Obamacare hit a snag when a judge in VA declared the part of the bill, which requires that people buy health insurance by 2014 or get fined, unconstitutional (did i put the comma in the right place? it doesn't feel right). I'm a fan of Obamacare because it allowed someone close to me get insurance AFTER being diagnosed with cancer. What a lifesaver! I wonder how this will impact everything.
The Bank of America is having their own version of Black Friday with their sale of over $1 Billion "Toxic Mortgages." Got an extra $20k laying around? Thought so. Buy some property, son.
Scientists believe they have found evidence of other Universes while studying the echos of the Big Bang (the echo of the Big Bang is a fairly new theory that suggests that the universe is like a Russian doll that's constantly beginning and ending). Scientists think that our universe is a bubble inside a larger body... think of it like when you make bubbles with your drool and some bubbles are inside other bubbles and etc. Each bubble is a universe. It's a lot to take in, so read this.
A new species of Lemur (Fork Lemur) was discovered in Madagascar and it's impossibly cute. I don't understand how Lemurs are primates. They look more raccoon to me. Can I get a second opinion on this please?
Scientists are doing some pretty amazing things with stem cells like turning them into pancreatic tissue and complex layers of intestinal tissue. Could this mean that pancreatic cancer might one day no longer be as deadly as it is now? Let's pray. They're also doing some great stuff for diabetes... which, is estimated to afflict 1/2 of all Americans in the next 40 years.
A South Korean fishing boat sunk in the waters near Antarctica and miraculously, 20 people survived. Nobody knows why it sank. I'm hoping it has nothing to do with North Korea because I am not dressed for a nuclear war.
A&P is filing for Chapter 11. This plus the fact that food prices are about to sky-rocket makes me think it's time to make a little garden in my apartment. Maybe i should be doing a better job of getting people to buy things they don't know they need?
A Dutch man has been arrested on suspicion of abusing up to 33 children under the age of 4 while working at a nursery and baby sitter. I'm against the death penalty (however I would probably kill someone with my tiny bare hands if they killed someone I love), but this case really seems like a great contender for capital punishment. Dude ruined tons of kids' lives. Disgusting.
The Netherlands is popping today -- a Dutch teen has been arrested as a suspect in the pro-Wikileaks hacking fiasco. Dude deserves a job at Google.
Over the summer a bunch of friends went to the circus in Coney Island and invited me and my friend Charles to come. As Charles and I walked down the corridor through the subway station at CI I spotted a poster for the circus we were about to see. "Dude," I said to Charles, "there's animals in this circus. I don't know how I feel about that." Charles didn't like it either, and we opted out, waiting on the beach until our friends go out.
Which is why I'm excited about the Rock & Roll Circus Party at Lincoln Center... instead of using animals for my entertainment, it looks like they'll be using bands. Same diff. Who's gonna take me? I'm a super fun date and I look like a chimp, so you wont be missing out on animals completely.
Today's a good day for minorities: Looks like America is making good on land we stole and lives we ruined: Obama just signed a law to pay back monies owed to Native American for royalties dating back to 1887! As well as Black farmers who had been shut out of government aid.
And in a really amazing move, The Dream Act was also signed. This act would allow any individual who came into the USA illegally under the age of 16, who completed high school and 2 years of college and/or military service, to receive citizenship. A truly remarkable move that demonstrates the ability for people to access what's left of the "American Dream."
This is an interesting article about how Twitter is becoming the an awesome tool for dissidents. Wanna know who is on the target list for supporters of Wikileaks and humanity in general? This piece will let you know.
Despite Julian Assange of Wikileaks being in prison for crimes that he may or may not have committed, the Wikileaks continue to flow. In today's edition of How the World Burns, we find out about a Saudi Prince and his Halloween party packed with Moonshine and hookers. Meanwhile, the Anonymous group has managed to bring down the Mastercard website and others that cut off Assange from his resources. Also, Australia is totally blaming the US for their golden child. Meanwhile, Joe Lieberman needs to chill.
