GASLAND

After a fabulous fun filled weekend full of love and emotion, is was only natural that I watch something completely depressing and infuriating upon my return. lol. I honestly didn't mean to but I had seen the trailer for this some time ago and noticed yesterday that it was on TMN on demand and decided to watch it. 

While it is somewhat depressing and likely to cause some teeth grinding, it is really worth the watch as I learned so much from it. As the title suggests, it's about Gas, however, not crude oil, but the natural gas shales deep under the surface. Major oil corporations have been "Fracking" these basins, a process which uses hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, insane cancer causing chemicals and creating fake "earthquakes" that releases the gas up to the surface, and thus polluting the local drinking water. When I say polluting local drinking water, I really mean this:

Here's the trailer

Congrats To Jimmy & Roxanne!

Other than to say that everything went so amazingly awesome, the only other word that comes to mind is: Gorgeous!!!

ps I stole this from someone on facebook!! ;)

I dare you not to cry!

Thanks Kara!

Everyone needs a SGF!!

Thanks Vero!

News You Can't Use

GQ The Magazine
September 2010

News You Can't Use By Jim Nelson
Photograph by Nathaniel Goldberg

THIS ARTICLE IS bound to be the most frequently viewed article on this page, and I predict its exploding popularity has just begun. By the time you read this, it will be enshrined in Digg history, the most thumbed-up and mass-forwarded article of the Internet Era. There at Digg, where choosy users vote for their favorite news, it will join other most popular features, such as "Woman Pukes on Herself at Wedding" and the "6 Best Places to Pee on Campus."

I welcome my soaring popularity on such places as the Internet and this amazing page. But I'm starting to worry a bit about what the Web and viral/mobile/news-aggregatin' sites are doing to our sense of what is news and what ain't. Me, I get all my news from Captivate, the trusted source in high-rise-elevator information, where the other day I learned that 74 percent of Americans like their dogs "a lot" as opposed to "a little," which showed that this generation's pet reporters are not afraid to ask the tough questions. Sometimes the news is so…captivating, I'll spend half an hour riding the elevator; by the time I've made my third round to the twenty-seventh floor, what I know about Icelandic volcanoes will blow your mind.

Of course, that's not my only news source. Here in New York I can always jump in a cab, because the taxis all have touch screens, and the touch screens all have news crawls. I can hardly make out what the headlines are telling me—they're kind of surreal in a way that fits our times—but the crawl is comforting, like the passing flicker of traffic lights. I'll look down at them for a little dose of Dada poetry. (Meg Ryan Getting "More Than Enough" Gluten…. "That's Not My Finger," Claims GOP's Boehner…. Lindsay Gal Pal: "I'm Just Sayin'!"…) Occasionally, the words are so disorienting, so context-free, that I'll have to whip out my Huffington Post app and search "lindsay + gal pal" until I know what the hell is going on in this dark and complicated world.

People say Americans don't "manufacture" anything anymore, but clearly they haven't picked up a newspaper or stood around in an elevator lately. We're making more news than ever! Who, I've always wondered, does all this hard labor? Then I stumbled upon this ripe little exposé in The New York Times: It seems young people who work at news and gossip Web sites (and sure, maybe it's getting hard to tell the difference between the two) are feeling burned-out at a younger and younger age. Many of them work feverishly from dawn to dusk and get paid approximately squat.

"Young journalists who once dreamed of trotting the globe," says the story, "are instead shackled to their computers, where they try to eke out a fresh thought or be the first to report even the smallest nugget of news—anything that will impress Google algorithms and draw readers their way." Bloggers are the new slaves! Over at sites like Gawker, where writers are paid in part based on how much Web traffic they generate, there's actually a giant screen looming above the indentured bloggers, linking their fortunes to the media empire's 10 most viewed articles. Who's the boss? The algorithms.

Don't get me wrong: Our Web site plays right along with the game. (As I write, "Fo' Sizzle: GQ's 50 Hottest Fashion Photos" is moving up the Most Popular chart, and I do very much wish you'd add your eyeballs to its surging appeal.) But the obsession with page views and "metrics" and chasing traffic has a way of driving journalists to distraction and even dejuicing gossip into blather. It's cool that there are a zillion more options for news, opinion, and 'tude besides your local boring newspaper (or taxicab), but why are so many of them starting to bleed together, one massive, churning, self-feeding bland-o-sphere?

It reminds me of the way local TV news, despite regional differences and geographic distances, all starts to look and sound the same. Funny how quickly the Web followed its own viral path to blandness. These days I'm noticing that even my favorite sites—dear, dear Huffington Post, why have you betrayed me?—are doing more pie charts and polls and "The 8 Sexiest Subway Systems in the World." (I'm not making that up, and I swear I didn't vote for Toronto.) Even "real" news is starting to feel ginned up—brought to you by the Web to feed the Web. That woman who got fired from the Agriculture Dept. because a blog decided she was racist but then she wasn't? That was meta. I can't wait till she writes a book that sets the record straight and I can read about it on Captivate.

