2. Your ‘theological’ nonsense is revolting. Don’t speak for Haiti, and don’t speak for God. Haiti is suffering a catastrophe and you offer silliness at best, and racism at the worst. Haiti was the first island in the Western hemisphere to overthrow slavery and white oppression — this is what you call a pact with the Devil? God’s heart is breaking with this tragedy, and ours should be too. You never had much credibility — but now it is all gone.

    — “Go to Hell, Pat Robertson: Haiti Needs Help, Not Stupidity” by Rev. Paul Raushenbush

  3. The Clue to van Gogh's Missing Ear →

    The mystery behind the most famous mutilation in art history may finally have been solved:

    A scholar has found evidence that a distraught Vincent van Gogh slashed his ear after learning that his brother, Theo, on whom he depended financially and emotionally, was about to get married.

    Martin Bailey, who has written a book on van Gogh and curated two exhibitions of his work, devised his theory after meticulous detective work on a letter in a painting that the artist completed soon after he injured himself.

  4. Comedy Central Cancels ‘Jeff Dunham Show’ →

    There truly is a God. Dave Itzkoff for The New York Times:

    Press representatives for the channel said on Tuesday that its hit series featuring that contentious puppet — not to mention Jeff Dunham, the man with a hand up his back — will not be picked up for a second season, confirming a report that appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. In an e-mail message, Comedy Central said, “We currently have no plans to produce a second season.”

  5. Tumblr Goes Real Time →

    Starting today, the popular light blogging platform Tumblr will publish its users’ feeds in real time. Tumblr will use the increasingly popular PubSubHubbub format to announce updates. Tumblr’s real-time hub will be powered by Superfeedr. Thanks to today’s updates, Tumblr - which has close to 2.5 million users - will now be able to send out real-time alerts to any service that supports the PubSubHubbub format.

  6. Meet Will Phillips, a boy who refuses to pledge allegiance to the flag and the United States of America until gays and lesbians are allowed to marry. While Will is finding support from op-ed columnists and his parents, the kids at school are not as kind. They are harassing Will and calling him a “gaywad.”

    Last night Jon Stewart decided to do something about it. After praising this precocious 10-year-old, he decided the boy must be protected, so he brought out professional wrestler Mick Foley to deliver a message.

  7. I’d say the hardest part is actually watching the news.

    — Michael Gregory of ‘Auto Tune The News’ on the hardest part of producing the episodes

  8. Student Stuns Iran, Criticizes Supreme Leader To His Face →

    An unassuming college math student has become an unlikely hero to many in Iran for daring to criticize the country’s most powerful man to his face.

    Mahmoud Vahidnia has received an outpouring of support from government opponents for the challenge — unprecedented in a country where insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a crime punishable by prison.

  9. If businesses, governments, and education institutions don’t upgrade to a newer IP address standard relatively soon, we could experience an unnerving scenario: the world running out of Internet addresses.

    — Could the Web Run Out of Addresses By 2010?

  10. Hulu's Free Glory Days Are Officially Numbered →

    Hulu, at the behest of its co-parent News Corp, is going to start charging for content in 2010. This is not so good, this here news.

    Here’s the money quote from NewsCorpian Chase Carey, so there’s no confusion:

    It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online. I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.

  11. There are few Lonely Island parodies I can even listen to, let alone thoroughly enjoy. But when it comes to this I’m on a Boat/Balloon Boy parody, let’s just say it ‘raises’ the bar.

  12. Balloon Boy was a hoax, but the father’s still a real asshole. CNN:

    The case of a giant Mylar balloon, which ascended into the sky late last week amid fears a 6-year-old boy was aboard, has been determined to be a “hoax” and a “publicity stunt,” Larimer County, Colorado, Sheriff Jim Alderden said Sunday.

  13. Assistant: I Helped Richard Heene Plan a Balloon Hoax →

    Gawker:

    “And Richard said, ‘How much do you want to bet we could facilitate some sort of a media stunt that would be equally profound as Roswell, and we could do so with nothing more than a weather balloon and some controversy?’ “

  15. YO BALLOON BOY IM HAPPY FOR YOU AND IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT AMELIA EARHART HAD ONE OF THE BEST FLIGHT DISAPPEARANCES OF ALL TIME! OF ALL TIME!