Stewart Pinkerton, said to have been pushed out the door in a coup this past spring, was asked whether he's shopping a book about how his ex-boss Steve Forbes is feuding with Forbes' brothers over the direction of their family media empire. Pinkerton certainly didn't deny that, telling Daily Finance's Jeff Bercovici,

"I've been working on a book project for the last year, but I'm not at liberty to discuss what it's about."

In other words, Pinkerton can't comment on whether his big secret book project is about the big secret at his former employer, but he wants to make sure you know he is working on a big book, which is secret so... probably, right? Connect the dots. (Bercovici lists some other people who hypothetically could have written this tell-all book, but of course they didn't, since Pinkerton did.)

(Pic via Forbes)

"Hassan was captured on a surveillance camera setting the mini-blazes," see, so they arrested him and went on back home to sleep on their soft beds, not knowing a fiery menace was still lurking in the placid hallways of the prestigious high school. Because Hassan wasn't even in school when the latest string of trashcan, etc. fires broke out this week. Fiery doom is coming from inside the building. And, the Daily News reports, the copycat pyro is a mad criminal genius!

"I'm smart enough - you can't catch me," read a note left at one of the fires, according to FDNY sources. Another note appeared to be in hieroglyphics.

Not to alarm you, parents, but it appears that a twisted teenage Egyptologist has declared fiery war on your children's place of learning while bungling cops focus their attention on a patsy! (Mohammed's dad says this is a case of racial profiling).

If this turns out to be viral marketing for some Stuyvesant kid's version of 'The Rule of Four,' there will be some serious ass-kicking.
[Pic via]

The San Francisco mayor/golden child hasn't been seen in public since Oct. 30, and his staff had no idea if he went to Hawaii as reported because he didn't tell them anything. Now the local Board of Supervisors is debating whether Newsom might be hunkered down with a city-funded svengali, according to Brock Keeling at SFist:

It is rumored that the San Francisco Mayor spent little time with anyone else other than his life coach during the last few days of his gubernatorial bid. Said life coach also might have accompanied Newsom to Hawaii last week... Supervisor Chris Daly asked the city controller to look into whether or not city funds were used to pay Newsom's life coach.

It's a great move on Newsom's part: Making a grand show of his pain and introspection will only make his future claims that "I have truly changed!" or whatever all the more believable. Especially since, as Keeling points out, life coaches are well known to dedicated reality TV viewers. Those are any wife-fucking recovering-alcoholic gay-marrying mayor's core constituents! (Life coach footage below, via SFist.)

(Top pic: Newsom by darthdowney on Flickr)

Press enter to search.

Which reads to us as a slightly insulting, "Press enter to search, moron, you never needed the buttons to begin with," but maybe we're just sensitive. On other computers, Google.com is its old self. Maybe the search engine is testing out a pared down interface on select users, as it's been known to do before.

Either that or there's a new generation of hackers who don't actually steal anything but just make annoying little tweaks all over your computer and internets. In the meantime, Firefox users can just type their queries into the address bar and hit Enter, whenever they're "feeling lucky."

UPDATE: Looks like some people on Twitter are seeing a button-less Google, too, although they say the buttons "fade" in and out when you hover over their former locations, a feature we aren't seeing. If you know what's going on, clue us in.

The autopsy said that Picower had a massive heart attack in his pool, then drowned as a result. And he was reportedly in poor health—thanks to Bernie Madoff!

"We always have been private people, and having all this play out in the media has taken a big toll on our health," the couple wrote in response to questions submitted earlier this month by The New York Times.

Irving Picard, the trustee for the Madoff victims, still wants to get back the $7 billion that Picower made from Madoff over the years. Hell, he can't take it with him, wherever he is. And it ended up killing him. Crime really doesn't pay.
[Pic via]

The revelation that the FBI had destroyed its records on Cronkite in 2007 came in response to Freedom of Information Act requests sent in after his death in July (everybody FOIAs the FBI files of public figures after they die, because dead people don't have privacy rights and the FBI must turn them over). The bureau routinely destroys files, but it's supposed to hold on to records that may have historical value—and Walter Cronkite certainly qualifies as a historical figure.