Chile is going to have to answer a few questions: a fire at a Chilean prison killed 81 inmates and apparently the prison guards locked down the facility making it hard for firefighters to reach the source of the blaze.
A new species of stork has been found on Hobbit island in Indonesia. Giant birds and Tiny People... this sounds like the making of a sitcom if you ask me.
Obama held onto Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. Obama is claiming its to keep things moving along so the economy doesn't get effed. The Democrats are like WTF?!?! And Jim Hensen's Muppet factory have halted production of the Obama character since he's already a puppet.
Scientists have identified an altered gene that can cause gender misidentification. I don't mean like, girls who wanna be boys or vice versa... I mean, girls with clits that look like dicks.
An advisor to the Chinese Central Bank says that the US economy is in the shitter - even worse than Europe's - but nobody will notice for another year. If you're into currency trading, buy the dollar now, sell in 3 months. Then buy the euro. I could be wrong, but that seems right. Jim Rogers says that the Fed is really really really understating inflation.
Remember Haiti? Their capital is up in a blaze due to riots over the Presidential elections. I hate to say it, but they're kind of fucked right now, aren't they?
A Japanese space craft failed to get into Venus' orbit and may have flown past the planet. Get it together, Japanese scientists.
I went to see My Chemical Romance last week at Roseland -- one of the best shows I've ever seen -- and the band played a song that I totally thought was Glasvegas and even tweeted that they were covering a Glasvegas song.
JJ72 doesn't exist anymore, but when they did... they stole my heart. I always heard them as the delightful mixture of Placebo, Muse, Smashing Pumpkins and Joy Division. I loved the dynamics of Mark Greaney's voice so much that I wanted to crawl inside his skin and wear it as my own. I also thought he was the hottest thing on earth with weird teeth and Ian Curtis' face (only outdone by his drummer who looked even more like Ian Curtis than Ian Curtis). Oh, and they covered Pet Shop Boys... so, you know, fate and shit.
The first time I heard The Joy Formidable I told friends how much they reminded me of JJ72, and most people looked at me puzzled, except for my friend Johnny (a fellow Irishman just like JJ72). When I asked Johnny if he'd heard of TJF he said no. When I told him to check them out because they reminded me of JJ72, he said "Oh wait! I saw them play and said to my friends that they sounded like a female fronted JJ72."
I wish I had lots and lots of money so i could find my favorite bands from years ago that are no longer together and ask them politely to regroup and play a show for me and my friends and people who love them. JJ72 would probably headline.
Here are my favorite JJ72 songs. Please listen to them LOUDLY and enjoy.
Here are a bunch of their videos:
Here are my reasons for picking each song:
"Formulae" - If you combined all the best parts of JJ72 songs into one track, this would be the one. Mark's angelic voice turning into a manic wail mixed with pixies-style song structures basically equals my heaven.
"Serpent Sky" - the bassline in this song is like sex. it's like having the biggest dong and knowing exactly what to do with it.
"I Saw a Prayer" - this track, from JJ72's second album takes things down a notch. more dreamy and romantic. Very Joy Formidable.
"Nameless" - a ballad from their second album. a total win.
"Snow" - I think this was the first JJ72 song I ever heard. I found out about them because they were opening for Muse in Europe so I went to their website and waited for 30 minutes for the video for this song to load so i could watch it. I waited another 30 minutes so i could watch it again. This was in 2000. The web was slow back then. The lyrics are entirely silly but wonderful all at once.
"October Swimmer" - Actually, maybe this was the first JJ72 song I ever heard. The lyrics are as weird as their name and the chorus soars in ways that would make Matt Bellamy totes jealz.
"Bumble Bee" - This song is a total Nirvana jerkoff fest and it's amazing.
"Not Like You" - Cutesy ballad that would be great on a christmas mix tape.
"Improv" - JJ72's most pared down song. shows how great Mark's voice is.
"Oxygen" - this song is HOT. was one of the first songs i'd ever heard by JJ72. i remember seeing the bassist in the video for this song and instantly crushing on her.
