Plane Above Wall Street: ‘Thanks for the Downgrade. You Should All Be Fired’ – It’s always nice when an airplane articulates your thoughts for you—like the plane flying above Lower Manhattan today trailing a huge message: “THANKS FOR THE DOWNGRADE. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRED.” [gawker]

Apple Becomes The Most Valuable Company In The World – On Tuesday, the maker of iPhones, iPads and Macs, passed Exxon Mobil, the energy company, to take the title as the stock market’s most valued company. At 2:30 p.m., Apple’s stock was $366.62, up $10.66, or 3.02 percent, giving it a market valuation of $337.11 billion. Exxon Mobil was $68.90, down $1.45, or 2.07 percent, with a market valuation of $333.54 billion, nearly $4 billion less than Apple. [nytimes]

Hackers Threaten Blackberry To Withhold Rioters Info From Police – In an attack on the website of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion, a group calling itself Team Poison wrote “Dear Rim; You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police.” The group said that it was responding to a BlackBerry statement that said the company has “engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can”. [telegraph]

Vivienne Westwood Punishes Kate Middleton – Clothing worn by the Duchess of Cambridge often sells out just minutes after she wears it in public, but not everyone thinks she’s a style guru. The grand dame of British fashion, Vivienne Westwood has described Kate’s look as “ordinary”. “It seems to me, that her image is ‘ordinary woman’. Therefore, High Street shopper. And I just think she should be an extraordinary woman, wherever she gets her clothes from.” Yuuu! [newsau]

Warren Jeffs Gets Life In Prison – The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints leader was found guilty last week of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, who he took as polygamous wives. During his bizarre self-representation on trial for sexual assault, Warren Jeffs protested over and over again the charges were an attack on his people and religion. [sltrib]

Riots Continue Outside London – Sporadic violence has broken out in several cities around England, although London remained largely quiet with a heavy police presence on the streets. With 16,000 police officers deployed in London, the streets remained calm after three previous nights of rioting. [bbc]

Wimpy Attacked In London Riots – A South African-owned Wimpy in Clapham Junction in London was badly damaged when looters attacked the restaurant last night. “It’s like a war there,” South African owner Odile Ham told City Press. Her son, Michael, added: “The whole area looked like a tornado went through there.” [news24]

New iPhone App Makes You An Instant Celebrity – A new mobile app called “Fan Mail” turns anyone who downloads it into an instant celebrity complete with legions of adoring fans. “Movie Stars, Pop Stars, TV Stars, and Athletes get tons of fan mail everyday,” explains Mark Kaye, a radio host and the developer of “Fan Mail.” “Wouldn’t it be great if teachers, doctors, volunteers, and everyone else got fan mail too? Well, now they can!” [newstrack]

Markets Rebound As Fed Pledges To Keep US Rates At Historic Lows – World stocks rebounded from a 10-day rout yesterday as investors banked on the US Federal Reserve coming to the rescue of global markets once again with an extension of its easy-money and low interest rate policy. After the meltdown that has wiped $2,5-trillion off markets since the US lost its triple-A debt status on Friday, investors were expected to continue their flight to safe-haven assets, mainly gold. [businessday]

Rupert Murdoch To Face Wall Street – News Corp is taking a risk in putting boss Rupert Murdoch, famous for his off-script comments, on the media conglomerate’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday with succession questions sure to be asked. [reuters]

Matt Damon For President – Damon has a long history of speaking out on various political causes; once a major supporter of then-candidate Barack Obama, has been critical of the President on a number of fronts, including relations with Wall Street and, most recently, education. Those comments have been music to Moore’s ears, and during a panel discussion hosted by the blog FireDogLake, he gave a tentative endorsement to the star as a candidate. [huffpo]

London Rioters Were “Showing Rich We Can Do What We Want” – Two girls who took part in Monday night’s riots in Croydon have boasted that they were showing police and “the rich” that “we can do what we want”. The pair were drinking wine looted from a local shop. Charming young women, Im sure. [bbc]

Hacker Group Vows To Kill Facebook – Members of the shadowy collective known for its politically motivated Web hacks and attacks are targeting Facebook for what they claim to be the social-networking giant’s misuse of personal information. “Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed,” the speaker said in a YouTube video, which was posted July 16 but started circulating widely this week. [cnn]

It All Started In The Eastern Cape – Whether you are Bill Gates, Lady Gaga or Julius Malema, chances are that your forefathers came from Eastern Cape. This is according to research by Curtis Marean, a professor at the Arizona State University, in the US. [timeslive]

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