We filed a FOIA request to find out everything we could about the destroyed file—and got denied. But then USA Today piped up with a story on Cronkite's disappearing paper trail, and lo and behold, the bureau reconsidered and we got a packet in the mail with some pages (embedded below) indicating both the date of the file—it was opened in January 1974—and its number in the FBI's filing system. From that number—9-57023—we can deduce that it was an extortion investigation, because the first number corresponds to the bureau's code system for classifying crimes. A "9" means "Extortion, Extortion — Racial Matters, [and] Extortion — Nuclear."

So there you have it! Cronkite's name came up in a 1974 extortion investigation, and the FBI destroyed the file. Was Cronkite himself the victim? We don't know, but it appears from a screen printout from a search of the FBI's filing system turned over by the bureau that Cronkite was one of three subjects of the file (the other two names are redacted).

Bill Carter, an FBI spokesman, says Cronkite's name merely came up in the missing file, that he wasn't the subject of it, and that it had no historical value. Not to get too much further into the weeds here than we already are, but Carter admits that he has no idea how he knows that—"That's my understanding from records management," he says, referring to the FBI's division for handling FOIA requests. The problem is, if there is information somewhere that confirms whether or not Cronkite was indeed the subject of the missing file, and how tangential or central he was to its contents, we should have it, since we FOIA'd those records and the FBI says it has turned over everything it found. So if Carter knows something we don't about that file—e.g., whether or not Cronkite was the subject—it means the bureau is holding out on us. All this would have been much simpler and less confusing if they had simply not destroyed the file.

We called CBS News and Cronkite's son Chip to see if anyone recalled an extortion attempt against Cronkite in the 1970s; a CBS News spokesman declined to comment, and Chip Cronkite didn't return a phone call.

The FBI's Carter also says the bureau has "at least two or three" other files on Cronkite that it is currently processing for release. That was news to us, since the bureau's Records Management Division told us back when we first got news of the file's destruction that it was the only thing they had on Cronkite. But a "search slip" released by the bureau to us seems to back Carter up, mentioning at least one other file in which Cronkite's name appeared. That file's number begins with 145, which is code for "Interstate Transportation of Obscene Matter." You can bet we'll be FOIAing that one.

UPDATE: Chip Cronkite did call us back to say he has no knowledge of any extortion plots, but looks forward to hearing about anything else we find, "obscene or otherwise."

Finke offers one explanation from a source in the show...

"One of the great things about Mad Men is the tradition that Matt has established of offering higher-level opportunities to staff, writers and artists in all of the various departments. From the beginning, Matt has fought to get people approved by the studio which almost always lobbied for him to hire more experienced people instead."

"We think [Kater's] done a great job, particularly for someone whose career has progressed so quickly. Now, however, Matt has reluctantly decided that their relationship has reached its full potential. She'll be missed, but the series has consistently benefited from the influx of new writer talent, and there's absolutely no doubt that Kater will continue to have unprecedented success in her career as she spreads her wings. She leaves Mad Men with our love and respect and a well-deserved Emmy."

...that's clearly in Weiner's camp. Maybe this is the truth! Or maybe she might as well have placed an email from the show's flack in exchange for a better scoop later on. But the truth can't be this simple. Finke—who exercises a Machiavellian hand over the comments in her posts—left it to her commenters to speculate. And by speculate, we mean, speak for her. And I imagine someone at AMC is asking Finke why she's not deleting comments like she normally does on issues she wants to control.

Let's look at some of the more interesting theories:

• Matthew Weiner had a strictly unprofessional relationship with her, or as the commenter put it:

  *cough*LETTERMAN*cough*

  Well, Gordon did have a very quick rise through the rankings of Mad Men. Again: started as Weiner's assistant. Became a writers' assistant. Weiner then let her co-write the last season finale with him, and now, she's a staff writer for the third season. Or was, until she got fired. Staff writing jobs are not easy to come by, obviously. Sure, it's topical. And maybe it's worth noting that this is the first show Weiner's ever been a showrunner on. I somehow doubt this theory. If something inappropriate took place, why would he fire her? Probability: unlikely.
  
  

• Jealousy Issues. Another commenter writes:

  There was a really weird moment during the acceptance where Matt kind of 'snatched' the Emmy from her...The photo gets at it but I remember it being uncomfortable to watch. I always [sic] trhought they worked with these relatively inexperienced people on this show primarily for financial reasons. Allows them to put as much money as possible up on the screen.

  I'm not sure I buy the "inexperienced writers" line so much as the one above: that Mad Men hires writers with low quotes because they can afford to do so by reputation, and allocate the money elsewhere on the show. Weiner's a notorious control freak, as evidenced by the show, obviously. Hollywood loves a young, hot writer, and Gordon's cute and staffed on a hit show. Maybe this made Weiner uncomfortable. Or maybe Gordon's ego from the win outgrew Weiner's ability to micromanage, which could've been marginally. Even so, another commenter draws a comparison to Peggy and Don Draper's relationship, noting that this could give a certain scene from earlier in the season more significance...

  One just goes balls to the wall:

  Anyone who believes this horseshit is completely naïve. Matt Weiner is the lowest of the low in our business. He is a egomaniac and the likelihood is that he was incensed that he had to share credit and let alone an Emmy with her. A lowly former writer's assistant. As far as he is concerned, he is solely responsible for the success of this show and no other writer, producer, director, actor, key grip have done anything to contribute to the show's success. For Pete's sake, he didn't even let Kater Gordon say a word when they got up on stage. It was her moment as well but Weiner made it ALL about him.

  Though egomaniacs are kind of par for the course, no?
  
  

• And another one just thinks Matt was unloading unnecessary cargo:

  The only episode she wrote by herself was "The Fog" and it was terrible. Looks like Matt got too excited and promoted her too quickly…

Update: Finke posted from a writer who supposedly knows by Weiner and Gordon, who insists there was no "Letterman" play involved. "She totally got the show and deserved the break she got. There was NOTHING illicit in her relationship with Matt." 'Figured. But Finke has yet to posit any theories...

[Photo via Mark J. Terrill/AP]

1010 Wins says a dead body was found on the tracks. No word on whether or not it was the result of a suicide. But we'll go ahead and post all these tips, just to illustrate how messed up a city can get by one single incident...

These videos are not the most enthralling things ever. Watch them if you will. But we got this report from a person on the train in the video:

The L train stopped underground between the Bedford and the 1st Avenue station around 10:44a.m.- give a few minutes here or there. Being just prior to 1st avenue, we waited underground for 15 minutes if that, and moved a couple of inches every few minutes. The announcement was then stated that we were to be evacuated onto a train in front of our own... I'm assuming that it was backed up into the tunnel to provide a link for us to arrive at 1st avenue by foot. The train operator having come out from the conductors closet told another passenger that "no, someone isn't sick... it's an injury". This was my first understanding of what had caused us to halt the transit. When we all had quietly and patiently (I felt quite in awe by the patience of the crowd) onto the 1st avenue platform we came upon a grouping of New York's finest, all guarding the first train car. There were stretchers and such. I couldn't say for sure if someone was laid out on the seat in the first train car, nor if they were alive, though that was the glimpse of things, and based on assumption that someone was injured, it seemed that car was providing the medical and emergency assistance either he or she required. We stepped above ground just after 11am.

And, we heard from another L train rider who told a similar story about going to work this morning—probably on that very same train:

I was riding on it, toward the back of the train. Train slows down,
then just stops. The front cars reached the First Avenue platform, the
back cars—where I was—were still in the tunnel. After a couple of
minutes of delay, they said there had been an "injury" to a passenger
and we would have to all evacuate. Anyway, since the back of the train
wasn't even at the platform, we all had to walk toward the middle of
the train and get off there. We were at the far end of the platform
and had to walk down.

We got off, and then it was all crazy. Dozens and dozens of firemen
(carrying axes, which was particularly odd) and lots of police
officers.

They had a gurney laid out near the front of the train, but again, had
no idea what happened from there

How bad was it? Another L train passenger tells us that much later, everything was still totally fucked: "I was actually one of the hundreds of people waiting for the L to arrive at 1st Ave, around 12:30. The station was open, and there hadn't been any announcement over the loudspeaker, but they didn't have that countdown to the next arrival displayed. Then there was an announcement on the screen that usually displays the next arrival, saying there was an investigation at 1st Ave. But I didn't see any cops, paramedics, or anything on the tracks or anything like that."

