It was surprising to hear the news last week that right-wing billionaire investor Peter Thiel has been secretly trying to destroy Gawker Media through proxy lawsuits. It was dispiriting, and less surprising, to hear the conversation that followed the revelation. The discussion begins, in most cases, with the premise that Gawker is bad. Even those who are rightly alarmed at Thiel’s unprecedented attack on an institution that he regards as “terrible for the Valley” usually feel the need to preface that conclusion with some form of “I hate to defend Gawker, but...”

As selected by the staff of Gawker. These tweets are terrible, man.

Some foods, like pizza, are good hot, and still good cold. Other foods are okay hot, but are not good cold. This is a list of the latter group of foods.

Think you’ve read that BuzzFeed post about things you may have missed in Clueless? Think again.

Reince Priebus

1. Because Taylor Swift isn't going to start a revolution.

"Shapewear" makes you look shapely. Allegedly. It definitely makes you feel shapely, because it squeezes the bejeezus out of your vital organs. Science now says that this pressure is potentially hazardous to your health. But hey, you'll leave a svelte-looking corpse, right?

A few years ago, I judged a child beauty pageant in Texas. For each of the fifty-plus kids I saw that day, I had to fill out scorecard assigning a numerical value to several of their attributes. The first criterion was "facial beauty."

Perhaps you heard the news that Charles Manson is maybe, possibly engaged to a 25-year-old? Or at least that's what Manson's paramour, Star (left, with her bb on the right), told Rolling Stone's Erik Hedegaard during the arduous process of assembling a lengthy profile on the very famous convicted murderer. Unfortunately for the aspiring bride, when Manson was asked about their impending nuptials, he rebuffed the idea as "a bunch of garbage." But apparently that's just something endearing the face of evil does.

Before I even received the invite to check out the Proust app this summer, I was hooked. I watched my friend play it on his phone, dragging a list of five items (thematically linked or not) around on his phone to his satisfaction and then submitting it to the then-microscopic community of those with alpha versions arrived. I played it for about four hours straight once I received my invite, going through the entire slate of lists to rank and submitting a few of my own.

Marie Claire recently asked Ghost of Christmas Past Taylor Swift to identify items "on" a bunch of hypothetical lists (and very literal objects) as part of a hard-hitting interview feature called "What's On." Among the items "on" Taylor Swift's....various things: shoes (ON HER FEET), why the remote in her hotel room won't work (ON HER MIND), and magnets (ON HER REFRIGERATOR DOOR).

Spike Lee, the very accomplished director, producer, and Madison Square Garden defender, has been a film professor at NYU for the last 15 years. Every semester on the first day of class, the former Harvard instructor distributes a list of essential movies he considers "the greatest films ever made," cinematic titles he deems required education for all aspiring directors. Now, Professor Lee has entrusted this academic canon to the electronic world.

Operation Uphold Democracy: Haiti, 1994-95.

Who is your favorite Twitterer? Time magazine has assembled a list of the 140 very most important and entertaining users of the short-form social-media service.

Today, freelancer Luke Winkie wrote a little thing assigned to him by Complex entitled "The 40 Hottest Women in Tech." It was a list, you see, or really, a 40-image slide show of totally bangable women who work "in technology," (which includes, uh, hosting television shows, "New York City Government," and YouTube). The tagline reads, "Our digital beauties." The post begins:

Porn search site PornMD has, for the sake of publicity and social science, collected its most-used search terms for the last six months and accounted them by location—not just in the U.S. but across the world. Is your home state into Teen or MILF porn? What are Iranians jerking off to? All these answers—and more!

Kanye West is unsatisfied with his ranking on MTV's Hottest MCs in the Game list for 2013, poor narcissist.

Forbes released its list of America's Most Miserable Cities this week, with appearances from the usual smattering of former manufacturing towns in the Rust Belt, bankrupt municipalities in central California, and burned-out coastal shells. Do you live in any of these cities? Are you unhappy? Would you describe your unhappiness as conditional and dependent on external forces, or so pervasive you barely notice it?

According to a document found by the Associated Press in Timbuktu, members of al-Qaeda in North Africa were in possession of a fairly detailed instruction manual for avoiding drone attacks. The document, which includes an easy-to-use list, is a copy of a paper reportedly penned by Abdallah bin Muhammad, a senior commander of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It was apparently left behind by the North African group as they fled French troops last month.

A broken piñata shaped like a dinosaur. An HP LaserJet printer infested with bed bugs. An old, empty potato chip bag they found under the bleachers. All of these things would make for a better lay than Kristen Stewart, a millionaire movie star currently in her peak fertility age, according to a recent survey of British men.