dave submitted a link to a story on E!Online that gets the "Most Inappropriate Use of an Image" award. It's about how the suicide of a young employee over the weekend shut down The Daily Show yesterday.

My guess is they meant to use this picture (or this one), where Stephen Colbert's left eyebrow is at half mast.

dave submitted an article about a new reality series centered around Madden '06:

"ESPN 2 is airing a reality series with Madden gamers competing to stay aboard a nationwide bus trip. The ride ends in NYC with 2 people playing for winner take all $100,000, on the big screen in Times Square."

Coca-Cola is going to debut its newest flavor of Coke, a coffee-cola blend called Coca-Cola Blāk, according to their press release.

it will launch Coca-Cola Blāk in January in France, the first of several countries – including the United States - that are expected to introduce the new Coca-Cola and coffee fusion in 2006.

Coca-Cola Blāk is an invigorating and stimulating blend that has a perfect balance of the effervescent taste sensation of Coca-Cola and natural flavors, with real coffee. The lightly carbonated, mid-calorie beverage, which is designed to appeal to adult consumers, is yet another example how The Coca-Cola Company reaches out to new audiences and addresses new beverage occasions.

"Coca-Cola Blāk is not just a flavor extension. It is a blend of unique Coke refreshment with the true essence of coffee and has a rich smooth texture and has a coffee-like froth when poured. We believe we have created a new category of soft drink – an adult product in a carbonated beverage – and a whole new drinking experience. This brand is ideal for any part of the day when people are looking for renewed energy or simply to take a break," said Marc Mathieu, vice president, Global Core Brands, The Coca-Cola Company.

I was scrolling through the Google News page and a headline caught my eye:

Before I actually read the description (and Sports heading, which was less obvious in the context of the page), I was wondering why there was a football picture, and also about how weird (and unlikely :) the headline was.

There's a site called www.moviemistakes.com that has some comprehensive lists of errors in movies (continuity, intentional, factual, movie crew visible, etc.). They also have a list of the best visual mistakes accompanied by pictures, such as a storm trooper walking into a door frame in Star Wars because he couldn't see his helmet was too tall, or a gas canister visible on a chariot in Gladiator.

According to The Michigan Daily, a grandmother did a 3-story beer bong.

When 83-year-old New York-native Frances Levine could not attend her grandson’s graduation from the University a year ago, she made it a point to visit campus this year. "I try to visit all the colleges of my grandchildren," Levine explains.

With plans to visit her granddaughter, LSA sophomore Allie Levine, Frances’s son Murray Levine arranged for her to visit the University Nov. 12 and attend the Michigan football game against Indiana. As the Levine family made their way from Allie's Delta Phi Epsilon sorority house to Michigan Stadium, Allie warned her grandmother about the party-heavy atmosphere and the drinking that goes on during a Football Saturday in Ann Arbor. Frances found out first-hand when her group stopped at 914 State St., the apartment building known for its three-story beer bong.

Many students were standing around the bong, a large funnel at the top, followed by nearly 30 feet of tubing. Few students were attempting the beer bong and those who did were getting drenched in beer. But Frances decided to give it a chance.

"My mother got closer and closer and said 'I think I'm going to give it a try,' " Murray said.

Frances said her family was baffled by her curiosity and interest in the college tradition. "They said, 'You can't do this!' and I said 'Why not?'"

Murray asked one of the students controlling the beer bong if he would lend his coat to Frances so she would not get covered in beer like those who had gone befor her. Frances requested that the guys put just a little beer in the bong. According to Korycinski, he usually uses two 16-ounce cups of beer for each person, but for Frances, he gave her just one 12-ounce beer.

"On a day like that — to see her hit it was pretty amazing," Korycinski said.

In fact, Frances became a bit of a local celebrity that day. After the game while she was waiting for Murray to get the car, she was immediately recognized by a group of guys. "They said, 'you're the woman who did the three-story beer bong!' " Frances recalled.

I hope I'm that cool when I'm 83.

Want to make sure you're not getting ripped off on that next DVD purchase? Why not compare prices with 2 of the more common (and cheap!) online sellers: amazon.com and deepdiscountdvd.com

I am hoping to add more to the page, it's pretty basic right now. Best Buy really makes it difficult to extract DVD prices from their webpages. Any other sites which you find you'd like to see compared? Leave it as a comment here.

Hmm...where will I get Airplane: The "Don't Call Me Shirley" edition?

There's an AP story about a man who got shot after making a bomb threat once a plane had touched down in Miami coming from Columbia.

A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot by a federal air marshal Wednesday on a jetway connected to an American Airlines plane that had arrived from Colombia, officials said.

The passenger's condition was not immediately disclosed. A witness said the man frantically ran down the aisle and a woman with him said he was mentally ill.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said after the plane had parked at the gate, a passenger indicated there was a bomb in the bag. The passenger was confronted by air marshals but ran off the plane, Doyle said.

A team of air marshals pursued and ordered the passenger to get on the ground. The passenger did not comply and was shot when apparently reaching into the bag, Doyle said.

Passenger Mary Gardner told WTVJ in Miami that the man ran down the aisle from the rear of the plane. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air," she said. She said a woman followed, shouting, "My husband! My husband!" Gardner said she heard the woman say her husband was bipolar and had not had his medication.

In one of the most ludicrous stories ever, todaysthv.com reports on an incredibly bizzare chain of events.

Police in Memphis say a woman mistook a block of white cheese for a cocaine stash and tried to hire a hit man to kill four men and steal it.

Police say Jessica Sandy Booth was mistaken about the hit man, too. He was an undercover policeman.

Booth is 18. She's charged with four counts of attempted murder and four more of soliciting a murder.

Authorities say Booth was in the men's house recently and thought a block of queso fresco cheese was cocaine. The cheese is used in cooking.

Police say Booth, who is an aspiring model, told the hit man she needed $7,900 to pay a modeling agency. The undercover officer was recording Booth's conversation and police say they have her saying any children old enough to testify would have to be killed as well.

People in the home gave police permission to search it. They found only the cheese.

Scientists have created a material that is flexible during slow motions and impacts, but stiffens upon sudden hits and impacts, according to a Live Science article.

A shear thickening material, it is flexible when moved slowly, but when it is compresssed by an impact, its molecules lock together. The material stiffens, spreading the impact over a greater area. The Swiss company Ribcap is bringing out a new line of headgear for snowsports based on this material. The Ribcap is a combination soft, flexible beanie and tough helmet.

After five years of development, the Ribcap team settled on d3o as the material of choice. Ruth Gough, d3o's brand manager describes her own experience using the Ribcap while out on the piste:

... she [Gough] had a rather dramatic fall that terminated on her head. "I was a bit dazed, and I almost wasn't sure whether I had actually hit my head, although the concern I got from those who saw it assured me that I really had, and quite hard!"

This is a common reaction to real world d3o impact trials. d3o is so comfortable it feels like an extension of you. It's very easy to forget it's there, and you'd be forgiven for thinking, in that split second before you hit the ground "this is never going to work..." (From d3o technology and Ribcap)

Pretty cool.