A new proposal in Berlin is seeking donations for its so-called House of One, a multi-purpose house of worship for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The building will hold a synagogue, a church, and a mosque all under the same roof.

A competition for the design of the unified house of worship was held and architect Wilfried Kuehn's team won with its simple building design that features a tall, centered tower.

Via the BBC:

"Each of the singular spaces is designed according to the religious needs, the particularities of each faith. . . . There are for instance two levels in the mosque and the synagogue but there's only one level in the church. There will be an organ in the church. There are places to wash feet in the mosque."

Kuehn's team, when designing the building, discovered that the three different religions share a lot in their architectural history.

"What's interesting is that when you go back a long time, they share a lot of architectural typologies. They are not so different," Kuehn says. "It's not necessary for instance for a mosque to have a minaret - it's only a possibility and not a necessity. And a church doesn't need a tower. This is about going back to the origins when these three faiths were close and shared a lot architecturally".

To discourage arguments, each section of the building is exactly the same size.

The rabbi in the project, Rabbi Tovia Ben Chorin, says building the House of One in Berlin is historically significant. He told the BBC, "From my Jewish point of view the city where Jewish suffering was planned is now the city where a centre is being built by the three monotheistic religions which shaped European culture."

Donations are now being accepted, though perhaps the timing is off for all this peace and harmony. A new statistic showed that anti-foreigner attacks in Germany rose 20 percent last year to its highest level since 2006.

[Image via Getty]

An Arizona state senator scheduled a hearing this week about the "chemtrails" epidemic plaguing the area around Lake Havasu. A local newspaper wrote about the conspiracy theory as if it were fact, and further down the anti-science rabbit hole we go.

The first line is a doozy.

Mysterious white streaks in the skies over Mohave County are the subject of a meeting next week scheduled by state Sen. Kelli Ward.

Contrails. The word you are looking for is contrails. The word is a portmanteau of "condensation trails," or the thin wispy clouds that form when the warm, moist jet exhaust left behind by high-flying aircraft condenses when it comes in contact with the extremely cold, moist air of the upper atmosphere. The result is a cirrus cloud that lasts from a few seconds to hours depending on the humidity levels that day.

They are far from "mysterious." A+ reporting. Let's keep going.

[The senator] says the meeting was called to respond to concerns by her constituents about the so-called chemtrails that appear in the sky after jets fly by.

"So-called chemtrails," eh?

Immediately next to this so-called paragraph is a photo of a sky full of contrails with the caption "chemtrails are shown over Lake Havasu City." Y'see, we're not saying that these so-called chemtrails exist, but look at this here picture we incorrectly titled "chemtrails." Coincidence!? I think not.

The state senator sponsoring the hearings, Dr. Kelli Ward (who holds both a B.S. in psychology and a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine), says that the meeting is not to see if chemtrails exist, but rather to calm citizens irrationally concerned that they're being sprayed with billions of gallons of toxic chemicals by the Delta red-eye from LAX.

Ward said she is confident that the air and water in Mohave County are safe and pointed to naturally occurring minerals that could account for heightened levels of mercury and other minerals in blood tests.

"I have gotten a lot of communications from people who are concerned and there has been a sense that no one has been doing anything for them to address those concerns," she said. "I can't do field tests on the water, but I can connect them to the people who do."

The newspaper interviewed two Havasu residents to see what they had to say about the epidemic. One small business owner says that he read on the internets that chemtrails are real, and that since the government lies to us, "there's definitely something going on." Another resident had this to say after noting that she's seen chemtrails for about two years now:

"Every time they do chemtrailing there is some dramatic change in the weather. I noticed it this weekend and then it got very windy," Cramer said. "I'm not a scientist and I don't know what's in the (chemtrails). I think we have a right to know instead of worry about it every day."

The scariest part of the article is the fact that two representatives from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality are passing up the chance to say "this is a ridiculous conspiracy theory and you people should be ashamed of your stupidity" to punt on the issue entirely. The agency told the News-Herald that the meeting will focus "on the department's lack of regulatory authority over any type of chemical spraying."

Hell, fly me out there (on a chemmobile, of course) and I'll hold the meeting for you. Are you ready?

Chemtrails

simply

do

not

exist.

That's all they need to say at the meeting. Despite what Mohave County's finest thinkers may have to say about the matter, chemtrails do not exist exist.

If that fails, my next advice is to step outside and take a nice, deep breath.

