I can’t find a clip that I can embed, but here’s the link. Watch until the first commercial break, I almost spit ice cream out of my nose, and then of course, I was cheering.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/351492/mon-august-23-2010-rod-blagojevich
Google and Verizon had a proposed contract of some sort, and while both companies state that it will not affect net neutrality at all, EFF is still worried:
On Monday, Google and Verizon proposed a new legislative framework for net neutrality. Reaction to the proposal has been swift and, for the most part, highly critical. While we agree with many aspects of that criticism, we are interested in the framework’s attempt to grapple with the Trojan Horse problem. The proposed solution: a narrow grant of power to the FCC to enforce neutrality within carefully specified parameters. While this solution is not without its own substantial dangers, we think it deserves to be considered further if Congress decides to legislate.
Unfortunately, the same document that proposed this intriguing idea also included some really terrible ideas. It carves out exemptions from neutrality requirements for so-called “unlawful” content, for wireless services, and for very vaguely-defined “additional online services.” The definition of “reasonable network management” is also problematically vague. As many, many, many have already pointed out, these exemptions threaten to completely undermine the stated goal of neutrality.
The FCC had been trying to move forward, but was not fast enough, and this is what’s happening:
and , two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.
Wired covers it here, and Slog does here.
I haven’t heard anything about this really since I’ve been back, so I’m thinking that the deal fell through. But I’ll try to keep updated.
Whole bunch of stuff to add in today, still not quite caught up, but it’s a big dent, I hope you enjoy:
It’s no longer illegal to jailbrake your phone! I could have put this under the Great and Secret Show, but I have some other ideas for that, so I figured I would just link this here. Hooray!
I have no idea where I found this, but it involves The Muppets and Kick-Ass:
Jane Lynch is going to be hosting SNL! Be sure to tune in on October 9!
Over the summer we searched for fake merit badges and found this page. I really like the “Easy Button” on!
How about a lot of Iron Chef America secret ingredients? Ok:
Amazon is now selling more eBooks than physical books. Kind of scary, but interesting. Slate takes a look at it, I can’t remember if it is that article, or another that makes mention of the idea of dynamic eBook covers, which I think is an awesome idea.
Good. Freaking. Gravy. This is why I get fed up with people.
I’ve been reading PostSecret for a while. Frank’s mail carrier retired, but she put some thoughts up on her own blog. Check them out here.
And here’s another fun video for you:
And here’s an awesome news story coming from I’m not even sure where. But I have to say, The strippers sound more level-headed than the pastor:
And I was up at camp when it all went down (and continues to go through the legal system), but here’s some updates on Prop 8 being struck unconstitutional:
Andrew Sullivan pulls out the facts from the Judge’s ruling. He also links to some other excellent writing.
The lawyers go on both Fox News and CBS, and absolutely destroy their opponents (not legal opponents, in these clips, the talking heads). Both are amazing to watch.
And strangely enough, Fox News seems to be flipping. One anchor supports Marriage Equality and Bill O’Reilly tries to make Obama stop enforcing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
And on a related note, a candidate for Governor of Florida (and their current Attorney General) wants to ban same-sex couples from adopting, based on his personal religious views. Dan Savage takes him down a few pegs:
We’re not allowed to slam McCollom for this because, you know, he’s talking about his personal, religious faith here… a personal, religious faith that McColloum would like to impose on everyone in Florida by force of law. And I think we can all agree that every child deserves a mother and a father—particularly the 20,000 kids that are in foster care in Florida right now because they were failed, neglected, abused, or abandoned by their mothers and fathers.
And finally, AFER (American Foundation for Equal Rights), the lawyers for the plaintiffs in the trial, put together this video about one of the couples they represent (points for including Wii Tennis!):
Paul and Jeff from American Foundation for Equal Ri on Vimeo.
That’s it for now, catch everyone later!
And I’m back! Enjoy some of this awesomeness as I continue to go through my e-mail, back logs of links and find all kinds of stuff from around the Net for you to enjoy:
Lifehacker takes you through the steps to disable Places on Facebook. As with anything regarding privacy on Facebook, the steps necessary are long and involved (or at least, longer and more involved than they should be), but I did them this afternoon, so they aren’t impossible.
Did you know that the Old Spice man wants to be a superhero? Check out his transformation here:
And in other amazing video, watch this deleted scene from Return of the Jedi, available on the soon to be released Blu-Ray versions.