"It's a Sin" - obviously Pet Shop Boys are one of the greatest bands of all time and JJ72 agrees and did this awesome cover.
"Algeria" - this song was on the first album and was a perfect little window to what their 2nd album would become. fucking huge and epic and over the motherfucking top. i wish the last line before the chorus was "guide me through the chorus" instead of "guide me through the colors." that's my only complaint about jj72 ever.
My friend Steven Klavier sent me this gem ages ago and it never gets old. Ever. Bonus points for including one of my all time favorite songs "Some Velvet Morning."
Major thanks to my friend Peter Gaston at SPIN.com for sending this over to me... not only did he introduce me to the Joy Formidable, but he also keeps me utterly satiated with their music.
I've noticed that people have been finding their way onto my blog by searching certain terms, so I figured I'd help out those trying to find answers. Here are the terms people looked up in the past 24 hours to find this blog.
stolen transmission: that's a record label i used to run with Rob Stevenson. it started out as a singles label in my bedroom where me and my friends would make handmade CD singles that looked amazing. In this phase I released singles by: The Oohlas, Louis XIV, Nightmare of You, The Spinto Band, Apartment, Saints & Lovers, and Young Love. Rob and I partnered up (he guided me along the whole time leading up to the partnership) and made Stolen Transmission a joint venture with Island/DefJam. Our partnership lasted 2 years until Rob was ... fired (?). Via Island/DefJam we released albums from: The Horrors, The Oohlas, Bright Light Fever, The Photo Atlas, innerpartysystem, Schoolyard Heroes, PlayRadioPlay, Monty Are I, and Permanent Me.
Ultragrrrl/Ultragrrl/Sarah Lewitinn/Ultragirl/dj ultragrrrl: That's Me! You should also check out my wikipedia page or my DJ Press page.
"2 chicks 1 dick" pornstars site:blogspot.com: i have NO IDEA what this means.
dave maresca: i went to middle school and high school with dave in Tenafly, NJ. He was great and had awesome taste in music. Here is his facebook.
blogsot joy division singles: yes, spelled incorrectly, but that's ok. you landed here. What exactly are you looking for?
boyfriend is a genius: it's true. they all were genius. all of them. i'm totally serious. one was a musical genius. another a writing genius. and the most recent is a master of many hidden talents.
brandon flowers wyatt: Wyatt Boswell is Brandon Flowers' best friend from growing up in Utah. He is super goodlooking and happens to be one of the funniest motherfuckers I've ever known. He isn't stoked when i post his photo online, but i will. This is him.
chris black done to death: chris is one of my most favorite people on earth. he is the coolest motherfucker i've ever known. I used to get in trouble at Stolen Transmission because nearly every expense i turned in was me taking Chris Black out when he was in NYC. Now he lives across the street from me and i don't see him as much as I'd like. Here is his Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. He managed to make a living by being cool, and i gotta say: he deserves that. He also manages Cartel and U.S. Royalty.
innerpartysystem stoya: You're looking for their video for "this empty love" ... the video was directed/shot by Penta. here it is.
little boy fuck / little.boys.fucking: i have no idea why someone would search this and find themselves on my blog.
park city resort discount sledding/park city sledding/park city sleading: i went to park city with the Misshapes and The Horrors one year for that film festival. it was so much fun. One night Leigh and Geo got an inflatable bed and brought it outside and we went sledding down a hill with it. that was so much fun. Here are videos of us sledding.
sarah lewitinn the ultragrrrl report: i used to cohost a show on FUSE called "FUSE on Tour" and I had a segment called "The Ultragrrrl Report." I don't think there are clips up, but there's a blog i used to do on the fuse site.
songs from life's a zoo: no idea... but i did go to the zoo once with my ex boyfriend (both david and brandon) and i think i titled the blog entry "life's a zoo."
thanksgiving dinner music: i dont have a list available, but i'm sure i can find one or make one.
this is sooo boring: i know, right?
ultra girl sxsw: i go there almost every year and try to throw a party each time. once was at the Redbull Space and the other was at Ben Brown's house and Idlewild played in his living room and i'm jealous of myself for that.
wyatt, ultragrrrl: I love Wyatt. I met him in 2003 with KarenPlusOne when we had dinner with the Killers their first time in NYC. I thought he was cute and the funniest dude. Brandon Flowers wanted us to get married. The two of them call me Jew. Wyatt is one of my "platonic boyfriends." What is that? That's a dude that you go everywhere with and share a bed with and spoon with but never make out or anything. It's like being married, sorta.
