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News
New York Times:
Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions.
The divided court ruled 4-3 that gay and lesbian couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry under the state constitution, and Connecticut's civil unions law does not provide those couples with the same rights as heterosexual couples.
Congratulations Jeff!!!
At a live CNN report in front of the Lehman Brothers building Sal Governale and Richard Christie from Howard Stern's radio show "console" each other very passionately in the background. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0PT1oHaqaU]
[Via]
1. Leo DiCaprio avoids the reality TV cameras of The Hills. 2. What awaits at the bottom of the Dow Jones Industrial Average trend? DRAGONS.
3. Giant distorted working iPod.
4. New York Magazine "diary" of a single college girl in the City has to be fake.
5. YouTube ups the size limit of uploads from 100 MB to 1 GB. Awesome, now I can watch Chronicles of Riddick in just four parts instead of twelve. [Thanks Nick!]
6. Visual comparison of failed $700 billion bailout with other federal funding.
7. McCain campaign owns the URL voteforthemilf.com. Hah.
8. Great pizza ad.
9. Photo stitching with the iPhone.
10. Where's the freakin' press conference? "Since she was selected, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has held more press conferences with American reporters than she has."
11. This cupcake looks so dang delicious that when I first saw it I said that I wanted to make sweet love to it. Except I expressed this sentiment much more crudely.
And lastly:
The American Society of Magazine Editors have chosen their finalists for the 2008 Best Cover of the Year contest. It comes down to these three covers and the winner will be announced on Monday, October 6.
Click here to view the finalists in the other sub-categories such as celebrity, fashion, and news covers.
Hell hath no wrath like a late night talk show host scorned as John McCain learned tonight after he canceled his scheduled appearance at the last minute with David Letterman. McCain's excuse was that he had to rush back to Washington to deal with with the economic crisis facing the country (says the senator who has missed the most votes than his colleagues). That's all fine and dandy, except Letterman's crew midway caught him instead preparing and getting his make up applied on the set of the news show Katie Couric. Letterman subsequently eviscerates McCain's disingenous actions.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E]
America, say NAY to the debate DELAY! Answers now!
[Via]
Someone placed a McCain/Palin sticker on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department cart parked inside Penn Station. After the MTA was notified by the Times, it was promptly removed as "authority employees are prohibited from using M.T.A. property to disseminate political opinion."
What I find interesting about this is that this bumper sticker was placed on the inarguably the most emasculating, effete vehicle in the police force. I mean, it's called a cart. It's all style and no substance. It's meant to give an impression of presence in a busy and crowded train terminal, but really it is merely an unused trophy kept behind velvet red ropes. It's nothing but lipstick on a pig, kind of like what the McCain campaign has presented to America: We give you something pretty and distracting to look at and hope no one notices that it doesn't do anything.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCSaF4KC3eE] It's so irresponsible of a "journalist," especially one so prominent as Bill O'Reilly to refuse to understand the basic fundamental principles of the First Amendment. It's shockingly ignorant, even by his low standards, that he doesn't get why websites like Gawker and others cannot be prosecuted for publishing the hacked Sarah Palin e-mails. I'm not sure which bothers me more: His apparent lack of intellect or his perverse interest in loofahs.
[Via]
The New York Times reports:
The city’s unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent from 5 percent in July — the largest monthly increase in more than 30 years — as about 5,200 private-sector jobs were eliminated, the department reported. Many of the layoffs came in the tumbling financial sector, which is one of the city’s biggest employers and the provider of nearly one-fourth of its annual wages and salaries.
Obviously that number is only going to rise after the events of this week. I just hope my friends in Wall Street and Midtown are okay.
Previously. On day 2 in San Francisco...I don't remember what I did during the day (probably ended up sleeping in late), but we headed out to meet up with couple friends for dinner in SoMa.
The quaint SF subway paper pass. The public transportation in SF is in need of some serious modernizing and upgrades. Note the date stamp on my pass: it reminds me of elementary school when I would check books out from the library and the librarian would stamp my book.
