To watch America's most treasured political theater play out firsthand is to come to understand that this is not about real things that happen in the world outside of television boxes and the mouths of anointed leaders. This is a mass indulgence of the faithful in the collective ecstasy of their faith. As an act of cognitive dissonance, the speeches of the Republican convention were breathtaking in their boldness.

Hosting the former Secretary of State on late night television is no easy feat. You've got to be amiable, complimentary, and classy. Which is where Craig Ferguson slipped up last night as he awkwardly tried to pet Condoleeza Rice's dress.

Oksana and Mel's troubles began at an Australian placenta ceremony. Lawyers bug Lindsay Lohan to testify about her strip search. Zac Efron blows $2000 on booze and strippers. Heidi Montag is missing. Wednesday gossip is a hot mess.

The spring has everyone lovestruck: Freida Pinto hooked up with a Slumdog co-star, Lindsay Lohan yearned for Samantha Ronson and Condoleeza Rice had a non-date date with a musician.

Condoleeza Rice's first column for the Daily Beast isn't about international relations. That stuff's presumably better placed in Foreign Affairs. No, Condi waxed schoolgirlish about Tiger Woods, who she totally practically dated once.

Just when you thought we'd be remembering nothing more than war without end and awkward press conferences from Bush's time in office, comes Courting Condi. Debuting Nov. 6, it's a documentary about the grown-up version of the kid who played Buzz in Home Alone and his love for the former Bush administration official. While the concept might have worked better if it was Corey Haim seeking Dr. Rice's heart, the climactic wedding scene is promising in a 2002 kind of way.The 32-year old Devin Ratray fell for Condi, hard, and decided to pair with director Sebastian Doggart to talk to Adrien Grenier about her and generally just mix sexual euphemisms until the film's 107 minute runtime mercifully concludes. There's also songs, which might portend a stage adaptation once time travel is possible and Ratray can head back in time six years. Still, looking into the eyes of Buzz from Home Alone as you prepare for your wedding day is every girl's dream isn't it?

A team of Stanford researchers, led by scientist Abbas El Gamal and including researchers Keith Fife and Phillip Wong, are developing a new semiconductor camera sensor with thousands of individual lens elements which can be mass-produced cheaply. The aim: to create sophisticated three-dimensional digital scans quickly. But they didn't do it so that you could fashion a really bitchin' avatar in Second Life. Try "facial recognition for security purposes." Because the current crop of surveillance cameras and robots aren't very good at recognizing people or estimating depth, and if you want to build a mechanized assassin, the thing needs to be able to tell the difference between Kim Jong Il and Hu Jintao or the diplomatic corps is going to have hell to pay. True, there are peaceful applications for such technology. But how about we take a look at where the El Gamal Research Group gets its funding from?