Quantcast
Channel: Gawker
Viewing all 24829 articles
Browse latest View live

Breakdowns: Sarah Silverman Thinks Vaginas Really Scare People

0
0

Breakdowns: Sarah Silverman Thinks Vaginas Really Scare People

Sarah Silverman shared some amazing words about female genitalia; you can now rent your favorite Bravo reality stars; the musical Justins spark international incidents: Timberlake by adding two concerts in notoriously homosexual-hating Russia, and Bieber by lying about hanging with Mexico's president.

  • Sarah Silverman went on Chris Hayes' All In on MSNBC last night to explain why she was hosting a telethon for women's reproductive rights, and shared this perfect sentiment: "I think vaginas really, really scare people, honestly." [Salon]
  • You can now rent your favorite Top Chef star, thanks to a Bravo partnership with startup Kitchit. For the right price, one of 30 former contestants will come to your home to host a dinner party, provide catering services, or cooking lessons. While most dinners cost around $200 a person, the ability to tell a contestant to "Pack your knives and leave" from your own home? Priceless. [THR]
  • Despite Russia's outdated and restrictive laws on homosexuality, Justin Timberlake just added two tour dates in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He has never performed in Russia prior to this. [THR]
  • Justin Bieber thinks all Mexican people look like the Mexican president and his family. Despite Bieb's tweets that he just met Enrique Nieto, the President's team quickly denied that via his own Twitter feed. Bieber's camp says the singer just mixed up another family with the President's. [TMZ]

Breakdowns is a daily roundup of all the news that wasn't interesting enough to deserve two paragraphs.


Beware the Hackberry Nipple-Gall Maker!

0
0

Beware the Hackberry Nipple-Gall Maker!

Who cares that bunch of bugs are eating northern Texas alive? You do, because they're called hackberry nipple-gall maker insects.

Millions of the best-named bugs ever have swarmed the northern portion of the Lone Star State in an effort to stay warm as temperatures continue to drop. Residents report that the hackberry nipple-gall makers are coating houses and cars, and they're burrowing inside through whatever cracks they can find. Hackberry nipple-gall makers are pretty harmless, but in large droves they can be pretty disgusting.

"It's just uncomfortable," said one victim to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. "You can't get in your car. They in your ears, your hair and your clothes, and it's just uncomfortable. There are millions of them."

We may have been mistaken in our excitement over the hackberry nipple-gall maker. Awesome though the name is, you should probably avoid a sightseeing trip to Texas. Although if they're already a problem in your house, experts have a simple solution: just "vacuum them up."

[image via University of Minnesota]

Crack-smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford told CBC last night that he's giving up alcohol.

0
0

Crack-smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford told CBC last night that he's giving up alcohol. Wait, really? Well, he says it's been three weeks since his last drink. Of being stripped of most of his mayoral powers, he said he "had a come-to-Jesus moment" and won't consume alcohol again.

During his arraignment this afternoon for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, George Zimmerman's bo

Stop Reading This Sentence and Just Watch Bob Dylan's Incredible Video

0
0

Stop Reading This Sentence and Just Watch Bob Dylan's Incredible Video

You can watch the most amazing music video you will see all year here, on Bob Dylan's official website.

That's really all you need to know.

We could tell you that epic angel Bob Dylan completely owned Kanye West on Tuesday by releasing the most incredible video of the year (for a song that is almost half a century old) online the same day West produced a small lump of cold garbage on Ellen.

We could tell you that the interactive video consists of 16 separate videos starring familiar actors and TV personalities lip-synching the lyrics to Dylan's 1965 karaoke classic "Like A Rolling Stone," and that viewers can use their keyboards to flip between these videos seamlessly throughout the duration of the song, so that the opening lines are performed by the guys from Pawn Stars and the song wraps up in the middle of a History Channel special about the Great Depression.

We could tell you that the CEO of Interlude, one of the companies behind the video, told Mashable that more such sub-videos will be added to the current slate of 16, making the overall video—which is already an affront to God as it is more wonderful than any video should ever be—somehow even more wonderful.

But any time your optic nerves might spend transmitting information about the images of those words to your brain would be better spent using them to transmit information (colors, lights, etc.) about Bob Dylan's incredible new music video.

So just watch the video.

Watch the video.

Watch the video.

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

0
0

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

These images of the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Sinabung in Sumatra, Indonesia, are as sad as they are strangely beautiful. The contrast between colorful figures and the grayscale of the ash-covered landscape is so striking that it seems unreal. Here's the entire story told in photos.

The Mount Sinabung in Sumatra, in western Indonesia, erupted on November 11. It was a mild eruption but it just went into absolutely insane mode, ejecting a pyroclastic cloud that was four miles high.

The beginning of the eruption, November 11

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

Puppy left behind in the evacuated village of Mardinding, three kilometers from Mount Sinabung

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

The violent eruption on November 15, four miles high

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

Ash starts to fall down

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

A flower opened after the eruption covered everything with ash

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

People protecting themselves with plastic bags

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

Solitary bird on a sea of grey

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

Farmers trying to rescue their crops

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

Students getting back home through the ash covered landscape

Incredible photos show terrible aftermath of Sumatra volcano eruption

Photos by AP Images and Getty Images.

Teen Accused of Made-Up Crime Imprisoned on Rikers for Three Years

0
0

Teen Accused of Made-Up Crime Imprisoned on Rikers for Three Years

Kalief Browder was just 16-year-old when police officers suddenly showed up and arrested him for a crime he didn't commit. He spent the next three years on Rikers Island.

Now 20, Browder still had no idea why a person he had never met before decided to accuse him of robbery and steal his teenage years.

Browder, a Bronx native, was on his way home from a party when he was arrested. "This guy comes out of nowhere and says I robbed him," Browder told WABC. "And the next thing I know they are putting cuffs on me. I don't know this dude. And I do over three years for something I didn't do."

Browder's attorney, Paul Prestia, says the entire case rested on the accuser's fingering of Browder.

"Someone who did not know Kalief Browder, and simply told the police officer, 'Officer I was robbed two weeks ago and that kid did it', that's where it ended. That was the identification,"

Browder's bail was set at $10,000, but his family was unable to pay it. So the teen had to sit and wait in one of America's most notorious prisons.

"It's very hard when you are dealing with dudes that are big and have weapons and shanks and there are gangs," he told the local ABC affiliate. "[Y]ou know if you don't give your phone call up, or you don't give them what they want you know they are going to jump you. And it's very scary."

At one point a judge tried to scare Browder into accepting a plea deal, threatening him with a 15-year sentence if he loses his trial.

Multiple court visits with no resolution left Browder desperate and contemplating suicide.

Then, one day, 33 months later, his case was dismissed and he was free.

"They just dismissed the case and they think it's all right," he said. "No apology, no nothing."

But Browder isn't sitting around waiting for a mea culpa that may not come: He's filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Bronx DA, which has so far been silent on matter, citing Browder's lawsuit as an excuse.

Browder is also trying to move on with his interrupted life.

A 10th grader at the time of his incarceration, he's already started taking high school-level courses with the hopes of completing his GED by the end of the year.

Still, he knows nothing will ever make up for what was lost.

"I didn't get to go to prom or graduation. Nothing," Browder said. "[T]hose are the main years. They are the main years. And I am never going to get those years back. Never. Never."

[screengrab via WABC]

Jay Penske Is Taking Nikki Finke To Arbitration

0
0

Jay Penske Is Taking Nikki Finke To Arbitration

As expected, the battle between PMC's Jay Penske and Deadline creator and former editor Nikki Finke is far from over. The LA Times reports that Penske has now brought Finke to arbitration—a move many suspected was imminent, once Finke made plans to launch her own site, NikkiFinke.com.

Despite Finke's claims that she is legally within her rights to start her own website, PMC is insistent upon the fact that Finke was under exclusive contract with the company through 2016. In a statement to the Times, PMC is pursuing arbitration for two reasons: to enforce Finke's non-compete agreement, as well as collect damages for her "numerous" breaches of existing contract. PMC also noted that multiple discussions with Finke had fallen apart, hence the push for arbitration. While non-compete laws are generally unenforcable in the state of California, under the California Business and Professional Code 16602, exceptions can be made if the dispute is between partners in a company, or if one partner breaks off of the partnership. In this case, PMC purchased Deadline from Finke in 2009, effectively making Finke and Penske partners on the site.