[Top image via MGM's The Wizard of Oz, screenshot via havasunews.com]

After falling off of their boat and treading water for over 14 hours, a couple in Florida was rescued on Saturday morning by a group of men who were out fishing. They were spotted seven miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.

50-year-old Sean McGovern and 52-year-old Mellisa Morris fell off of their 30-foot Island Hopper boat in Key Largo at around 6 P.M. on Friday. According to WSVN, they were treading water until they were found the next morning—over 14 hours—without any life vests or means to communicate with nearby boaters:

"When we heard their story, it was pretty impressive," said [Broward Sheriff's Office firefighter Keith] Silvis, who helped pull 50-year-old Sean McGovern and 52-year-old Mellisa Morris from the Atlantic Ocean.

"[They were] pretty distraught, tired," Silvis continued. "You could tell they had been in the water for a long time."

To make matters worse, McGovern told his rescuers that they had been stung by three or four jellyfish during the course of the evening. According to BSO detective Josh Webb, who aided in the rescue, they got to the pair just in time:

"Another 30 minutes to an hour, it probably wouldn't have the same outcome as it did today, because they were in pretty bad shape. They were both cramping pretty bad, they were both very dehydrated, very tired. They appeared [to be] mildly hypothermic."

"We originally thought they were fish," said rescuer James White.

[Image via Shutterstock]

On Friday night in Italy, while playing an extended version of their song "Daughter," Pearl Jam—much like one out of every two cars that pass you on the street, and every child on the planet all the time—busted out a little "Let It Go."

I love grunge!

[image via Getty, h/t Stereogum]

Hello, non sports fan. It's me again, your loyal tour guide to the World Cup. First I walked you through the broad strokes of the tournament, then we cracked open our school books, and now I want to let you in on a little secret: today is a very big day.

The US Men's National Team will face Portugal in a match that will determine a few things, most notably for you, non sports fan, your reignited commitment to hitting the gym. An abundance of chiseled pectorals and shellacked hair qualify today's match as the Gym-Tan-Laundry of sports. Are you ready?

What time is this showdown? Bang bang.

It starts at 6 p.m. EST, but if you're feeling particularly randy, show up to your local watering hole early. That's when you get to see our players sing the national anthem and I cry every time.

My second and final question is: are we going to win?

Now, now, don't be hasty. And that question is a tricky one. If you trust the opinions of algae-laden bivalves, then yes. If you believe the subdued optimism of German realist and normcore model Jürgen Klinsmann, then most likely, yes. If you are a fan of Philadelphia area sports, there is no chance in hell. If you like reading the forums of single-father babysitter share website Deadspin, then maybe. If you remember that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best soccer player in the world, then absolutely not.

Hey, but you said that Lionel Messi is the best soccer player in the world.

For your purposes, let's consider them the same person.

So who is Cristiano Ronaldo?

This is him.

That isn't Justin Bieber?

Great question, non sports fan, and no. Cristiano Ronaldo, aka Young Tanning Booth aka MC Eyebrow Threading aka My Son Is An American Citizen, is a forward for Real Madrid. He is the highest paid footballer in the world.

Did you say Ronaldo's son is American?

Yes. And his name is also Cristiano. I recommend reading this incredible Daily Mail article entitled "Ronaldo struggles to hold back the tears as his son joins him to collect prestigious football award."

Seems like this guy cries a lot.

He does. And though many would like you to believe it, he isn't the only player on the Portuguese National Team. But unfortunately for Portugal, Pepe played dirty and he's out, and a few other key Portuguese players whose names you won't remember suffered injuries so their team isn't looking as stacked as usual.

That seems positive. How are we looking?

Clint Dempsey broke his nose and wow he looks terrible. He may even play with a mask—spooky scary. Jozy Altidore is out with a sprained hamstring. Defender Matt Besler was also injured in our last game, but he is expected to play today. But overall, very good.

Do we cry too?

Never.

Well, okay. I think I've learned everything. Thanks a lot.

No, there's more. If we win today's match, we will advance to the World Cup's knockout stage automatically. Simply put. Clean. Easy.

If we lose or draw against Portugal, all four teams in the group (refresher: Portugal, Ghana, Germany, US) can advance on the final day when the US plays Germany (June 26 at 12pm) and Portugal goes at it with Ghana (same time). So pray for the former option.

So we really want to win today, for my own sake.

Yes. Come on. If you want a more detailed assessment of what seeding means, where we'll end up in the event of a draw, how the Ghana-Portugal match will change our chances, there's a good one here. I have a feeling you don't care about seeding, though.

I grow tomatoes and parsley in my garden.

