Quick update for everyone, and hopefully I’ll be back again later today, here’s what I’ve found this time:
First up, the NSFW trailer for the new movie Ted:
And speaking of NSFW, check out the first episode of Savage U. It’s edited for a younger audience, so short clips, almost sound-byte quality, but its a good watch.
For your daily dose of political news, check this out:
Sad that there is such a price discrepancy!
Geek and Sundry kicked off this week with two great videos, first up a new music video from The Guild:
And the first episode of The Flog:
And lastly, I will also be back with my annual Good Friday post, but until then, enjoy this:
Quick update, let’s see if I can get this in before my battery dies (I forgot to charge my netbook, and since I haven’t had it on in a while, it used all the battery updating itself and all the programs).
First up, a new look at Snow White and the Huntsman (which looks so much better, and darker, than “Mirror Mirror”):
And Copyranter comes through with an awesome outdoor campaign for shampoo, and for JP Morgan Chase. Unlike Copyranter, I really like one of the ads, I think the art direction is amazing:
Maddow Blog has a follow up to a story about the lack of parades for vets coming home. Aside from St. Louis (which was entirely citizen-funded), there has not been a parade for any returning troops. But they can put together a parade in two days for Super Bowl champs. Sad.
And speaking of the troops, an artist has done a project entitled “The impact of war on a young person’s face.” Interesting stuff.
Virginia Senator Howell is amazing. When faced with a bill that now (I believe it passed) makes it mandatory for women seeking abortions to get ultrasounds, she proposed an amendment (which barely lost) requiring men to get a rectal exam and cardiac screening if they wanted to get a prescription for ED medication.
I’ve been meaning to post this before, looks pretty awesome:
Interested in SOPA/PIPA and what kicked it all off? Information is Beautiful took a look at the actual numbers, and they are a bit surprising, check it out.
I know some people are excited about this, but honestly, I don’t think they will end up being very good. Hopefully I’m proved wrong, but either way, DC is moving forward with the Watchmen prequel series.
Scientists are working towards making your internal monologue being able to be broadcast. While this will of course help medical technology a lot (think of those in comas, the deaf and those with developmental disabilities), but holy crap, that would be awful if my inner monologue was public. Then again, maybe the people who annoyed me would leave me alone finally.
JCPenny is redesigning all their stores. Interesting to see, especially since my local store is moving from one of the mall to the other, so it’s good timing for them at least.
Remember how Republicans love to campaign against voter fraud, the boogeyman that is not really a problem according to all studies, but it’s a good way to push through legislation that disenfranchises those who tend to vote democratic. But as it turns out, the latest verified case of voter fraud was by a Republican Secretary of State (of Indiana). Oh the irony.
And again, if you haven’t seen it, go see The Muppets:
Facebook has announced a new anti-suicide help tool. Pretty awesome! Although there are so many status updates that are just lyrics, this will be tough to work out:
I have a bunch of stuff to pass on, but I cut the tip of my index finger, so typing is strange, at best. I’ll see what I can do, but I should be back soon with the rest of what I have (unless work does in fact manage to kill me this week).
If you truly believe that labor unions are so evil and/or unnecessary—indeed, un-American—then why don’t you volunteer to give up all the rights and benefits the labor movement has won for working Americans over the past 140 years? You know, little things like the 8-hour workday, weekends, paid overtime, paid sick, holiday and vacation days, child labor laws, workplace safety, workers compensation for on-job injuries, unemployment insurance, health care insurance, maternity leave and family medical leave… not to mention the minimum wage, Social Security, and Medicare, plus a whole lot of other things I’m probably forgetting.
Go ahead, give those things up. Because without organized labor, you wouldn’t have any of those rights or benefits in the first place.
In honor of President’s Day, Nerve has ranked the Presidents and First Ladies in terms of sexiness. You should easily be able to guess who tops the First Lady list, but, points for this description of number 28:
Abigail Adams was not the ugliest first lady, by any means. Just frighteningly severe and voted most likely to “cut a bitch.”
What if the Mississippi River was really a transit map? This is really cool, although I was sad to see the Yough wasn’t listed.
Also, I’m really excited that the Scottish Deer Hound won Westminster! I saw it for the first time on Thanksgiving and think it’s a really cool dog!
Thank you James Earl Jones, for everything:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkDbTEemErA
Okay, let’s play a game with youtube. Of the two following movie trailers, one is for a “Direct to YouTube” movie. The other is a trailer for a Porn. See if you can tell them apart:
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:
Couple things for everyone real quick before I get back to work. Firstly, Mika sings the title track from the upcoming movie, Kick Ass:
Here’s a bunch of Glee spoilers, all kinds of awesome things in there, including the fact that Matthew Morrison and Neil Patrick Harris will be doing an Aerosmith duet, and this gem of a line cut from Sue’s part:
“I will kick you square in the vagina.”
And on a related note, Brooklyn has their own brand on condoms and recently the city voted (online) for a new design, the one I liked the most won:
Although to be fair, I did like the one with the manhole cover, and the one with a top hat, it was classy!
The Guild Season 3 is now being released on youtube (and DVD and iTunes), check out the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_5xcBUydP8
And on a related note, here is a great series on how to make Codex’s staff. Check out Felecia Day and her use of power tools! She makes the Sears’ Blue Crew proud!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJjJyq2yrf8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se2hlrjAsp8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9if6jZs3nqQ
Best. Cuckoo. Clock. Ever.:
Would you like to know more about Daylight Savings Time? Of course you would!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z48Mg0dl4Gw
The government is finally moving forward a little bit on the issue of gay blood donation. Here’s what I don’t understand. Why is it only if someone has had homosexual sex since 1977? What happened in 1977 that made blood after that unsafe? What if a couple was having sex at midnight from December 1976 going into January 1977? So many questions, so little thought. Also, hemophelia groups? I didn’t even know that was a word.
And finally, another video! This one for an academy award nominated movie:
