Usually, you only see the term "private re-homing" on message boards where pet owners seek new caretakers for unwanted animals. But, Reuters reports, there's a far more sinister context for the phrase—on another, scarily similar network of online bulletin boards where desperate parents advertise and abandon children they regret adopting from overseas.

Through Yahoo and Facebook groups, parents and others advertise the unwanted children and then pass them to strangers with little or no government scrutiny, sometimes illegally, a Reuters investigation has found. It is a largely lawless marketplace. Often, the children are treated as chattel, and the needs of parents are put ahead of the welfare of the orphans they brought to America.

According to Reuters, over the course of five years a Yahoo message board called Adopting-from-Disruption (failed adoptions are sometimes referred to as "disrupted") featured an new ad for a child about once a week. At least 70 percent of kids advertised there had been adopted from overseas, including countries such as Russia, China, Ethiopia and the Ukraine. Most ranged from ages 6 to 14.

The solicitations bear a "striking" resemblance to the way owners would describe an unwanted pet:

"Born in October of 2000 – this handsome boy, 'Rick' was placed from India a year ago and is obedient and eager to please," one ad for a child read.

A woman who said she is from Nebraska offered an 11-year-old boy she had adopted from Guatemala. "I am totally ashamed to say it but we do truly hate this boy!" she wrote in a July 2012 post.

Another parent advertised a child days after bringing her to America. "We adopted an 8-year-old girl from China… Unfortunately, We are now struggling having been home for 5 days." The parent asked that others share the ad "with anyone you think may be interested."

After Reuters informed Yahoo of the message board, the company swiftly shut it down, along with five other groups. Reuters said a similar Facebook group called "Way Stations of Love" was still active, although it's no longer searchable on the social network. A Facebook spokesperson initially defended the group to Reuters, explaining "that the Internet is a reflection of society, and people are using it for all kinds of communications and to tackle all sorts of problems, including very complicated issues such as this one."

But as Reuters notes, "[g]iving away a child in America can be surprisingly easy," and the process allows for flexibility that benefits the child. But these online forums circumvent existing safeguards.

The Reuters investigation found that some children who were adopted and later re-homed have endured severe abuse. Speaking publicly about her experience for the first time, one girl adopted from China and later sent to a second home said she was made to dig her own grave. Another re-homed child, a Russian girl, recounted how a boy in one house urinated on her after the two had sex; she was 13 at the time and was re-homed three times in six months.

Nicole Eason, who had been accused of sexual abuse by children in her care and had her own newborn removed from her home by child welfare authorities because the "parents have severe psychiatric problems as well with violent tendencies," was able to take in a 16-year-old girl from Liberia named Quinta by forging documents in a response to an ad on one of those sites.

In an interview with Reuters earlier this year, Eason described her parenting style as: "Dude, just be a little mean, OK? … I'll threaten to throw a knife at your ass, I will. I'll chase you with a hose. I won't leave burns on you. I won't leave marks on you. I'm not going to send you with bruises to school."

The headline of this post initially indicated that parents were selling adopted children via Facebook and Yahoo groups. As the Reuters story reported, "re-homing often costs nothing. In fact, taking a child may enable the new family to claim a tax deduction and draw government benefits."

[Image via Reuters]

WKMG news is reporting that George Zimmerman, who in July was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, has been taken into custody in Lake Mary, Florida, after "an incident involving a gun with another person."

Police say they were called to a Sprucewood Road residence to investigate an argument that involved a gun and a threat. Zimmerman's mother in law, Machelle Dean, lives on Sprucewood Road, but it is unclear if the argument took place at her home. Jeff Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel reports that police have confirmed that Zimmerman is in custody for a "possible domestic battery."

This incident comes just days after Zimmerman's wife, Shellie, filed for divorce. In an interview with Good Morning America, Shellie said that George has a serious temper and was verbally abusive to her.

Update 1: This post's headline was updated to note that Zimmerman is only in police custody, not jail.

Update 2: Shellie Zimmerman's attorney gave additional details to ABC News:

Her attorney told ABC News that George pulled a knife on her today after she discovered a firearm in the house they shared. He then pulled a gun on her and her father after a verbal altercation went bad, according to attorney Kelly Sims.