Lovely. If you keep chanting this over and over in your head, everything will be all right and the game will end in a win for America.

I

I believe

I believe that

I believe that we will win

I believe that we will win

I believe that we will win

#OneNationOneTeam

— tim howard (@TimHowardGK) June 22, 2014

Oh, I just thought of one more thing. Who is "The Iceman"?

Lol. He is a twenty-three-year-old Icelandic forward named Aron Jóhannsson who made his World Cup debut during our match against Ghana last week. God bless American sports nicknaming ingenuity.

[Images via AP]

1984 was a great year for movies in general, but this weekend thirty years ago was especially noteworthy.

At the movies. This wkd. 1984. Ghostbusters Gremlins Indiana Jones - Temple of Doom The Karate Kid Star Trek III The Natural Police Academy

— Stay Puft (@staypuft) June 20, 2014

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man's facts check out.

Other big years for cinema? 1977. 1994. 1999. Personally, 1993 has always stood out in my mind; I used to think it was a microgenerational thing, but it looks like I'm not the only one.

H/t Kottke

There are a bunch of mashed potatoes all over a highway in North Yorkshire, England.

A section of the highway in North Yorkshire was blocked in both directions this weekend after a truck spilled its load of instant mashed potato mix. The Press—which reports that freezing chemicals used to lift the mash did not work, so high powered hoses had to be used instead—spoke to a police officer who said, "Instant mash is covering the road and cars have skidded as a result of the mash swelling up." Yum!

An instant mashed potato spillage has closed the A64 in Malton, North Yorkshire http://t.co/b9xqVZqteL pic.twitter.com/9q18Jse6xT

— ITV News (@itvnews) June 21, 2014

No one was injured in the incident.

[image via Shutterstock]

In a news story more boring than the music of Sting itself, Sting told The Mail in London that all his money is going away and he won't have any left to give to his six kids in a trust fund. He doesn't want the money to hang around their necks like an albatross, he says.

From the Associated Press:

The singer-songwriter who grew up in a shipbuilding community in northeast England says he told the kids, "there won't be much money left because we are spending it!"

"People make assumptions, that they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but they have not been given a lot," he was quoted as saying.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Sting's wealth is estimated at $306 million and his songs are estimated to be mostly zzz.

The original article in which this riveting tidbit appears also goes on to note that Sting has over 100 people on his payroll. One wonders is if he signs his checks Sting or Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, the artist's real name.

[Image via AP]

Dr. David Glowacki, a leading US scientist and research fellow at the Royal Society in London, was kicked out of the Bristol Old Vic venue after an attempt at crowdsurfing during Handel's Messiah.

According to Metro, when the audience was invited to come to the front of the stage to "clap or whoop when you like, and no shushing other people," Glowacki started to get wild. Via Metro:

However, the theatre's artistic director, Tom Morris, admitted that Dr David Glowacki had got 'very overexcited' during the Hallelujah Chorus.

The respected chemist was apparently seen by witnesses swinging from side to side, waving his hands in the air whooping before he tried to surf the crowd.

The audience reportedly reacted not by joining in or encouraging the scientist but by getting him kicked out. Dr. Glowacki, who is a visiting professor from Stanford and an "expert in non-equilibrium molecular reaction dynamics," was not pleased, saying, "Classical music, trying to seem cool and less stuffy, reeks of some sort of fossilised art form undergoing a midlife crisis."

He also denied being drunk, adding, "This may be a consequence of me being American, but I can quite easily be provocative without the need to be inebriated."

Make us proud, Dr. Glowacki.

[Image via Wikipedia]

A tourist had to be rescued after attempting to climb one of Scotland's highest mountains while wearing flip-flops. He wanted to see snow.

The man slipped and was found with two friends half way up the 4,000ft Aonach Mòr, where they were searching for snow. A team from Lochaber Mountain Rescue were called out and stretchered the man to the mountain's gondola lift and then on to an ambulance, which took him to the hospital. The Press and Journal spoke to rescue team leader John Stevenson, who said:

"One of our team members, John Macrae, actually hurled one of the flips-flops and told the guy 'That's how much use they are on the hill'.

"They said they wanted to stand on snow in Scotland. We don't know if they actually did. The grass was wet enough to have an accident – especially in flip-flops."

Stevenson said that the three men apologized for "all the fuss."

[image via Shutterstock]

Ousted American Apparel founder and jaunty dick-swinger Dov Charney, as anyone would expect, is mounting a lawsuit against the board of directors who terminated him from his position as chairman. The American Apparel board terminated Charney "with cause" last week, and according to the letter they sent him ahead of his firing, Dov Charney is (surprise!) an expensive problem for a struggling clothing company to have.

According to the New York Times, Charney was first offered a quieter proposition of staying on with the company "as a consultant in a creative role" that would have paid about $4 million as long as he resigned from his chief executive post. He was made this offer and told that he had until the end of that day to make a decision.

But BuzzFeed nabbed Charney's termination letter in full, where the board's grievances with Charney sound exhausting and costly. Their main sticking points:

• He knew of a blog that skewered American Apparel and its culture and according to the New York Times, this blog included nude photos of Irene Morales, who unsuccessfully tried to sue Charney in 2012, alleging to having been his "sex slave."

You have violated the fiduciary obligations owed to the Company in several material ways. For example, you were aware of, but took no steps to prevent an employee under your direct supervision and control from creating and maintaining false, defamatory and impersonating blog posts about former American Apparel employees.

A sourced told BuzzFeed that American Apparel launched an internal investigation after learning "new information" about Charney. The Times, meanwhile, says that it was upon learning that Charney knew that the photographs were to be published, but decided not to doing anything about it, that they decided to launch their investigation.

• He's using company money to pay people off and to keep quiet about his unsavory behavior.

We also recently learned that you presented significant severance packages to numerous former employees (including packages to REDACTED) to ensure that your misconduct vis-a-vis these employees would not subject you to personal liability.

Additionally, you have used Company assets to make substantial severance payments to protect you from personal liability. You have provided to employees various salary increases, bonuses, and commission payments that were not meant to reward exemplary performance or further the Company's interests. Instead, you authorized these payments to induce employees to sign release agreements that were aimed at protecting you from personal liability for your misconduct.

Charney, according to Reuters, frequently used corporate funds to pay for personal expenses:

The probe revealed that Charney, who founded the hipster clothing brand, was using company funds to book flights for his parents, the person said. He also sometimes provided corporate apartments to friends and stayed in them himself when he wasn't on company business, according to this person.

• He refuses to take sexual harassment training, or let others, apparently.

In the recent past, you refused to participate in mandatory sexual harassment training and undermined the Company's policies by interrupting employee sexual harassment training mandated under California law.

• He's a bigoted asshole to the people who work for him.

Furthermore, on several occasions you have made derogatory and disparaging remarks directed at persons of certain ethnicities or related to their gender, sexual orientation or religious persuasions that are discriminatory and offensive and are not in accordance with Company policies.

• His very public, well-documented skeeviness, is, wouldn't you know it, expensive to deal with and clean up.

The resources American Apparel had to dedicate to defend the numerous lawsuits resulting from your conduct, and the loss of critical, qualified Company employees as a result of your misconduct are also costs that cannot be overlooked.

And then the board goes ahead and makes it plain: "Indeed, many financing sources have refused to become involved with American Apparel as long as you remain involved with the Company. "

Meanwhile, Charney's lawyer Patricia Glaser has fired back, the Los Angeles Times reports:

"We question the legitimacy and thoroughness of any investigation that did not involve any discussion whatsoever with Mr. Charney," Glaser wrote. The charges mostly "involve activities that occurred long ago (if at all) and about which the Board and the Company had knowledge for years."

Charney's lawyer said the firing violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which required American Apparel to provide 21 days to consider any proposed severance agreement.

Charney's lawyers have given American Apparel until Monday to reinstate him or he'll sue.

[Image via Getty]

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been shifted to outpatient care in San Antonio, the U.S. Army announced today. Bergdahl returned to the U.S. June 13 to begin the "reintegration process," which he will continue, the Associated Press reports, "with exposure to more people and a gradual increase in social interaction."

Appropriately titled "Fartzenegger," this supercut does not, technically, include four minutes of Arnold actually farting, per se. It does, however, make it disturbingly clear that Arnold has made quite the career out of contorting his face into expressions similar to ones you might make will passing gas.

[H/T Time NewsFeed]

Remember the Great Pacific Ocean Race, where insane people race from Monterey, Ca. to Honolulu, Hawaii in rowboats? It's happening. The Coast Guard has had to rescue five rowers so far. Just five! Only five people have had to be plucked from the middle of the ocean because they decided to row 2,400 miles.

The first, Jim Bauer, had to be saved because his boat kept capsizing. He is fine, the Associated Press reports:

A solo rower was hoisted from his boat to a helicopter at about 2 a.m. PDT after capsizing several times in rough seas about 50 miles west of Morro Bay, California, the Coast Guard said.

