There's a loud buzzing this morning, and it's not just the hangover from late-night celebrations of the Yankees' pennant win; quite a few tech and Mac sites (we heard it first from Edible Apple, although it's really everywhere now) are reporting on week-old remarks from the New York Times executive editor, Bill Keller, that were supposed to remain off-the record -- and of course are now playing on video all across the web.

If you look at the transcript of his chat, or the 8:20 mark in the video, you'll see him refer to delivery of journalism to mobile platforms, and then he mentions the "impending Apple slate."

Is this a simple moment of wishful thinking for Keller, or is it linked to the presumptive starring role that daily newspapers would play on the hypothetical Apple wundergadget? I can't wait to find out.

Read on to see the video.

In an interesting -- not to say wildly speculative -- essay, Slate Magazine's Karim Bardeesy says that Apple should take some of its $28 billion and start a bank.

During Wednesday's conference call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer made it clear that the company was looking to keep its cash right where it is. Anecdotal evidence suggests that now might not exactly be the best time to get one's feet wet in high finance, but Bardeesy does make a few interesting points.

First, if Apple takes $15 billion of its own cash, at "regulated reserve ratios," Apple could offer $100 billion in loans. Couple that with the company's tech savvy and trustworthy brand, Bardeesy says, and you're looking at an opportunity to "revolutionize the industry."

Second, Bardeesy suggests creating an internet-only bank, taking deposits from everyday people -- via an iPhone fund transfer app, of course. He says the rise of Internet banks isn't unprecedented: just look at how popular they were in Iceland! (Ignore for now those banks' participation in the total collapse of Iceland's banking system.)

And how about a slice of that sweet, sweet government bailout? Apple can have some -- if it's a bank. "Goodie side benefits to banking status include access to some of that TARP money and a steady revenue stream to smooth out any bumps in retail demand for other Apple products," he writes. Contradictorily, in his final sentence, Bardeesy chides the banking industry for "pocketing taxpayer billions while sending nary a penny [his] way." You can't have it both ways, buddy.

In sum, Bardeesy admits that "Apple has prided itself on sticking to its knitting and not indulging in diversionary acquisitions or enterprises." He claims, however, that "an exception can be made when economy and country are at stake and profits are on the table."

Can it? Really?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Paul Collins, writing for Slate, laments all the cool music that people outside of Japan are missing out on via the iTunes Store. As you know, if you don't have a credit card tied to an address in a particular country you can't buy any music from that country's flavor of the iTunes Store. If you're in to J-Pop, or any of the other vibrant Japanese music scenes, this means in order to take advantage of the massive catalog on iTunes Japan you need to be in (or at least have a credit card in) Japan.

This isn't unique to the Japanese iTunes Store, of course, every country specific store also has a bunch of songs you can't buy outside of that country's iTunes Store. Collins wonders why these borders are enforced for digital downloads, but I imagine it is another sign of the Recording industry's deathgrip on content. Music wants to be free, geographically speaking that is.

If you're jonesing for some Japanese music via iTunes there are work around. Give something like jbox a try.