All right, let’s see what we have today. First up, Billy Porter delivers the Queer State of the Union:
A great piece over at Pittsburgh Lesbian Corespondents about the fractions of the local community and how seemingly good causes can actually be a detriment. Also, a reminder that Jackie Evancho sang at the last inauguration: she and her family can be safe, but ignore the plights of other minority communities, and that’s not okay.
Alright, let’s see what we have today. First up, for those enjoying the fourth season of Arrested Development, or in case you want to get caught up, there are two great summaries of the ongoing jokes here and here, and a good article at Nerve about what you learn about love from AD.
This is very scary, ice tsunami:
Wil Wheaton explains why it’s awesome to be a nerd. Check it out here.
I will never ride this (also because it’s in Texas):
I’m not a huge fan of the Pope, or the Catholic Church, but this new pope has made some good in-grounds. Including his comments here. Fun fact though: a crazy bigoted former coworker who is on his way to seminary, is freaking out because in his own mind, you can only go to heaven via the Catholic Church. You know, ignore the pope, his boss, because he doesn’t hate the same people he does. Sigh.
In case you’ve forgotten that public transportation is important, to everyone on the round, check this out.
Google Glass from the perspective of a two year old:
And in sad equality news, a baker has denied a cake to a lesbian couple for their wedding. For those curious, just substitute, say, “African American” before couple and see if it’s still bigoted, and illegal. Hint: it is.
This has been floating around, and it’s awesome. Sad that it needs to be posted, but awesome:
Happy Monday everyone! Let’s see what we have today:
First up, this ad aired only in Canada during the Super Bowl, but I really like it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0qZYqdsYAg
Interesting ad from Copyranter:
What a strange caveat.
Lego is releasing LotR sets, and I’m super excited for them, as well as the inevitable video games. Check it out here.
Amazing post from Literally Unbelievable:
I still need to see Thor and Captain America, but here is the preview for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, and I’m already making plans to go see it:
Another ad from Copyranger, kind of awesome, would be cool to see this run in City Paper:
I love the toast to Jared in this:
And this ad has been making its rounds, I think it’s fairly well done (or at least a good idea, the art needs some work), although a objectifying to women, I hope there’s a male counterpart in the campaign:
And finally, every presentation you’ll sit through, ever:
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:
I love Fleury, a whole lot. Here’s him and Sid talking about the snow (which I realize is ridiculous on at least three levels, but hey, it’s fun):
Speaking of Fleury and Sid, Olympics! Here’s what Slate suggested you watch if you watch just one thing a day. A really funny read (and I apologize in advance for the tardiness of all the Olympic articles, I got so caught up in the games that I didn’t write about them). And here is their awesome Sap-O-Meter. I’ll give you a hint, NBC is really sappy, and generally, awful at covering the Olympics.
I don’t know what’s going on in this picture, but we are seeing Bob Costas outside of his living room, so it’s got to be a plus. Also, Colbert! Make sure you watch this video that I’m not allowed to embed. Stupid NBC.
Slate also takes a stab at the biathalon. Awesome read, which just helps me galvanize my mindset that it’s a weird sport. I have more respect for it, but it’s weird.
I’m thinking it may not be actually from Verizon, but this is an awesome blend of nostalgia and current technology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkWKdJF7Md0
This might be one of my new favorite sites, someone watching season six of Lost, who has never seen it. It’s worth it just for the drawings!
And the healthcare debate rages on, it’s a few days old, but still worth a watch. Rachel Maddow is, of course, amazing:
A gut wrenching blog entry over at PG+, if you’re a subscriber, check out the link. If not, consider signing up! And I know I’ve promised to talk about it over at Metblogs, and I still am planning on doing that, I promise!
A great follow up to the video clips I posted before about the phrase “fucking retard.” As in, “Sarah Palin is a fucking retard.”
I’ve been really, really excited about the return of URU. To help you get into the Myst spirit, check out this awesome online fan project – Myst and Riven books! And in related news, over a million people are now playing D&D online, probably because it’s free (with some premium content). Maybe we’ll see a lot of interest in URU! We can only hope!
The Onion does a great job, and maybe humor is what we need in the discussion, but marriage equality is serious. Don’t believe me? Try filing taxes as a same-sex couple.
What is Wes Anderson directed Spider Man? Oh yes:
Cool ad that was apparently really effective, although the price must be really big, and installation I’m sure was a pain:
Alright everyone, I have a lot of stuff to post again, so bear with me.
First off, Dollhouse went off the air two weeks ago, I’m still sad about it, but I highly suggest you watch it on DVD (skip the first few episodes of Season 1 and start with “Man on the Street”), in case you’re wondering here’s what you missed (spoilers, obviously):
Priya’s painting from season one was auctioned off for over $6,000, all going to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. And io9 recaps why we’ll miss Dollhouse, and it’s an excellent read.
But luckily, Lost is back. Here’s what you missed the first five seasons:
And here are Newsweek staffers who have never seen Lost trying to explain what’s going on:
A new series of books is going to be published via Geocaching. I saw an updated interview with the author, and he’s trying to spread them all over the globe, pretty cool, but kind of impractical. Also, I don’t seem very interested in the books themselves. Oh well.
Thankfully, PG+ has more than 35 members. And by the way, it’s awesome! I’ll be writing about it over at Metblogs pretty soon I hope.
Thanks Supreme Court:
I’m not sold on the iPad, if it was open to more than just the app store, I think I would get one, but right now, I don’t think it’s worth it. Check out Slog’s coverage of it, icnluding this gem of a sentence:
UPDATE: Post edited and cleaned up, because I was drunk.
Pensblog has an awesome guide to hockey fans. Check it out here. And the game is still going on tonight but the doors open early at 6 p.m.
One of the guys I work with is the Mayor of North Irwin! I call him Mr. Mayor now. Apparently the city council just fights a lot, so I want to get a group from work to show up with posters and bells like at a little league game or something. I think it would be fun. Also, as I like to mention, he won by 23 votes: mandate of the people!
NPR has a great article about the passage of time, and how we perceive it as we age. Check it out.
Rob Tisinai is back, his videos are articulate, well researched, and just all around amazing:
The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell hearings continue on. Want to see McCain absolutely owned? Check out this link. Not that he’ll change his stance, but it’s great to see nonetheless. Here’s more reactions to the hearings.
This is pretty awesome, and I think Pat would really dig it:
I commented earlier about the first legal male prostitute, and how he, ahem, compared himself to Rosa Parks. Yeah, he’s not bright at all. Well, the New York Post partook in his services (not all of them), check it out, but be ready to laugh a lot, and barf.
And if that didn’t enrage you enough, check out these three links about the “relief work” Scientologists are doing in Haiti. Disgusting. Because Haiti doesn’t need food or water, no, they need machines to con them into thinking they have dead alien spirits inside them. If you’re still looking for something to do to help, look no further than Savage Love, Facebook, and an awesome idea.
I like the ads, especially the first one, a lot. However, I do have to agree, I won’t be taking marriage advise from Utah thankyouverymuch. Also, the comments are a great read!
Want to commemorate the recent snow, get the t-shirt (I also suggest the map of Pittsburgh shirt):
That’s all I have for now, I have more, but I need to take a break, this has been a long post, but I’m almost all caught up! Catch everyone in a little bit!