Organizers identified the rower as Jim Bauer, who the federal agency said was in stable condition. Bauer called the Coast Guard with a satellite phone, and his boat was equipped with a satellite tracking beacon.

The other four rescued so far were in a group. They are also fine.

The Coast Guard also conducted a rescue on Saturday morning. A crew of four rowers reported their boat was taking on water about 75 miles west of San Luis Obispo, California. Conditions were too rough for a sailboat serving as the race organizers' rescue vessel to pick up the rowers.

The Coast Guard responded, and a rescue swimmer was lowered from a helicopter to the rowboat. Three rowers were hoisted into the helicopter before it returned to land to refuel. The aircraft then returned to pick up the remaining rower and rescue swimmer who had stayed with the boat.

According to race officials, seven of the 13 entrants remain, including one brave solo-rower. Who will have to be rescued next? You can track each boat's progress here.

[Image via Monterey Herald]

In the second season finale of Orphan Black, the best show you're tired of being told is the best show you're not watching, another game-changing dimension was added to the complex cabal behind the scenes of these women's lives. But maybe the best twist was how the show managed to deepen its brilliant gender politics, while preserving and maintaining what makes the show so special on that front in the first place.

Guys (sorry dudes, just saying, no offense, I love you) ultimately baby-making is sort of a girl thing. Sure, male DNA is required, but the bulk of the child-producing apparatus is female. Women are the means of reproduction.

So who controls the means of reproduction? In Orphan Black the government, private industry and international cabals are hovering in a slow-motion jump ball for control over cloning, while we root forever for the individual. We love that Sarah defies them. We want to see Sarah stay in control of herself, Sarah who has had a child and has also chosen not to have a child.

(What political theory does that even express? Anarchy? Radical Libertarianism? Anarchy? Guys are you all libertarians? I don't get that vibe from the comments.)

Sarah can only be defeated–can only be controlled–when her kid is in jeopardy. Children are a life sentence to the unimaginable fear you'll lose them. Children mean happiness. Children mean sacrifice. These are all themes women hovering around the murky window of their own fertility are considering constantly and which Orphan Black has refracted so successfully especially in the aspect of Rachel and Sarah.

Up until now the whole series has thematically hovered around the female mons pubis like a saggy g-strap: Cosima dying from uterine fibroids, the threat that Sara will have her ovary removed, the magic all-powerful healing powers of "natural child" Kira's bone marrow, Rachel on the edge of madness because she couldn't have kids, the treatment of Sarah Manning like a stolen 3D printer because she could.

So what does the end reveal that the government is churning out successful male clones MEAN?

If the government can just churn out males, what point is the female clones' fertility, or the female clones themselves? Are the means of reproduction now redundant? Is that the weird looming Sci-Fi fear behind Orphan Black, that science will one day displace women because why would dudes put up with us if they could make their own babies? That would end the birth control bullshit debates at least.

But then again, why would the government worry about satisfying it's electorate if it could just produce it's own people?

Dudes, level with me: if you could fuck a flesh-covered basketball hooked up to a bubbling beaker, and 6 months later a super-soldier baby would come out, is that the ideal? Seems a little lonely to me. Ladies are funny in ways guys just aren't. Y'all would miss our pop songs too.

STILL: Is Orphan Black about the sub-conscious need of the modern female to prove her worth outside of child bearing so that she's free to choose if and when she'll have a child?

Is it about a fear of the kind of the long, hamfisted arm of government bureaucracy getting dragged into birth control by an uptight electorate who aren't exactly having the baby themselves?

I don't know. All I know is that Helena CAN DANCE.

[Images and video via BBC America]

Morning After is a new home for television discussion online, brought to you by Gawker. Follow @GawkerMA and read more about it here.

The top 100 U.S. advertisers spent $108.6 billion on advertising last year, which is why the advertising industry will never die even though it is mostly evil lies and nonsense created by self-loathing bastards for sellouts (like you and me).

That little blue "verified" checkmark on Twitter means something. It's for stars, people the common folk aspire to emulate. People whose valuable Personal Brands™ are at stake. People like William Shatner. And definitely not those pissant "nobodies" in the media.

Engadget, the AOL-owned blog about comparing various off-brand iPads, recently notched its 1 millionth Twitter follower. As the social media manager who helped the site hit that milestone, John Colucci naturally wanted to celebrate the achievement on Twitter.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG #Engadget1M pic.twitter.com/YM8IpSfpi2

— John Colucci (@johncolucci) June 21, 2014

But William Shatner was unimpressed. Not only that, he was outraged that Colucci, a "nobody," has the magical blue checkmark while some of Shatner's celebrity pals are still waiting for theirs.