I came cross a new blog, Better Book Titles. A personal favorite (and what has turned into my white whale):
(It’s really Infinite Jest, which I have started and gotten about 100 pages in at least four times now…)
A Chinese mall has a new “rage center” where women can go in and smash items that were going to be thrown out anyway. Pretty cool if you ask me.
This article is just blowing my mind a little bit:
Intel announced Tuesday that it had made the first chip that sends and receives information using beams of light…And the company expects to make one eventually that can transmit a laptop’s hard drive in one second and the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress in less than two minutes.
One of the designers of the U.S. State Quarters has released a couple parodies, including this wonderful one of New Jersey:
China is planning huge buses that run on rails (so I guess it is a mix of light rail and bus) that cars can drive underneath. Amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-iIIMco46A
Sharpie is developing a new pen that can be erased for up to three days before becoming permanent. Crazy!
Check out historical events, if they had Facebook status updates. My favorite is Issac Newton, way down at the bottom.
This has been floating around for a bit, but here’s the trailer for the movie adaptation of The Oregon Trail (not real):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHps2SecuDk
And finally, for the D&D kids out there, here’s t-shirt designs for D&D inspired sports teams. I love the gelatinous cubes (because who doesn’t love to say ‘gelatinous’) and the Displacer Beasts:
That’s it for now, but I should be back tomorrow, have a great one!
Radio is a medium I do not typically write about. It’s not glamorous; a favorite book of mine described it “one of the great mysteries of advertising.” But its reach is far, and if done correctly, it can have a very large impact.
The State of Pennsylvania is in the midst of running a new campaign from their Department of Health, focusing on the age limit for buying tobacco. And it keeps getting stuck in my head.
Thankfully, I’m not alone. The folks over at Jezebel have been discussing it as well. Like them, I have not been able to find an online version of the ad, but I’m guessing you’ll know it as soon as you read it:
“Let me see your ID please,
keep it with you like your keys,
sorry please don’t cause a scene,
you know you must be 18″
I’m not the primary audience, which made me wonder if the station I hear it on (Star) would have the most reach to their audience. I don’t smoke, even though most of my friends do, and I’ve always listened to 80′s music, even in high school. Anecdotal evidence, yes. But maybe it is in fact a good way to reach the kind of goofy kids that might be susceptible to peer pressure.
All in all, a decent ad. I can’t say I don’t cringe a little bit when I hear it come on, but I’m always singing along by the end, if only in my head.
Filed under: Radio 
Written: 08/15/2010
A quick follow up for my last writing. A co-worker came back to camp after being gone for a few days for a family event. He was commenting at breakfast how the Huffington Post was completely covered in coverage of the Prop 8 decision. He was excited, and inside, so was I. I wanted to talk about it, I wanted to be elated, I wanted to smile from ear to ear.
But of course, I could not. Showing that much pleasure about a court case in California would seem suspicious. So I changed the subject.
Of course it hurts, and I want to be able to talk about things that affect me and make me happy, hopefully someday soon I’ll be afforded that luxury.
All my best,
The King of Spades
Written: 08/07/2010, alternate title, “Covered in sadness”
Prop 8 was struck down on Wednesday, which just happened to be one of my favorite volunteer’s birthday (and the President’s). I was at work when the news came in. The news came in, and I was grinning ear to ear.
But I didn’t let anyone see.
Later, I was working late, like always, and was the last one on the floor. Or at least, I should have been doing more work than I did. I was scouring the web, reading everything I could about the decision, reading all the reactions. And I teared up a little bit. I don’t understand all the legal ramifications, scenarios are discussed and they are dizzying in not only their complexities, but also the multitude of them. I’ll leave that to the lawyers, for now I was just happy.
I’m so happy for the decision, for the people of California and for equality everywhere. But at the same time I keep stumbling upon the haters, the bigots, and the people who have nothing but malice for how I was born. I can’t understand that kind of irrational hatred. But I am confronted by it. And the anonymity of the Internet is a driving force for many instances (as well as a communicator’s dream to study), but I have this amazing ability to internalize all of it, and keep it bouncing around inside my head.
The next day, I somewhat purposely didn’t go to lunch on time. I didn’t want to overhear the hate that would be spewing. Although, to be fair, two of my co-workers who I eat at the same time as have mentioned in the past that they’re for marriage equality, stating that, “let them be miserable like the rest of us.” I’ve heard that a lot, and it seems to come before real acceptance, and I’ll take it. But I knew I couldn’t be around another co-worker, so I stayed at my desk for a while before going up to the lunch room.
