Rich Juzwiak · 02/28/13 04:00PM

ABC has optioned How to Survive a Plague for a possible dramatic miniseries. As if losing the Oscar weren't bad enough.

We're Locking Up Fewer Black People and More White People

Hamilton Nolan · 02/28/13 02:20PM

The USA incarcerates a higher percentage of its citizen than any other nation on earth. (We're #1!) Needless to say, we've accomplished that feat largely on the backs of minorities, particularly black people, who are incarcerated at more than six times the rate of white people. But, as unthinkable as it may have been not long ago, some elements of this trend are actually turning around for the better.

The Rihanna/Chris Brown Episode of Law & Order: SVU Was Despicable

Rich Juzwiak · 02/28/13 02:15PM

The ripped-from-the-headlines plot of last night's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was inspired by Chris Brown's 2009 assault of his on-again-off-again girlfriend Rihanna. Disingenuously, the episode opened with a disclaimer: "The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event." Perhaps this is the disclaimer for every episode of this godawful show, but it was particularly untrue last night as the show went on to reference Chris Brown's apology video, Chris Brown's bowtie, Chris Brown's dick pic, Chris Brown's duet(s) with Rihanna, Rihanna's request to relax the restraining order she was granted, the leaked picture of Rihanna's battered face, Chris Brown's tattoo that kind of resembles Rihanna's battered face and Chris Brown and Rihanna's voluminous social-media interactions. Look at all of those coincidences and marvel at their hilariously incompetent executions.

Bradley Manning Tried to Leak to the New York Times and Washington Post Before Turning to Wikileaks

Adrian Chen · 02/28/13 02:00PM

Wikileaks has become a symbol for the radical, some say dangerous, new future of information distribution. But the story of its biggest leaker appears to have started in a very old-fashioned way. Bradley Manning, the 25-year-old former Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking huge caches of documents to Wikileaks, said in a hearing today that he initially tried to leak to journalists at the New York Times and Washington Post, and only turned to Julian Assange's shop after they didn't take him seriously.

Who Killed Cruz? The 'Suspicious' Death of a Prizewinning 'Smiley Dog'

Caity Weaver · 02/28/13 01:19PM

On February 10th, dog handler Robert Chaffin and his charge, a fluffy three-year-old Samoyed named Cruz, shared a steak and a hotel room as they prepared for the Westminster Dog Show. Six days later, while at a show in Colorado, the cuddly "marshmallow" began vomiting up blood. Within hours, Cruz was dead.

Girls Gone Wild Finally, Blessedly Files for Bankruptcy [UPDATE]

Cord Jefferson · 02/28/13 12:15PM

After 16 godawful, Jägermeister-fueled years, the Girls Gone Wild amateur porn franchise is filing for bankruptcy. The Wall Street Journal reports that company founder Joe Francis manager Chris Dale put GGW Brands LLC and other companies under the Girls Gone Wild umbrella into Chapter 11 protection yesterday to prevent the Wynn Las Vegas Casino and Resort from acquiring them in a multimillion dollar lawsuit:

How Much Irrational Anger Will Result From This Study Linking Women, Housework, and Physical Fitness?

Hamilton Nolan · 02/28/13 11:29AM

First, let us present the plain facts: there is a new study out, based on statistics gleaned from "time use diaries" filled out by women chronicling their own activity. Researchers found that American women today are spending only about half as much time doing housework—vacuuming, laundry, etc.—as they were 45 years ago. During the same period of time, the amount of time that women spent sitting down and watching a screen doubled. The conclusion, based in simple biological fact, as stated in the NYT in a story headlined "What Housework Has to Do With Waistlines:"

Hamilton Nolan · 02/28/13 10:47AM

If you're looking for a primer on America's political and economic iniquities, this new Demos report is a good one.

Here Is a 27-Year-Old Woman Who Is 'Addicted' To a Stuffed Lamb

Rich Juzwiak · 02/28/13 10:30AM

Meet Audrey, a 27-year-old Los Angeleno profiled on last night's My Strange Addiction. Everywhere that Audrey goes, her stuffed lamb is sure to go. There are shots of her frolicking with the lamb, sharing solemn walks on the beach with the lamb, holding food up to the lamb's face, pretending to feed the lamb. Though she sometimes refers to the lamb as "him" and clearly has made anthropomorphizing her way of life, she doesn't have a name for the lamb — he was only referred to as "the lamb" throughout the episode. That was the best thing about it, besides the shot of her going down a slide with him.