Prince — pioneering musician, style icon, and intellectual property miser — has written a song about an internet meme.

The tune, titled "This Could Be Us," was reportedly inspired by the ubiquitous-a-few-months-ago hashtag #ThisCouldBeUsButYouPlayin, and will appear on a yet-untitled solo album (Not to be confused Plectum Electrum, a forthcoming release featuring his band 3rdEyeGirl).

The Minnesota Star Tribune reports:

Prince explained that the next song, "This Could Be Us," was inspired by a meme of him and Apollonia riding on a motorcycle, clearly a scene taken from the 1984 movie "Purple Rain." It's a joyful ballad with some ecstatic Prince vocalizing.

It's the second time in recent memory that Prince has raided the pop-cultural consciousness for new material: Last year, he released "Breakfast Can Wait," a quietly funky single that featured Dave Chapelle playing the purple one on its cover.

The newfound omnivorousness is strange for a musician who spent much of the last decade sealing himself off from his audience, serving copyright complaints over cover versions, fan videos, and Vines that featured his music. What does it mean when his own work draws from the same online sharing culture he continually battles against?

Probably nothing. It's possible that "This Could Be Us" represents Prince taking back agency over his own meme-ified image, but it seems more likely he saw the hashtag, was amused, and penned a song. Self-aware jokester is a good look for 2014 Prince, despite the apparent contradiction, and well-reasoned moral stances were never exactly his strong suit, anyway.

Yep, that's right. As far as I can tell, this incident where a Brazilian auto journalist was shot at while taking some spy shots is the only time a carmaker has actually employed potentially deadly force against a journalist. Even though I may have tempted some. The car is the VW Brasilia, and I think it's great.

I recently gave a talk about the Volkswagen Brasilia at Los Angeles' Hammer Museum, because a well-worn Brasilia was a key component in an installation piece from artist Clarissa Tossin.

To most people walking by the exhibit, I'm sure they just saw some angular, rusty little band-aid-colored hatchback and didn't give it another thought. But for those who care, this little Southern Hemispherical VW is really a remarkable little car.

First, let's go back to that shooting-at-a-journalist thing. The journalist was Cláudio Larangeira, and he was a young, curious freelance Brazilian auto journalist. Larangeira just so happened to be near VW's test facility when he noticed several unusual cars driving around. Correctly recognizing them as prototype VWs, he chased them down in his car and started taking pictures.

This happens all the time, even today. I myself have chased down a mule or two to get some shots. What usually doesn't happen is that security workers start shooting at your car.

But, that's what happened here. VW Brazil apparent policy of hiring only the most jumpy, over-reactive security guards was paying off, because they began firing at Larangeira's car. The journalist got away unharmed, wrote an awesome story, and eventually got both an apology from VW and a sweet gig as editor-in-chief of the Brazilian car magazine Quatro Rodas.

I think Matt said he got his job here as editor-in-chief of Jalopnik in essentially the same way.

It is, of course, a colossal overreaction to shoot at a journalist getting some photos of a car, but at least we can say that this was quite an important car for VW. The Brasilia (made from 1973-1982) was important because it's really the only successful true Beetle replacement that VW ever produced using their own traditional air-cooled/rear engine architecture.

There's a few reasons for why the Brasilia came to be. VW was very big in Brazil, with a lot of local manufacturing from the 1950s. Starting in the later 1950s, the Brazilian government began a policy to restrict auto imports and produce as much of their cars and car parts internally as possible. This had the effect of making VW do Brasil very independent, and producing many unique cars to fill all sorts of market niches that VWs didn't seek out in the rest of the world.

In essence, Brazil was to VW what Australia was to mammals — a wonderland of convergent evolution. As a result, there were all sorts of fascinating uniquely Brazilian VWs in addition to their own variants of Beetles (they called them Fuscas) and Buses. They had their own Type IIIs, their own Karmann Ghias, and even their own lovely exotic sportscar.

The Beetle/Fusca was a constantly strong seller, but it was still essentially a 1938 design, and, just like in the rest of the world, the Beetle was finally starting to feel the pressure of competition from more modern small cars from Japan and elsewhere.

In Brazil, the new upcoming competitor was the Chevette, which was a much more modern design with a hatchback, and VW wanted to be sure their products could compete with it and other more up-to-date cars. In the rest of the world, VW wouldn't manage to find a viable competitor until the Golf/Rabbit, and that required the acquisition of an entire other company's (NSU/Audi) technologies, and a near-total switch to water cooling and FWD.

But in Brazil, things were different. Rudolf Leiding, the head of VW Brazil, got his designers and engineers started on a new project: re-body the Beetle so it's more modern, roomier, practical, and able to compete with these new little boxy cars. Something flexible for Brazilian tastes.

And so the Brasilia was born. Built on the same, tried-and-true Beetle chassis (well, actually the slightly wider Karmann-Ghia chassis, but it's pretty much the same) and using the same, rugged, well-known Beetle drivetrain, VWs designers accomplished something pretty remarkable: they made a car of the 30s look like a car of the '70s.

