News

Apple and the music labels have been squabbling over the royalties of iRadio, Apple’s would-be Pandora killer. Apparently the music companies are a little sick of bending to Apple’s every whim and want more money for themselves. And Apple is willing to pay it to just get the damn service launched already. Yes, Apple is apparently hoping to debut it next week as part of their Worldwide Developer’s Conference, or WWDC. You know it better as “one of the two times a year Apple announces stuff I care about.” iRadio seems to be the centerpiece: "…Apple is said to be eager to get the licenses in time to unveil the service — nicknamed iRadio by the technology press — at its annual developers conference, which begins June 10 in San Francisco. Apple has signed a deal with the Universal Music Group for its recorded music rights, but not for music publishing — the part of the business that deals with songwriting. Over the weekend, Apple also signed a deal with the Warner Music Group for both rights." Without iRadio, it honestly doesn’t seem like Apple has all that much. Rumors hold that it’s largely going to be about their laptops and operating systems, and honestly, there’s a limit to how exciting people will find iOS 7. Considering that both Amazon and Google are also getting into this act, the sooner Apple gets iRadio up and running, the better.

Grumpy Cat’s manager Ben Lashes and her rep Al Hassas have cut a movie deal with Todd Garner and Sean Robins of Broken Road Productions “to produce and assemble a package for a Garfield-like feature film with the famous frowning feline at the center.” Lashes was featured in The Wall Street Journal, alongside a stipple portrait of Grumpy Cat, where he discusses the other deals he’s helped make for her including a line of Grumpy Cat coffee-in-cans and bottled beverages and a forthcoming book titled, Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book: Disgruntled Tips and Activities Designed to Put a Frown on Your Face. Grumpy Cat was recently awarded the 2013 Webby Award for Meme of the Year.

There has been an outbreak of frozen fruit mix related hepatitis A. 30 people from California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada have been infected. Many of them reported eating Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend, a mix of frozen berries and pomegranate seeds. The virus has been traced to contaminated pomegranate seeds from Turkey that are used in the mix. So far only Costco received the product and has removed it from the shelves. The Food and Drug Administration and the CDC continues the investigation.

Beyonce is easily one of the most beautiful people on the planet, so the idea that anyone needs to retouch her whatsoever is pretty preposterous. And Bey got really (Sasha) fierce when she found out H&M wanted to retouch her bikini photos. A source told The Sun, “When Beyonce found out they had edited the way her body really looked, she hit the roof. She’s a true diva and was furious that she had been given such a snubbing. Her people refused to give the pictures the green light so H&M were forced to use the originals.” Um, have you seen these pictures? What in God’s name could they have tried to improve? “As with all campaigns there are discussions on which images should be used,” a rep for the retailer admitted. “Both H&M and Beyonce are very happy with the final result.” So is every other hot-blooded human on Earth. 

Researchers from the Northeast Federal University in Yakutsk found a well preserved 10,000-year-old female mammoth carcass buried in ice on the Lyakhovsky Islands. When scientists poked the frozen body with a pick dark blood flowed out, which shocked everyone. "The fragments of muscle tissues, which we've found out of the body, have a natural red color of fresh meat. The reason for such preservation is that the lower part of the body was underlying in pure ice," said Semyon Grigoriev, the head of the expedition and of the university's Mammoth Museum. How exciting is that? May be we'll get to see a live mammoth after all. Cloning could be on the way.

A suspicious letter that was sent to the the White House and addressed to President Barack Obama was intercepted by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force for investigation. The Secret Service said that this letter was similar to letters sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a gun-control group he founded. It also contained a small amount of poison called ricin, which when inhaled, ingested or injected even in small amounts can kill a person within 48 hours causing failure of the circulatory and respiratory systems and to which there is no antidote.

