Ang Tshering Sherpa, a 51-year-old Nepalese climber, surpassed his own world record for the most ascents of Mount Everest today with his 21st summit. That's impressive, to say the least. [AFP]
Alicia Silverstone had a son last week and named him Bear Blu. That sounds more like a cartoon show than a human being. However, we're sure he'll fit right in with Apple, Phineas, and Moroccan at his celebrity pre-school.
House Speaker John Boehner will tell a bunch of bankers tonight that his members won't accept a federal debt ceiling hike for anything less than "trillions" in spending cuts. This is an aggressive posture. Stupid arbitrary caps on stuff!
The U.S.-backed monarchy in Bahrain has apparently killed, arrested and terrorized enough doctors and pro-democracy protesters that it feels the state of emergency can be lifted on June 1st. Victory.
Florida's state legislature passed a bill this week outlawing bestiality. The bill was introduced in 2008 after a notorious case involving a pet goat. Today in Florida every person with a bestiality fetish is going: Wait, it was legal!?
Do you throw your salami in the microwave before eating it? If not, you're screwed and might die (or at least get diarrhea) from nasty Listeria monocytogenes hanging around in your food. Mmm, steaming hot lunch meat.
Amal al-Sadah, 29-year-old wife of Osama bin Laden, told Pakistani investigators she spent five years in a single room in the Abbottabad compound. Her husband split that time between two rooms. This just gets weirder and weirder. [NYDN]
Cute and cantankerous Broadway writer/director Arthur Laurents has died at 93. A demigod among showtune fans, he's best known for the books to West Side Story and Gypsy, and directing several of their revivals. RIP Arthur. Heaven's Gypsy awaits. [Deadline]
Anonymous (or someone saying they're with Anonymous—you never know!) has issued a press release denying any involvement in the theft of millions of people's credit card data from Sony servers, like we said they would. Nerd backlash averted?
After sending tanks into the city of Deraa to "restore security, serenity and stability," the Syrian government is proud of itself for starting to pull out today. Oh, but they're just cracking down on other areas instead.
Staunch U.S. ally Bahrain, fresh off a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, is now going to put doctors and nurses who treated injured protesters on trial in a military court. Someone's loving all of the attention bin Laden is getting.
Pope Benedict XVI kicked an Australian priest to the curb for suggesting that women and married men should be eligible for ordination. Bishop William Morris was "removed from pastoral care" according to the Vatican. Papal progress!
Today's bittersweet final launch of the space shuttle Endeavor has been delayed at least 48 hours over a "heater failure." Those 700,000 tailgaters are going to be unbelievably wasted by Sunday.
GDP grew an anemic 1.8% in the first quarter of 2011. To blame: The ten million snowstorms that slowed construction and closed businesses, rising commodity prices, decreased government spending, and the failure of the American experiment in general.
Sen. Harry Reid will schedule a vote on GOP Rep. Paul Ryan's controversial "Path to Prosperity" budget to see how many Senate Republicans will go on-the-record in support of it. The House passed it almost 100% along party lines.
First they take our jobs, now our space! China is planning to launch a 60-ton space station by 2020. Look for the 2016 presidential campaign to feature plenty of fearmongering ads about the Red Menace Above.
A British human cannonball died today when his safety net failed to engage during a "daredevil stunt show." Turns out shooting yourself out of a cannon is almost as dangerous as going to McDonald's. [SkyNews via TDB]
Yeah, Mondays suck. But at least you're not Shawn Batie, who was arrested Friday high on meth near a cemetery, while "wearing an Oakland Raiders jacket, a g-string and a hair scrunchie around his genitals," okay? [KCRA]
Happy BP Oil Spill Anniversary! In honor of this, the AP reports that, "More than 3,200 oil and gas wells classified as active lie abandoned beneath the Gulf of Mexico, with no cement plugging." Ugh.
