University students gathered this weekend to protest recent findings that the NYPD has been spying on Muslim students. According to the AP, police informants have been going undercover in student groups to keep an eye on Muslim students at Columbia and other Northeast universities.

The Oscars are the definitive award for motion pictures, the highest achievement in film. But, the Academy has been known to make some bone-headed decisions in the past giving awards to inferior films or performances while passing up clearly superior fare. These are Oscar's biggest misses.

Here's a brief refresher on Ray J: he's Brandy's brother, he made a sex tape with Kim Kardashian, and he was romantically linked to the late Whitney Houston. He's also an author, apparently, with the publication of his new book, Death of the Cheating Man: What Every Woman Must Know About Men Who Stray.

Oscars betting pools are generally a waste of time and money, on account of the Academy Awards being too predictable: Everyone places their bets on whoever the Entertainment Weekly said would win, and then three-quarters of the people in your pool are forced to split the prize.

Yesterday, Republican maybe-frontrunner Rick Santorum made minor waves by repeating allegations that his opponents Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were in cahoots.

Tonight, Billy Crystal returns to host the Oscars for the first time since 2004; it will be his ninth appearance has host, second only to Bob Hope. Start getting excited for the Oscars with this collection of some of Crystal's best monologue moments.

Douglas Kennedy, one of Robert F. Kennedy's sons, is facing misdemeanor charges after clashing with nurses at the hospital where his newborn son was born. Kennedy was trying to take his son outside when he was stopped by the nurses, who claim they were only doing their jobs. Kennedy, on the other hand, says the nurses totally started it.

You won't see Sacha Baron Cohen on the red carpet at the Oscars tomorrow night, but you will see Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen from Cohen's upcoming film The Dictator. (Shh, they are actually the same person.) Cohen was reportedly barred from showing up to the ceremony in costume.

In weird and somewhat unsettling news, a military torpedo was dropped off at a recycling center in Puerto Rico. Authorities don't know where it came from — just that it's, you know, a 6-foot-long military torpedo. Anyway, it's all taken care of now, probably.

Remember the twitching teen epidemic? That's still going on — but there is good news at last: two of the affected girls have fully recovered, and three more are on the mend.

Self-proclaimed "car guy" Mitt Romney accidentally outed himself as being super rich at Ford Field in Detroit. (Detroit: good place to advertise love of cars, bad place to advertise excessive wealth.) Turns out he and his wife drive multiple cars, which — while not surprising — doesn't help with the accusation that he is out of touch with the common man. USA Today brings us some analysis of the damage done by Romney's car tally.

Just because Netflix users aren't professional film critics doesn't mean they don't have strong opinions. Some Netflix reviews are, in fact, insightful, cogent, and sharply composed — but who wants to read those? In honor of the 2012 Academy Awards on Sunday, here are the best of the worst Netflix reviews of the 10 Best Picture nominees.

Have you heard that video is a big thing over at Gawker Media? It's true, we watch and post a lot of videos each week. Here are some of the best videos of week, culled from an array of Gawker Media sites.

It's moments like these that I really miss the Bay Area. Yesterday SFist published a photo of a bizarre incident in San Francisco Tuesday: a naked "heavyset" woman jumped onto a man's car and crushed his windshield.

Sunday night the television audience for the Oscars telecast will be as large and as social as for any other event except the Super Bowl. Many will have the bright idea to invite all your friends over for an Oscar Party. For those playing host, here are some common party fouls to avoid.

Short on talent but not on funds? You might be in luck. While it's too late to be considered for any of Sunday's Academy Award wins, you can bid on one of 15 Oscar statuettes on Tuesday. Or, hell, bid on them all. You can always pawn off the extras when you need to pick up a Tony or a Golden Globe.

Reuters reports, "In Michigan, Santorum feels heat from within."

It makes sense that purveyors of topical ice cream Ben & Jerry's would want to cash in on the nation's love for New York Knicks standout Jeremy Lin. But their hastily made "Taste the Lin-Sanity" flavor may have been created in bad taste. (Figuratively speaking. Racist or not, it sounds delicious.)

With another debate and batch of impeding primaries on his mind, Bill O'Reilly spent much of his week talking about the GOP candidates, particularly the surging Rick Santorum. When O'Reilly sees Santorum, he sees a man being abused by the liberal media who are painting Santorum as some kind of religious nut bag for no reason at all. Apparently, all of Santorum's rhetoric about contraception and God passed O'Reilly by. All in all, it gave Billo plenty to complain about this week.

Beloved former South African president Nelson Mandela was hospitalized in Pretoria, according to a statement from current president Jacob Zuma.