Is it me?
Maybe I’m just going sugar mad, but doesn’t the Queen’s hat kinda look like a cake?
And this makes me really think that Vicky Beckham is not my kinda gal:
Someone should tell her that this is oh so much more elegant:
(she’s a Swedish princess)
And Prince Andrew appears to be pretending he doesn’t know those two (daughters) young women behind him:
Oh Brits….
Why does God hate Alabama?
Yanked this post in its entirety from Slog:
Whenever disaster strikes, the angry prophets of the Old Testament God soon follow, preaching the gospel of divine retribution. Whether it's Jerry Falwell blaming Katrina on abortion, or Pat Robertson blaming the Haiti earthquake on that nation's "pact with the devil," or the loathsome Phelps and their "God Hates Fags" campaign, the message is the same: atone for your sins America, or face the wrath of the Lord!
So extending this theo-logic, one is tempted to ask: Why does God hate Alabama? According to a recent Gallup poll, Alabama is the most conservative state in the nation, an ideological disposition that presumably would place it squarely on the side of the Lord. So why would God so cruelly scrape his fingernail across the countryside of Christian Alabama, rather than bringing down the liberal sinners of Western Washington?
I mean, what else could explain disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes than an act of God? Other than, you know, meteorology.
Amazing blog piece
This was written by a woman in Syria about the night that two men came to her house to rape & kill her because she’s gay. It’s about how her dad stuck up for her and convinced the men to leave her alone and go away. It’s fascinating for the insight into the struggles in Syria right now…
Go read it right now.
How to fix any computer
In light of my recent adventures with Skype this week, I'd have to grudgingly sigh and agree.
Name that President
(Photo from the NYT courtesy of Ann Dunham’s friends and family.)
I cannot tell you how much I heart this picture.
AbFab Returns!!!
According to SeattleGayScene (and confirmed by the formidable Guardian)Sweetie Darling, AbFab wi
ll be shooting (only) 3 new episodes within the next year. It’s been six years since we’ve seen anything new from the ladies and I am very excited, especially since I wet (whet?) my whistle last weekend on Logo’s AbFab-ish marathon (it wasn’t continuous, but they played a lot of AbFab this weekend).
When I was watching this weekend, I checked to see when the episodes started and was moderately disturbed to see that it was back in 1992, which makes me old. But not as old as Patsy…
Lumley sparked speculation about a possible return for the show last November when she said Saunders had written to her about bringing the sitcom back.
"Jen wrote to me and said, 'Let's talk through it. What do you think?'. And I said, 'Bring it on'. Because we're all still here. Mother's still alive, the wonderful June Whitfield. Julia Sawalha [and] Jane Horrocks [are] all still alive and available ... and I think we just have to do it," she said at the time.
Speaking of Jane Horrocks, if you haven’t seen Little Voice, log onto Netflix and get it immediately. It’s a great flick and will give you a totally new perspective and respect for Bubbles. I mean Jane.
Crazy Tea Partiers
via youtube.com
I know that you can find crazy people of all stripes. But these people scare me.
Edited at 4:23pm to add: And their overwhelming favorite for US President is…
Donald “the swish” Trump.
(Swish is referring to his hair not to his sexual preferences. As far as I know.)
Hysterical review of the “Atlas Shrugged” flick
Let’s just start by saying that the title of the review is “Atlas Winced”. Teehee. I haven’t read the book – I’ve tried a couple of times, but have not been able to successfully focus long enough on it. From what I’ve learned about Ayn Rand’s perspective, it’s not my cup of tea. I believe part of our responsibility it to help each other. You know, like Jesus said.
Here’s some choice tidbits from the review:
Of course, "action" is a strong word. Most of these scenes consist of people drinking in hotel lobbies, drinking at restaurants, drinking at cocktail parties, and drinking in their bedrooms. In between, they do a little bit of striding purposefully. Also, sometimes they sit behind improbably neat desks. When drama is required, they stand up.
…
"Robert McNamara?"
"I'm Robert McNamara. What are you selling, pal?"
"Nothing. I'm simply offering a society that cultivates individual achievement. I know where such a place exists."
…
Believe it or not, this is far from the worst dialogue in the movie--the farewell of Ellis Wyatt is much, much worse, and also, manages to step on one of the best lines in the book. Did I say "step"? The line was flung down and danced upon.
…
The movie left out the things that could have made it gripping: the aesthetic that deftly mixes comic books, film noir, and WPA murals; the reverence for genius and innovation; the stories that dramatize pure principle.