The story so far: conservative policy group Americans for Limited Government sent out an email blast. NBC and Stone say that Stone wrote the following email back:

From: Stone, Jane (NBC Universal)
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 1:57 PM
To: 'arosenwald@getliberty.org'
Subject: Re: ALG Calls on Congress to "Put Up or Shut Up" on Defunding ACORN

Take me off this list!

—————————————
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Right? Who hasn't sent back a pissed off "UNSUBSCRIBE!" to an email chain letter, their mother, or the New York Observer's Very Short List? So Stone doesn't feel like putting up with the shit that comes in her Inbox anymore, and as someone with an email address who works at a news website, I feel her pain:

And that's moderate. The shitty releases we get in our respective inboxes can't stop, won't stop. Sometimes, I want to tell the world UNSUBSCRIBE, but I can't, so I usually just delete them. But Stone was fed up with this kind of shit, and fired something off as such. So how does ALG respond? By contacting media outlets and letting them know that Stone wrote them back the following email:

Let's get this straight:

1. A conservative policy group got rebuffed by a bigtime news producer at a network which—because it's not Fox News—commonly receives a designation from conservatives as "liberal."

2. Why would Stone—a producer at NBC News—resort to Anti-Semitic slurs? How would she know that its sender were Jewish? His last name is "Rosenwald," but still: persecution complex, much?

3. Americans for Limited Government is a small fish policy group looking to attract attention.

4. Why would NBC be so quick to respond to accusations if they weren't substantiated with bullshit? They have tech guys working around the clock. They could easily reproduce the email from the back-end on a moment's command. Which they did—as evidenced above—and provided to Politico the following statement:

Americans for Limited Government has chosen to launch an outrageous, reckless attack and smear campaign against an NBC News employee. Faced with irrefutable evidence that our employee did nothing more than ask to be removed from an email mailing list, the organization has maliciously published a fabricated email.

Our employee never sent any such email.. She is completely innocent of the outrageous charges and is being used by an organization to make a self-serving point. This is a shameless, hateful and defaming act which should be roundly denounced.

In other words, ALG's completely full of shit, and they did this to get into a news cycle. So who bit?

Michael Caldrone played this as a news story and didn't provide much perspective, so call it "reporting," but really: kind of like a pussy.

This kind of thing was made for conservative blogs—where they get their fundraising bread and butter—so, of course, guys like this:

Exit question: Will the liztards at Little Green Gulag blame this on 1) Glenn Beck, 2) Robert Stacey McCain, 3) the entire conservative blogosphere, or 4) All the above?

Mediabistro's lede is a question:

Did an NBC News producer really respond to an email from the group Americans for Limited Government with, "Bite Me Jew Boy" or did she write, "Take me off this list!"?

Mean Megan McArdle at the Atlantic thinks it's ridiculous, but also, strangely plausible:

It's so bizarre that I simply can't believe that an NBC producer did this. But it's also so bizarre that it's not actually all that much more plausible that Americans for Limited Government made the thing up. It's not like they're playing to the common stereotype that the television world is hostile to Jews.

Zeke Turner at Mediaite runs with a big headline:

‘Bite Me Jew Boy' Email Starts War of Words Between NBC and Right-Wing Think Tank

But gets the ball through the goalposts:

The he said–she said can only go on so long. Both sides should trot out their evidence now that this has become public and Stone's reputation is on the line. In the meantime, ALG has gotten some serious face time from a major news company. But will all the buzz turn into embarrassment once the case is closed on ‘Bite me Jew Boy'?

Yes. Turner's right about one thing: there will be embarrassment, but mostly, for people who think this was anything but a complete crock.

Update: My commenters are, as often is the case, crazy, and crazy on top of their shit. Baroness points out that the founder of AFG had a fawning profile front-and-center in the New York Times today. Also, Dragonhorse asks why the name on the email sent and the name on the return were different (and also asserts the cliched nature of the slur). And Mediaite's Anthony DeRosa asks ALG for their header. Teamwork!

No one is saying precisely what happened. But Calacanis, a Hollywood internet entrepreneur who tools around in a Tesla Roadster and is buddy-buddy with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, has tweeted that TechCrunch 50, which the men co-host, is over after its third iteration. He also "openly talked about a fight" with Arrington to others at the conference, Paul Boutin reports on VentureBeat.com.

Calacanis seemed to confirm all this to, of all people, a puppet controlled by New York humorist Loren Feldman (see left).

And Arrington, who publishes the influential Silicon Valley blog TechCrunch, isn't quite denying it either. Arrington cautioned in a phone interview that he wasn't familiar with all of Calacanis' public statements today. But he added, "I'm not going to say I didn't have words with him because I have words with people all the time." Besides, he added, things are crazy at the end of a long conference.

He wouldn't get into details, but did point us, in response to questions about the incident, to a blog post he recently wrote called Let's Not Let Silicon Valley Become Just Like Hollywood, in which he argues that the powers-that-be in the Northern California tech scene should avoid becoming as pompous and hierarchical as the folks in Hollywood, i.e. the people Calacanis likes to hang out with. Cryptic. But Arrington wouldn't be much more specific: "I'm not too concerned Jason is telling people he doesnt want to talk to me. I'm sure life will go on without Jason Calacanis and the drama he creates by talking to puppets."

Sure, life will go on, and in the meantime the rest of us have another tech feud to keep us entertained. It's been too long since one of these flared up.

(Speaking of which, we've logged several emails and instant messages to Calacanis and have yet to hear back. If you have any insights into what happened, please email us.)

(Top pic: Calacanis, left, and Arrington in happier days, by Frank Gruber.)

"White male, 20 to 30 years old, 5-8 or 5-9, short dark hair, thin build, low voice. . . . White male, 6-2, 200 pounds, chubby, scruffy beard. . . . Hispanic male, 25, 5-10 to 6 feet, thin, olive complexion, cleanshaven. . . . Tall male, black, early 20s, medium build . . . White male, 25, muscular build, athletic, spiked hair standing straight up. . . .

"Here's one for you: Unknown Middle Eastern male."

Sounds like OBAMA.

[Washington Post]

Jones died just over 40 years ago at his home in East Sussex just a month after Keith Richards and Mick Jagger bounced him from the band he started; the official story is that his three houseguests found him face down at the bottom of his swimming pool after a night of drinking and drugging. As with the untimely passing of any great musician, Jones' death has been chalked up to any number of conspiracies, from a murderous biker gang to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards themselves.

But last year investigative journalist Scott Jones (no relation) published an exhaustive review of Brian Jones' death in the Daily Mail and found ample evidence that he may have been done in by his friend and general contractor Frank Thorogood. Scott Jones tracked down and interviewed Janet Lawson, the guest who found Brian's body. She had never given her account before, and told Jones that Thorogood seemed shaken even before Brian was discovered and knew he was in the pool before Lawson told him where she'd found him. Scott handed his findings over to the police, and now they are investigating his allegations.

It's not the first time Thorogood has been accused of drowning Jones. Two 1994 books fingered him, claiming he confessed on his deathbed in 1993. Thorogood's alleged motive isn't clear; Scott Jones suggests that Brian owed Thorogood some money. As for why the British police didn't reopen the investigation back in 1994, who knows? Scott Jones' Daily Mail story detailed extensive bungling by the cops in the initial investigation and revealed Lawson's account for the first time, so it may have elevated the accusation above conspiratorial mutterings from fans.

Scott Jones ended his Daily Mail investigation with this:

Having spent two years studying the evidence and speaking to most of the surviving players, I'm convinced Brian Jones's death was not fully investigated. The only question that remains is why?

I hope this is something the authorities will discover if they finally decide to reopen the case. It is the least Brian Jones deserves.

Now he gets is wish. So add "solve the case of the mysterious death of a rock 'n' roll legend" to the list of things that newspaper reporters can do that bloggers can't—yet! If you know who did Paul, let us know.

Mostly, that one of their photogs is definitely a leg man. The photo is credited to one Chuck Kennedy, but, again, who're the ladies? Did they know this picture was taken? The pool's description:

White House staff check the podium prior to a news conference with President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, July 22, 2009.

Anonymous staffers: scandalous. But those calves, my god: do they eat lunch on a Stairmaster? File under Mysteries We Must Uncover. If you know whose legs these are, share with the world.

