Actually, it was just a World War II plane, not an X-Wing. And it was in Greenland. And it was over a decade ago. But the plane flew again today. Full story from the NY Times here.

Admit it. You're You were damn excited about the new Transformers movie. Despite Shia Lebeouf. Despite Michael Bay. Despite the lame nu-metal theme song.

...and you're also damn excited about ageing French duo Daft Punk touring for the first time in many moons about. This instance of 80s and 90s nostalgia coming together in one summer has you very... excited.

...and then there's Kanye. You were damn excited when you heard he was going to sample Daft Punk's "Better, Harder, Faster, Stronger," in his new jam "Stronger", which isn't nearly as good as Juliette Lewis' Daft Punk video.

So in looking to provide something that combines the magic of the above three without any of the reservations, Cosmodrome presents the world premiere of:

DAFT TRANSFORMERS

Unsurprisingly, Supreme Court Justice/orgy-participant Antonin Scalia is a big fan of 24. What's a little more surprising is that Scalia thinks the show is real.

At a recent conference in Canada, Scalia took exception to a Canadian Judge's comment, "Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do not subscribe to the mantra 'What would Jack Bauer do?" Scalia proceeded to throw down:

"Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives... Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?... Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so."

Scalia's delusional faith in the decision-making of great men notwithstanding, the trend of mentioning of Jack Bauer in serious political/legal debate is disturbing. A little over a month ago, Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo invoked Bauer to great effect (at least in the audience's opinion) during a debate question over, essentially, a 24 scenario.

While 24 does bring up torture as a discussion point, the show never, as far as I can remember, shows a downside to torture. Those that are not in favor of torture (read: liberals) are seen as pussies because they don't realize that Jack always gets things right. Like so many action heroes before him, he is basically infallible. So yes, Antonin, if you can find someone else that is completely infallible, I'll be happy to excuse them from the law.

All of this makes arguing over Jack Bauer scenarios in the context of a debate on torture akin to invoking John Rambo's work in Vietnam and Afghanistan in a debate over how we could end the Iraq War. Although I shouldn't count that out - perhaps Rambo is this Administration's master plan for withdrawal from Iraq; we'll find out that Rambo IV is a documentary in which Sly Stallone single-handedly wins the war.

Read on...

Marty Markowitz is thinking of running: "I decided to take the first step on the journey to possibly running for Mayor of New York City."

Great article here about the time honored tradition of the Secret Service ascribing those they protect and defend with nicknames. Here is the rundown.

Now that Mike B. has left the Republican Party behind him, a Presidential run will be heavily discussed.

The Times already has a graphic looking at the success of third party candidates over the years. Even more interesting is when you take into account the current frontrunners: Rudy and Hillary, both of New York. A Clinton-Bloomberg-Giuliani battle would be great to watch, but hell for 95% of the country.

But here's my overly-premature question: who'll run with him? Can't be the green-tied man in the photo. Moreover, as his film bio shows, Arnie has never before co-starred with a Jewish man (not counting John Turturro's brief appearance in Collateral Damage); although he has starred with short men (see TWINS).

So who could it be? Hard to imagine any of the current contenders jumping ship to join him. The country's only other prominent independents are two Senators: a socialist, (Bernie Sanders of Vermont), and a joke (Joe Lieberman of Connecticut).

I'm fresh out of ideas.

This weekend, they referred to it as MyFace or MyPlace. MySpace just wasn’t clicking with the septuagenarians. In response to a recent report they must have seen on Dateline or 60 Minutes or the like, they drummed up a quick plan to wipe out the internet of sexual predators by “censoring MyFace.” Not kidding.

And I’m not even kidding when I tell you that SecondLife is to me what MySpace is to my grandparents. It isn’t that I think we can save the world by passing laws that make Second Life a safer place for our children to inhabit online. It’s the ocean that separates me from even bothering to care what Second Life is about.

Now my grandparents would be happy to learn that a new “virtual environment” has emerged for Second Life. It is called www.vles.com, and it represents “The virtual Lower East Side.” And I could not think of anything lamer. Everything about it so “cool.” The Bands. The clubs. The whole environment is just swimming in a big pool of coolness. And it’s all branded, either by Vice, who seems to have provided much of the preliminary, up front content, and MTV through Viacom. Of course, none of that is really obvious. In fact, the virtuality of the environment comes across as virtually unchanged, or “ridiculously realistic,” as the only tip off that this is a marketers conception is through the ads and copyright information.

Click through for the Sopranos-like video; Bill: "My money's on Smashmouth."

On the AFI’s Wednesday night broadcast, multiple movies directed by Billy Wilder are likely to make the new list. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959), SUNSET BLVD (1950), and THE APARTMENT (1960) all made it into the top 100 back in 1998. However, one of Wilder’s worthiest films, ACE IN THE HOLE (1951), did not make the list in 1998 and is damn near certain to be shut out again this year. Alternatively known by the title THE BIG CARNIVAL, ACE IN THE HOLE tells the story of Chuck Tautum, an opportunistic newspaper reporter (played with animal energy by Kirk Douglas) who exploits the suffering of a man trapped inside a New Mexico cave for his own personal gain.

If my first pick, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, is unabashedly sentimental in its view of American history and culture, then I offer ACE IN THE HOLE as a brazenly cynical counterpart. And if HIS GIRL FRIDAY (Jon’s selection and truly a brilliant film) suggests that punchy journalism, social justice, and heterosexual romance can all go together hand-in-hand, then ACE IN THE HOLE—which is also set in the world of newspaper reporters hungry for a good story—suggests the opposite. The capitalistic imperative for a newspaper to sell (and earn its star reporter lots of money) will inevitably find itself at cross purposes with journalism’s responsibility to tell the truth and our moral responsibility as human beings.

ACE IN THE HOLE overtly stands as a critique of the modern media, but the film can be better understood as an allegory for the entertainment industry as a whole. Inside the door of Tatum’s editor hangs a framed, embroidered sign that reads “Tell the Truth.” For Tatum, the slogan is just as irrelevant as the embroidery is quaint. “Tell the Truth” the mantra of the journalist, but also of the artist. But what happens in Hollywood—when all works of art must be marketable and commercial? What happens when you see the world with a jaundiced view in which every human interaction might be a story to be exploited? Beyond journalism and showbusiness, ACE IN THE HOLE critiques an egomaniacal culture in which empathy and honesty has been tossed aside for the pragmatic and selfish question of “what is in this for me?”

Taking the minimalist (read: boring) campaign advertisement style used by Chris Dodd to another level, Mike Gravel goes with a minimalist/surrealist motif:

Now, I'm down with the go-for-broke mentality as much as the next guy, but these must be a joke.

One more strange ad from Gravel...