After vocal concerns from Finke over Penske not giving her control over Variety, which PMC purchased last October, tensions continued to mount between Finke and Penske. Deadline officially parted ways with Finke earlier this month on November 5th, after multiple missives back and forth between Finke and Deadline's new editor, Mike Fleming Jr, with allegations of slave-like treatment, site lockouts, and a particularly harsh op-ed from Fleming on his thoughts on his then-boss. Finke, who had been on a lengthy vacation from the site, was only posting her signature weekend box office reports and little else until the split.

[Image via Getty, Art by Sam Woolley]


Ten Fun Facts About Blackwater's Founder on the Eve of His Book Tour

0
0

Ten Fun Facts About Blackwater's Founder on the Eve of His Book Tour

War-on-terror fanboy Eli Lake just scored an interview with book-hawking Blackwater founder Erik Prince, and it's teaching us so, so many new things about the Oprah of mercenary conglomerates.

For maximum illumination, I've interspersed revelations from Prince's interview with some things we already knew about him from 12-plus years of America's contractor-assisted jihadi-fightin':

1) Prince now says he is uncomfortable with the size of the US national security complex: "I say the defense and intelligence world will be better off with a smaller budget. They would be less encumbered by bloat and able to maneuver the way they used to be able and not trip over themselves."

2) Prince's firm reportedly imported a Filipino prostitute to Kabul to serve male Blackwater employees in Afghanistan, billing the United States government for her services (along with alcohol parties and spa trips) as "Morale, Welfare, and Recreation" expenses, while the company racked up $1 billion in government contracts by 2007.

3) Prince now worries about Obama getting overzealous with extrajudicial killings: "The fact that [Anwar] al-Awlaki was killed and his 16-year-old son, born in Colorado, was killed with no due process other than that he got on the 'kill list' is troubling to me."

4) Here's a video of a Blackwater convoy swerving to run over an Iraqi woman while she was entering a crosswalk.

5) "Prince also said the over-reliance on drone warfare in the Middle East and South Asia would likely reap 'a bitter harvest,' because of the scale of collateral damage from drone strikes."

6) This is a video of Blackwater helicopters over Baghdad, shooting indiscriminately into the neighborhoods below.

7) "Today, Prince said, he is focusing his business on expanding markets in Africa."

8) Here is a picture of a woman pouring water on the still-smoldering body of a dead bomb-attack victim in Somalia in October 2011, just a few months after Prince expanded his market to include support of rebels blood-diamond plundering mercenaries in that country's civil war. He has identified growth opportunities there.

Ten Fun Facts About Blackwater's Founder on the Eve of His Book Tour

9) "When asked if he would run for president, Prince said there was no chance that he would."

10) Somehow, America, we will have to soldier on.

[Photo credits: AP]

Update: This post has been changed to reflect the fact that Prince's involvement in the Somali civil war was in support of government-aligned contractors, not rebels.

Rupert Murdoch’s Ex-Wife Gets to Keep Their $44 Million Apartment

0
0

Rupert Murdoch’s Ex-Wife Gets to Keep Their $44 Million Apartment

It pays to marry—and divorce—Rupert Murdoch. In June the 82-year-old billionaire and News Corporation owner announced that he and his wife of fourteen years, Wendi Deng, were divorcing. According to Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, the ex-couple settled the terms of their separation in a Manhattan court today, one of which gives 44-year-old Deng the couple’s $44 million Upper East Side penthouse, which overlooks the lower half of Central Park.

Flanked by their lawyers, Mr. and Mrs. Murdoch attended a hearing at the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan to present their settlement before a judge. After the formalities, the couple shook hands with their lawyers and embraced briefly. [...]

As part of the settlement, Mrs. Murdoch will be awarded the Fifth Avenue apartment the couple bought in 2005 for $44 million, people familiar with the situation say.

