1. Last night, Justin Timberlake visited Jimmy Fallon to promote Friends With Benefits, and the pair used it as an excuse to debut the second installment of their incredibly awesome collaboration, “The History of Rap.” Watch them pay homage to House of Pain, 50 Cent, Outkast, and plenty of other hip-hop favorites, here.

2. Discovery Channel is planning to air a new reality series this fall called Weed Wars. The show is set in Oakland’s Harborside Health Center — which is home to the country’s largest medical marijuana distributorship — and will star its owner, pot reform activist Steve DeAngelo. [via Inside TV]

3. Ron Howard and Dustin Lance Black are teaming up on an adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s book Under the Banner of Heaven, a story about two Mormon brothers who murder their younger brother’s wife and infant daughter because God told them to do it. Considering that Howard just had his Dark Tower project fall through, and Black has written several episodes of Big Love, this sounds like a good fit. [via Slashfilm]

4. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone just signed on for two more seasons with Comedy Central, guaranteeing that you’ll be seeing new episodes of the series through at least 2013, no matter where their success on Broadway takes them. [via Aol.TV]

5. We find this oddly entertaining: The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum, which is currently under construction in Washington, DC, has signed on Clint Eastwood as its Honorary Chairman — and it sounds like they did it because they need more money to finish the project. [via UnBeige]

Bonus link: Top 10 Comic Book Moustaches

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach. [Contacting aliens would be] a little too risky … If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

— Stephen Hawking, as quoted in Discovery Channel’s three-part series Stephen Hawking’s Universe, is wary of aliens and nervous about direct contact. Turns out that ChatRoulette is an acceptable medium of communication, however. Have no idea what we’re talking about? Photo evidence* after the jump.

Read More »

Considering the profusion of nature survival shows on basic cable (Man vs. Wild, Survivor Man on Discovery, National Geographic Adventure series Alone in the Wild, The History Channel’s Tougher in Alaska, and so on), one might assume it’s only a matter of time we hear from the crew behind the documentary. After all, Bear Grylls can’t be under that much duress if his team matches his pace while carrying 50 pounds of camera equipment.  That’s where Outside magazine comes in, feeding our imagination with a collection of anecdotes and photos shared by 16 hard-working photographers to share from their toughest assignments. Read More »