A handwritten manuscript of Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" was sold today in New York at rich people's eBay, Sotheby's auction house, for $2.045 million to an unidentified bidder. The early draft of the lyrics, written on stationery from the Roger Smith Hotel in Washington, was vaunted by Sotheby's as "the only known surviving draft of the final lyrics for this transformative rock anthem."

As reported by Rolling Stone, the draft is chock-full of ancillary details only a rich, possibly obsessive Dylan fan would want to know. Also: doodles!

Still, the sheets do feature some lyrics that didn't make the final cut, including the phrase, "…dry vermouth/You'll tell the truth" and an abandoned line about Al Capone. The lyrics also show Dylan's various attempts to build a rhyme off of the "How does it feel" line with phrases like, "it feels real," "does it feel real," "get down and kneel," "raw deal" and "shut up and deal." The draft — written at the Roger Smith Hotel in Washington D.C. — also boasts some of Dylan's stray thoughts and doodles.

The lyrics were apparently put up for auction by a man Sotheby's describes as having "met his hero in a non-rock context and bought [the lyrics] directly from Dylan.”

A draft of the lyrics to "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" were also sold, but for a measly $485,000. According to the Los Angeles Times, the sale of the "Like A Rolling Stone" lyrics "bested the previous record of $1.2 million paid in 2010 for John Lennon's lyrics to 'A Day in the Life' from 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.'"

[Image via AP]

Everything norm is new again. Birkenstocks, the bulky, utilitarian footwear that my mom refused to buy me from Quakerbridge Mall are suddenly chic—like a "Remember the 90's" just for your feet. And so, one survey says, is Facebook.

After being mocked at the tech campus cafeteria because teens didn't want to use it anymore, Facebook is once again popular with younger users. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Forrester Research asked 4,517 teenagers about their social media use, and Facebook came out ahead–by a lot.

Nearly half of the respondents, who were all between the ages of 12 and 17, said they were using Facebook more than they were a year ago, the firm said.

Forrester's researchers predict that increasing smartphone usage will help drive even more teenagers to use Facebook, whose mobile app is one of the most widely used in the world. "As today's 12- and 13-year-olds grow into 16- and 17-year-olds, it's likely their Facebook adoption will increase further," the researchers said.

The report contradicts previous studies about social network use among teens, but the Journal notes that the report was co-authored by a Forrester analyst who previous criticized Facebook's ability to target ads. The paper hedges its bets about Facebook's future cachet:

If teens were using Facebook less, it wouldn't be surprising. A service that gets older inevitibly loses some of its early cachet. And there are hundreds of copycat services and mobile apps aiming for the teen audience.

On the other hand, Facebook is such a widely used tool that teenagers may face pressure to at least open accounts. Facebook hopes that as teenagers get older, they'll use the service simply because it's practical.

I mean it already knows your footprint, right?

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

[Image via Facebook]

Good evening and welcome to Tuesday TV. Tonight we've got liars, bad girls, mean old bitches, Heidi Montag Pratt, and John Oliver in a place that may surprise you.

At 8/7c. NBC has more America's Got Talent auditions, and the girls of Bad Girls Club star in an especially raucous episode entitled "A Diamond Is Not Forever." Meanwhile, you've got continuing trainwreck/TMZ experiment in torture Famous In 12 on the CW, and of course the newest episode of Pretty Little Liars. (Check back here tomorrow and we'll see what we can do, on that last one.)

At 9/8c. Abby's Studio Rescue premieres on Lifetime, promising to combine the best things about Dance Moms and Hell's Kitchen in one hopeful, inspiring, family-centered opportunity to heal by watching a horrible woman shout obscenities at adults rather than children. There's a new Degrassi on Teen Nick and of course the Real Housewives of New York, but you probably already knew that. But did you know that the third episode of ABC Family's Chasing Life is entitled "Blood Cancer Sex Carrots"? I didn't think so. I feel it's very relevant!

At 10/9c. it's kind of a mixed bag of awesome. There's the Tyrant pilot on FX, which I've been curious about since the spring; and the fifth season premiere of Covert Affairs, titled "Shady Lane" but probably not directed by Spike Jonze. The Celebrity Wife Swap I promised you last week, featuring Heidi and Spencer Pratt, I am once again promising you, but I swear this is the last time I'll mention it. (Burn me once, ABC promo department, shame on you. Burn me twice, I want to forgive you and I want to forget you.) Over on Bravo, it's two more hours of what they are best at: First The People's Couch, which is really making people happy these days, and then Andy's joined on Watch What Happens Live by heroes of the people John Oliver and Sonja Morgan.

How does that sound? I wonder if I will stay awake to watch Tyrant, or enjoy it over breakfast. There's really no way to know at this point in the day. Do you think it will be good? Do you think it will cause international problems? What about Famous In 12, is that a situation where we are asking for global retribution? Are you excited about Pretty Little Liars? I am. It's a lot more sophisticated this year, I feel like.

[Image via Lifetime]

The Ukrainian military claims that a helicopter carrying nine of its men was shot down by pro-Russian separatists, despite a ceasefire agreement reached last Friday. All nine men died in the attack and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, reports the BBC, is considering ending the ceasefire ahead of its Friday deadline for "constant violation by rebels who are controlled from abroad."

Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the newly-christened Donetsk People's Republic, has indicated that he is also considering breaking the ceasefire, and questions whether there ever should have been one.

"I say officially now that there has been no ceasefire and, judging by everything, there will not be any," he reportedly announced on Russian television. "In general, all that is left to us is to continue fighting."

Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains that ceasefire should continue. From the Associated Press' report:

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, urged Ukraine's government to extend the cease-fire and launch talks with the rebels that would give people in the mostly Russian-speaking east a sense of security and protect their rights.

"We hope that the cease-fire will be extended and it will be used for substantive talks," Putin said on a trip to Vienna.

Speaking shortly after the helicopter was shot down, Putin blamed Ukrainian forces for breaking the cease-fire on Tuesday by launching an airborne raid in Slovyansk, the flashpoint in the two-month insurgency.

Putin did not mention the downing of the helicopter, which marked a sharp escalation of tensions amid a cease-fire that has mostly held since early Monday. The rebels pledged to respect it following talks later in the day.

According to CNN, Putin today asked Russian Parliament to cancel a March 1 resolution, passed weeks before Russia claimed Crimea, "that authorizes Russia to use force in Ukraine."

[Image via AP]

Employees at the United States Environmental Protection Agency don't care so much about their own workplace environment, apparently. Earlier this year, management at the Region 8 facility in Denver had to email staff to tell them to stop shitting in the hallways.

The email, sent by Deputy Regional Administrator Howard Cantor, "mentioned 'several incidents' in the building, including clogging the toilets with paper towels and 'an individual placing feces in the hallway' outside the restroom." Government Executive reports that Cantor also made clear that poop in the hallways is "very dangerous" and a health and safety risk.

EPA spokesman Richard Mylott gave this statement to Gov Exec: "EPA cannot comment on ongoing personnel matters. EPA's actions in response to recent workplace issues have been deliberate and have focused on ensuring a safe work environment for our employees."

It's not clear if management ever found the pooper(s) in question. In his email, Cantor promised to "take whatever actions are necessary to identify and prosecute these individuals."

[Image via Shutterstock/Dundanim]

Over the weekend, Pando fired two of its hardest-hitting editorial staffers, David Sirota and Ted Rall, both nationally syndicated veteran journalists. Sirota recently broke a big story about Chris Christie's administration awarding pension contracts to hedge funds, private equity groups, and venture capital firms whose employees donated to the governor's reelection.

In February, Pando raised $1.2 million in financing from some powerful venture capitalists, including Accel Partners and Founders Fund, both of which invested in prior funding rounds.

Sirota's scoop about Chris Christie breaking anti-corruption laws was shared and liked 10,000 times on Facebook. According to Quantcast, Pando is only pulling in 859,000 monthly uniques globally and 579,000 uniques in the U.S.

An anonymous source alerted Valleywag to the firings. Neither Rall nor Sirota would comment on why they were fired. But there was a consensus among sources that the decision was not related to budgetary concerns. "It was completely from Sarah Lacy. Paul was the executioner. Apparently it came from complaints from investors in Pando," according to one Valleywag source. "Sarah basically said there was not enough tech and too much politics."

I am not certain about the terms of their departure, but I heard Rall was fired without severance but will be compensated through the pay period.

In response to questions from Valleywag, Sirota said: "I had an amazing time working with Pando to break huge stories and never once received any negative feedback from my editors, including when they let me go."

Rall is a popular political cartoonist. His tenure at Pando lasted less than a month. Within those few weeks, he broke the story that some Uber drivers made less than minimum wage contrary to the company's claims.

He told Valleywag the decision was "really truly out of a clear blue sky. I literally never got anything but A++ reviews." Rall had recently attended Pando's Southland conference, where Sarah Lacy, the site's founder, conducted nearly all of the interviews, including a panel with Al Gore. Despite her dominance over the softball tone of conference, Lacy's Twitter bio makes no mention of Pando or link to the site. She describes herself as "a reporter/author in silicon valley." Carr's bio, on the other hand, says "I edit Pando."

Both Rall and Sirota were hired by Paul Carr. Sirota joined Pando as part of its acquisition of NSFWCorp. As part of the deal, Sirota was supposed to anchor a long-form investigative unit at Pando.

"I loved working for Paul Carr. I had complete editorial freedom," said Rall. "When I wrote stuff that he disagreed with, he not only posted them without comment, he promoted them. I thought, 'Here's a guy with a lot of integrity.'"

That complaint about the lack of tech coverage seems tenuous considering that Sirota and Rall both cover the intersection of tech and politics, taking a broader perspective than your standard press release reblog, which is what the NSFWCorp acquisition promised. The flow of tech money into politics is an increasingly vital topic. Earlier this month, for example, Chris Christie traveled to Silicon Valley for fundraising.

Both journalists were arguably the most visible writers on the site, next to Mark Ames, who also joined through NSFWCorp. "A lot of people followed me to Pando and would follow me anywhere," said Rall.

Sources did not specify which of Pando's investors allegedly objected to their work or the direction the site was taking. Previous investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Menlo Ventures, and more.

If that was the impetus for the decision, the lack of transparency around the firings would run counter to what Pando has claimed to stand for.

When Lacy launched the company in 2012, she clearly stated her ambitions to become the site of record for Silicon Valley, insisting that financing from those same Silicon Valley insiders would not alter the nature of the reporting. At the time, TechCrunch was mired in the scandal over Arrington's conflicts of interests and its internal battle with AOL. Despite some breaking coverage from good reporters and occasionally combative pieces, Lacy's dream withered as her bombastic and self-congratulatory style, interspersed with fawning coverage of some of the techies in her orbit, dominated public perception of the site.

At the time of the acquisition, Lacy said:

"The NSFWCORP brand and voice will be going away, and everything will now be under the Pando brand," PandoDaily Editor-in-Chief Sarah Lacy writes. "The old NSFWCORP team will adapt to our audience and style, at the same time as our voice expands to cover more of tech and startups' impact on the globe."

