Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Nightlife Did You Hear the Rumor About King Cobra Closing?
Posted by Megan Seling on Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Well it's true.
(Originally posted last night.)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
2008 Obama Nation
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 9:06 PM
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, the GOP, this is a time of deep trouble:
Sixty-eight percent of speech-watchers questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey had a very positive reaction, with 24 percent indicating that they had a somewhat positive response and 8 percent indicating that they had a negative reaction.Eighty-five percent of those polled said the president's speech made them more optimistic about the direction of the country over the next few years, with 11 percent indicating the speech made them more pessimistic.
Eighty-two percent of speech-watchers said they support the economic plan Obama outlined in his prime time address, with 17 percent opposing the proposal.
Also, all of those politically powerful people trying to get his autograph—did that happen to Bush during his first address to Congress? I'm not sure.
Politics Obama's Addresses to Congress
Posted by Eli Sanders on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Live feed here (among other places). "Optimistic" advance excerpts here.
UPDATE: Savage here. "I hope someone there is noting down how many/which pandering fuckwits are sitting thru Obama's speech on their crackberries," writes a Slog tipper. I couldn't tell you—I'm listening to Obama's speech on the radio while I bake oatmeal raisin cookies for the boys. Anybody watching on TV care to name names?
UPDATE 2: Speech over. And for the record: the "analysts" on the cable news programs get all the grief—on The Daily Show, on the liberal blogs—but the analysts on NPR are morons too.
UPDATE 3: Bobby Jindal is speaking to us like we're all completely retarded. That may work in Louisiana where, um, most everyone is nearly or completely retarded. But he's speaking to a national audience tonight. He's for tax cuts, against regulations and gov'mint burryocats, blah blah blah. "Americans can do anything," he keeps telling us. Uh-huh.
Drugs More Americans Want to Legalize Pot
Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 6:01 PM
Remember the poll-watchers at FiveThirtyEight.com? After following the presidential election—the number stands for the 538 electoral votes that were up for grabs—they're lending their skills to less pressing matters: like what people think about marijuana.
In a meta-analysis of three recent polls, FiveThirtyEight finds that Americans are increasingly friendly to legalizing pot. Here's a butt-plug-resembling graph that shows where Americans have stood on the issue over the last few decades:
We want to legalize pot more than ever. But FiveThirtyEight offers a couple caveats:
Firstly, although support for legalization has grown, it remains the minority position. Secondly, although there has been a long, slow-moving upward trend in favor of legalization since roughly 1992, there is no guarantee that public sentiment will continue to move in that direction: support for legalization had grown to about 30 percent in the mid 1970s before dropping significantly during the Just Say No years of the 1980s.
Agreed. The majority of Americans are far from chanting for legalization, but, realistically, that's the wrong question—should we leeeeeegalize marijuana?—to ask. I've spoken to lots of middle-of-the-road folks who think arresting people for smoking pot is wasteful and wrong, but they oppose legalizing marijuana "because it's illegal" (which is the sort of circular logic that makes you wonder if humans are devolving as species). But I understand where they're coming from. Drugs are harshly prohibited, so the idea of just legalizing pot all willy nilly is pretty terrifying to a lot of parents. All these questions arise: Would pot be sold next to Snickers bars in the candy store, handed out with milk in the lunch line, placed like prizes in the bottom of Cracker Jacks boxes? Jesus, no legalization for me, thanks.
More realistically, the most lax rules for pot would be similar to alcohol: standards for quality and potency, mechanisms for licensing dealers, and minimum age requirements for consumers, etc. But—seriously—we are not about to drop the entire war on pot and start taxing it overnight. So the fact that only a minority of people say they "want to legalize pot" right now is a moot point.
The question for people is whether they would support decriminalizing marijuana. This is a locally attainable, easily implemented policy that makes penalties less harsh but keeps pot against the rules. It's still bad, mkay? Police can take the stash, give folks a ticket, etc. Just last November, Massachusetts decriminalized pot—the penalty for possessing an ounce is now only a $100 fine—with 65 percent of the electorate voting for it. Pot smokers aren't going to the slammer, kids aren't smoking dope in the lunch line; no legalization required. So the question that would better elicit where America stands on illicit pot is this: Would you support decriminalizing marijuana for adult personal use, so that police could not arrest people for possessing it but instead issue them a fine like a parking ticket?
