News: The Moon, Web Celebs, Homophobic T-shirts, Ryan Reynolds

Remember the controversy a few weeks back about a scientist working to change the sexuality of sheep? Well, it turns out that when PETA began a campaign against the scientist's fairly innocuous reasearch, it began a chain of media coverage that turned out like a bad game of telephone. The scientist wasn't really trying to do that at all. We stand corrected.

Judge sides with school officials in homophobic high school T-shirt case: "U.S. District Judge John A. Houston ruled that the case became moot when Tyler Chase Harper graduated from Poway High School last year, but agreed to consider the issues as they affected his sister, Kelsie Harper, still a student. Houston then relied on an earlier appeals court decision in the case to find that the school's actions didn't infringe on students' rights of free speech, free exercise of religion, nor were they hostile to a particular religious viewpoint. He cited that decision, which found that schools have a responsibility to stop harassment on the basis of sexual orientation because it 'adversely affects the rights of public high school students.'"

Hypocrite hunt: An Indiana blogger has sent the call out for those with information on closeted Indiana legislators to come forward...

Gay Southern California athlete who came out to his high school wrestling team dies in car crash.

REPORT: AT&T to give away free service for a year and a half to new customers who buy Apple's iPhone.

Fashion-bots descend on Paris.

Ryan Reynolds goes for plastic surgery after passing out in the bathroom.

The Web Celeb 25: Forbes lists what it considers the biggest stars of the internet.

Researcher: Earth's moon to disintegrate in 5 billion years. "The Moon will be torn to pieces and every crater, mountain, valley, footprint and flag will be scattered to form a spectacular 23,000-mile-diameter (37,000-kilometer) Saturn-like ring of debris above Earth's equator. The new rings will be short-lived. Theory dictates they'll eventually rain down onto Earth's surface."

Crystal Clear: Hohenthaner Cleans up its Act

Following our post last week on Hohenthaner's tasteless ad for gadget bedazzling, you wrote to them, a T-Mobile representative who reads the site became aware of the ad, and CBS News on LOGO did a report on it.

The result, above, as seen in the same publication. Nice work, everyone.

Hohenthaner did the right thing.

Showtime on for Apple

Those of you salivating for the next iPod may be in for a treat a week from today as Apple promises an announcement about something, which most likely means lifting the veil on full-length downloadable movies from the iTunes music store and something new and shiny to run them on.

New whispers about the Apple iPhone were heard coming from American Technology Research today, however, as an analyst shared details of the forthcoming device: "We believe this smart phone has been in development for over 12 months and has overcome substantial challenges including design, interference, battery life and other technical glitches. The design will be an iPod nano-like candy bar form factor and come in three colors (we are not certain of the exact colors but we suspect black, white and platinum, similar to Apple's current color scheme of iPods and Macs)."

A Look Back: Internet

One of the early news reports on this fascinating new mode of communication.

News: Lance's Other Guy, Hackers, Tony Bennett Kiss...

Like vultures, Westboro Baptist Church shows up at funeral for Montana Senator Max Baucus' nephew, slain in Iraq.

The pre-Reichen days: Lance Bass' closet companion Jesse.

Man who killed his classmate in 1985 for revealing he is gay is released from prison after serving 20 years: "Rosenkrantz of Calabasas was 18 when he was sentenced to a 17-year-to-life term for second-degree murder in the June 28, 1985, shooting death of his boyhood friend Steven Redman. The 17-year-old boy was shot 10 times after revealing Rosenkrantz was gay following their graduation from Calabasas High School."

Fighting the dog that moos: Focus on the Family just spent half a million dollars on new group to battle two anti-gay ballot measures in Colorado.

Paramount Pictures demands Tom Cruise take pay cut before greenlighting any more films: "Cruise fans fears that, unless the hardworking actor learns some humility, an illustrious career which has matured from the cocky boy of Risky Business and Top Gun to more naunced performances in The Last Samurai and Collateral may burn out. 'Right now,' said an insider close to the negotiations, 'he is simply too expensive to employ.'

Hacker proves crackability, clonability of RFID (radio frequency identification technology) tags planned for use in new passports: I spend most of my time making the RFID industry's life miserable," the doctorate student told AFP. "I am not anti-RFID. It has the potential to make people's lives easier, but it needs to be used responsibly. The industry and government needs to not be scared of us," Rieback said. "They need to talk with us and to work with us. Hopefully, together we can come up with some kind of reasonable compromise."

Jake Gyllenhaal gives a dog a bone.

Smoking rate higher in gay community: stress, targeted ads, club and bar scene cited. Researcher: "If you said you smoke because of job stress, well, for an LGBT person, stresses can include 'Do I come out at the office?' and 'Am I going to get fired if they find out I'm gay?' There's sort of an added layer for LGBT people."

Tony Bennett on receiving a surprise kiss from Elton John at a recent benefit concert: "I told the audience it was the first time I'd been kissed by a man. I liked it!"

UK gay rights group Stonewall announces first annual awards to honor positive contributions to gay community from individuals and organizations. Awards will be handed out in London on November 2nd.

TED Talks Arrive

>TED is an annual conference that happens every year in Monterey, California that brings together 1,000 leaders in technology, entertainment, and design (thus, TED). Up till now, only attendees have been able to hear the keynote speeches given by invited guests like Al Gore, Majora Carter, Sir Ken Robinson, and David Pogue.

Friend of Towleroad and former Planet Out CEO Tom Rielly has just informed me that a series of TED talks is now online, available both at their website and available on iTunes as Podcasts.

These talks are meant to enlighten and inspire and may provide a great aural alternative at the beach for those of you not interested in jamming along to Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair".