Donald Trump, Jr. and his brother Eric are under fire from wildlife enthusiasts after TMZ posted up photos of a hunting trip the two took to Zimbabwe that show them posing with their trophies. The brothers are seen posing with the dead carcasses of elephants, wildebeest, crocodiles and other game animals. In one photo, Donald clutches an elephant tail has has cut off.
A Colombian colonel has apologized to the families of two young men killed by the military after being ordered to do so by military command, Colombia Reports tells us. The murders were part of an ongoing scandal in Colombia that took part over the past two decades, known as the "false positives." From Colombia Reports:
The richest family in Australia, The Rineharts, is embroiled in a bitter dispute over their vast fortunes, and things have started to get ugly. Gina Rinehart, the matriarch of our clan, has just lost an effort to keep the battle out of the media after a judge ruled against her on Friday.
Ariel Kaminer's story about Jennifer Westfeldt's films in the latest issue of the New York Times Magazine explains that, whereas Westfeldt's last two movies were set "in a storied version of New York, where people shop at Zabar's and bump into one another's psychotherapists and are yelled at by lovably grouchy white taxi drivers," her new film has moved on to more vital territory:
New York-based marketing firm BBH is running what they're calling a "charitable experiment" this week at the South by Southwest tech and arts festival in Austin, Texas. They've outfitted 12 homeless men, and one woman, with equipment that turns them into walking 4G wireless hotspots. It's a simple, innovative solution to an important, pressing problem: lack of internet.
David Carr's column today is partly about a plan masterminded by Ad Age columnist Simon Dumenco to create, quote, a "Council on Ethical Blogging and Aggregation," which will ostensibly serve as a sort of trade group or (nonbinding) credentialing organization for best practices in the blogosphere. Well-intended, and a bad idea.
Heady development from the cutthroat world of slogan trademarking: Pepsi is officially not "The Choice of a New Generation" any more. Pepsi Co. poured countless millions into promoting the slogan, but stopped using it 20 years ago. Now, Ad Age reports that it has been scooped up by Malt-O-Meal! Which is called "MOM Brands" now, apparently. Don't act like yall don't eat that cheap-ass Malt-O-Meal cereal and shit! Shout out to Malt-O-Meal! You cheap bastards.
On last night's Saturday Night Live, Paula Deen stopped by the Weekend Update desk to explain all the allegations against her, including hiding her diabetes, mismanagement of her restaurant and her use of the N word: nutrition.
Have you heard that video is a big thing over at Gawker Media? It's true, we watch and post a lot of videos each week. Here are some of the best videos of week, culled from an array of Gawker Media sites.
The pilot of Awake, which premiered last Thursday on NBC, was an incredibly well-executed hour of television. The show is about a cop, Michael Britten, who lives in two realities that have diverged from a car accident that killed either his wife or his son. It had one of the strongest pilots in recent memory: the writing was crisp, the acting was great and the direction, which included a nice change in the color palette between realities, was fantastic.
Bill Maher ended tonight's episode of Real Time with a speech inspired by Rick Santorum's recent comments about the ills of college, and therefore knowledge. As with most things Santorum, and Maher for that matter, it cycles back to religion.
Tonight's season finale of Portlandia was a rather different beast than previous episodes: instead of a series of sketches with one recurring story, "Brunch Village" was one story that brought a few characters together. While it wasn't as strong as some previous episodes, the journey that Peter took from indecisive wimp to conquering hero was well rendered, with the added layer of him claiming a decisive victory over indecision. Plus, lampooning brunch is right in the show's wheelhouse.
Graham Rayman at the Village Voice brings us more on officer Adrian Schoolcraft, the modern day Serpico who was sent to a psych ward for reporting on corruption in the NYPD. While working out of the 81st precinct in Brooklyn, Schoolcraft became aware of a pattern of crime victims getting caught up in bureaucratic hurdles that seemed to have purposely been set up to make it hard to report serious crimes. Schoolcraft reported a number of these incidents to investigators. That's where things take a turn for the insane:
Alan L. O'Neil might have gotten away with it, if it weren't for Facebook's meddling algorithms. O'Neil, a corrections officer, had the perfect plan. Why bother divorcing your first wife if you can just change your name and marry a new one?
Former New York Times Co. Chief Executive Janet Robinson received a total payout of nearly $24 million after she left the newspaper publisher at the end of last year, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.