I just reached out to Paul Carr and will update the post when I hear back.

Update: Carr offered the following statement by email:

Completely wrong.

I'm not going to comment on specific editorial changes which, as a startup, we make all the time. But any decision to hire or fire writers would be mine. Sarah doesn't run the newsroom, I do. Investors have zero say on editorial hiring or firing and I hope my track record of critical coverage of Pando investors shows how laughable the idea of them having input on my decision is. We don't have VCs on our board for this exact reason, and no investors owns any stake that would allow them to make that kind of call.

To be clear: any suggestion that investors have any impact — ever — on which writers we hire or fire, or what we write, is 100% false. There's plenty of both politics and tech on Pando, and there will continue to be. I'm about to hit publish on three intensely political pieces by John Dolan, Mark Ames and Yasha Levine later today. Sounds like your source has an agenda. But then I suppose they all do.

When I asked Carr whether he disputed that Sirota and Rall were fired without notice or cause, he responded:

I'm not commenting on specific personnel issues but, yes, I'm disputing the entirety of your story including that. Your source is just flat wrong. I don't know how much clearer I can be.

To clarify, I spoke with both Sirota and Rall before publishing, who acknowledged that they were let go.

If you have information about Pando, please contact the author of this post at nitasha@gawker.com.

[Image via Pando]

The producers of ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap gave the people what they came to see last night with this footage of Spencer Pratt getting attacked by a furious German Shepherd.

"I really don't know if more reality is going to be good for us, Heidi. I'll have to be the bad guy because that's my brand at this point. 'Crazy Crystals Spencer'. That's who they're going to want on the show. There's no way to get out from under that Hills shit and it kills me, babe. It kills me."

"I know, I know honey. It isn't fair. But realistically, the episode fee will cover the down payment for a duplex. We can stage all your crystal stuff in like two rooms of the house and no one will be able to tell we just moved in."

"I just don't like it. Who did the producers say we'd be swapping with anyway?"

"Some Olympian, I don't know sports people. But they were thinking you could be like, 'no girl could beat me at anything' and then she'd beat you at whatever her Olympic sport is."

"Wow. So I'm a full on misogynist now?"

"Well you know, your character is misogynist, like you said, it's your Hills character. Just like, spoiled and entitled...and unemployed...and you just eat burritos. It's acting baby, and you're such an amazing actor honey, you really are."

"Right."

"...And then they were thinking maybe an FBI K-9 dog could, um, maybe interact with you?"

"What do you mean, 'interact'?"

"The producer I spoke with said they'd talked about how it would be really funny and dynamic to get footage of you like...getting um, getting attacked by a dog?"

"Christ." There's a long pause, and a sigh that contains the quiet calculation of several bills, bills which have been silently compounding interest for a few years, a quiet undertow which drags Spencer with invisible but unshakable force from the lighter moments of his days, back into the darkness.

"How much was it again?" Spencer asks tensely.

"Enough, honey. It was enough."

There's the rustling sound of Pratt rolling over in bed, curling into himself. Then, her voice fluttering like a butterfly, Heidi whispers,

"I didn't want to bring this up but the fee would be enough to fix the jaw implant...the one that's been...you know, slipping when I eat."

"We'll do it." Spencer says quickly. He says it without resentment but with fierce determination as both his arms surround Heidi, drawing her close. He remembers the days he couldn't touch her, when she was healing, and suppresses a sob. "We'll do it. We'll call them first thing tomorrow. Bring on the dogs! The Olympians, the burritos, whatever they want. Okay babe? Whatever they want. We got this."

Heidi's smile is framed by two trails of tears, glistening in the dark. She swallows hard, then manages, "...I love you Spencer."

"I love you too Heidi." Spencer says. "I love you too."

[Image, video via ABC]

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

It's no secret that Democrats in Mississippi, consigned to losing the general Senate election in November, turned out Tuesday night to support incumbent Republican Thad Cochran against a Tea Party primary challenger. But in doing so, they may have run afoul of state election laws.

The sour-grapes allegation of mass voter fraud by state Democrats was leveled this morning on Twitter by mild-mannered lunatic Bryan J. Fisher, the Tupelo-based attack dog of the evangelical conservative American Family Association, who supported Cochran's right-wing challenger Chris McDaniel:

Every Democrat who voted for Cochran yesterday while intending to vote for Childers in November broke the law. That's fraud.

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 25, 2014

If Democrats broke the law when they voted for Cochran, that's voter fraud and this is in fact a stolen election.

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 25, 2014

It's absurd. But as Twitter user Brian Carnell pointed out, Mississippi's election law appears equally absurd:

@joekeene @BryanJFischer Fischer is correct about Mississippi law, although the statute he references is essentially unenforcable

— brian_carnell (@brian_carnell) June 25, 2014

Carnell is citing MS Code § 23-15-575 (2013), which states:

No person shall be eligible to participate in any primary election unless he intends to support the nominations made in the primary in which he participates.

That's weird language. A plain reading of it sure seems to suggest that Democrats who voted for Cochran in the GOP primary but do not support him against the Democratic candidate in the general election are guilty of... something. Of course, it also suggests that any Tea Partiers or disgruntled Republicans who voted for McDaniel in the primary, but don't vote for Cochran in the general, are equally guilty of... something.

In essence, we wouldn't conceivably know who's breaking the law until the general election is held in November. And even then, we could divine that someone was breaking the law based on final vote tallies, but we couldn't know who is a criminal unless we somehow made their secret ballots public.

Amazingly, if McDaniel—who made a big show of not conceding defeat on election night—wants to challenge the primary votes, this vague quirk in the state election law is probably where he'll strike. But good luck hanging your hat on that crappy and ultimately unenforceable law, writes election expert Rick Hasen:

Everyone knew before the election who was allowed to vote — basically anyone who did not vote in the Democratic primary a few weeks ago. This is longstanding practice; heck, McDaniel himself apparently voted in a Democratic primary in 2003.

So the idea that the courts are going to come in and subtract an uncertain number of "illegal" Democratic votes cast presumably for Cochran seems most unlikely.

Of course, being a Tea Partier and a Mississippian, McDaniel is no stranger to melodramatic lost causes, so maybe he goes through with the legal case anyway:

The reason to bring such a suit is to delegitimize Cochran's win, and to keep McDaniel's supporters fired up with incendiary talk of a "stolen" election. That might be good for McDaniel to keep his supporters happy, but it will win him no friends in the Republican establishment if he wants to run for something else going forward. Indeed, given Cochran's fragility I would be very surprised to see him serve out another full 6 year term, so there may be an opportunity for U.S. Senator McDaniel not to far from now, if he doesn't burn too many bridges.

McDaniel will probably burn those bridges. Which could be a double boon for Mississippians: It could keep him out of the Senate, and it could give the state's courts a chance to fix its dumb election law.

Last we heard from North Korea on James Franco and Seth Rogen's Kim Jong-un assassination flick The Interview, friend-of-the-regime Kim Myong-chol said it showed the "desperation of the US government and American society." The country's foreign ministry gave a much more strongly worded review today.

A spokesman for the ministry said in state-run media that releasing the film would be an "act of war" on the U.S.'s part, and claimed that the DPRK would take "stern" and "merciless" retaliation if it is not banned, the Associated Press reports.

Agence France-Presse has more from the unnamed spokesman's statement:

In a statement carried by North Korea's official KCNA news agency, a foreign ministry spokesman said the film was the work of "gangster moviemakers" and should never be shown.

"The act of making and screening such a movie that portrays an attack on our top leadership... is a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and is absolutely intolerable," the spokesman said.

In his statement, he called on the US administration to ban the film from being screened and warned that failure to do so would trigger a "resolute and merciless response."

At least Rogen and Franco can add "gangster moviemakers" to their resumes now.

[Image via AP]

Last night, dozens of people in starched collars and prom dresses convened at a Manhattan helicopter pad, to watch helicopters land, and to celebrate a startup made for ordering said helicopters. Silicon Alley hasn't mastered the SF startup party, but it certainly still knows luxury.

Blade—written BLADE by the company itself, but I'm sure not going to do that—is sort of like Uber's id. The startup took the most over the top, shamelessly 1 percenter thing Uber's ever offered (chopper flights to the Hamptons), and spun it into an entire business. Blade users can take out their phones and book a $3,000, 30-minute flight from Manhattan to one of three separate Hamptons landing zones. Or, if money is tight, there's no need to vacation somewhere affordable—Blade lets you "crowdfund" your trip by selling the vacant seats on the chopper, or buying a slot in someone else's reservation. In 2014, "the crowd" now includes people flying private to East Hampton.

That's all Blade does: fly the people with the most money to the most expensive place in one of the most expensive ways. Or perhaps formerly most expensive, as Warner Music COO and Blade founder Rob Wiesenthal explained to me at the company fete: Blade is "trying to democratize flying to the Hamptons." In 2014, democratization takes the form of $600 smartphone-confirmed seats in someone else's helicopter. Wiesenthal explained that helicopter pilots are an oft-mistreated subset of the labor force, and so far they're thrilled with Blade's casual reservation process and chummy clientele. Even happier are Blade's customers, who Wiesenthal says have already turned his company into a verb—"Let's just blade there." Our chat was cut short when a PR handler abruptly whisked Wiesenthal away, and then again when two model-looking Blade fans arrived. Luckily, there was plenty to do instead of talk: trays of oysters, sushi, and tiny lobster sandwiches passed with an an almost alarming frequency. Had they arrived by helicopter? It tasted so fresh!

Rather than taking a page from the Valley and hiring Travis Kalanick's girlfriend or Moby, Blade hired recording artist David Correy for the night. Fresh from singing at the World Cup, hopped out of the chopper and walked to a microphone by the smallish crowd. He reminded everyone of his name, and that he was once on X Factor. The crowd still seemed confused or unimpressed. Correy said he'd lost some weight. Some in the audience turned to look at a woman who was posing for photos, leaning against the hood of a Maserati—presumably part of Blade's car fleet, which it uses to shuttle passengers to the Hamptons in case of inclement weather.

The mix of models (or people with the arms of models) and hedge fund guys (or people with the faces of hedge fund guys) stood and watched the sun go down. A helicopter landed near the guests, demonstrating how a helicopter worked—though it was delayed due to another helicopter's presence, demonstrating what can potentially go wrong on your way to the Hamptons.

Towards the end, while in line for the bathroom inside Blade's helicopter terminal-cum-lounge, two of the models turned and asked me if I'd flown Blade before (not in the form of a verb).

"You mean, tonight?"

"No, not tonight."

They turned and entered the bathroom together, locking the door for about twenty minutes. The night and its guests were almost admirable for how little they pretended about changing the world or disrupting anything—finally, an indulgent luxury service that knows what it is. That's the East Coast influence at work, probably. But at that moment I wish I could have bladed home.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that its only geostationary early-warning satellite — the Cosmos-2479, launched two years ago — is no longer functioning. With just two other observation satellites left in orbit, the chances of a false-alarm nuclear attack just escalated.

