Grief bacon

Kummerspeck (German): literally, grief bacon; excess weight gained from emotional overeating.

See 14 others here.

The Undefeated soundly defeated

Even as Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated has increased its showings by 40 percent, its box office revenues have declined by more than 63 percent, and the film will soon be available on pay per view.  It played in 14 Tea Party-friendly locations this weekend but grossed an embarrassing $24,000.

Written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by Victory Film Group co-founder Glenn Bracken Evans and Dan Fleuette, "The Undefeated" was independently financed by Victory Film Group and its partners.

Amy Winehouse has died

Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her London home.  She would have been 28 on September 14.

Five-time Grammy winner Winehouse's album "Back to Black" has sold millions of copies, but she was perhaps best known for her addictions and her run-ins with police, cancelled shows, and disheveled appearance.

The cause of death has not been released, but she had reportedly sought treatment for drug and alcohol abuse and early-stage emphysema.

Céline Dion demands Ridiculous Pictures of Céline Dion shut down

The owner of a Tumblr blog titled Ridiculous Pictures of Céline Dion has received a threatening letter from the singer's lawyers demanding the blog be shut down:

"céline dion found our blog, and she didn’t like it. we just got a letter from céline’s lawyers that the blog has to be shut down. though this blog is well within the realm of ‘fair use’, i don’t have the money or time to get a lawyer to respond. the dream is over."

The blog owner goes on to clarify that it was not Dion herself who found the blog and initiated contacted, blaming her "publicity and legal team."

The blog has been scrubbed of all but one ridiculous picture of Céline Dion (left).

Fair use is an exception to copyright law.  It allows for limited use of copyrighted material without permission, for things such as  commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. The term "fair use" originated in the United States, but similar exceptions exist in many other jurisdictions.

This certainly appears to be a case where fair use is a legitimate argument for using the photos on the blog, and it's a no less egregious example of the super-rich circumventing laws by virtue of their ability to spend a lot of money for the small size and insignificant nature of the blog.

There is, however, a bright side: a Google images search for "ridiculous photos of Celine Dion" returned 4,160,000 totally ridiculous results, while a Google web search for "ridiculous pictures of celine dion" returned nearly as many, most lamenting the demise of the site and lambasting the over the top singer.

Deep Dark Robot: "Lovesong"

Deep Dark Robot, the new project of former 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry, have just released the video for their lovely, melancholy cover of The Cure's "Lovesong."  Watch below.

Quote of the day

"[C]an you imagine what the punitive damages would be in a wrongful imprisonment case if there were dementors involved?"

-- Alyssa Rosenberg

Harry Potter breaks records

The final episode of the Harry Potter film series continues to break records.  It not only broke the North American record set by 2008's The Dark Knight by bringing in $168.6 million in the US and Canada in just three days, but also had the biggest international debut in history, grossing $307 million in 59 other countries.

The film sold more tickets during post-midnight screenings than any other movie, and then passed the milestone for highest single-day-gross with $92.1 million.  It also grossed far more than any previous Harry Potter film on its first weekend, a record previously held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, which had $125 million in ticket on its debut.   

Deathly Hallows, Part 2 is expected to gross over $1 billion, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all time, behind Avatar and Titanic.

Harry Potter breaks record

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 made $US 92.1 million in ticket sales yesterday in its North America debut.