This story has it all. Nazi conspiracies, international intrigue, and twins. Just like those Coors Light commercials—but with more ethnic cleansing.

In your terrible Thursday media column: Another print magazine dies, rumors of layoffs at ALM, the Dallas Morning News goes straight to journalism hell, and Town & Country is now officially sexy.

In your traditional Tuesday media column: Lewis Lapham endures, Lou Dobbs is in demand, Charlie Rose gets a new column, and Sheriff Joe harassed by J-schoolers playing the race card.

A tipster tells us that National Geographic laid off 8-10 staffers today. Reason: "The economy."

In a clear act of porcine aggression against our nation's geographers, the dreaded Mexican Pig Flu has struck the National Geographic Society. We have the memo.

This has been around since yesterday but, you know, we're moving slowly. Who is the National Geographic Channel host who is terribly missed by the sad lady that asked Cary Tennis for help?

♦ When Barack Obama mentioned on 60 Minutes that he was reading a book about FDR, what book was he referring to? At least one publisher wants to know. [NYT]
♦ National Geographic is getting into the videogame business. [THR]
♦ Pepsi has dumped its longtime ad agency, BBDO Worldwide, in favor of TBWA/Chiat/Day. [NYT]
♦ Rosie O'Donnell is planning to appear on three episodes of Rachael Ray's cooking show this month. [NYDN]
♦ ESPN has outbid Fox for the broadcast rights to college football's Bowl Championship Series, beginning in 2011. [WSJ]
♦ Maxim has named NBC's Amy Robach as "hottest news anchor." [TVNewser]
♦ Just in time for Christmas, Fox News' Sean Hannity is sponsoring a series of "Freedom Concerts." [HuffPo]
♦ Here's video of a stilted Arianna Huffington filling in for Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last night, in case you missed it. [Gawker]

We hear that National Geographic just laid off 13 people on the magazine staff—including a cartographer. We also hear that they are planning 5%-10% cuts across the entire company. This is bad. What will become of the cartographer? When a magazine cartographer can't get a job at National Geographic, the rest of the magazine cartography market must look especially barren. If you know more about the layoffs, email us. [UPDATE: We hear that the mag has "over a dozen" total cartographers on staff. And further, "They did similar 'restructuring' in the 1990's and laid off lots of people, but they were quite generous with severance and benefits."]

I recently started subscribing to National Geographic, and its coverage of Stonehenge and jungles is incomparable. But I'm convinced that the sly geography wonks on its editorial staff get their kicks each month by selecting the most insane letters to the editor, and putting them into the magazine. The new issue has letters about a March story on animal intelligence. They must have gotten thousands! So who's represented? Inexplicable dog haters, lamb-whisperers, and schizophrenics:

The Harvard Lampoon's soon-to-be-released April parody issue (click to enlarge) features none other than Harvard Lampoon Woman of the Year Paris Hilton! Not as good as the 1972 Cosmo parody, but still decent. When will those overeducated scamps stop with the humor and get down to business? [Faded Youth Blog]

Everyone is always destroying New York all the time. Now the damn National Geographic Channel has decided to borrow a page from Animal Planet and direct their focus away from mating gazelles and toward death and doom for us all. The video below popped up on the front page of Dailymotion today. It's a promo for the upcoming NatGeo special "Six Degress Could Change the World," which is about global warming and not how we're all connected to '80s leading men (or Sidney Poitier). Remember: in the event of 25 feet of water drowning New York, stay inland or with Dennis Quaid. [National Geographic]

National Geographic has also "terminated" Peter Arnett's services after his recent interview on Iraqi TV. There will, alas, be no fascinating camel documentaries.
Journalists lose Baghdad jobs [USA Today]

Peter Arnett's "relationship with NBC" has been terminated because Arnett stated on Iraqi TV that the Bush war plan "had failed." Given that the war wasn't over yet, NBC apparently felt that declaring Baghdad victorious was perhaps a bit premature. Arnett still has his National Geographic gig, though. He may, however, be restricted to reporting stories that begin with "Deep, in the deserts of Iraq... the ferocious dromedary camel stalks its prey..."
NBC, MSNBC terminate Arnett [MSNBC]

A.k.a., The Worst Blizzard Ever, resulted in 40 inches of snow in New York in a 36-hour period. A friend writes, "I remember reading a National Geographic story that said the snow fell so hard, and the wind was so strong, that weeks later they found corpses standing erect in melting snow drifts."
The great white hurricane [Infoplease]
The storm of the century [SUNY]
All about snow: picture gallery [NSIDC]