Andrew Rosenthal, New York Times editorial page editor, says he sees nothing wrong with changing yesterday's Obama-NSA editorial to soften a sentence that originally read, "The administration has now lost all credibility." "We didn’t soften it one iota from its original intent," Rosenthal told the Times' public editor.
Richard Ramirez, a former altar boy who grew into a maniacal serial killer known as the "Night Stalker," died in California today at the age of 53. A spokesman for the San Quentin State Prison, where Ramirez was being held pending his execution, confirmed Ramirez's passing. No further details about his death have been released thus far.
The PRISM revelations continue to reverberate throughout the online world, reaching down into the bowels of Gawker Media's ad-slingers.
Here's the trailer for Woody Allen's latest commentary on stylish neuroses—Blue Jasmine. Alec Baldwin is some sort of gift-giving swindler and Cate Blanchett is a woman suffering a nervous breakdown in a Chanel suit, using a Stoli bottle as a gavel. Oh and Louis C.K. shows up at the 1:22 mark! Enjoy.
Today sees the video-on-demand release of V/H/S/2, a sequel to last year's horror anthology. I really enjoyed this new entry (especially the bonkers short about the cult) when I caught it at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's an inventive entry in the found-footage horror, the rampant and cheaply made subgenere in which a character or characters in the film are filming the action we're watching (Paranormal Activity, the only blockbuster horror franchise standing, is an example of this format). As a result, the camera is part of the story and as a result of that, other characters frequently comment on it, at some point telling the operator to put it down or turn it off. From the found-footage grandaddy, 1980's Cannibal Holocaust, t0 the hit indie really responsible for igniting this trend, 1999's The Blair Witch Project, through virtually every other movie within the subgenre, there is at least one person threatening to subvert the format.
A teen who was dared to drink a bottle of soy sauce managed to quaff a full quart of the salty brown liquid before slipping into a coma.
Neha Ramu, a 13-year-old girl living in London, has a higher IQ score than Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. Her score of 162 is the highest possible mark in the Mensa IQ test for baby geniuses under 18. Scores above 140 are generally considered to be genius level; the average adult score is 100.
Sean Delonas, the New York Post's Page Six cartoonist, announced yesterday that he is taking a buyout, ending his 23-year run as the newspaper's mean, mediocre, gibbering id. His work was a mix of the conventional (flitting homos lusting for sheep, filthy hairy terrorists rooting for Democrats) and the inexplicable (flyblown angels in heaven)—crude and cruddy, appalling yet predictable. Like the Post as a whole, he specialized in punching down, while pretending to be punching up. Though he spanned eras, his hostility, sadism, and contempt were the essential tone of Giuliani Time. We can offer no better farewell than this cartoon, by Jim Cooke, depicting Delonas enjoying his retirement.
A Whole Foods Market store in Albuquerque reportedly suspended two employees for violating the company's "English-only" policy by speaking Spanish to each other during work hours.
Comedy Central's Canadian import Nathan Fielder has has this Twitter thing down pat.
A gay couple recently married in Massachusetts filed a discrimination complaint against a Colorado bakery that refused to make them a wedding cake for their reception. The owner of the bakery cited his Christian beliefs when he refused the couple's business.
