Today in True Historical Misadventures of the CIA: the time they tried to turn a cat into a spy.

For a solid week now, media types have been discussing the ethical and economic quandaries of asking writers to write for free. For—oh, about a decade and a half now, at least—media types have been discussing how the internet might affect the longstanding economic model of journalism as an industry. Now, one of most…

Welcome to an important new Gawker feature, "Hey, Science," in which we will have our most provocative scientific questions answered by real live scientists (or related experts). Never let it be said that reading this blog is not the educational equivalent of sitting in a Ph.D.-level classroom, not paying attention.…

Married 43 year-old Navy nuclear submarine commander Michael Ward was having a little affair with a younger woman that he met online. These situations are a bit tricky to navigate, as you can imagine. How did Michael Ward extricate himself from it, when he was ready to end the affair? The old fashioned way: he "sent…

This year, the Summer Olympics feature three dozen different sports. At least half of them are awful. Instead of hearing all the fans of minor sports complain when you banish them, why not simply fold them into other sports, creating a new, more entertaining sport?

America is in the midst of a student loan bubble. College costs are increasing, student debt is increasing, job prospects are far from assured, and loan delinquency is on the rise. It's a big problem. The best idea for a solution that I've heard in a long time: let people buy into college students. Like little…

This qualifies as a bit of a vague, not totally well-established-in-a-statistical-way trend; but the fact that it exists at all for one single person in America is, I believe, newsworthy. Families are taking out tens of thousands of dollars worth of loans in order to pay for private kindergarten for their whelps. That…

"Nice Hair, Claire?" Stop Right There! See Me Reach? Aw Gee, Teach! No More Touchin' While You're Lunchin'! Principal's Principle Deserves Ridicule: No Caresses for Classmate's Tresses! Grinch Puts the Cinch on Friendly Clench. Pity the Itty-Bitty Kiddies. "Cuddle at Home, You Snuggling Gnomes! School Is Where…

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…

This week, Time Inc. announced that it will be closing down its three year-old Maghound service—billed at its launch as "The Netflix of magazines." Seemed like a decent idea at the time. Turned out not to be. The Netflix business model is not as flexible as previously suspected. In reality, a business plan that reads…

Oklahoma state senator Jim Wilson has a bright idea about how to raise $17 million for his state: put a sales tax back on newspapers and periodicals. Because levying taxes on an industry locked in an economic death spiral is always a good way... destroy that industry more quickly. Also a good way to get a newspaper to…

Like us, all of you out there have been transfixed, anxiously refreshing your computer screens all morning since rascally blog "mini mogul" and master of the female mind Daniel "Dan" Abrams tweeted, "Some exciting news coming from Abrams Media in the next hour or so. . . stay tuned."

Let's all read this one together, in unison: "We don't mean to brag, but we've been Occupying Wall Street for 227 years."- BNY Mellon, in ad that a WSJ reporter photographed at last Friday's Financial Follies, the super hilarious funny night of things that people who work in and cover finance think are hilarious.…

Last month we told you about this brilliant, cutting-edge, edgy, ahead of the edge, razor's edge ad out of France for some "unbreakable" eyeglass frames. We gently noted that every last bit of information about who made the ad and where they would be during business hours every day was easily accessible online, should…

The Washington Post, having suffered years of cutbacks and foreign bureau closings, has now consolidated all of its remaining resources on its Peabody award-winning Hipness Desk. The paper's tireless hipness correspondents spend day and night fanned out across the metropolitan region in search of the elusive young,…

The neat thing about this ad is that even though the model guy and his creative team were probably like "We're in France, whatever," it's just as easy to find the names of everyone involved in creating this ad and where they work as it would be to send that information directly to the Hells Angels chapter in Paris.

"Queen of Spades," eh? Maybe the folks in Belgrade aren't familiar with the implications of the term "spade"—but, as Copyranter points out, their multinational ad agency must be.

What's new "on campus" these days? Guns! Guns, guns, guns. The college experience is no longer considered complete without a firearm to accompany you all over campus. Don't be a victim—of enemies of the Second Amendment!

Earlier this week, the University of New Hampshire announced that it would be banning the sale of energy drinks on campus, in order to "keep its students safe." From energy, presumably. Shortest-lived dumb college banning ever!