July 19, 2011: Morning
- Murdochs and Rebecca Brooks to face three hours of parliamentary questioning today.
- Phone-hacking scandal now being investigated by 10 separate inquiries.
- Global survey of tabloid newspapers' power—means to further political aims, not to make money.
- Website answers one question, "Is David Cameron still prime minister?"
- Lehrer: Google is not a pox on the mind; scientists mostly sanguine about "Google makes you stupid."
- Anecdotes from daily life with Sergey Brin, with Google-themed condoms.
- Investigations into the neuroscience of winning, from Agassi to Obama.
- No evidence that soft ground is better than roadways for runners.
- Twitter was almost called "Twitch" or "Jitter," which did not inspire "the best sort of imagery."
- Pharrell Williams launches new "ultra-premium" liqueur for women: "Qream."
- Program schedule and booth notes from 1988's San Diego Comic Con.
- Carmageddon meets planking, brought to you by July 2011.
- Paul Ford: Old media is the Epiphanator, reduced to dime-size buttons that show up on iPhones.
- Jed Perl on new Thomas Kinkade book: Pointless because Kinkade's mall-friendly art is pointless.
- Video: How to buy used sex toys at a pawn shop, with Kristen Schaal.