Last night, as fighting raged in Tripoli and Muammar Gaddafi's son Mohammed was captured live on television by rebel forces, Twitter was abuzz with talk of who was -- and who was not -- covering the news in Libya -- and who was doing it best. There was a newcomer in the midst.

Earlier this month, Al Jazeera English launched its television presence in the New York area, becoming available to approximately two million cable subscribers in New York City, Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey via WRNN's RISE, which is channel 92 on Time Warner Cable. (AJE will also be available via Verizon FiOS, Channel 466.) And last night, Channel 92 was what a lot of New Yorkers seemed to be watching. But while perceptions of the news organization have certainly shifted since 9/11, its management is still working to convince distributors that there is an interest for international news in America, and to debunk remaining stereotypes.

We spoke with Amjad Atallah, bureau chief for the Americas and former co-director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation, who's stationed in D.C., about AJE's recent Libya coverage, the challenges they face, and how he hopes to impact journalism in the U.S.

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The next season of Law & Order: SVU will feature an episode about an important European official visiting New York who is accused of rape. Remind you of anything? Franco Nero, an Italian actor and husband of Vanessa Redgrave, will play the ersatz Strauss-Kahn character.

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Last Wednesday's Village Voice cover story profiled the DeBartoli sisters, two Staten Island sisters who starred in the never-aired Jersey Shore precursor Bridge & Tunnel and signed enormously binding contracts, legal documents that seemed to be written in another language but that they accepted anyway. This is standard practice for all its reality-show subjects, and though the following is a different document than the one the B&T girls inked, we've managed to get our hands on an unsigned Real World contract. The 30-page spectacular is worth careful scrutiny, but please enjoy the amusingly specific highlights we've summarized below. Happy birthday, MTV!

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We're all anxiously awaiting the return of Mad Men in (gasp) 2012 and dealing with the show's long hiatus in our own ways. We, for instance, drink a martini every Sunday night in honor of Jon Hamm's stunning jaw line, while repeatedly rewatching last season's deliciously shocking finale (has it really been a year since Don did the unspeakable and tied the knot with a CANADIAN?). But the super fans of New York's own Club 60 put anyone who claims to be a real fan to shame. They host regular members-only events inspired by the show, of a sort that would fill die-hard Trekkies with admiration (think authentic full vintage outfits, including undergarments). It's basically a combination of a Star Wars convention and the endlessly entertaining Native Society. We interviewed a member of Club 60, who graciously agreed to speak with us as long as her name was altered. If the alias she requested isn't telling, we don't know what is...

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Miss Heather at NewYorkShitty spotted this poster seeking "Hipstras" in front of T & N Wine & Liquor in Greenpoint yesterday. It may mark a new high in obnoxious terminology. You see, MTV is looking for people, who, given the illustrations lining the borders of the flier, are pretty much "hipsters" in the traditional or stereotypical sense (trucker cap, Jagger haircut, old-school sneakers, ironic 'stache, black-framed glasses, PBR [yawn]), but for some reason MTV is calling them "hipstras" for a show titled I Just Want My Pants Back. MTV is calling them this to indicate that said hipsters/hipstras get paid! Hipstra = Hipster paid to work in reality TV as an extra = Pretty much right back where we started. Go forth and conquer, Hipstra Nation. We'll be sitting here thinking "Lenny Dykstra" for no reason at all. [NewYorkShitty]

Related: Please Welcome "Hampsters," the Hamptons Hipsters

Shit. It's shit. Thank you.

• After striking down a California law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors as unconstitutional, the Supreme Court will look at FCC rules barring profanity and nudity on TV. [Pat's Papers]

• A group of senior citizens in Japan, led by retired plant engineer Yasuteru Yamada, 72, is continuing in their efforts to get Tokyo Electric to let them help in cooling the damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. (Because of their age, they're less likely to get cancer or diseases that develop slowly due to radiation exposure.) [NYT]

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photo by Nate "Igor" Smith

This design probably wouldn't get you cast on the show.

SPIKE TV, purveyor of such televised testosteroney magnificence as 1000 Ways To Die and MANswers, has a new reality show in development called . . . InkMaster. Yes, the Maxim of Cable stations is looking for a few good human canvases who'd be willing to get the design of their dreams drawn on-air by "America's best tattoo artists." So if you're an old in the Tri-State area and you've ever wanted a back piece of the Braveheart battle scene re-enacted by the Muppets, now's your chance.

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There's reasonable, and there's justifiable, and there's stuff you shouldn't do at all except you might understand why a person would, you know, just a little bit. Such is the situation of the man who just couldn't take watching Bristol Palin dancing around on the TV one more minute and, so, shot up his TV. And, more recently, such is the situation of Freddy Caldwell, a Bronx man who became so frustrated with Two and a Half Men reruns that he called the headquarters of WPIX-11 and threatened to blow it up if the reruns continued.

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Next month, the BBC series Inside the Human Body will feature footage from the death of an 84-year-old man. Preempting the inevitable controversy, host Michael Mosley said during a radio interview that it's key not to "shy away from talking about death and, when it's warranted, showing it." The man, identified as "Gerald," agreed to participate "because he hoped it would help others."

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via @NYCMayorsOffice

Today's meet-up between Mayor Bloomberg and the cast of Glee was ostensibly in honor of the show's final season two episodes, and also, less directly, in honor of New York City, which, as Bloomberg put it, "is open to everyone Greeks, Geeks, Gleeks we love 'em all. Our tolerance makes us the perfect setting for Glee finale."

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