[Someone applauds the necessity of a bike lane as the racers in the 15th leg of the Tour de France ride through Pamiers today. Image via AP]

Charice, the 18-year-old Filipino singer, is preparing for her role in the upcoming season of Glee not by practicing her singing or dancing, but by getting Botox and other treatments. This is really dumb.

[The extravagantly-costumed guests of the Vienna HIV charity Life Ball look more like characters from a dream than anyone in Inception. Pic via AP.]

[Ducati rider Aleix Espargaro from Spain, left, wipes the hell out as he passes by already wiped-the-hell-out Honda rider Randy de Puniet, right, from France during the Moto GP race of the Grand Prix of Germany. Pic via AP]

[The weather in Antelope Valley in southern California was completely manic today when a rainbow glowed through a thunderstorm. Image via AP]

The National Enquirer reports Joran Van der Sloot, who's practically confessed to two murders including American tourist Natalee Holloway in 2005, is also being investigated for the disappearance of girls he recruited as sex workers in Thailand. What a peach!

West Virginia's governor will appoint this 36-year-old sexpot, Carte Goodwin, to temporarily fill the late Robert Byrd's Senate seat. Goodwin, over half-a-century younger than Byrd, is a local ruling class scion, hence the fancy rich-person name "Carte." [Photo: AP]

[Tiger Woods whispers sweet nothings to the putting green today during the first round of the British Open. Image via AP]

Former Democratic party fundraiser Hassan Nemazee, who raised large sums for both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama presidential campaigns, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraudulently acquiring $292 million in loans from three banks.

The Senate has cleared the last procedural hurdle for financial reform and will hold a final vote on this, the Dodd-Frank bill, at 2 p.m. Last vote, we promise! Then Obama will sign it, because he "hates business."

New York Governor David Paterson, desperate for good luck, is now wearing the red string bracelet common among the celebrity enthusiasts of the mystical Jewish tradition of kabbalah. He is, characteristically, wearing it on the wrong wrist. [NYDN]

[French President Nicolas Sarkozy kisses his wife Carla Bruni during Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. Bastille Day, or Quatorze Juillet, is like the Fourth of July, but in France. And on the 14th. Pic via AP]

[A couple walks by paper lanterns at the Yasukuni Shrine during Japan's annual Mitama Festival. More than 30,000 lanterns are displayed each year to honor Japan's war dead. Photo via AP]

Newly re-engaged couple Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston have already registered with Wal-Mart for hunting gear, Laz-E-Boys, and hockey jerseys for their impending nuptials! Okay, it's fake, but it sure is funny. [via, photo via AP]

Two greyhound-racing Floridians are in trouble after their dogs' urine tested positive for cocaine. (Maybe that explains why they're so skinny?) Officials knew trouble was afoot when the dogs won by a nose. [CBS4, Fark, image via AP]

Michael Jackson's former Santa Barbara home was famous for having amusement park rides, a petting zoo, and for the child abuse complaints that originated there. Now the state of California wants to turn Neverland into a state park. Woo-hoo!

Last night, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission met to discuss possibly designating a building on Park Place, north of Wall Street, as a landmark. Of course, the hearing was not about architecture. It was about saving us from THE OTHER.

[Two women, who may or may not be Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari, walk next to the Qalai Khater cemetery in Kabul, Afghanistan. Pic via AP.]

[The Taranis, a prototype unmanned military jet, was unveiled Tuesday by the UK Ministry of Defense. The jet will be controlled by a ground crew, until it gains intelligence and murders us all. Pics via AP. Click through for more.]

Actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, who are impossibly talented and good-looking and rich and Spanish, were married earlier this month, at a friend's house in the Bahamas, of course. Maybe that's where Colton Harris-Moore was headed? [AP]