The new body was clean and crisp, and maximized the amount of usable area of the car. Much like the Type IIIs before it, they stuck the Beetle engine under a floor in the back, creating a usable load area/wagon above it, and the new boxier body pretty significantly increased luggage capacity up front. Unlike the Type III, the Brazilia used the normal upright-fan Beetle engine, so the rear luggage area wasn't terribly tall, but they did redesign the air cleaner and fan shroud to give enough room to be usable.

It's actually a bit shorter than the Beetle, but much roomier. The interior feels modern (for the 70s) and has lots of glass area, to be open and airy. I'm a big fan of this sort of packaging that gives the entire wheelbase to passengers and cargo. The only car we really have available today that accomplishes this is the Tesla Model S.

If you think how the Brasilia would have been with a now-common FWD drivetrain (an idea they considered late in the car's life) the sense of the layout becomes clear. Sure, you could deepen the rear luggage area, but you'd lose a good 30-40% of the car's length to the engine.

Another detail about the Brasilia's design is the face of the car, which was called the "Lieding Nose" after the VW Brazil big man. You can see this same face on a number of other VWs in Brazil, mostly their Type III variations, and on the global VW's Type IV lineup.

There was also a 4-door hatch version (the first car of that style to be designed and built in Brazil) that was also built at VW Nigeria under the name Igala. I also found some strange references to ways Brasilia buyers could avoid taxes by registering their cars as "The Brasilia" instead of just "Brasilia," since the "The Brasilia" car was classed as a commercial vehicle. I need better references for this one, but I felt it was my duty to report it.

There was also a sugar-cane alcohol version, like many Brazilian cars to this day, taking advantage of Brazil's very successful national biofuel system. It even made a few extra HP, around 50 instead of 44 or so. Maybe 48. Still, a few extra horses for running on sugar-booze seems like a good deal to me.

Hopefully, you can see why I was excited enough to see a Brazilia in the US (there's maybe only between 5-10 in all of the US) and why I convinced the Hammer Museum to let me talk about it to people. It's a deceptively fascinating car, I think. In Brazil and Mexico, they're pretty common, since they made over a million of the things, so I suspect that to many of our Latin American readers I sound like a loon.

But I don't care. Olé for the Brasilia!

A well-known conservative pundit and secrecy expert who once worked as an NSA officer has deleted all of his social media accounts after screenshots leaked this weekend that appeared to show him sending sexy messages and a shot of his soft penis to a Twitter follower who was not his wife.

John Schindler is a professor at the Naval War College who has written conservative analyses on global security for Politico and Foreign Policy while scrapping with leftists and libertarians online. A former naval officer who worked as a counterterrorism operative at the NSA for more than a decade, Schindler has long defended that agency's secret surveillance efforts while attacking information activists like Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and Glenn Greenwald.

In the process, he acquired a massive following in the conservative and national security circles, even while he complained about repeated abuse by liberal antagonists; his left-of-center foils have similarly accused him of online intemperance.

Schindler may have had some secrets of his own leak out in the open. Late Sunday, a Twitter user published several pics of emails and texts purportedly from Schindler to a female conservative tweeter. He "was involved in some sort of flirty, lurid exchange of emails and texts with a Twitter user named @currahee88," a longtime Twitter follower of the professor's says. "In one screencapped exchange, he sent her a picture of his mostly flaccid penis."

"My views are much more right wing and I am much more religious than I ever let on," the spy-turned-professor reportedly tells her before downplaying his own marriage, calling her "engaging and enticing"... and sending a dick pic, shown below [NSFW].

It's not clear whether the messages are authentic, although the woman who was supposedly on the receiving end has acknowledged and thanked her friend who tweeted the screenshots. (That tweeter has since deleted his tweets, saying his "point was made.")

The pic, of course, lives on. There's been no admission that the photographed member is Schindler's, but both he and his wife have deleted their social media accounts, and he left a cryptic signoff on his blog Monday afternoon that he edited at least once. The first time around, he blamed his going dark on harassment by partisan cyber-enemies:

But just a few minutes later, that blog post had been edited down to a more laconic over-and-out:

One Twitter user who's mixed it up with Schindler online said the pundit often conflated verbal eye-rolling with harassment on Twitter. "I obviously dislike the guy's writing and all quite a bit, but Schindler seems genuinely mentally unhinged," the user said.

Anyone who has more details, feel free to share them in comments.

Update: The Associated Press is reporting that Schindler has been placed on leave from the Naval War College:

A blogger sent a complaint to the War College's administration. The college's president has ordered an investigation.

Schindler has refused to discuss the photo, citing legal reasons. He has deleted his Twitter account.

Nobody really enjoys using most of the Yahoo! branded apps or websites, so the company's future rests largely on the money it can make from advertising. For this reason and perhaps others, it's not a good sign that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer showed up hours late to a client dinner because she was asleep.

The Wall Street Journal has the sleepy story, straight from the recent Cannes Lions media expo:

Last Tuesday evening, Interpublic Group arranged a private dinner at the swanky L'Oasis for Ms. Mayer to meet executives from marketers such as Mondelez International, brewer MillerCoors and Greek yogurt maker Chobani...But Ms. Mayer was nearly two hours late, and several dinner attendees including IPG Chief Executive Michael Roth ended up leaving before she arrived, people familiar with the matter said.

Ms. Mayer told some attendees that she had fallen asleep, some of the people said.

Dreaming of future startup acquisitions and photo shoots, presumably. Of course, these advertising execs, who had just finished a long day to going to open bars and sponsored beach parties in Cannes, were not pleased:

"It is another instance where she demonstrated that she doesn't understand the value of clients, ad revenue or agencies," griped one Journal source. Could this screwup cost Yahoo! the sweet, sweet proceeds of Chobani GIFs on Tumblr?

Photo: Getty

Open any issue of The New York Times, and you're all but guaranteed to hit a passing reference to the mecca of all things gentrified and hip: Brooklyn, New York. But the real testament to the borough's changing face lies not in trend pieces, but in the nearly unrecognizable streets and buildings themselves.

As Manhattanites fled the claustrophobic island they called home, massive renovations and sky-high property values came with them to the outer edges of Brooklyn. Of course, Williamsburg is the most notable site for this kind of gentrification (hello, Urban Outfitters concept store), but areas like Bushwick, Clinton Hill, and Crown Heights are quickly following suit.

Thanks to Google Street View's new Time Machine function, we can see back in time (or at least as far back as 2007) virtually anywhere its street-mapping fleet of cars can roam. And though six or seven years might not seem like enough time to spot any significant changes, that's all it took for parts of Brooklyn to tear down the old and build something new and shiny in its place. That's not necessarily a value judgment; it's just striking to see entire blocks change so completely, so quickly.

We've compiled some of the more extreme cases below, many of which unsurprisingly come from Williamsburg and the surrounding areas. But it's not just Brooklyn, the same land-value-raising evolution is happening in plenty of cities all across the country. Is yours one of them? Let us know down below.

2007-2013, N 12th and Berry (Williamsburg)

2007-2013, N 10th and Berry (Williamsburg)

2007-2013, 4th Ave and Sackett (Park Slope)

2007-2013, Broadway and Berry (Williamsburg)

2007-2013, Wallabout and Franklin (Clinton Hill)

2007-2011, 4th Ave and Butler (Boerum Hill)

2007-2013, N 1st and Wythe (Williamsburg)

2007-2013, Meserole and Leonard (Bushwick)

2007-2013, Kent and Grand (Williamsburg)

2007-2013, Driggs and N 9th (Williamsburg)

2007-2013, N 1st and Kent (Williamsburg)

2007-2013, Union and Court (Cobble Hill)

2007-2013, Skillman and Lorimer (Williamsburg)

2007-2013, N 11th and Berry (Williamsburg)

King Nazir Muhammad, NewsBlaze.com contributing writer and self-proclaimed "Lesbian Messiah," has today advocated his most radical program of gender equality yet: lesbianism for all women. Is the Messiah's program humanity's only hope?

Muhammad, the author of the self-published work Body of Jezebel, described by King Nazir Muhammad as "The Official Lesbian Bible," has admirable motivations, at least: "He says he feels women are in grave danger being with men, because of the sick perceptions that men have of the man/woman relationship." In this, he does not differ from many mainstream hashtag activists. But Muhammad's prescription to fix this social ill eschews halfway measures. In addition to advocating the total separation of genders "for a generation or two," he prescribes Total Lesbianism as a method of correcting our nation's rampant inequalities between genders.

And he feels lesbianism is the only way that this separation will take place while the men of this generation die out as the Israelite people had to die out when Moses took them out into the wilderness...

He says that men at this point will not change their ways of thinking voluntarily, so women must separate from them and let this current generation become extinct. Women can also begin teaching their male and female children a new way of relating to each other, that is contrary to the "Cave Man" thinking that men currently have.

Muhammad believes that women should begin to take advantage of Artificial Insemination and disregard all romantic contact with men.

We here at the Gawker.com editorial board share many of King Nazir Muhammad's concerns about unequal pay, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Yet we must admit that we are hesitant to embrace his program wholeheartedly. Though Universal Mandatory Lesbianism would certainly go a long way towards remedying some sexual injustices, we find it hard to fully endorse it, given the gruesome consequences that this program would entail for heterosexuals (and heterosexual males in particular). How does King Nazir Muhammad manage to overcome these concerns himself?

Muhammad, being a heterosexual man, would not normally agree that homosexuality is the answer for men, but he says that conditions are not normal. He believes something is psychologically wrong with men, and they seem to have become fixated on making women suffer. And just as in a marriage when these types of problems arise, it is only logical that the two separate.

This is exactly what lesbianism would achieve, and that is why Muhammad believes lesbianism to be nature's way of solving this problem. As a father himself, he says that he would feel more safe with his daughter being with a woman rather than with a man, simply because of the possibility of a man's strength being used to hurt her physically.

