The rape trial of NYPD officer Kenneth Moreno, accused of raping a drunk East Village woman in her apartment while he was supposed to be, whattayacallit, protecting and serving, is, at the very least, the source of America's greatest storytelling.
Ramzan Kadyrov, murderous warlord and "president" of Chechnya, is trying to recast his country as a hub for international football. And to celebrate the opening of a new stadium he had built in Grozny, Kadyrov hosted a friendly match between his team, made up of various criminals and murderers businessmen, and a team of retired international stars that included Argentinian great Diego "Hand of God" Maradona.
Some impressive animal smuggling attempts have been busted up over the years, but this one possibly beats them all in terms of audacity. A 36-year-old Emirati man, Noor Mahmoodr, was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabuhmi Airport attempting to fly first class to Dubai with what has been described as "a virtual zoo."
Internet asshole Vitaly Borker — who bullied people into leaving negative online feedback about his bootleg sunglasses business to boost his Google search ranking — pleaded guilty in court yesterday to being an asshole, as well as to mail and wire fraud. His excuse for threatening people with sexual assault for tangling with him online: "I was answering personally about 100 e-mails a day and lost control of what I was saying at times." Ok.
Who will al Qaeda choose as its leader now that Osama bin Laden is no longer with us? While Ayman al-Zawahiri, the terrorist group's second-in-command, seems a likely choice, others have suggested that the much younger—and more charismatic—Anwar al-Awlaki should take the post. On tonight's Report, Stephen Colbert made quite a case for youth over experience.
In his 87 years on Earth, Bello Maasaba has married 107 women. Currently he lives with 86 of them. What led Maasaba to ruin his life by surrounding himself with so many women like that?
Remember the soul-crushing website for Yvette's Wedding Dresses, quite possibly the ugliest site in the history of the Internet? Wait! A new contender has emerged: Check out Arngren Teknologi & Gadgets, a Norwegian site that features a collection of random junk surrounded by an even more random collection of animated GIFs. Enjoy? [via Boing Boing]
"What you have on your license plate is everything ... It's your message to the world," says Floridian anachronism John Adams, who's been trying for years to exercise his constitutional right to put a Confederate license plate on his car. Will this warrior for liberty and freedom prevail?
Obesity is a complicated disease. It can be caused by your mom's pregnancy diet, genetics, your KFC Double Down habit, or some combination of all three. But why has the problem reached such epidemic proportions in the U.S.? Researchers at the University of Illinois think our car culture may be to blame.
One of the hottest conversation topics in Saginaw, Michigan right now is "Wellington's Millions"— the $100 million estate left by dead old lumber baron Wellington Burt, who didn't want any of his immediate descendants to inherit his fortune because he was kind of crazy and vengeful and mean.
Walterboro, S.C. resident Edward V. Spearman has been charged with trafficking illegal, hallucinogenic Psilocybin mushrooms that he allegedly grows in his secret mushroom laboratory. But Spearman's lawyer says his client's wares are actually flavorful shiitake mushrooms, which are legal even in South Carolina (for now).
For reasons unknown to anyone outside of his own team of advisers, Newt Gingrich announced his 2012 presidential candidacy yesterday in a tweet that linked to a YouTube video. So why is Gingrich, who first entered Congress more than 30 years ago, suddenly trying to appear young and hip? Nobody knows, really! But that didn't stop Jon Stewart from hypothesizing—and pointing out just how uncool Gingrich really is—on tonight's Daily Show.
Who of us hasn't, at one time or other in our wild and misspent youths, let one rip, mightily and strong, for the comic benefit of our peers? It's practically a rite of passage! Well, two such mischievous scamps, seventh graders from Ohio, have been suspended by their school for doing just that. Farting on their school bus.
Conservatives were up in arms this week after the White House invited the rapper Common to participate in a poetry event. Last night, Jon Stewart showcased how Fox News pundits have distorted the issue with their "Common is a dangerous rapper who defends cop killers!" narrative. It looks like the faux controversy will go on another day: On tonight's Factor, Bill O'Reilly—who "fought the good fight years ago against gangsta rappers years ago"—struck back at Stewart and challenged him to a debate.
It seems as though Ashton Kutcher is about to throw his hat back into the sitcom ring—and in a way you never saw coming. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the former That 70s Show star will return to primetime this fall—for a "big payday"—when he replaces Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men, which is still somehow the top-rated comedy on television.
Way up in Wasilla, where the men are men and the moose are meat, members of the high school symphonic jazz choir were excitedly rehearsing for the upcoming graduation ceremony, where they'd be performing an epic rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Then they were told by Principal Dwight Probasco (that's his staff directory page) that the song had been pulled from the program. "Why?" they wondered, having put months of effort into the big number. Probasco explained it was because he'd received a complaint from a parent. You see Freddie Mercury, the vocalist who had sung the original version of the song, was gay.
When you're in a hole, stop digging. Apple, with its enviable PR, shouldn't need to learn that lesson, but apparently it does—if only to prevent the sort of inaccurate, overreaching Congressional testimony Bud Tribble delivered Tuesday.
Osama bin Laden was apparently a "prolific email writer." But how did he forward all of Islamist chain letters without getting tracked down by the U.S.? By sending his couriers to cybercafes with thumb drives.
