Fairly big update for you today, let’s see what I have.
First up, pretty awesome spot via Copyranter:
Tampa Bay drafted a paralyzed player, who would have been in this year’s draft class. Very, very classy.
I was just talking about Stephen King yesterday, so it’s nice to see him asked to be taxed, but here is the more important quote:
I don’t want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share. That our civics classes never taught us that being American means that — sorry, kiddies — you’re on your own. That those who have received much must be obligated to pay — not to give, not to “cut a check and shut up,” in Governor Christie’s words, but to pay — in the same proportion. That’s called stepping up and not whining about it. That’s called patriotism, a word the Tea Partiers love to throw around as long as it doesn’t cost their beloved rich folks any money.
Totally not appropriate for work, but I love watching these three grandmas as they watch the Kim Kardashian sex tape:
The Good Men Project has a top ten list, of why you should only read top ten lists. Very clever, I especially like number four.
There’s a big stink about Dan Savage and his recent remarks. I have a lot of thoughts about it, although he sums it up very well. Please have a read here, it’s long, but it’s worth it. And the sad but true follow up, a study has revealed that non-religious are more compassionate that those who are religious. Guess that’s why the “Christian” Right has been able to draw up so much fake outrage and cries of being bullied when someone uses their own freedom of speech to disagree with them and point out some hypocritical facts about parts of religion.
But anyway, go read the first link, totally worth it. Have a great one, I’ll be back with more soon!
Gingrich would like to remind everybody that that marriage is between one man and one woman whom you abandon riddled with cancer on her hospital bed while you fuck the shit out of your mistress whom you later marry and cheat on with a third woman while screaming with Godly moral outrage about the infidelities of the president.
Bill Gates talks about this latest endeavor, eradicating polio around the world. My favorite quote however, is where he states the vaccine-autism link is an ‘absolute lie.’ I’ve never really listened to him speak for that long, but he is very well spoken. Maybe not as good as Steve Jobs, but better than what I had perceived he would be. Anyway, here’s the clip:
And lastly today, this is scary first, because of the oppression of expression (and bloggers) and two, because it is a reality that in some areas, certain ethnic groups have limited rights.
Hello everybody! Big ole update for you today, enjoy the links and all the fun things!
I saw Alice in Wonderland last week, and I enjoyed it, although the 3D was totally unnecessary, and I would suggest you save the money and see it in normal 2D. One entire section of the movie is the classic orange/blue contrast (Alice’s dress and the Mad Hatter’s hair), which was cool, but kind of overdone. And strangely enough, every singe preview before the movie was for a Disney movie. My brother and I both noticed it, I hope that does not become a trend. Disney however, did do a cool thing and pull the original Alice out of the vault for an ‘unanniversary’ release. And finally on the subject of Alice, check out what Disney did with $700,000 dollars:
The Wrap discusses the blurring of the line between news and advertising and the journalistic integrity/ad revenue debate that always rages on. Do I like te ad? Not really, I don’t think it made much use of the medium. Do I think readers realized it was an ad and knew to turn the page? Yes. Do I think it probably annoyed them? Yes. But then again, those are just my thoughts.
Queen of the Nerds, Felecia Day will return as Little Red Riding Hood on SyFy (I feel dirty just typing that). I’m very excited, hopefully it turns out well. Now to wait for The Guild season 4!
Also in nerd news, BrentalFloss’s first CD is coming out soon:
I’ve been dating someone really great for a few months, but he’s never referred to me as his girlfriend. How do I take it to another Level?
While the obvious answer is “Accomplish a story task in the boyfriend track for XP equal or greater to your next level threshold,” I get the feeling you might be hinting that you want to descend into the fetid labyrinth that festers beneath his ancient wizard’s tower. In that case the stairs are in quadrant M23, behind the Throne of the Kobold Hetman.
I know it’s been over for a while, but this is one of the coolest things to come out of the Olympics: Water usage (specifically dealing with toilet flushes) during the gold medal hockey game. Pretty awesome!
