Harry Reid is probably pretty happy today. 52 Democrats in the Senate just voted to change the chamber's rules so that they only need a simple majority, rather than a 60-vote threshold, to confirm certain presidential nominees and do other minor senator-type business.

Model-turned-weather-presenter Doria Tillier made a promise to the million of viewers who tune to watch her, um, forecast the weather every evening: If France qualifies for the World Cup, she'll do her report naked.

[An Afghan bus driver offers prayers in front of his empty bus, as the center of Kabul comes to a standstill. Thousands of prominent Afghans gathered to meet for a Loya Jirga to debate a contentious security agreement with the United States in the Afghan capita. Photo by Anja Niedringhaus via AP]

It turns out that one point of launching an ostentatiously renegade bad-boy media company is so that one day it can be inherited by an upwardly failing scion. More than a year after resigning from his chairmanship at News International, Rupert Murdoch's son James has found a new position as director of at Vice Media, according to the London Evening-Standard.

Want to do something patriotic? Want to show your national spirit? Want to help the economy, by contributing to the coffers of a speculative private investment firm? Drive more. Wall Street is depending on you.

Everyone in the imaginary celebrity-filled high school you—being a quirky and adorable adult with an active fantasy life—attend in your mind is gossiping about your best friend Jennifer Lawrence today, after she spent a large portion of her Wednesday interview with David Letterman talking about being gassy and shitting herself.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell is dead, so opponents of gay military equality have to fine-tune their message again. Or to simply conceal it behind a veneer of "character" pseudoscience. Which probably explains why the once-gay Dr. Mike Rosebush has a job teaching leadership to future Air Force officers.

Tallahassee newspaper commenter: "FSU QB Jameis Winston is only being accused of sexual battery because the accuser's lawyer went to UF." Tallahassee newspaper's editor in chief: "Interesting."

It all started, as most things do, with a Bret Easton Ellis podcast.

Erik Wemple documents in detail how Mike Allen, hoarder-in-chief at THE POLITICO, gives extremely favorable editorial coverage to companies that advertise in his "Playbook" newsletter. Mike Allen, hoarder/ whore-der.

Last month, North Korean officials pulled Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old veteran of the Korean War, from a plane just as it was about to depart from Pyongyang, according to Newman's son. No one from Newman's family has heard from him since.

Nuts: the demure yet dynamic dynamos at nature's table. Might it be true, friends, that eating nuts will actually cause you to not die? Yes. It is absolutely true. Science celebrates The Nut!

Ahead of the 130th Harvard-Yale football game set to take place this Saturday, the boys from Harvard's student-run Internet comedy news show On Harvard Time decided a classic Harvard-Yale prank was in order.

William Weaver, the Italian translator who rendered Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco into English, has died at 90. If your obituary can include this sentence it's fair to say you led a good life: "Midway through our meal of pasta with lemon and cream sauce, Muriel Spark walked in with a basketful of forest mushrooms[.]"

A 747 LCF Dreamlifter — the largest plane manufactured by Boeing today — mistakenly touched down at Wichita's Jabara Airport late last night while en route from New York's JFK to McConnell Air Force Base.

Florida congressman and cocaine-fueled hypocrite Trey Radel announced Wednesday night that he will take a leave of absence from his job—during which time he will donate his salary—in order to enter an inpatient drug treatment center. He will not resign from his position.

On a recent episode of his popular podcast, former Fear Factor and Man Show host and current UFC commentator Joe Rogan defended same-sex marriage against opponents he felt were acting like "weak-ass bitches."

Sylvia Browne, psychic, bestselling author, and frequent guest on The Montel Williams Show, died Wednesday in a Northern California hospital. She was 77.

[Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signs the state's Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act into law during ceremonies on Wednesday in Chicago. The bill, which won't take effect until June 1, makes Illinois the 16th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast via AP]