Wednesday, March 18, 2009

My quest for the dodo bird, and other obsessions: Adam Savage on TED.com


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My quest for the dodo bird, and other obsessions: Adam Savage on TED.com

At EG'08, Adam Savage talks about his fascination with the dodo bird, and how it led him on a strange and surprising double quest. It's an entertaining adventure through the mind of a creative obsessive. (Recorded at EG'08, December 2008, in Monterey, California. Duration: 15:39.)






Watch Adam Savage's talk from EG'08 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 400+ TEDTalks -- including more talks about what makes us happy.



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Ginny
I can has iPhone?

Monday, March 09, 2009

Goth clockwork doll performance/dance


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Goth clockwork doll performance/dance

[YouTube Video]


Lisa sez, "Gothla, a very cool gothic bellydance event over the weekend had this showstopper; a broken clockwork doll looking for repair/ love? I dunno but it was the only time the entire building was rapt with attention and totally still."


That is one talented gothy clockwork lady in big chunky shoes.


Clockwork Couture presents Elysium Dance Theatre at Gothla US 2009

(Thanks, Lisa!)






Ginny
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Friday, March 06, 2009

Skaters and Haters: Mike Brown Fest I 2009


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Skaters and Haters: Mike Brown Fest I 2009

BY JON PAXTON

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Mike Brown's Mind came up with these shenanigans The first annual Mike Brown Fest (MBF) went surprisingly well last night. One would expect some sort of tragedy or a small wastebasket fire––at the very least––but it was professionally done. The skateboarders were happy, the crowd was happy, and the bands, Andale!, Eagle Twin, and The Fucktards, all enjoyed themselves in a festive manner.


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Skaterific The skateboarders availed themselves of any nearby objects to garner applause, even utilizing Urban's interior decorations as a jumping off and stalling point. It was just the sort of novelty that makes productions like these exciting.


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Eagle Twin: Turbo If you're not aware of the rock fortress of Eagle Twin, make yourself aware. I was not until this point, having lived an almost hermit-like existence in a no-man's land of northern Utah but no longer will I tarry from these twin's of solid fucking, well, I almost want to say straight up metal––and all done with just two instruments. They make a ruckus, most assuredly, with these bare bones basics. I'd say take note of what kind of sound you can make with fucking amplifiers all you two-pieces...



Ginny
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Thursday, March 05, 2009

Celebrating jobs -- all kinds of jobs: Mike Rowe on TED.com


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Celebrating jobs -- all kinds of jobs: Mike Rowe on TED.com

From EG'08: Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs, tells some compelling (and horrifying) real-life job stories. Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how it's been unjustifiably degraded in society today. (Recorded in December 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 20:03.)






Watch Mike Rowe's talk from EG'08 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 390+ TEDTalks -- including more talks from master storytellers.



Get TED delivered:
Subscribe to the TEDTalks video podcast via RSS >>
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Ginny
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My only drinking problem…


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My only drinking problem…




funny pictures of cats with captions


My only drinking problem… …is that my head doesn't fit in this glass.


i dont haz dat problum.


picture: dunno source, via our lolcat builder. lol caption:


» Recaption This


» See All Captions






Ginny
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Wednesday, March 04, 2009

HRC blasts Mormon church's involvement in fighting Illinois civil unions bill


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HRC blasts Mormon church's involvement in fighting Illinois civil unions bill

Human Rights Campaign is hopping mad at the latest news about the Mormons inserting themselves into Illinois public policy for the sake of hating the homos. The organization has launched an online action to its 35,000 members and supporters in Illinois as the legislature considers The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act (HB 2234).
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today learned that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sent a private e-mail to its members in Illinois urging them to contact state legislators and voice opposition to civil unions legislation currently under consideration.   Mormons have notably utilized private networks to torpedo pro-LGBT policies in the past, most recently in their home state of Utah, where a package of fair-minded legislation called the Common Ground Initiative was systematically killed in the state legislature. Most notoriously, Mormons funneled millions of dollars into California last year to pass Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that stripped lesbian and gay couples of the right to marry in the state.

"It is irrefutably clear that the LDS Church is fighting an anti-gay crusade throughout the nation, targeting any form of equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community," said Bruce Bastian, Board of Director for the Human Rights Campaign and former member of the LDS Church. "Church leaders want nothing more than to do their hateful work in secrecy, but the time has come to shine a light on their insidious efforts.  If the LDS Church won't tell the truth, we will."

The e-mail, sent to at least one LDS ward in Illinois, was authorized by Bishop Chris Church, of the Nauvoo, Illinois 3rd Ward, and was sent out by that website's ward administrator.  The messaging in the e-mail carries many of the same bigoted lies that were hallmarks of the LDS Church's campaign in support of Proposition 8 in California and Proposition 102 in Arizona.  The e-mail misleads citizens in Illinois by blatantly misstating that the civil unions legislation would "empower the public schools to begin teaching this lifestyle to our young children regardless of parental requests otherwise."  It goes on to issue this incendiary and inaccurate warning - "it will also create grounds for rewriting all social mores."  The e-mail was uncovered by BoxTurtleBulletin.com, a website that tracks and monitors anti-gay rhetoric.  The contents of the e-mail are posted online at www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/03/03/9359.

More below the fold.
In the aftermath of the passage of Proposition 8, the ballot measure that ended marriage equal...


Ginny
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10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know


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10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

Everyday I receive an email from somebody about how their account was hacked, how a friend tagged them in the photo and they want a way to avoid it, as well as a number of other complications related to their privacy on Facebook. Over the weekend one individual contacted me to let me know that he would be removing me as a friend from Facebook because he was "going to make a shift with my Facebook use - going to just mostly family stuff."

Perhaps he was tired of receiving my status updates or perhaps he didn't want me to view photos from his personal life. Whatever the reason for ending our Facebook friendship, I figured that many people would benefit from a thorough overview on how to protect your privacy on Facebook. Below is a step by step process for protecting your privacy.



Ginny
I can has iPhone?

Thursday, February 12, 2009

T(witter)-shirts


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T(witter)-shirts

Nicole Stewart, the wonderful talent responsible for the graphic design of my website, has come up with some (IMHO) magnificent T-shirts which we hope will appeal. We are selling them through mysoti.com and if you have any issues regarding pricing, ordering and delivery you can be in touch with them direct via ask@mysoti.com or tweet @mysoti where Steve will be happy to help you out. Prices are determined automatically by location and currency. Plenty of t-shirts on the market are cheaper than ours, but plenty are more expensive too. We think, given the work behind the design, that the price we've settled on for our shirts is fair and reasonable. I trust you'll agree. If not, don't worry. The option not to buy is also available (while stocks last).


Tweet.jpg

I Tweeted @stephenfry T-Shirt © Samfry Ltd 2009


This is certainly not about me profiting from my net presence. The volume of traffic that my website receives costs me a great deal. The more who visit, the more I pay for hosting: this is an ineluctable law that many may not be aware of yet which, on further thought, is inevitable. The running costs are rising monthly. I don't complain, but I would like my site to come reasonably close to paying for itself. I should hate to have to close it down simply because so many people visited it. I have too a matchless team of designers who need to be paid a proper reward for their creativity, industry and commitment.


I hope you will find the opportunity proudly to own and wear one of these t-shirts a merry part of the ceaselessly splendid pleasures that the Worldwide Web, Twitter and the digital age has brought us. Pleasures we continue to share with such never ending wonder and surprise.


x Stephen


© Stephen Fry 2009



Ginny
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Saturday, February 07, 2009

Darwin, Lincoln: Peers who changed the world


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Darwin, Lincoln: Peers who changed the world

Influence of Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln strong as their bicentennial nears





Two hundred years ago Thursday, two of the most influential men of all time were born on the same day—one in a three-story country mansion in Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, England, and the other in a one-room, dirt-floor frontier log cabin in Kentucky.





Ginny
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Hummingbird Babies Webcam

Check out this video on UStream:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Hummingbird-Babies-Webcam


Ginny
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The Lede: 25 Tips for the Busy Facebook User


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The Lede: 25 Tips for the Busy Facebook User

Help is at hand for Facebook users too busy to even think of 25 Random Things.


Ginny
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Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Darwin's 200th birthday is focus of February 15 bulletin inserts


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Darwin's 200th birthday is focus of February 15 bulletin inserts

The theories put forth by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species rocked the scientific and religious world 150 years ago. Episcopal Life Weekly bulletin inserts for February 15 mark the 200th anniversary of the scientist's birth and outline his contributions to 20th and 21st-century ideas about God, creation and the beginnings of humankind.


Ginny
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Texas creationists sink to a new low


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Texas creationists sink to a new low

It's getting hot and nasty in the battle over the Texas science standards. Donna Garner, one of the members of the forces of darkness, has distributed a letter in which she claims that the atheists are winning Texas (I wish!), and that those of us who are working to teach evolution must be opposed more fiercely. And, of course, any accusation levied against scientists is perfectly fair. The kicker in her letter is a bit of slander:



Jeffrey Dahmer, one of America's most infamous serial killers who cannibalized more than 17 boys before being captured, gave an [sic] last interview with Dateline NBC nine months before his death, and he said the following about why he acted as he did:  "If a person doesn't think that there is a God to be accountable to, then what's the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges?  That's how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime.  When we died, you know, that was it, there was nothing...." (Dateline NBC, The Final Interview, Nov. 29, 1994).



Well, yes, of course! Why didn't we think of consulting a convicted and confessed sexual sadist and serial killer on matters of ethics and science? I guess this is one perspective in which the religious have an advantage over us atheists — they're already accustomed to regarding the clergy as authorities.

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Ginny
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Monday, February 02, 2009

Jonathan Wells' weird notions about development


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Jonathan Wells' weird notions about development

Jonathan Wells recently gave a talk in Albuquerque at something called the "Forum on Science, Origins, and Design", a conference about which I can find absolutely nothing on the web. I wasn't there, of course, and I don't get invited to these goofy events anyway, but I did get a copy of Wells' powerpoint presentation from an attendee. It's titled "DNA Does Not Control Embryo Development" — shall we look at it together? It's really a hoot.



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Ginny
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Sunday, February 01, 2009

Darwin 200


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Darwin 200

A few of us wild and crazy evo people, including Richard Dawkins, wrote up pieces for an issue of the BBC Focus magazine. You'll find me arguing with Steve Jones about whether evolution has stopped, Richard Lenski is highlighted, and Carl Zimmer makes an appearance. If you've got a flash player, you can read it online right now. It's pretty good stuff, if I do say so myself.

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Ginny
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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Blagojevich: Such a classy man...NOT | THE News Pundit

http://www.thenewspundit.com/2009/01/31/blagojevich-such-a-classy-mannot/


Ginny
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Rival rips Feigenholtz for being on 'clout lists'


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Rival rips Feigenholtz for being on 'clout lists'

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz is positioning herself as a progressive Democrat in the race to succeed Rahm Emanuel in Congress representing the North Side of Chicago and some of the west suburbs.



Ginny
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