Those of you who've flown domestic airlines some time in the last, oh, decade are probably aware of "Skymall," the ubitquous shopping magazine found in airliner seat pockets everywhere.

Skymall is always mildly amusing to page through while taxing for the usual two hours at O'Hare, or sitting on the tarmac waiting for your terminal gate to free up after landing at LaGuardia.

But now, they've crossed the line.

A Freddy Mercury action figure?

Freddy "Bohemian Rhapsody" "We Are The Champions" Mercury?!?

As Gizmodo notes, it's a sign that we're doomed.

Filed under Fun because, heck, it's fun to watch the movie Redacted go down so ignominiously.

audiences are really avoiding “Redacted," De Palma's picture about US soldiers who rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, then kill her and her family. The message movie was produced by NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who insisted on deleting grisly images of Iraqi war casualties from the montage at the film's end. Cuban offered to sell the film back to De Palma at cost, but the director was too smart to go for that deal. “Redacted" - which “could be the worst movie I've ever seen," said critic Michael Medved -took in just $25,628 in its opening weekend in 15 theaters, which means roughly 3,000 people saw it in the entire country. “This, despite an A-list director, a huge wave of publicity, high praise in the Times, The New Yorker, left-leaning sites like Salon, etc.

(Emphasis in original.  Hat tip:  Instapundit)

Or, Putting Cats To Work:

“Well, if that is what some like to style themselves, I will play along, Papyrus, but according to Brooke, in this long essay, managing these wayward coders … oops, I mean, engineers … is like herding cats.”

“Ah, Gulabi, Brooke is entitled to his opinion, but I do not particularly like this analogy. We don’t ‘herd’ our software engineers, we manage them. Well, let me tell you that managing my teams is a different art. They are not bovine creatures.”

The whole article really isn't as funny as it could have been.  Oh, well . . .
(Via Fark)

S.D. man downs 5.5 ounces of hot sauce

TEA, S.D. (AP) - A South Dakotan may be new world-record holder when it comes to swallowing Tabasco sauce. Levi Johnson of Tea drank 5.5 ounces of the hot sauce, or nearly 3 bottles, in 30 seconds at a sports bar in that community.

The Guinness Book of World Records lists the previous record at 5.07 ounces. Johnson's feat must be verified by Guinness publishers before it is considered official.

Ouch.

DirecTV just launched their expanded high definition programming today.

Here's the lineup of new channels I get (which are not all of the new HD channels, by the way, just the ones I'm paying for):

A&E HD
Animal Planet HD
Big Ten Network HD
CNN HD
Discovery Channel HD
History Channel HD
NFL Channel HD
Smithsonian Channel HD
Starz HD
Starz Comedy HD
Starz Edge HD
Starz Kids&Family HD
TBS HD
Science Channel HD
Weather Channel HD
TLC HD
Versus HD

These join the previous HD package:
Local over-the-air channels
Discovery HD Theater
ESPN HD
ESPN2 HD
HDNet
HDNet Movies
TNT HD
Universal HD

Usually, the dog days of summer are a lazy lull in the overall news cycle.  It is so this year, notwithstanding the prodigious efforts of the newsie industry.  So, I ain't postin' much, 'cause I ain't thinkin' that much is of great import at the moment.

One week ago tonight, I posted the sad news of the demise of the Weekly World News.  Ed Anger, where will you go now?

The Weekly World News will cease publication.

Who will now report on the frequent meetings of our Presidents with various space aliens?

I weep for Bat Boy.  I weep for our Press.  I weep for America.

(hat tip:  Wizbang.)