City / Media The Packers Model
Posted by Eli Sanders on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 6:01 PM
In just a few minutes, the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild will convene a meeting for Seattle Post-Intelligencer employees who want to discuss "starting an online news site that can replace the P-I" after the newspaper's print edition likely closes in March.
Tonight's planning session is not to be confused with the Hearst Corporation's own planning for an online-only P-I. Until Hearst lays its online cards on the table, employee brainstorming sessions like the one tonight are officially just the crafting of a contingency plan—a potential way for laid-off P-I staffers to keep their paper alive online in the event that Hearst closes down the paper and the present online edition.
But all indications are that Hearst will launch an online-only P-I when the print edition folds, and if Hearst does this, it's a safe bet that a lot of tonight's contingency planners will not be a part of Hearst's online effort (which could require as few as 20 of the P-I's current staff of 170). Which means tonight's contingency plan could quickly morph into tomorrow's plan for a competitor.
How might this employee project, whether it becomes a future P-I competitor or the sole remaining remnant of the paper, be funded? One model under consideration is the so-called Packers Model—as in the Green Bay Packers, "the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States." (A model that, I just realized, Jonathan Golob first floated here on Slog on January 9th, the same day that Hearst announced it would likely be shuttering the P-I's print edition.)
You can probably guess where the P-I employees are going with this. The idea is still embryonic, but it could involve asking members of the community—which, for the P-I's distribution area, is a huge community—to essentially purchase shares in a publicly-owned P-I. (Or, asking them to donate money to a non-profit-run P-I. Or, to something that's not technically the P-I, because Hearst decides to go ahead with its online-only plans, but is still run by many former P-I employees.)
So, help a bunch of future unemployed journalists out: Would you help fund, Packers-style, a community owned Seattle Post-Intelligencer?
Well? Would you?
Economy BARFing Out the Banks and the Three Attempts to Save the Economy
Posted by Jonathan Golob on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 6:00 PM
(Image modified, under Creative Commons, from gmutt's original.)
I'm not an economist. But, like you, I'm wondering: will the massive efforts to save the economy work? Here's my sense of what's going on right now.
So far the government's approaches to Great Depression II can be broken down into three main thrusts:
1. Prop up flailing banks by directly shoveling federal tax dollars into the financial institution's coffers (in exchange for a partial equity stake in the bank), or using tax dollars to guarantee or outright purchase 'bad' or troubled' assets from the bank. The official name for the latter program is TARP ('troubled assets relief program'). I prefer BARF, or bad assets relief funding.
2. Catoize it! Encourage indebtedness on the part of individuals and companies by dropping the Federal funds rate (and thus the cost of borrowing money) to as low as it needs to go. Combine this active solicitation of private indebtedness with tax credits and cuts financed by public debt and you have the post-Regan debt-spiral plan of the Republican party.
3. Keynesian full-employment through government spending. This was the ill-fated Stimulus bill was meant to accomplish.
Updated:
David Wright, a sharp commenter and trained economist, pointed out a fourth option:
4. Do nothing.
What I do want to do is add a fourth possibility to your list: we could do nothing. We already have a pretty good idea what would happen under this scenario, too, because this scenario actually played out after the panic of 1873 and in scores of other deep business cycles in scores of other countries in the era before big government. Things would be rough for a few years, and then the economy would recover.Note that this is exactly what the proponents of the other three interventions claim will happen in their preferred scenarios. So whichever intervention we choose, you can be sure that in a few years its proponents will claim that it was their favored intervention that saved us. I leave it to your scentific mind to judge how much credence you will give to those claims.
In order of least likely to succeed, to most we start with the BARFing out of the banks.
(So much more after the jump!)
Politics Tonight On Fox
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 5:19 PM
"According to FOX here in NE Ohio," writes Slog tipper Shelby, "President George W. Bush is giving his state of the union tonight. But CBS, ABC and NBC seemed to have gotten it right. Does that mean FOX is breaking from the union, Civil War style? Have you ever been so terrified?"
Fox News is openly fantasizing about a new Civil War.
Teh Internets Obviously
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:54 PM
Robocop on a Unicorn is out. Dinosaurs Fucking Robots (with inspirational phrases) are in.
Just in case you're keeping score.
(Via.)
Teh Internets The Most Interesting NSFW Website You'll See All Day
Posted by David Schmader on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:49 PM
Naked People. (And it's not that NSFW, it just has, you know, naked people.)
Thank you, Slog tipper Cocobutt.
Media Another Hearst Property in Peril
Posted by Eli Sanders on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:47 PM
While those at the Hearst Corporation's Seattle Post-Intelligencer anxiously count down to the likely closure of their paper's print edition next month, employees at Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle are being warned they may be next:
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—The owner of the San Francisco Chronicle will sell or close the daily newspaper if it can't dramatically lower expenses within the next few months.
Homo The Culture War Is Alive and Well and Being Waged From An Apartment in Lynnwood
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:39 PM
Several members of the Washington state Senate received a 30+ page "report" today from an organization—an organization based in an apartment in Lynnwood—that calls itself "United We Stand Washington." From the cover letter...
Dear Senator:Senator Ed Murray recently stated: "Instead of the cultural wars that we have seen here year after year, we see a Legislature that is mostly on board in moving forward on protecting all Washington's families."
Unfortunately a liberal media and a well funded campaign have stacked the odds heavily in favor of the homosexual agenda and against traditional families and values.
Robert Crowe, the author of the letter and, presumably, the report, argues that homosexuality is not enough like race—homosexuality is not immutable—and too little like religion—religion may be mutable but is also Constitutional (?)—for homosexuals to be a protected class under civil rights laws. And, hey, let's all try to remember that discrimination isn't necessarily a bad thing, since all it really means is "to make a distinction," so... um...
The question for public policy is: which forms of "discrimination" are so profoundly offensive to the national conscience that they justify government action that interferes with the rights of employers and other private entities and gives special protections to certain classes of people?
United We Stand Washington, a.k.a. Robert Crowe, is a bit late with this argument. Someone needs to let him know that the state passed a gay rights law that bars discrimination against gays and lesbians (and straights! and bisexuals!) in employment, housing, services, and credit several years ago; that RSVP cruise ship has sailed, Mr. Crowe. What's moving through the legislature this session is a third and final domestic partnership law; that's the law Murray was referring to with his culture war comments. The latest domestic partnership bill would grant to gay couples all the remaining rights of marriage that the state controls. While Washington state may soon stop discriminating between gay and straight couples where a whole bunch of rights and responsibilities are concerned, the DP bill doesn't require much from employers or other private entities. But the fine points of legislative process aren't what really concerns Mr. Crowe:
Is "sexual orientation," like race and sex, a characteristic that is inborn, involuntary, immutable, innocuous, and in the Constitution? Is it, like religion (which is not inborn, involuntary, immutable, or necessarily innocuous, but is in the Constitution), a characteristic that meets even one of these criteria? [Actually, yes—it meets almost all of these criteria. And freedom of religion is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, but not freedom from discrimination based on religion. But we banned that anyway.]The only truthful answer is no. [Wrong.]
Behind the homosexual movement are radical Talmudic Jews with unlimited resources. The following report describes how these Jews are destroying America. [Oh...]
Sincerely,
Robert Crowe,
United We Stand
Washington
And here's a taste from the table of contents for the report that follows:
INTRODUCTION: HOW THE JEWS ARE DESTROYING AMERICA
UNMASKING THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA
THE RADICAL HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT IS RUN BY JEWS
JEWS CONTROL THE PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRY
THE JEWISH ABORTION INDUSTRY
THE JEWISH SLAVE TRADE (PROSTITUTION)
Well, gee. That last paragraph of the cover letter would explain why Mr. Crowe described religion as not "necessarily innocuous." Mr. Crowe clearly believes that some religions are way more nocuous than others. Should've seen that coming; United We Stand is described at the top of the cover letter as "DEDICATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF A WHITE ANGLO-SAXON CATHOLIC/PROTESTANT AMERICA." Dedicated to a white America, sure, but totally down with laws that protect racial minorities from discrimination because, like, race is inborn, involuntary, immutable, and innocuous. All things being equal, of course, Mr. Crowe would like to preserve white America. Nothing personal all you innocuous but involuntarily black folks.
UPDATE: I called Robert Crowe at his apartment in Lynnwood a moment ago. An answering machine picked up and the outgoing message said I had reached the offices of "Catholics and Protestants United." I began to leave a message and Mr. Crowe picked up. I asked him what he hoped to accomplish with his report.
"What I hope to accomplish with it is this: You can’t equate civil rights and extra-constitutional rights. Did you read the letter? Did you? Do you understand the difference? When you take away the rights from one group you give them to another! That’s what you’re doing!"
At this point Mr. Crowe began to shout, his voice breaking.
"This is a war against traditional morality! Against the family! Oh my God! I can’t even talk to you! My God! You have no idea what you’re doing! You’re destroying this country!"
And then he hung up—before I could ask him about the role of the Jews. For which I blame the Jews.
UPDATE 2: Slog reader Andrew thinks the international gay/Jewish conspiracy needs a logo, so he created this one...
Thanks, Andrew!
Crime Gay Bashing in the Central District
Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:19 PM
As bars gave last call on Saturday night, a man in his early 40s was walking home through the Central District when two men, unprovoked, attacked him. According to a police report, a responding officer said the man "had fresh injuries to his right eye, mouth, chin, nose, and hands.… I also observed that his all white clothing was splattered with numerous drops of blood.” The man told the officer “he was assaulted because of his sexual orientation.”
According to the report, the man was wearing a white sailor suit on the rainy night. After attending Gay Bingo downtown, he went to Bus Stop, the bar on Olive Way, and left with a friend around 1 a.m. The two parted ways and the man continued walking home alone.
While walking east on East Columbia Street, near the intersection of 13th Avenue—a block from Seattle University—a male voice yelled the word “faggot.” A second man then yelled, “Where the fuck are you coming from?” The man did not turn around. He was proceeding up the sidewalk when the two men attacked him from behind.
The suspects “began to punch him over and over about the head and the body,” the police report says. “The two male suspects repeatedly yelled the word ‘faggot’ throughout the duration of the assault,” the report continues. Then the man “fell to the sidewalk where he subsequently received numerous kicks to his torso.”
From the ground, the man began to fight back. He landed several “good kicks” and one “good punch,” he reportedly told police, before the suspects fled the scene. He described the attackers as Caucasian men in their 20s and said they smelled strongly of marijuana.
The man didn’t call police officers for a few hours after the attack because he was “processing what had happened,” he told police. He says a friend convinced him to report the assault.
The officer searched the crime scene. “Given the delay and rainy weather,” the officer’s report concludes, “it is likely that any blood evidence had already washed away.”
Coincidentally, there’s a vigil scheduled in response to a “recent upsurge in hate crimes against members of LGBTQ community” this Saturday, February 28 from 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the pillars on Boren Avenue and Pike Street. The organizers, Queer Ally Coalition, write on the vigil's Facebook page, “We would like to invite you to light a candle for the people who have fallen victim to hate crimes in our community and throughout the rest of the country.”
Sex / Games Left 4 Dead, Meet Left 4 Head
Posted by Sam Machkovech on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:11 PM
The folks at Bellevue's Valve Software typically load their video games with toolkits so fans can make their own crazy versions. To that end, the company will soon release such a toolkit for last year's zombie-killing hit Left 4 Dead. But I don't think Valve had a real-life porn adaptation in mind.
Left 4 Head saw release today through some campy web-only porn outlet called Sleazegroin Theater, transforming the game's super-zombies into fuck machines. The zombie who tackles enemies is here, choosing instead to tackle female hero Zoey's mouth with his wang. The zombie who chokes people with a twenty-foot-long tongue also makes a cameo, only this time, he's choking them across the room with his twenty-foot-long... wang (see above). And the "Boomer," the fat creature who dies by exploding in a cloud of blood, is reborn as the "Splooger." Go on, guess what he does.
This video's music and zombie screams are liberally lifted from the original game—mostly amusing because those game screams are actually courtesy of Mike Patton, the nutso leader of bands Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, and Fantomas (and frequent vocal contributor to Valve games). Imagine if he filed a lawsuit simply because his blood-curdling scream was lifted for the money shot.
