...For The Ride Home: Burger King is up for sale, CBS News to lay off tons of more workers and Eminem finally falls from the top

So, this sits on my DVD player in a Netflix envelope, waiting to be placed into the movie-playing device. Opened it to find it runs nearly two-and-a-half hours. That kind of got in the way. One billion doubts about this movie, but we will see how it turns out, I suppose. Matt Damon. Morgan Freeman. Have to trust them, right? Anyways, welcome to Wednesday, and, more importantly, welcome to September. That's correct, friends. School is back in session for most every high school and, I think (though it seems like it's been decades since I've been there) some colleges even. The leaves will begin to turn. The weather will get colder. The days become shorter. The fall depresses me. No, honestly. That can be a post someday. But it does. It's going to be hard to get through the next few months. Still frantically trying to catch myself up on 437 things that need to be caught up on before this weekend, so for the second straight day in a row, I must cut this paragraph short. But that doesn't mean I don't love you. Besides, it should give you some extra time to reflect back on the "Dancing With The Stars" cast, and the decision to keep Bob Bradley as coach of the United States Men's Soccer Team. And we all know how much you'd like to put that time to use. So go, friends, go!

First and foremost (and because it’s always good to keep this in the family): A collection of art for you to check out. And it’s even on Blogspot to boot! (Portfolio)

So, about that new show on FX based around Louis CK… Here’s a commentary. (Popmatters)

The Washington Post is going to put out an iPad app. And people seem to really care. (Yahoo)

If you work at CBS News, update your resume. (The Daily Beast)

This is long, but it’s a fantastic read. Yes, TMZ has changed everything. Everything. And, as something I’ve been saying now for quite a while, they get it first. Yes, they may pay for the news, and yes, they brake hundreds of ethics codes, but they get it first, and they get it right. There’s something to be said for that. (Village Voice)

Mo Williams and LeBron kiss. Make up. (Deadspin)

So, who wants to buy Burger King and shut every single one down in the world with me? (Forbes)

Conan names his new show after himself. How egotistical! (ABC News)

Katy Perry ends Eminem’s run at the top. Dude had a good run. Actually, a great run during these days. Irony: Finally received my copy of Recovery in the mail today, too. (Billboard)

Consumer Reports and the iPhone 4 in a steel cage match

Today is one of the few dark days in the typically sunshiny Apple world. The technology superpower took a pretty stiff uppercut to the chin as Consumer Reports just announced that it can’t recommend the iPhone 4 due to a signal problem with the phone/web browser/mp3 player/game console/camera/video camera/time waster (did we mention phone?).

Specifically, Consumer Reports’ engineers found that the phone’s signal decreases significantly whenever the user touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side. The report did mention, however, that the phone has the best display and video camera of any phone ever.

So why does this matter to me, the simple blogger with an outdated LG EnV 3 (which I love by the way)? Actually, nothing. Based mainly on price, I will probably never own an Apple product other than my trusty outdated, clunky 30 GB iPod. I use a Mac at work for graphic design, but that’s about the extent of it (and I didn’t pay for it of course).

Then why post about the shortcomings of this gadget, you ask? My response: Forget about the iPhone – I want to talk about Consumer Reports!

Consumer Reports has almost gone the way of the buffalo in the current era of user reviews and social media, hasn’t it? Whenever we make any purchase worth mentioning, almost all of us research the products on the Web before making our decision. I’m so “thrifty” (cough “cheap” cough) that I research purchases as little as $50, to ensure I'm getting the most for my money.

But the difficulty of researching products/services online is the lack of accountability of the users. How much can we really depend on the opinions of Weirdo1117 or CraigsListKiller96? Isn’t it always in the back of our minds that maybe it’s a disgruntled ex-employee leaving the negative reviews and the marketing director leaving the positive ones?

Consumer Reports though, those dudes don’t mess around. They are downright scientific in their testing – and now, with this latest review of the “infallible” iPhone 4, it’s clear that they’re pretty objective too. I mean who in their right minds says anything negative about Apple?

Oh wait, Adobe just did that. Hehe.

So… User Reviews vs. Consumer Reports. The war continues, but today my friends, Consumer Reports is celebrating a victorious battle. Thoughts?

Come back on Thursday for a good time, winkwink. xoxoxoxo