Jesse Helt, the 22-year-old homeless man who accepted an award on Miley Cyrus' behalf at this year's Video Music Awards, was sentenced to six months in prison on Tuesday for violating terms of his probation in Oregon.

In 2010, Helt pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and criminal mischief after he and a friend confessed to breaking into the apartment of a drug dealer who, Helt claimed, had sold him "bad marijuana." The next year, he moved to Los Angeles to try a career as a model and, as a result, didn't finish his community service and failed to meet with his parole officer.

Authorities in Oregon reportedly did not take notice of Helt's probation violation until his appearance at August's VMAs, when he accepted Cyrus' VMA for Video of the Year and gave a speech about the "the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now."

[Image via AP]

Comcast allegedly pulled strings to get one of their customers fired from his job at a prestigious accounting firm after he complained about billing issues and false charges. The former Comcast customer, identified only as "Conal," told his story to Consumerist, the site whose readers have named Comcast "the worst company in America" two years running.

Conal says his trouble started with a few erratic charges: Bills sometimes didn't show up, and he was charged for equipment that was never activated, or that he didn't actually have. Customer service reps promised the problems would be resolved. Instead, things got significantly more hellish in October of last year.

According to Conal, Comcast sent him nearly $2,000 of equipment he'd never ordered and didn't want, and tried to bill him for it anyway.

But, as an accountant by trade, he had no problem documenting every billing error and overcharge, and he brought them in as a spreadsheet when he dropped off the unwanted DVRs, modems, and other equipment.

Even then, Conal says, he wasn't able to get his money back. Instead, Comcast sent him to collections in February.

And this is where Conal made the call that allegedly cost him his job. Per Consumerist:

On Feb. 6, 2014, he chose to try going above Comcast's customer service, which hadn't been of any help in the year he'd been a subscriber, and instead contacted the office of the company's Controller. He spoke to someone in that office who promised Conal would receive a call back to address the issues.

He describes that callback as "bizarre," with the rep not identifying which company she was calling from, just starting out with "How can I help you?" Then she kept insisting that a technician had shown up for an appointment, but wouldn't specify which appointment. The rep then began asking him for the color of his house.

So he tried the Controller's office again, to let them know that the rep they'd sent his way had failed miserably at her job.

Considering that even Comcast acknowledges its customer service experience is so broken that it could take years to reform, you can hardly blame a customer who understands corporate structures for escalating his complaint.

Comcast did blame Conal, though. Consumerist again:

At some point shortly after that call, someone from Comcast contacted a partner at the firm to discuss Conal. This led to an ethics investigation and Conal's subsequent dismissal from his job; a job where he says he'd only received positive feedback and reviews for his work.

The creepiest part is that, although he was allegedly fired for throwing around the name of his powerful employer—who, surprise, happens to do business with Comcast—Conal swears he never told anyone at Comcast where he worked. He believes they just went the extra mile to look him up online and contact his company—because Comcast cares.

Comcast has confirmed at least one part of the story: In a letter to Conal's lawyer, who is considering filing suit against the cable provider, Comcast's lawyer said the company did contact Conal's job.

Comcast's counsel says the ex-customer "is not in a position to complain that the firm came to learn" about his customer service struggle.

It seems that arguing with you on the phone for 20 minutes or trying to talk you into paying fees you know are fradulent is nowhere near the worst thing Comcast can inflict on you, the customer.

They can apparently also wreck your life in ways that have nothing to do with your cable or internet services.

Really looking forward to Comcast becoming basically the only cable provider in America!

[h/t Consumerist, Photo: Mr. T in DC/Flickr]

If you were a trash person, you'd assume that women didn't like sports and that, as Men's Health Magazine indicates, we only follow them if there's "a story line." Your argument, if you were made of trash, would be that women can't understand statistics or they don't have attention spans long enough to sit through a game, or they'd rather be somewhere else—maybe the kitchen, constructing a towering snack stadium* for you with individual pretzel sticks to be dislodged by your garbage hands. If you were a trash person, you'd need this structure to stay intact in order for your boys club to prosper and for you to continue feeling protective of your world, where, if a women were granted access, all its small, carefully laid pieces might get disrupted. The Slim Jim goalpost would get picked apart in seconds, by hungry, ravenous fans. That goalpost, and the other one—well, those were saved for you, the trash person, to eat. You guard your snack stadium like a king watching his castle because hell, those moat alligators were expensive and they're keeping all your secrets safe, safe from the women who are already swimming there.

For the sake of this exercise, though, let's say you're not garbage. You're a plain anybody, with no grievances to air and no snack stadiums that can't be built through your very own architectural blueprints. You're just here for the game. You don't care who else watches, as long as they keep quiet, to a reasonable degree. You love sports. That's all you really care about. When the snack stadium is all gone, the resulting feeling of sadness isn't about the decimation of the precious structure. It's about your team losing, a loss you feel heavily because you just love sports, which, like all easily consumable entertainments, are intended to equalize.

Maybe you are a woman. Because, outside the world of pieces about the daunting challenge of getting women to watch sports—in the actual world—women watch sports. In 2008, when I went to my regular bar game after game to watch the Phillies play in their first World Series in 15 years, no one looked at me funny, or at the blonde friend from Connecticut who came with me, because we were women. The bar was packed with people whose names we didn't know, whose careers we didn't care about, whose families we'd never met. We formed excitable bonds with them, because we all understood everyone wanted the win. Who had time to take tabs on gender when the most important game of our lives was about to go into the rain delay?

The next night, my friend and I watched the three remaining innings of the rain-delayed game at her apartment, with champagne. It didn't matter how we watched it. Like normal fans of sports, we wanted to see our team win. We neglected to make snacks.

During the World Cup this year—a tournament that some might say by dint of its name and participants is intended to include everyone—I wrote about soccer because I, like many women, enjoy watching sports. When I wrote about soccer from a place of exuberance over the opportunity to watch sometimes three games a day, pedants started the slow troll, picking away at my "fandom." Luckily the US was out before anyone got under my skin, but the irritation remains: why does every fan have to be an expert? Or, more specifically, why does every expert have to be a man?

I was lucky to grow up with a family who were sports fanatics but not pedants or douchebags, meaning if I didn't care about that year's Super Bowl, or if my mom slowly started to learn what the infield fly rule was after years of consuming baseball, there'd be no judgments either way. People in my family are normal sports fans who, if a snack stadium was put in front of us, we'd all go dipping with tortilla chips at the same time.

I idolized my brother my entire life even though we always had different interests. He grew out of video games and obsessed over sports. I quit lacrosse to pursue music. He was upset when I quit lacrosse, because he thought I was getting good. I was dragged along to trading card shops, signings at the mall, and I'd watch his friends play street hockey. I stubbornly observed my brother hone his interests without ever committing to them myself. When I went to college in New York, talking about, watching, and communicating with sports was something I deeply missed among effete, literary New Yorkers, so I invested in the thing I grew up dismissing: I started to watch a lot of sports.

I couldn't count in a lifetime how many stories I've heard of dads who infused love of sports into their sons, told directly from the son's adult mouth. Learning to appreciate my brother's love for sports had been a subconscious way for me to get to know him better, and just like a kid's desire to take on or reject their parents' interests, there was nothing illegitimate about that. Despite what we want to believe, no one was born wearing a Red Sox jersey.

In 2008, my brother and I went to a Phillies NLCS game together. When I cried at our 2009 World Series loss, or when I secretly watched the 2004 Eagles Super Bowl with two female friends, or when I joined the Frisbee team senior year of high school just so I could smoke weed on the sidelines, or when the first crush I ever had was on Ryan Giggs, or when I dragged two friends to a FC Sporting match when we were on a road trip through Portugal, no one ever asked me if I was satisfied with "the story line." It was always about just enjoying the game, through whatever means possible.

Here's how you watch sports with women: Build an enormous snack stadium with cheese balls, hoagies, corn dogs, guacamole, and three-layer dip in the middle and you—a normal person who just loves sports and wants to share that love with everyone, whether they're informed, fanatical, or just casually interested—well, you let her have a fucking bite.

*The author would like to apologize for the use of the snack stadium extended metaphor. She thought the only way you'd understand this piece is if you had a consistent story line to follow.

[Image by Jim Cooke]

The Earth will make a shadow on the moon tonight. You will wake up early to watch it.

How to See Earth Moon Shadow?

Look up.

When Will Earth Make Moon Shadow?

Total Earth Moon Shadow at 6:25 AM Eastern, 3:25 AM Pacific.

Where to See Earth Moon Shadow?

Wherever it is night.

Why Earth Moon Shadow?

Earth between Sun and Moon.

Why Red Earth Moon Shadow?

Same reason sunset red and sky blue.

Will Clouds Obstruct Earth Moon Shadow?

Clouds cannot obstruct Earth Moon Shadow. Clouds part of Earth.

Will Clouds Block View of Earth Moon Shadow?

Only in places with dense cloud cover. Clouds are gray on map.

Supermoon?

No supermoon.

[Image: AP]

Previously in The Vane's Coverage of Astronomy:

• HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THIS SUPERMOON
• ALL HAIL SUPERMOON

You can follow the author on Twitter or send him an email.

The BMW i8 is the most significant and forward thinking car on the road today. This is BMW's vision of the future, and, for once, the future is no longer doom and gloom. The future is a positive, thrilling place. A place that we want to be. Don't be scared, gearheads, we're going to be ok.

