News: WTC, Elephant Slaughter, Puerto Rico, Ian McKellen, KissCam

Ivory poachers slaughter 86 elephants in massacre in Chad.

Astronomers predict comet coming in November could be bright as the Moon.

Lindsay Lohan's new mugshot joins portfolio of five others.

Puerto Rican government supports overturn of ban on gay adoption: "Puerto Rico's Supreme Court narrowly voted in February to uphold an island law banning adoptions by same-sex parents...Island Attorney General Margarita Mercado has now filed a motion in support of reconsideration. Mercado said the government of Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla favors eliminating unequal treatment based on gender or sexual orientation."

A tweet from President Obama yesterday.

CIA contracts Amazon to build spy cloud?

"Bathroom bill" before the state of Arizona: "The targets are transgender residents of Arizona. They would be committing a crime (a misdemeanor) by using the wrong bathroom with the wrong birth certificate. (Moms and dads would be allowed to bring opposite sex kids into the bathroom with them.)"

Democrats: sweeping gun control laws still a pipe dream.

Taylor Lautner's abs are waxed.

Nebraska actress planning to bring Uganda's first gay play to the U.S.

Princess Diana's dress she wore to dance with John Travolta purchased at auction: "An anonymous bidder purchased the midnight-blue velvet Victor Edelstein evening gown – the one that prompted Travolta to call Diana "the most beautiful woman in the room" – for more than $362,000 Tuesday at London's Kerry Taylor Auctions."

NYT: If doctors can identify them correctly, some HIV-positive people may be able to stop taking antiviral drugs.

Older gay man ponders being lonely and invisible, seeks advice from NYT civil behavior columnist Steven Petrow: "This isolation is partly explained by our community’s extraordinary place in history. Many of us lost lovers, friends and family in the depths of the H.I.V./AIDS epidemic, so we find ourselves short on these lifelines just when we need them most."

Ginger beard: James McAvoy.

Ian McKellen to officiate at Patrick Stewart's wedding.

One World Trade Center observation deck previewed: "When the observatory opens more than 1,230 above Vesey Street in 2015, it will take its place among the highest decks in the nation, passing the one at the Empire State Building by a few feet but falling roughly 10 stories short of Chicago’s Willis Tower Skydeck."

Matt Bomer recently spent 10 hours at the top of the Empire State Building: "At 5 in the morning it was brilliant; by 3 in the afternoon I was done. I’m not terribly acrophobic, but after about 10 hours up there, I was definitely ready to come down."

GLAAD: LGBT employees of the New York Post should be ashamed.

More lobbying to end the KissCam gay jokes.

Anti-gay marchers in Paris lose permit battle: "The group wanted to march down the Champs-Élysées next week just a couple of days before the US Supreme Court hears its cases. The cops said "Non!" and a Paris court agrees."

Marine biologists discover whale skeleton on Antarctic sea floor with nine new species living on it. "Samples also revealed several new species of deep-sea creatures thriving on the whale's remains, including a zombie worm known as Osedax burrowing into the bones and a new species of isopod crustacean, similar to woodlice, crawling over the skeleton."

MinusIQ, The Pill to Lower Your IQ Permanently: VIDEO

Tired of idiots? Become one.

"Unfortunately there is one side effect... All those people that you have no concern about will suddenly start to annoy you. People of other races, other sexual orientation, people with more money, basically everyone different from you..."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

(via mashable)

10 of 11 Tour Venues Cancel on Michelle Shocked After Her Career-Ending Anti-Gay Rant

Michelle Shocked's "God hates fags" rant on Sunday night has caused 10 of the 11 venues at which she had planned concert dates on her tour to cancel, Billboard reports:

Canceled Dates:

March 23 at McCabe's in Santa Monica
March 28 at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz
March 29 at HopMonk in Novato, CA
April 24 at the Palms Playhouse in Winter, CA
April 25 at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland, OR
April 26 at Meanders Kitchen in Seattle
April 27 at Cozmic in Eugene, OR
May 3 at eTown Hall in Boulder, CO
May 5 at S.P.A.C.E in Evanston, IL
June 23 at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival

The only U.S. date that has not canceled Shocked at this point is the Harmony Bar in Madison, WI, where a person answering the phone Tuesday evening responded, "I won't know a damn thing until the boss comes back in eight days."

Meanwhile, a longer transcript of Shocked's remarks has emerged since the first reports.

The fuller transcript:

"When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilization, and Jesus will come back...You can go on Twitter and say, 'Michelle Shocked says God hates fags.'"

UPDATE: AUDIO has emerged of her remarks.

Michele Bachmann Won't Back Up CPAC Lies She Told About Obama, Runs from CNN: VIDEO

Michele Bachmann fled CNN reporter Dana Bash when she tried to ask about claims she made over the weekend at CPAC about White House expenses, trying to turn the conversation back to Benghazi.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

What did Bachmann say at CPAC?

"A new book is out talking about the perks and the excess of the $1.4-billion-a-year presidency that we're paying for. And this is a lifestyle that is one of excess. Now we find out that there are five chefs on Air Force One. There are two projectionists who operate the White House movie theater. They regularly sleep at the White House in order to be readily available in case the first family wants a really, really late show. And I don't mean to be petty here, but can't they just push the play button? We are also the ones who are paying for someone to walk the president's dog, paying for someone to walk the president's dog? Now, why are we doing that when we can't even get a disabled veteran into the White House for a White House tour? That isn't caring!"

Should You Hit the Snooze Button in the Morning? - VIDEO

The ASAP Science guys explain what happens to your body when you do.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Shirley Phelps-Roper Loves the New 'Sodomite Rainbow House' Across the Street from Westboro Baptist: VIDEO

Yesterday I posted about the new 'Equality House' painted up right across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

Shirley Phelps-Roper loves it:

“I love it,” she said. “What he does is he keeps the eyes of the whole earth on this message. Now everyday all people are thinking about is God will not have same sex marriage.”

The church even put out a statement.

"We thank God for the Sodomite Rainbow House. It is right across the street from the ONLY church that loves people enough to tell them the Bible truth about the filthy, soul-damning, nation-destroying sin of sodomy...The Sodomite Rainbow house helps shing a bright spotlight on this!"

Watch CNN's Jeanne Moos interview the house's new owner, AFTER THE JUMP...