The CNN Daily Mash-up is a roundup of some of the most interesting, surprising, curious, poignant or significant items to appear on CNN.com in the past 24 hours. We top it with a collection of the day's most striking photographs from around the world.
CNN tech reporter John D. Sutter writes, "Wasn't this supposed to be the 'Twitter Olympics,' where everyone rejoiced in the digital-era magic of hearing directly from the world's best athletes and scrolling through a global, real-time conversation about what must be the planet's most 'Kumbaya'-like sporting event?"
Well, yes. But things don't always go as planned, as evidenced by some athletes' questionable tweets and the groundswell of digital criticism for NBC's coverage of the Games.
CNN readers have at least as many opinions about Twitter as they have about the Games.
RabbitMan196
Twitter is not one of those things that makes the world a better place. Knowing people's knee-jerk reactions to things is not news, or even interesting.
Sybaris
It may not make the world a better place but it puts a real face on the world. People are just not as nice as they pretend to be.
Anoran
Arab Spring? Just because it doesn't make -your- world a better place doesn't mean the end result isn't positive.
PSAGuy
It's the thing the younger generation does not get....yet. They are eons ahead of us old timers with the technology...no 2 ways about it. But they don't yet understand the ramifications of the technology. Nothing happens in a vacuum. There are consequences for not understanding the public nature of all this technology. It's one thing to know how to drive a car.......quite another to understand "the rules of the road" however.
CNN iReporter Lynn Jones got pied herself at a big cream pie fight in Dallas.
During a bid to break the Guinness World Record for the largest shaving cream pie fight, CNN iReporter Lynn Jones joined more than 700 people in Dallas plastered in globs of shaving cream. Describing it as a chaotic, fun and party atmosphere, she says it was a thrilling event that she didn't want to miss.
"It was so much fun, and I would do this again in a heartbeat," she says. "One guy at one point said I didn't have enough shaving cream on me, so his pie went on the top of my head. I was laughing the entire time."
Mysterious crop circles have appeared in a wheat field near Wilbur, Washington. CNN affiliate KXLY goes all X-Files on the story.
A 15-year-old basketball player in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, is the youngest breast cancer patient ever treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, CNN affiliate WKRN reports. Ashley Roby was just 14 when she was diagnosed, and in February she underwent a bilateral mastectomy, with her family and her boyfriend, Jaelin, by her side. Since her operation, Ashley's scans have shown no need for additional radiation or chemotherapy. However, it the midst of it all, Ashley has had to deal with another tragedy.
Eclectic author Gore Vidal died Tuesday night at 86, leaving behind a body of work that chronicled American culture with a clear and often critical eye. Throughout his life, Vidal didn't shy away from controversy - either actively courting it or inviting it through his acerbic one-liners.
I've had hard targets in my lifetime, I've taken on general superstitions, but that's what writers do. So I certainly, wouldn't have changed my modus vivendi one bit.
Rafalca, the horse belonging to presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, will take part in the dressage competition Thursday at the Olympic Games in London. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama will be watching "if his schedule allows." The president is "interested in seeing every American entrant perform well, and he'll follow every event," Carney said.
A day after announcing that its sales fell from the same period last year, General Motors will report its second quarter financial results Thursday.
August 2 anniversaries
Churchill, Truman, Stalin at Potsdam
1923 - President Warren G. Harding dies and is succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.
1934 - Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany.
1945 - The Potsdam Conference between the leaders of the U.S., the Soviet Union and Britain ends with an agreement on a plan for postwar Europe.
1974 - Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean is sentenced to one to four years in prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal.
1978 - The New York state health commissioner declares that the contaminated Love Canal in Niagara Falls poses an imminent threat to public health; evacuation of pregnant women and children begins.
1990 - The Iraqi army invades Kuwait, leading to the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
August 2 birthdays
Peter O'Toole
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Me for President! No religion, modest job, I am a shoe in. Just hope noone throws a shoe.lol
Well, it depends on the shoes, doesn't it?
A cool pair of Jimmy Choo's would be okay, if they were new and in my size...
Tennis shoes for me, they are softer and won't put an eye out.lol
Very true...but it depends on the size of the shoe...my husband's *would* put an eye out, lol.
@ Jeff Frank (R-Ohio) "Conservative Territory", Wow! Do we really hang people before we have all the facts?
Now Mary purplemate is a clever name but I know how you think and you know who I really am. Text me baby.
@ Obama Mama, Ok, your the second LMAO given to me; first being HIDE BEHIND.
Okay I mention crop circles and they put a thread up about crop circles. I also have psychic abilities.lol
I noticed that too, Mama!
Okay, are you the famed St. Louis Medium?
@banasy- Nah, just womens intuition.lol
Yep, that he started with Pricilla when she was something like 13 or 14 is well known.
Tight-knit group here. Or do we have physco's on the loose?
A little of both.lol Jealous, join us, come to the light side.lol
do do do do do do do. Twilight Zone is that way ->
Ho Ho Ho of the net, Mary.
Crop circles are very interesting anomolies. The manmade, err, personmade ones are really intricate works of art. They've really come a long way since those two old men began making them decades ago.
The Jewish ole ladies are more artistic, don't ya think?lol
I think they might be dry air wind tunnels- instead of tornato's. Or a student project. They are actually too geometric to be mother nature.
Please elucidate on these crop circles Philip.
Actually, whether made by man or not, there amazing pieces of art.
Hope these comments to myself aren't reflective of the norm; musta rubbed the ring leader the wrong way.
Later
Those are trolls Purplemate.
There's no ring leader here that I'm aware of...
Everyone falls prey to them.
Later.
It would be funny if romney's horse lost. So he wouldn't feel so alone in November.
Actually, I'd rather see President Obama for another four years before he pardons George Bush as is the custom. Plus I kinda dig what obamacare does to Big-Pharma.
Me too.
So your going to vote?
There are no crop circles in a good portion of farm country this year. Only dry soil and dusty squares!
Aren't crop circles more prevalent in England?
Romney did it.lol He paid someone to do it.lol And then fired them.lol
I don't think so...Those UFOS keep running into the hedgerows!
@Tony, lol.