And lastly, these terms get the MOST traffic to my blog:
So much news to report. I hope I can get this done in a timely manner. Happy(?) AIDS day, by the way.
The biggest news ever, in the whole world -- so big that it's out of this world: NASA is holding a press conference tomorrow at 2pm about an "Astrobiology discovery." In other words: They probably found life on other planets. HOLLUR! To watch the conference at 2pm tomorrow go here.
Over 100,000 people apply for 1,000 available positions as flight attendants for Delta -- making it one of the most popular job searches since American Idol. Either that, or a lot of people love inflatable slides.
Bank Of America got some special treatment since the taxpayers were supporting it's ass. Basically, they hid the fact that they gave $6BILLION in bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees before acquiring ML ... and then, when they were caught for being sneaky, they only had to pay $150 Million to settle a securities law violation. Bogus.
Speaking of wikileaks... Assange, the man behind the leaks, is on Interpol's most wanted list, but not on Interpol's guestlist.
Looks like the Egyptian elections were rigged this year (and every other?).
North Korea and South Korea are still fighting it out. SK said that NK is totally gonna pull their earring out and cut them with a razor they hid in their mouth. Everyone just wants them to get it over with.
Another day, another incident of the TSA being total d-bags. A woman in a wheelchair went through security in a bra and panties so she wouldn't get felt up and violated (again). The TSA agents weren't pleased and made her miss her flight. Americans: 0, Terrorists: 1000.
Speaking of Terrorists... our environmental terrorizing government decided to give the coast of Florida a break and ban offshore drilling for another 7 years. Horay.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell is still up in the air. Nobody can decide what the report the Pentagon just released means exactly. So uh... if anyone can essplain it to me, that'd be great. It's ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING that there isn't a screening for the mental capacity of soldiers but there is one for their sexual orientation. You can't bang someone of the same sex but you can kill innocent civilians FOR SPORT BECAUSE YOU ARE A FUCKING LUNATIC. So gross.
Russia is working with America in finalizing an agreement on Russian baby adoptions after an American woman ruined it for the rest of the world by returning her adopted Russian kid by buying him a one way ticket to Moscow and having him board a plane alone with a receipt.
Good news for all of you who like bad news: North Korea is saying that South Korea's actions are driving the peninsula to the "brink of war."NK is like that boyfriend that says his girlfriend made him hit her. Obama vowed to defend South Korea if North Korea tries anything more. This has potential to be so fucking shitty for everyone.
An Indonesian cleric has been jailed for marrying a 12 year old girl. He said he was gonna wait til she hit puberty before banging his bride ... I'm not sure why he couldn't just wait until puberty to marry her. On top of that, he also stated that he was planning on marrying two other girls, aged 7 and 9 (Muslims are allowed up to 4 wives in Indonesia). In case you were wondering, the childbride was delivered back to her parents by cops immediately following the wedding -- not sure why they weren't arrested as well.
Speaking of child molesting priests, a priest who was accused of molesting a kid managed to prove that he's a super scumbag by hiring a undercover agent as a hitman to kill the kid he molested. Way to be Holy, asshole.
The 29 miners that were trapped in the New Zealand mine are presumed dead following a second explosion. Why are mines suddenly in the news so much? Have they been this disastrous in the past, or is this a new phenom?
San Francisco is filled with geniuses: they're regulating their Happy Meals. Now, in order for a McDonalds in SF to offer happy meals with toys, they have to meet certain dietary standards. There's hopes that this will help fight childhood obesity and that other cities will follow suit.