Update 3: Orlando's Fox 35 is now reporting that there was no weapon involved in the incident, which contradicts Shellie Zimmerman's attorney's account:

Lake Mary Police say a weapon was present during the Zimmerman incident but NOT involved. #FOX35

— Jorge K Gonzalez (@jorgekgonzalez) September 9, 2013

Update 4: Lake Mary police say George Zimmerman is in "investigative detention," which is a temporary detention while they find out if there is cause to arrest him.

Update 5: If you'd like to watch the incident live, go here. George Zimmerman is currently standing beneath some trees talking to officers.

Update 6: Shellie Zimmerman says George threatened her and her family but she is declining to press charges. A police spokesperson reportedly said Zimmerman is free to go.

[Image via AP]

Now that Skull & Bones is about as threatening as those kids who play Quidditch with each other, it’s time to obsess over a new mysterious Ivy-League secret society: Section X.

On Sunday the New York Times reported on Harvard Business School’s two-year-long attempt to remedy certain gender disparities within its largely male student body and even more male-dominated faculty. (The paper called the effort a “gender makeover.”) Part of what seems to have inspired the campaign was the existence of “Section X,” a furtive, moneyed society from which women are largely excluded. Sounds fun!

The men at the top of the heap worked in finance, drove luxury cars and advertised lavish weekend getaways on Instagram, many students observed in interviews. Some belonged to the so-called Section X, an on-again-off-again secret society of ultrawealthy, mostly male, mostly international students known for decadent parties and travel.

Several women confessed their discomfort with the enigmatic society to the Times. One even told her classmates: “Someone made the decision for me that I’m not pretty or wealthy enough to be in Section X.” But it’s unclear who exactly belongs to Section X. The only clue so far (besides “male” and “international”) is a single anonymous comment, apparently written by a member of the business school’s Class of 2013, attached to the Times article: “Section X [is] the ridiculous creation of a group of mainly Princeton grads.” Which, if true, narrows it down considerably.

Do you know who belongs to Section X? (Or maybe have screenshots of their tastefully curated Instagram accounts?) Drop us a line.

[Photo via Florian Pilz on Flickr]

Late last week, officials from Wall Township, New Jersey announced they'd discovered that a male fifth grader had a hit list of 40 classmates he'd fantasized about killing in a mass-casualty attack. Authorities say they don't think the 11-year-old could've carried out the elaborate plot, but still plan to file unspecified charges against the juvenile.

Last April, Central School staff found a note the elementary-schooler had written, vaguely detailing violent threats against classmates, and notified law enforcement. In a subsequent investigation that continued through the summer, police seized a computer from the child's home and found a more developed list of targets, a few of whom were celebrities.

Wall Township Police Lieutenant John Brockriede described the plot to Patch as “similar to a Columbine or Newtown" scheme, one the kid was unlikely to be able to execute. “We believe it was more of a fantasy-type thing he had,’’ the lieutenant also said. “Not something he was capable of actually carrying out.’’ A family member of the 11-year-old reportedly does own weapons, but the child never has had access to them.

Last Wednesday, Wall Township Public School interim superintendent Stephanie Bilenker alerted parents to the situation in a letter:

Please be advised and assured that law enforcement and school officials are taking every step necessary to ensure the safety of all of its students as well as addressing the needs of the juvenile suspect. The matter is currently under investigation and juvenile charges are anticipated in the very near future. Legally, the name of the student who made the threats cannot be divulged and given the ongoing nature of the matter, very little additional information can be discussed.

This fall, the boy was supposed to enter Wall Intermediate School as a sixth grader, but Brockriede told the Daily News that he's been placed in an “alternate program.” As for the impending juvenile charges, what crime has an 11-year-old with a violent fantasy allegedly committed?

[image via Shutterstock]

To contact the author of this post, email camille@gawker.com.

Smutty sex imp Miley Cyrus just can't keep her tongue in her mouth. Her latest attention-hungry stunt involves licking a sledge hammer in the just-released video for her power ballad "Wrecking Ball." And if the suggestion of objectum sexuality is not enough to get your panties in a bunch, consider that for much of this video, Cyrus isn't wearing panties at all! The nerve of some one-hit wonders' children.

Elsewhere in this sexual and cultural pornog, Cyrus appropriates demolition tools (problematic) and actual human emotion by crying what have to be fake tears (extremely problematic). There is a motif of white in this video (Cyrus' giant teeth, her nails, her background, her underwear when she even bothers to wear them), perhaps a sly acknowledgement of Cyrus' white privilege. But is she acknowledging it enough? Is she saying exactly the thing that I would be saying if I were a controversial pop star naked on a wrecking ball during a power ballad? No, she is not. And for that she is wrong and, I'll remind you once more, highly problematic.

Just kidding. It's just a dumb "sexy" video.

Price buster alert: hedge fund fees are declining slightly. One expert gushes, "'We're seeing the ability to get better fees, especially if you can commit more than $100 million' to a fund." Don't miss this opportunity to save.

While I love the zen simplicity of Le Mans and the pure vehicular ballet of Ronin, the car film I most enjoy watching is The Blues Brothers. How does the worst era of American cars produce the best American car movie to date? Through destruction, of course.

(In advance of the Jalopnik Film Festival we're doing a week of posts focused on cars and films. Remember, you can still buy tickets here.)

The '70s was largely a terrible time in this grand old country for cars, politics, fashion, the environment, industry, the economy, sex, drugs, television, and pretty much every thing else. The '70s was just a screwed up time.

What we get out of the John Landis-directed, Dan Aykroyd-penned musical action road trip comedy is a farewell to all of it. A giant flaming middle finger to the gilded decadence of a decade not worth remembering, backed by Carrie Fisher with an actual flamethrower.

The film's anti-heroes can scarcely see the point in continuing a normal, humdrum existence when they could just put together a band to make real music as opposed to the shitty disco and faux tropicana crap rotting the brains of too many polyester-clad fakers.

They may be singing American rhythm-and-blues music, but "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues are punk.

If the movie wasn't already great for the comedy, the music, and the countless historic cameos (John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles… the entire band!) it would be worth it for the ceaseless assault on mediocre American cars.

While a Bentley does show up and, of course, Twiggy drives a Jaguar XK-E, there are really only two cars in the film: the Bluesmobile and every other piece of Detroit-built shit.

The Bluesmobile is, in theory, a single retired 1974 Dodge Monaco Mount Prospect, Illinois patrol car (in reality they say they used a dozen cars). A simple, workingman's vehicle that's the last model made before the OPEC oil crisis ruined American muscle cars. Just listen to, arguably, the most famous speech of the film

It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas.

Pre-catalytic converts. PRE! Get it?

It's this nostalgia that fuels the Bluesmobile and allows it to beat back all the Malaise Era-restricted cars that attempt to thwart it. Whether it's an Illinois Nazi (I hate them) in a Ford Pinto Station Wagon or hundreds of later model Dodge Polaras and Ford LTDs, nothing can stop this humble American iron on its Mission From God.

There are so many throw-away car references in the film, including when Elwood crashes the Bluesmobile into a car dealership exclaiming "the new Oldsmobiles are in early this year!" because who really gives a shit?

Perhaps this is why the second film is so unsatisfying. The original held the world record for most cars destroyed in a film, only to be usurped by the unfortunate Blues Brothers 2000. America was on the upswing and those Panther police cars are enormously better than an old Royal Monaco.

In any other this kind of destruction would be gratuitous, but in 1979 this is doing God's bidding.

When the world around you is terrible the best you can do is to venerate it with a rocket-propelled grenade and a 50-car pileup.

*RUSH isn't technically out yet, and it's about Europeans anyways.

Over at io9, George Dvorsky writes about "the biggest burning man ever"—and hmm, that tent city looks familiar...

HBO just released the trailer for the upcoming Matthew McConaughey / Woody Harrelson crime thriller True Detective and holy Jesus I think I just came.

McConaughey and Harrelson play dark and twisty detectives who mumble dark and twisty things—"The world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door," and "It was all a dream, and like a lot of dreams, there's a monster at the end of it," among other televisual panty droppers. They also brood through the dusty grass fields of a small town in skinny tailored suits, for those of you that are into multiple subscription-cable orgasms. There is actually quite a lot of very sexy brooding, so if you have carpal tunnel syndrome, proceed with caution.

The series is adopting the American Horror Story model, where future seasons of the show will follow a different cast and story in the same vein. It premieres in January 2014, and marks Harrelson's first return to television (as a series regular) since slinging beers and one-liners at Cheers.

Who: Bill Thompson
What: Mayor
Why:

• Don't vote for Bill Thompson if you take the subway. He has a car-centric transportation plan that will lead to the MTA balancing its budget on the backs of subway and bus riders.
• Don't vote for Bill Thompson if you don't like corruption. As city comptroller, he invested municipal funds with his biggest donors. 12 years of a billionaire tyrant mayor have spoiled us and let us forget that some politicians will do favors for who gives them money instead of just ruling by whatever comes up in their rich guy brains.
• Don't vote for Bill Thompson if you're a Democrat. His supporters declare Bill de Blasio's plan to barely raise the top marginal tax rate (all the millionaires will move to Hoboken now, oh no!) as "class warfare." If you're a Democrat you should seek to move beyond the idea that governing without kowtowing to rich people's every desire counts as class warfare.

Disclosure: I live in Williamsburg, I'm a lawyer who occasionally contributes to Deadspin and I've lived in New York since 2009.

Jennifer Wenger, a Hollywood character impersonator who goes by her street name "Wonder Woman," was saved from a violent attack last week by another character impersonator who goes by "Superman."

But Wenger and her colleague Christopher Dennis are well-known in their field and were even featured in Matthew Ogens 2007 documentary Confessions of a Superhero.

The attack occurred last Friday on Hollywood Boulevard, as Wenger and Dennis were setting up for an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

According to Wenger, a "cowboy boot-wearing transient" known to local police ran towards her and punched her in the face, prompting Dennis to step in.

"I'm then reflecting all of her boot throws. She actually hits Wonder Woman again with a boot. I reflected it and it just kind of ricocheted off my arm and hit her in the face," Dennis told KABC.

Before standing down, the attacker warned the superheroes they would both "be dead by tomorrow."

The threat comes just three months after another Hollywood Boulevard transient fatally stabbed a passer-by for refusing to pay him a dollar after taking his photo.

Asked why she didn't defend herself against the transient's assault, Wenger said she opted to follow in the footsteps of her Amazonian idol.

"Thank you, Wonder Woman, for inspiring me to do the right thing and not hit that girl back," Wenger said. "Because I was sitting there [thinking], 'What would Wonder Woman do?' She wouldn't hit the crazy lady."

[screengrab via ABC7]

Secret Project Robot hosted Bushwick's Second Annual BUSHWIG, a celebration of drag, per-formative gender expression, and lipstick.

This morning, an Ohio grand jury indicted Matthew Cordle—the drunk driver who released a YouTube video last week confessing that he'd killed 61-year-old Vincent Canzani—on charges of aggravated vehicular homicide.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that the 22-year-old surrendered this afternoon at the Franklin County Jail and intends to plead guilty at an arraignment tomorrow:

George Breitmayer III, Cordle’s Columbus lawyer, said his client will plead guilty to the charge, potentially accepting an eight and one-half year prison sentence, in fulfilling the “ sincere” promise made in his video.

“Any of the naysayers out there, they are going to find out ... he didn’t do this (video) for any other purpose but to raise awareness about drunken driving and get some closure for the victim’s family,” Breitmayer said this morning.

The grand jury also indicted Cordle on a charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

[via NPR // screenshot via YouTube video]

Authenticity, good acting, sharp dialogue and good, fast-moving storytelling are the hallmarks of this hour, created and written by Aaron Sorkin. This week’s seemed to whiz by faster than any other I can remember in the now almost two seasons that the series has been running. A good sign that the show is going to finish strong when the current season ends next week. (It already has been renewed for a 3rd season; by any reasonable analysis, it richly deserves to stay on the schedule.)

The chapter opens with the ACN network and its "News Night" team plunging into its 2012 election night coverage with internal troubles roiling just beneath the surface - and heavy in the background. The network’s corporate owner, Leona (Jane Fonda) has refused to accept the resignations of her news division president, main anchorman and lead executive producer in the wake of an explosive investigative report about a military operation that was aired, but then had to be retracted. All three of the news operation's top players are tortured by guilt, whether they should be or not (it was an over-zealous and unethically corner-cutting young producer who was directly and mostly responsible).

With the opening minutes of a long election night approaching, anchorman Will tries to become "director of morale" and rally the staff.

Subplots swirl as they are on the air with marathon election night coverage of what, in the beginning (true to life), looks to be a tick-tight Presidential race.

One correspondent, Sloan (Olivia Munn), is worried that a book of hers was auctioned off with a forged autograph. Top executive producer, Mac (Emily Mortimer), while honchoing election night coverage in the control room, is also trying to get a colleague to make changes in a faulty Wikipedia biography of hers. The newsroom staff is deciding whether or not to hold off on a negative story about a candidate in a close Senate race (the race is on the West Coast, where polls are still open.) And then there is this: Jim—running "the call desk"—has to consider whether to call back (retract) a call he made too early. Also in the mix is that his new division president made it clear as the evening started, that it was important to have mistake-free election coverage.

For those always interested in the newsroom romances—past, present and projected—they are, again, effectively woven into the narrative. As just one example, anchorman Will and his former steady girlfriend Mac—now his executive producer—have more tense and loaded conversations. They still yearn for each other even as they circle and test one another, all the while, of course working with each other at the very top—the exciting but always slippery top—of big time television news. One gets the feeling that they will one day reconcile and become lovers again but the odds are against that happening this season, if ever; it's too good a sub-plot line not to keep going.

Notes and comments:

• The network's CEO (son of the owner) wants to accept resignations and clean house, but the owner won't allow it: One of the most effective scenes early in this episode is that of the news division president urging the CEO to accept his resignation for the good of credibility and the CEO telling him, in effect, "I'd do it in a heartbeat" but that the owner insists "No way."
• In the real world of conglomerate television, the record shows it is more likely that a news division president would be trying hard to deflect any possible blame from himself and put it on subordinates and/or "the talent," i.e. his anchorman and producers rather than stepping up to take responsibility. The record also shows that owners of networks are much more likely to be the first and most furiously calling for heads to roll, not their overall corporate CEOs. But, of course, the CEOs generally are quick to carry out owners' wishes.
• Ah, but remember: to his credit, this is Sorkin's vision of how the owner-corporate sides handling of news divisions' honest mistakes should be and work; it's his fantasy of an ideal relationship of the owner to the journalists in his employ.
• The depiction of election night sets, control rooms, programming, directing and anchoring is very good. Nothing I have ever seen in fiction—print or on screen—can completely capture the mood, the "feel", the exhilaration, the sense of responsibility of a real TV network Presidential election night marathon. But this one is at least as good as any and better than most; in my opinion it's the best there has been. (Will's—Jeff Daniels—delivery is flatter, softer, less engaged and the pace slower than the election night deliver of any anchor I've ever known. But let's keep in mind that in this script he is supposed to be pre-occupied and at a minimum "off," not his usual self, because of what's happening behind-the-scenes with the news division's recent problems. I'm not knocking Daniels acting; it's been terrific every week; he plays the role beautifully.)
• Small nit, and I could be in the minority about this, but I don't think the show's opening sequence this season is very good. Had this thought from the first but believed I should give it time to grow on me. It hasn't. Hope they change it to something better, something more in keeping with what the show is, what it's about, for next season.

When that small nit is about the only negative I can find, it be tell tale of the high esteem in which I hold this season's run of episodes—and the series as a whole.

Dan Rather is anchor and managing editor of Dan Rather Reports. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He will be recapping each episode of the second season of HBO's The Newsroom; older recaps can be found here, here, here, and here.

Polly Mosendz is a 22-year-old recent college graduate. She's also the proud new buyer of a quarter-million dollar Manhattan apartment. "I am a normal 20-something," she writes.

Not so long ago, that sentence, in a New York Observer story about a 22-year-old buying a quarter-million dollar Manhattan apartment, would have been delivered with a knowing wink. Or it would have been used as a deadpan "let them hang themselves with their own words" quote, to indicate just how out of touch with economic reality the speaker was. It would have been written with awareness. Now, though—with the Observer fully in thrall to its wealthy real estate scion owner— that sentence is meant to be taken literally. Just a normal 20-something, buying a quarter-million dollar Manhattan apartment, as all normal 20-somethings can.

Before the purchase, I was shelling out over $2,000 a month for a four flight walk-up, a glorified attic in the not-yet-chic part of Alphabet City. The building was home exclusively to 20-somethings who assumed this is how we should be living. For us, that’s what Manhattan housing is: terrible walk-up apartments in trendy neighborhoods or luxury apartments with three or more roommates.