I noticed a street sign advertising the Frida exhibit, which I became excited about. I did some research on her in college but had never had the opportunity to see her art in person, so I added this to my trip itinerary.
Passing by the front of the SFMOMA (the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art).
I've been working out a lot.
Another view of the...structure and the SFMOMA in the background.
Kaizar jumping in front of the nearby MLK memorial.
The memorial had quotes from Martin Luther King.
Community organizers.
Word.
The CNET building.
Kaizar showing me the scenic areas of his city.
Akash! Omar! Omar was in town for a hot minute doing a law firm interview before heading back to Northwestern.
I ordered a beer...and didn't expect it to arrive like a fruity beer-tini. Whatever. The watermelon was delicious.
After dinner we walked past this gallery and through the window I saw this scene. It struck as a bit bizarre.
Heading to the neighborhood of the Mission with Kaizar and his friend....name?
And me on the other side obnoxiously taking the middle seat.
"Okay, can I have the camera back now?"
"Seriously? You're not giving back the camera? Fine."
It seems like stores push out holiday promotions earlier and earlier each year. It's not even Halloween yet and I'm already thinking about Christmas.
And then soon after this I faded and crashed hard core. I'm blaming it on jet lag. We went to Akash's apartment to drink and hang out. I ended up passing out on the couch, too tired to notice that my beer bottle had tipped over and beer was pouring all over my jacket. Oops.
Interesting observation by Garry Kasparov regarding the implications and results of Russia's recent foray into Georgia:
For the first time since the Crimean War, Russia has no allies," said Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster turned opposition politician. "We are encircled by countries that are either suspicious or alienated and very angry.
What's particularly telling about this conflict is China's muted and rather chilly voice towards Russia. As The Economist notes
A Chinese spokesman said his country was “concerned” and called for “dialogue and consultation”. That reflects both China’s pragmatic desire for good economic relations with the West, and also its dislike of both separatism and interference in other countries’ internal affairs. With Tibet, Taiwan and restive Muslims to contend with, China takes a dim view of anybody chopping up other countries and declaring the results to be independent states.
William Drenttel (rightfully) criticizes a recent flag design competition hosted by Adbusters on the topic, ironically, of global citizenship.
The jury consists of 7 judges, 4 of whom are contributors to Design Observer, and all of whom are capable critics, respected in the field.
The seven person jury, however, consists entirely of white men.
Nearly a decade into a new century, I believe it is unacceptable for a design organization, foundation, board of directors, magazine or other enterprise, to mount an initiative with an all male panel of judges — or, put another way, "white, native English-speaking men from the U.S., British Isles or Australia." Such behavior is no longer acceptable and should not be tolerated by a community of designers (or any other community).
Designers around the world should just say no.
Read more here.
[Via]
Incontrovertible women's rights advocate and American icon Gloria Steinem wades into the Palin (who "shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton") discussion with a focused Op-Ed in the LA Times. I strongly urge you to read Steinem's piece, but here are the highlights (bolded portions are my editorial emphasis):
This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere.
[...]
She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them.
[...]
So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues...
[...]
[Palin] opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling.
[...]
As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.
Read full text here.
I went with a very literal descriptive headline for this photo, which I seriously hesitated about posting and secondly, I just can't believe it was NOT photoshopped.
Anyway, is this photo the stuff of wet dreams for conservative Americans?
Aside from that above throwaway low blow statement, I'm pretty speechless. Actually, I'm the opposite of speechless, and I want to say so much about it, but like Socrates I'm going to leave it up to you guys for your best caption or headline for this photo. Here are some starting points to help you on your way: patriotic swim suit, guy in background holding a tall boy and smoking a cig, ANOTHER rifle in the background.
As an Alaskan, I want to reiterate again that there are many good people in Alaska.
[Via]
Update: This CAN'T be real. HAS to be photoshopped right? Right? Confirmed. Still hilarious.
Update 2:
Still hilarious tho.
