Today's Mighty Oak


Alright, catching up on a bit of a backlog in addition to some current items, but let’s see what we have today. First up, a favorite web comic/series, Surviving the World is returning with classic reposts! Here’s where he ended it. Class Dismissed.

Science news you can use: don’t drink your whiskey ‘neat’:

The United Methodist Church is splitting over gay issues. As someone who has come out of that on the other side, hey welcome, it’s a bumpy ride. Sorry you have to do this, it’s painful.

This fight (is still going on all across the country) happened in September in Arizona. Their GOP governor said they don’t need to extend non-discrimination protections to gay people, and their supreme court said businesses can deny service to gay people. The fight continues, and is seemingly never ending.

In other disturbing news, the Interior Department cut sexual orientation from their internal discrimination policies as well.

I wrote earlier about my displeasure at Marvel (and Star Wars) for LGBT erasure. The upcoming film, The Eternals, will, for the first time, feature a gay superhero (and kiss). Yes, it’s progress. Should it have taken 11 years? No.

In other movie news, the trailer for the new Wes Anderson film looks amazing:

If you haven’t, check out Eastsiders on Netflix. It was an amazing series, and here’s an interview with the creator.

Stranger Things 4 gives us a present from Russia (with love).

In good news, a New York state park will be named for Marsha P. Johnson!

The Church of England said sex is only for straight, married people. Then they apologized for offending people, not actually changing their minds.

Firefighters who got angry comments when they showed their support for the queer community hit back in an awesome video.

NASA is adding a luxury hotel to the ISS. Spoiler, if you’re reading this, you will not be able to afford visiting.

An awesome video from a favorite creator that I’ve been mulling over: death and minimialism:

The Utah Governor pulled the campaign that put AMAZING art on condoms to prevent STIs. They’re all great, and it’s a shame he pulled them.

Speaking of, the UK has seen a massive decline in HIV infections due to PrEP. No surprise there.

The Catholic bishops in Texas have blasted their governor (who is Catholic)over his rule to not accept refugees. I’m highly, highly critical of the Catholic Church, so I have to give them points when it’s appropriate. Good for them.

Disney is announcing more details of their immersive Star Wars hotel for their resorts, and it looks amazing and I can’t wait to go!

Google pretty much hit it out of the park with their Superbowl ad:

And another great ad, this time from Microsoft:



Lots of video today, but lots of other things as well, hope you enjoy.

First up, in case you missed it everywhere else on the Internet, the season 4 trailer for Arrested Development:

There are a lot of videos, so I won’t embed this one, but also in case you haven’t seen it anywhere else on the Internet, the first music video from space (of Space Oddity, of course)

From a favorite blogger Clintus, this is actually very accurate:

Also from Clintus, the definition of a very, very bad day.

And we’re all glad she’s back, and of course wish her the best, but Hyperbole and a Half knocks it out of the park.  Read this.

The final piece of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz):

 The UK Parliament is finally working towards apologizing to Alan Turing, the man pretty much responsible for all modern computers.

Congratulations to Minnesota on passing marriage equality.  And the mayor of St. Paul is pretty awesome:

And speaking of marriage equality, Mika is throwing a free concert in Paris to celebrate as well as to fight homophobia.

And if you want to follow along with the next state to debate (most likely Illinois), here is a good BINGO card.

The first promo for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which has been picked up for the fall.  I don’t think the trailer is that good, but of course I”m excited for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySsw-6aety

And as it turns out, this year may be the time that Pennsylvania catches up and enacts an anti-discrimination ordinance.

A massive map of the dialects of North America.  Not much happening out in the Midwest and West Coast.

And what I think is the last video today, the greatest hits of the last 10 years of Mythbusters:

 That’s it for today, have a great one everyone!

 



Alright, let’s see what we have today.  First up, from Jimmy Fallon and The Roots:

Staples is looking to provide 3D printing in stores, pretty awesome!

HuffPo reports on the gene that predicts what time of day you’ll die.  Creepy.

Want a tour of the ISS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW

And finally, some politics.  The far-right is convinced that immigrants are socialists and just want to steal your wealth:

The GOP will authorize wars without paying for them, but they won’t spend a dime to help those affected by Sandy unless they get tax and program cuts.

Florida, like Pennsylvania, admits that voter suppression is the goal of voter ID laws.

And here’s a look at the diversity of the 113th congress.  Holy crap, people born in the 1980’s are being elected (click for bigger):

That’s it for now, have a great one!

 



Quick update for everyone, let’s see what I’ve found today.  First up, this pretty awesome wallet.  Although the guts of it are too simple for me:

 

Apartment Therapy has pics and vids of an amazing Star Wars barrel organ, check it out.

Here are the highlights from SpaceX’s Dragon’s dock with the ISS:

Buzzfeed has a list of six really cool pieces of street art, I’m a fan of numbers 2 and 4.

And this amazing promo item from Comic Con:

A very good, and heart-wrenching ad from the Clio’s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSMlXlIJSk

Okay, one more video, this is the lineup for the next rollout of The Nerdist shows on youtube, looks amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYmtIBfhrW8  



Couple things for you today.  First up, this amazing rendition of Dog Days are Over by Florence +The Machine:

BuzzFeed points us towards an artist who has created indoor clouds!

And finally, an answer to the question, what came first, the chicken or the egg.

And finally, filmed from the ISS:



I’m back from two weeks away, and back to the blog.  I’ll be posting more updates soon, as well as a short update about my trip to Maryland/Delaware, but in the meantime, enjoy all of this:

First up, a video from NASA about watching the Northern and Southern Lights from the International Space Station, absolutely beautiful!

And a really cool video from The Guardian:

Copyranter comes through with an awesome gif, a really cool interactive ad, misleading chalkboards, the truly horrifying, an ad which I like, but he doesn’t and the latest amazing cover from The New Yorker.

This also comes from Copyranter:

And here is a compilation from Better Book Titles.  I especially love their take on “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

And here is the second trailer for The Avengers:

That’s it for now, have a great one!



Quick update for everyone.

First up, sadly, it looks like the Senate is trying to pass another SOPA, just with another name. Bad Senate!  Don’t do that.

Al Jazeera has a good segment about a proposed bill in Australia which will fine parents who don’t get their children vaccinated:

Hint, if you keep talking about how vaccines are evil and a ruse by the government, I will delete you from my Facebook newsfeed.  That will….certainly not teach you anything.

So once upon a time, there was a horror movie made aboard the International Space Station.  Who knew?

And lastly, a reminder to eat healthy and slowly:



Alright, I hope everyone had a good weekend, I’m back with all kinds of stuff, enjoy everything!

First, I’m going to kill you with cuteness.  This monkey sounds like R2D2!

Last year it was announced that Joss Whedon was going to direct an episode of Glee.  And now it was announced that Neil Patrick Harris will guest star in that episode!

Speaking of Glee, the Christian Right is warning parents not to let their children watch it, for, and get this: including too many musical numbers.  Thank goodness they were here to point out the obvious!

But thankfully, the courts have ruled that colleges and universities can decide not to science credits from classes that taught only creationism.

Have you had the urge to listen to “Mrs. Robinson” lately?  It could be because of the huge scandal in Ireland recently.

Conan put the Tonight Show up on Craigslist, although it has already been taken it down, you can check it out at The Consumerist.

And here is the most expensive sketch, from his final night:

Speaking of, this is how the late night wars went down, according to a Japanese news station.  I don’t understand either:

Watch this clip of Gov. Rendell (The Gov. of Philadelphia, I mean, Pennsylvania), does me make some sort of slip implying that he’s gonig to run for Senate, or am I reading too much into his comment about “some of us” losing our races:

This is floating around out there, but apparantly, the number of Crayola crayons doubles every 28 years:

Would you like a Router made from Legos?  Of course you would!

