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.

That's not a volcano

About an hour into a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Chicago, CNN iReporter Dave Hanna of Albany, Oregon, saw a massive smoke plume from a wildfire. It looked like a volcanic eruption.

"I took the first shot of what looked like a big fire, but as we went further along it started to look like a volcano," he told CNN. "I am guessing the smoke went up 30,000 feet. Other passengers were looking out their windows as well."

West Nile virus widow grieves

Betty Best lost her husband, Howard, to the West Nile virus outbreak that has killed 16 people in Texas and 26 nationwide. She says she's ready to leave the Lone Star State - and perhaps this world - behind.

I don't have a lot of desire to hang around here now. And I hope my children understand. You've been with someone 65 years and you go put them in the ground and a part of you goes in there, too.

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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.

Why we're fascinated with Jennifer Aniston

Pepper Schwartz, a sociologist at the University of Washington and the author of 16 books on sexuality and relationships, takes an educated stab at why so many women are so intensely interested in the love life of actress Jennifer Aniston, who recently became engaged again, years after Brad Pitt dumped her for Angelina Jolie.

Aniston

There is an additional twist in Aniston's story that reassures us. Her failed marriage says to us that someone even more glorious than ourselves can be left, but her engagement tells us that there can be a Cinderella story at the end of the road: a mate who truly loves us, who wants to create a family, who will deliver security and unconditional love at last. Sure, it may last as long as the next headline, but we deeply hope love stays the course for her, because we want to believe that our own dreams will result in triumph over disappointment.

Come to class, get free shoes

The Detroit public school district hopes students who may not want to go to class will "just do it" on October 3. That's the day a head count will determine state and federal funding for some programs. To improve its chances, CNN affiliate WWJ reports, the district will offer a free pair of Nike shoes to every student who attends that day, thanks to a donation from Bob's Classic Kicks on Woodward Avenue.

Electric bill lights up her checkbook

Grace Edwards always knew her electric bills were way too high, but she couldn't get anyone - including the state utility regulator - to believe her. But at last the Cheshire, Connecticut, woman has prevailed, CNN affiliate CTNow reports. It turns out two street lights in her subdivision had been drawing power on Edwards' dime for 25 years. On Friday she received an apology and a check for more than $10,000 from Connecticut Light & Power.

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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.

Well done, London, well done

The 2012 London Olympic Summer Games ended Sunday night in spectacular fashion, even if NBC saw fit to cut away from it in favor of a show starring a monkey.

Keep looking up

Fireworks weren't the only thing worth looking at in the sky. CNN iReporter Abe Blair, a professional photographer, shot pictures of the Perseid meteor shower over Crater Lake, Oregon, for six to seven hours Sunday night. But his patience paid off with this spectacular image of meteors lighting up the sky near the Milky Way. He used a low-power lamp to light the gnarled tree in the foreground.

"This was my first time watching a meteor shower and this was the image I was hoping to capture," he says. "It was fun to watch, but a little frustrating to photograph since you're not able to know exactly when and where the meteor would pass by."

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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.

Dangerous days in Aleppo

CNN's Ben Wedeman gives a harrowing account of a trip into the besieged city of Aleppo, Syria, describing snipers, street vendors selling their wares as bombs fall, and a spectrum of conditions and attitudes among civilians. An 11-year-old girl named Nahla told Wedeman that government forces keep bombing her neighborhood:

We're confused. We feel they want to attack us. We left this area before, then came back. Now we want to leave again, but we can't.

NASA spacecraft crashes and burns

Project Morpheus, a new NASA test spacecraft carrying a prototype moon lander, crashed and burned Thursday during a test flight at Kennedy Space Center, CNN affiliate WKMG reports.

Ruminants just want to have fun

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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.

Campaign, please, hold the mud

The tenor of the presidential campaign has taken a sharp turn for the truculent in the last week or so, with unsubstantiated allegations and unflattering epithets flying across the camps. David Rothkopf, CEO and editor-at-large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy Magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, would like to see the candidates address things like the economy, Syria and gun control.

These are great issues calling for serious debate. And we actually have two candidates for president who are credible, serious men. But they are running a campaign that has the sensibilities and IQ of a typical middle school student council election. With the values of an episode of "Real Housewives" or "Big Brother."

Enjoying 'terror' on Times Square

People gather in New York's Times Square early Monday to watch a giant TV screen showing the Mars Curiosity rover landing. Click on the image for iReporter Navid Baraty's full gallery.

CNN iReporter Navid Baraty, a huge fan of astrophysics, says he wanted to be around others who were as excited as he was about watching the Mars Curiosity rover landing. As hundreds of onlookers flocked to New York's Times Square to see the historic landing unfold from a gigantic video screen, the whole experience took his breath away, he says. He says he had goosebumps when the rover finally touched down at 1:31 a.m. and people started chanting, "Science! Science! Science!" and "NASA! NASA! NASA!"

During the nail-biting "Seven Minutes of Terror," which NASA dubbed the landing sequence, cheers erupted with each successful transition the Mars rover made.

"Just seeing everyone collectively captivated by the live stream and huddled close together to hear the audio broadcast over their phones was so incredible," Baraty says. "Everyone was filled with excitement and wonder. The mood was intense. There really was a buzz of energy and excitement in the air. I think everyone was so proud to be taking part in such an incredible moment." FULL POST

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.

Here's something that works

Simon DeDeo is an Omidyar Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, where he researches theoretical biology and physics. He tries to explain why space exploration, such as this week's landing of a rover on Mars, strikes such a chord with so many of us.

Maybe we saw something deeper in the successful landing of Curiosity. We experienced - even if vicariously - a group achieving unambiguous excellence. In a nation where a city like Detroit can nearly collapse, where consensus on important policy issues seems far off, where some of the "best and brightest" minds of finance have built fragile institutions, how is it possible that a large cast of scientists and engineers can pull off such a remarkable task?

One person's junk is a hoarder's treasure

Speaking of junk ...

Although computing power has made much of our progress in space possible, the death of the conventional personal computer may be imminent as technology marches forward. This prospect does not sit well with some of our readers, such as this one:

Dalcassian

Never, I tell you ... Never. I will chain myself to my PC. They can have it when they pry it from my cold dead hands. It's constitutional, the right to bear PCs.

Readers also turned a jaundiced eye toward the news that American judo athlete Nicholas Delpopolo had been thrown out of the Olympics after a failed drug test he blamed on inadvertently eating food that had been baked with marijuana.

pinay53

It appears the marijuana also caused him to lose any semblance of rationality.  That has to be the worst excuse I've ever heard, except for 'the dog ate my homework'.  If you want to be a pothead, live with the consequences.  "Oops, I ate a pot brownie."  This guy's credibility just went in the toilet.

Communal meal

There's a good restaurant in East Atlanta Village called Holy Taco. Maybe they could work out some kind of a deal with La Amistad Adult Daycare in Beeville, Texas, where Ernesto Garza discovered a startling image on his breakfast taco. CNN affiliate KENS has the rest of the story.

Sikhs continue on peaceful path

CNN iReporter Sonny Gill's photo shows Sikhs and supporters gathered for a candlelight vigil Monday in Palatine, Illinois. Click on the photo for more images from the event.

CNN iReporter Sonny Gill, 30, of Chicago is a member of a Sikh community in Palatine, Illinois. He took part in a vigil to honor the victims of the mass shooting at a Wisconsin Sikh temple.

"I personally went to the vigil to support our community and family of Sikhs who are going through this hard time. And to show that their strength is still here, regardless of these senseless acts," he told CNN. "The biggest thing that stuck out to me was that we received prayers and heard from various community members from different backgrounds and religions. That truly showed how united we are as Americans and that one person's act will not deter us from continuing down our path of welcoming peace."