In an exercise that will be beneficial to both me (emptying out my Google Reader's "starred" items) and to you (a whole lot of stuntastic things from around the Internets), I'm bringing back an old segment that will be familiar to my oldest readers, "News I Find Interesting!" Here, I will be posting a long list of links and such that I've encountered that I found interesting, amusing, idiotic, titillating, or hilarious, but didn't get around to sharing with you. You may have already seen few, some, or all of the links below, but in any case I hope you will find an item or two of note that YOU will find interesting.
1. The New York City's Department of Transportation has installed nine unique bike racks designed by David Byrne, yes of the Talking Heads fame, but did you know he is also a bike enthusiast? It is only temporary but I hope the powers that be change their minds and make them a permanent addition to the City landscape. More information, including rack location (hi-ho!) here.
2. Do your best Beavis and Butthead laugh when looking at this unintentionally funny sign.
3. Idiot TSA "inspector" breaks commercial airplane. TSA guy should be added to the "no-fly" list as he clearly is a danger to travelers.
4. The DUI Mario Kart experiment. Damn, I'm ready to submit myself as a subject for an experiment like this. Any fellow geek want to organize this?
6. Photos of cute animals + website = Profit! Cute Overload, the popular site of fuzzy wuzzy puppies and kitties, is making the owner some nice chedder from advertising. WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS FIRST?!?!
7. People taking photos of Obama. One dude got himself one of those green disposables just for the occasion.
8. All that music you kids are uploading and streaming from Muxtape is costin the company a whole lotta money in the hosting category. Looks like cloud computing might be expensive enough to bring a company crashing back down to earth.
9. Michael Phelps doesn't want to make a splash and piss off advertisers and sponsors. He just wants to be a corporate bitch. Post-college idealist MRod is looking to do the same. Sponsors, sponsor me!
10. Selections from H.P. Lovecraft's brief tenure as a Whitman's Sampler copywriter. Haha!
11. What makes for a good blog. I agree with many of the points, but I break most of the "rules." I think those traits make for popular blogs, but that is separate from what I specifically enjoy about blogging. In the end, there's no hard and fast set of rules. Do you. Do what you like to do that will keep you blogging, even if it is for just a month or two.
12. LGBTA L.G.P.A, the Ladies Golf Professional Association, is requiring all its golfers to pass a verbal English test or face suspension. This new rule was especially aimed and communicated to the South Korean contingent. It's so jarring to read of something so anachronistic as "English-Only" in the 21st century particularly when it pertains to professional sports which is becoming more and more globalized in a symbiotic relationship for new talent, bigger audiences, and more money. As the Times writes:
Women have been fighting against discrimination in golf for decades, as Augusta National Golf Club — home of the Masters Tournament and still lacking a single female member — shamefully demonstrates. For the L.P.G.A. to impose discriminatory rules on its own members is not only offensive, it’s self-destructive.
And IDIOTIC!
13. Campbell Soup Company's marketing manager writes to Andy Warhol. So pop.
14. Eric Ripert, chef of top restaurant le Bernardin, is blogging recipes of dishes he creates using the common toaster oven. He's JUST LIKE YOU AND ME! Okay, not at all.
15. Drawing with a cup of coffee and a spoon. Genius. I can't wait to try this at brunch next time and piss off the server.
To read more click after the jump...but you've been warned: there's a LOT more to read.
16. Another upcoming show, called The Wrong Door from across the Atlantic that looks promising. The BBC is so on point.
17. Has the identity of the Zodiac Killer been uncovered? He may be....RIGHT BEHIND YOU!
18. The most obsessed Twat Twit ever. Dude gets the Twitter error message image tattooed. I'm definitely "unfollowing" this cat. Freak.
19. Matt Harding, you know the guy who danced all around the world, now brings his schtick to the corporate boardroom to "boost morale." I would jump around like an idiot for a paycheck too. Yea, I'm hating. So what?
20. Sarah Palin's Wikipedia page got a bit of Fall cleaning right before McCain announced her as his BFF (after only just meeting her once).