Maybe there's just not enough genuine news to spread around all the Internets, so we have to make more. But hey, HuffPo! That seventeen-part slideshow on "The Most Terrifying Crap Your Parents Own"? That was priceless.

Read More http://www.gq.com/magazine/toc/201009/jim-nelson-september-2010#ixzz0x9auqwGj

Vury cool Part II

http://www.nokero.com/

Mountain Top Water Drop

What are you doing September 10th 2010? Don't know yet?
Well I highly reccommend you do like me and Curtis and go find out what the funk happened to Joaquin Phoenix.  His newest "movie" (he quit acting remember) documents his life over the last few years spiralling down a shiz clogged drain. 

We've all seen the douche chill interviews, "rapping" attempts (I have never used a term more loosely in my life) and just plain ol' creepy photo-ops. Now it appears, or at least I'm really hoping for his sake that this was all a GENIUS publicity stunt/ new movie genre.  It's like Borat meets Zach Galifinakis meets 8 mile... 

Bieber L♥VE

http://gizmodo.com/5614940/how-to-make-justin-bieber-sound-incredible-slow-him-down-800-percent

J. BIEBZ - U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

Vell this sucks

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/08/16/in-focus-russias-long-summer/2389/

Vury Cool

http://belkin.com/conserve/insight/

Jane Austen Fight Club!!

Awesome! Well done ladies!! Now take that Willoughby!!

Hitchens~God~Cancer~Waterboarding

Curtis sent me a great article written by Roger Ebert about Christopher Hitchens and his "battle" with cancer. I use the word 'battle' loosely as Hitchens self describes it as the farthest thing from battling or fighting. It's a boring lonely process that you're just vaguely a part of while those around you try to keep things as chipper and light as possible.  In the meantime, he remains hopeful but not without being realistic about his odds.

Whether you're a follower or hater of Hitchens, no one can deny that the man is nothing short of a genius and might actually be the most interesting man on earth, sorry Dos Equis. 

As Ebert describes him in his article, he mentions that he's a good speaker and that he never says anything just for the sake of saying something. And I love that about him. As smart as he is, he could probably back up and defend any inflated comment he could come up with, but instead he has the intellect and patience not to.  While religious fundamentalists scream obscenities at him, organize prayer groups for his demise and loonies take time to write him hate mail, he sits back and watches his arguments unfold around him as the masses remain oblivious.  Your religion doesn't believe in killing, but that murderous letter you wrote him proves otherwise. Your religion claims that your god gave you free will, but obviously not free thought or you'd let him speak his mind. 

While I could go on for ages why I find Hitchens so fascinating, and more recently Roger Ebert for that matter , I'll stop and just post this video of Hitchens being waterboarded testing for himself what it's like. To be honest, before actually seeing the procedure or whatever you want to call it, I thought it barely skirted on the border of torture, but as Hitchens describes it afterwards, there is no gray area, it's most definitely tortureous and inhumane.

Here's the article by Ebert:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/08/traveler_to_the_undiscovered_c.html

California Gurls~Kinda

Food Inc

If you haven't watched this yet, I highly reccomend that you do.  Directed by Robert Kenner and in collaboration with Michael Pollan, author of "In Defense of Food" and most recently "Food Rules" this documentary touches on everything from the seeds we grow our veggies with to the slab of meat on your plate. 

You might have seen Michael Pollan on Oprah a little while back discussing the various foods we should avoid and those we shoudl reach for instead. (Mainly and most obviously those with ingredients we can pronounce).  Anyways below is the trailer, it gives me goosebumps even though I've already saw a while ago! Also if you're interested in more documentaries such as this one, King Corn is pretty good as well. It's focus is duhhh on corn and how's it's in everything. Curtis and I  finally got around to watching it last week and it was really interesting.  

And finally in case documentaries aren't your thang, there's a movie based on the book Fast Food Nation, with Greg Kinnear and Wilmer Valderrama. We haven't seen it so I can't tell you much about it but I'm sure the message is similar and equally disturbing. (trailer on youtube).

Goat screams like a man!!

Take my dauttie to tha party!!!

Thanks Tippy!! Stole this from your facebook! :)

While I was out...

