Occupy Wall Street Is Without Power

Adrian Chen · 10/28/11 05:33PM

The no-fun brigade at the FDNY took all of Occupy Wall Street's gas generators this morning, leaving them without power or heat as an especially chilly weekend approaches.

No One Wants to Dress Up as a Politician This Halloween

Jim Newell · 10/28/11 04:44PM

The Washington Post reports, somewhat anecdotally, that the wiseacres who usually dress up as a comical political figure for Halloween would rather just go as someone unrelated to politics this year, as the horror of thinking about our broken system is now too too depressing, even on Halloween.

Dragonflies Are Humongous Cowards

Hamilton Nolan · 10/28/11 04:11PM

Tumbleweed comeback! Aspirin cancer! Goosebump fear! Star molecules! Cowardly dragonflies! Fish labeling! Python organs! Spider foreplay! And outer space's most popular costumes! It's your Friday Science Watch, where we watch science—with bravado!

Tallest Midget Alert: DC's 'Bad Boy Reporter'

Hamilton Nolan · 10/28/11 02:42PM

In your frigid Friday media column: DC has a "Bad boy" reporter, Brian Williams discusses the Twitter, a Reuters plagiarism kerfuffle, a CNNer becomes a flack, and Gene Weingarten gripes.

One Man's Quest to Tweet Every Word in the English Language

Adrian Chen · 10/28/11 02:36PM

Since late 2007, an obscure Twitter account has been automatically tweeting a single word every half an hour. The ultimate goal: to tweet every word in the English language. We spoke to the guy behind Everyword.

Herman Cain Is Tired, Will 'Slow Down'

Jim Newell · 10/28/11 01:51PM

We're at the point in the presidential campaign where Herman Cain was supposed to be dropping out and having a nice, leisurely tour to promote his latest motivational book. And yet here he is having to give, and screw up, all of these national media interviews all the time, as the frontrunner. Some "supporters" those supporters are, giving him all of this support! It's time to "slow down," says his campaign.

'America's Next Top Model' Now a Perfume Sold at Target

Maureen O'Connor · 10/28/11 12:59PM

It is perfectly appropriate that, once a brand or person becomes sufficiently ubiquitous, manufacturers turn them into intangible clouds of scent, to permeate the very air we breathe. The latest edition: America's Next Top Model perfume, which will be sold at Target.

600,000 Facebook Logins Are Hijacked Every Day

Adrian Chen · 10/28/11 11:39AM

Facebook thought it was bragging when it announced recently that just 0.06% of its 1 billion daily user logins were made by hijacked accounts. But that's a hell of a lot of logins by hackers and spammers: 600,000/day, according to Sophos. Their new incredibly complicated super-friends scheme should fix this.

Banks: Maybe Debit Card Fees Are a Bad Idea

Hamilton Nolan · 10/28/11 10:46AM

Not so long ago, Bank of America decided that a good way to refill its slightly-less-bulging-than-usual pockets would be to charge people a monthly fee for their debit cards. "This won't cause a massive public backlash at all, probably," they thought to themselves, while setting a box of puppies aflame.