As details of the accident have emerged, it's been reported that all parties involved are okay physically and that there were no drugs or alcohol involved (Phelps is on probation for a previous DUI), thankfully. Now a tipster with knowledge of the local geography wrote in to shine some UV light on the intersection where Phelps crashed his car:

The site of the accident is two blocks north of where I used to live, in the heart of the tranny hooker district in lovely downtown baltimore where the girls with something extra work the corner in cheap lingerie like extras from a vanity six video, and calvert only runs north - therefore, if phelps was traveling on calvert at the time of the accident, he may have been leaving the tranny hooker district !!!

The other possible explanation is that the 83 was so backed up with traffic (The Ravens and Redskins played a preseason football game in Baltimore tonight) that Phelps was traveling the "back roads" to avoid traffic.

calvert is just one of the few good ways out of the harbor area going back towards the burbs if the 83 is backed up, so he could have been coming from anywhere downtown really - but, hell, if he was going north on calvert then heck yeah, he went right thru the trannie hooker district - about two blocks long, centered at calvert and eager.

So was Michael Phelps trolling for a tranny tonight? It's highly doubtful, but it sure as hell makes for some fun reckless speculation, doesn't it? Also, this information should give Anderson Cooper something to be hopeful about, and everyone needs a little hope in their life.

Pic via

There haven't been European pirates for hundreds of years. But a cargo ship called the Arctic Sea sailed through the English Channel last month and disappeared. It hasn't been heard from since July 28! That was four days after "armed men in masks posing as anti-drugs police" boarded the ship and beat up the crew. Now nobody knows where it is! Have they looked in Hollywood?

"I think there was probably some sort of secret cargo on this vessel, not criminal but secret," [the editor of a Russian maritime journal] told Reuters.

"I don't think that it was pirates who took this vessel but it really smells of some sort of state involvement. This is real cloak and dagger stuff, like a (John) le Carre novel."

This is no joke. Screenwriters, get a jump on it now. Respected international news organization Reuters gives you a helping hand with this actual section head—take note:

If you watch The Daily Show you've probably noticed how guys like Bill Kristol, John Bolton, Next Gingrich and Mike Huckabee are booked as guests with regularity. Perhaps you've found yourself wondering, "Why the hell would these guys want to appear on The Daily Show?" I sure have! And now, thanks to Daily Intel's Jacob Gershman, we know why.

While the (conservative) movement professes a disdain for the "liberal media elite," it has made an exception for the true-blue 46-year-old comedian. "He always gives you a chance to answer, which some people don't do," says John Bolton, President Bush's ambassador to the United Nations and a Fox News contributor, who went on the show last month. "He's got his perspective, but he's been fair." Says Bolton: "In general, a lot of the media, especially on the left, has lost interest in debate and analysis. It has been much more ad hominem. Stewart fundamentally wants to talk about the issues. That's what I want to do."

Conservatives like Stewart because he's providing them a platform to reach an audience that usually tunes them out. And they often find that Stewart takes them more seriously than right-wing political hosts, who are often just using them to validate their broad positions, do. Stewart will poke fun, but he offers a good-faith debate on powder kegs - torture, abortion, nuclear weapons, health care - that explode on other networks. "Shepard Smith did the same discussion [on torture]," says (Neo-conservative Cliff) May. "He kept yelling me at me: 'This is where I get off the bus! Not in my name!' He wasn't arguing with me. It was just assertions and anger. That's not what Jon deals in."

So maybe there's hope that Stewart can book Sarah Palin as a guest! After all, Bill Kristol promised he'd try to get her to go on the show during his last appearance! Wouldn't that just be swell?!

He was Peter Killy, a fortysomething actor who was making an indie movie, The Robber Barons of Wall Street. This particular pose was a shot they plan to use for the promotional poster.

Is there nothing magical in this world?
[Daily Intel]

—A banker who drank too much last night?
—A frat boy hazing victim?
—A banker hazing victim of a secret Wall Street banker frat?
—A publicity stunt?
—A never-before-seen half-man half-bull underwear monster?

Or what? Your explanations in the comments, please.
[Thanks to The Big Lead, who sent this to us. Dealbreaker has some guesses too.]