It was the laughing fit that nearly brought down an entire country.

Michael Froman is President Obama's nominee to be the new U.S. Trade Representative, the government's top international trade agreement negotiator. Also, Michael Froman has cash stashed in the Cayman Islands and takes advantage of tax loopholes Obama has publicly railed against. Hmm.

Mighty Box Games, a European development shop, has decided to stomp out the dying embers of unmitigated emotion by creating a videogame "loosely based" on the Joy Division song "Love Will Tear Us Apart."

The police chief of Brimfield Township in Ohio is being praised by people from around the country for announcing on his department's Facebook page that officers have been ordered to issue at least one ticket per shift, and are "strongly encourag[ed]" to target small children.

Taco Bell says the photo of an employee licking a stack of taco shells was taken for "an internal contest" and the shells were "in [the] process of being thrown out." The employee has been fired anyway.

Via the Hairpin comes this inspiring Source story of how one 53-year-old woman's affinity for the Southern rapper Waka Flocka Flame gave her the epiphany and courage to end her marriage. Writes social media communications advisor Dianne D (aka WebDiva423):

Bear the bear thought that, maybe, in New Jersey, he would finally make a friend. On Monday morning, he ended up in Montclair, not a bad little town, with its own art museum and a Whole Foods and big green backyards, perfect for a bear and his friends to play in. Scared and alone—his first time in New Jersey’s 60th-most-populous municipality—he began lumbering around, hoping that a friend would find him.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, facing trial in the shooting of 45 people at Fort Hood, asked the judge today for a three-month delay so he can prepare a new strategy: The psychiatrist-allegedly-turned-gunman wants to argue, he said, that he was acting in "defense of others."

Nicole Easton recently moved into her first big girl apartment after graduating from high school, and it wasn't long before her roommates managed to pressure her into doing something stupid that resulted in serious physical injuries.

In the olden days, it was common for mothers to say things such as, "Stop watching all that TV! Go read a book! Bah on Herbert Hoover!" Today's parents, though, could not care less about the fact that their zombie children are being raised exclusively by internet pornography websites, like this one.

In an effort to fight back against the scourge of bullying in local schools, the Madison, Wisconsin suburb of Monona has passed a city-wide ordinance that makes raising bullies a finable offense.

A new Swiffer advertisement depicting WWII icon Rosie the Riveter as a house-cleaning homemaker has, shockingly, rubbed people the wrong way.

Want to be a senator? New Jersey Chris Christie just announced that he'll hold a special election to replace the late Frank Lautenberg on Oct 16. (The primary is on August 13, so get cracking.) Christie will appoint an interim senator (he hasn't chosen yet) to hold the spot until then.

"I think that I am in love with him. Leonardo DiCaprio is the hottest guy on earth... I wish I had a boyfriend. That’s been my motto since 1992 when I started this journal."

A recent bit of on-air passive aggression between Philly news anchor Nicole Brewer and CBS 3 meteorologist Carol Erickson has exposed the fact that the former Miss Pennsylvania and her colleague have been exchanging less-than-subtle barbs for some time now.

Authorities at the Nyack Fire Department report that that there was a gas explosion in a building's interior at Nyack College in New York. UPDATE: All seven people in the building have been accounted for.

At the 1886 ceremony celebrating the official opening of New York's Statue of Liberty, president Grover Cleveland declared that the statue's torchlight would "pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression until Liberty enlightens the world." And it has! At least for those of you have been properly screened, for terror death bombs.

If you maintain a cordial to friendly relationship with any creepy nerds on the Internet, you know that many people are freaking out about an episode of Game of Thrones that aired on Sunday, in which many things happened. The most shocking thing that happened—the thing that people saw happen with their own two eyes and still cannot believe—is that Will Champion, the drummer from Coldplay, had a small cameo in the episode.

"NO MORE!!" exclaims Heather McGill, the wife of Alabama State Senator Shadrack McGill (R-Woodville), in a fire-and-brimstone Facebook post aimed at the many women who have apparently been using the social networking site to send her husband private photos and invite him "to explore."

The AP just announced that a Colorado judge accepted a plea of not guilty, due to insanity, for the shootings at the Aurora movie theater this past summer.