In Hollywood, the Wall St plots will thicken. Just a few months ago, Lifetime Television started adapting the Candace Bushnell novel Trading Up into a movie, figuring an aspirational story about the entitled rich and their limousine culture nailed the cultural moment. Suddenly, across Hollywood, the stock market is not such a sexy subject anymore. — New York Times

That McCain photo: How a bad picture can be a political disaster. His tongue is sticking out. He is doubled over like the hunchback of Notre Dame. And, from the photographer’s angle, John McCain appears to be reaching for his opponent’s Democratic ass. After John McCain’s monumental pratfall, Archie Bland explains how one picture can undo an entire political career. — The Independent

The lethal legacy of World War II. Germany remains contaminated with unexploded bombs that are becoming increasingly unstable with age, warns one of the country’s most experienced bomb defusers. In the whole of Germany, more than 2,000 tons of American and British aerial bombs and all sorts of munitions ranging from German hand grenades and tank mines to Russian artillery shells are recovered each year. — Spiegel Online

The day punk died. Thirty years ago this month, the death of Nancy (and Sid) effectively ended New York’s early punk scene. It’s been easy to hate her since—maybe too easy. Nancy Spungen doesn’t come up much anymore, and when she does, it’s as a rock-and-roll footnote, a tabloid grotesque wedged between the Son of Sam in ’77 and John Lennon’s murder in ’80. — New York Magazine