Given the forum—Murdoch considers the Journal one of his empire’s crown jewels—there’s almost certainly more to this story. (Such as Murdoch’s brand new massage therapist girlfriend. Oh, and the divorced couple’s unrelenting cruelty toward the household help.)

But it seems like Murdoch absorbed the lesson of employee Bill O’Reilly, whose 2011 divorce became so contentious that it reached an appellate court, where details of his and his ex-wife’s Catholic annulment became public. Easier to pay money now than risk embarrassment later.

Know more? Get in touch.

[Photo credit: Getty Images]

Missouri Executes Serial Killer White Supremacist Who Shot Larry Flynt

0
0

Missouri Executes Serial Killer White Supremacist Who Shot Larry Flynt

Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist who paralyzed Larry Flynt and murdered at many as 22 people, was executed in Missouri on Wednesday morning after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal appeals court ruling.

From 1977 to 1982, Franklin went on a cross-country killing spree, targeting Jews, blacks, and anyone associated with interracial couples in attempt to start a “race war,” as he described it to CNN during his final interview. In the same interview, Franklin said he decided to try to kill Flynt after Hustler published a photo-spread showing a black man having sex with a white woman.

"I saw that interracial couple he had, photographed there, having sex," he said. "It just made me sick. I think whites marry with whites, blacks with blacks, Indians with Indians. Orientals with orientals. I threw the magazine down and thought, I'm gonna kill that guy."

Franklin was convicted of seven murders but was only sentenced to death for one: the 1977 killing of Gerald Gordon at a St. Louis synagogue. From the Associated Press:

He arrived in suburban St. Louis and picked out Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel synagogue from the Yellow Pages. On Oct. 8, 1977, a bar mitzvah ended and guests were in the parking lot when Franklin opened fire from a grassy area nearby, killing Gordon, 42.

The killings continued for three more years. Franklin was finally caught after killing two young black men who were about to go jogging with two teenage white girls in Salt Lake City in August 1980.

Franklin killed Alphonse Manning and Toni Schwean because they were an interracial couple, Rebecca Bergstrom because she told him she once dated a Jamaican man, and two young black boys, 13-year-old Dante Evans and his cousin 14-year-old Darrell Lane, who Franklin stumbled upon as he was waiting with his sniper rifle for an interracial couple. Franklin told CNN that, by his count, he'd killed as many as 22 people.

Franklin was executed at 6:17 am Wednesday, according to Mike O'Connell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections. His execution was the first in Missouri in nearly three years.

[Image via AP]

85-year-old California Man Arrested In North Korea

0
0

85-year-old California Man Arrested In North Korea

Bad news for anyone planning their holiday vacation in North Korea (and there are some!) The U.S. State Department has warned U.S. citizens from traveling to North Korea, amid reports that an 85-year-old man has been detained by North Korea.

The San Jose Mercury News reports the man is an 85-year-old grandfather from Palo Alto named Merrill Newman. He was grabbed off his plane on which he was about to leave the country after visiting the country with a Beijing-based tour business, according to the Mercury News. He's been detained for more than three weeks.

The news comes as Kenneth Bae, a Washington-based preacher, is still in prison after being sentenced to 15 years at a labor camp for "hostile acts" against the government, which apparently had to do with undermining the North Korean Government by spreading Christianity. NKNews points out that despite the State Dept. warning, a much-publicized trip by two D.C. rappers, Pacman and Peso is going on as a planned.

If you need to make alternate travel arrangements to one of America's enemies, may we suggest Iran?

[Image via Getty]

McDonald's to Employees: Low on Cash? Sell Your Stuff and Eat Less

0
0

McDonald's has dispensed a whole mess of poor advice to its underpaid employees in recent months — get a second job, sign up for food stamps — but this latest Holiday haul may be its Grinchiest yet.

Screencaps from an employees-only McDonald's site called the "McResource Line," released by anti-low wage group Low Pay Is Not OK, appear to show suggestions from the fast food giant on how its workers can reduce "holiday debt."

Under "Tightening Your Belt," the company writes:

You may also want to consider returning some of your unopened purchases that may not seem appealing as they did. Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash.

And here are a few other "helpful tips" from the world's largest restaurant chain:

Eat less: "Breaking food into pieces often results in eating less and still feeling full."

