Gawker

How Mark Zuckerberg Accidentally Endorsed Mitt Romney on Facebook [Facebook]

Ryan Tate — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:41:27 EST

Sometimes you do something on Facebook — comment, post a link, "like" a status message — and it gets totally misinterpreted. And amid the backlash from family, friends, and strangers, you just have to be, like, "Facebook is fucked up, not my problem." Mark Zuckerberg doesn't have that luxury. More »

Teen Killer Who Bragged About 'Killing People' on MySpace Sentenced to Life [Alyssa Bustamante]

Maureen O'Connor — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:20:55 EST

Alyssa Bustamante—the 18-year-old Missouri girl who, at 15, confessed to murdering a 9-year-old neighbor and bragged about "killing people" on MySpace—has been sentenced to life in prison. More »

Sorry, The River, But Your Brand of Horror Won't Work on TV [Video]

Brian Moylan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:15:00 EST

With the success of American Horror Story on FX get ready for everyone to try to concoct a horror show of their own. First up, ABC's The River. Sorry, guys, it's just not going to work. More »

Cell Phone Cameras and The End of the Fair Fight [Video]

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:06:45 EST

Here we see two young women grab each other and start fighting at yesterday's Giants victory parade. A large crowd gathers around them. What the crowd does: point their cell phone cameras and film the fight. What the crowd does not do: make any move to break up the fight. Cell phone cameras have given us a fine excuse to become a bunch of moral zombies. More »

Zooey Deschanel Featured in Music Video [Zooey Deschanel]

Max Read — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:19 EST

Melted-bead craft project Zooey Deschanel is featured in an "interactive music video" promoting her show New Girl. More »

Which Tween Slept with Her Boyfriend's Brother? [Blind Items]

Brian Moylan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:29:16 EST

This celeb broke up with her man briefly after he found out that she slept with his brother. This actress' plastic surgeon won't do any more work on her and this famous actress is sick of her actor husband staying in character all the time. But does he have a brother? More »

Obama Watch Marshmallow Go Boom [Video]

Emma Carmichael — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:10:38 EST

About 100 hormone-crazed middle and high school students descended upon the White House yesterday for a Science Fair (which, in this economy, am I right?) and Joey, an eighth grader from Phoenix, Ariz., was the unofficial winner of everything. More »

If You Comment On This Post... [Video]

A.J. Daulerio — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST

You will be banned. Have a great day! More »

Kids These Days Become Harlots Somewhere in Their Mid-Teen Years [Dating]

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:39:53 EST

Kids these days: what is up with their love lives? Well, it's complicated. More »

Shocker: Rick Santorum Goes Three For Three In Tuesday's Elections Despite Being Rick Santorum [Election 2012]

Noah Garfinkel — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:16:00 EST

[This article has been updated to reflect new results.] More »

CNN Debuts "Caucus Cam" Which Is Absolutely Not A Thing [Election 2012]

Noah Garfinkel — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:06:00 EST

CNN is well known for needlessly incorporating quirky features into its coverage, most notably the Will.I.Am hologram from the 2008 election night. More »

Totally Chill Judge Allows Barry Bonds To Have His Bat Back [Legal]

Noah Garfinkel — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:59:13 EST

From TMZ: More »

Good Day New York's Greg Kelly Will Not Be Charged With Rape [Crime]

Noah Garfinkel — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:49:22 EST

If you were not already aware, about two weeks ago, a woman accused Good Day New York host Greg Kelly (son of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly) of rape in a complaint she filed at a Manhattan Police station. Hours ago, prosecutors formally announced they have dropped the case. More »

Tonight's Very Important Republican Races Are Also Very Unimportant [Election 2012]

Noah Garfinkel — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:41:00 EST

We are all, by now, familiar with the mantra, "elections have consequences." This is especially true tonight. It also kind of doesn't apply whatsoever. More »

Privacy Death Stars Approved By Congress [Drones]

Ryan Tate — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:48:46 EST

Today, it is tricky for governments and corporations to constantly spy on people using drones. By 2015, it wil be much much easier, thanks to a Monday Congressional vote authorizing drones above 400 feet, in the same airspace as commercial airliners. More »

NYT Sunday Review: Incredibly Cheap Bastards [Newspapers]

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:02:16 EST

The New York Times Sunday Review section invites professional editorial cartoonists to draw cartoons for free and submit them to the paper; one will be selected to run each week. The winning cartoonist will be paid $250. Everyone else gets nothing. More »

Answers to All of Life's Little Mysteries [Mysteries]

Maureen O'Connor — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:51:20 EST

"What If All the Cats in the World Suddenly Died?" Yahoo News asked today. Intrigued by this mysterious world without cats (What would we put bread on?) I clicked the link and found myself at Life's Little Mysteries, a LiveScience sister site dedicated to answering search-engine optimized questions of childlike wonderment like "Why are there holes in 'Swiss' cheese?" and "Who Will Succeed Kim Jong-Il?" (Trick question. Can't be answered.) More »

Anonymous Swears It Was Trying to Extort $50,000 from Antivirus Company for Charity [Digital Underground]

Adrian Chen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:35:00 EST

An Anonymous hacker tried to use stolen source codes to extort $50,000 from antivirus firm Symantec. Turned out it was a law enforcement sting. Now Anonymous is in spin mode, claiming the hacker was trying to raise money for poor kids in India. More »

Reporters: There Is Nothing Wrong With PR Firms Doing Research on You [How Things Work]

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:01:00 EST

We take a backseat to no one when it comes to spewing forth venom at the public relations industry. But we feel compelled to stand up and make this point: PR people doing research on what reporters have written and making a file on that topic is not a scandal. It is the same thing that reporters do, okay? More »