21. A new study in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics argues that medicine tailored to specific "races" or racial groups are doomed to fail. Although two individuals may be of the same "race," a label that is a social construct in of itself, their respective genomes may respond differently to a particular medication.
23. Bush eats cat on the cob. Haha.
24. This sci-fi film noir short (won a film contest) is pretty good. In a future where cloning is widespread, this detective tries to track down who is murdering his own clones.
25. LA has had a serial killer out there for awhile. Yikes.
26. This teenager started a Zune chat community in 2006. He earned $1,000 a month for a couple years from advertising and just recently sold it for $62,000. I hate my life.
27. Soulja Boy talks about the hacker who hijacked his MySpace and other pages.
28. VPILF. LOL. "Just a heartbeat away from being a PILF." LOL.
29. Headless teddy USB drive. Or in other words, "How to be even MORE creepy at work."
30. Nasubi, the naked guy who lived on freebies for an entire year for a Japanese reality show for a sort of real life Truman Show...except even more fucked up!
31. YouTube Comment Snot - A Firefox add-on that will hide all those stupid comments on the popular video hosting and streaming site.
32. Strawberries and shake, the perfect combination? YES YES YES.
33. Banksy hits up New Orleans. BANKSY -- COME BACK TO NYC! Specifically, come to Park Slope and tag up my apartment building or hell, even my apartment room itself! Thanks!
34. Militant art. ERIN, Please have your [famous] boss buy this please!!
35. I know it's a low blow, but mang, it's still funny. Old guy + young gal = Comedy.
36. Michael Jackson and Emmanuel Lewis vintage video. Back then this was probably considered cute. Today, frightening. I'm watching it and all I keep thinking is "How the heck is no one flying across the screen and tackling Michael while screaming KEEP THE FUCK AWAY FROM THE CHILD MICHAEL!"
37. Cute Overload. Damn, this puppy whistling is so cute I want to just pop it in the microwave on high heat.
38. Hysterical Nickleback parody. Seriously, I wasn't going to watch it because well, I hate Nickleback, but I'm glad I did. Hilarious.
39. Oddly compelling video put together using photos of Bush, Obama, and McCain. It sounds a lot more interesting than it reads.
40. This cat bento box should have two heads.
41. Nine breathtaking bridges. Although I'm pretty much amazed by any bridge which I think are amazing feats of engineering.
42. Obama needs to unleash his moneyed advantage and buy up some keywords.
43. GUTEN TAGGGGG! Breakfast for yo brain!
44. As Gawker says, this story is the most Onion like story yet. It reminds me a lot of the vibe of St Louis.
45. North Korean anti-America propaganda posters.
46. The most unhappy dogs in the world. I would be too if I had to wear what they were forced to wear.
47. Camouflage art.
48. If a black hole accidentally occurred here on earth, what would the repercussions look like? Like this.
49. Parking tickets for those who've crossed the line.
50. Dave Freeman, co-author of 100 Things to Do Before You Die" dead at 47.
51. Train nearly runs over idiots. It's a "HOLY SHIT" sort of a moment in the video.
52. "Old man" does magic tricks on subway trains and amusement parks. The last one is hilarious.
53. China isn't the only country that lip synched its Opening Ceremony. Those Aussies did it as well during the Sydney Olympics.
54. How did we end up with a drinking age of 21 in the first place [in the US]?
55. Zombie emergency procedure. Guide on what to do in the event of a zombie attack.
56. Heh. Evily genius in today's age of hyper-connectivity. Fake Following.
57. The Japanese Anna Kournikova...sourta.
Yesterday at exactly 10:14 in the evening, Barack Obama, in front of nearly 80,000 people, formally accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
Remarkable.
Exactly 45 years ago on the same date, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired a nation, people, and generations when he stood overlooking Lincoln Memorial and said "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation" and he shared his dreams:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
It is not hyperbole to say that this week and the events that took place in Denver, Colorado, has been a historic and momentous one. However Dr King's words continue to ring true today as he cautioned that "This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism."
Tonight we celebrate, but the urgency and the fight continues. We will not be satisfied!
Even while McCain acknowledged the seminal significance of the moment in his congratulatory message to Obama, McCain's campaign distributed a statement, as Obama still stood on stage and fireworks exploded in the sky, with the following (mis)interpretation of the evening:
Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama,” said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain..
That did not take long.
What I do know is that America has witnessed over the past eight years is our precipitous decline, thanks to a misleading administration and party. During this same period McCain's record shows that he voted with Bush "90 percent of the time." If that's the sort of experience and leadership the Republican nominee is offering, then...thanks but no thanks Senator McCain.
Note the bottom-screen text in this screen capture from Fox News. It may be the stupidest thing I've ever seen...and I really hesitate to use "stupid" because it makes the word "stupid" look bad. I don't care what end of the political spectrum you subscribe to, because the idiocy presented there onscreen is plainly obvious. Otherwise, anyone that buys into this should really not be allowed to breed.
If anything, this is what I see:
OSAMA/BIDEN
AWESOME BID!
COINCIDENCE?
[Thanks N]
“I say to you: Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world,” Mr. Clinton said. “Barack Obama is ready to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.” - Bill Clinton
In the latest issue of The Economist, the Bagehot column (which focuses on British matters and topics), to describe British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "attitude to, and aptitude for, foreign relations," referenced a line King George V was once alleged to have remarked:
I don't like abroad...I've been there.
Side note: I wonder how much this specific and recent event, Middle East conflicts aside, influenced the pick of foreign policy wonk Joe Biden as Obama's VP.
It ain't just the Spaniards. Kathie Lee Gifford joins the club and does her best "Chinese." Or rather imitates Al Roker's imitation of "Chinese old man." I hate you all. Al, please eat another donut and be unable to leave your house. Seriously. What purpose do you serve in life? Weather? Uh, thanks weather.com. And Kathie Lee. What do you contribute to humanity? Can anyone answer that? Anyone? Bueller?
The onscreen below her plastic face should read: "Ho Is Back From Beijing."
I'm not quite sure how I missed this in my Internet peregrination last week, nor did a a single one of my friends or contacts mention this to me either: But last weekend was National Go Topless Day. As a strong advocate for gender equality, an issue I have always held closely and passionately to my chest heart, I'm disappointed in myself for not being aware and informed about this event. This particular matter, the right to go topless in public (a right and privilege that men have held since days of yore) is an area where a vast gap still egregiously and outrageously remains in this country. But, this good, kind, and righteous organization is attempting to rectify that, I think, illegal and unjust discrepancy.
While in the civilized city of New York after a brilliant court ruling in 1992, it is in fact legal for NYC women to be topless just like their male counterparts. Nonetheless showing the same spirit that compelled Susan B Anthony, women of New York City gathered last Saturday and marched, topless, around Central Park in protest to show solidarity with their sisters trapped in unenlightened communities around the rest of the country, who lack the basic freedom to enjoy the right to feel the hot summer sun or experience a cool fall breeze against the skin, without the impediment of sweatshop sewn fabric or other shackles of modernity.
As the founder of GoTopless.org, Rael, put it: "as long as men can be topless, constitutionally women should have the same right, or men should also be forced to wear something hiding their chest." Amen, sister.
Amen and hallelujah.
Government should not be legislating our bodies, so long as it does not pose a risk to the greater society. Allowing women to be topless in the same manner that men are permitted is the only decent thing to do.
In all seriousness, it's kind of sad that in the 21st century our society is still so uptight and didactic about this sort of stuff. The human body is not a taboo, people! Come on, just watch a few National Geographic specials, Nova documentaries, or HBO's Real Sex to see what a not big deal all of this is. Okay, maybe not Real Sex. I saw this one episode once and it caused me curl up into a fetal position and made me want to die a little. So, yea, skip that HBO series.
Read more here (Gothamist link, but sorta NSFW).
NOT SAFE FOR WORK (rolling eyes, sheesh) pictures of the protest after the jump.
