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LOVE IT

• According to new research, drinking a “moderate” amount of wine can improve your cholesterol levels–provided you exercise at least twice a week.

• Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal applied to join the reserve police force in Doral, Fla.

• Taylor Swift told Rolling Stone that she’s over making diss tracks about her exes–for now: “I don’t like it when headlines read, ‘Careful, Bro, She’ll Write a Song About You,’ because it trivializes my work.”

• Fox ordered a pilot for a TV series based on Minority Report, the 2002 Steven Spielberg blockbuster.

VERBATIM

‘You know what hurts your brain? Googling yourself.’

MILEY CYRUS, dismissing a reporter’s question about whether marijuana use was hurting her brain

DIGITS

113,190

Estimated calories you’d consume if you were to buy Olive Garden’s seven-week Pasta Pass–$100 for all-you-can-eat pasta, salad and bread–and have dinner there every night; that’s way over the recommended intake

TOY STORY

For nearly three decades, Morton Bartlett created, clothed and photographed a series of eerily lifelike dolls. But he kept his art project a secret: his photos, now on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until Jan. 31, were locked in a cupboard at the time of his death in 1992.

QUICK TALK

Mindy Kaling

Fox’s The Mindy Project returns Sept. 16, which means we’re back to getting regular doses of TV’s most entertaining ob-gyn–played (and created) by 35-year-old Kaling.

–NOLAN FEENEY

What’s the weirdest thing about medicine you’ve learned from playing a doctor?

That we have to keep up with the technology on set! My own doctor, who’s in his 60s, is using his iPad, and everything’s portable and wireless.

Your character, Mindy Lahiri, appears to be settling down with her on-again, off-again office flame [played by Chris Messina]. How’s that going?

There’s something sexy and fun about all the new boyfriends coming in, but with Mindy and Danny together, the show is so much more rated-R than before. It’s delightful for us, because we’re all kind of neurotic, slightly overeducated perverts.

Their first sex scene looks awkward in previews. Was it awkward to shoot?

Chris is the most in-touch-with-his-body person of all time, and we’re so comfortable with each other that I wasn’t self-conscious at all. I wish on every actress that they get to shoot a sex scene with Chris Messina, because it’s great fun.

Have you read any of the Mindy-Danny fan fiction?

A couple years ago I read something, and I was like, “I better not read any more because I could be enjoying this too much.”

I found one that was both X-rated and Beyoncé-inspired.

That’s wonderful. That could have been one of my staff.

You’re currently writing the follow-up to your first book. Any tips for writer’s block?

For every nine hours that I’m “writing,” only one hour of it is productive time. So I just make sure that I’ve put in the hours of procrastinating.

“ON MY RADAR

• The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones

“I’m not squeamish about blood, except for hearing. I can’t hear stories about people getting their arm caught in the door. If people tell me violent stories, I can’t listen to that. But I can watch it like a sociopath!”

RUFF LIFE

What’s the only thing cuter than a dog gleefully diving into a swimming pool? A puppy doing the same. Photographer Seth Casteel made a splash in 2012 with his book Underwater Dogs, and on Sept. 16 he returns with an extra-exuberant follow-up, Underwater Puppies. If the mugs of these mutts aren’t enough to warm your heart, get this: many of the more than 80 canines featured in the collection are rescue dogs.

CHARTWORK

How Kickstarter Hits Have Panned Out

The margarita-mixing, smartphone-charging, music-playing Coolest Cooler is officially the most funded Kickstarter ever, having raised more than $13 million last month (roughly 26,000% more than its $50,000 goal). But successful crowdfunding doesn’t necessarily guarantee real-world success. Here’s how other hit Kickstarter products have fared.

[This article consists of an illustration. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

SUCCESS

MONEY RAISED

OCULUS RIFT

Less than two years after the virtual-reality headset raised $2.4 million in September 2012, Facebook acquired the company and the technology behind it for a whopping $2 billion, sparking waves of speculation that Oculus could fundamentally change the way we interact online (let alone the way we play video games). A commercial version of the headset will be available in May 2015.

FORM 1

The high-res 3-D printer raised $2.9 million in October 2012. After selling thousands of units, Formlabs recently announced it will release an upgraded Form 1+, which will function 50% faster.

REAPER MINIATURE BONES

The plastic figurines (used to play fantasy tabletop games) netted $3.4 million in August 2012; their makers recently launched another successful campaign to create a new line.

OUYA

The mobile-gaming console (which syncs with TVs) raised $8.6 million in August 2012 but never caught on with users and developers.

PEBBLE

The connected watch–built to allow users to receive texts, emails, social-media alerts and more–raised $10.2 million in May 2012. Units shipped within months and wowed reviewers and consumers alike; to date, people have bought more than 400,000. But the Apple Watch looms large.

LEAVE IT

• Messaging app Emoji forces its users to communicate exclusively in emoji.

• China’s state broadcaster CCTV misidentified visiting U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

• Disney is locked in a heated legal battle with EDM artist deadmau5 (who also uses a mouse-head logo) over trademark infringement.

• DiGiorno accidentally used #WhyIStayed, a hashtag about domestic violence, to promote its pizza on Twitter.

• Someone invented a selfie hairbrush.

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