Water Cooler

Here are a few things in news, entertainment and pop culture that we've been talking about lately.

■ A federal judge blocks a mandate that would have required putting graphic images of dead and diseased smokers on cigarette packages. No problem, the hacking, yellow-fingered, phlegmy smokers who buy the packs already serve as pretty good deterrents against smoking.

■ Justin Bieber denies fathering a child by a San Diego woman who, it turns out, once attended school in Las Vegas. Because whenever something weird happens, there shall be a connection to Las Vegas.

■ The White House says the government has no evidence that life exists beyond the Earth or that an alien has ever interacted with any human being. Oh, sure, that's just what you'd expect them to say!

JOHN PRZYBYS (jprzybys@reviewjournal.com)