A new study published in Science points towards "an unprecedented global demographic upheaval." Does that phrase sound ominous to you? Ding ding! It is. According to the research, undertaken by the Harvard School of Public Health, the world population will pass the 7 billion mark by the end of this year. By the year 2050, it will increase by 2.3 billion — nearly all of them in underdeveloped regions.
Kirstie Alley's turn on Dancing with the Stars earlier this year helped revive her career. It also resulted in a revival of fat jokes about the actress with David Letterman chief among the offenders. So when Alley appeared on tonight's Late Show, it was all but inevitable that she'd bring up the issue. Which she did pretty much immediately.
Yesterday, Sen. John McCain took to the Senate floor to blast the Tea Party for resisting John Boehner's plan to solve the debt ceiling crisis, at one point referring to its members as "Hobbits" from The Lord of the Rings. The Tea Party then shot back at McCain, comparing him to the fantasy novel's villain, Sauron. Stephen Colbert took the opportunity on tonight's Report to extend the unlikely metaphor to the rest of Washington. Video of the segment is above.
Wish there was some way you could have experienced the rave-turned-riot that sprung up quite unexpectedly outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Wednesday night, minus the deleterious effects of ecstasy, ketamine and/or tear gas ingestion? You're in luck. This video encapsulates the entire chaotic affair — from harlequin go-go girl highs to bunny-eared gas-mask lows — then lingers on the haunting image of a lone, shirtless raver, bravely facing down the LAPD. Replace the words "freedom and democracy" with "the right to tweak in the middle of Hollywood Blvd.," and it might as well have been 1989 in Tiananmen Square.
On Tuesday, federal officials concluded that there wasn't enough evidence to link cases of cancer in 9/11 first responders to the duties they performed at Ground Zero. Consequently, the bill providing health care to the responders will not include coverage for cancer treatments. On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart, who has long advocated for the bill's passage, made no secret of his anger over the news. Video of Stewart's segment is above.
A scuffle between three homeless men on a Milwaukee bridge on Tuesday night resulted in one man — 43-year-old Johnny Jordan — falling into the river below and drowning. Another fell into the river but survived. The third man, Tracy Edwards (pictured, upper-right), was arrested and is being held for homicide.
Listen up! An exciting employment opportunity for members of the flack community has just landed in the Gawker tip box:
"We represent...the family of the late Mickey Carroll, star of The Wizard of Oz, whose estate you've bilked for $500,000." Hm. Not quite as catchy as "The Lollipop Guild." But that's exactly what new court documents claim in a legal battle currently underway in Carroll's hometown of St. Louis.
Naser Jason Abdo, a US Army Private 1st Class who had gone AWOL earlier this month from Fort Campbell in Kentucky, was arrested this week in a motel room near the Fort Hood army base in Killeen, Texas. The tip-off came from a gun store clerk who had called in a "suspicious purchase," the NY Times reports.
Google's chairman Eric Schmidt has a new girlfriend, who's just like all his other girlfriends. Also in today's Valleywag roundup: Wikipedia's co-founder is burning through his money fast and Twitter will now take bribes for access to the top of your stream.
Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik is charged with killing 68 people, many of them teenagers, at a youth camp on Utoya Island near Oslo. How did he manage to get off that many shots when Norwegian law "forbids the sale of clips for hunting rifles that hold more than three bullets"? By ordering clips from the U.S., of course.
Reporter Brandon K. Thorp explains how his investigation into the "lavender mob" running the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami —published here earlier today—came to be, and why the existence of a lively and hidden gay subculture within an institution devoted in part to demonizing homosexuals is an untenable and corrosive hypocrisy.
A hardworking TV actress has had quite the eclectic career, and she continues to. Also today: a big Walking Dead shakeup, some less than comforting news about The Killing, and Ron Swanson has a Tammy 1.
When Rep. John Boehner assumed the speakership, he said he didn't want to be an arm-twister for votes, and that he wanted the people's voice to be heard clearly. A nice sentiment! But now he that needs votes for his debt ceiling plan today, that's all over. How will he screw over dissidents? Let's look at the case of fellow Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.
Life lives! Bears menace! Phone cancer! Asteroid stowaways! Booby bullies! Lab dangers! Electron dancing! Neanderthal crowding! And dangerous health experiments that you can do at home! It's your Thursday Science Watch, where we watch science—on the road, baby!