(Full Disclosure: BMW loaned us the i8 for five days. Five days where we couldn't go anywhere without having someone's jaw drop with a look like the future just drove by them. And that's because it did.)

BMW's i division is a huge gamble by the automaker. A company that has always been known for making "The Ultimate Driving Machine" was making a move into what are called "personal mobility products."

Sounds sexy, right?

At first, a lot of people thought that this signaled the end of BMW as they knew it, but it seems now that this was a smart multi-billion dollar gamble to make BMW a leader in technologies like electric and hybrid cars, as well as the mass production of carbon fiber. The carbon fiber part is the big deal here. Lightweight construction using carbon fiber has been around in road cars since the Ferrari F40, but it has never really made its way down the pipeline to cars that everyone is buying.

Sure, Pagani makes works of art out of carbon fiber and all three new hybrid supercars from McLaren, Ferrari, and Porsche use carbon fiber, but the regular consumer has barely had a chance to touch the stuff other than as a trim piece.

The BMW i3 and i8 both make make extensive use of the material in their construction, and in doing so become the most affordable cars made of CF and the first mass produced models to use it as the main component in its construction.

The i3 and i8 are meant to represent the future of motoring as BMW sees it. And thankfully that doesn't mean soul sucking boredom. In the case of the i8, we have the 1.5 liter three cylinder from the Mini — which has been turboed to hell to make 228 horsepower and 236 pound feet of torque — sitting behind the driver. That charges the battery but also powers the rear wheels. Up front there is an electric motor producing 129 horsepower and 184 pound feet of torque.

Under normal conditions, the electric motor powers the i8. It can get up to 75 MPH under electricity alone and can go for about 20 miles on a full charge with no interaction from the engine.

But that's not all. The electric and gas can work together to change efficiency to performance. Put the i8 in sport mode or slam the pedal down, and you get pure torque from the electric motor and revvy turbo goodness from the engine. Like the McLaren P1, LaFerrari, and Porsche 918, the i8 uses its electric motor to increase performance.

But it looks crazier than any of those cars and it costs one tenth as much. ONE TENTH. BMW has cracked the code, because the i8 isn't just the deal of the century, it's a beacon of positivity as to what the future can hold for car fans. If you hate the i8, then you need to get a pill to fix your cynicism, because this car flat out rocks.

Exterior: 10/10

We're pretty fortunate to drive a lot of cool cars around here. Some of those cars attract a lot of attention from passersby or others on the road.

None of those cars have come close to the amount of attention that the i8 generated.

Within 30 minutes of getting it, I had dozens of people take cell phone pictures, gawk at it, give me a thumbs up, I was pulled over by one curious dude in a Camaro, and had two cops stop and take pictures and look. This was all in 30 minutes. I took it to a Porsche dealer, salesmen ran out, stopped me from pulling away, and took pictures of it and with it. One even said "this is way better than a Porsche." It was parked near the highway at the Porsche dealer, and it actually made traffic.

And it wasn't just people interested in cars. The i8 is physical proof that car worship is alive and well, but it is different than it was 20 years ago. Cars like the Lamborghini Countach could draw a crowd just because they looked so obviously different from everything else on the road.

Sure, an Aventador still attracts attention, but it's not close to the level of the i8. Kids look at this car and go apeshit, as if it's a Snack Pack in car form. Police see it and stop. They want to know what it is, they want rides. Everyone wants to know what it is, why it is, and how it is. You'll be followed, you'll make new friends, you'll be late to everything.

But that's ok. The i8 is an ambassador of a friendly and exciting future. I love every little detail, especially the swooping gap between the trunk and fender at the rear. Sure, it's polarizing, but what other car has that? And to raise awareness of the i brand, I think BMW has had a huge success.

Interior: 9/10

Unlike the i3, the i8 feels distinctly like a car inside. There is no goofy gearshift, no recycled felt, and no reclaimed wood trim inside. Instead, you get your standard BMW gearshift, thin but cozy bucket seats, rear seats that make the Porsche 911 look roomy and family car-ish, and a straight forward driving position.

In a vehicle that is so futuristic outside, I actually appreciate having controls that I recognize in places that make sense in the cabin. Some of the materials do feel a little cheap, but that's because they are once again recycled and reclaimed materials that just look like plastics.

The instrument panel is a large LCD screen that gives you efficiency data in regular driving, but turns all orange and angry when you flip it into sport mode. It's a little confusing at first, but not too hard to get used to.

This is not the single greatest interior in the world, but everything falls easily to hand and works just as you'd expect. For me, that makes it the perfect familiar environment from which you can operate the future.