On the horizon: Postal Service meeting, swing state poll

The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors is expected to discuss Wednesday and Thursday the post office's failure to make its August 1 payment into a retiree health care plan, and the even bigger financial problems that default  indicates.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday to discuss results of a Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll focusing on the presidential swing states of Colorado, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Another Quinnipiac poll last week focused on Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

August 8 anniversaries

Nixon resigns, 1974

1876 - Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph.

1919 - Great Britain recognizes Afghanistan's independence.

1963 - Fifteen thieves in Great Britain make off with more than $6 million in what becomes known as "The Great Train Robbery."

1974 - President Richard Nixon announces he will resign in a national television address; he leaves office the next day.

1990 - Baseball star Pete Rose begins a five-month federal prison sentence for filing false income tax returns.

2011 - Standard & Poor's downgrades U.S. sovereign debt for the first time in history.

August 8 birthdays

Dustin Hoffman

– Swimming champion/actress Esther Williams, 91

– Singer/songwriter Mel Tillis, 80

– Actor Dustin Hoffman, 75

–  Singer/actress Connie Stevens, 74

–  Actor/singer Keith Carradine, 63

– U2 guitarist The Edge (Dave Evans), 51

– Tennis star Roger Federer, 31

– Princess Beatrice of York, 24

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.

Blood spilled in a sacred place

Sunday's mass shooting at a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee caused a new wave of shock and revulsion on the heels of the July 20 movie theater attack in Aurora, Colorado. Kanwardeep Singh Kaleka, a nephew of temple shooting victim Santwant Kaleka, the temple president, expressed the pain of many when he said:

I just never thought it would be at a temple, at a place of worship. I don't want people to have to carry a gun at a place of worship. ... Why can't people just show each other love and care and treat each other as humans?

Which is more interesting, Mars or Mohawk?

If you watched the Mars rover Curiosity landing early Monday morning (or late Sunday, depending on where you were), you probably noticed the dude with the mohawk haircut at mission control. You probably wanted to know what the deal was with him. You probably were hoping CNN would provide an interview with him. If so, you'll probably enjoy this:

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.

Would-be peacemaker gives up

Kofi Annan resigned Wednesday as the United Nations' peace broker in Syria, saying no one involved - including the group that hired him - really seems interested in making peace happen.

Yet the bloodshed continues, most of all because of the Syrian government's intransigence and continuing refusal to implement the six-point plan, and also because of the escalating military campaign of the opposition, all of which is compounded by the disunity of the international community. At a time when we need - when the Syrian people desperately need action, there continues to be finger-pointing and name-calling in the Security Council.

Whoa, Nellie!

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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.

Twitter Olympics change the game

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.

American pie

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."

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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.

Panetta to al-Assad: 'Get the hell out now'

In an exclusive interview with CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has some pointed words for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country's civil war is growing bloodier by the day:

I'm sure that deep down Assad knows he's in trouble and it's just matter of time before he has to go. I would say if you want to be able to protect yourself and your family, you better get the hell out now.

iReporter witnesses whale rescue

Click on the photo to watch Finnur Andresson's video of the rescue.

CNN iReporter Finnur Andresson in Iceland hurried out this morning with his camera when his photo club said he should to drive down to Krossvik because many whale sightings were occurring. As he began to take photos, he says the whales went wild and started to swim toward the shore when a whale watching boat approached closer to them. FULL POST

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.

Aurora victim's father on media coverage

Tom Teves doesn't want his son Alex's legacy to be defined by a gunman. When the Aurora, Colorado, theater-shooting suspect first appeared in court last week, Teves was there. Teves blames news outlets, including CNN, for playing a role in perpetuating mass shootings.

You make him out to be a madman. He knew he was going to be on television. These guys are playing you like fiddles. Either you're not that bright - I used a better word than I was thinking of - or you don't care and you're using it to sell advertising, and then you're the worst thing on the face of the Earth.

I see your Olympic flame and raise you a lightning bolt

Some folks in London have complained that they can't see the Olympic flame from outside the Olympic Stadium. There's a natural remedy for that.