An incident that occurred 20 years ago helps illustrate why this news merits a severe case of the uh-ohs. At dawn on January 25, 1995, Norwegian scientists and their NASA colleagues launched a large sounding rocket from Andoya Island, off the coast of Norway, to study the Northern Lights. As the rocket climbed in altitude, it was detected by a Russian radar installation 470 miles away at Olenegursk. The trajectory suggested that it could be a Trident missile, launched from a U.S. submarine, to detonate in the atmosphere and blind Russian early-warning radars to a massive first strike. Within minutes, Russia's command and control system was placed on higher alert and President Boris Yeltsin activated his "nuclear briefcase," allowing him to issue launch orders, if necessary.

Yeltsin, learning that it was a false alarm, never launched those missiles, thanks in large part to a complete fleet of early-warning satellites that Russia had inherited from the Soviet Union — which provided continuous, 24-hour surveillance of U.S. continental missile fields.

Not any more.

Russia has traditionally relied on two different types of satellites — a redundancy system designed to detect missile launches while also reducing the likelihood of false alarms. One type follows a highly elliptical orbit (HEO) that looks at the Earth at a glancing angle, so that it can easily detect missile plumes silhouetted against the dark background of space—thus reducing the chance that incoming missiles could be mistaken for naturally occurring phenomena. (The two remaining Russian early-warning spacecraft, Cosmos-2422 and Cosmos-2446, are HEO satellites.)

However, in 1983, there was the "Autumn Equinox Incident," when an HEO satellite, the sun and U.S. missile fields aligned in such a way that light reflecting off high-orbit clouds appeared to be a missile in flight. That incident prompted Moscow to widen its field of vision by launching geostationary satellites — remaining in the same position relative to a stationary observer on Earth — which were designed to look straight down at the U.S.

That additional capability is now gone. And, with only two early-warning satellites, Russia's period of surveillance has dropped from 24 hours to 3 hours per day.

Several U.S. security officials still wonder if things would have turned out differently during the 1995 false alarm, if the incident had taken place during a political crisis or period of tension between the U.S. and Russia.

Today, Russia's early-warning system is falling apart during an actual period of political tension. Just one month ago, the U.S. and Russia conducted large-scale nuclear drills within days of one another. The Cold War is over, but it's getting a bit too chilly to be comfortable with Russia's broken early-warning system.

So here is an intriguing media rumor: Rupert Murdoch is angling to purchase Gawker Media. Yesterday, at least two media reporters approached at least two Gawker Media employees about a potential sale to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp—or, more likely, 21st Century Fox. Apparently the rumor was first posted to Secret, the anonymous messaging smartphone app, though we couldn’t find a copy of the actual post. Efforts to determine the rumor’s origin came up empty.

In an email to Gawker management obtained by Gawker, VP of Operations Scott Kidder strongly denied the alleged sale: “For the record: we are not selling to News Corp.” Kidder then kidded: “Or, if we are, it’s news to me!”

So who’s posting to Secret about this alleged sale? And is it true?

Rumors of Gawker Media’s sale have dogged its publisher and owner, Nick Denton, since he founded the blogging empire in 2002 with the launch of Gawker and Gizmodo. Denton has strenuously resisted potential buyers, citing his desire to preserve the company’s editorial freedom.

The most recent rumor coincides with Denton’s return to daily operations at Gawker Media, following his wedding on May 31 and a three-week-long honeymoon in Laos with his husband, the actor Derrence Washington. (Laos is a “longstanding regional partner” of Rupert Murdoch’s country of birth, Australia.) Denton was seen exiting the company’s NoLIta headquarters around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday with another Gawker employee. “I think I am going to buy a scooter,” he was overheard saying.

We have invited Nick Denton and a spokesperson for News Corp to discuss the rumor in the public forum below. If you’ve got a screenshot of the Secret post, put it up!

[Art by Jim Cooke]

Welcome back to Midweek Madness, in which we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous gossip and "read" the tabloids so you don't "have" to. This week: Beyoncé and Jay Z visit Gwyneth's "conscious uncoupling" marriage counselor; Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum are on the rocks; and the Bachelorette got knocked up in the fantasy suite. So much drama.

Us

J. LO'S NEW BODY AT 44

Renowned Bodysnatcher Jennifer Lopez swapped her old body for a new one and this is news! Actually, in April, she was "determined to lose what she called 'that really stubborn 8 to 10 pounds'" so she went vegan. By eating a meat-, dairy-, and gluten-free diet — and working out A LOT, in addition to six hours of dance rehearsals — she dropped 10 lbs and thus is an entirely new person, worthy of our adulation. Immediately following this cover story is a two-page spread titled "Fit Over 40," showcasing Padma Lakshmi, Cameron Diaz, Bethenny Frankel, Naomi Campbell, Demi Moore and others in bikinis, with the copy reading "these beauties prove age is just a number." A number that matters not, so long as you are thin! Also inside: George Clooney wants to be a U.S. Senator, so his stepping stone might be running for governor of California in 2018: "and now he's got the perfect first lady." Apparently his decision to get hitched right away is all part of the strategy to shed his image as a playboy bachelor. Behind every great man are a bunch of women giving him the side-eye. Finally: Us does the important work of pointing out which World Cup soccer players look like celebrities. (Fig. 1) Thank you.

GRADE: C- (death by bacon-sprinkled milk chocolate with gluten)

Star

$50 MILLION DIVORCE SHOCKER!

A similar narrative has played out in dozens, if not hundreds of issues of tabloids, with various couples, but here it is again: Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan-Tatum's "marriage is on the brink." Career and travel just get in the way. He showed up on a couple of red carpet without her, said simply, "she's working," and we're supposed to believe that is code for "impending divorce." Scheduling and the wee baby are making things tough. He made four movies in 18 months; she's working on Lifetime series The Witches of East End, and he was seen out partying and "acting like a single man." Back while she was pregnant, he was spotted at some bar buying rounds of shots for "tons of adoring girls" and then "let them do body shots off his stomach." When asked, "where's your wife," he answered, "She's not here." And it's all hearsay and anonymous sources and old magazine quotes, on and on til the break of dawn. Next: There's a Jessica Simpson item that's so infuriating it has its own post. Check it out. Moving along: Gwyneth Paltrow has a "battalion" of 20 medical care providers on call: allergist, blood analyst, naturopath, osteopath, etc. Oh. And. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are in couples therapy. Things haven't been right since THAT night in the elevator, so they're seeing Gwyneth's therapist, the one responsible for "conscious uncoupling." This should be interesting. What else? Justin Bieber fell asleep during Bible study. Ryan Gosling is still in love with Rachel McAdams. And last, but not least, there's a Cameron Diaz "sex tape" out there — but it's actually just video of her topless, in bondage leather, at a photo shoot. No pearl-clutching necessary.

GRADE: D (death by alcohol poisoning)

In Touch

3 BABIES ON THE WAY!

Kate Middleton, Angelina Jolie and Bachelorette Andi Dorfman — the Three Musketeers of celebritydom — are all supposedly pregnant. In an article entitled "Kate Announces Baby No. 2," it is announced that Kate, like, could totally be pregnant because one time she skipped a charity event and another time she placed her hand on her stomach in public. K! In "A Baby For Andi," we learn that Andi Dorfman's dream of starting a family has already come true because she slept with two men in the Bachelorette Fantasy Suite, in which no condoms are provided. That's really irresponsible of the producers!! This mystery-baby is on them (fortunately, said mystery-baby definitely does not exist). Finally, we become enlightened about "Angelina's Dramatic Decision" to postpone having her ovaries removed in order to have another baby. Evidence: the Jolie-Pitt children are "laughing about" how much their parents are having a lot of "alone time," according to an insider embedded in the pack of children. If that doesn't work, though, Angie will probably use a surrogate or just adopt "another child from a war-torn region." Really like how the editors don't even try to come up with a specific country. In other news, someone is shopping around a fuzzy video of two human-shaped blurs who may or not be Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber doing lines of cocaine. Their case would definitely be improved if one of those blurs had sparse facial hair and a festive bucket hat. Elsewhere in the magazine, Kendra Wilkinson's husband cheated on her with a transgender escort while she was pregnant; the escort, Ava London, spoke to In Touch exclusively and said that she and Mr. Kendra Wilkinson "had sex several times." Also: this page-long article was the result of reporting by FIVE DIFFERENT PEOPLE, one of whom "verified [Ava's] profession" by going to her house, "where the scantily-clad 27-year-old asked for a $250 'donation.'" WHAT. Next: Miley Cyrus is devastated because Liam Hemsworth, whom she broke up with in September, doesn't want to be with her again. She has attempted to win him back by "dressing provocatively and broadcasting her loneliness on Instagram," says the magazine. As one does.

GRADE: F (death by STD caught while filming reality show)

OK!

KHLOE'S PREGNANT

Another person who has touched her stomach in public recently is Khloe Kardashian, effectively confirming to OK! that there is a fetus in there. She and French Montana have been fornicating "like rabbits," says a source, and now they have fertilized an embryo together. Another source says that Khloe "intends to go all the way with him — marriage, family forever." You know, typical stuff for a couple that has been casually dating for a few months. In other fabricated "baby bombshells": Hayden Panetteire is having twins; Kourtney Kardashian wants to name her baby Cruz because one time she made out with Jackie Cruz from Orange Is the New Black; Scarlett Johansson has "ALREADY PUT ON 40 POUNDS." Blergh. Moving on: Anna Paquin got really drunk at the True Blood premiere, which is being called a "boozy breakdown" instead of, like "actress drinks tons of free champagne at event held mostly in her honor." Elsewhere in the magazine, we are treated to a hysterical report about how Katy Perry is "on the edge of an emotional spiral" because she has been seen in public with three (3) men since breaking up with John Mayer. "Several people in her crew are worried she might slip up and get pregnant," says a "friend." Um. Do these people know about contraception? I guess it's kind of cute to see the editors trying to conceal their "being a slut is dangerous!!!!!!" narrative in a nonsensical argument that a pregnancy could occur... if Katy Perry and her man-friend are careless whilst intercoursing wantonly... or something. Sigh.

GRADE: F (death during childbirth)

Life & Style

I QUIT!

[Callie writes:] This issue of Life & Style was even worse than the rest of the garbage spawned forth this week. It was as though someone gathered up the fermented trash juice festering beneath the four other tabloids and sprinkled it over a sleeping rat who was dreaming of the Kardashian family. I QUIT, Life & Style. I QUIT.

GRADE: F (death from rabid rat bite)

Addendum

Fig. 1, from Us

A Stafford, Tx. mother found three of her children shot to death in their family home yesterday. Lt. James Leedom said, "It is apparently a murder-suicide type of dispute." The victims were identified as Faheem Mughal, 23; Fahad Mughal, 18; and Rebecca Mughal, 15.

