In August 2011, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, potential challenger in the next French elections, was at JFK airport, en route to Germany for a key meeting regarding Greek debt and the saving of the Euro. After his plane was sealed and taxiing for departure, Port Authority Police were requested to stop and detain him by the NYPD. Believing the police had found his missing IMF Blackberry, he was instead accused of rape and returned to NY to face a grand jury. Quickly the case fell apart and now it appears the accuser and the Manhattan D.A.'s office were used in an elaborate trap set by Accor, the French corporation owning the site of the crime, The Sofitel, whose security is managed by one of Nicholas Sarkozy's best friends.

DSK thought that by staying in a French-run establishment it'd be culturally apt to get a blow job from the staff. Now it seems he was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Read the hidden time-frame and the strange surveillance decrypt what happened between housekeeper Diallo (5' 10") and Strauss-Kahn (5' 7"). Who was in room 2820? Where is DSK's IMF Blackberry? The beginning of the unravelling...

Edward Jay Epstein's brilliant forensic work in the NYRB.

Having shunned sci-fi for decades, Ridley Scott, an early innovator of the form, returns to it after some less than stellar outings (A Good Year, Robin Hood). The question is why. The answer is simple: $$; adult themes no longer command budgets. What studio will spend 90 million to watch Russell Crowe eat escargot these days. The only way for Mr. Scott to make his now standard 7 million fee is to finally return to the genre he avoided after 1983. The Tentpole cash-cow forces him to switch late in career to reboot his first success (Alien) and his only masterpiece (Blade Runner) that tanked in summer 1982. The contraction of the spot business no doubt contributes to his decision. Beware (imagine Welles rebooting Kane in 1969). Blade Runner was a film that suffered two budgetary collapses, tiring difficult night shoots and the removal of half of its scripted miniature sequences (it has only twelve, extremely well paced sequences that match seemlessly with the surroundings). Its unplanned austerity gave 80's baroqueness a haunted quality difficult to duplicate, and a style irrelevant in today's aesthetic: it's fashion now.

Must be expensive? Very.

Revenue increases from the sudden addition of 3-D and IMAX while attendance drops. Analysts, critics and audiences aren't fooled, but Hollywood appears to be. Movies follow the U.S. auto industry with a Soviet-style self-deception regarding its future.

From The Economist, Hydrogen antimatter now can be stored, observed and then destroyed to examine the remains. The video attached to the article is essential.

Endeavour is the second to last shuttle, and without a planned passenger payload program, represents a halt to the human part of the U.S.'s dominant space program. Coming up next, see: drones in space. This max'ed out, potentially 34 day final mission for Endeavour, can be viewed on NASA's HD and web channels. Live feeds of the earth below are continuous, when available. Daily mission highlights can be seen at 10PM EST. Three spacewalks are planned. On last night's highlights: three cremwmbers had already visited ISS via the Soyuz, and all of them commented on how different the ride is. One of them discussed the intuitive design of the cabin.