Shatner went off on a multi-tweet rant accusing Engadget of gaming the system to get their "unimportant" employees verified on Twitter.

@johncolucci Why are you even @verified? If this guy can get verified I'll nominate my Social Media guy.

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 21, 2014

@DashaPohoral @Numeson @verified @twitter and nobodies should not be verified because it shows a huge flaw in the Twitter system.

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 22, 2014

I want to know how Engadget has all these seemingly unimportant jobs with all @verified accounts. @Support it's a mockery. Want names? Contd

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 22, 2014

Why is @GineokwKoenig, @RobertPicardo and so many other PUBLIC figures not @verified but a college student & editorial asst are? It's wrong

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 22, 2014

Maybe I need to request to be unverified? Who wants to be part of a broken system that folks can pay $ or reward cronies while others wait?

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 22, 2014

Despite a lot of backlash—Captain Kirk is still sparring with critics on Twitter two days after he started the argument—the actor has refused to allow that there might be a purpose to verification other than separating the truly famous from the rabble and protecting their identities from impostors.

After all, who would ever pretend to work for a media organization? How distasteful!

[H/T BuzzFeed, Photo: AP Images]

We've all walked the wine aisle of the local market, wondering whether the $10 wine is that much different from the $15 wine. For some, the decision requires little more than illegal action: Earlier this month, two thieves at a Boston-area Wegman's made off with over $10,000 in expensive vino.

According to police, a man and woman were caught on camera stealing the wine from a Wegman's grocery store in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill. The heist occurred over two days.

Via ABC News:

It's not clear how many bottles were taken, but the total cost of the theft was put at $10,000, police said.

Two of the stolen bottles taken on June 12 and June 13 were 2006 Mouton Rothschild, called "one of the world's greatest wines" by Wine.com.

A spokesperson for Wegman's, though she hardly needs to say it, remarked that the bulk of their business is in "lower-priced wines."

Some of the wines that the thieves made off with were valued at over $1,000. Go big or go home.

[Image via AP]

After meeting with Iraqi leaders today in Baghdad, Secretary of State John Kerry said that as ISIS grows more powerful in Iraq, the U.S. is less inclined to wait for a political solution to the crisis before taking military action.

"[ISIS fighters] do pose a threat. They cannot be given safe haven anywhere," he said, according to the New York Times. "That's why, again, I reiterate the president will not be hampered if he deems it necessary if the formation is not complete."

Today, Kerry met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, Ammar al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric who rivals Maliki, Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni and the current speaker of the parliament, and Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd who is Iraq's foreign minister. The goal was to hasten the creation of a more inclusive, multi-sectarian government. It's not clear if the Iraqis will be able to complete this task before ISIS reaches Baghdad.

ISIS militants now control almost all of Iraq's western front. They have promised to attack a Shiite shrine in Samarra, which would likely cause an outbreak of sectarian killings. Kerry made clear that the U.S. does not want to see this happen:

Clearly, everyone understands that Samarra is an important line. Historically, an assault on Samarra created enormous problems in Iraq. That is something that we all do not want to see happen again. And so the president and the team, the entire security team, are watching this movement and these events very, very closely.

Kerry said that if President Obama does order military action (like airstrikes) in Iraq, it should not be seen as support for Maliki "or for one sect or another."

Update: The Pentagon announced this afternoon that the U.S. and Iraq have agreed on legal protections for the 300 U.S. military advisers who will help Iraqi troops with intelligence and strategy in the coming weeks. Some of the U.S. troops have already been deployed, and the rest will arrive in Iraq "soon."

[Image via AP]

Ever wonder what Perez Hilton's up to these days? If not, that's definitely for the best—there are so many things out there to wonder about—but here is a glimpse: today he administered a prostate exam (or something!) live on Howard Stern's radio show. How the mighty (well, okay) fall.

The reason why Perez Hilton was asked to perform a "prostate exam" on Stern's show is another CLASSIC Stern bit. His sidekick Benjy bet Stern that he could lose 37 pounds by the end of July, but if he failed someone was going to... anally probe him, it appears. Today, Benjy admitted defeat in this very real bet, which brought Perez Hilton into the picture, the results of which—a lot of screaming, basically—you can hear above.

Howard Stern earned $95 million last year. Perez Hilton did not.

[video via TMZ]