Liberty Media, the owner of QVC and a random assortment of other media crap, has put in a billion-dollar bid for Barnes & Noble. What does a media conglomerate want with a book store, these days?

JP Morgan chief and noted dick Jamie Dimon, speaking at the 2011 Celebration of Success in Denver, warned that it would be a "moral disaster" for the US to default on its debts. Considering the source, that's rich.

Italian artist Oliviero Rainaldi recently unveiled a new bronze sculpture of Pope John Paul II outside the main train station in Rome. Quite an honor for an artist, we'd imagine. But the Vatican has decided to piss on Rainaldi's parade, saying the sculpture looks nothing like John Paul II (we're guessing Rainaldi wasn't going for the detailed wax figure look, but who knows, right?).

Three journalists who were captured and detained by Qaddafi loyalists in early April — James Foley, Clare Morgana Gillis, and Manu Brabo — were released yesterday. The fate of a fourth journalist who was with them, 41-year-old South African photojournalist Anton Hammerl, had been unclear for
the past six weeks. Hammerl was shot on April 5 outside of the Libyan town of Brega after the group came under fire from Qaddafi troops in armored vehicles. GlobalPost spoke with Foley and Gillis after their release in Tunisia:

Moss-covered property troll Donald Trump may have sacrificed a presidential bid in order to better serve the Celebrity Apprentice-watching people, but that doesn't mean he'll stop giving of himself. The man just gives and gives! Wait, did I say gives? I meant "takes"—as in $35,000 per course at his institute of higher earning, Trump U.

Today on Lavish Gifts That Make Me Uneasy, China has agreed to provide Pakistan with 50 JF-17 fighter jets — or roughly the equivalent of a new pony for a 7-year-old girl. It's a direct outcome of Prime Minister Gilani's visit to Beijing this week, a four-day jaunt intended to send a clear signal to the U.S. that killing Osama bin Laden without so much as texting them first was totally not cool. ("Humiliated" was the word Defense Secretary Robert Gates used to describe them.)

You know that Volkswagen you're driving? Hitler founded the company. You know that Hugo Boss suit you're wearing? His ads once touted, "Supplier for Nazi uniforms since 1924." Nazi stuff! Right under our noses! A new piece of legislation — from Maryland, of all places — would make sweeping that information under the carpet a crime.

Here's your daily update on the catastrophic Newt Gingrich campaign for president! The Take: He's still faring poorly. Armies of cocktail-swilling literati sheep are still emptying their "clips" on him and everything he's said or done in the past week.

Blood tests! Omnipresent alligators! Abounding planets! European telescope! Disappearing Avandia! Sniffing mammals! Laser wheelchairs! Repulsive energy! And DIY levees! It's your Thursday Science Watch, where we watch science—as if Schrodinger's cat would allow such a thing!

French politician and rumored "rutting chimpanzee" Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been granted $1 million bail and home detention while he awaits trial for the alleged sexual assault of a hotel chambermaid. Arriving in court, Strauss-Kahn gave "a quick smile to supporters in the gallery" Such a charmer! I guess he didn't do it, after all. [AP, image via AP]

You've probably never heard of Marty Martin. He spent most of his life as an anonymous CIA operative. But he very recently came out of the closet as the man Bush put in charge of finding Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of 9/11, and guess what? It turns out the man Bush put in charge of finding bin Laden is an extremely shady and allegedly corrupt war profiteer. Who would have thought?

People with half a human soul still extant in their corporeal shells tend to be creeped out by the concept of "private prisons," what with its overtones of prison-industrial complex run amok. But hey, private prisons save a few bucks, so bring em on! Right? No.

President Obama attempted to reset relations with the Arab world Thursday in a comprehensive speech that positioned the United States and its values squarely behind the democratic uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa and promised aid to help promote economic growth and stability across the region.

No book has scared away more possible presidential candidates this cycle than Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's Game Change, the definitive "horse race" account of the 2008 presidential race that focuses on making every relevant politician's family life look like utter shit. Haley Barbour and John Thune have already bypassed runs this year largely on account of their spouses wanting no part of the gossip industries that would coalesce around them, and Mitch Daniels is still weighing his decision for similar reasons. But are these pulp novels giving Rep. Michele Bachmann some hesitancy, too?

America's most huggable teddy bear, Dick Cheney, has been working on his memoirs from his CIA-bunker house ever since leaving office. It should have been on bookstore shelves for a year or so by now, former vice president's rather serious heart problems got in the way. But now that's all over! In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir will hit shelves on August 30, so grab your sleeping bags and head over to the nearest bookstore entrance now.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned as head of the IMF over his sexual assault case, while firmly proclaiming his innocence. What else is new on the DSK front? Plenty!

New York City is besieged with them: "The decadent. The depraved. The malodorous, greedy, drunk and demented."

Depending on who you ask, Osama bin Laden might be dead, but he's certainly not forgotten. And just when you thought people were starting to forget, a new tape has surfaced on jihadi websites of the Qaeda honcho praising the so-called "Arab Spring" uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.

Members of Sea Shepherd, the least cool gang of self-styled pirates currently operating on the open seas, are setting off on an important new crusade: stopping tuna poaching off the coast of Libya.

Accused sex criminal and probable bad-tipper Dominique Strauss-Kahn sits behind bars, repeatedly denied bail out of fears he'll jump a charter flight to the nearest extradition-exempt Club Med locale. Meanwhile, his countrymen have been rallying behind the former IMF head.