Even if the materials, called dispersants, are effective, BP has already bought up more than a third of the world's supply.

Ray Kurzweil -- the guy who developed the world's first computer speech recognition programs, among about a billion other things -- has some pretty extraordinary predictions for what technology might soon be able to do for the human body.

"Like telling your cells they can let a few calories slide here and there."

The email didn't go out of its way to explain itself. ALEC BALDWIN, appearing at the fabled JFK Forum at Harvard University's storied Kennedy School of Government, as a guest of the Institute of Politics. In conversation with no less an interlocutor than New York Times National Editor RICK BERKE (who admitted to staying up late the night before to watch It's Complicated on DVD).

Sorry that we didn't tell you about this sooner, but this one is definitely better late than never. The long story short is: legendary tattoo artist Mister Cartoon is in town; there will be music from Flavorheard; and it's all FREE like [insert your favorite rapper on parole]. It's one of those events that definitely warrants canceling other plans; I just went to check the set-up.

I saw a beyond-amazing documentary about 80s comic king Bill Hicks at the IFF-Boston this past weekend (it hits theaters in the UK next month, and will hopefully arrive here soon after). For those who don't know, Hicks is the legend of all legends, and though he died from pancreatic cancer in 1994, he lives on in all the comics who inherited his bits and mannerisms, from Bill Maher and Dennis Miller to Lewis Black and Denis Leary (he also looked a lot like Kevin Smith toward the end of his life).

So you've gone by and drooled over the newest Apple product at your local Apple store, wishing the thing didn't cost $500+. Or maybe you've decided it's not worth the money just yet and you can wait for the next generation(s) to be released. Maybe you're totally anti-iPad and have decided it'll never be worth having yet another device to cart around.

^{Amanda Marcotte, as Bandolier-and-Secret Service Palin}

Waaay back in 2007, before his reputation was massacred by his extramarital relationship with the oh-so-sage and graceful Rielle Hunter, “Johnny” Edwards was more concerned with how the ladies he appointed to blog for him could harm his presidential bid.

Well, this is awkward: NY Mag, this week; and the Boston Phoenix, July 2009

Back in July of 2009, Boston Phoenix staffer DAVID S. BERNSTEIN wrote an article about how Sarah Palin was about to rake in the dough -- a piece that examined the underbelly of the Conservative punditocracy in America, and explained how Palin, by becoming the leading figure in it, was poised to make a hell of a lot more money as a full-time free agent than she would as a half-assed Alaskan governor.

There probably aren’t a ton of high school girls in America scrawling the word “slut” and “rape” down their arms and across their stomachs as a proud political statement, or joining all-girl punk bands in throngs and putting on DIY basement shows. It’s a big stretch to say that the early-’90s riot grrrl movement, or its cornerstone feminist ideals, are resurfacing with any force.

Earth Week at the EcoTarium -- Worcester
April 20, 2010 to April 25, 2010
Make recycling fun. Turn trash into treasure when you create unique crafts out of your own recycled bottles. Investigate the Local Impact of Climate Change. Check the exhibit, Seasons of Change. Enjoy special experiences with wildlife and meet a different animal every day.

If you're a fan of 24 (Mondays at 9 pm on FOX), you don't have to be told what needs to be done to save America from a terrorist attack. So in this season's hour 4, when FBI agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) needed information from a former undercover contact in the Russian mob, she did what any red-blooded American would do: she put the guy's hand in a vise and cut his thumb off.

PHOTOS: Sarah Palin's Tea Party rally on the Boston Common.

Soon after Sarah Palin's posse rolled into Boston Common this morning, one of the movement leaders announced that they refused to be represented this time like they were in Searchlight, Nevada - hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and the first stop on this year's Tea Party Express tour.

We haven't yet been touched by the financial crisis, but that isn't to say we're living like kings either. Having gone into the least lucrative white-collar profession in existence, we know a thing or two about what it means to live on the cheap. Recently, we put our degree in free to good use by scouring the internet for fun stuff to do in this city that won't cost a cent.

Above: Eli Roth portrays a 1940s version of the "Masshole" in Inglourious Basterds.

According to Gawker and this casting call, the people behind Jersey Shore are indeed looking for Massachusetts residents to cast in some sort of "Massholes" reality show set on Cape Cod. Apparently someone over there reads Slate