The Amazing Spider-Man: Unitards Are Back In Town [Video]

Leah Beckmann — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:55:00 EST

Here's a trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man, the retelling of an origin myth, retold. The background on this one is a mouthful so try to keep up: Marc Webb directed the screenplay, which was written by James Vanderbilt, which is based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Also, it was once a play written, directed, and starring Bono. More »

Why Moms Are Breastfeeding In Facebook's Face [Facebook]

Ryan Tate — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:45:10 EST

Angry lactivists - that's the term, stop snickering - showed up in front of Facebook's offices in Austin to breasfeed their babies. They were part of a wave of such "nurse-ins," all designed to protest the social network's staggeringly dumb policies on breastfeeding photos. More »

Court Rules California's Prop 8 Unconstitutional and Rather Pointless [Prop 8]

Emma Carmichael — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:22:18 EST

California's three-year legal battle over Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that effectively banned gay marriage in the state was suspended this morning after a panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it unconstitutional in a 2-1 decision. More »

The Koch Brothers Are Advertising Their Anti-Journalism Site on Pro-Journalism Sites [Kochsuckers]

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:05:00 EST

Cartoon-villain Republican billionaires David and Charles Koch hate the (non-right wing) press, because the press tends to point out the various villainous activities of the Koch brothers. The Kochs waged an extensive campaign to discredit Jane Mayer's 2010 New Yorker story about them. Like many despised corporations, Koch Industries set up its own PR website, KochFacts.com, to try to counter the "dishonest reporting" of various news outlets. More »

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: A Continued Debate [Video]

Brian Moylan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:32:17 EST

If the Republican debates are the second greatest televised spectacle about matters that are only slightly abutting reality, then the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion specials are the first. Here is a ranking of how each woman fared in last night's fiasco. More »

Zooey Deschanel Stands Next to Tall Man [Zooey Deschanel]

Max Read — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:09 EST

Lisa Frank needlepoint Zooey Deschanel was photographed next to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar today while backstage at The View. More »

Pete Hoekstra's Racist Campaign Ad Getting Even Racist-er (UPDATE) [Oops]

Leah Beckmann — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:36:00 EST

If Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra is trying to dig his way out of the controversy stemming from his charming campaign ad, which aired on Super Bowl Sunday, one observant Twitter follower's discovery isn't helping. More »

The Most Prolific Hacker on the Internet: A One-Handed Shadow [Stock Photos]

Maureen O'Connor — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:26:47 EST

Stories about hackers are notoriously difficult to illustrate. In fact, there is one hacker so elusive that only two images of him exist in all the internet, despite the fact that he is the most prolific internet hacker of all time. Now introducing: The Shadowy, One-Handed Hacker of Death. More »

Komen Foundation VP Resigns in Wake of Planned Parenthood Dispute [Planned Parenthood]

Emma Carmichael — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:15:00 EST

Exactly a week after the Susan G. Komen Foundation announced that it would pull funding from Planned Parenthood—a decision that they later reversed—the organization's vice president for public policy, Karen Handel, resigned from her position. More »

Ronald Reagan's Ghost Is 101 and the American Experiment Is Dying [Usa]

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:59:08 EST

Happy 101 years and one day after the birth of Ronald "The Gipper" Reagan—the man that the American public ranks as the greatest president ever. More »

Giants Fans Occupy Zuccotti Park, Demands Unclear [New York]

Adrian Chen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:50:40 EST

Hundreds of New York Giants fans have occupied Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, to watch today's Super Bowl victory parade. The crowd of peaceful, if slightly-scruffy demonstrators have no unified message, outside of a vague sense of elation over their team's victory in the world's most hyper-capitalist sporting event. Many, we assume, are unemployed. More »

M.I.A.'s Fiancé on Date with 'Very Pretty Black Girl,' According to Paper's Email Screw-Up [Gossip]

Max Read — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:39:11 EST

The New York Daily News has an item today about Super Bowl finger-giver M.I.A. breaking up with her fiancé, Seagrams heir Ben Bronfman, and moving to London away from her three-year-old son. And what's that at the very end of the article? Is that... the original email from the gossip reporter to his or her editor? More »

The Globe-Trotting Do-Gooder Who Inspired The Philanthropist Is a Shill For Syria's Brutal Dictator [Syria]

John Cook — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:30:53 EST

Bobby Sager is a millionaire entrepreneur who has devoted his life—when he's not busy serving as chairman of Polaroid—to traveling the world and helping people with his money. He's pals with Sting, hobnobs with Lady Gaga (pictured), and served as the inspiration for NBC's The Philanthropist. And according to internal emails from the Syrian regime, he's a great friend to that country's butcher of a president, Bashar al Assad. More »

Oh God Lindsay Lohan What Are You Doing [Bralessness]

Maureen O'Connor — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:29:13 EST

Lindsay Lohan did a sloppy photo shoot for Terry Richardson's blog. Even sloppier than usual. Slop beyond slop. More »

An Unnecessary New Cable News Network Could Be Coming Soon [Media]

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:59:52 EST

America currently has three major 24-hour cable news networks. The repugnant right wing propaganda one that's actually successful, and the one that's trying to be left wing propaganda that's less successful, and the one that used to be the "real news" one and is now pretty much down for whatever in order to avoid being the least successful. More »

Which Actor Ruined a Co-Star's Relationship? [Blind Items]

Brian Moylan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:50:14 EST

This actor guest starred on a hit show some years back, he ruined this actress' relationship. This actor is a stoner, this famous couple are coke heads, this new mother is already smoking again, and this sober actor gives his money to help other people fight addiction. Well, that sure is a change of pace. More »