Heh – RottenTomatoes.com shows it has 6% positive reviews from professional movie reviewers across the country. Obviously, movie reviewer are part of the liberal media and don’t know crap about good movies. On the other hand, the real people (libertarians buying their own ticket and popcorn and not sharing cause you can buy your own you big loser) give it 86% thumbs up.
Everyone is different
I recently read a blog piece/Newsweek article written by a woman whose son has been diagnosed with Hyperlexia, a type of autism. It’s a well written account about the discovery and result of his diagnosis, but it got me thinking about how things are changing as scientists learn more about human brains.
In the past, I think that a lot of people who were “different” were just sorta looked at as “weirdos”. There are variations in how “different” people are – some just weren’t as good at interacting with people or couldn’t look people in the eye.
Things are changing - It turns out that folks with Asperger's, another form of autism, are very successful working in the software design field. Their brains are very good at learning languages and are extremely logical – perfect for writing software code. They’re not very good at social interaction (which makes it difficult for those of us who work with them – and I work with a LOT of them) but the majority of their time is spent alone, utilizing those areas of their brains that are exceptional. It’s a great match and gives these people a route to take advantage of the way that their brains are structured. (Some of them are weirdos, but so are some of the rest of us.)
So it turns out that different people’s brains are tuned differently – each brain is strong in certain areas and weak in others. And scientists will continue to identify these areas and give them names and find variations and as a result more people will be diagnosed with “x”. A diagnosis can be a blessing and a curse – knowing why something happens is helpful and can help in dealing with and addressing it. A diagnosis can also bring on the stigma associated with it, which is obviously not helpful to anyone.
It certainly helps us as humans in understanding why we all struggle with different things (like depression, anxiety, socials situations, etc.) and hopefully the net result is that as a society we’ll stop labeling/stigmatizing people and work at finding ways for (at least the high & medium functioning of us) to best take advantage of our unique brain structure in a way that best serves us as individuals and as a society.
For me, it makes me realize that there probably is not such a thing as a “normal” brain. Each brain is unique and has areas with strengths and weaknesses. For the lucky majority of us, the differences are not enough to prevent us from functioning in society. But we’re all unique snowflakes, aren’t we?
Making the skies safe for Americans
TSA frisks six year old child:
Wasting tax dollars so that the government can pretend that we’re safer in the air.
Continuing the love
On top of my successful losing & finding experience with my WinPho7, there’s lots of announcements today about what’s upcoming for Windows Phone 7. I really like this fan video by a guy named Brandon Foy that was shown onstage at the MIX 2011 conference:
Microsoft liked this so much they asked him to make another one. It’s posted on YouTube here. If 200,000 people watch it, Microsoft says they’ll air it nationwide on TV (although it’s 2 minutes long, so I assume it will be cut down). But still – that’s pretty cool.
Cat/Dolphin Interspecies love
It’s always nice to start the day with a little interspecies love video.
Supercool
I dropped my phone at the dog park yesterday. Do you have any idea what it’s like wandering through a HUGE park where you were walking through several different fields while trying to trace your exact path? Here’s a clue: it’s not nearly as glamorous as it sounds.
Anyways, I couldn’t find it so I headed home to my computer. Why the computer? you may be asking yourself. Because one of (if not) the coolest features of Windows Phone 7 is that you can display a message on your phone if you lose it:
You can also make your phone ring, even if it’s off or the battery is “dead” and you can bring up a map that shows the approximate location of your phone (or wipe it of all information).
And it worked! Almost immediately after posting a message on the phone, I got a call on my home number from the lady in the espresso stand at the dog park (hey, it is Seattle). Saved me a lot of hassle (and money).
WinPho7 is my hero of the day!
View from my Window
Andrew Sullivan’s great blog has a feature called “View from Your Window” where people send him pix from all over the world looking out their windows. I sent him this one today. It’s looking out my office window…
What Planned Parenthood Does
The immoral, unjust and evil GOP is willing to shut down the entire US government to stop government funding for this organization. This is not about saving money for the budget, which is what the GOP is saying. The amount the government gives to Planned Parenthood is less than 1% of the US budget. And it’s not even about abortion – only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does is provide abortions. And the money that the government gives to PP cannot (because of an IDIOTIC MORONIC STUPID LAW THAT PREVENTS THE US GOVERNMENT FOR PAYING FOR A LEGAL MEDICAL PROCEDURE) go towards funding abortions.