Here’s a cool video made entirely from a flatbed scanner:
I missed it (due to date and the fact it was in Washington State), but even though I’m horribly afraid of any kind of public protest, I might have gone to a protest for Pluto:
ATTENTION ALL CONCERNED CITIZENS!
A horrible injustice has occurred! Aghast astronomers, intrepid interstellar adventurers, and many others have joined forces to protest one of the darkest days in recent solar system history. Pluto—the smallest and most distant planet—has been removed from the planetary pantheon.
We refuse to bow to this outrageous decree and declare: PLUTO IS A PLANET.
It’s been stirring for a while, but here are some of the letters that have been send to the Itawamba County School Board, in response to their cancellation of prom and then trying to blame it on one of their students.
And speaking of, here is a great, great editorial piece written in response to it, here is one of my favorite paragraphs, which is a little out of context, so I would encourage you to read the whole thing:
What happens is that some Protestants cherry-pick edicts out of the Bible that support their prejudices and then, in a neat bit of mental judo, spread their arms wide and claim their religion is under attack if anyone contradicts them. “What about tolerance for ME?” they cry. It’s as if I seized a copy of the Bible and began beating someone over the head with it and, when you try to stop me, I accuse you of failing to respect my faith.
And some more old news, check out Jon Stewart discuss the Massa/Beck interview:
Cool video showcasing monsters/aliens taking profile pictures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcbZ0v8Mpvk
Here’s an interesting article about how to put together a useful online news room, some great ideas, although I would probably pick and choose a couple of things, depending on the situation of course. And Nathan discusses some of his favorite online tools.
I saw this on Slog, and I think a couple other places, but here’s a cool video about possible future kiosks that will work with tablets:
Penguin Books is going to be releasing cloth bound, hard cover classics, the design is very old, but impressive (especially the cloth). Here is what the first and second sets will look like.
Apparently one of Tiger’s mistresses has released the contents of her text messages with him. Apparantly we already knew half of the conversation, so Slate put together their own version:
Joslyn: Sent: 04:02 PM 08/28/2009: What would you say to Carlsbad Caverns if you were there right now?
Tiger: Sent: 04:06 PM 08/28/2009: I want to be deep inside you
Joslyn: Sent: 04:12 PM 08/28/2009: LOL. I love spelunking.
And in scout news, the Girl Scouts (who are surprisingly more and more progressive, even if their paperwork or organization doesn’t really work or make any sense), even (denying and then admitting) to putting out a sex-positive, realistic pamphlet. The PR is kind of a nightmare (denying it, then making up lies, then saying that it was yours all along). And the story is at a conservative site that uses a boy scout merit badge sash by the way. And over on the other side of the gender gap, an Eagle project had to be changed from a volleyball court to bocce due to noise concerns. It doesn’t make any sense to me at all, but that is part of the process, working with the community. I will add though, that when we play bocce at camp, we are generally pretty loud, it’s because we’re having fun!
The Kill The Gays bill in Uganda debate rages on, Andrew Sullivan covers it, here’s a quote:
The anti-homosexuality bill, simply put, is a backlash. A backlash from a group that, in the long run, is losing the battle of ideas.
Even though we have been together for six years, shared a household for five and a half years, pooled our finances for five and a half years and will be celebrating our third wedding anniversary this summer, we are total strangers as far as the federal government is concerned. And if the federal government recognized our marriage, I would have been an American citizen three years ago. In fact, if I had married a longtime female friend 20 years ago, I would be a long-standing citizen right now. (Yes, a heterosexual marriage would have voided the HIV ban automatically for the past 22 years.)
What does the federal government call a legally married man who has paid taxes for twenty-two years and has a PhD, and a job? A faggot.
In college we read a book called The Influentials, and this made me think of my friend Teri, who most certainly was an influential on our campus. I’ll have to alert her to her changing status…
I don’t have anything to add to this trailer, it’s just awesome:
And finally, here’s a cool montage of movie endings:
