Photo: Getty Images "Oh, every day there's something. Yesterday somebody sent me a picture of this crazy pig with a monkey face. So, yeah, there's always something." —J.J. Abrams on where he gets his science ideas [Popular Science/PopSci] "Imagine Don McLean growing up in Cleveland in the '70s and if he was black, with a little bit of Cat Stevens twisted into his words and a little bit of Richie Havens — that's the thought ...

Photo: Getty Images It's the least interesting day of the year's slowest news week and so we turn our attention to another poorly sourced, certainly untrue rumor from the Telegraph (who seem to be the masters of that sort of thing these days). According to "a source," if Jason Segel's in-development Muppet movie turns out a success, a new version of The Muppet Show could maybe find its way to television. "If the movie script ...

Courtesy of Good Machine On the long list of movies we never in a million years thought we'd ever see sequels to, Todd Solondz's Happiness was surely somewhere near the top — until today! Variety reports that new indie production company Werc Werk Works is financing Solondz's "part-sequel, part-companion piece" to the 1998 pedophile comedy. Like the original, Happiness 2 (our title) will be told through a "series of intersecting love stories" about a "group ...

Photo: Getty Images The Wall Street Journal reports today on the bizarre growing phenomenon of artists and record companies refusing to do business with Apple's iTunes based on the theory that making single songs available for download hurts the more profitable business of selling complete albums. The dubious evidence? Kid Rock's 2007 record Rock N Roll Jesus, which was never released on iTunes, has sold 1.7 million physical copies. Utterly convinced by this obviously perfect ...

Photo: Getty Images The Wall Street Journal reports today on the bizarre growing phenomenon of artists and record companies refusing to do business with Apple's iTunes based on the theory that making single songs available for download hurts the more profitable business of selling complete albums. The dubious evidence? Kid Rock's 2007 record Rock N Roll Jesus, which was never released on iTunes, has sold 1.7 million physical copies. Utterly convinced by this obviously perfect ...

Photo: Getty Images As you'll probably recall, back in June, nine finished-sounding tracks from Guns N' Roses' fabled opus, Chinese Democracy, were leaked via some dude's blog. A takedown notice came fast, followed by an exciting visit from the FBI, leading some to believe that Democracy was actually a completed, existent thing. Now comes word that 27-year-old blogger Kevin Cogill of Culver City, California, has been arrested on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws and ...

"I'm only going over the rules one more time: We put a cookie in the center…"Photo: Kate Glicksberg Once in a while, Vulture takes a peek at what your friends and neighbors think of a concert. Today, the Guy Who Was Disappointed That the Game Let Last Night's Irving Plaza Show Be Overrun by Guests. (Apologies to Daily Intel and the Sex Diaries.) 10:03 p.m.: Young Joc starts things off with “It’s Going Down.” Huh. ...

Courtesy of Good Machine On the long list of movies we never in a million years thought we'd ever see sequels to, Todd Solondz's Happiness was surely somewhere near the top — until today! Variety reports that new indie production company Werc Werk Works is financing Solondz's "part-sequel, part-companion piece" to the 1998 pedophile comedy. Like the original, Happiness 2 (our title) will be told through a "series of intersecting love stories" about a "group ...

Courtesy of Focus Features Because the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading is the follow-up to No Country for Old Men, pretty much everyone has high hopes that it's a goofball comedy like their good one, The Big Lebowski, instead of a goofball comedy like their two subsequent crappy ones (The Lady Killers and Intolerable Cruelty). Is it? No one can agree! "Those who relish this movie might treat it as the second coming of The ...

Courtesy of Focus Features Because the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading is the follow-up to No Country for Old Men, pretty much everyone has high hopes that it's a goofball comedy like their good one, The Big Lebowski, instead of a goofball comedy like their two subsequent crappy ones (The Lady Killers and Intolerable Cruelty). Is it? No one can agree! "Those who relish this movie might treat it as the second coming of The ...

Is a man who doesn't understand Facebook writing a movie about Facebook?

Photo: Getty Images As you'll probably recall, back in June, nine finished-sounding tracks from Guns N' Roses' fabled opus, Chinese Democracy, were leaked via some dude's blog. A takedown notice came fast, followed by an exciting visit from the FBI, leading some to believe that Democracy was actually a completed, existent thing. Now comes word that 27-year-old blogger Kevin Cogill of Culver City, California, has been arrested on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws and ...

"I'm only going over the rules one more time: We put a cookie in the center…"Photo: Kate Glicksberg Once in a while, Vulture takes a peek at what your friends and neighbors think of a concert. Today, the Guy Who Was Disappointed That the Game Let Last Night's Irving Plaza Show Be Overrun by Guests. (Apologies to Daily Intel and the Sex Diaries.) 10:03 p.m.: Young Joc starts things off with “It’s Going Down.” Huh. ...

Courtesy of Touchstone A Ph.D. student from Australia has won an international prize for her plan to prevent an asteroid from colliding with the Earth, reports the Register. Mary D'Souza from University of Queensland's School of Engineering has proposed covering Apophis — a minor planet that's expected to pass close to Earth in 2029 — in a Mylar sheet, using solar radiation to push it off its path. So why are you reading about this ...

Courtesy of Facebook Aaron Sorkin, a man whose discomfort with the Internet goes way, way back to the days he got angry at the Television Without Pity message boards, is writing a movie about the founding of Facebook. Sorkin has created a Facebook group for "Aaron Sorkin & the Facebook Movie" on which Sorkin (or is it his assistant?) (or is it someone pretending to be his assistant?) writes: I've just agreed to write a ...

Courtesy of Touchstone A Ph.D. student from Australia has won an international prize for her plan to prevent an asteroid from colliding with the Earth, reports the Register. Mary D'Souza from University of Queensland's School of Engineering has proposed covering Apophis — a minor planet that's expected to pass close to Earth in 2029 — in a Mylar sheet, using solar radiation to push it off its path. So why are you reading about this ...

In This Is Your Brain on Music, onetime punk-rocker and famed producer Daniel Levitin put words to something we all intuit — listening to your favorite song is akin to smoking some really good sh*t. Now, music’s one-man PR team is back with The World in Six Songs, a book that aims to prove that music doesn't just make us feel good, our brains use it to organize society. From opera to Abba to Zappa, ...

In This Is Your Brain on Music, onetime punk-rocker and famed producer Daniel Levitin put words to something we all intuit — listening to your favorite song is akin to smoking some really good sh*t. Now, music’s one-man PR team is back with The World in Six Songs, a book that aims to prove that music doesn't just make us feel good, our brains use it to organize society. From opera to Abba to Zappa, ...

Apparently the upcoming U.K. comedy series The Wrong Door is a Robot Chicken–esque sketch show in which very short little segments incorporate sci-fi special effects into everyday life. There are a ton of promo clips up on YouTube, some of which are great and some of which are lame. But when they're great, they're really, really great, as in this clip in which an office drone abuses his workstation, with unpredictable results. Look for Ben ...

Apparently the upcoming U.K. comedy series The Wrong Door is a Robot Chicken–esque sketch show in which very short little segments incorporate sci-fi special effects into everyday life. There are a ton of promo clips up on YouTube, some of which are great and some of which are lame. But when they're great, they're really, really great, as in this clip in which an office drone abuses his workstation, with unpredictable results. Look for Ben ...