This is a war on the poor – particularly poor women. If Obama caves on this, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to forgive him.
I will survive sung by Jesus (extremely sacrilegious, so be warned) (but very funny to heathens like me)
Also, I love the passersby faces…
2 Minute Timelapse–Flight from SF to Paris
Incredible. Guy set up a tripod & a Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR & attached a timelapse controller for his flight from San Francisco to Paris. Along the way, he captured the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). I have flown to Europe tons of times & from the west coast of the US, you always go up around Iceland to save time by using the curvature of the earth. It never occurred to me to look out the window and see if I could see the Northern Lights.
SF to Paris in Two Minutes from Beep Show on Vimeo.
Here’s what the photographer has to say about it:
I shot a photo roughly every two miles between take-off in San Francisco and landing in Paris CDG to make this airplane time lapse. More of these wacky time lapses at beepshow.com
Shot with a 5d2, a time-lapse controller, and a 16mm - 35mm, mixed with some iPhone shots. The music is a modified demo track "Gain" by DETUNE ltd. denkitribe soundcloud.com/denkitribe/gain on the Korg iMS20 iPad App. I'm pretty sure the track is copyrighted but it's My First Synthesizer score so I'm hoping denkitribe is cool with it. Edits and pans in After Effects CS5 and iMovie.
The photos during take-off and landing are all computer models and totally rendered because I would never use an electronic device when the FAA prohibits them. I did get lucky and have a whole row to myself to setup the tripod and gear.
Thanks to my neighbors for not minding an SLR click every 2 to 30 seconds for 11 hours, and thanks to the whole Air France flight crew for being insanely friendly and allowing me to shoot. Thanks to @ztaylor for showing me the Korg iMS20 iPad App. Thanks to @jayzombie and the #nerdbird on the way to SXSW this year for helping me come up with the idea. Thanks to @somnabulent for the idea of live scoring. Thanks to you for actually reading this far. You are a champion.
NYC Living
People outside of NYC have no idea how people live there. This woman is thrilled to have found an apartment in a great location for $700 a month. The catch? It’s 90 square feet (slightly larger than most closets).
I heart Manhattan, but people have no clue how expensive it is to live there and how people adapt.
It's all your fault
Doonesbury
By Garry Trudeau
COPYRIGHT 2011 UNIVERSAL UCLICK. This feature may not be reproduced or distributed electronically, in print or otherwise without the written permission of Universal UClick.
via arcamax.com
Kinda fits with the whole GOP model, where the big corporations (in this case, popular - and rich - musicians) can never be in the wrong. It's always the "little people"...
This is great
Be sure to watch the whole thing. It’s worth it. Actually made me LOL.
**If you haven’t seen the original that they’re playing off of…go here first.
My very first order from Amazon
Turns out that your account will show you all orders ever placed.
Sniff…makes me a little nostalgic.
Windows Message
This is probably not what the devs meant for me to see:
Luckily, I have a friend who works on device drivers in Windows, so I think I’ll send him this screenshot.
It did amuse me though.
Meet the 12 year old with an IQ higher than Stephen Hawking’s
As a three year old with a passion for stars he went on a tour of the Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium at Butler University in Indianapolis.
This is the day his mother Kristin Barnett would never forget (via the IndyStar):
“We were in the crowd, just sitting, listening to this guy ask the crowd if anyone knew why the moons going around Mars were potato-shaped and not round.
Jacob raised his hand and said, ‘Excuse me, but what are the sizes of the moons around Mars?’ ”
The lecturer answered, and Jacob looked at him and said the “gravity of the planet . . . is so large that (the moon’s) gravity would not be able to pull it into a round shape.”
Silence.
Meet Jacob Barnett, now 12 years old, mildly autistic and with an IQ of 170 – higher than Stephen Hawkings and Albert Einstein. At age three, he was solving 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzles and now he’s already got a paid research position at Indiana University.
For a taster of this little man’s out-of-this-world genius, watch this (and enjoy his mother’s comedic timing). There are plenty more videos on his mother’s YouTube channel too.
His mom is a little (understandably) overwhelmed.
(Yanked this from TNW)
Lipstick? What Lipstick?
Love this.
Says Valerie S.: “This is our Howie, a 9 month old male shi tzu/maltese. Howie (or Howard when he has been naughty) raided my purse one morning and found a tube of lipstick I haven’t used in over a year. This is what I woke up to that morning!”
via CuteOverload, of course.
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