Oh. So King Nazir Muhammad is already a father. He's probably not dating any more. He's probably not even worried about getting laid any more. Cool program man. "Hey, I got mine, now let's just let all the guys die and never have sex again." Real nice. Thanks for that. Thanks a lot. Plus you phrased it so if we don't support every woman becoming a lesbian, we do support domestic violence. Great. We're liberals, man. Do you see the position you're putting us in? I mean, Jesus. Great position you've put us in, King.

The Gawker.com editorial board does not make formal endorsements one way or the other.

[Pic: Flickr]

Weather doesn't stop at the borders, but you would never know it by looking at an American weather forecast. Our friends north of the border are inundated with our forecasts, but rarely do they actually benefit from the information. Why do our weather maps stop at the border?

The most apparent explanation is that weather forecasting outlets based in the United States have overwhelmingly American audiences, and as such feel no real need to show us their predictions beyond the borders of the lower 48.

Of the many forecasting outlets I asked about this phenomenon, the only one that took the time to respond was The Weather Channel. In an email, TWC's Senior Communications Director David Blumenthal said that meteorologists at The Weather Channel stop forecast maps at the borders mostly for aesthetic reasons — "our maps generally outline the familiar shape of the U.S. to help better display where the weather is within its borders."

He further notes the company's maps often include Canada and Mexico during hurricane season, such as the map above showing which areas were most at-risk during Hurricane Sandy, and that forecasts do show Canada when extreme weather to the north is expected to impact the United States.

During the spring and summer months, some of the most widely-spread forecast maps are severe weather outlooks issued by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC). The SPC falls under the umbrella of the National Weather Service, so its mission is to forecast weather exclusively for the lower 48.

As the agency's jurisdiction stops at the borders, so do its maps.

One of the best examples of the SPC's maps stopping at the border occurred last Tuesday, June 17. The United States saw 346 reports of severe weather during this outbreak, most of which occurred in the form of wind damage/60+ MPH wind reports in New England.

The severe weather didn't conveniently stop at the borders and skip over southern Ontario, of course. The storms were so bad that one spawned a high-end EF-2 tornado that tore a 12-mile-long path between Angus and Barrie, Ontario, about 60 miles north of Toronto.

Most other products issued by the National Weather Service and its related agencies stop at the international borders, as well, with the exception of those issued by the Weather Prediction Center (formerly the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, or HPC) and the National Hurricane Center.

Our neighbors to the north aren't without their own weather forecasts, of course. Environment Canada is responsible for issuing official weather forecasts in Canada, including severe weather watches and warnings. The country also benefits from The Weather Network, of which The Weather Channel and its parent companies own 30%.

[Images via The Weather Channel and the Storm Prediction Center]

A drunk 25-year-old who broke into a couple's new home outside Boise, Idaho, took a dump on the floor of the house and nearly got shot before receiving a free ride home from police—a move the homeowners say is a load of crap.

It was about 6:30 a.m. two Sundays ago when Jake and Tricia Gillaspy awoke in the Kuna home they'd just moved into, only to find an inebriated and stark naked Matthew Coomes standing over them in their bed, according to KTVB-TV:

"My husband grabs the gun because we have no idea who this guy is," said Tricia. "He's like, 'Get out of my house, now!' But the guy wouldn't leave. So, he puts the gun to his head, and says, 'I said, get out!'"

Tricia says Coomes eventually started to walk out at gunpoint while her husband was calling 911.

"He's like, 'There's a guy in my house. I'm going to shoot him, you better get a cop here now,'" she said.

Around the same time the police arrived, the Gillaspies surveyed their home and realized they were going to have a $1,000 cleaning bill, on account of all that poop on the carpet and walls:

"He took this sink sprayer out and this drawer was in there. He put it in the drawer, turned it on full blast hot water, it filled that entire drawer full. It flooded my entire kitchen," said Tricia. "He craps on my floor, and he must have been playing in it because he streaked it down the side of my walls. The stain is gone finally, thank goodness."

Coomes, who apparently slipped in through an open back door, "told police he didn't remember going into the home or using a spray nozzle in the kitchen":

He said he also didn't know how feces got on the carpet or why a t-shirt and a pair of underwear he was wearing ended up on the floor of the home.

The family was doubly insulted when, instead of dragging Coomes off to the hoosegow, police wrote him up for a pair of misdemeanors and gave him a lift home. Police later opened an internal affairs investigation on why he didn't face stiffer charges, and county prosecutors are now expected to pin a felony count on him, too.

Pressed to describe the entire affair, Tricia Gillaspy told KTVB: "It's just a mess."

[Screenshot: KTVB; h/t Vocativ]

Two seasons in, Lifetime's Devious Maids has tackled premeditated murder, closeted homosexuality, extramarital affairs, accidental murder, spousal drugging, wrongful accusations, schemes to achieve fame, blackmail, burglary, abuse of the elderly, and attempted murder. It's a primetime soap, through and through. It could quite possibly be one of the best shows on television.

