The good folks of Condé Nast are having a good ol’ time with all the publicity garnered from last week’s controversial New Yorker cover cartoon, which depicts Sen. Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as terrorists infiltrating the White House. So, to spoof their downstairs neighbors, Vanity Fair has created a cover of their own. This time it’s a (believably) geriatric McCain. But which one is better satire? You decide:

Which cover wins?

The political world has its panties in a bunch this morning over the cover illustration of this week’s (July 21st) cover of the New Yorker. This illustration by Barry Blitt, called “The Politics of Fear,” combines every smear tactic so far used against presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.

The Obama campaign has already called it “tasteless and offensive,” reports the Huffington Post. And nobody else really knows what to think of it.

Is it ok because it’s the New Yorker? Should we freak out about this like we freak out about everything else, or try to explain it, so we seem more sophisticated? This seems to be the internal battle of the media, but screw them. How do you feel about it?

The New Yorker cover: social satire or a vicious political hit?

With television audiences declining by the day, film and show creators are struggling to find a way to distribute their products in the 2.0 world. Increasingly, people watch their visual entertainment on a computer monitor or cell phone. But Google seems to think they’ve found the answer, and they’ve just signed a deal with Family Guy creator, Seth McFarlane to test it out.

Using Google’s Adsense advertising system, Google will syndicate video clips of the new project, called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy,” on Websites (like this one) geared towards younger male viewers. (more…)

Ballsy, right? Just who am I to give advice on how to get laid in Beantown?

If I can follow these ridiculous tips (without taking them too seriously) and increase my chances of following a hot-enough Bostonian to her BoSox-adorned apartment, so can you.

Have I ever tried these personally? Of course not – but that shouldn’t stop you from reading and being slightly entertained. And isn’t that the point, to read one story a day that makes you go, “Oh…ok. That was marginally fun. That was pretty good, I guess – I think. It wasn’t great by any means, but I didn’t hate it, either. I don’t care about it enough to hate it. Grade: C-” (more…)

For the first time in history, all “significant literary, artistic, and scientific works of mankind can be digitally preserved and made available, in every corner of the world, for our education, study, and appreciation and that of all our future generations.”

The Universal Library (ULIB) is a long-running internet project that plans to be a one-stop portal for all books, digitizing what is to become the be-all, end-all of archiving. Best of all, the complete collection will be free of charge. College students rejoice: never again will you have to pay $65 for a book on Western Civilization if ULIB is successful. (more…)