At a press conference this afternoon, President Obama admitted that the U.S. tortured prisoners shortly after the 9/11 attacks. "In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong," Obama said, responding to a question about the recently declassified Senate study of the CIA's Rendition/Detention/Interrogation program. "We did a whole lot of things that were right. But we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values."

...But hands off, it's mine!

The New York City medical examiner ruled today that Eric Garner's death was a homicide by chokehold.

The great service of Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo's film Rich Hill is that it makes accessible stories that are so often willfully ignored. The documentary winner of Sundance's Grand Jury Prize profiles three boys: Andrew, 13, Harley, 15, and Appachey, 12, who live in Rich Hill, Missouri, a town of 1,393 on the brink of economic collapse. All three deal with poverty on some level, but that's far from their only issue. With a stunning frankness (and while chain-smoking), Appachey describes his father's abandonment; Harley discusses being sexually assaulted by his mother's boyfriend. Rich Hill is modest in its slice-of-life approach to the stories of town's boys, but extraordinary in its effect.

A bowl of milk is placed on the ground. A cat is invited to drink. As he does, a poor man walks by. He gazes at the milk longingly. The cat looks up and the cat is like... I don't think so, lol.

Over the past few years, Gawker and other outlets have detailed how to leak documents and information without unwanted third parties finding out about it. Here’s a refresher course with the most up-to-date details.

In a video that would be funny if it didn't revolve around violent bigots, representatives of the Ku Klux Klan confirmed the organization's call to shoot border-crossing immigrants from Central America to advance its goal of a "white homeland" in the United States.

Florida teen Jennifer Greene announced her candidacy for Worst Human of 2014 last month when she and a friend set a protected gopher tortoise on fire repeatedly, stomped it to death, and posted the video on Facebook. Now she may have established herself as the frontrunner: The 18-year-old is now facing charges for allegedly being sexually involved with an underage boy.

On a tape recorded September 10, 2001, Bill Clinton can be heard saying he once had the opportunity to kill Osama bin Laden, but didn't, because it would have meant killing 300 civilians as well.

Vice President Joe Biden posted a #ThrowBackThursday picture on Twitter yesterday, and boy was he hot in his youth — #letsbuildatimemachine so that he can #getinsideme.

This morning, the not-so-subtly pro-settler, pro-war Times of Israel published an op-ed explaining that genocide is okay when the victims are Gazans. The paper quickly thought better of it, and took down the piece. We saved it here in its entirety, because it's an important window into a terrible mindset.

Bill Gross is the billionaire head of the enormous bond fund Pimco and one of the most influential men in finance. But Bill Gross's 25-year-old son, Nick, is pure 100% rocking and rolling.

Finally, white people have the non-native American mascot they deserve.

Over the last several months, the deadliest-ever outbreak of the Ebola virus has torn through West Africa, claiming hundreds of lives and leaving hundreds more infected. If you're just catching up with the news, here's some of what we know about the disease, its spread, and how it might be stopped.

"You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another." —Jake Barnes, in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, 1926

In 2010, George W. Bush, a painter and the 43rd president of America, had an idea. "I am going to write a book about my Daddy," he said, sipping from a glass of sweet tea.

Those of us who are "knowledge workers" in "the online media" typically spend our days surfing the internet, doing laundry, going to the gym, and watching TV. Then we write some garbage about it, and get paid. Meanwhile, marvel at what some of our own government's lazy employees have been doing:

As tensions increase overseas between the independent state of Orlando Bloom and pockets of extremist Beliebers, you can count on Stephen Colbert to explain the years-long cold war that turned hot this week when Bloom launched a fist at Bieber's face in Ibiza.

A woman who lifted up a tarp inside a church in southern Sweden was shocked to discover a stash of plastic IKEA bags filled with human bones, The Local reports.

[via AARP]