On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that health insurance companies must fully cover birth control for women beginning next August. Which is great! But on tonight's Report, Stephen Colbert—aided by a couple of conservative loons—pointed out the dangers of such a mandate. A clip of the segment is above.
During a concert in Belo Horizonte, Brazil on Tuesday, Avril Lavigne was about to begin a cover of Coldplay's "Fix You" when a rogue superfan approached her after gaining access to the stage. Lavigne's security team acted quickly to remove the assailant, but not before she let out a fearful shriek, as you'll see in the video above. [via ONTD]
On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart briefly celebrated the fact that, despite the fight it took to get there, Congress finally reached a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling. But then Stewart noted just how little the deal will actually reduce the deficit, at which point he gave the "spoiled children" in Congress a piece of his mind.
Check out these great cold war-era photos of some totally normal East German citizens, who are definitely not members of the secret police! How innocuous they are, these completely non-suspicious-looking gentlemen, who could not possibly be Stasi officers in disguise, especially not the fellow in sunglasses and the enormous fur coat with the upturned collar. Nope, just some regular guys.
Scientists have long puzzled over the odd shape of the Moon: One side is "dominated by low-lying lava plains" while the other is "composed of highlands." But we may finally know why! Because the moon is a murderer.
British police seized some 1.3 tons of cocaine from a yacht named "Louise"—the largest coke haul in the country's history, and enough to last Prince Harry through at least 2017.
After advocating the end of anonymity, Randi Zuckerberg slipped a bit further into it, leaving her job at Facebook. Let's hope her stock options were vested. Also in today's Valleywag roundup, more Airbnb complaints from readers, Yahoo Mail went down, and Ashton Kutcher was shown up on Twitter.
Golden Globe Award-winning gay angel Chris Colfer, who beams beatifically as Kurt on Glee, has purchased himself his own little home in Laurel Canyon. Look how cute and unattractive it is!
Phat actress Kirstie Alley has a new TV show in the works, so she is a working actress again! Also today: Saturday Night Live lands some funny hosts, Lauren Ambrose takes a big musical role, and Ashton Kutcher is sad and rich.
GQ released a list of the "15 worst dressed men in tech," which is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel; engineers are hardly known as fashion plates. Indeed, the magazine was so overwhelmed with badly dressed techies it left a few people off its list.
Chocolate workout! Smaller gyms! Drummer warrior! Fast pushups! Helen Mirren! Tween athletes! Vegetarian benefits! Heart exercise! And Americans are still fat, all of us! It's your Wednesday Health Watch, where we watch your health—plyometrixplosively!
Florida Gov. Rick Scott is still digging deep for anything, anything that can restore his approval ratings from their comically low lows. His latest scheme involves pretending to work various shitty low-wage jobs, to prove... something. Yesterday, for example, he worked the counter at a Tampa donut shop. This was a great opportunity for the locals to visit said donut shop and call him an asshole. [via]
Probable presidential candidate Rick Perry, like other Texas governors, has a history of executing tons of people. The most famous case is that of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed under Perry for burning down his home with his three children inside, even though there's significant evidence that he didn't do it. How will Perry ever get past this in a presidential primary? Trick question! He doesn't have to "get past" anything, because Republican primary voters like him for doing this.
Amazon.com really, really does not want to collect sales tax from its customers. But that's not just the online retailer's problem: If you work for Amazon, the tax obsession means you need permission to visit certain states, and might not be able to send certain emails when you get there. In some instances, you won't even be able to identify yourself as working for Amazon.com.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the evil procedural genius who somehow always manages to be the most powerful person in Washington from his lowly perch as Senate minority leader, doesn't take offense when people call him and his party "hostage-takers." He rather fancies the title! But he does want to clear up the details of how and why he loves taking legislative hostages.
