Prisoner Given Aspirin to Treat Tumors Still Has Tumors, Surprisingly

Lauri Apple · 11/04/11 06:59AM

Paul Parisi, a prisoner at Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois, suffers from fibroneuroma—a disease that causes benign tumors to form on his nerve cells. When Parisi's illness started causing him severe pains, he asked his (taxpayer-subsidized) prison doctors to treat him. So they gave him some (free) aspirin and ibuprofen, the end.

Founder of Bankrupt Church Won't Give Up His Limo

Lauri Apple · 11/04/11 04:10AM

Just because the glistening, gaudy megachurch he founded is about to be sold in bankruptcy does not mean that fancy religious man/teevee preacher Rev. Dr. Robert H. Schuller should have to give up his limo driver. God wants him to have nice things.

Experience a Year in New York in Five Minutes

Matt Cherette · 11/04/11 02:45AM

Have you ever visited New York City and left feeling like there was so much you didn't see? Maybe you've only made it to the city in spring or summer and you're curious about what it's like in the dead of winter? Well, thanks to this video by cameraman Andrew Clancy, now you can experience an entire year in the Big Apple from the comfort of your own home, no matter where in the world it is. [via BuzzFeed]

GWAR Guitarist Found Dead on Tour Bus

Seth Abramovitch · 11/04/11 02:27AM

Cory Smoot, aka Flattus Maximus, the lead guitarist for Disneyfied Satanic metal outfit GWAR, was found dead on the band's tour bus on Thursday after playing a date in Minneapolis. There's no word yet on how it happened. [AP]

Germans to Present Results of Landmark 'Fingernails on Blackboard' Study

Seth Abramovitch · 11/04/11 01:59AM

At last, the mystery has been solved of why the sound of long, sharp fingernails running slooooowly down a dry blackboard can induce chills and screams just by description alone. And we can all thank a group of scientists from Germany, who subjected a number of participants to that very sound over and over and OVER and OVER and HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Stephen Colbert Mocks Rush Limbaugh's Selective Racism

Matt Cherette · 11/04/11 01:06AM

On tonight's Report, Stephen Colbert sifted through the latest developments in Herman Cain's sexual harassment scandal, including claims by Rush Limbaugh that the whole thing is nothing more than a racist attack on Cain perpetrated by bigoted liberals. Because Limbaugh would never say anything racist! Except that he would, and—as Colbert then demonstrated—has.

Apple's Sleazy Secret Police Lose Their Leader

Ryan Tate · 11/04/11 12:57AM

Leave no fingerprints. That's the way corporate security is supposed to work. But John Theriault left big, messy ones when his Apple security agents penetrated the home of an innocent San Francisco man. Now Theriault is out of a job, and his creepy security department will probably be a lot more careful—about getting caught.

Even Boy Scouts Have Jumped on the Ironic Facial Hair Bandwagon

Seth Abramovitch · 11/04/11 12:55AM

Behold the new Boy Scouts of America print campaign, as conceived by Ogilvy & Mather and approved, apparently, by The Powers That Be. And while there are those who will inevitably object to the disorienting addition of bio-realistic beards to the beaming smiles of four pre-pubescent boys eager for whatever adventures lie ahead, I for one applaud the introduction of the century-old youth organization to the emergent hipster hobby of facial forestry and artisanal whisker cultivation. Just keep base camp far away from Amish country. [Copyranter]

Watch Conan O'Brien Officiate a Gay Wedding on His Show

Matt Cherette · 11/04/11 12:24AM

Conan O'Brien ended his week-long stint in New York with a bang tonight: He officiated at the same-sex wedding of a staffer and aired the ceremony on his TBS talk show. Scott Cronick works as Conan's costume designer and he was accompanied down the aisle by Bravo's Andy Cohen before tying the knot with his partner, David Gorshein, under a chuppah that had been set up on the stage. Then it was up to Conan to make it official, as you can see in this clip from the show.

Brett Ratner Admits He 'Banged' Olivia Munn, But Never Jerked Off While Eating Shrimp

Seth Abramovitch · 11/03/11 11:42PM

Noted Hollywood fauxteur Brett Ratner appeared on Attack of the Show to pimp his latest brain-smoothing studio confection, Tower Heist. After a comfortable amount of brown-nosing, host Kevin Pereira pointedly asked the director if rumors were true that a particularly unflattering passage in former co-host Olivia Munn's memoir, Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures Of A Hollywood Geek, had referred to Ratner. (The story, as Munn recounts it, involved a major movie director whipping out his tiny penis without warning and proceeding to jerk off, while simultaneously eating cocktail-sauce-slathered jumbo shrimps with the other hand.)

Jon Stewart Scolds the 'Bad Occupiers' of Occupy Wall Street

Matt Cherette · 11/03/11 11:09PM

Jon Stewart started out on tonight's Daily Show by acknowledging that the Occupy Wall Street movement resonates with many people across the country. Except for "one small caveat." Stewart then replayed footage from a previous episode in which he warned the movement against violence, followed by a clip of protesters in Oakland vandalizing a Whole Foods store.

Mayor Bloomberg to GOP Field: You Are a Bunch of Idiots

Seth Abramovitch · 11/03/11 10:54PM

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg addressed an international economic forum at Columbia University on Thursday, during which he sounded off against certain, nameless, intellectually substandard presidential candidates who claim not to believe in things like the theory of evolution and global warming.

First Nationwide Public Warning Test Induces Widespread Panic

Seth Abramovitch · 11/03/11 10:15PM

At precisely 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, November 9th, FEMA will conduct the first ever test of a Presidential Emergency Alert System — a nationwide public warning system that, according to the FCC, "requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service providers, and direct broadcast satellite providers to provide the communications capability to the President to address the American public during a national emergency." Yikes. The original test was planned to run over three minutes — much longer than the ear-piercing localized tests you're already used to — but the test has been reduced to 30 seconds after many jittery people made a stink. Why?

Knocked-Up Bieber Groupie Could Be Investigated For Statutory Rape

Seth Abramovitch · 11/03/11 09:28PM

LAPD Commander Andrew Smith told reporters that Mariah Yeater, the 20-year-old woman who filed a paternity claim against 17-year-old pop star Justin Bieber, could be the target of a police investigation, as their alleged Staples Center bathroom tryst in 2010 would qualify as statutory rape. As our own Max Read clarified in his report, the California penal code stipulates that any sex between someone over 18 and under 18 constitutes "statutory rape." (Yeater was 19 at the time; Bieber 16, and allegedly a virgin.) If the difference in age between the two is under three years, it's a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail. Ouch. Pretty harsh. Though prison might be the safest place for Yeater right now. [AP, Photo of Bieber (left) via Getty Images]

Hero in Elmo Shirt Goes Off on 'Fat, Lazy, Non-Relevant' Reporter

Matt Cherette · 11/03/11 08:52PM

Stanley Roberts, a reporter for San Francisco's KRON-TV, hosts a Cops-like show on the station called People Behaving Badly. Roberts went from onlooker to participant recently when he incurred the sassy wrath of the man in this video, who wanted nothing to do with Roberts and his "fat, lazy, non-relevant, non-factor ass." Ladies and gentlemen, the new Antoine Dodson. [via Dlisted]