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"D'oh!" doesn't even start to cover it. Marge Simpson -- the blue beehived matriarch of America's most loved dysfunctional family - is Playboy magazine's November cover, the magazine said on Friday. Simpson, tastefully concealing her assets behind a signature Playboy Bunny chair, is the first cartoon character ever to front the glossy adult magazine, joining the ranks of sex symbols like Marilyn Monroe and Cindy Crawford. Playboy said the cover celebrates the 20th anniversary of the "The Simpsons." Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie have already been honored this year with a set of U.S. postal stamps. The magazine promises...

Ready for cartoon porn? Marge Simpson has “posed” nude for Playboy’s November issue, appearing on the cover without her trademark green dress and pearls (or anything else for that matter). Two months ago, publisher Hugh Hefner posted a teasing message on Twitter, saying “Marge Simpson has a surprise for her fans in the November issue.”

Time Magazine has blown the lid on a secret ghost writer for one of the most well known political figures of our day and that person is... Sarah Palin. That's right! Not President Obama but Sarah Palin whose book titled Going Rogue: An American Life is set for release soon. What evidence do they cite? Well the author doesn't cite any but does say who the ghost writer is:

Robert E. Thomas, 83, breezed into the National Archives on Tuesday with a smile on his face, a white hankie peeking out of his suit coat pocket and an old briefcase containing the two rare books he filched in Germany 64 years ago. He was a World War II GI then, fresh from the horrors of combat. He had blundered into one of the notorious salt mines where the Germans stashed their national treasures. And this one contained books. Millions and millions of books from institutions across Germany. Thomas poked around, saw two that looked old and took them. Now,...

Commentary: Behemoth cuts prices on its Kindle e-book reader SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Amazon.com Inc. cut prices on its Kindle electronic book reader for the second time in three months, gearing up to stave off the looming competition from a host of new e-readers about to descend on the market.

BALTIMORE — It's been a good 200th anniversary year for Edgar Allan Poe. The master of gothic horror has been celebrated at events in several cities to mark the bicentennial of his birth. And on Sunday in Baltimore, he'll get the funeral he never had. Fewer than 10 people attended Poe's funeral when he died in October 1849 at age 40. His cousin, Neilson Poe, never announced the great writer's death publicly. Because of intense interest, Baltimore will host two funerals. Each is expected to draw about 350 people to Westminster Hall, the former church adjacent to Poe's grave. Actors...

In a new patent application revealed this week, Apple has again disclosed plans for a multi-touch surface that could accommodate two full hands and distinguish between palms and individual fingers for typing, gestures and more. The application, filed by Morrison and Foerster LLP in Los Angeles in June 2009 on behalf of Apple, expands on information first revealed by AppleInsider in early 2008. The massive document details a hand-based system that would allow "unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device." The document notes that input with a stylus, mouse,...

The focus of Apple's long-rumored tablet device could be the transformation of newspapers, magazines and other print media, a new rumor suggests. With anonymous information from people within various facets of the publishing world, Gizmodo has said that Apple has been reaching out to print publications about putting their products for sale on iTunes via a new piece of hardware. The report cited people familiar with The New York Times, publishers McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press, and a trip that "several executives from one of the largest magazine groups" took to the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. Apple's tablet has been...

Fusing together entries on Fleming’s famous 00-agent and detailed information on cases of espionage, real-life spies, MI5, SIS, CIA, KGB, and others, Historical Dictionary of Ian Fleming’s James Bond asks the question: What proportion of Fleming’s output is authentic, and what comes directly from the his imagination?

Sunday October 4 2009 Notes from JWR: I'm scheduled to be guest on the Laura Ingraham syndicated talk radio show tomorrow (Monday, October 5th), to discuss preparedness topics, from 11:15 AM to 11:45 AM Eastern Time (8:15 AM to 8:45 AM Pacific Time.) She is heard on more than 300 radio stations, on XM Radio, and on the Internet in both live streaming and podcasts.