Fans have been lined up at a Barnes & Nobel in Phoenix since 1am for a Sarah Palin book signing. Mark my words: She is going to run for President in 2012, and she is going to win. Do I want her to? No. But she will. She's doing everything right. She knows that popularity wins and she's working on spinning every aspect of her life to make her popular.
This Sunday "60 Minutes" will be taking an inside look on the new Spiderman musical that Bono wrote. It's the most expensive musical ever and it just so happens to have one of my best friends in it! Mazel Tov, Mat Devine!!!
Cookie Monster wants to be on SNL. This isn't newsworthy, but I figured that it's a light hearted thing that can be used to change the topic when things get heavy or heated during Thanksgiving dinner.
In Israel you are required to do about 2 years in the army, no matter what. I've found that this has toughened up a lot of Israeli's that I know and given them a "no bullshit" attitude that can sometimes be seen as abrasive. Obviously, some Israeli citizens have no interest in being in the army -- especially with things being so tense. But, being the industrious people that they are, the Israeli government is now using Facebook to track down draft dodgers. Way to go, Facebook, way to go.
North Korea struck South Korea overnight. The North claims the South struck first, the South claims otherwise... and basically EVERY SINGLE SUPER POWER NATION IS REALLY FUCKING SCARED (a history of the conflict between North and South is here). People are scared that if the North and South start fighting, it will cause each region's ally to step in and do what ally's do: join in. North Korea's (basically only) ally is China. South Korea's ally is the United States. China and the USA are already comparing dick sizes, and neither country really wants to pull their balls out. Everyone is basically saying that that North is acting like a bunch of assholes. Russia sees this as a "colossal danger" and Obama is "outraged."And the French are like "zoot alors!" and have already surrendered.
From CNBC: Asked about the North's motives, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said: "I don't know. This is an extremely unpredictable government in Pyongyang and they do things that you could not possibly have predicted in a rational world."
The death toll for the Cambodian stampede has raised to 345. The stampede occurred at a Water Festival -- a yearly celebration of a military victory which includes boat races and prayer for rain -- and has been considered one of the biggest tragedies to hit the country. A reporter claims that panic struck when a suspension bridge started to say and police started shooting water cannons at a bridge in an effort to get people to move in a certain direction.
SOME GOOD NEWS!: The UN stated that the world AIDS crisis is starting to slow down! And not only that, but there appears to be a daily pill dosage that helps gay men not catch HIV! It's still undetermined how it will work with heterosexuals, but it's proven to work nicely for the gays! Horay!
More TSA bullshit ... it might extend to trains and subways. Meanwhile, people are raising concern about the TSA spreading diseases because they're not changing their latex gloves before each crotch gram. The terrorists have won.
As we approach Thanksgiving and all the travel that comes with it, the TSA continues to impose their version of the Milgram Experiment on the public. I'm sorry, but some of them are total fucking assholes. Especially, the ones who refuse to listen to and adjust their procedures when dealing with passengers who have medical issues, like the poor bladder cancer survivor whose pat down lead to him being soaked in urine from his urostomy bag. If I ever see a TSA agent mishandle either of my parents, there will be words. And it wont be words-with-friends. Sorry to go personal, but I am just disgusted. I'm quite happy I wont have to go to O'Hare where the airport security line is about a mile long. The TSA better rethink their procedures like they suggest they might. By the way, all this because of Al Qaeda's affordable and effective scare tactics. We've lost the war on terrorism.
Hallelujah! The Pope has finally stated that the Vatican's stance on condom banning is not absolute and should be used in cases like encountering a male prostitute (a euphemism for choir boy?).
A report lead by the Pentagon regarding what the effects might be on lifting the ban on gays in the military is set to be released on November 30. I'm looking forward to their research on banning psychopaths.
