I don’t know if the video will embed below (I’ll guess no ahead of time), but Dan Savage’s new show starts next month on MTV. And it’s actually making me want to watch MTV again! Check it out:
Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who heads the House Judiciary Committee, expects his panel to resume consideration of the House bill in February. Even President Barack Obama has not exactly killed it.
Rep. Smith will most likely adjust the House bill so it can get an consensus. The same will be done in the Senate. And since President Obama has received campaign donations from Hollywood and the internet industries, according to the Washington Post, he will try to find a way to satisfy both sides of the coin.
First, This is our Internet. We built it. We built it for us, not for you. We get to turn off the lights, not you.
Second, we are better custodians of culture than are culture’s merchants because we understand that culture is what we have in common. We feel pain every time something is held back from this Commons.
Third, just as we can make someone famous rather than having to passively accept the celebrities you foist upon us, we can make an idea politically potent. Going dark was the self-assertion with which political engagement begins.
Fourth, there’s a growing “we” on the Internet. It is not as inclusive as we think, it’s far more diverse than we imagine, and it’s far less egalitarian than we should demand. But so was the “we” in “We the People.” The individual acts of darkness are the start of the We we need to nurture.
Even my own little protest had a little impact, which I was thankful for. I love the fourth point above, about the ‘We’ of the Internet. Maybe it’s a step closer to online equality and an information utopia.
An art installation “sees” you walking down the street, scans your face, and pulls up what may be your Facebook and Twitter feeds, photos and even talks to you in what it thinks your voice will sound like. All of this from information we freely put online.
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: