shows, and Grants Pass in Oregon will use a $22,000 grant to buy an educational robot.
Virginia has been awarded the largest amount of funding through seven grants totaling $2,764,551; Washington, D.C., is second with three grants totaling $2,499,873; Massachusetts is third with $2,055,234; Indiana has eight grants totaling $2,040,064; and Maryland has five grants totaling $1,911,574.
Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said Congress and Homeland officials are "having trouble prioritizing. They've spent billions since September 11, and while we've avoided another terrorist attack, it's clear a lot of this money could have been spent more effectively," Mr. Schatz says.
"Even if fire departments are eligible, I would hope they would tell Congress what their real needs are and say 'please don't send us money for puppet and clown shows,'?" Mr. Schatz said. "People in New York and other major cities will not find this funny at all."
"I’m just glad to be number one on any list," says the comedian. "I’m just so proud I beat out Osama bin Laden. He’s a terrorist who hasn’t bathed in a few years and I’ve still beaten him. I say: In your face, al Qaeda! If he would have won unsexiest, the terrorists would have won."