The Chinese have built that world's top supercomputer. The computer is called the Tianhe-1A, and it knocked the American supercomputer, Jaguar, to second place. In third place is another Chinese supercomputer. To give some prospective on how fast these technologies move, three years ago, a US supercomputer was ranked at #1 and today it's #12. This is important because on top of China becoming an economic superpower in the coming years, becoming a technological superpower will help up their abilities to develop things like war strategies and other methods of control. People are saying not to worry about this... yet. However, we're talking about the same government that just sentenced a woman to a year in a labor camp for Tweeting: "Charge, angry youth." And now, it looks like China has found a way to re-route a significant amount of U.S. internet traffic. According to a report:
The rerouting happened on April 8 and lasted for about 18 minutes. The traffic hijacking affected U.S. government and military networks, including those belonging to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Commerce, NASA and the U.S. Senate. Commercial sites, including those belonging to Microsoft, Dell and Yahoo, were also affected.
So yeah... American computer nerds, get on it.
Yesterday it was in the news that Germany was upping their security due to terrorist threats, and it looks like a bomb was intercepted on it's way to Munich. The terrorists have it all wrong -- your enemy's enemy is your friend. You guys both hate Jews. Or at least, Germany once did... remember? You're going after the wrong country. The French hate Jews as well. So do the Brits. So... like, stop with this bullshit, guys.
Scientists think they found proof of the existence of extra dimensions. NO BIG DEAL OR ANYTHING. My theory is that not only has the planet been visited by aliens, but we've also been encountering "aliens" from other dimensions on the regular. Ever have dejavu or ESP? I think that's actually us encountering the time dimension slicing through our lives. This makes more sense when you watch Carl Sagen talk about it.
Scientists say that global weather is going to get even more devastating thanks to climate change.
Cal-Maine, one of the country's largest egg distributors, are being accused of animal cruelty. There's some pretty horrendous things going on there, and while I haven't yet given up on eating eggs, I am considering it. I gave up eating chicken because nobody gives a shit about chickens, it seems, so they let them live in gross conditions and I am not into that.
Shit is getting more bonkers in Haiti. People are attacking peace keepers and accusing them of starting the cholera outbreak. I hate to say it, but it's possible. I mean, there's already speculation that the US used HAARP to cause the earthquake.
Are MySpace and Facebook joining forces? They're gonna make some sort of announcement at 12 PST today.
Last night I finally got to see a band I've been loving loving loving for months: The Joy Formidable.
A few months ago, after I had seen Jenny Eliscu and Gurj Bassi tweet about them a bunch, my friend Peter Gaston sent me their album, A Balloon Called Moaning, and I instantly fell in love. Like, within 30 seconds of listening to the first song I heard, which was "The Greatest Light is The Greatest Shade," I was dumbfounded by how a band this good could exist:
I would listen to that song non-stop for hours and days. It was dreamy like My Bloody Valentine, but poppy like the Smashing Pumpkins and the perfect song to get me relaxed whenever I was stressing.
I found myself riding my bike around the city with that song pumping through my headphones -- never loud enough -- making me feel like I was flying through the streets in a movie of my own.
Seeing the Joy Formidable last night was amazing. Watching the three piece take over the stage and enchanting the audience with adorableness as they cited their sadness over yesterday being the last day of their tour was too much cuteness to handle... but don't get me wrong, they're not a cute band. Performance-wise, Ritzy played her guitar with as much primal ease as Kurt Cobain, flailing around at times and never missing a note. I looked around to see if there was another guitarist on stage because I couldn't believe how great she was -- not because she was a girl, but because she was just amazing. She didn't seem tethered to an instrument twice her size... rather, it seemed like it was an extra appendage (that she knew how to control way better than any appendages I was actually born with).
It's been so long since I've had a chance to just get so completely lost while watching a band. Thank you, Joy Formidable.
Even Rupert Murdoch is worried about China's growing economic power. Shit is gonna get really messed up over here in the States. What dialect of Chinese should I be learning? Seriously.
A new superbug has emerged in Europe called NDM-1. In fact, one of the dudes from the European Center for Disease Prevention called it a "Super superbug." 77 cases have appeared in multiple countries in the EU, and 3 in the states. The bug is immune to almost all vaccines and can cause UTIs and pneumonia. They also said that it may have been spread from India. Good times.
Super long profile about Sarah Palin in New York Times. She's totally gonna run for President in 2012 and she's totally going to win. She knows that popularity rules uber alles. Shoot, she's also probably been prepping and learning things and stuff.
An elementary school in Provincetown, MA will make condoms readily available to students. While their official stance is that they don't want the kids to be having sex, they'd rather that the students be protected than not. I fully support this concept. I'd rather a bunch of sexually active 10 year olds than pregnant ones. I grew up in Tenafly, NJ and we had a really amazing sex-ed curriculum and education. We learned so much that all the students were too scared to have sex. I think about 75% of us graduated virgins. Virgins convinced that we'd get AIDS without a condom and STDs no matter what. Nobody got pregnant when I was in school and a fuckton of my classmates went on to the top colleges. Sex Ed is kind of a great thing.
Speaking of babies... Over 300 dead baby fetuses were found in a Buddhist temple in Thailand. Uh... what?
Japan has successfully brought back the first asteroid dust to Earth! I can't wait til they find out that there's some sort of super fuel components and BP decides to make Space their next money maker.
People in Europe (and eventually the States) can look forward to colder winters thanks to Climate Change. Over the weekend I was watching the 'Underwater Worlds' episode of "Ancient Aliens" on The History Channel (watch it here) and they fascinatingly discovered the remains of cities underwater that would have been built about 10,000 years before humanoids were thought to be able to do such a thing. What if, in 10,000 years, our ancestors find our ruins under water and wonder how primitive man ever did such a thing. Hmm...
Prince William is now engaged to Kate Middleton. Finally. If she was in my family (and Prince William was Jewish) they would've been dated for like 2 months before everyone put pressure on us to get engaged and married.
The big announcement from NASA was the discovery of an infant blackhole they are calling SuperNova1979C.
It might not be a black hole, but it probably is. And it looks like SuperNova1979C is about 31 years old, give or take 50 million light years.
The exciting thing for scientists is that this is the youngest ever observed "black hole" and will give scientists to research how they behave and how they happen.
"NASA will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory's discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood."
What could that mean?! It's not about the Gamma bubbles, since that was discovered by Fermilab. Could it actually be the discovery of Nibiru? Was Zecharia Sitchin actually right?! As my friends like to tell me, "The Aliens are finally coming to take you home!" Either way, I've got my HAARP averting tin-foil hat on, and I'm ready to listen.
The British couple that has been held hostage by Somali pirates for over a year have finally been freed. I really can't believe we live in a day where pirates are such a threat.
Caterpillar just bought Bucyrus - a mining equipment manufacturer - for $8.6 Billion. Just gonna put my Nancy Drew hat on and say that Caterpillar know of something that big needs to be mined, and knows that they're gonna make their money back. Gold is up to $1600/ounce. Could there be a mystery reserve that they've discovered? Maybe on the Moon?
The Post Office lost $8.5 BILLION last year. Not like, they lost it in the mail... but more like, they're going broke. Here's an idea for them: Stop hiring such lazy assholes.
Cholera in Haiti has claimed 796 victims and over 200,000 are in danger of catching the highly contagious flu. Where's Wycleff now?!
That pesky Indonesian Volcano, Merapi, is really messing things up over there. The death toll reached 206 and over 380,000 people have been displaced. Scientists warn that it could get worse, which might not be TOTALLY bad news. With Mt. Merapi situated so close to the equator, if it emits a large enough quantity of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, it could cool our global climate a few degrees and that could be a huge help to living things as the ozone starts depleting. However, if the sulfur dioxide doesn't make it high up enough, we could have a lot of acid rain on our hands. Wait and see?
Check out our giant space bubbles. They're in the center of the Milky Way and they're 25,000 light years wide. Scientists have no idea what the eff they are.
Now there's a streak in the NYC skyline -- WHICH I MISSED!!!!! I'm calling shenanigans. It's a contrail for sure.
