Security was so pervasive around Rhinebeck, NY, the groom was held for questioning in Poughkeepsie.

Drones delivered the coveted invitations. No FOB—Friends of Bill—this time, just FOC.

The Salahis were shot down entering Rhinebeck airspace. The Gores weren’t invited because of the seating problem.

A Jewish ceremony—SWAT team broke the glass.

In the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia today, legislators are scheduled to decide whether or not to ban bullfighting. [Update: The lawmakers voted 68-55 to ban bullfighting.] The ban originally was passed last December, but to take effect it had to pass a final hurdle. Aida Gascón, the national director of AnimaNaturalis, said that such a […]

It seems like Lady Gaga is everwhere this year–on the Grammy’s doing a duet with Elton John, on the Today show performing for upwards of 20,000 of her “little monsters”, selling out concerts around the continent, causing an uproar at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field in New York, on YouTube and Facebook, and on the cover of magazines. Nancy Bauer, chair and associate professor of philosophy at Tufts University and author of Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, and Feminism (Columbia University Press, 2001) and a recent New York Times article entitled “Lady Power” on Lady Gaga and feminism, has kindly agreed to answer a few questions from Britannica executive editor Michael Levy for the Britannica Blog.

Among her insights is:

“People like to compare Gaga with Madonna, who also used campiness and shock tactics in exercising an uncanny gift for getting the culture to ride her coattails. A crucial difference is that Gaga explicitly understands her edginess as a product of being a misfit, or, as she likes to say, a “freak.” People who have gone to her shows report that she comes across as both a huge, sui generis star and a vulnerable, even ordinary, everywoman.”

The biggest weekend of the comic convention season has begun in San Diego, where an estimated 140,000 fans, industry professionals, and media representatives have descended on the San Diego Convention Center. From its modest beginnings in 1970, when a few hundred people gathered in a hotel basement, the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) has grown to become one of the entertainment industry’s premier events.

On Saturday, the family of former University of North Carolina head basketball coach Dean Smith released a letter indicating that he had a “progressive neurocognitive disorder that affects his memory.” For UNC graduates such as myself (class of 1991), who had the pleasure of sitting in the Dean Dome for all but one game of my four years at Carolina, the news came as a shock, almost as though it was a member of our own family suffering an affliction.

He was a legend and beloved because of all the accomplishments he had on the court, yes. But, he was also a legend because of who he was off the court.

“This quest for self-definition may be said to be the main theme of all American literature. It is a unique theme: we do not find the Roman or the French or the British writer debating the question What is a Roman, What is a Frenchman, or What is an Englishman. But few American novelists and poets have been able to resist the theme What is an American….”

Is “the zed word” all right for polite company? Can “civilisation” be saved? For answers, you can do no better than to spend a couple of hours with Simon Pegg’s delightful zomcom Shaun of the Dead.

If language is a virus, do bilingual communities suffer from twice as many plagues? Check out Pontypool, a Canadian entry in our series of great zombie movies, for an answer.

The big story on the Web over the weekend was that Justin Bieber, who was discovered via YouTube, had taken over the #1 all-time most played video on YouTube’s from Lady Gaga. The story was everywhere. But, on other statistics–page views per day, most likes, and most videos surpassing 100,000,000 views–the one with the hair falters.

When you’re begging for bread, don’t ask for butter. When you’re begging for a white knight—well, let George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead address your concerns.