This isn't the first gaming-porn spoof—World of Whorecraft comes to mind (though I dunno why nobody ever put on a Pac-Man mask and gobbled some balls). Expectedly, L4H is campy enough to be amusing, never mind that the heroine here is essentially run through a rape-fantasy wringer—zombie tackles girl, girl struggles for a bit, girl decides to randomly take her top off and have at it. That sounds bad, but the woman here got off way luckier than the star of the immediate, far-less-creative sequel, Left 4 Anal.
Economy Addiction to Lies
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Investors will believe anything, and so why not tell them any old thing:
Wall Street bounced back on Tuesday from its lowest levels in more than 11 years after the chairman of the Federal Reserve tamped down investor fears that the government would nationalize major banks.“We are committed to ensuring the viability of all major financial institutions,” the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, told the Senate Banking Committee. His reassurance on nationalization followed earlier statements from the White House that supported a privately held banking system.
The Dow Jones gained 236.16 points, or 3.3 percent, to close at 7,350.94, erasing most of Monday’s losses.
But facts are facts...
The Obama administration yesterday revamped the terms of its emergency aid to troubled financial firms, setting a course that could culminate with the government nationalizing some of the country's largest banks by taking a controlling ownership stake.
Another important fact:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Call it a sign of the times. A new national poll indicates that when it comes to dealing with the economy, Americans have more confidence in the White House and Congress than Wall Street, the banks or auto executives.A new poll says Americans trust the government more than Wall Street to deal with the economy...
"You know times are tough when Republicans have more confidence in a Democratic president than they do in bankers or Wall Street investors, but that's what the poll is showing now," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Among Republicans, 37 percent say they are confident in Obama's ability to make the right economic decisions, but only 31 percent of Republicans feel that way about Wall Street."
These are the facts that Wall Street can not swallow. What can we do but feed them small and big lies.
??!! / Nerd This Is Wrong on at Least Twenty-Seven Levels
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Ladies and Gentlemen, Topless Robot spotlights Slave-Leia Minnie.
This thing costs $195 dollars, and you know someone's already pre-ordered one.
(Also, Donald Duck frozen in carbonite.)
Housekeeping Anger and Aggregation at the P-I
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Eli Sanders has a piece this week about what the future holds for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, featuring a behind-the-scenes look at what are likely to be the final days of the P-I's print edition (and an exploration what an online-only P-I might look like). It comes out in tomorrow's print edition, but you can read the whole thing right now, right here.
Breaking News / Olympia Federal Transportation Money to Focus on I-90, Rural Paving Projects
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 2:45 PM
As I reported this morning, the state legislators in charge of transportation funding slapped Seattle in the face, releasing a list of transportation stimulus projects that includes not one major project in Seattle. The city had been relying on $25 million in federal dollars to help pay for the $168 million Spokane Street viaduct expansion, and $50 million to help fund the $200 Mercer expansion project, for which the City Council released funds yesterday.
The project list consists almost exclusively of state and federal highway paving and repair projects, most of them rural projects along Interstates 5 and 90 (although I-405 in Bellevue—in Clibborn's district—will receive a generous $30 million in stimulus funds for new on-ramps). You can read the full project list here.
I wasn't able to make this afternoon's Olympia press conference, but according to Josh, the two transportation chairs—Mary Margaret Haugen in the senate and Judy Clibborn in the house—defended their rural-centric project list by saying it didn't matter whether the jobs created by the projects were rural or in urban centers like Seattle. As for Mercer, they said it didn't qualify because it's a "local" project.
Nickels, unsurprisingly, strongly disagrees with this assessment. According to his spokesman, Alex Fryer, state legislators are "spreading the money around for political purposes" rather than concentrating it where it can create the most economic benefit. "They're rewarding state legislators for projects that don't amount to anything while not funding projects like Spokane and Mercer in a region that is expected to contribute between $460 and $850 million in tax revenue through 2025." Although Fryer says the state can still seek money directly from the US Department of Transportation for Spokane and Mercer, "that's just more hoops to go through when we believe these [projects] match all the criteria President Obama has laid out for the stimulus package."
Boom Pb Elemental Abandoning Its HQ
Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 2:44 PM
Pb Elemental, one of Seattle’s leading designers of contemporary architecture, is selling its Rainier Valley offices. “We’re definitely trying to keep our head above water right now,” says Najela Shamah, creative director for Pb Elemental. The company laid off 16 employees in October, reducing the staff to 35. "We have gotten a little smaller so ... we are looking for smaller digs."
The 7,500 square foot building on 23rd Avenue South and Rainier Avenue South—listed for sale on LoopNet, as noted by Hugeasscity—was built originally as a cold storage ice-cream warehouse. Here’s what it looks like with Pb’s touch:
I really hope Pb Elemental can weather the development slump. They have released some of the freshest houses and townhouses, and the most striking conceptual design work in the city—a welcome relief from the nondescript crap around town. “For the most part, it's business as usual,” says Shamah. “We’re trying to drum up work.”
Chow Children: Seen, Heard?
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 2:37 PM
Mark your calendar—whether it's to go or to stay the hell away—for the return of the Family Dining Series.
Back by popular demand ("so high during the first series...that the restaurants were booked within a few days"), it's designated family-friendly nights at Seattle restaurants:
MARCH
March 17: Monsoon Capitol Hill, 615 19th Ave. E., 206-325-2111
March 24: Osteria La Spiga, 1429 12th Ave., 206-323-8881
APRIL
April 5: Monsoon East, 10245 Main St. (Bellevue), 425-635-1112
MAY
May 4: Monsoon East, 10245 Main St. (Bellevue), 425-635-1112
May 5: Monsoon Capitol Hill, 615 19th Ave. E., 206-325-2111
May 10: Lark, 926 12th Ave., 206-323-5275; Mother’s Day steak-and-eggs brunch, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., $40 per person (3 courses for adults), children 12 and under, $12.
Per a public relations human:
The point of the series is to create nights at restaurants when families can dine without feeling self-conscious, because they will be surrounded by other families. Even though you could bring your family to any of these restaurants on any given night, chances are, you will get stares if your infant cries out or your toddler gets squirmy.
It's not about transforming these restaurants into Gymboree; it's simply about creating a stigma-free night when parents can enjoy great food and expose their future foodies to the culture of dining out. There will be menu items for children at each restaurant that reflect the cuisine—no fried chicken fingers and pizza. In particular, La Spiga will be launching its new permanent children's menu.
The Family Dining Series is brought to you by something called Future Foodies of America (hatred of the word "foodie" may be found here).
[Families love Vios on Capitol Hill because there's a pit full of toys you can hurl your children into. I went recently with friends, whose kids deeply enjoyed the small-scale toy stove. The food was good, but MAN WAS IT LOUD IN THERE.]
Photo from the Vios website.
Science I've Seen This Movie. It Doesn't End Well.
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 2:31 PM
According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, a mosquito managed to live 18 months clinging to the outside of the International Space Station, without any food, being bombarded by radiation and enduring fluctuating temperatures ranging from minus 230 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit."We brought him back to Earth. He is alive, and his feet are moving," Anatoly Grigoryev of the Russian Academy of Sciences told RIA Novosti.
Also today in science: Surgeons used leeches to reattach a man's hand that was nearly severed in a brutal shark attack.
Science / Economy Shrill, Idiotic CNBC Anchors Get Schooled
Posted by Jonathan Golob on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 2:19 PM
CNBC, the screeching cheerleader of Wall Street, interviews two of the smartest economists—economists who accurately predicted this financial collapse, when so many others were blinded.
What did they ask: Why did this happen? Which policies should we implement? Which political leadership should be changed? Which banks should be let to die? No.
What stocks should we buy? Assholes.
Film / Nerd On Again, Off Again, On Again
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 2:16 PM
So Seth Rogen has had this Green Hornet movie ready to go for quite some time now. He insists he's going to make it a straight-forward superhero movie. Stephen Chow was supposed to star as Kato and direct the thing, and that sounded pretty cool: Chow would probably make the Green Hornet into a funny action movie. But then Chow fell off the project and I lost interest, figuring it would wind up in the clutches of whoever directed Starsky and Hutch or some shit. But apparently, Michel Gondry is now set to direct the Green Hornet. I'm suddenly very interested again.
I know that some Green Hornet fans—yes, there are some—are upset that the movie won't be made completely straight. They want something more like this French fan film:
But come on. It's about a guy who calls himself the Green Hornet when he fights crime. The world doesn't need another serious martial-arts superhero movie; I'm excited to see what Gondry can do with the idea.
Film The Must See
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 1:57 PM
At this very moment, NWFF is screening two important films. The first, Medicine for Melancholy, examines a slice of the black American experience in the urban context—San Fransisco; the other, Ballast, a slice of the black American experience in the rural context—the Mississippi Delta. Both films have an art-value rather than a commercial-value. Both films do something new with music. The first, Melancholy, is scored by white indie electornica/rock; the second, Ballast, has no music. Each of these moves (white music or no music) has a startling result because each constitutes a break from the long cinematic tradition of (often profitably) linking black images with black music—black America's most celebrated contribution to American culture. To break with this tradition or code—black images/black music—is to effectively do something new and create ways or openings to unforeseen (or unusual) structures of black American feeling.
Medicine for Melancholy, however, is a masterpiece. It is the most important film by a black American director, Barry Jenkins, since Charles Burnett's To Sleep With Anger, black American cinema's highest achievement.
Melancholy also generates many, rich comparisons. A.O. Scott of NYT saw it as a "mash-up of Before Sunrise and She’s Gotta Have It." Dennis Lim, also of NYT, compared it to Old Joy, Ballast (of course), Chop Shop, and, yes, Police Beat. To this list I want to add Wayne Wang's Chan is Missing, which, like Melancholy, is at once a fictional and nonfictional account of the city of San Fransisco at a specific time—the early-80s, in the case of Chan; the late-OOs, in the case of Melancholy.
This week, the director of Melancholy is opening and closing the screenings at NWFF. Do not miss the chance to hear the thoughts of a man who has produced a work that the future will certainly recognize as a significant event in the history of black American art.
Media No News Is Bad News
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 1:35 PM
No News is Bad News, a group dedicated to "discussing the value of local news, especially in Seattle, especially in these uncertain times," is holding a panel discussion about the possibility of "Seattle as a No-[Daily] Newspaper Town" in the Bertha Knight Landes Room, on the ground floor of City Hall (600 4th Ave.), this Thursday, February 26 starting at 7:00 pm. On the panel: NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen; Seattle P-I sports columnist Art Thiel; UW digital media professor Kathy Gill; and Seattle Times online content director Cory Haik. KIRO personality Dave Ross moderate. Although Seattle Metroblogs contributor Dylan Wilbanks has been instrumental in setting up the forum, this panel will be the third "what will we do without the P-I" forum in the last two weeks (including one I participated in last week and another recent one at CityClub) that includes no representatives from strictly online media.
Retail Have a Pepsi!
Posted by David Schmader on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 1:31 PM
You know how Pepsi isn't as good as Coke, and no way is Diet Pepsi even comparable to Diet Coke? It no longer matters. Thanks to the just-announced boycott by the American Family Association, I'll be drinking nothing but Pepsi from now on. As an "AFA Alert" email informed me yesterday (bolds are mine):
Dear David,Pepsi has produced another TV ad not only promoting Pepsi but also promoting the gay lifestyle. Click here to see the ad.
Pepsi had released a similar ad before. The ads serve two purposes for Pepsi: to sell Pepsi and to promote the homosexual lifestyle. AFA asked Pepsi to remain neutral in the culture war, but the company refused - choosing to support the homosexual activists.
Pepsi has made no effort to hide their support for the homosexual agenda:
Pepsi gave a total of $1,000,000 to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) to promote the homosexual lifestyle in the workplace.Both HRC and PFLAG supported efforts in California to defeat Proposition 8 which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. HRC, which received $500,000 from Pepsi, gave $2.3 million to defeat Proposition 8.
Pepsi forces employees to attend sexual orientation and gender diversity training where the employees are taught to accept homosexuality.
Pepsi is a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
Hurrah for Pepsi.
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