First up, if you use Chrome, check out this really fun map of the cosmos.
Here’s what I just don’t get about those who stockpile guns. I can’t imagine living life so scared of the world. And that’s what the NRA does, convince people to be afraid. And just a reminder, the NRA represents the gun makers, and works to make them money. So making the public afraid enough to stockpile guns is their goal.
Yes, I’m excited, considering Benedict continued to hide child molesters and defend them in court (see: Australia, L.A., et. al.). But I can’t imagine the next pope is suddenly going to drop the homophobic, misogynistic, anti-sex views. I’m not holding my breath. Corporate Hallucinations covers it here.
And this happened the day it was announced:
The other big news is Orson Scott Card being tapped to write a new Superman series. Card, is a very outspoken homophobic bigot (as well as hating the Jews, you know, for being Jews). He’s entitled to his opinion, and I’m entitled to not buy his comics. That’s how it works, although you’ll probably notice that the far-right complains and claims they are being harassed and victimized when the center/left does anything they disagree with. However, when someone like Card, who has been quoted saying that it should be illegal to be gay, gives tons of money to hate groups like the FRC and NOM (and is a member of their board), it’s a bit beyond his opinion and more like a crusade on his part. So excuse me as I try to protect myself. Anyway, the Gutters covers it here.
If this was a Holocaust denier or a white supremacist, there would be no question. Hiring that writer would be an embarrassment to your company. Well, [Orson Scott] Card is an embarrassment to your company, DC. And of all the characters Card could have been hired to write, you give him Superman? The character that taught me to lead by example? To do the right thing, even when it was hard? To keep going, even when it seemed hopeless? What an insult. Kids are killing themselves. They are killing themselves in a climate of intolerance and homophobia publicly fostered by people like Orson Scott Card. You don’t have to contribute to this. You shouldn’t. You mustn’t.”
In case you missed the story, a group of parents and students in Indiana wanted a “traditional Prom,” because the idea of seeing same-sex couples walk in holding hands is so repulsive to them. The school has nothing to do with it, although one of the teachers has said on camera that gay kids “serve no purpose.” The community, a local church and the school are reaching out to all kids, and you can read about the whole ordeal here.
Aside from the whole vandalism thing, this is really well done, check out this Mitt Romney ad.
And then there’s this:
Lev Grossman has an update about The Magicians TV show which is being written, so excited!
Copyranter says it’s unfortunate placement, I think it’s hysterical:
Gardening with Doug (from the PG) has an article about plants that clean the air inside. Sadly, spider plants are on the list. I’m probably the only person in the world to have killed their spider plants. Which is weird, I can usually grow most things. Guess I’ll have to try again.
Copywranter takes on free condom ads, which, since I’m a twelve year old, made me giggle. He also looks at century old predictions from 1911.
The previously known as Colbert Super PAC, Building a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, is now the Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Super PAC, as he ramps up his campaign in South Carolina. Awesome. Make sure to check out their first ad.
Saw this a bit ago, on a fun note, I have the backpacking stove they feature in it. Pretty awesome:
In drug-related news, Pot smokers have healthier lungs than cigarette smokers, and some people are claiming that the drug-war is killing more than alcohol or guns. While I don’t agree with that based on the data presented, the war on drugs is still a colossal waste of time, money and resources.
Washington State is posed to have marriage equality (two votes short in their state senate), and as expected, the Catholic Church is butting into civil rights and urging citizens to oppose it. Slog has a great rebuttal technique.
Wizards of the Coast is working on the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and it’s being partially crowd sourced, which is kind of awesome. The New York Times writes about it here.
And finally, game companies *cough SONY cough* have added to the EULA that you can no longer be part of a class-action lawsuit. Unless you send them a letter opting out of that part. Here’s a website that will do the grunt work for you, pass the word.
Sooooooo, I’ve been incredibly sick as of late. But, always looking for the silver lining, I learned what I’m allergic to by being prescribed a massive dose of it! Yay!
So the CMS I use gave this article the same number as my college mailbox number, so exciting! So anyway, here’s some fun things for you:
Here’s the “official” 140 character description of LOST:
Check out this cool ad, although I’m honestly more impressed with a cell phone in a wooden shell:
I saw this on my phone, and it’s not circulating around Facebook. Mad Elf is amazing (and really high ABV), but I don’t know how much of a case Troegs’ has. Guess we will see.
Zombies are now walking on the Wisconsin State Capital in protest of Scott Walker! Check it out:
Listen, the first one of my friends who has kid around 6 or so (that’s just a guess), has to buy them this shirt:
No exceptions.
Well, this is infuriating. Also, alarmingly scary that over 30 states have laws like this.
So up in Maine, the Republican governor was so incensed by a mural depicting the labor in his state, he had it removed (which I guess is now angering the people who put up the money for it, but that’s a legal battle for another day). I think this is a fantastic way of protesting (it’s not a bad mural, although I’m not a huge fan of the colors used or art style, but hey, that’s not the point):
Infuriated by the police blaming the victim in sexual assault cases, in Toronto, a “Slut Walk” was organized, with over 2,000 people attending.
Copyranter wrote about a previous Hot Wheels installation, putting two giant kids on the side of the highway, watching the road like it was their track. This one is better though, and it’s been picked up by a lot of sites:
The giant news that has overtaken my twitter and Facebook feeds is that the next Batman will be doing some filming here in Pittsburgh, probably in July. Nerdist has a great article about the inevitable reboot that is set to happen after this third movie. Go over and read “Reboot Rage.”
First, I have to mention that one of the comments on YouTube brings up a good question, what about pajamas? But anyway, we had a group that was using the conference center that I was helping to get a quote and put together their permit for their stay. They actually split off from another group that used the same facility because the original group decided that women were in fact allowed to wear pants. As they were explaining their new name to me (so we could get all the paperwork straightened out), they were trying to pull me into the theological discussion. I quickly left under the guise of putting their check in the safe and drawing up their permit. Good gravy.
That’s it for now, hopefully I’ll continue to feel better, catch everybody later!
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:
