1,000 Facebook friends? Who’s counting? (Orlando Sentinel) M y friend Star sent along a list of the 12 most annoying categories of Facebookers (as devised by Brandon Griggs for CNN): the let-me-tell-you-every-detail-of-my-day bore; the self-promoter; the friend-padder; the town-crier; the TMIer; the bad grammarian; the sympathy-baiter; the lurker; the crank; the paparazzo; the maddening obscurist; the chronic inviter. [News Source]

Orlando Philharmonic bringing opera back to Orlando this season (Orlando Sentinel) 'Carmen' and 'Porgy and Bess' to be performed in concert stagings The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra will bring live opera back to Orlando this season with concert versions of Carmen and Porgy and Bess and will offer more than $100,000 worth of free tickets to opera patrons who paid for subscriptions for the coming season and got nothing in return. [News Source]

Gene Mutation Alone Causes Transmissible Prion Disease (Medical News Today) For the first time, Whitehead Institute researchers have shown definitively that mutations associated with prion diseases are sufficient to cause a transmissible neurodegenerative disease. The discovery is reported in the August 27 edition of the journal Neuron. Until now, two theories about the role mutations play in prion diseases have been at odds. [News Source]

Mad Cow Men. [Advertising] (Gawker) Missing children need new real estate, because milk cartons are now being used for advertising! [News Source]

The boy who cried ‘pig’ (The Chronicle) There once was a boy who needed to fill programming gaps for his 24-hour cable news channel. The boy cried out, "There is a mad cow coming to your family's dinner table! Throw away your red meat!" The villagers turned on his channel to hear his message. In a frenzy of panic they hurried to their refrigerators and with their 12-foot tongs, cast their meat into the darkest corners of the earth. [News Source]