IF you ever secretly think some books by famous authors are unreadable or just plain rubbish, take comfort. Many writers have thought the same. A new book of “literary invective” has brought together evidence of how writers really view other writers. It shows that some authors are at their most inventive and scabrous when sinking their teeth into other literary stars. Take Jane Austen, one of the most revered and enduring English authors. Mark Twain, the American writer, was so irritated by Austen that he wrote in one letter: “Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig...

Review "A raw, heartfelt story of how a man of valor lost his bearings and eventually found the courage to share his story. Shadow of the Sword leaves you hoping and cheering for the happy ending that Workman deserves."-Bing West, author of The Strongest Tribe "In writing this moving and incredibly honest book, Workman shows at least as much courage as he did in Fallujah. His story gives hope to anyone who struggles that they, too, can overcome if they just keep fighting-one day at a time, one battle at a time, one victory at a time."-Donovan Campbell, author of...

Yale Self-Censors New Book Examining Extreme Muslim Reaction to Danish Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad Thursday, October 01, 2009 By Pete Winn, Senior Writer/Editor (CNSNews.com) – Four years after a Danish newspaper published a dozen cartoons depicting Muhammad, and set off violent protests by Muslims, Yale University Press has touched off protests of its own by censoring the offending cartoons out of a scholarly book it has just released on the protests. “The Cartoons that Shook the World,” by Brandeis University professor Jytte Klausen, examines in detail what happened during those protests – violent incidents staged by Muslim extremists. But Yale...

NEW YORK - You know the title, now see the cover of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue." The former Alaska governor's memoir, a top-seller online weeks before publication, will feature an outdoor shot of Palin, wearing an American flag pin on her red fleece top, eyes turned slightly from the camera as she smiles confidently into the horizon, a patchwork of Alaska blue sky and clouds behind her.

United States former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir about her eight years of White House life sold more copies in its first day of release than any other nonfiction book in Barnes & Noble's history, the company said. United States former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir about her eight years of White House life sold more copies in its first day of release than any other nonfiction book in Barnes & Noble's history, the company said. "More than 40,000 books were sold in 24 hours; it's a tremendous amount of books," said Carolyn Brown, director of communications at...

The novelist and children's writer Philip Pullman has been showered with awards that include a CBE, a Carnegie Medal and several honorary professorships. This week he notched up a new distinction: he is ranked second in the top 10 books that people have tried to ban across America. Pullman's fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, has leapt to the top of the target list of would-be censors in the new rankings issued this week by the American Library Association. Several schools across America faced requests from parents to remove the book. One challenge at a school in Winchester, Kentucky was made...

Harry Potter author JK Rowling missed out on a top honour because some US politicians believed she "encouraged witchcraft", it has been claimed. Matt Latimer, former speech writer for President George W Bush, said that some members of his administration believed her books promoted sorcery. As a result, she was never presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The claims appear in Latimer's new book called Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor. He wrote that "narrow thinking" led White House officials to object to giving Rowling the civilian honour. The award acknowledges contributions to US national interest, world peace...

Sarah Palin's most consequential choice since leaving the Alaska governor's mansion may be her co-author - a staunch conservative, devoted evangelical Christian, and intensely partisan Republican from far, far outside the Beltway. Lynn Vincent spent the summer working with Palin on a closely-guarded 400 page memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." The book is due out from HarperCollins November 17 - but it shot to the top of the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble bestseller lists Wednesday as word of its publication spread. Vincent's past projects include co-writing the memoir of General William Boykin, who blasted the media and President...

First of all, I am not much of a TV watcher of shows having to do with past blowhard philosophers and such, but my son is learning about planets at school now and we decided to watch The History Channel one night, just for the heck of it. So, I was watching a program there about a week ago referring to Nostradamus' ('Nostra' for short) predictions, followed by a program regarding Leonardo DaVinci's predictions, and I was perplexed by something that Nostra "saw" in one of his many visions, which included visions of what or who would be causing chaos...

