by Claudine Zap
Lady Gaga may have her "Little Monsters," but Justin Bieber's "Beliebers" have her outnumbered on YouTube: The "Baby" singer who was first discovered on the video-sharing channel just hit a record 2 billion views, beating out Lady Gaga's 2010 record of 1 billion, YouTube confirmed.
According to the social media tracking site Famecount, the teen idol received a massive 94 million views on his channel last month, thanks in part to the huge popularity of the pop singer's new holiday-themed single "Mistletoe," which snagged over 28 million views so far.
The teen heartthrob first found fame on YouTube back in 2007, when his mom uploaded videos of the 12-year-old from Ontario, Canada. The videos quickly went viral and the singer became a social-media star.
The now 17-year-old also holds the world record for most popular single on YouTube, with a whopping 650 million views to date of his hit tune "Baby."
But don't count out Gaga. The diva still rules on Twitter, with 15 million followers (the Biebs has 13.9 million), and Facebook, where she rocks over 44 million fans (eclipsing the teen idol's 37 million). The "Bad Romance" hitmaker is no slouch on YouTube, either, with 1.8 billion views. For the record, R&B artist Rihanna comes in as third most viewed on YouTube, with an impressive 1.7 billion views.
by Mike Krumboltz
Michael Ciron just wanted his morning paper. Instead, the 80-year-old Long Island man found himself in an 8-foot sinkhole on his front lawn.
Ciron screamed for help and his daughter quickly called the police and firefighters. Authorities placed webbing around his torso and pulled him to safety.
According to a buzzy article from the AP, Ciron thought the hole may have been caused by an old well that was opened by the recent wet and snowy weather. Ciron said that he was "very sore" but also happy that he wasn't injured.
Who would have thought that a walk for the morning paper could turn into such an adventure?
by Claudine Zap
With Halloween just around the corner, plenty of thrill seekers were searching out a good scare for the Halloween weekend on the Web. Here, your guide to a fright-tastic weekend.
Scary movies
Searches are scary high on the movie "Paranormal Activity," which has been terrifying viewers since its original opening back in 2007. The third in the series, "Paranormal Activity 3," is out in theaters now.
For a monster flick, viewers are looking up "Zombieland," a horror movie about two souls who have somehow survived the zombie apocalypse. Lookups on Rob Zombie's bloody gore fest, "Halloween 3" have also been fierce in the run-up to the fright fest. For a longer list, check out the Boston Globe's top 50 picks.
The movie website Netflix has also compiled a list of the top-requested Halloween movies available for streaming, including "Freddy vs. Jason," "Dawn of the Dead," and "Final Destination 2."
Haunted houses
There are plenty of haunted-house attractions, which aim to give visitors a theme-park-style scare. But some prefer the real deal: Searches on "real haunted houses" have shot up on Yahoo! in the past seven days, along with "pictures of real haunted houses."
Sign up for an overnight stay at a haunted place, like an eerie New Orleans weekend that includes a haunted French Quarter tour.
Houses with a haunted past are always creepy: Check out the Long Island house made famous in "Amityville Horror" (or rent the movie) that was the scene of a mass killing in 1974. Go back further in time and spend a night at a bed-and-breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts, that was the site of Lizzie Borden's alleged 1892 murder of her father and stepmother.
Or, take in some true American history: The White House (yes, that White House) is said to be haunted by plenty of its former residents, including Abigail Adams and Abraham Lincoln.
by Mike Krumboltz
Pop sensation Justin Bieber is going through what might be his first grown-up scandal. Bieber, 17, has been accused by 20-year-old Mariah Yeater of fathering her 3-month-old child. The Canadian singer has denied the claim.
Not surprisingly, online interest in the accusation has been massive. Almost immediately, Web searches on "justin bieber dad" and "justin bieber paternity" both skyrocketed. Equally buzzy were the lookups for the accuser, Mariah Yeater. Searches for the young woman are off the charts and show no sign of slowing. Related lookups for pictures, her biography, and copies of the lawsuit all also huge.
Little is known about Yeater. According to the affidavit, she met Bieber backstage at an October concert in Los Angeles. She told Star Magazine that there was an immediate attraction, and she contends the two were intimate in a restroom at the Staples Center. Already, a slew of Facebook sites dedicated to Yeater have sprung up. Most of them appear to be in defense of Bieber.
In the wake of the budding scandal, there have been significant searches on "statutory rape laws." According to the lawsuit, Ms. Yeater was 19 at the time of their alleged relationship. Bieber was 16. People are curious as to whether this alleged incident qualifies as statutory rape in the state of California.
According to United States Department of Health and Human Services, the age of consent in California is 18. However, "the reporting requirements only apply to the violations of certain criminal offenses -- namely, those addressing situations involving victims under 16 years of age where there is an especially large difference in the age of the two parties."
Whether three years qualifies as a "large difference in age" isn't clear. Gawker spoke with a defense lawyer about the issue. The lawyer said that "a minor cannot consent to sex, period, under California law. Thus...this alleged mother is at least guilty of a misdemeanor."
For more on the laws surrounding this issue, click here.
by Mike Krumboltz
The world's population is about to hit seven billion. And while there is no way to know who will be lucky number seven billion, the looming landmark has sparked a slew of interesting searches and a compelling site.
The interactive site comes courtesy of BBC News. Enter your age, and you'll see how many people were living on Earth when you were born (approximately). You'll also get to see how many people in history have lived on Earth at the time of your birth. You can then break the data down by country and gender. All stats and figures are provided by the United Nations Population Fund.
If web searches are any indication, many folks are interested in digging even deeper into world population statistics. Over the past week, online lookups for "world population clock" and "world population stats" have both more than doubled. "World population 2011" and "world population 7 billion" have also spiked, as has the never more timely term, "population control."
According to a buzzy article from the AFP, around 80 million people are added to the world's population every year. By the year 2100, the population could be more than 15 billion. Contrast that with the year 1800, when the Earth's population was just a billion. Make room, everybody. It's gonna get crowded.
by Claudine Zap
J.K. Rowling has a confession: The Harry Potter series author wanted Ron Weasley dead. And not at the very end, either. She wanted him killed off halfway through the wizard tales.
The writer admitted as much to none other than Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the Harry Potter movies. The actor interviewed the scribe as part of a special feature to the DVD out Nov. 11, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2", which leaked early on the Web, the Guardian reported.
You can see the clip of the conversation here.
In the short, Radcliffe tells Rowling that he was sure one of the three main characters "had to buy it." That's when the scribe of the beloved books owns up that Harry's best friend almost didn't make it.
She says, "Funnily enough, I planned from the start that none of them would die. Then midway through, which I think is a reflection of the fact that I wasn't in a very happy place, I started thinking I might polish one of them off. Out of sheer spite." Thankfully for fans of Weasley, including his love interest, Hermione, J.K. Rowling never followed through with the thought.
Others seemed just as relieved. On E! Online, commenters responded to Ron's brush with a deadly fate. One wrote, "That would be such a horror if Ron got killed." Another agreed, cataloging the other characters offed: "Killing off Fred, Mad-Eye, Hedwig, Sirius, Albus, Tonks, Lupin were bad enough. If Ron got killed too, it would totally break my heart and depress me forever!!"
For her part, Rowling seemed to be glad to have her dark thoughts out in the open. She added, "It's a real relief to be able to talk about it all."
by Claudine Zap
The bad news first: An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will be hurtling toward Earth next Tuesday. The good news: The space rock will not, repeat not, hit Earth. Even though NASA has classified asteroid 2005 YU55 as a "potentially hazardous object." Even though it will pass closer to our planet than the moon. It will do just that: pass by.
But the 1,300-foot-wide object, which will be just 201,700 miles away from Earth, offers a rare scientific opportunity. "Asteroids have passed this close or even closer in the past, but astronomers have not had as much advance notice," noted Bing Quock, assistant director of the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences, in an email to Yahoo! News.
Quock added that the early alert, coupled with the asteroid's proximity to Earth, will allow NASA to map the surface of this particular asteroid "to quite a spectacular resolution that's usually available only by sending spacecraft up close to the object." The last time an asteroid flew this close to Earth was in 1976. The next time won't be until 2028.