It's not clear which sibling was the shooter. According to the Houston Chronicle, police took multiple guns from the home during the investigation. KHOU-TV notes that the siblings were found in separate rooms, and that a pistol was found near one of the brothers.

The New York Daily News reports that a fourth Mughal sibling, a woman in her 20s, was away at college at the time of the incident.

[Image via KHOU]

Bel Air, a money-saturated part of the west side of LA, is usually known for lovely, high-maintenance trophy wives driving lovely, high-maintenance cars. What's less common are octogenarian couples flipping Hondas and then posing with them like freaking rock stars, but that's what we have here today.

Elderly couple, uninjured, flip car & pose for pic while waiting for @LAFD to arrive in #BelAir Photo by @rydstein pic.twitter.com/Z7q4qx3SvS

— RMG News (@rmgnews) June 25, 2014

It's by far the best picture of a car wreck involving old people in the history of cars, wrecks, and the concept of aging. It's also really not all that clear just how the driver, who'd been married to her husband for 60 years, flipped the car, but there it is. Maybe she wanted to get in on that Orloving thing her grandkids have been going on about.

Everyone was just uninjured, and the husband even managed to climb out of the now sky-facing door to get outside, to get help and take some pictures. He did that not just while being over 80, but also with old-man pants pulled way, way up to nipple-level. That alone is incredible.

They had people coming around to help take these amazing pictures (like @rydstein's there) and now I'm hoping Honda will give them a new Fit, and as many Werther's Originals as they want, or whatever it is that old people love.

Also, this image could make some fine postcards.

William Walters seemed like a typical civic-minded resident of Tacony in Northeast Philadelphia. He'd served as a Republican committeeman for a decade and had been on the neighborhood watch for five years. Until neighbors found out about his enthusiasm for this other organization.

Walters, it turns out, has also been an active member of the Ku Klux Klan for more than three decades. Not just an active member, but a Grand Dragon of the "East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire," according to Philadelphia magazine:

"We received information that Bill had been distributing flyers in the neighborhood trying to recruit new members," says town watch president Joe Nicoletti of the excommunication, adding that no one on the town watch had a clue about their neighbor's association with the Klan until the flyers turned up. "And part of our bylaws state that members must promote harmony in the neighborhood, and we all know that harmony is not what the KKK is about."

...Walters doesn't get what all of the fuss is about.

He claims that he's being persecuted for his religious beliefs. "We are a conservative Christian group," he says. "My rights were infringed upon. I can't believe in what I want to? This has infringed on my First Amendment rights. It's reverse discrimination."

Walters claims not to be a hatemonger, though the magazine found that his Facebook page tells a different story. In his own defense, he gave a reporter the kind of on-the-nose quote a reporter only expects to get maybe once, twice in a lifetime:

"I know we have a bad name, but it's not that way no more," he insists. "When was the last time a black or Hispanic got hung on a tree?"

He added "that his next step might be to start a town watch of his own with KKK members":

"We're basically the same thing as the town watch," says Walters. "We want to try to get rid of the trash coming in."

The GOP and the town watch both ousted Walters with a quickness, and he laments that he couldn't even get the ACLU to help him. Fellow klansmen apparently gathered at the local library last week in a show of solidarity with Walters, but they left after "a large group of people showed up to laugh at and yell at them," Philly mag says.

Walters' troubles come just two months after another KKK branch got in hot water in Central Pennsylvania for starting a 24-hour "Klanline," another neighborhood watch of sorts—a posse, even—for residents reporting crimes. The group distributed flyers with an attempt at a comforting message: "You can sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake!"

[Photos via]

A bit of encouraging news came today from Washington: The Supreme Court understands smartphones.

Today's unanimous decision in Riley v. California is one of the clearer opinions the court's issued this year. And it's unanimous, thank baby Jesus. (That's more common than you might think, this term.) Police in California had searched a cell phone belonging to Ben Riley, without first getting a warrant. On the phone, they found mentions of his gang membership and involvement in other crimes, information later used in his prosecution.

All of the justices agreed that the police should not have searched the phone without a warrant. They also agreed that the search of a cellphone is simply different in quality than a regular search of personal items upon arrest.

The decision also has broader comforting message: It demonstrates that the Court is at least somewhat interested in understanding how Americans actually live. This type of interest has sometimes been lacking on the court's part, and has in the past led them to wacky conclusions. Like, in Drayton, that law enforcement personnel needn't warn bus passengers of their right to refuse a search.

But here we have a different attitude. Roberts' opinion quite accurately describes, with the help of a few Pew Reports and suchlike, the ways in which cell phones are used by real humans. There is intelligent discussion of how remote wiping might work, and how law enforcement might ward against it. There is acknowledgment that law enforcement has, perhaps, insufficient technological know-how to distinguish between data stored on a cloud and data directly stored on the phone.

That does not mean that Roberts' opinion is wholly devoid of Martian-sounding observations about cell phones, but they're firmly in the "cute" rather than "harmful" category. Witness:

Mobile application software on a cell phone, or "apps," offer a range of tools for managing detailed information about all aspects of a person's life. There are apps for Democratic Party news and Republican Party news; apps for alcohol, drug, and gambling addictions; apps for sharing prayer requests; apps for tracking pregnancy symptoms; apps for planning your budget; apps for every conceivable hobby or pastime; apps for improving your romantic life… There are over a million apps available in each of the two major app stores; the phrase "there's an app for that" is now part of the popular lexicon. The average smart phone user has installed 33 apps, which together can form a revealing montage of the user's life.