Tim on Distorted View mentioned this one, as well as some other ones, but I do agree, this must be the best Rickrolling ever!

I’m not sure what to think about these signs.  I like them, I guess, and I appreciate how oddly specific they are…

This commercial played while I was at the bar yesterday, I laughed, a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4XQ2vPZgBo

More weight to the only reason I want a PS3: Little Big Planet is going 3D!

If you didn’t watch the Hope for Haiti telethon last Friday, here is my favorite performance of the night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBSaCo39EaI

If you haven’t heard, the fear-mongering and hateful Focus on the Family will be running an ad during the Super Bowl.  Which is interesting, since CBS doesn’t show ads “touches on and/or takes a position on one side of a current controversial issue of public importance.”  Right…

And just to keep us up to date, The Onion has a great roundup of God’s Anger according to Pat Robertson, the jerkface.  Although to be fair, Satan did respond via a letter to the editor.  And here’s a fun little game to pass the time, staring Pat Robertson, Martin Luther and (wait for it) Hitler

I don’t like cats.  Never have.  However, I do have to give this cat credit.  A lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh0fYZirSv8

The guys over at the NOH8 campaign have an awesome blog post called “Redefining Republican,” written after the two McCain’s (Cindy and Meghan) joined the campaign.  Worth a read.

Speaking of Prop 8, you’re telling me that the LDS church didn’t want anyone to know that they were involved?  I’m supposed to be surprised, right?  Here’s the followup, it’s just as important as the first link, as it corrects some of the reporting.  Basically, it’s not a direct quote, but how a witness observed the communication.

Patrick, once again, has an awesome blog post, this time about the Internet as support group, including a note from “The interwebs.”  A little past Cluetrain, but still related, so I’m going to tag it.

Go, right now, and play first person tetris.  Enjoy!  And speaking of video games, hardcausal has an awesome article about explaining games to your grandmother.  Worth a read.  And Nintendo Power makes fun of…Nintendo.

Guinevere the Boy Scout returns, check out her latest post here, an awesome entry about the Winter Parent and Son weekend.

The following video is supposedly DVR proof.  The concept is sound, and I believe proven.  If you keep your product in the middle of the screen, even someone fast forwarding through the commercials will see it long enough to make an impression in your brain.  And while yes, that is true, this ad misses the mark.  Seeing a picture of a grasshopper does in no way make me want to purchase their phone, it doesn’t even correlate, because the brand isn’t in my mind first of all, and secondly, since it isnt, there isn’t enough time for me to see the tiny phone and make the connection.  Not bad for effort, but totally missing the mark:

Contrary to the title, I did not find most of these funny.  While I do think they are good ads, not hilarious by any means.

Caution, more fun animals: Ok, moose are funny enough when they walk or run, they appear as though they  just have extra joints and their limbs just kind of flail about.  And the music in this video is awful.  But watch it anyway, just on mute.

Have I mentioned how much I love Representative Grayson?  And I’m still trying to learn more about the Supreme Court decision, apparently it doesn’t’ change as much as first thought, but it’s still a scary precedent, to be sure!

And now, a fun chart:

Speaking of food, good job, Giant Eagle!  This really is a good use of the Advantage Cards.  And to anyone who was surprised that they were monitoring your purchases I ask, really?

Interested in copy writing?  Appreciate the word ‘inconceivable?’  Check out the Princess Bride Guide to Copy Writing.  That’s right.

The guys from the Woot! podcast went to CES and made this video.  If the Wii by itself destroyed TVs, than that bowling ball is going to make so many, many people cry.  Who would think that that is a good idea?

What would The State of the Union be like of Steve Jobs delivered it?  Slate finds out.

The first live tweet was sent from the International Space Station.  And my mind has exploded a little bit.

Honestly, I’m surprised no one else thought of this.  The BBC straps a camera to birds heads and lets us fly with them:

Ok, that’s it for now, giant post!  Have a great one everybody!

 

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