The most popular items in Books. Updated hourly. 1.Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin (Author)

In one small Michigan town, another chapter is being written in a controversial library debate. On September 23, nearly 300 Owosso, Mich. citizens crowded a local middle school to discuss whether or not filtering software should be placed on all Shiawassee District Library computers. The filters would prevent patrons from accessing "adult content."

On Aug. 6, 2001, our vacationing president was warned by the CIA for the 36th time in eight months that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States and that recent intelligence had suggested an attack might be imminent. There were at that moment, George W. Bush was told, 70 bin-Laden-related field investigations being conducted in the country. “All right,’’ our president told the CIA officer, “you’ve covered your ass.’’ On one level, Jon Krakauer’s “Where Men Win Glory’’ represents a detailed look at the tragic tale of Pat Tillman, the football star who quit the NFL...

Fidel Castro's Cuba Full Of His Offspring After Years Of Womanising By El Commandante Fidel Castro, Cuba's long-standing dictator, has fathered at least 10 children by a string of women, according to a new book. Philip Hart 26 Sep 2009 The Cuban leader with female admirers in New York, 1959 [Pic in URL] Fidel Castro is renowned in Cuba for his verbosity and longevity. But his long-suffering compatriots know little about another sphere where El Commandante has proved prolific - his private life. Discussing his womanising ways is strictly taboo on the Caribbean communist outpost, even on an island where...

Political ideology and feelings about the Bush administration aside, history is likely to show that the surge in Iraq was a success — at least militarily... Remember, too, that the first six months of the surge, from January to early July 2007, were some of the war's toughest months. Into this complicated global stew, David Finkel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter, has gone micro to look at a group of soldiers brought into the surge to serve a 15-month deployment. Finkel's often lyrical book, "The Good Soldiers," follows a U.S. Army battalion, the 2-16, nicknamed the Rangers, from tearful...

In the shadow of the fallen Old Man of the Mountain in Franconia, N.H., on a lonely stretch of mountain road, two men lay dead. A spasm of violence that took only a few minutes to play out leaves a community divided and searching for answers. Casey Sherman’s “Bad Blood: Freedom and Death in the White Mountains” (University Press of New England), just published, is an exhaustive account of the longstanding feud between Franconia police officer Bruce McKay, 48, and Liko Kenney, 24, the two dead men. In May 2007, Kenney shot and killed McKay after a harrowing chase that...

For someone who might have missed some classics or have just decided to stop being a DUmmie... what free ebooks would you recommend? From any source, could be from Mises "library" or from Gutenberg. Links if you got them!

An invitation to join Dame Shirley Bassey at the Ritz Casino is not to be ignored - reports The Times. After unveiling her new album, The Performance, we ask the Welsh wonder, 72, if she is ready to return glamour and hummability to that much abased commodity, the James Bond theme tune.

As we mark the anniversary of the financial meltdown, Big Green Purse author Diane MacEachern makes it her mission to help consumers reduce consumption and choose green products. A few years ago, if you asked consumers what the No. 1 obstacle to “going green” was, they’d answer, “It’s too expensive.” As recently as 2007, in-person interviews with dozens of women nationwide revealed that, of all the barriers between them and a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, cost loomed largest. Sure, green shoppers were often stymied over what to buy, whether the quality would hold up, and where they could conveniently make...

Edinburgh professor of linguistics Geoffrey Pullum says “Brown's writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad.” He picks out some excerpts for special criticism. The female lead in Angels and Demons learns of the death of her scientist father: “Genius, she thought. My father . . . Dad. Dead.” A member of the Vatican Guard in the same book becomes annoyed by something, and we learn that "his eyes went white, like a shark about to attack." ***************************************************** 20. Angels and Demons, chapter 1: Although not overly handsome in a classical sense, the forty-year-old Langdon...

"I wish that you love me," says Patricia, Princess of Cardiff, whose mangled English is one of the few notable differences between her character and the real-life Diana, Princess of Wales. Her would-be lover is French President Jacques-Henri Lambertye — drawn, it seems, to closely resemble real-life former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing...The florid romantic tale, titled The Princess and the President, might have passed largely unnoticed...were it not for the fact that its author is former President Giscard himself...some newspapers have covered the book as though it might be a thinly disguised kiss-and-tell. "Fiction or reality?" Le Figaro asked in...

I believe the book just came out this month and I wanted to see if anyone on here had picked it up to read it- hopefully I posted this question in the correct forum. Curious in particular to see if it really covered Tillman's life or was an anti-war piece. I enjoyed "Into Thin Air" but I am concerned when people with little or no military experience/exposure write about the military. Thoughts? Reviews?

<p>MICHELLE Obama gave her husband the silent treatment at one point in his campaign for president because so many women "pushed their bodies up against his, slipped phone numbers into his pockets" and whispered lewd suggestions in his ear, a new book out today claims.</p>

Barack tried not to look startled when some random woman in the crowd would grasp him firmly by the derriere -- and sometimes try to hold on." (snip) "Jesus, I wish they'd stop grabbing my ass." Now, if their name were Larry and it took place in a limo.....??

LANGLEY, Va. - Part of the new Dan Brown novel is based on a local mystery. In the introduction to his new best-selling novel, "The Lost Symbol," author Dan Brown lists the following: "In 1991, a document was locked in the safe of the director of the CIA. The document is still there today, its cryptic text includes references to an unknown location underground. The document ... includes the phrase, 'It's buried out there somewhere.'" Brown says the 20-year-old document contains the answers to a 20-year-old mystery. WTOP's National Security Correspondent J.J. Green investigated the claim, and found out it's...

Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin got so drunk during a visit to Washington that he was found standing outside the White House in his underpants trying to hail a cab to go and buy a pizza. The following night he was mistaken for a drunken intruder when he was discovered stumbling around the basement of his guest house by secret service agents. The drunken behaviour of Yeltsin, who was known for his fondness for vodka and died two years ago aged 76, were revealed by former US president Bill Clinton. Russian President Boris Yeltsin (L) taps his watch to end...

Below is an excerpt from the book "1,001 Things They Won't Tell You," which was published in May 2009 and highlights popular columns from SmartMoney's long-running "10 Things" feature.

Speaking w/a pal and coworker who actually stated that communism might not be a bad idea for our country. I asked if that I gave him a book if he'd read it - he agreed - and the book I opted for is Human Action by L v Mises. Do you Freepers think this a good choice on my part?

This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say “Liber Novus,” which is Latin for “New Book.” Its pages are made from thick cream-colored parchment and filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and handwritten dialogues with gods and devils.If you didn’t know the book’s vintage, you might confuse it for a lost medieval tome. And yet between the book’s heavy covers, a very modern story...

Was Fulke Greville really Shakespeare.Solving a Historic mystery between Shakespeare and Fulke Greville with the help of Fulke Grevilles 8th great grandson Christopher Brooke Fulke Greville and his cousin Historian Guy De La Bedoyere.

While concluding a segment on racism involved in anti-Obama protests, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews promoted the book of one of his guests, liberal historian Douglas Brinkley, and proceeded to rant: "There’s so much right-wing crap on the best seller list these days. It’s great to see a book that you might want to put on your shelf and let your respected friends see you actually reading." Brinkley’s book, Teddy Roosevelt: The Wilderness Warrior, did make the New York Times best seller list, coming in at twenty one. However, the list’s top ten was dominated by "right-wing crap." Michelle Malkin’s...

If you woke up this morning wondering how best to attack Iran, this book provides your answer. At the start of a US invasion, marines would secure a bridgehead, then occupy a port and launch the push for Tehran. An American bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities would need fewer resources but would still be extensive and take several days. An Israeli strike, however, would have to rely on just one round of attacks due to the difficulty of flying over neighbouring states. These are three of the more startling scenarios examined in Which Path to Persia?, in which experts...

A SCUNTHORPE man who admitted bruising his wife's buttocks with a slipper, claimed she had developed an interest in spanking, North Lincolnshire Magistrates' Court heard. Rebecca Dolby, prosecuting, said the assault took place on August 9, at the Eastfield Road home of Mark and Rebecca Gibbons. "Mark Gibbons found a message on her computer, relating to her having conversations with other men," she said. "He keeps a sandal at the side of the bed," she said. Gibbons pushed his wife onto the bed and used the cork-soled sandal to assault her. Mrs Gibbons protested about the assault, declaring: "Ow -...

Dan Brown has done it again. In 2003, "The Da Vinci" code author released the must-read novel of the year. Six years later, his sequel "The Lost Symbol" sold more than one million copies in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. on its first day, shattering sales records in adult fiction books and forcing the publisher to rush-print an additional 600,000 copies to meet the demand.

BRAVO ZULU Travis McGee / Matt Bracken Enemies Foreign and Domestic Domestic Enemies Foreign Enemies and Traitors It just DOESN'T get any better than this!!!

SAN FRANCISCO: The latest novel from “Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown, “The Lost Symbol,” broke one-day sales records, its publisher and booksellers said. Readers snapped up over one million hardcover copies across the US, Canada and the UK after it was released on Tuesday, said publisher Knopf Doubleday, a division of Random House. “We are seeing historic, record-breaking sales across all types of our accounts in North America for ‘The Lost Symbol,” said Sonny Mehta, editor-in-chief of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House. Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, called the book its bestselling first-day adult...

LORD of the Rings author JRR Tolkien trained as a spy in the years leading up to World War II, it has emerged. The Oxford University professor - who also wrote The Hobbit - was one of 50 intellectuals chosen by the British Government singled out to crack Nazi codes as it appeared increasingly likely Germany was preparing to declare war. Tolkien was reknown as one of his generation's most respected linguists, and according to The Sun, was believed to have passed the training course “with flying colours”. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return...

"The central point that Ron Paul makes again and again throughout the book, is that not only is the Federal Reserve and the idea of a central bank bad economic policy, it is immoral and criminal. He repeatedly equates the lowering of interest rates with counterfeiting currency."

A US worker came within seconds of destroying Lincoln's copy of the Magna Carta after nearly spraying it with a chemical cleaner. The 800-year-old document is currently on display in New York, but almost met a sticky end thanks to an overzealous cleaner. Lincoln Cathedral's archive conservation consultant Chris Woods accompanied the document, spending hours making sure the inked sheepskin which contains the charter of freedom, was placed correctly into a £42,000 vacuum-sealed display case to keep it safe from the elements. And it was, until a lock briefly malfunctioned just as a workman tried to give it a last...

New Book Claims George W Bush Said Barack Obama 'Has No Clue' George W Bush believed Barack Obama was "a cat" who "has no clue", dismissed Sarah Palin as a nonentity and insulted Hillary Clinton's posterior, according to a new account of life in the White House under the former president. Alex Spillius in Washington 15 Sep 2009 George W Bush believed Barack Obama was "a cat" who "has no clue", according to a new book. For all his politeness in public, Mr Bush is alleged to have privately mocked fellow big name politicians, claims his former speech writer Matt...

...Subtitled "The Commercial Revolution in American Music," Suisman's book (Harvard University Press) focuses on the 1880s through the mid-1920, a period that saw the growth of sheet-music publishing from a printer's sideline to a wildly profitable New York-based industry... These innovations made professionally composed and performed music available to a wider range of Americans than ever before. At the same time, music increasingly became something to be passively appreciated rather than actively made. (This story could have been different, if Edison's wax cylinders, which allowed convenient home recording as well as playback, had won out over Emile Berliner’s disc technology.)...