Acceleration: 9/10

The i8 is a different acceleration experience from pretty much any car you have ever been in. In electric mode, it's silent and about as fast as a Chevy Volt, which is to say "not fast." Still, it's a perfectly acceptable speed in real world driving.

Then you mash your foot to the ground or put it in sport mode. The drivetrain changes from all-electric to electric-assist for the gas engine. What was a front drive econo-car has now become a rear drive supercar with electric turbos on the front wheels.

When you dip into the "e-boost" for the first time (that's BMW's ultra cool name for when the electric motor kick in to aid acceleration), you've entered a whole new world of acceleration amazement. The i8 weighs in at 3,455 pounds, which is light for a car with all this tech at this price. And with the instant torque of the electric motor, the i8 physically shoves you back in the seat. Literally. Hands come out of the dash and push you.

The i8 has just 357 horsepower and 420 pound feet of torque, which are tiny numbers in today's 900+ horsepower supercar game, but it doesn't make an argument for needing more power. The transitions from electric to gas to e-boost are seamless, only a futuristic whirr of the electric motor lets you know what's going on.

BMW has built a car that punches far above its weight class, but, furthermore, it's a legitimately fun experience to push the pedal and suss out what the car is actually thinking.

Braking: 8/10

The i8 has regenerative braking at first, regular friction braking second. Pedal feel is pretty damn good for a car with regen, even though I did experience a slight deadspot in the pedal between regen and friction a few times, which was an off sensation.

But on the street, the i8 was never wanting for more stopping power. On track, I could see the pads cooking, but this is not a car for the track.

Ride: 8/10

Since this is a predominantly carbon fiber car, the i8 is intensely rigid. This is not a relaxing ride, not that you expect a car with gullwing doors and a supercar shape to be a bastion of nirvana. Instead, this is a harsh ride, which I attribute to the weight of the batteries, the rigidity of the construction, and harder efficiency-focused tires.

You won't be uncomfortable in the i8, it's a great place to spend a lot of time, but don't expect it to coddle you. It's set up aggressively.

Handling: 8/10

Yes, the i8's steering is electric, though a hydraulic setup would be the ultimate irony, wouldn't it? It's numb and a tad lifeless, but it is accurate. While you can't necessarily feel the road, you can place the i8 where you need it to be on the road.

It's also surprisingly fun, which I do attribute to the narrow, relatively hard tires that are on board. That brings the limits within reach at speeds that won't kill you. Under constant throttle, the i8 remains neutral and a lift doesn't really induce oversteer. For a fact, the i8 cannot drift, no matter how badly we wish it could.

The one place where I found a cornering peculiarity was during power down mid corner or at corner exit of a tight turn (this is very specific). Here's the scenario: You enter slow and wide, bring the nose to the apex, and that's where you slam the throttle because the corner opens up on exit. The i8 engages the front electric motor on power down to help boost you out of the corner.

But the motor also puts a ton of torque to the front wheels, which drags the front end off course and makes your exit a tad wider than you thought it'd be. But this is part of driving the future. In most cases, this is a car as you know it. But when it comes to certain cornering situations, we're going to need to try a new approach. Instead of hitting that traditional apex, make a later entry, turn sharper, and make more of a straightline exit.

It's about driving to what best suits the car, and the i8 needs a different approach sometimes.

Gearbox: 9/10

BMW has equipped the i8 with just a six speed automatic. In a world of eight and nine speed transmissions, I found myself consistently trying to force the car to shift to a gear above sixth. Guess that's what I've been trained to do.

The six speed is quick to react to inputs and downshifts seamlessly. It also comes online without you noticing when the drive wheels are engaged and the engine is on. Otherwise, the electric motor is a two speed and is so seamless that I thought it was a single speed the whole time.

Toys: 10/10

I don't know what to say here. Even driving the i8 is like playing with a toy. Just a toy for adults.

High score is replaced with either max efficiency or how much charge you can get out of it in sport mode. The nav system will work with the electric motor and gas engine to decide when is best to add charge to the batteries. It has one of those science fictiony top down cameras that I think works with a drone somehow.

I can't explain just how giddy the i8 makes you feel. It's honestly like seeing that you're driving a Hot Wheels everytime you get close to it. That alone earns it high marks.

Audio: 9/10

Yes, the engine noise is synthesized. Yes, it's noticeable. And no, it's not bad at all. This sounds like a mini straight six, it's aggressive and guttural, I like it a lot. From the outside, it makes these pops and farts on shifts that are just the business.

On the other side, we have the electric mode, which is a gentle whirr that kind of makes me go crazy. It's the perfect soundtrack for a car that is a bridge to what comes next. And in e-boost, with that wind down that sounds like the turbo from the future, well, it's sublime. I'd just like it to be a little louder in electric mode, like a Formula E car. Then it would be perfect.

Value: 12/10

The Porsche 918 is a carbon fiber hybrid supercar. The base price of the Porsche 918 is $845,000. Yes, it has a race derived engine and super impressive tech, but the i8 is a carbon fiber hybrid supercar, and it costs $136,000.

That's a gigantic delta, and one that makes the i8 the deal of the century as far as I'm concerned.

When I had the i8, I had people asking why it costs so much more than a Volt or a Tesla when the range isn't better than either. While both those cars took risks on powertrains, neither have taken a risk in how we fundamentally build a car.

Mass producing lightweight carbon fiber for a road car is a huge deal. For decades, carbon fiber was supposed to be for people with millions of dollars who could afford the superest of supercars. But BMW is the first to bring carbon fiber to the people with the i3 and the i8. Yes, the i8's range is just 20 miles on electric, which isn't even close to the Volt, but the construction of the i8 is the next generation while the Volt feels old in comparison.

On performance and price, the i8 technically competes with cars like the Audi R8, Porsche 911, Mercedes-AMG GT, Corvette, and others of that ilk. But in the real world, this is like flying an F22 Raptor in 1945. Compared to everything else in its class, the i8 feels like the first generation of something new and exciting. The other cars feel like the last generation of something that has been around forever.

The best part is that the i8 is just a damn good car, a sign that we don't have to worry about robots taking over for us anytime soon.

Welcome to the future gearheads. I think you're going to like it here.

92/100

Engine: 1.5L Turbocharged I3 (rear), electric motor (front)
Power: Gas: 228 HP at 5,800 RPM/236 LB-FT, Electric: 129 HP/184 LB-FT, Combined: 357 HP/420 LB-FT
Transmission: Six speed automatic (gas) two speed automatic (electric)
0-60 Time: 4.2 seconds
Top Speed: 155 mph
Drivetrain: Rear-Wheel Drive (with front assist from electric motor)
Curb Weight: 3,455 Pounds
Seating: 4 people (more like two people and two contortionist toddlers)
MPG: 78 MPGe
MSRP: $135,700

If you follow America's first family, the Kardashians, on Instagram, you know that youngest daughter Kylie Jenner has been sporting some truly gnarly hair extensions recently. Now we know why: she's getting her own line of extensions called Kylie Hair Kouture. The Kardashian empire grows.

Jenner's line—the first major business deal she's done without any of her famous sisters—is with Bellami Hair, a favorite among Instagram models and Youtube vlog stars. Here's her official announcement from Instagram:

Kylie Hair Kouture coming soon...sooo excited follow @bellamihair for more details!

Here's a first take from commenter "cokenikz":

Shitty extensions gurl, I could do better and I'm in middle class ctfu

If Kylie's recent photos are any indication, the final product needs a little work.

Just look at those ends. The quality is somewhere between "Halloween costume wig" and "what the Laguna Beach girls used to get before prom." Even a ball cap doesn't help matters:

And yet she must wear the hair extensions, because there are hair extensions to be sold. Free Kylie.

Since 2006, "the wealthiest Americans are giving a smaller share of their income to charity, while poor and middle-income people are donating a larger share." The rich are doing a poor job making a case against taking all their shit.

For a brief period in the 1970s and early '80s, the U.S. tried to switch over to the metric system, despite objections from real Americans that it was "Communist" or an "Arab plot." Metrication didn't get very far, but one highway remains: Arizona's Interstate 19.

Other stretches of road occasionally give directions in kilometers, but I-19—which stretches 63 miles, from Tucson to the Mexican border—is the only highway in the country that does it exclusively, across its entire length. The signs were put up as part of a Carter administration plan intended to convince Americans to make the switch, the AP wrote this week, and they may eventually be changed back to miles:

Some who agree with Rodriguez took a shot at changing the signs four years ago when the state, which oversees them, received $1.5 million in federal stimulus funding.

The Arizona Department of Transportation at the time said the signs were outdated and needed to be replaced with ones that are brighter and easier to read. "You get wear and tear on them. Obviously, they're out in the heat in Arizona. Eventually we're going to have to replace those signs," spokesman Dustin Krugel said.

They also said the new signs would be in miles.

Local business owners objected: some advertise their location using I-19 kilometer-markers, which would be altered, and others pointed to tourism from Mexico, which generates $1 billion per year in the area. (Mexico, like just about everyone else, uses the metric system.) The plan did not go forward.

The signs still need to be replaced, an Arizona Department of Transportation spokesman told the AP, but the department lacks the funding to do so now, and will seek "community feedback" before making any future changes. For now, the kilometers remain, much to the chagrin of at least one guy. "When I'm driving, I definitely can't do that math," 24-year-old Rio Rico resident Nick Rodriguez told the AP.

