links for 2007-01-20
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Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere much faster than scientists expected, raising fears that humankind may have less time to tackle climate change than previously thought.
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Hee.
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This ought to be good.
Nigeria Outlaws Existence of Gay People
According to Peter Tatchell at UK Gay News:
A new bill, currently being debated in the Nigerian parliament, is the most comprehensively homophobic legislation ever proposed in any country in the world.
Its extremism is rivaled only by the death penalty that exists for homosexuality in several Islamic fundamentalist states.The bill is primarily concerned with banning same-sex marriage, but its sub-clauses go much further. They will strip lesbian and gay Nigerians of their already limited civil rights. The bill outlaws almost every expression, affirmation and celebration of gay identity and sexuality, and prohibits the provision of sympathetic advice and welfare support to lesbians and gay men. And violations will be punished with an automatic five year jail sentence.
The draconian measure will outlaw membership of a gay group, attending a gay meeting or protest, advocating gay equality, donating money to a gay organization, hosting or visiting a gay website, the publication or possession of gay safer sex advice, renting or selling a property to a gay couple, expressions of same-sex love in letters or emails, attending a same-sex marriage or blessing ceremony, screening or watching a gay movie, taking or possessing photos of a gay couple, and publishing, selling or loaning a gay book or video.
Support for this legislation is coming from the completely homophobic Anglican church in Nigeria, and there are some Anglican churches in America supporting the Anglican church there in their terrorism of gay and lesbian people.
Note that our own government has been completely silent on these blatant abuses of basic human rights.
If I were a Nigerian citizen, you can bet I would become a terrorist Freedom Fighter immediately. When in the course of human events…
links for 2007-01-19
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How abstinence-only sex ed is leading to a date rape and toxic sexual cultures on college campuses.
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Tabs to keep replacement drywall in place.
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See how people live around the world! Explore the variety of lifestyles and cultural peculiarities!
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Pentagram has updated the image of the Doomsday Clock, the graphic symbol of the world’s proximity to nuclear annihilation. The clock is the emblem of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the advocacy group formed in 1945 by scientists from the Manhat
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“Bloggers reveal step-by-step pictures unboxing the latest gadgets.” Funny – Stephanie took a bunch of pictures of me unpacking my new Macbook the other day. I should upload them.
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Cool porcelain sculptures.
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The Towel is perhaps the most important invention of whatever century it was invented in. The Towel is the most massively useful tool to take with you on your trips throughout the universe.
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Cool.
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Blades of Glory: Gayest. Trailer. Ever.AfterElton reviews the trailer from the new Will Ferrell movie "Blades of Glory." Yep, we're gonna see this one.
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GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano today condemned Isaiah Washington’s on-air use of the word “faggot” during a backstage press conference at the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards, calling on him to apologize and make amends for this second use of the slur in
Song of Ice and Fire to be HBO Mini-Series
According to George R.R. Martin’s blog, and according to Variety:
HBO turns ‘Fire’ into fantasy series
HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy series “A Song of Fire & Ice” into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
“Fire” is the first TV project for Benioff (“Troy”) and Weiss (“Halo”) and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.
The series will begin with the 1996 first book, “A Game of Thrones,” and the intention is for each novel (they average 1,000 pages each) to fuel a season’s worth of episodes. Martin has nearly finished the fifth installment, but won’t complete the seven-book cycle until 2011.
The author will co-exec produce the series along with Management 360’s Guymon Casady and Created By’s Vince Gerardis.
Martin’s series has drawn comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien, because both are period epics set in imagined lands. But Martin has eschewed Tolkien’s good-vs.-evil theme in favor of flawed characters from seven noble families.
The book has a decidedly adult bent, with sex and violence comparable to series like “Rome” and “Deadwood.”
“They tried for 50 years to make ‘Lord of the Rings’ as one movie before Peter Jackson found success making three,” Martin said. “My books are bigger and more complicated, and would require 18 movies. Otherwise, you’d have to choose one or two characters.”
Aside from writing the most recent draft of “Halo,” Weiss recently adapted the William Gibson novel “Pattern Recognition” for WB and director Peter Weir.
Sweet! I can’t wait to see this. I love these books. I get pretty bored with Fantasy fiction novels because they all seem to be built around the same cliches, but this series breaks away from most all of them, and is complex, well-plotted and interesting. It should make a great series.
links for 2007-01-18
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Windows software that lets you dump an image directory into SimpleViewer and auto-generate a photo gallery.
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Software that builds flash-based photo galleries for a website.
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Volkswagen enthusiasts in Indianapolis. Unfortunately, they have a really hideous website.
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Recipe managment software – looks pretty flexible and lets you import and export easily.
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WASHINGTON, DC—In another salvo in the ongoing civil-rights battle, the Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced the formation of a broad new campaign supporting full library-card privileges for homosexuals.
Stuck at Work
Looks like I’m going to be here until 9 p.m. or so. Had a sudden emergency because we apparently we have designers working for our company who don’t know how to use Macromedia Fireworks and can’t figure out how to take a Fireworks file and open in bloated behemoth Photoshop. So I’m taking a layered Fireworks file and recreating it layer by layer in Photoshop because someone else is lacking and/or lazy. And it normally wouldn’t be that bad, but I’m trying to work on my rapidly dying hard drive which takes about five minutes or so to process every time I move a layer. So while it’s cranking, I’m running to the bathroom, getting a drink, making dinner, blogging on my other computer.
Spike is probably dying at home, and there were two household projects that I’m not doing because of this. And I had to put aside other work that’s due, so I’m going to get yelled at tomorrow for not having my actual assignments done.
Yep, I’m a bit peeved.
links for 2007-01-17
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With the release and critical success of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, an adaptation of a novel once considered impossible to film, what better time to look into the process of adaptation.
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One of my favorite fantasy fiction writers, author of the awesome series “A Song of Ice and Fire.”
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“Since the 1960’s, Art Garfunkel has been a voracious reader. We are pleased to present a listing of every book Art has read over the last 30 years.” – he’s got 2 decade on me.
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A map correlating states in the U.S. and countries with similar Gross Domestic Product figures.
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“The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can.”
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How to make a T-shirt Rack with PVC pipe.
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Cool comic book
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The word Upcycling was coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braugart in their book on ecologically intelligent design, Cradle to Cradle. In the simplest terms, upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into so
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Huh. New indianapolis independent media.
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“Our 6th Annual No Pants Subway Ride went off without a hitch this past Saturday afternoon. Unlike last year’s incident, this time around the police were there to escort us as if we were a parade.”
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Interesting ceramic toaster that sucks the bread through a heating ring and deposits it in a rack when it’s done.
Online, Finally
My new computer arrived this morning! Yay! It’s taken all day to get it up and running and online! Boo! Man that was a pain in the neck. Lots of tweaking of settings to get everything ironed out. And I at least have a good idea what I’m doing. For someone who doesn’t, that whole process would have sucked.
We had a few friends over to play board games and have dinner this evening, and now we’re sitting in front of the fire with the pets lounging around next to us, reading blogs. Yay!
I still have to get my pictures and iTunes libraries transferred over, and then I’ll be all set up.