Did you know that some people believe that President Obama was part of a super-secret project that involved time-travel and visiting Mars to establish America’s “territorial sovereignty” in the 1980s? Of course you didn’t, you were too busy trying to find his real birth certificate. That’s what one wacky conspiracy theory website “uncovered,” except, unlike most wacky conspiracy theories, this one got the White House to confirm whether it is true. The short answer: um, no.

It turns out that a recent “birther” sign — which also appeared at the recent Iowa debate in the form of a large billboard — comes courtesy of the folks over at WorldNetDaily, who are not quite the greatest fans of Obama. Maddow described their mission as essentially “trying to make a buck off the more gullible elements of the conservative base.”

She then pointed to some of the group’s previous projects, such as their reports on the need to wage a war on Islam itself rather than on terrorists acting under their own fundamentalist interpretations. Maddow brought on Wired‘s Spencer Ackerman, who broke a rather amazing series of reports about how the person behind that WorldNetDaily report has been instructing FBI counter-terrorism officers using ideas prevalent in what Maddow describes as the fringe of the right wing.

For many famous people, Twitter has become a way to interact directly with the people who follow their careers– a quick way to eliminate the stranglehold many middle men and public relations teams keep over them. Which is exactly why, at first glance, the decision to create an account for Vice President Joe Biden seemed like such a bizarre one, yet here we are: Vice President Biden’s office will be engaging with the Twittersphere @VP, starting today.

What would the world be like if The Huffington Post was actually The Stassinopoulos Report? Well, we might’ve had to have taken StassRepo buses to D.C. And also, Arianna Huffington wouldn’t have been sued by Democratic consultants James Boyce and Peter Daou, who are accusing her of stealing the idea for a website from their designs, a site that would one day become The Huffington Post.

When I noticed this month’s issue in my mailbox, I approached it with the same breathless anticipation that I do every month. I didn’t even mind the naked picture of Jennifer Aniston on the GQ subscription insert. I mean, it’s just advertising. You’ve got to make a living, right? Then, I turned you over to see what fascinating topics I would be delighted by this month. Boobs. Right there on the cover. A pair of breasts, no head, no rest of body… just boobs.

Craigslist recently shut down its “adult services” section under fire from many groups who accused the site of facilitating prostitution. However, before there was the “adult services” page on Craigslist there was the back page on the Village Voice, and it is apparently getting the company in trouble.

According to Wired contributing editor Jonah Lahrer, today’s political discourse has become “one big study in cognitive dissonance.” In a blog post yesterday, Lahrer expanded on a fascinating recent article in the Boston Globe that examines how cold hard facts often bolster misinformed opinions rather than correct them, especially in the political sphere.

Wired is reporting that an Army intelligence analyst who apparently “boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records” to the whistleblower site has been nabbed by federal officials.

Brian J. Hogan, welcome to the national spotlight! Wired magazine’s blog “Threat Level” has now identified the individual who found/stole the next generation iPhone and sold it to Gizmodo, sparking a rather large dust-up between Gawker Media and Apple.

Just a few months ago, the video demonstration of Wired magazine’s vision of a tablet-based iteration of their magazine made a lot of waves. In fact, one of the most talked about moments at SXSW last month was a presentation made by Wired‘s Scott Dadich and Adobe’s Jeremy Clark. But in light of the recent battles between Apple and Adobe over Flash and the iPad platform, did Wired make a strategic error in putting so much into their Adobe partnership? Yes, it appears so.

Ink-stained wretches, it’s not just you! The social media and Twitter elite fret about the future of journalism too — and wonder how it will survive the digital revolution. At SXSWi, there was no shortage of panels obsessively deconstructing this topic (and tweeting about it, natch).

Scott Dadich, Design Director for Wired and Jeremy Clark, Experience Designer for Adobe, previewed a demo of Wired‘s future plans for an iPad version of the Conde Nast title. Judging by the response on Twitter, the demo created bit of a stir, primarily it seems for showing what the future of magazines could look like.Video of the demonstration after the jump.

From Wired‘s longish profile on Andrew Breitbart, whom the magazine describes as being an “expert in making the journalism industry his bitch.” And if you follow his Twitter feed you may agree this is not too far off a description.

At the American Association of Advertising Agencies‘ Transformation Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson addressed the crowd and waxed lyrically about the possibilities for the currently troubled magazine industry via Apple’s iPad (and other tablet platforms.)

Our latest 5QQ participant, Thomas Goetz, is author of the new book The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine. Former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler calls The Decision Tree “a game changer,” and Dr. Dean Ornish says that Goetz “writes more clearly and presciently about the future of health care than anyone on the planet.”

When Gawker reported that Wired boss Chris Anderson was too busy promoting his book to be present on layoff day, the tech editor took to his Twitter to defend himself. But Anderson angrily taking the bait of his ex-employee is exactly what Ryan Tate and Gawker want.

The October issue of Publishers Weekly is quite forward-thinking for such an old world product. One glance at this edition’s cover — an artistic recreation of the magazine’s Twitter page — and it’s clear that this isn’t your great-great-grandfather’s Publishers Weekly. Actually, it’s the Viral Issue and it’s online and on newsstands now — what’s inside might surprise you.

Say what you will about Google destroying newspapers and infringing on literary copyrights, they have just come up with a genius idea. Actually it’s two ideas. And it may not only be the future of publishing but also of newspapers.

In anticipation of his new book Viral Loop about “the interconnectedness of today’s socially networked society,” Adam Penenberg (Fast Company, Wired) has commissioned the design of an eponymous Facebook application to test his thesis. Described as part “infographic, game, and research project” Viral Loop estimates what slice of Facebook’s billions are all thanks to your activity on the site.

Wired EIC and dubious Free author Chris Anderson gave an interview to Der Spiegel in which he talked about the future of journalism. Or maybe not:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Anderson, let’s talk about the future of journalism.

Anderson: This is going to be a very annoying interview. I don’t use the word journalism.

Every week we take a look at the newsstand and try to pick the winners and losers. We call this feature “Cover Wars” and this week we’re looking at the world of men’s magazines — or should we say ‘magazines that men might like to read’. We’re always looking for something a little smarter to read, especially if photos of Brad Pitt eating donuts over his keyboard are involved.

Hemingway’s Moveable Feast, then and now; Eggers on Katrina; something about the world’s strangest frogs and other fun things we’ve come across during our day reaping the fruits of the Internet!

Although a lot is going on with the site, this feature will probably garner the most attention. The Power Grid ranks 1,500 media personalities in a dozen categories. It will predictably get criticized for some sort of navel-gazing, but just as with pageview counts and most-emailed articles lists before it, the index will also predictably be ctrl+refreshed by industry obsessives.