Work less: "At least two vacations a year can cut heart attack risk by 50%."

Complain less: "Stress hormone levels rise by 15% after ten minutes of complaining."

Sing more: "Singing along to your favorite songs can lower your blood pressure."

At least Walmart had the decency to hold a food drive for its starving employees.

[H/T: ThinkProgress, Dlisted]

Minneapolis Reporter, Live From Scene Of Ice Rink Opening, Faceplants

0
0

It's apparently getting cold in some places, or in the case of Minneapolis, it was already cold. Either way, the John Rose Minnesota skating oval is open over in Roseville, and KMSP reporter M.A. Rosko was on the scene this morning to test it out with her face.

Minneapolis Reporter, Live From Scene Of Ice Rink Opening, Faceplants

Looks like some solid ice there, M.A.! [KMSP]

Cheating Prank Backfires When Girlfriend Reveals She's Cheating Too

0
0

This is quite possibly the most satisfying YouTube prank of all time.

Infamous YouTube prankster Roman Atwood decided to pull one of his "classic" nasty pranks on his longtime girlfriend Britney — while the two were on an anniversary trip to Aruba, no less — by telling her he cheated on her with another girl.

Hilarious, right?

Well, little did Atwood know things were about to get actually hilarious.

"I cheated on you, too," Britney tells Atwood through tears, as the latter proceeds to flip the fuck out.

Long story short: Everyone in this video is a keeper.

[H/T: Guyism]


A new ACLU report estimates that more than 17,000 juveniles in America have been held in solitary co

0
0

A new ACLU report estimates that more than 17,000 juveniles in America have been held in solitary confinement, and concludes, unequivocally, "Solitary confinement and isolation are not safe for children."

Weirdly, Soccer Fans Don't Seem to Like This Tea Party Governor Much

0
0

Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) just wanted to celebrate his state's big MLS victory. But MLS fans just wanted him to go away.

Per the Orlando Weekly, the clean-pated guv was on hand last night in Orlando to congratulate the city for scoring its own Major League Soccer franchise, the Orlando City Lions. If you can tell what he said in the 16 seconds he sheepishly spent onstage, feel free to enlighten us in the comments.

Why would Florida soccer fans hate the conservative first-term governor so much? Theories may abound.

Half a year after his death, country crooner George Jones finally got a tombstone, and it is fucking

Daniel Day-Lewis' Son Is a Sarah Lawrence College Rapper

0
0

"Call me Gabe Day, and not Gabe Day-Lewis/ Cause if you're trying to call me out I'm bout to Gabe Day Lose It/ Bitch, I know what my name is/ And shit I know what fame is/ Judging someone for their dad is just as bad as being racist." Your move, Chet Haze. [Noisey]

Girl Who Sold Virginity for $780K Tries to Sell Virginity Again

0
0

Girl Who Sold Virginity for $780K Tries to Sell Virginity Again

A woman who sold her virginity through an auction site for $780,000 but was unable to consummate the transaction has decided to put herself back on the market — literally.

Catarina Migliorini was initially promised to a 53-year-old Japanese millionaire, but the deal fell through after Natsu ended up being a 21-year-old who looked nothing like his online profile.

Girl Who Sold Virginity for $780K Tries to Sell Virginity Again

She also had a falling out with the documentary filmmaker who recruited her for the controversial auction as part of a project entitled Virgins Wanted.

Migliorini has since gone on to appear fully nude in Playboy Brazil, but insists she remains a virgin.

"I am still a virgin in every way and all the evidence, so, I never have had any sexual involvement and no one in this whole world can claim otherwise," the 21-year-old said in a statement. "[A]nd so I decided to make my own website to auction off my virginity and that time will be for real, so men or women who are interested can make their bids."

Despite this being her second attempt at selling her body for money, Migliorini says she's setting a starting price of $100,000, and hopes to end up with no less than last time.

A warning if you're interested in putting in a bid: Migliorini is planning on writing a tell-all book about her first time, which will contain a detailed evaluation of her partner's performance.

[top image via Playboy, middle photo via Facebook, video via YouTube]

Viewing all 24829 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images