This is great: at the Clark Country Republican Convention two weeks ago, the registered guests and volunteers spent several hours at the convention wearing lanyards visibly sponsored by elegantangel.com, a hardcore porn site. So far, no one is saying how the lanyards came to be used.

Six months ago, I mentioned that Bob Odenkirk and David Cross were working on a new show for HBO, the network that produced Mr. Show. Now, new details have emerged about the show, titled David’s Situation :

Odenkirk and Cross co-wrote the project, which will star Cross as himself. He leaves Hollywood to move into a suburban, gated community where he has two roommates, a right-wing conservative and a liberal hippie.

That could be the description of a terrible sitcom on a network, but I have high hopes. (via aicn)

A trailer for Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris’s documentary about Abu Ghraib and the role photography played in the prison.

In a rather mundane news announcement that Neal Stephenson is changing publishers to Atlantic Books, the existence and title (Anathem) of his new novel has been revealed. Says his new editor:

Anathem manages to remind the reader of H G Wells, Umberto Eco and Mervyn Peake and yet be entirely and gloriously itself.

No Torture, No Exceptions. The Washington Monthly has devoted their entire latest issue to arguing that all torture should be stopped. It includes 37 short essays on the subject, with the list of authors including Bob Barr, Jimmy Carter, Chris Dodd, and Nancy Pelosi.

Two interesting in-depth articles from Pollster.com’s Mark Blumenthal: the first is an analysis of the accuracy of exit polls during this election cycle in determining the winner of popular votes (answer: not very, and they favor Obama); the second an analysis of that SurveyUSA 50-state poll from yesterday where he notes which states are toss-ups and discusses the limitations of such a poll.

NPR’s Terry Gross interviewed The Wire creator David Simon yesterday – listen here. (There are spoilers if you are not caught up.) With the series finale airing this Sunday, will this be my last Wire post ever? (thx, drew)

The creators (David Simon, Ed Burns) and the high-profile writers (Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Richard Price) of HBO’s The Wire have written a pledge in Time to practice jury nullification when it comes to non-violent drug offenses:

If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun’s manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.

(thx, luddite robot)

SurveyUSA has done the first 50-state poll of the election cycle to see where the Electoral College during the national election might stand. Obama beats McCain 280-258, Clinton beats McCain 276-262. Obviously, this is a poll and the election is 8 months away, so NaCl.

Odd film news of the day: David Gordon Green has written and may direct a remake of Dario Argento’s classic horror film, Suspiria. A big change-up from his Southern Gothic films like George Washington and Undertow. (via aicn)

From The Believer : a conversation between Werner Herzog and Errol Morris that took place last Fall. They’ve had some fun together, including a failed meeting in rural Wisconsin to dig up a grave. (via fimoculous)

Dave Winer interviews George Lakoff (UC Berkeley professor of cognitive linguistics and progressive political thinker [wikipedia]) about the state of the Obama campaign, and where he should go from here. Lakoff points out his errors that led to recent losses, insightfully defines the difference between what the two candidates mean by “bipartisanship,” suggests how to reach out to white low-income voters, and generally reinforces for me why I supported Obama in the first place. (via joho)

The Notwist have announced the release of The Devil, You + Me , their first album in six years, and have made available the first track. 2002’s Neon Golden is one of my favorite albums of the decade so far.

Here’s a fascinating article from Wired about a ragtag salvage team working to right a listing ocean liner carrying thousands of new cars. If you don’t have time to read the article, click on the link just to see a picture of the 55,000 ton, 650-feet long ship listing at 60°.

“Unit Automatically Becomes Portable When Carried.”

Trent Reznor just released Ghosts I-IV, a new 36-track instrumental Nine Inch Nails album, under a non-commercial share-alike Creative Commons license. As he did with Saul Williams’s Niggy Tardust , it’s being released online with several pricing options. I love this new era of music where albums from favorite artists appear celestially with no advance notice. (via lessig)

If you live in the New York metropolitan area, you can sign up to watch some wrestling matches in Dover, NJ that Darren Aronofsky will be shooting for his latest movie, The Wrestler.

An interview with notable designer Michael Beirut on the sleek and consistent graphic design of the Obama campaign. On the consistent use of the Gotham typeface:

I have sophisticated clients who pay me and other people well to try to keep them on the straight and narrow, and they have trouble getting everything set in the same typeface. And he seems to be able to do it in Cleveland and Cincinnati and Houston and San Antonio. Every time you look, all those signs are perfect. Graphic designers like me don’t understand how it’s happening. It’s unprecedented and inconceivable to us. The people in the know are flabbergasted.