Sep 29 2013
The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for
1. JJ Abrams don’t screw up the new Star Wars. Here’s how.
2. That thing where your computer freezes and it’s horrible and your last hope is contorting your fingers and holding down “ctrl+alt+delete.” Yeah, that thing, according to Bill Gates, was a mistake.
3. Haunted houses are scary. You know?
Sep 22 2013
Adapted from Rant of the Week at The Stars Hollow Gazette
The US: world’s policeman or schoolyard bully?
by Bill Maher, The Guardian
Ever since 9/11, it seems America’s just been itching for a fight – and any Muslim country will do. Really, who acts like this?
New rule: 12 years after 9/11, and amidst yet another debate on whether to bomb yet another Muslim country, America must stop asking the question, “Why do they hate us?” Forget the debate on Syria, we need a debate on why we’re always debating whether to bomb someone. Because we’re starting to look not so much like the world’s policeman, but more like George Zimmerman: itching to use force and then pretending it’s because we had no choice. [..]
Since 1945, when Jesus granted America air superiority, we’ve bombed Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Serbia, Somalia, Bosnia, the Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Yemen. And Yemen only because the tenth one was free.
How did we inherit this moral obligation to bring justice to the world via death from above? Are we Zeus? It doesn’t make any sense. Our schools are crumbling, and we want to teach everyone else a lesson?
Sep 21 2013
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
The sun will pass over the equator for a moment at 4:44 PM EDT on September 22 as it moves to warm the Southern hemisphere and ushers in the first day of Autumn for the North.
For those who practice the earth religions, it is the second harvest, a time for gathering the Summer’s last fruits, giving thanks for the harvest and marking a celebration in gratitude as the soil and plants die away. This year’s Harvest Moon, traditionally the full moon closet to the equinox, fell on September 19. The moon gets its name from the amount of light it emits, allowing farmers to continue harvesting the summer’s crops through the evening. The Farmer’s Almanac explains why the Harvest Moon is special:
The usual behavior of the Moon is to rise distinctly later each night — an average of about 50 minutes later. [..]
But around the date of the Harvest Moon, the Moon rises at almost the same time for a number of nights in our intermediate northern latitudes. [..]
Because the Moon’s orbit on successive nights is more nearly parallel to the horizon at that time, its relationship to the eastern horizon does not change appreciably, and the Earth does not have to turn as far to bring up the Moon. Thus, for several nights near the full Harvest Moon, the Moon may rise as little as 23 minutes later on successive nights (at about 42 degrees north latitude), and there is an abundance of bright moonlight early in the evening, a traditional aid to harvest crews. By the time the Moon has reached last quarter, however, the typical 50-minute delay has returned.
One of the myths connected to this celebration/time of year is the myth of Demeter and Persephone. The Autumn Equinox signals the descent of Persephone back to the underworld to be with her husband, Hades and the Harvest Mother, Demeter’s mourning for her daughter…thus, the explanation of the dying back of plant life. This myth gave explanation to our ancient ancestors for the changing of the seasons. The symbolism that is present for us today is the letting go of our youth, child-bearing years and moving closer to the crone/elder part of our lives. But it is only a preparation, the opening to what needs to be prepared when the Winter inevitably comes.
Sep 21 2013
The team of All In with Chris Hayes put out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for Thursday September 19.
1. BBC Anchor Simon McCoy actually went on-air with a pile of printer paper, instead of an iPad. To be fair, he probably got a better signal.
2. You could either hit the gym… or watch this Rocky II 30 mile running montage.
3. Someone get this Vladimir Putin doppelganger dog some pants and a horse to awkwardly ride on.
Sep 15 2013
The team of All In with Chris Hayes put out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for Friday the September 13.
1) Jeffery Alan Wagner’s shirtless campaign ad for Minneapolis mayor;
2) Watch hamster Charlie drive a truck;
3) Check out these classic rocket frog photoshops.
Sep 10 2013
Adapted from Rant of the Week at The Stars Hollow Gazette
NYC mayoral candidate Joe Lhota goes after the key anti-kitten demographic after two lost kittens shut down America’s largest transportation system.
Kittens Stop NYC Subway Service
It only took two kittens to stop the city’s subway in its tracks.
Power was cut to the B and Q lines in Brooklyn for more than an hour after a woman reported Thursday morning that her kittens were loose in the nation’s largest subway system, transit officials said.
The furry felines, one black and the other white with gray stripes, were finally found on the tracks and rescued about seven hours later.
How they got there was a mystery. But they were seen running dangerously close to the high-voltage third rail.
Their owner rushed to a subway station with cat food for transit workers dispatched onto the tracks to use to try to corral them.
Joe Lhota, NYC Mayoral Hopeful, Wouldn’t Stop Trains For Kittens
A former chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority and New York City mayoral hopeful says he wouldn’t have stopped the subway because two lost kittens were scrambling along the tracks. [..]
Other mayoral hopefuls tell the paper they would’ve stopped the trains.
Fortunately, there are more cat lovers in NYC than Republican voters.
Sep 08 2013
Chris Hayes shares the three most awesomest things on the Internet for September 5: 1) Norweigan duo Ylvis debuts a new single “The Fox” that is sure to give you an unwelcome earworm. 2) A new program called “Wedding Crunchers” allows you to search key words of wedding announcements from the New York Times and chart them. 3) Today, officials at DC’s National Zoo reveal the gender of the new baby panda, and who the panda’s father is.
Sep 01 2013
Each night on his MSNBC show “All In, Chris Hayes shares three things from the internet that are sent to him by his fans.
This Friday’s show: the GOP excuses for their conspicuous absence at the 50th anniversary of MLK’s March on Washington; Patrick Stewart teaching the “quadruple take”; and the scattering of 51 pictures of Nick Cage through a house.
Aug 26 2013
Adapted from Rant of the Week at The Stars Hollow Gazette
Last year HBO debuted the series “The Newsroom” starring Jeff Daniels as a the very flawed anchor, “Will McAvoy“, of a popular nightly news hour on the fictitious cable channel ACN. Up until now, I have only used real people but I thought this rant was worth discussion.
This is a clip from the “We Just Decided To” episode where “McAvoy” is asked by a college student at a “town hall,” “Can you say why America is the greatest country in the world?”
h/t Lambert Strether at naked capitalism
Aug 25 2013
Each night during his evening show “All In“ host Chris Hayes highlights three things from the internet that his viewers have tweeted to him. These were his choices for Friday’s “Click 3”
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford takes down Hulk Hogan
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford defied the odds to beat wrestling icon Hulk Hogan in an arm-wrestling match at Toronto’s Fan Expo this morning.
“I own this town, man!” Ford yelled as he beat the 14-time pro wrestling champ.
The Hulk was scheduled to hold an “uncensored” presser after the match. I’ll let you know if I find the video for that.
11 Untranslatable Words From Other Cultures
The relationship between words and their meaning is a fascinating one, and linguists have spent countless years deconstructing it, taking it apart letter by letter, and trying to figure out why there are so many feelings and ideas that we cannot even put words to, and that our languages cannot identify.
#BATFLECK BACKLASH: On the Web, does Batman’s studio hear you scream?
Indeed, and one most passionately forged by the actor Richard Dreyfuss. Looking closer, we can see his engraving reads: “You read for a part, you feel good about it, you feel confident, then they cast Ben Affleck.”
Zing. By the ghost of “Gigli,” that stings.
Warner Bros. announced shortly before 9:30 p.m. Thursday that Ben Affleck is our new big-screen Batman. Within minutes, Dreyfuss – true to his own trained and brash and passionate style as an Oscar-winning actor – tweeted his artful thrust-and-parry, drawing first blood as the Internet responded to the casting fury that rapidly went by the handy hashtag #Batfleck.
One shakes ones head.
Aug 06 2013
Adapted from Rant of the Week at The Stars Hollow Gazette
Bill Maher challenges the left’s super rich to get in the game.
August 2, 2013 – (Real Time w/ Bill Maher – New Rules – Going Coup-Coup) – Bill Maher ended his show Friday night with a plea to rich liberals to even out the playing field so it’s not just “rich assholes” supporting the GOP pushing the policies they want all over the country. In particular, Maher singled out how one North Carolina businessman has been able to push his agenda through the state legislature, and with just a hint of subtlety, Maher used the segment as a direct appeal to the artist Jay Z, who, as luck would have it, was sitting right next to him.
Maher shared with liberal America a tale of “proud people in a region where religious freedom, women’s right, and democracy itself hang in the balance”: North Carolina. Maher explained how the state has gone “apeshit” with laws like a ban on Sharia and allowing concealed guns on playgrounds. Although the latter does mean “if your toddler gets knocked down in the sandbox, he can stand his ground.”
And that’s not even including the abortion debate. Maher explained this shift in the previously-“trending blue” state by introducing the audience to Art Pope, another one of the right-wing “rich assholes” throwing their money and influence around to get the laws they want. Maher declared, “It’s no longer our ideas versus their ideas, or even our base versus their base, it’s our super-rich versus their super-rich.”
He hinted to Jay Z that he should buy a state too, but he didn’t end there. Maher made direct appeals to Steven Spielberg, Tyler Perry, and Oprah Winfrey to buy states of their own to at least even the score.