[h/t The World's Best Ever, image via AP]

Another firetruck has caught fire in the course of fighting fires, this time en route to a blaze in in Silver Spring, Maryland. "Damage to the building was estimated at $150,000," the Washington Post reports, "and truck damage was put at $200,000."

Does BuzzFeed secretly have it out for Lena Dunham, or did they just discover some really shitty photoshop filters?

In a post titled "20 Inspiring Pieces of Advice from Lena Dunham," normal press photos of the actress-writer-director-millennial are appliqued with quotations from her new memoir and then... made to look as if she had been eating from a tub of potting soil:

A makeunder... by several feet. Into the ground.

The "chronic blackheads" filter.

Why?

The final images are gorgeous; there's a 99% chance that the originals are, too. So let's see them. $10. Anonymity guaranteed. Email me. Leah@gawker.com

The Bay Area, ground zero for apps that will change the world and the investors who finance them, is one of the least charitable places in America. The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked the 50 largest metropolitan areas. San Francisco was no. 45 on the list.

San Jose came in even lower, at no. 48. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Although people in both metro areas donated more dollars to charity in 2012 than they did in 2006, as a percentage of income they both gave less.

People in the San Francisco metro area — which also includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo counties — gave 2.4 percent of their adjusted gross income to charity in 2012, down from 2.5 percent in 2006.

People in San Jose, which includes Santa Clara County, donated 2.3 percent of their income, down from 2.4 percent in 2006.

That pattern mirrored the behavior of wealthy Americans nationwide.

Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, expects the Bay Area to ranker higher next time, in part due to contributions like the 18 million Facebook shares that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan gave to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation:

The rich were more affected by the stock market crash than other income groups, and that might be why they were slow to step up giving as a percent of income, Palmer speculates. "This year and last, we are seeing a lot of big gifts ... that you can't see in the 2012 data," she says.

Perhaps the tech industry would be more motivated if giving to local charities was rebranded as "a beta test for changing the world."

[Image via Associated Press]

Gawker has not written about Lizzie Grubman, the infamous PR flack who injured 16 people after plowing into them with her Mercedes outside a Hamptons club 13 years ago, since 2010. She has laid low since a stint on reality TV mid-decade and her power has waned, but today she sent us an email promoting the new album from R&B singer Keyshia Cole.

"INTERSCOPE RECORDING ARTIST KEYSHIA COLE RELEASES POINT OF NO RETURN" screamed the subject title. The body of the email consisted of the sentence "Multi-platinum recording artist Keyshia Cole will release her sixth studio album today, October 7^th, Point Of No Return" along with the album's cover and its tracklist. This information has been available for weeks.

It is the first email anyone currently at Gawker can ever remember getting from Grubman. What is she up to nowadays? Her company Lizzie Grubman PR has a Twitter account with just over 5,600 followers which mostly just retweets tweets sent out, presumably, by its clients.

But the sailing is not as smooth as it seems...

We posted an article about Maksim to highlight future endeavors. We understand how it can be misinterpreted. We are sorry to upset anyone.

— LizzieGrubmanPR&MGMT (@LizzieGrubmanPR) October 1, 2014

Also this restaurant put "delivery" in a tweet instead of "deliver" but Grubman retweeted it anyway.

We now delivery. Free for orders over $20. Menu online at http://t.co/6NY9RaASrF or grab one of our delivery menus. pic.twitter.com/PCTS3Wz5qv

— Campeon (@CampeonNYC) October 1, 2014

Things, of course, could be worse.

[photo of Lizzie Grubman in 2001 via AP]

Facebook just spent weeks banning users and battling back criticism against their misguided "real name" policy. So you wouldn't think that the company would be now embracing online anonymity. However, that's exactly what they've done.

The social network is preparing for the release of a new anonymous app which will enable users to interact with each other "without having to use their real names." The New York Times reports:

The app, which is expected to be released in the coming weeks, reveals a different, experimental take on Facebook's long-established approach to identity. Facebook has pushed its main site as a way to establish your online identity, and to map out the connections you have to other friends and family, both on and offline. [...]

The point, according to these people, is to allow Facebook users to use multiple pseudonyms to openly discuss the different things they talk about on the Internet; topics of discussion which they may not be comfortable connecting to their real names.

That's a quick change of heart! In September, Facebook spent most of the month forcing transgender people, immigrants, performers, and victims of abuse to use their "legal name" on the site. The company later apologized for the controversial policy, realizing many people have legitimate reasons to use pseudonyms and preferred names online.

It seems Facebook created the new app to fight competitors like Secret and Whisper, not to assuage upset users. But the last time they tried to release a clone of a rival, it was an anxious mess.