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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.

From the horse's mouth

Sandy Weill, the man who built Citigroup into the financial behemoth it is today, tells CNNMoney that maybe the money giants need to be downsized a bit.

What we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking. Have banks do something that's not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that's not too big to fail.

Tough job in a tough place

Photographer and CNN iReporter Brian Day documented life on the job for firefighters in Detroit off and on from 2009 and 2012.

He recently shared his photos with iReport, and CNN International put together this piece with Day telling the story of his project and his feelings toward the subjects.

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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.

That's a big haboob

CNN iReporter Jessica Backofen says she looked up and saw a huge brown cloud rolling in over the mountains near Phoenix and captured photos of the dust storm from her car. "The winds were gusting pretty hard, so I made sure to park in a lot away from any tall trees," she said. "It was like a scene from 'The Mummy' or 'Hidalgo,' with the giant sandstorms in the deserts of the Middle East. Within 10 minutes, my position was enveloped in the cloud. The sun was almost completely blocked out, which is quite a feat in the desert. It was very intense!"

She hitched her dreams to Sally Ride's rocket

CNN iReporter Cynthia Falardeau, a 47-year-old nonprofit executive director and professional fundraiser in Vero Beach, Florida, said the late astronaut Sally Ride inspired her to follow dreams big enough to fail.

"Sally Ride is an icon to me and to all American women to dream. She was a pioneer to encourage small-town girls to think big. Most of all she got me to wonder how I fit into the world and what I had to contribute."

Follow the link to read Falardeau's entire essay.

David Beckham photobombs fans

Admit it. You'd react the same way. At least if you were a young British soccer fan. Or a woman. FULL POST

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.

Harsh penalties for Penn State

In the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, the NCAA on Monday announced a $60 million fine against Penn State and took 14 seasons of football victories away from the late coach Joe Paterno. The school was also banned from the postseason for four years and will lose 20 football scholarships a year for four seasons.

Ed Ray, chairman of the NCAA's executive committee, said:

The corrective and punitive measures the executive committee and the Division I board of directors have authorized should serve as a stark wake-up call to everyone in college sports.

Air Force pilot shows mad skilz

This was no video game. An Air Force pilot landed a huge cargo plane at a Florida airport whose runway is nowhere near long enough for such a big aircraft. Watch the aviator's impressive work:

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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.

Drought could give booze a kick

OK, now this drought is getting serious. As the heat and lack of rain cause grain crops to wither, the price of corn, wheat, barley and rye goes up. Eventually, that could mean the price of your favorite alcoholic beverage may rise too, Iowa distiller Ryan Burchett tells CNN affiliate WQAD. Something must be done!

For those of you who may have forgotten ...

This is what rain looks and sounds like. CNN iReporter Paul Markgraff says the rain in this video, shot Wednesday, is the first his Wisconsin town has seen since June 1. He says the storm took down some trees and power lines. 'The wind was blowing the rain so hard it was coming down sideways and sheeting off the roofs and onto driveways," he said. "It lasted maybe half an hour, calmed down for a bit and started right back up later in the night."

Forget 'War of the Worlds' and 'Independence Day'

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.

Israel vows 'to settle the account'

A deadly explosion on a bus carrying Israeli tourists at an airport in Bulgaria is "clearly a terrorist attack," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday.

We are in a continued fight against them. We are determined to identify who sent them, who executed and to settle the account.

6-year-old photographer snaps nice shots

Yes, this photo was taken by a 6-year-old girl.

CNN iReporter Michael Butler shares a series of photos that his 6-year-old granddaughter, Rian Grace, took from her outing to the San Antonio Zoo with his wife. "I have a budding nature photographer on my hands. My little granddaughter saw my wife taking photos and asked if she could also," he says. "She took over 400 pics, but these were her best shots. She is only 6 years old and already has a pretty good eye."

Third time's a charm?

Bob Edwards gets hit by lightning for the third time - and lives to tell about it, CNN affiliate WSOC reports.