If you haven't been keeping up with Devious Maids, allow me to fill you in:

After finally coming clean about how his bisexual dead wife died, Marisol's new husband Nicholas reveals in a prescription pill-induced haze that he might also be harboring a secret about killing some dude. Marisol tries to drug him up to get him to talk again, but that doesn't exactly work. Valentina finds out that her shifty boyfriend Ethan is part of the crew of Beverly Hills burglars and gets Remi—who remains blankly beautiful—to stitch him up after Carmen knifes him in self-defense at a burglary gone wrong. Valentina also gets taken into the police station when an otherwise sympathetic cop notices all of said shifty boyfriend's blood on the backseat of her car.

But that's not even the half of it.

Instead of doing any maid work (no maids on this show even doing maid work anymore), Carmen finds herself repeatedly getting drunk with a depressed Spence—his ex-wife just got full custody of their child—and it somehow doesn't lead to drunk bonezoning. Zoila is trying to mend the fences between Genevieve and her gruff mother (June Squibb!), but only ends up making the woman almost die. Rosie keeps getting in deeper and deeper with Reggie, while Reggie keeps getting in deeper and deeper with insanity—he pushes an old man down the stairs!

So much is happening always on Devious Maids—basically the anti-Rectify, in that sense—and if you haven't been watching, you have really been missing out on some high quality camp. Which probably sounds like an oxymoron, because even to praise something as camp is partly backhanded compliment. "Oh, it's good for what it is." "It's good, but it's not really good TV." And of course, there's the dreaded "It's so bad, it's good." There's still this belief that if a show's not getting nominated for an Emmy, it's not good TV, plain and simple—despite the fact that most can agree that the Emmys don't always award the best TV (let's not even talk about the snubs).

With primetime soaps like Devious Maids in that "guilty pleasure," so bad it's good territory, there's never any real question of whether or not the show is good; there's just the presumption that it's not. Terrible until proven great, and even then "great" comes with those sarcastic air quotes.

Devious Maids' writers have pedigrees from Mad Men, Ugly Betty, Seinfeld, Grey's Anatomy, The Big C, How I Met Your Mother. These are not lightweight television writers, yet because they're writing a primetime soap—which is actually a more acceptable form of the soap opera genre—all of this is disregarded. It doesn't matter if what the show is setting out to do when it creates these surreal worlds is coming through loud and clear. Because it doesn't fit the mold of what a supposedly high quality show should be, it's not worth accepting.

For example, the spiritual predecessor to Devious Maids, ABC's GCB, was universally hated by critics, but it did what it set out to do—create a caricature of this type of culture while also kind of showing it for what it is—extremely well and also provided us with the beauty that was Cricket Caruth-Reilly.

Devious Maids does much to fill in the GCB-shaped hole in the rare fans' hearts and television schedules, but it really is difficult to compete with such greatness.

When Desperate Housewives—the intended spiritual predecessor to Devious Maids, both being Marc Cherry shows—hit the scene back in 2004, every other discussion about the show was about how it was the ultimate guilty pleasure, even though it was a massive hit that more than a select guilty few were watching.

Revenge, even with its more subdued plots and its Count of Monte Cristo roots, is considered a guilty pleasure. Nashville constantly battles itself over whether or not it's a serious musical drama or a trashy primetime soap, and honestly, the latter is the one the people are tuning in for; nobody wants another Smash. TNT's reboot of Dallas had a pretty weak first season. But as soon as it truly embraced its roots and even cranked them up to 11, it became appointment TV, even if no one was actually watching.

And yet, no one is praising these shows for what they're doing, unless it's in the form of the condescension that stems from them not being the next Mad Men or Breaking Bad but still being "cute little shows." Honestly, if every show on television was the next Mad Men or Breaking Bad, television would eventually become extremely dull.

Even one of the best television series of all time, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, still has its naysayer who refuse to watch the show because of its campy title, chick-friendliness, and its assumed guilty pleasure status. And those who have watched the series often give the show's first season a hard time for its camp, when I would honestly take that first season over those dour final two seasons any day of the week.

These series, at their core, only have one thing truly in common: women enjoy them.

It's the pink-lipsticked elephant in the room, but it's the very fact that these shows are seen as "girly" that keeps them from being taken seriously. It's strange, because comedies featuring women—and Girls—are rarely seen in such a light. But a primetime soap, or even just a drama heavily featuring women, has a stigma cast against it.

Recently, VH1's I Love The 2000s classified as Gilmore Girls, a near universally praised series, a guilty pleasure. First of all, VH1 classified something as a guilty pleasure. Second of all, serious women talking serious women things (and oh how they talk) is a running theme in all of these campy, guilty pleasure shows, so obviously that's the problem. Women be talking.

The thing about Devious Maids and the like are that, unlike the previously mentioned like Rectify, they're not concerned with keeping things slow. It's often a breakneck, balls out (for lack of a better term) pace, because why stick with one entertaining plot when you can do ten entertaining plots? Slow works in some cases, but sometimes you just need to get crazy.