This is a supremely important decision. It is a sweeping endorsement of privacy in the digital age, as other commentators are rightly pointing out. It puts a necessary screen around the private lives of Americans in an age where digital surveillance is starting to freak us all out. It rightfully distinguishes a cell phone as carrying more and higher-quality kinds of personal, private information than the extensions of police search power the court has endorsed in the past — like to your car (under limited circumstances), or what's in your pockets.

And I can't endorse this statement of Roberts' enough (and I'm as surprised as you are that I love a Roberts decision this much):

The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple— get a warrant.

Similarly, it's worrisome that as the CBS legal correspondent Andrew Cohen points out, the Department of Justice has already issued a statement in which it says it intends to search cell phones in ill-defined "exigent circumstances."

One question the Court's empathy for smartphone users' privacy raises: whether or not Roberts, his clerks, or someone else on the court does use an "app to share prayer requests." Or an app for "Republican Party news!" Or, you know, what their browser histories might contain. (Later in the decision Roberts refers to obsessive use of WebMD, for example.)

But please forgive me if I'm also just really curious to know whether Ruth Bader Ginsburg (my favorite) uses Snapchat. And what Instagram filters she likes. And also whether she's really great at texting.

Which probably just goes to show you: people's phones really do need some kind of protection, even from the benevolently interested.

[Image via Getty.]

There is nothing like spending the day in front of the television, binge-watching entertainment without even a commercial break. What's going on outside? What time is it? Am I doing OK, in general? Oh, who cares. A new study performed by TiVo (sure) has found that Breaking Bad is the show with which most people share this special time.

"Binge-watching" was defined by the study as three or more episodes per day. (Does that put anything into perspective for you?) Of the 15,000 people surveyed, 35 percent said they had, at one point or another, binged on Breaking Bad. From NBCNews:

"House of Cards" and "Game of Thrones" rounded out the top three binged shows at 29 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Overall, 91 percent of the 15,000 people surveyed said they have binge-watched a show at some point; 40 percent had done so within the past week, and 69 percent within the month.

They add that 14 percent of people admitted to watching an entire series or show in a single week, and that 23 percent admitted to doing so between one week and one month.

"Grampa loved telling us stories of his Breaking Bad binge-watching," your grandchildren will say, teary-eyed. "Once he Seamless'd two of the same meal—one for then, and one for later!"

[image via AMC, h/t WarmingGlow]

At first, the High-Rise Safety Initiative sounds innocuous enough. Its stated mission: to "require the NYC Department of Buildings to investigate high-rise building collapses in NYC" that occurred on September 11, 2001 or after, excluding the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

OK! Safety is good, right?

But why? Exactly zero tall buildings have come tumbling down in the city since that fateful day — and that, it turns out, is exactly the point. Despite its broad-sounding name, the High-Rise Safety Initiative, which could appear on New York City ballots in November, is aimed squarely at one building: 7 World Trade Center, the lynchpin of every tin-hat's zany 9/11 conspiracy theory.

Crain's New York reports that the initiative, backed by a group called the NYC Coalition for Accountability Now, has raised $190,000 and collected 53,000 signatures on a petition, which it plans to present to City Council early next month. When the council ignores the proposal — and it will — the group can collect 30,000 more signatures and force its way onto the ballot. If New Yorkers vote the ballot initiative in, the city will have to comply and investigate 7WTC's collapse.

For the uninitiated: the day the Twin Towers fell, so did another, smaller World Trade Center building. Only this one wasn't hit with a plane. Both FEMA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted investigations into 7WTC, and both found that fire and debris from the Twin Towers were the root causes. Sounds pretty reasonable.

But! No other steel-frame building as tall as 7 World Trade Center has ever been known to collapse because of fire, something the NIST freely admitted in its report. That meddling federal government must have bombed it!

Ted Walter, executive director of the coalition, told Crain's he is "unsatisfied" with the NIST investigation, but stopped short of implicating the feds. He was more candid in an interview with The Faster Times, a website that appears to mostly cover the NFL:

TFT:What, if anything, do you personally think will be illuminated by a new impartial investigation?

TW:It depends entirely on who does the investigation and in what venue. A true investigation with full subpoena power would shatter the official story and lead to some accountability, though it will probably be impossible to identify everyone who was a part of the conspiracy.

...

TFT:Who do you think is primarily to blame for the inadequacy of the original investigation?

TW:Philip Zelikow. He was previously a member of the Bush Administration and he wrote the Preemptive War Doctrine, therefore it was a gross conflict of interest that he was in charge of the investigation.

TFT:Do you have friends that disagree with your beliefs about 9/11? Does this ever create tension in your social life, given the controversial nature of your work?

TW:None of my close friends or family disagree with my beliefs on 9/11. Some are more agnostic than I am, but they all believe the buildings were demolished.

Happy truthing, NYC. The coalition presents its proposal July 3.

[Image via Flickr]

A Georgia father who was charged with murder after leaving his son strapped into his carseat for seven hours reportedly searched online to find out how long it would take an animal to die if it were trapped in a hot car, WREG in Memphis reports.

Justin Ross Harris initially told police that he forgot to drop his son off at daycare and only realized he had been sitting in the car all day when he went to drive home. But this information, provided to WREG reporter Randy Travis (real name!), obviously casts doubt on that story.

That said, it's not the only source of suspicion amongst Cobb County police. According to Sgt. Dana Pierce, Harris' story wasn't adding up from the jump:

"Within moments of the first responders getting to the scene and doing their job and questions began to be asked about the moments that led up to their arrival at the scene, some of those answers were not making sense to the first responders," Pierce of Cobb County Police said.

Harris has pled not guilty to felony murder and cruelty to children charges.

[image via CNN]