Oil prices are now nearly $90/barrel. There's 40 billion barrels of untapped oil that was just discovered in Brazil. The biggest reason Brazil elected Dilma Rousseff was because she was the former Chief of Energy. She ran all that energy stuff, and now that there's $3,600,000,000,000 (did i do that math right?) in Brazil's land, shit is gonna be huge. I suggest you pick up Portuguese for Dummies asap.
A new friend of mine just texted me to say "Do you know Jessie J, musical artiste? Vulgar gal rap." Naturally, I want to know about all things musically new that I haven't heard before, especially when it involves a woman breaking down the barriers of femininity that society places on them.
Last night I had a conversation with someone about the concept of "post-feminism" and how I grew up as one of the guys and never thought of myself as a woman/girl held back by the constraints of society. Both my mom and dad worked, and that was never weird at home. My mom also cooked, and that was just what it was. I was always expected to do as well as the guys, if not better (because my parents would tell me that I was THE BEST). Even as the smallest one in my social group (of more guys than girls), it was never assumed that I couldn't do something because I was a girl... it wasn't even assumed that I couldn't reach things that were high up since I was always climbing on stuff like a monkey. Basically, me and my female friends grew up as dudes with slits and that was the ONLY difference (particularly since I didn’t grow boobs until I was about 18).
So the verb "banging" comes into play. It means "to bang" as in "to have intercourse." I was asked "Can a girl bang a guy?" I say yes. I say that if the girl is telling a story about having "intercourse" with a guy, then she can say "i banged that dude." Similarly, a guy can say "i banged that girl," or a person might be able to say "we banged." It puts the power into the hands of the story teller, which, in my mind, neutralizes gender roles. It's not necessarily a bad thing if a person says they banged another person, but it’s slightly less vulgar than to say “fucked” and a lot less awkward than saying “had intercourse with,” or “made love to,” or “railed.”
Anyway, I am a fan of this Jessie J character’s song “Do It Like a Dude,” for this precise reason. She wants to bang and is unapologetic about that. She also c0-wrote Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A." with Dr. Luke, so I love her for that alone. God Bless!
My boy, Matt Raz, edited a video for Team Facelift's "Heart Attack," which was directed by Tommy Mas and is of a song off their new mixtape called "6 Grams". Catch a cameo by one of my favorite dudes on Twitter and in music, Prince Terrence.
I need to go to the party in this video. Matt, where is it and why am I not there?
Oh... and if you've never heard of Team Facelift, their ish doesn't typically sound like this. They usually sound more like License to Ill-era Beastie Boys... which was the Boys' best era, if you ask me.
My friend Caiti Beth is in Alabama and she video'd her friend going out to the woods and luring a raccoon (whom she appears to have a prior relationship with) back to her house to play with. I suggest you don't try this at home, but certainly enjoy the adroableness below:
So I'm going to try and make this a daily thing where I post about news things that happened while you were sleeping. Typically, this will go up earlier in the day, but I was super busy this morning.
I love all these stories of the End of Days that call out specific dates of when things are supposed to happen. According to the video above, that date is TODAY. But Colleen seems to think that Obama is just heading over to India today. Whoops. I think her dates are a bit off.
I'm all about the crazy stuff happening in our world that proves that we totally messed shit up. The price of gold skyrocketing. The climate being out of whack. The price of cotton going up because fields all over the world are being destroyed by the messed up climate. Nuclear reactors going out of whack. Nuclear missiles going offline. Planes dropping out of the sky. Volcanoes exploding. Oil pouring out of the earth from a sprout we planted. I could probably go on and on and on with all those actual examples of the End of Days. However, effing cooks like Colleen has to ruin it for the not-so-crazy-crazies like myself.
This weekend I kept it super lazy. I watched four episodes of my new favorite show "Outsourced" on TWC's On-Demand service. I'm not sure if i love the show because it's funny, which it is, or if because the main character is a dude played by the new object of my affection: Ben Rappaport.
It's been a while since I've worn a one-piece swimsuit, and I've never really written about anything fashion oriented on here because I'm more of a person who just wears clothing. I could take it or leave it as long as it basically looks cool.