So I was gone last night from 8-10pm with the girls and as I drive into my parking space coming home I see someone or something has moved the pilon that protects me from Camotruck man.  So I went over to it and tried as I might to move it back with my foot.... genius idea.  Anyways I took this pic this morning and I guess I'll wait to hear from Richard on what the funk happened last night while I was gone.  In the meantime, don't worry everybody, I'll just keep doing my 13 point turns to get out of my space... no problem at all.  :S

Good Question!

Was at the gym with Brig yesterday and when we went to get some papertowels to wipe off the equipement I read this on the bulletin board and it made me laugh so I thought I'd share with you. If you don't know who Joe Weider is, neither did I, but Curtis sent me his wiki link :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Weider

Your Daily Finny

It's been awhile I know, but I just found this again... what a pikatchu!!

Sheppard Fairey

You may know him as the artist who designed the Obama HOPE posters,
but je veux this:

Timelapse~ England

Antoine Dodson, FULL Version!!!

Run and tell that!!!

Espèce de p'tit poisson!

I know this vid is long, but I'm telling you, it's one of the most interesting things I've ever watched and it's so important for people to be aware and make consciensious decisions when they go shopping.  Nobody likes to hear that they're not doing enough or that they're doing something wrong. Especially when we all recycle, compost and do as much as we can and can afford. 

But what if there was a really easy thing you could do that would have the biggest positive impact on your carbon footrpint, would you do it?  Everyone loves to shop, especially for food, it's so gratifying imagining the meals and snacks you're going to have for the rest of the week that it almost makes you look forward to going back to work on Monday... okay well I did say almost!  So what's in your grocery cart?  Generally we try to be aware of what we're putting into our bodies in terms of nutritional content, and those of you with kiddies are extra careful of the crap that's out there... but we always assume that  fresh produce and meats are safe bets and we just buy from our favorite grocery store.  We don't question if the cow had ever seen a blade of grass, or had this chicken ever spent a single day outside in the sun? Was it killed humanely or just part of a production line?  

So what am I suggesting here? Simple, buy your meats and veggies from local farmers if you can. Find a reputable butcher and ask him/ her questions about the meat and where it came from. If he doesn't know, then there's a problem.  Try finding a Halal butcher or a Kosher one.  Do you really need meat 7 days a week? No.  For the environment and for your health, try skipping meat every other day.  The only reason these big corps continue to mass produce meat and over fish our oceans is because they think there's a market for it...




BTW, the title of this post is from a book Vero and I wrote in the 3rd grade and although it has yet to be published, it's a literary delight!

Web A La Carte?

While I understood that this whole merger thing with Verizon and Google sucked (see article below). I wanted to know what it meant exactly for us consumers... so I emailed the one person I rely on to explain things to me in laymans terms, My sugah bear Curtis.  So I'll just post what he emailed me, but suffice it to say that this was step one of not too many to gain control of the web.  It's a slippery slope from here peeps and if you thought not being able to access things that are limited to the US was annoying (ahem NBC.com), then stay tuned, your favorite cyber stops might soon start to resemble the cable packages we grudgingly buy into just for the few channels we do want. 

Curtis says:

It’s just the beginning but it sets a precedent. Now companies will be able to stop customers from going to Facebook (for example) unless they pay more.

There will be advertisements which say things like “Sign up for Bell high-speed internet and have access to THOUSANDS of great websites like Perez Hilton and MySpace for just $24.99 a month. For a limited time you will also have unlimited access to CNN.com and NBC.com for only an extra $3.99 per month!!”


The scariest thing is that if a company like FOXnews.com partners with somebody like Rogers, then they can say that Rogers customers won’t have access to competing news sites. Not only is this likely but it is their whole reason for doing these mergers. The whole point is to control, regulate, and make a profit off of communication while limiting competition.

Verizon + Google = End of Net Neutrality

Google-Verizon Deal: The End of The Internet as We Know It
By Josh Silver / Huffington Post

For years, Internet advocates have warned of the doomsday scenario that will play out on Monday: Google and Verizon will announce a deal that the New York Times reports "could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege."

The deal marks the beginning of the end of the Internet as you know it. Since its beginnings, the Net was a level playing field that allowed all content to move at the same speed, whether it's ABC News or your uncle's video blog. That's all about to change, and the result couldn't be more bleak for the future of the Internet, for television, radio and independent voices.

How did this happen? We have a Federal Communications Commission that has been denied authority by the courts to police the activities of Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast. All because of a bad decision by the Bush-era FCC. We have a pro-industry FCC Chairman who is terrified of making a decision, conducting back room dealmaking, and willing to sit on his hands rather than reassert his agency's authority. We have a president who promised to "take a back seat to no one on Net Neutrality" yet remains silent. We have a congress that is nearly completely captured by industry. Yes, more than half of the US congress will do pretty much whatever the phone and cable companies ask them to. Add the clout of Google, and you have near-complete control of Capitol Hill.

A non-neutral Internet means that companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google can turn the Net into cable TV and pick winners and losers online. A problem just for Internet geeks? You wish. All video, radio, phone and other services will soon be delivered through an Internet connection. Ending Net Neutrality would end the revolutionary potential that any website can act as a television or radio network. It would spell the end of our opportunity to wrest access and distribution of media content away from the handful of massive media corporations that currently control the television and radio dial.

So the Google-Verizon deal can be summed up as this: "F- you FCC, you have no authority over us and you're not going to do anything about it. F-you Congress, we own you, and we'll get whatever legislation we want. And F-you American people, 'cause you've got nobody in Washington who can stop us.

This Google-Verizon deal, this industry-captured FCC, a the way this is playing out, is akin to the largest banks and the largest hedge funds writing the regulatory policy on derivative trading without any oversight or input from the public, and having it rubber stamped by the SEC. It's like BP and Haliburton ironing out the rules for offshore oil drilling with no public input, and having MMS sign off.

Fortunately, while they are outnumbered, there are several powerful Net Neutrality champions on Capitol Hill, like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, Jay Rockefeller and many others. But they will not be able to turn this tide unless they have massive, visible support from every American who uses the Internet --- whether it's for news, email, shopping, Facebook, Twitter --- whatever. So stop what you're doing and tell them you're not letting the Internet go the way of Big Oil and Big Banks. The future of the Internet, and your access to information depends on it.

Tags:

Net Neutrality
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/google-verizon-deal-end-internet-we-know-it

Kidnap that fool!!!! lol

Curtis sent me this some time back and just sent it back again for old times sake... Aw Bert and Ernie, who knew you had it in youz. 

Underwater Vlogging?

So I was watching me some youtubes the other day and got a glimpse of one these puppies in action and now I really haz to haz one!  They're so pretty and fun and WATERPROOF! If you know me at all,  then you know that electronics + water + me don't mix.  And you'd probably also know neither does electronics + booze, taxi's and blizzards, but that's a different story. Anyways feast your eyes and behold the future:

Imagine taking photos and video of your friends and family UNDERWATER!

The new E2 captures both high resolution 8 megapixel digital still photos and high quality video UNDERWATER! At the beach or on the ski slopes, the E2 is ideal for people with active lifestyles as the E2 is pocket-size and both a high performance digital still camera and movie camera. This ,unique CameraCorder™ also offers face detection for both still photos and video and is designed to easily upload video to social networking websites such as YouTube and portable digital media players such as the iPod Video.

•Waterproof CameraCorder™ *

•8 Megapixel digital still photos
•5x optical zoom lens (up to 60x with digital zoom)
•2.5-inch Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) with rotation up to 285 degrees (for self-portrait photo and video)

•Advanced MPEG-4 VC/H.264 video compression – reduces file size up to 25% smaller than that of typical MPEG-4 files

•Full motion video up to 1.25 hours on a standard SD card and up to 10 hours of full motion video on an 8 GB SDHC memory card (TV-HQ mode)

•Face detection (up to 12 faces for still photos and 6 faces for video

•Ergonomical designed for single-hand operation

•Records both digital stills and video onto SD/SDHC memory card

•Simultaneous still image capture while shooting video

•New underwater scene mode for better colour in underwater photos and video

•Image stabilizer

•Full-range digital stereo recording

•In-camera editing (correct or delete portion of video clips without a computer)

•Itunes-Friendly – MPEG4 video files can be directly imported into iTunes software and easily transferred to video-capable iPod®,and other portable digital media players

•Webcam function
•Super fast start-up @ approx 1.7 seconds!
•Taking navigation for first-time users
•Simple or sophisticated menu option
•Sequential photo setting up to 10 photos@ 5fps
•Total connectivity to TV, VCR, DVD Recorder and/or PC
•Bundled with “Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0’ for movie editing and DVD authoring
 
Sanyo Xacti VCP-CA9 GX High-Definition 720p Waterproof Camcorder, 9 MP, 5x Op...

Nom nom Nom nom ♫♪

Well it's offical, I have to get a rabbit now...

Your Daily Finny...in Video!!

Curtis had the genius idea to set up the camera when he left the house while babysitting Finn last weekend to see what happends when our little big guy is all by himself. He got some pretty cute footage of Finny in action, but it was a little boring, it needed a little something...

So we decided to try again this weekend but this time test my theory that whenever my little guy eats HP sauce he gets a little friskayyyy... 
Here are the results:
(Editing curtosy of Curtis, hilarious bear! xo) 

My new Best Friend ♥

I ♥ autotune

Lafayette got nuffin' on this guy

Just when you think it won't get any funnier, it keeps going...