A new video blog segment is up at Blue Tights, this time showing the cinematographer of Superman at work. (Or you can just read the transcript.)

Microsoft Urges Developers to Prepare for IE 7

Hundreds of nudes cross the Tyne. "About 1,700 men and women have appeared naked in Tyneside in the name of art." There is an accompanying BBC video but the quality is inadequate for your masturbatory needs.

Borowitz: "DENTAL MARIJUANA FACES UPHILL FIGHT" ... Obstacles Abound for Weed as Novocaine Replacement

• Dr. Glausen said he was also concerned by the source of funds used to make the study possible: “I’m suspicious of any pro-marijuana study that is underwritten by Frito-Lay.”
• Elsewhere, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would step down as executive editor of the magazines “Muscle and Fitness” and “Flex,” but that he would retain his editorial position at “Nazi Groper.”

Lots of rare Sophie Marceau photos from the past two decades.

"China to send pig sperm to space"

The trailer for The Thing About My Folks

• "The Thing About My Folks, starring Peter Falk and Paul Reiser, is a semi- autographical film that Reiser wrote specifically for Falk, his all-time favorite actor. A sudden family crisis throws a befuddled writer and his "loose cannon" dad together for an unexpected road trip. Family secrets are uncovered and in a few surprising days, the two men learn more about each other -- and have more fun -- than either imagined possible. Directed by Raymond De Felitta (Sundance Audience Award winner Two Family House), The Thing About My Folks is a story of fathers and sons, husbands and wives, and two men learning to love the women who love them."

You say you love KARL ROVE? You say you love Tijuana BLACK VELVET PAINTING? Now you can have them both in one glorious work of art. And while you're at it, here is the rest of his black velvet collection, including an infinite number of Elvii.

Wedding Crashers, as analyzed by the greatest of all film reviewers, The Filthy Critic.

• "the quick flashes of tits totaling about 15 seconds in Wedding Crashers are as stingy as a Mormon at a strip club."
• "they're all stock characters from the playbook for bad screenwriters who don't know how to fill the space between setting up their premise and the final credits."

We are proud to announce that the "urban legend" division of Other Crap is merging with the "outrageous gas price" division, so we can serve you better. "Why use premium gas when regular will do?"

Bay Area Gas Station Sells $6 Gas. "The ARCO at Market and Castro sure is proud of its gasoline. Just look at the prices -- $3.43 for regular, $6.15 for premium."

The very best ways to spoil the new Harry Potter book! (Ingenious stuff!)

Forgotten pictures of popular people

The new Harry Potter book sold an astonishing 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours, smashing the record held by the previous Potter release

"Australian Joseph Hachem prevailed in his first World Series of Poker Saturday, winning $7.5 million and snatching the game's greatest crown in the longest final table in the tournament's history." He won holding a 7-3! Despite that weak hand, he called a pre-flop raise and pulled a miraculous 4-5-6 on the flop, giving him a virtually undetectable straight. His opponent, not expecting somebody to match a pre-flop raise with a 7-3, never put Hachem on a straight, so he kept betting his ace, and made a big raise when he pulled a pair of aces on the turn. At that point Hachem sensed that he had hooked his fish, so he went all-in, and his opponent followed.

Urban Legend: "Night-vision video documents the bizarre existence of a teenage mutant known as 'Rubber Johnny.'"

Wonka opens with $55 million.

Every time I read something written about the industry, I have to wonder what kind of drugs these writers take.

• First of all, there was the famous "slump," which could easily have been identified as no slump at all if anyone had bothered to look at the numbers. The apparent slump was caused by a fluke year in 2004 which had all kinds of extraordinary windfall numbers (sometimes 25% over the previous year) reaped by The Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 911, both of which brought non-moviegoers into the theaters. Looking deeper into the numbers, one finds that 2005 has been running steadily ahead of 2003, the last year without extraordinary non-recurring income. 2005's negative numbers versus 2004 just represented a return to business as usual, following last year's windfall.
• Then there was the offbeat theory that this would be a poor weekend because the new Potter book would keep people out of the theaters. Scrap another theory. If Potter books affect the box office, the impact appears to be positive. It was a great weekend in which both new films exceeded expectations. This year was about 9% above 2003, a result similar to but slightly better than what has been happening recently - perhaps five million better than I expected. The key point here is that the effect of the 2004 windfall had all but disappeared by mid-July, so 2005 is now running substantially above 2004 as well as 2003. Here is how the Top 12 performed:
  • 2003 - $138.4m
  • 2004 - $140.8
  • 2005 - $151.2
• Where and how did Wonka and Wedding Crashers pick up an extra fifteen million dollars over the Warrior's predictions? There are three sources of that:
  1. First, the overall box was about 9% over 2003, and my expectation would have been about 5%-6%, consistent with trends. The difference added some six million to the total box.
  2. Warrior's estimate was even more conservative. He expected a Top 12 in the $142-143 range, while I thought that group would gross something closer to $145-146. That accounted for another three million.
  3. Fantastic Four slipped dramatically (about 60%), and all of the other carry-overs underperformed as well. The holdovers came in about six million below expectations, with about half of that shortfall coming from FF.

  The fifteen million from those three sources seems to have gone to Wonka and Wedding Crashers.

Trivia. You can win bar bets with this one if you play against old geezers. When I was in school, Alaska was the least populous state. Now it is not in the bottom three! Name the three least populous states. Better print out the page before you make the bet, cuz them old guys ain't gonna believe Alaska didn't make the cut.

Christian Exodus Planned For South Carolina. "South Carolina has been chosen as the place for hundreds, even thousands of Christians to move to, in hopes of impacting the government." I could understand that strategy if they were planning to move a million people but, dude, it's only 2500 immigrants in a state with four million people. They couldn't even have a major impact on bible sales.

VIDEO clips: The Mike Douglas Show. Great memories from the sixties and 70s. Tiger Woods at age two. Leno and Letterman in the late 70s. James Brown and Tricky Dick from the 60s. Andy Kaufman does Elvis. Lots more.

Tiger easily wins his tenth major.

50 years ago today: a disastrous opening day at Disneyland

Matt LeBlanc Pees in Public

The Lost Levels of Super Mario Bros. 3

"I Love Midget Porn" T-shirt: $7.99 Getting arrested and photographed in it: priceless.

Can hot girls be funny? Watch the videos and vote on it.

Sandra Bullock Goes Bridal.

Drinking toilet water out of your faucet is an idea that is getting closer to reality for people living in the city of San Diego.

Walt Disney Pictures may have given a first look at a picture of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest villain Davey Jones at the San Diego Comic-Con.