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.
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:
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 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:
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!
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.
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!
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:
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…
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.
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:
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!
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.