To contact the author of this post, please email kevin@valleywag.com.

Photo: Getty

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Went to see The Guest last night, starring Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey, and it was perfect. He was perfect. Everything was perfect. I thought I loved Cousin Matthew because of his moral code, despite him looking kind of gross to me, but it turns out all he needed was a tan and working legs and I'd be on it like Donkey Kong.

Oh, and to be a sociopath. Big part of it, now that I'm reflecting back, is how he was a merciless killer with no qualms about murder. That's probably what put him over the top compared to Cousin Matthew. Anyway I highly recommend the film, it's honestly one of the best movies I've seen all year.

At 8/7c. CBS starts its two-hour maritime law block, NCIS and NCIS:NOLA (the latter episode titled "Breaking Brig," which makes no real sense of course); there's a two-hour "Best of the Blind Auditions" for NBC's hottest chair-related competition The Voice, a Nick News Special on Coming Out, and the thirteenth season premiere of Bad Girls Club, titled "Bad Girls Don't Cry" and therefore almost certainly ensuring that one of the Bad Girls in the Club will cry. "You're outta the Club!" they'll screech, with their nails and their hair extensions and their butts hanging out, and then she'll cry even harder, which will make the Girls act even more Bad.

There's also a new Selfie, followed by another Manhattan Love Story, on ABC. Those people on that show are perfectly likeable, I don't understand why the show is so obnoxious. It's sad. There's also the Flash pilot, which we talked about earlier today, and a particularly harrowing Legend Of Korra, in which no spoilers but Henry Rollins goes fully darkside and it's easily the most disturbing sequence of events on that show in quite a while. Needless to say this happens in Ba Sing Se, because you can't spell "nauseating moral iniquity in a cartoon" without those letters.

At 9/8c. the all-new, quite dark/awesome Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. finally checks in with Elizabeth Henstridge's missing Agent Simmons, as the team tries to track down Dylan Minnette from Jack & Bobby, who can freeze things using a power.

*(Correction, that's Logan Lerman, like always, that was on Jack & Bobby. This is the one that played Jack McFarland's son** with Rosie O'Donnell on Will & Grace, and Holly Hunter's kid** on Saving Grace.)

**(Nope. And nope. How can these possibly all be different people?)

Dance Moms and Matador on El Rey come to their seasons' ends, and there's a new Mindy Project after a New Girl episode centered on the size of Aquaman's penis. A double-episode of TLC's 19 Kids & Counting gives us "Duggars in Cuffs" and "Duggar Derby," two surefire winners, while in premiere news you've got 30 For 30's fall premiere on ESPN, the tenth season of Supernatural on the CW, and by the way a new show on Oxygen called Nail'd It.

At 10/9c. The People's Couch returns to Bravo, there are new episodes of Person of Interest, Sons of Anarchy, Chicago Fire and Forever, and two reality/doc premieres: Preaching Alabama on TLC and Syfy's adorable, American Movie-esque community filmmaking project Town of the Living Dead. MTV also has new Awkward. and Faking It, followed by Happyland's second episode at 11/10c.

I will be catching up on last night's TV, which I postponed last night to fall in love at the movies instead, and then watching probably SHIELD before Selfie and the Fox ladies, assuming I don't fall asleep at 8, or stay awake all night, like I have been. Between Mercury and this darn moon I really have been losing the war lately. The war against the sky, I mean.

Morning After is a new home for television discussion online, brought to you by Gawker. What are you watching tonight? What are we missing out on? Recommendations and discussions down below.

The headmaster of an expensive Bay Area private school is facing criminal charges after police busted him last week in a Sacramento hotel with a large drug stash and an unconscious woman.

Police began investigating when the 21-year-old woman's boyfriend called police and asked them to check on his girlfriend, who he believed was with an "older man" taking drugs at a hotel.

Thomas Woodrow Price was arrested when he opened the hotel room door and officers spotted the woman, Brittney Hall, passed out on a bed. Police also reportedly found meth, cocaine, heroin and prescription drugs. Both Price and Hall were arrested and charged with intent to distribute.

Price resigned as headmaster Monday when reporters began contacting the school about his arrest, according to a statement from the Branson School's Board of Trustees Chair.

The news of Woody Price's arrest is so bizarre as to defy logical explanation. And I have none. I can only say that the first time any Branson employee or trustee knew of his arrest was when the local media descended on the campus at about noon on Monday. His resignation was tendered and accepted before anyone could speak with him about the incident.

The U.S. plans to start screening airline passengers flying into the country for Ebola symptoms, both President Obama and the director of the Centers for Disease Control announced this week.

According to the Times, the screenings—which Sen. Charles Schumer described as "tough"—will most likely involve taking the passengers' temperatures or requiring them to fill out questionnaires.

Currently three countries screen outgoing airline passengers, preventing 77 people from traveling since the outbreak began. But the screenings don't catch asymptomatic people—Liberia recently announced it will prosecute the Dallas Ebola patient for lying on his outgoing questionnaire, should he recover.

[image via AP]

According to TMZ, the LAPD is "revisiting" its 2012 molestation investigation into 7th Heaven actor Stephen Collins, whose tape-recorded admissions were released Tuesday.

The NYPD is reportedly investigating the claims made on the recordings, and already sent officers to Los Angeles to interview Collins.

But TMZ reports that the LAPD investigated the recordings in 2012 and closed the case. The office now reportedly plans to revisit the investigation to "determine if they missed anything."

Collins' wife, Faye Grant, said in a statement that she turned the tapes over to police in 2012.

[image via AP]

An appeals court in New York state will begin addressing the question that has been on the forefront of everyone's minds for years: Are chimps actually people?

A lawsuit filed in New York on behalf of a chimp named Tommy seeks to grant primates the same basic legal rights as humans.

Via the New York Post:

The extraordinary proceeding is the result of a lengthy battle by animal-rights activists who argue that animals with human qualities — including chimps — are entitled to human protections, including freedom from captivity.

Steven Wise, part of the Nonhuman Rights Project, which is leading the effort, will have to convince a panel of Albany appellate judges that a chimp name Tommy is a "legal person" to get him moved from a cage in an upstate farm to a sanctuary in Florida.

Wise initially brought his case for Tommy to a Montgomery County court, where a judge ruled against him, saying, "You make a very strong argument. However, I do not agree with the argument only insofar as (habeas corpus) applies to chimpanzees."

But that didn't stop Wise. He will plead his case Wednesday in Albany, where he will once again make the claim that keeping Tommy the chimp in his cage is the same as putting a human in solitary confinement. The chimp's owner (who, weirdly, is not Wise himself) has different feelings:

Tommy's owner, Patrick Lavery of Gloversville, told the Albany Times-Union the chimpanzee is happy and has cable TV and a stereo to entertain him.

Please respond below and let us know if you believe chimps are people. Thank you.

[Image via AP]

The Guardian has a must-read long essay by Jonathan Powell, one of the negotiators of the 1997 Northern Ireland peace deal, on "how to talk to terrorists." It will make you reconsider everything you know about "us" and "them." And it likely foretells how the latest us-them conflict will turn out.

Powell identifies the "Islamic State" as the latest chapter in a long history of modernity's encounters with "terrorism"—a term that gives him understandable misgivings. Terrorists are always evil, impossible to bargain with... until we bargain with them:

When it comes to terrorism, governments seem to suffer from a collective amnesia. All of our historical experience tells us that there can be no purely military solution to a political problem, and yet every time we confront a new terrorist group, we begin by insisting we will never talk to them. As Dick Cheney put it, "we don't negotiate with evil; we defeat it". In fact, history suggests we don't usually defeat them and we nearly always end up talking to them...

We usually delay talking to armed groups too long, and as a result, a large number of people die unnecessarily. General David Petraeus admitted that, in Iraq, the US left it far too late to talk to those "with American blood on their hands". We delay because it is argued that talking is too risky—but experience suggests the real risk lies in not talking.

The obvious question to put to a man like Powell is that a Briton dealing with Irish Republicans is a little different than dealing with young Islamists who want to execute non-Muslim westerners simply for existing, isn't it? But Powell has considered this—in a franker, more circumspect way than most Americans have:

While it is true that it is unlikely that any government is going to agree to the creation of a global caliphate, the terrorist groups we encountered in the past also put forward demands that would never be acceptable. No British government was ever going to concede a united Ireland against the wishes of a majority of the people in Northern Ireland. Once discussions were begun with the Irish Republicans, we discovered that they were prepared to settle for something else...

He adds that an effective strategy against ISIS "will certainly include security measures—if the terrorists feel they have the prospect of winning, they will just carry on fighting—" but that's a far cry from calibrating a military response for maximum effect on domestic "public opinion."

The upshot is, not talking simply is not an option:

At some stage, we will need to negotiate with violent Islamic extremism, whether in this form or another one, if their ideas continue to have political support and we want to find a lasting solution to conflict in the region. They are unlikely to simply fade away.

Powell's point is that we will never "win" a "war on terror," and that the best outcome from our standpoint will never come from the application of violence alone. The best outcome will involve us revising our notions of victory and of enemy downward. It will involve us shaking the hands of people we might gladly have killed, or been killed by. On some level, this is perhaps intuitive. But show me the American politician, left or right, who's willing to say it, much less build a policy around it.

[Photo credit: AP Images]