I stepped in it earlier this week when, as I was trying to say something about the economics of media, I mischaracterized NSFWCORP’s business. Paul Carr, their CEO, replied, I apologized to Carr in the comments, he accepted that apology, and, mercenary bastard that he is, even found a way to extract reparations, via the Conflict Tower, which turns conflict-of-interest reporting into a revenue stream.

So, with that all settled and a parade of rainbow-flavored unicorns once again frolicking in the dells of New Media Land, let me take another stab at what I wanted to say about the media business and what we can—and [...]

Oh yes: this is the story that has it all, baby: Four Loko, insurance scams, foreclosures, a retired ladies detective club, RICO complaints, fake absentee ballots, the FBI, Las Vegas, offshore bank accounts and actual broken kneecaps. Stick with it, it gets crazier and crazier.

6:00 p.m. I start hair, makeup, and gossip procedures. The dance captain may or may not come in and tell me I missed my footlight in Hannibal last night. Guys, I really have no idea which one is my footlight. I'm supposed to count bulbs but I only remember that after I've already gotten too close to them to see them all.

Um, this is one you're probably just going to have to read for yourselves, but here's a taste: "[A] barefoot man wearing a barrel and a Santa's hat threw red paint on the front of the 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign and black paint on the back of it." Also: The man-named Joe Pepitone, although presumably not that one-"who was half-naked, said he had lost his job and gambling winnings." And: "Pepitone tripped and cried after defacing the sign, and he complained of ear ringing, so an ambulance transported him to a local hospital for treatment." Okay!

When Tupac was riddled with bullets just off the Las Vegas Strip in 1996, yet another city was added to the long list of those that have claims on him: Baltimore, Oakland, New York, Los Angeles, Marin City.1 As the list's last entry, Las Vegas became the one people would least like to remember. Strangely, the city already had a street named after him—or so it would appear to us now. Developed in 1990 (according to the real-estate site Zillow), Tupac Lane was likely not named for the man who was then just another member of Digital Underground. (Though it seems almost as odd to suppose it was named [...]

“In competitive synchronized swimming, it’s about face and arms. As a performer, it’s more about feet. We tell them to imagine that at the end of their feet sticking out of the water is a telescope, and then tell them to make their feet act like they are surprised to be there, little by little, and finally, happy to see each other. We ask them to express happiness and sadness with their feet.” —Two-time Olympian Maurizia Cecconi, on training synchronized swimmers for the Cirque du Soleil production, "O," at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

It's the American dream: a 47-year-old man can, in Las Vegas, while wearing Birkenstock sandals to work, earn $150 an hour. There is some sex involved but really, how is this not appealing as a lifestyle choice?

The bigification of Las Vegas: "NASA created this unique time-lapse video using photographs captured by Landsat satellites."

I spent yesterday at Sharron Angle for Senate Campaign Headquarters, in a strip mall in northern Las Vegas. The phonebank volunteers were targeting likely Angle supporters in rural parts of the state to take advantage of early voting, which ended last night. Most of my fellow volunteers (I was, I believe, the only fake volunteer) were over fifty—with the exception of Summer and Jordan, two bubbly seventeen-year-olds who both had family in the military—and white and not originally from Nevada. By coincidence, the three women in my adjoining cubby were from all from Pennsylvania, having moved to Nevada after their children were grown. The ladies, with their various shades [...]

"The Las Vegas Monorail Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday." Oh noes, why? It has only been in business since 2004! "Because the train's popularity was overestimated, the company has not paid off the $650 million in construction and start-up costs…. Monorail representatives told the state they anticipated about 20 million passengers a year who would pay a fee of $2.50 per trip. The monorail's Web site says it has carried 27 million passengers in five years." MONORAIL!