Journalism awards positively encourage inflated claims; this is among their most pernicious effects on the trade. Judging from a San Francisco Chronicle editor's increasingly agitated emails, they also don't do much for industry collegiality.

Barack Obama's half-brother, Samson Obama, was reportedly arrested in England last November for attempting to sexually assault a 13-year-old girl.

Negotiations with a group of African elders (!) representing the Somali pirates over the fate of Capt. Richard Phillips broke down yesterday, as Americans demanded that the pirates be arrested and face justice.

Just in time for Easter, Gallup has released poll data going back to 1948 showing an inexorable decline in the number of Americans who practice Christianity.

Barack Obama's daughters have named the first dog Bo, after a cousin's cat and in honor of Michelle Obama's grandfather, who was nicknamed Diddley. Also, intrigue surrounds the leak if his identity!

The AP is currently suing (and being sued by) Shepard Fairey over his famous 'Obama' image, stolen from the AP. Here's the front page of the AP photo site on Friday. Ha. SUBTLETY.

awww, we lost my personal outro to tech difficulties... But yes, thanks for the warm reception and tuning into WTAN. We should have an interview with your favorite Late Show band The Roots next week amongst other surprises. So stay tuned ... same TAN time, same TAN channel.

Oprah Winfrey is speaking out to defend the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, the boarding school she started in South Africa two years ago, which has turned into a weird underage sex cult.

So, hoped you enjoyed the first Saturday afternoon with T.A.N. He'll be back next Saturday, maybe with an interview with The Roots to show you. We're thinking around 3pm, so please pencil it in.

Hey baby, what's your major? Philosophy? Oh yeah? Me too. Wait? David Brooks said what? God/Print/Hip Hop/Web2.0/Print/Facebook and Philosophy is dead??? And then 446 unemployed philosophy majors commented in protest??? Oh, hell no.

Did you know Larry Wilmore, senior news negro at The Daily Show, has a book out? Wait, can I use the n-word here? News? Anyone, news?

Eminem dropped his first official solo single in four years earlier this week, "We Made You". Some like it, but many more are calling it formulaic, or boring.

On this rainy Saturday, we're going to try out something new in Gawker weekend programming: for the next couple hours, Patrice Evans, a/k/a The Assimilated Negro (or T.A.N. for short), will be your guest host.

Billy Bob Thornton's band has canceled their Canadian tour after Thornton's bizarre on-air meltdown Wednesday.

The New York Times continues its endless parade of recession porn today, this time with a story about how some weird people like being poor.

BBC reporter Ian Pannell tagged along on a U.S. embassy-sponsored trip to northern Afghanistan to inspect counter-narcotics operations. His handlers got skittish when their car broke down and flew back to Kabul without him.

The New School has sent the student body a detailed account of yesterday's brouhaha, including allegations that some of the occupiers weren't students and that they looted the cafeteria cash register.

Coming together in a time of uncertainty and challenge, a new generation of young, American poets have something to say about their world.

Matthew Broderick returns to Broadway right now, while you'll have to wait til the fall for Laurie Metcalf. Some shows open well, others don't, and a production of the Tempest in Chicago earns raves.

Sure, the fourth "Web Trend Map" from branding firm Information Architects is a nifty piece of graphic design. But that's not what makes it viral.