To get a good read of the huge space rock, scientists at NASA will engage a 230-foot-long antenna out of the Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California. The giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico will also capture images of the asteroid, starting at 3:28 p.m. PT on November 8.
Fun fact for amateur astronomers: The asteroid is actually moving too fast for the Hubble Space Telescope to view but, according to CNN, you could spot it with a small telescope of at least 6 inches in diameter. Track the asteroid here.
Space fans are keeping tabs on "asteroid 2005 YU55" on the Web: Searches on the term rose to the stratosphere in just one day. Popular lookups also included "asteroid November 8 2011," "near earth asteroid 2011," and "asteroid near misses." For the record, there have been a few asteroids that have come close -- in planetary terms -- to Earth. A bus-sized asteroid narrowly missed the planet back in June.
by Mike Krumboltz
More and more people are speaking out against bullying, but the practice still exists. All too often, gay teens are the victims. The newest example is especially disturbing.
In Ohio, a 15-year-old gay teen was beaten in a school classroom. The incident was captured on camera, revealing a classroom full of students who did nothing to break up the assault.
The attacking student has received a three-day suspension, but Rebecca Collins, mother of the student who was beaten, says this isn't enough. She is pursuing her options with law enforcement. Her son, who was also harassed on Facebook, suffered a possible concussion and a chipped tooth in the attack
.by Mike Krumboltz
Bobby Montoya is a 7-year-old boy from Denver. Unlike a lot of young boys, Bobby has no desire to join the Boy Scouts. Instead, he wants to be a Girl Scout.
We first saw the story over at 9news.com. The NBC affiliate reports that when Bobby's mother, Felisha Archuleta, tried to sign her son up for Girl Scouts, she was told no by a troop leader.
Archuleta spoke with 9News about the incident. "I said, 'Well, what's the big deal?' She (the troop leader) said 'It doesn't matter how he looks; he has boy parts, he can't be in Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts don't allow that, [and] I don't want to be in trouble by parents or my supervisor.'"
After being contacted by 9News, the Girl Scouts of Colorado released a statement: "Our requests for support of transgender kids have grown, and Girl Scouts of Colorado is working to best support these children, their families and the volunteers who serve them. In this case, an associate delivering our program was not aware of our approach. She contacted her supervisor, who immediately began working with the family to get the child involved and supported in Girl Scouts. We are accelerating our support systems and training so that we're better able to serve all girls, families and volunteers."
We placed a call to Rachelle Trujillo, vice president of communications at Girl Scouts of Colorado, for further clarification. She replied with this statement: "Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization, and we accept all girls in kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child lives life as a girl and the family brings the child to us to participate in Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her. Girl Scouts of Colorado respects the privacy of all girls and families we work with. When a family requests membership for their daughter, we do not require proof of gender, we respect the decisions of families."
So, it would seem that Bobby will get his wish. Gender-identity issues are becoming more common, especially among young children, so this policy is likely to be tested in the months and years to come.by Mike Krumboltz
In the grand tradition of rebooting all things '80s, the big-screen version of "21 Jump Street" just released its first trailer.
The two-minute sneak peak features stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as two wet-behind-the-ears cops going undercover in a local high school to stop a crime ring. It offers a few clues about what fans of the TV show that helped launch Johnny Depp's career should expect.
This doesn't seem to be a remake of the show. Rather, it appears to be a sequel. The captain, played by Nick Offerman of "Parks and Recreation," references that his two cadets (Hill and Tatum) have been reassigned to a recently revived program from the '80s, located at -- you guessed it -- "21 Jump Street." Word on the street is that Johnny Depp and Holly Robinson Peete will have cameos.
From the looks of the trailer, the film isn't going for full-on parody. It will try to find the balance between goofy comedy and cool action a la last year's hit flick "The Other Guys." With Hill's comedy chops and Tatum's ability to look good while throwing a punch, that goal seems well within reach.
The film hits theaters this spring, but already searches are on the up and up. The trailer's launch helped push interest in "21 Jump Street movie" into breakout status. Related lookups on the very naughty redband trailer also surged, up over 1,000%.