Russian scientists have announced the recovery of well-preserved woolly mammoth blood and tissue from a 10,000-year-old female carcass found on the New Siberian Islands off the coast of Siberia. The Russian scientists and their partners from the South Korean Sooam Biotech Research Foundation hope to use the blood and tissue to clone a woolly mammoth. The Russian team was astonished to find the blood in a liquid state, despite that fact that the carcass was surrounded by ice. They theorize that the blood may contain a kind of natural antifreeze.

Happy Memorial Day. Today we give thanks to all of the veterans and active military personnel. We couldn't do what we do without all of the service of all of the men and women in the US Military. Just because they are in the military doesn't mean that can't have some fun. Here are some great military photos. Thanks again for all that you do!

Westboro Baptist Church has caused quite an outrage in Moore, Oklahoma. Church members were planning to picket the funeral of the 9 year old Nicolas McCabe, tornado victim, but chickened out because the community united and hundreds of bikers lined up to guard the funeral from the hateful protesters. They apparently believe that natural disaster victims were meant to die, because god is punishing people for sins.

The ridiculous physical transformation Amanda Bynes underwent is apparently not enough for her new bad girl image. She was arrested for criminal possession of marijuana, tampering with evidence and reckless endangerment this Thursday night. The 26 year old was reported to the cops by the doorman, for smoking pot in the lobby, and as they entered her smoke filled apartment she threw a bong out the window of the 36th floor. This girl is going to be the next Lindsay Lohan.

On May 22nd people gathered in New York City's Time Square for the unveiling of the Worlds Largest Lego Model. The Giant model is a Lego Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter. The Lego Model took 5.3 Million Lego bricks and over 17,000 hours to complete. There was 32 model builders involved in the project.

Most people know of the success of certain people who dropped out of college prior to achieving fortune. This list Includes Bill gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. However; this list is of noteworthy successful people who dropped out before even getting their high school diploma. These are super successful school drop outs.

Sublime songstress Mary J. Blige has been hit with yet another tax lien — this one totaling $3.4 million for unpaid taxes in Bergen County, N.J. Sounds like even 2013 won’t offer her a break. According to sleuths, she owes the “IRS $574.907 from 2009, $2.2 million from 2010 and $647,604 from 2011.” This on top of her charity being sued and separate liens for just over $900K in back taxes she supposedly owes the state of New Jersey. Blige was also sued by Bank of America for not paying back a $500,000 loan or the interest. What’s more, she and her husband are the defendants in another lawsuit for defaulting on a $2.2 million loan back in November of 2012. Given this mess, one of two things must be true: Either Mary J. drowned kittens in orphans tears in a past life, or she simply doesn’t know how money works.

‘Family Guy’ fans have nothing to go all giggety about today, as Seth Macfarlane announced on Twitter that he wouldn’t be returning to host the 2014 Oscars. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Seth took to Twitter to break the news, saying:

After news of a fresh split between ‘Twilight’ stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson broke over the weekend, the world was on high Robsten alert — and today (May 20) he was spotted moving a bunch of his belongings and his two dogs out of K-Stew’s L.A. home. Pattinson was seen driving off with a suitcase, a bike, and two garbage bags full of items in the back of his truck, while his pooches Bear and Bernie rode along next to him in the cab. The duo are currently spending time apart in their separate homes after raising suspicion when Stewart and Pattinson spent his 27th birthday apart — Rob by having a private party that his not-yet-ex didn’t attend (or wasn’t allowed to, depending on which source you read), and Kristen by moping around with her friends. Insiders close to the couple say they wouldn’t be surprised if they got back together eventually (which, oddly, looks an awful lot like the pair when they’re not together at all). But time will tell.

As you may have heard if you logged on to the Interwebs today, Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion, and immediately freaked out basically everyone on Tumblr. Didn’t Yahoo realize that they’re dealing with a community of unemployed millennials who have nothing to do with their time but make GIFs and memes? Because that’s what happened. Here’s how Tumblr is reacting to becoming part of the Yahoo community.