"For us"— for normal 20-somethings, average ones, the absolute median of all 22-year-olds, unexceptional in all ways—"that's what Manhattan housing is." It's a $2,100 per month apartment rental, at age 22. But:

After calculating my purchase price based on a monthly payment of $2,000, I realized a small purchase was feasible and a sound investment. With some $50,000 in the bank—a nest egg from my family augmented by savings that I’d stashed away by working in retail since the age of 14—I settled on a budget of approximately $250,000 and began searching listings and seeking real estate agencies and brokers.

(Spoiler: she found one.)

The word that best sums up this little tale: "Normal." A normal story of a normal 22-year-old, in this big city of ours, Manhattan, "where dreams are made of," as they say in the song. All of you 22-year-olds should be able to relate to this apartment-purchasing experience, lest you be considered abnormal.

We sincerely congratulate Polly Mosendz on her success, even as we weep over the decline of the newspaper that edited and published her story.

[NYO. Photo: Shutterstock]

When Aussie abomination Titstare went on stage yesterday, the internet collectively retched. But at Hacker News, an erudite discussion board run by the venture capitalists at Y Combinator, discourse is a special kind of toxic—and its users rushed to defend Titstare.

It's silly to argue about which online community is the worst, because they're almost all heinous. Can you compare the quasi-literate xenophobia of CNN.com to the racist spurts on YouTube, or to the Ayn Rand Spark Notes of Reddit? It's miasma versus miasma. But Hacker News stands out from other cesspools—it has the Silicon Valley cachet of perhaps the most prominent, exclusive startup incubator in the world. It has a geek-smart curriculum, a pro-privacy agenda, and a pro-business, pro-"entrepreneurship" consensus. It's hugely popular, and often surfaces an interesting link or two before the day is over. It's a place for people who hope their Thing is the next Big Thing to talk about other things to pass some time. It's mostly men—the oblivious, money-hungry, self-righteous men of Northern California—and they didn't see anything wrong with Titstare. The rest of us were the problem.

After the Titstare team left the TechCrunch stage, the boys of Hacker News issued a collective What's the big deal?

I don't see the problem. Pornography is perfectly legal and big business.

I think it's hilarious. At the same time, they make fun of stereotypical phone applications and people staring at tits. Also, I don't believe it actually exists. They only show a screenshot and the presentation is way too funny.

There is a lot of sexism out there for sure, but is this app doing any more than poking fun at men who were caught looking at womens' breasts? Are men out there really going to say that we never sneak a peek at a woman's cleavage? Is that sexist?

I understand that there are a lot of different perspectives though, so maybe some women out there could explain what I'm missing.

The event is keep us abreast of the new products, as it were.

Male sexual desire is healthy. Heterosexual men like tits - deal with it. There's nothing "objectifying" or "misogynistic" about it. Jesus, what's wrong with you people? Is a man allowed to even look at a woman or is even that considered misogyny? I like women and no amount of buzzwords will make me ashamed of it!

- Women who wear clothing designed to show cleavage

- Men who stare at cleavage

Discuss.

Wait, just to make it a little more useful:

- Men who giggle like children about their project aimed at the above two groups

Is staring at tits sexist, or is it just a result of human evolution that affects us all, regardless of how sensitive we are to gender equality issues?

Those who maintained that the stunt was idiotic and insulting—to the credit of the site, there are some good eggs—were dismissed as "puritanical," in needing of "loosening up" or respecting "parody." Then, only a few hours after the dustup started, all discussion of Titstare was disappeared from the front page of Hacker News. The comment threads weren't deleted, but rendered invisible, as if they'd never been written at all. Y Combinator's FAQ section says the message board is maintained by "About 30 YC alumni," who "can kill stories and edit the titles, and in extreme cases (e.g. spamming or deliberate trolling) ban users." I emailed the investment incubator asking about the site's editorial policies, and haven't received any reply.

I'm not expecting any reply—the status quo at Hacker News, of insularity and aloofness in the defense of monoculture, is lucrative. When your firm can take partial credit for the success of Reddit, Dropbox, and Airbnb, you don't need to defend yourself—it's easier to make a sexist apologia just vanish. Unlike other internet communities that are obviously, openly bad in some way, Hacker News will remain a silently diseased place for any outsider. It's a should-be-Superfund site that continues to ooze, too far under the radar to catch the public flak of Reddit, and too important to the tech community for any internal mandate. It'll remain a safe zone for Y Combinator's accent-phobic chief Paul Graham to propagandize, for his acolytes to defend that phobia, and for talk about Michael Arrington to get the whitewash treatment. It's a mental bubble within the economic, and for a group that needs so badly to be bubbled, it's precious.

WKMG has published Shellie Zimmerman's 911 call.

So that Saved by the Bell reunion Jimmy Fallon tried to put together four years ago ultimately fell apart, but here's the next best thing.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar recently sat down with Speakeasy's Paul F. Tompkins for a Manhattan-infused rendition of everyone's favorite drinking game: What Would Zack Morris Do in 2013.

For the uninitiated, the rules are fairly simple: Put yourself in Zack Morris's high-top sneakers and try to imagine what he might do when faced with modern-day scenarios.

How would Zack handle Catfishing? What would Zack have to say about CrossFit? And who could forget that time Slater finally came out of the closet.

All this and more on this week's very special episode.

Last week, Jeffrey Babbitt was randomly attacked in Union Square, allegedly for being white. Yesterday, the 62-year-old from Sheepshead Bay died in Bellevue Hospital.

Around three p.m. last Wednesday, suspect Lashawn Marten was hanging out near the chess tables in Union Square and became extremely agitated. Gothamist reported (via 1010 Wins) he was angry no one wanted to play him. Witness Michael Benson told ABC Local that Marten said, "The next white person that bumps into me without saying excuse me, I'm going to knock him out." WCBS-TV confirmed a similar quote from another observer:

"He said 'The next white person who walks by, I'm going to [expletive],'" one female witness told WCBS-TV. "His fist went in and the man's head bobbed and he hit the ground and you could hear his skull hitting the ground."

Babbitt happened to be that white person. Marten, a 40-year-old black man with a criminal record, reportedly hit the victim so hard that he fell down and hit his head. Two men jumped to Babbitt's defense and Marten attacked them too, yelling about calling the police. Instagram photos from the crime scene, like the one below, show the retired train conductor bleeding profusely from the head, as police tended to his aid.

Babbitt was initially conscious, but slipped into a coma at Bellevue. This weekend, doctors declared him clinically brain dead. The retired train conductor was the sole caretaker of his 94-year-old mother Lucille, who'd been by her son's bedside since the assault. Yesterday, he died.

Marten, whose face appears in a photo over at the Daily Mail, was arrested at the scene and later charged with assault. NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told the press that the Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the crime. In any case, Marten's charges will likely be upgraded now that Babbitt has passed.

Update: Today's New York Times profiled Babbitt, an avid comic collector who may've been heading to Forbidden Planet that day to pick up a title he'd pre-ordered, “The Art of Grimm Fairy Tales.” (h/t Shingen via BleedingCool.com)

[top image via handout; crime scene photo via @JoeyBoots]

To contact the author of this post, email camille@gawker.com.

Who: Christine Quinn

What: Mayor of the world's greatest city

Why:

1. Stop and Frisk: As with so many issues, she's tried to have it both ways in currying favor with/distancing herself from Bloomberg and variously looking like a "moderate" or "liberal" depending on the audience: step 1, write an offensive op-ed in the Times aligning herself nearly in totality with Ray Kelly and his "stop, question, and frisk" policy; step 2. pledge to retain Ray Kelly as commissioner; step 3. wait for de Blasio to rise in the polls and the court to rule against Stop and Frisk and then say, "Ray Kelly has implemented Mike Bloomberg’s vision of stop and frisk. Chris Quinn’s vision of stop and frisk is totally different."

2. Paid Sick Days: step 1. Delay the vote for YEARS on a measure that had overwhelming, veto-proof support in the council so that she could maintain favor with the chamber of commerce-types and Bloomberg, step 2. Claim to be a supporter of the measure but say "it's not the right time" to schedule a vote, step 3. wait for the union endorsement process to start and for de Blasio to gain momentum, water down the bill needlessly in order to maintain favor with Bloomberg, strike a deal with labor for a surprise vote in the middle of the campaign, take credit for the "big win."

3. Term Limits: enough said.

4. Her campaign has been run arrogantly and it is offensive to me that as a gay person I have been bullied about not supporting her and told to overlook the rest.

That said: She seems like a tough, smart person who is clearly a competent leader and who would be a fine mayor, but she miscalculated hugely in tying her fate to Bloomberg. The city will be better served by a cleaner break from Mayor Mike.

Disclosure: I've lived in New York for most of the last decade and am supporting Bill de Blasio.