Ryan Murphy, for all of his faults, knows that. He's made a career of camp, and say what you will about his work, but Popular and even Nip/Tuck, to a lesser extent, really do hold up. That's because no matter the era, a self-aware nature of camp can endure the test of time the same way that a super serious, super slow, super intellectual show will. The only difference is in the approach.

Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback is literally only able to be brought back because it not only stood the test of time, it was ahead of its time. So if ability to stay relevant in a way is a marker of just how good a show can be, then how come primetime soaps, save for the classics like original recipe Dallas and Dynasty, are just put into this box? When are we going to accept that maybe there's no reason to feel guilty for liking shows where a millions things happen at once?

It's not as thought all "manly" shows are great, and yet they don't have the camp or guilty pleasure label placed on them. Think back to Fox's Gang Related for just a solitary moment. Is anyone who enjoys that show ever going to call that a guilty pleasure? How about all of the terrible event programs in a post-Lost world, like FlashForward or The Event? Was guilty pleasure ever uttered there? Of course not. So why not embrace the nightlife, let the camp into your heart and worry not about the potential of guilt derived from pleasure. Maybe if you do, you can see these types of shows for what they are: high quality TV, just in their own way.

[Images and video via Lifetime and ABC]

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

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The NY Post reported this week that money-hungry professionals are starting to reject advice meetings with under-experienced subordinates unless they're paid for their time. Keep in mind that these people likely had meetings with their superiors when they were starting out, and that advice was probably free.

The article, written by Anna Davies, begins by disparaging a young writer for wanting to pick Davies' brain. She then discovers from her colleagues and friends that having to help a young professional with advice is the frequent complaint of many who think they are more important than other people.

"I offer free advice, when appropriate, but I feel it should be my call, not theirs," says Steve Cony, president of Communications Counselors, a full-service marketing consulting firm based in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. "When someone asks to pick my brain, I bristle. My brain is how I earn my living — would you ask a plumber to unclog a drain for free?"

No, Mr. Cony, you would not. But if you were a young plumber looking to getting into the drain-clearing business, you might reach out to a skilled plumber yourself and ask her what path she took to get there.

The speculation is that, since there are more freelancers than ever before, and since everyone is flat broke and both power-and-money hungry, the opportunity to make some green off of already cash-strapped beginning professionals is not to be missed.

From the NY Post:

Additionally, creative freelancers are finding that adding consulting to their list of marketable skills can boost their cash flow. Social media makes it easier than ever to find and contact potential mentors, and what may have been a polite phone call from a friend-of-a-friend two decades ago becomes a "Can you give me advice?" tweet from a stranger. Both factors influence how mentors perceive the task — and, experts agree, has led to the trend of monetizing the act.

As if networking and the premium put on "making connections" weren't already playing roles in proliferating the unchecked importance of hierarchical value and grandfathered creative skills, this supposed enterprising is only going to make things worse.

But don't let me tell you that. Here's Anne Chertoff:

The eponymous creator of Anne Chertoff Media, a boutique marketing agency that caters to the wedding industry, found a similar niche.

"I honestly got annoyed with people taking me to lunch and thinking that the cost of a meal could equal my contacts, expertise and advice, so I created a service called 'Pick My Brain' on my Web site. For $500, I give 90 or so minutes of whatever advice the customer needs," she explains.

Thankfully—and in an unlikely twist—Kate White, a former editor at Cosmopolitan comes to the rescue with some sage advice for anyone who is collecting money from their underlings: simply create an "exempt list."

"These might be relatives, or people you've worked with in the past, or people you know will return the favor," she advises. "When you know your list, it's easier to create guidelines for how to handle those who aren't on it. Maybe it's denying the request, maybe it's changing the coffee date to an e-mail back-and-forth."

As Davies' puts it, this could be where you find that "feel-good factor" in your life, the one these networking money-grabbers have long since been missing.

[Image via AP]

The Interview, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen as American talk show hosts sent to assassinate Kim Jong-un, does not look very funny — an assessment the North Korean state agrees with wholeheartedly.

The Telegraph contacted Kim Myong-chol, unofficial DPRK spokesman and Kim Jong-un associate, for insight into the regime's opinions on the film, and he was unsparing in his criticism:

"There is a special irony in this storyline as it shows the desperation of the US government and American society," he told The Telegraph.

"A film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the US has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine," he added. "And let us not forget who killed [President John F.] Kennedy – Americans.

"In fact, President [Barack] Obama should be careful in case the US military wants to kill him as well," Kim Myong-chol said.

But what about Bond?

Kim Myong-chol dismissed Hollywood movies as being "full of assassinations and executions" and expressed the opinion that British films are far better and more realistic.

"James Bond is a good character and those films are much more enjoyable," he said.

Die Another Day, which saw Pierce Brosnan's Bond battling North Korean forces, is an exception. That film, the Telegraph points out, was condemned in state media as "dirty and cursed" upon its release.

Criticism aside, the Supreme Leader will likely watch The Interview, Kim Myong-chol said. And who can blame him? You'd at least have to see whether you die at the end.

Despite the tech-friendly climate within City Hall, San Francisco is coming down on a new breed of parking spot-sharing apps. The city issued a cease-and-desist letter demanding that Apple pull them from the App Store for violating California law.

The letter primarily targets MonkeyParking, an app that launched this Spring promising drivers $150 per month to squat in one of San Francisco's underpriced street parking while nearby drivers bid for it. In other words, the Rome-based "sharing economy" startup arbitraged the taxpayer-subsidized cost of parking. MonkeyParking's profits came from motorists camped out in popular areas while hapless circling drivers tried to outbid each other.

Appifying the homeless man standing in a parking spot and demanding a tip proved too much for San Francisco. In a press release, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera slammed the spot-sharing apps for profiting off a public resource:

"Technology has given rise to many laudable innovations in how we live and work — and Monkey Parking is not one of them," Herrera said. "It's illegal, it puts drivers on the hook for $300 fines, and it creates a predatory private market for public parking spaces that San Franciscans will not tolerate. Worst of all, it encourages drivers to use their mobile devices unsafely — to engage in online bidding wars while driving. People are free to rent out their own private driveways and garage spaces should they choose to do so. But we will not abide businesses that hold hostage on-street public parking spots for their own private profit."

Herrera's cease-and-desist demand to Monkey Parking includes a request to the legal department of Apple Inc., which is copied on the letter, asking that the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant immediately remove the mobile application from its App Store for violating several of the company's own guidelines. Apple App Store Review Guidelines provide that "Apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users" and that "Apps whose use may result in physical harm may be rejected."

Herrera's action also targets two other similar apps, Sweetch and ParkModo. The latter recently hired drivers off Craigslist, offering "$13.00 per hour to occupy public parking spaces in the Mission District."

San Francisco isn't completely cold on the idea of enabling "surge pricing" on street parking, as long as its the city's own version. SFpark, the city's variable, demand-based meter pricing program, has been deemed a success by city officials, progressives, and transit-first activists alike. Now San Francisco intends on rolling out the program city-wide.

Meanwhile, all three apps have been given until July 11th to cease operations, or the city will find them "potentially liable for civil penalties of $2,500 per transaction for illegal business practices."

[Photo: @MonkeyParking]

Being a rapper isn't all fame and glory. There are problems, too. Problems such as peeing in your pants. Take the Monday afternoon of Houston's Slim Thug.

Today, Slim Thug pissed himself.

Our thoughts are with Slim Thug, who has a lot of sex, and his bladder, which is paying the price. (Doctors?)

[image of Slim Thug in a less wet moment via Getty]

Following a Freedom of Information Action lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan released today the (heavily redacted) Justice Department memo that outlined the legality of President Obama's authorization to kill an American citizen overseas by drone strike.http://gawker.com/u-s-government...

The memo, which can be viewed here, specifically details the lawfulness of the killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki—a Muslim cleric, an accused terrorist, and an American citizen—without a trial. Al-Awlaki was killed in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen, along with Samir Khan, also an American citizen. Further from the New York Times' report:

Intelligence officials had concluded that Mr. Awlaki was an operational terrorist leader who was plotting attacks to kill Americans and that his capture was not feasible. Working from that premise, David Barron, then the acting head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, concluded that it would be lawful for either the military or the intelligence agency to kill Mr. Awlaki, notwithstanding federal statutes against murdering Americans overseas and protections in the Constitution against unreasonable seizures and depriving someone of life without due process of law.

The memo concludes, per the Associated Press' report, that the killing was legally justified, "as long as it was carried out in accord with applicable laws of war."

[Image of Anwar Al-Awlaki via AP]

Olympic gold medalist Hope Solo's 17-year-old nephew has, according to TMZ, reportedly told police that he was forced to pull a gun on his aunt after she allegedly became belligerent and started attacking him in his Seattle-area home. According to the nephew, Solo call him a "pussy" after he called his mother to tell her that Solo was there, apparently drunk. Solo was arrested by police Sunday on domestic violence charges.

The nephew attempted to retreat to another room in his house. "I then told her to get her cunt face out of my house," he told police. That's when Solo allegedly started attacking him, pulling his hair and punching him.

"I then went into a back room and got an old gun that does not work, pointed it at her and she kept coming at me," the nephew said to police. "She didn't leave but walked around me cornering me like a shark."

According to the boy's mother and Solo's sister, the gun he pointed was actually a BB gun. Solo apparently left the house after her nephew called police, but tried to re-enter the home, which is when she allegedly attacked her sister. The nephew claims he had to hit his attacking aunt in the head with a broomstick to try and keep her away.

Solo was released from jail today and has pled not guilty to the domestic violence charges. Her lawyer claims that she was a victim in the attack.

[Image via AP]

ISIS insurgents have taken the Baiji oil refinery just north of Baghdad. The refinery, the largest in Iraq, supplies a third of the country's oil to gas and power stations, and days of attacks on the facility have already led to its shutdown and petrol rationing.

Tonight on TV there are domes and things under them, Teen Wolf is back, there's a new Boondocks, and The Fosters continues to be just the best.

At 8/7c. your choices are a brand-new Antiques Roadshow, another episode of The Bachelorette or Masterchef, and the newest Switched At Birth. Otherwise, you might as well turn to VH1 and watch an episode of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta called "Three Way, No Way," which I would suggest will contain a lot of conversations about threesomes but then ultimately the twist will be that there are not any threesomes in it. I'm just going by the title, though.

9/8c. brings us new episodes of American Ninja Warrior (Denver qualifiers), Killer Kids, and the best show in America, The Fosters, on ABC Family. Here's hoping that tonight's episode will put the gangster shenanigans to bed and get back to the real draw of the show: Pretty ladies holding hands and adopting as many children as they possibly can, in an ever-increasing upward spiral of adoptions arcing toward an infinity in which they have literally become the parents of everyone on earth, including me and you. Including Mary Todd Lincoln, and Copernicus, and everyone who died in Pompeii. "But it's right there in our name!" the Fosters will say. "Foster!" And we will have to admit they're right about that, at least.

At 10/9c. Bravo brings us those lovable Ladies of London, there are new episodes of Longmire and the similarly themed Mistresses, and a recap episode explaining what it turned out to actually be under the dome on Under The Dome, a show that is about a dome and what goes on under it. But none of that matters in the slightest because TEEN WOLF! IS! BACK!

At 10:30/11:30c., anyone who is anyone will still be watching Teen Wolf. But there will also be recording on the DVR a new Boondocks, and maybe even Ceelo Green's reality show (on TBS!) about what it is like to be a giant baby with the face of a man. For some reason it cracks me up that his show is on TBS, because what are they even doing anymore? "After an all-new Cougar Town and 47 episodes of My Name Is Earl, we are going to show Happy Feet three times in a row, but then after that please tune in to watch Ceelo Green and what that is like."

What about you? Are you into Teen Wolf? You want to talk about Teen Wolf right now? I am up for discussing Teen Wolf at literally any time. I don't understand what happens on that show but I sure do love trying to puzzle out what is happening on that show. "Who is that guy?" I often ask my friend Karen that I watch it with. "Is he the main guy of the show? I think he is so neat! But sometimes, I just can't place him. Now, is this his mom? Or somebody he goes to school with? Oh, it's not even a mom, it's a dirtbike! Or a jaguar? Yeah, that's a jaguar. Who are these guys now, where did they come from and why are their faces like that? Where's everybody's clothes?" I am not fun to watch it with but I promise I am fun to talk about it with.

[Image of currently clothed laxbros via MTV]

Google has a diversity problem. The company recently gave in to demands for transparency, revealing that only 30 percent of its staff are women. Now the tech giant has meritocratic pricing plan to encourage more women to attend their banner Google I/O conference.

This goes beyond Google's Made with Code initiative to encourage female engineers, which enlisted Chelsea Clinton and Mindy Kaling as part of its launch. According to TechCrunch, the company is going to cover ticket and travel costs to Google I/O for women who performed well in its "CodeJam" coding competition. On top of that, Google is also offering scholarships for minorities:

"It's a chicken-and-egg problem," [Google CodeJam Project Manager Emily Miller] explained in a phone interview. The tech industry's views and culture won't change until more women are involved, but many women won't feel comfortable until the culture changes. So Google is taking the initiative, paying the price of a ticket and $500 worth of travel expenses to bring 100 of the top scorers to I/O from the more than 500 who entered its competition.

Google is also launching a scholarship program in North America to cover the costs of attendance and $500 in travel expenses for select tech conferences for women and minorities, which includes (but isn't limited to) African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, persons with disabilities, women and veterans. Google also confirmed that those in the queer and trans* communities are also welcome to apply.

The scholarship program is reportedly being operated by Google's human resources department, signaling the company seeing this as a recruitment mechanism. Google has also reached out to groups such as the National Society Of Black Engineers to drum up interest in its programs.

One free ticket recipient told Valleywag that Google was actively recruiting women to attend this week's conference. Despite seeming to create a two-tiered pricing program, she was still supportive of the program—and optimistic that it could help bring more women into tech.

TechCrunch was less impressed, calling the move "fairly weak." Ultimately, Google I/O is a 6,000 person conference, and knocking down the price for a few hundred people is "only nudging the needle" of their diversity numbers. Even with the discounted tickets, Google only expects 20 percent of I/O's attendees to be women.

Regardless, Google has a long way to go before their internal demographics are representative of the rest of the country's. Any effort they make is welcome. But now that Google has made its prices more friendly, how about the culture part?

[Photo: Getty]

The South Dakota Republican Party last weekend approved a resolution calling on Congress to impeach Barack Obama. The resolution's sponsor has a "thick book on impeachable offenses of the president," he says. In related news, a South Dakota Republican claims to possess a thick book.