I know I need to stop letting stuff get to me, and embrace the celebrations in this major victory. It’s something for me to work on, it will certainly help in every aspect of my life, but for now, it’s still hard to see the hate, and seeing how it overshadows what should be a personal celebration makes me that much angrier with the person, and with myself.
All my best,
The King of Spades
Well, this is my second attempt at this post, everything crashed, and I know I lost two articles, but nothing that we can’t live without, so we’ll just muddle through.
First though, watch this trailer, which is to my favorite book in the series:
This made me very happy. Mostly because I’m mean. But happy.
Do you want a printer made of Legos and a marker:
Lost may be over, but ABC will sell you merchandise, including the best onsie in the history of the world:
You can also purchase some cool posters here. I like the number 8 rabbit one.
I can get behind this immigration checkpoint:
Want to go into space? How about just your picture, which comes complete with an official flight certificate. Only two chances left!
And finally, I don’t really trust the guys from the Mysteria Film Group, mostly because they just kind of inserted themselves and made themselves official. I’m sure there is all kind of stuff going on behind the scenes that I don’t understand, but I think it’s when they called the fans “they.” Just rubbed me the wrong way. I wish them the best, I want them to succeed, I’ll be the first in line here in Pittsburgh, but I still don’t have to trust them. Anyway, it’s a great tour of Cyan Worlds’ studio and a fun time with Rand:
Cyan Visit from Delve Films on Vimeo.
Have a great one everybody!
Okay, back for some more clearinghouse items.
Check out this awesome article about the two ATMs that are in Antarctica. Pretty awesome.
Here’s two recut trailers for you. First, Seinfeld as a thriller movie:
And Arrested Development as an action movie:
This is something I feel that my friends would do, and I kind of love it, as it reminds me of Kingdom of Loathing. Ladies and gentleman, the Baby Seal pinata:
Did you know that Jerry Springer ran for governor? I didn’t, and this is an awesome ad:
This has been floating around for a bit now, but I have to ask. A blue cape? Really?
In case you hadn’t noticed, YouTube has been blocked in part of Russia. Bad Russia!
I wonder what they would say about this (Republicans blocked the passage of a bill that would extend benefits to emergency personnel from September 11th):
Also, if Weiner would run with Grayson from Florida, I honestly don’t know what I would do, I would just move and work on their campaign for free.
The FDA just approved Stem Cell trials, which is pretty awesome, I can’t wait to see what will come out of this.
Is it possible to embed Facebook videos? If it is, I can’t figure it out. Anyway, check out a rare moment of downtime in the Keystone office.
This story has been floating around, and That’s Church has been covering it as well, but it’s still funny: Kings of Leon cancel show after being pooped on by pigeons.
And finally, I have to disagree with this article, Dollhouse figured it out by using Active Architecture. And then by not needing that Architecture. Maybe I’ll just stay in denial, that sounds like a good idea.
I have a very full back log of links and other assorted things to pass on. I’m going to try to get to posting some of them over the next couple weeks, so this is a clearinghouse of sorts. These are fairly current too, so you’re in luck!
The apps available for cell phones are getting kind of amazing! You can order pizza and have ti delivered to your blanket…in Central Park.
And speaking of iPhones, here’s a fun parody:
A follow up to the periodic table of meat I posted a bit ago, here is the periodic table of swearing (which, incidentally, will probably offend you):
I stumbled across “Continuity” a game from the Independent Games Festival, and it’s a lot of fun, check it out here.
So my birthday is coming up, here’s a gift idea for you:
Probably not that safe, but still freaking cute!
World War Z is being made into a movie, and Brad Pitt is going to be in it! I think I’m most excited that it will be a movie, though. If you haven’t read it, it really is an amazing piece of work, even if you don’t like zombies, the writing is simply amazing!
Also in awesome writing, check out this article from Nerve about hitting on your waiter/customer. It’s a really fun read, check it out.
And for fun, check this mash up out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4PuYsDdXjI
For some strange reason, I feel as if my cousin would love this product. However, I don’t know how one tactfully asks a relative their bra size in order to purchase a Christmas gift. I feel as though that is a sentence most people don’t ever write or say out loud.
He’s just asking, did Glenn Beck steal his credit card information and sell it to the Russians? All signs point to yes.
So, Mel Gibson. I feel as though I don’t need to say much more besides that. I’ll add two things. One, adorable kittens (and here’s my favorite)!
Make sure to check out the link to see the other 19 worst rants by Mel (as presented by adorable kittens). Also, did you know he’s dating a man:
That’s it for now, catch everyone later!
