Lady Gaga Goes For The Meat Vibe Again

Kanye, Taylor And Gaga At The VMA’s – Both Kanye West and Taylor Swift took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday and addressed a matter from last year’s VMAs that had refused to die. Their separate but equally emotional performances seemed to provide resolution to the incident, while overshadowing the show’s other moments, including Lady Gaga’s eight VMA wins. [associated]

Nadal Wins His First US Open Title – In 2008, mental exhaustion undermined Rafael Nadal’s U.S. Open campaign. In 2009, a torn abdominal muscle torpedoed his cause.This year, the Spaniard arrived at the season’s final major fully fit in every respect. And not the first week’s withering heat, the second week’s maddening wind, Monday’s nearly two-hour rain delay or a gut-spilling challenge from Serbia’s Novak Djokovic denied the dream. [washingtonpost]

Even Faster Internet Going To The US – In the global race to see who can offer the fastest Internet service, an unlikely challenger has emerged: Chattanooga, Tennessee. The city-owned utility, EPB, plans to announce on Monday that by the end of this year it will offer ultra-high-speed Internet service of up to one gigabit a second. That is 200 times faster than the average broadband speed in America. You’re downloading a movie every two seconds.. [nytimes]

Mexico Arrests Drug Kingpin – Sergio Villarreal, dubbed ‘El Grande’ did not resist capture yesterday when marines cornered him at a safe house in the central Mexican city of Puebla. The raid involved 30 Navy marines, five vehicles and a helicopter. Our boy had a bounty of more than $2million on his head. If I was a drug ‘kingpin’ I wish A) that I was known as “El Grande and B) that it would take 30 men, five vehicles and a chopper to get me! [dailymail]

Facebook CEO Admits To Calling Users ‘Dumb Fucks’ – Mark Zuckerberg admits in a New Yorker profile that he mocked early Facebook users for trusting him with their personal information. A youthful indiscretion, the Facebook founder \ says he’s much more mature now, at the ripe age of 26.”They trust me — dumb fucks,” says Zuckerberg in one of the instant messages. [valleywag]

Study Finds That Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers – A new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does tend to increase one’s risk of dying, even when you exclude former problem drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers’ mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers. Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. [time]

Australian Lawyer Smokes Pages Of Bible And Koran – An Australian lawyer, Alex Stewart, has smoked pages torn from the Koran and the Bible, posting the video on YouTube just days after an American Pastor’s threat to burn the Muslim holy book caused worldwide outrage. In a 12-minute clip entitled “Bible or Koran – which burns best?” Mr Stewart holds up the two religious texts before ripping them apart and lighting the rolled up pages. [telegraph]

South Korea Extends Olive Branch To North Korea – South Korea’s Red Cross announced plans Monday to send 5,000 tons of rice and other humanitarian aid to flood-stricken North Korea. That would mark South Korea’s first major aid shipment to North Korea since the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March that killed 46 sailors. Hmm, Kim would almost definitely see this as a sign of weakness. [newser]

Google Is Shrinking Your Brain – The BBC has a wonderful article which argues that Google is ‘short-circuiting’ our brains by making complicated tasks easier. Using excerpts from a new book by Nicholas Carr, they reckon we are depending on software for all sorts of chores, not giving us enough room to act for ourselves. Apparently Google and software even effects the size of our brains! [bbc]

Commercial Plane Goes Down In Venezuela – 21 Survive – commercial plane carrying at least 51 people crashed shortly after take-off Monday in eastern Venezuela, and officials said at least 21 people survived. The ATR-42 turboprop from the government-run airline Conviasa crashed near Puerto Ordaz and about 10 miles after take-off, Transp. Officials intially reported 47 people on board and at least 23 survivors, but two of the injured later died. [msnbc]

Can The Brits Get Rupert Murdoch? – The New York Times’ many-months investigation of illegal phone hacking by Murdoch reporters in Britain is a reminder that while everybody is accustomed to quaking before Murdoch’s bullying power, the Times’ power, which it tends to use in an awkward fashion, is quite a bit more formidable. Murdoch can destroy reputations; the Times can move governments. [michaelwolff]

Paris Hilton Smuggled Cocaine In Her Vagina – Well there’s a new book out, written by Ryan Simkin, who worked for Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild fame. According to the book, Simkin claims he was once asked to deliver four 8-balls of coke and twenty hits of ecstasy to Paris Hilton so she could smuggle it into France where she was meeting Francis for some vacation time. Upon delivery of the cigarette-box-sized cache of drugs to Hilton, Simkin asked how she planned to get the drugs through security.. [mamapop]

World’s Most Expensive Cheese Sandwich – A U.K. chef has unveiled what might be the world’s most expensive cheese sandwich, according to London’s Guardian newspaper. He’s charging 111 pounds, or $176, for the stack of special cheddar blended with white truffles and topped with a sprinkling of gold dust. Chef Martin Blunos displayed his creation at the Frome cheese show in Somerset. [luxuo]

Celebrity Twitpics – It’s that time again, friends. That part of the week where we peruse the Twitter pics sent out by the celebrities that we love. And hate. Like Lady Gaga, for example – she is included in this list of recent images. And so is Arnold Schwarzenegger, riding his bicycle around Venice Beach. Also includes Ryan Seacrest, Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey, Kelly Osbourne, Shaq, Ashton and more! [dailybeast]

Please Tell Me You’re Not Still Watching Movies On Your Laptop – You DO know about media players, right? Your evaluation copies have never looked better in their full 1080i high definition glory. Get with it. Normally, these can set you back R2k easily – but not today. Let my friends over at OneDayOnly sort you out. In other news, if you still want a piece of that iPad action, you better hurry up. [onedayonly]

[thanks henry, johnny]