A Portrait of Rick Santorum Composed Entirely of Gay Porn Images
Yes, you read the caption correctly. Read the story here, where you can also zoom in really close and verify the claim regarding the images. If he were to become President, (heaven forfend!) it would look great hanging in the White House.
This piece from TechDirt detailing anti-piracy legislation of the past 30 years is an eye-opener.
In 1976, we got the Copyright Act of 1976, which flipped copyright on its head and expanded it massively. Not only did it switch from an opt-in system with registration and renewals to an “everything is automatically opted-in,” but it also massively expanded the length of copyright. You might think that the industry would be satisfied from that point forward. In fact, as key SOPA supporter Steve Tepp from the US Chamber of Commerce recently claimed: “To me if I get what I ask for, I stop complaining.”
So, did the entertainment industry “stop complaining”? No. Since the Copyright Act of 1976 went into effect (in 1978), we’ve expanded copyright law 15 times on issues related to “stopping piracy” (and many, many more if you look at all copyright law expansions — beyond just anti-piracy efforts — such as expanding coverage to semiconductor chip designs, boat hulls and other things). It really started in 1982, meaning that we’ve had 15 new anti-piracy laws in just 30 years. If SOPA/PIPA had passed, it would have been 16…
The piece then goes on to list those 15 measures and explain them, followed by some general conclusions about the implications. It’s a short piece that is remarkably informative!
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Whitney Houston Central Park, NYC September 1, 2009 by asterix611, on Flickr
Thanks to Sean Ludwig for this postin which he reveals that Sony Music raised the price of Whitney Houston’s recordings only 30 minutes after news was released of her passing.
Instead of reverence in the wake of Houston’s passing, Sony chose to raise the price of one of her most popular hits collections. The Ultimate Collection album in the U.K. jumped in price by more than 60 percent from £4.99 to £7.99 within 30 minutes of Houston’s death, according to Digital Spy. The album price fell back down to £4.99 some time during the weekend, but it’s unclear when it happened.
Fans originally blamed Apple for the price hike on iTunes, but The Guardian is reporting that Apple automatically raised the price after Sony Music “lifted the wholesale price” of the album. (read more)
I couldn’t have put it better. I hadn’t realized Sony had done this, nor that they had been so transparent about it, raising the price and then dropping it back a few days later, but it’s not surprising.
An invaluable graphical reference about the 'Davos Class' has been provided by the Transnational Institute, a worldwide fellowship of scholar activists, as part of its new Corporate Power project. In this superbly designed series of powerful infographics, TNI provides visual answers to the following questions: Who are the global 1%? What companies do they run? How do they escape accountability?
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I love My Major Company! Here’s a banner for an artist I’ve chosen at random, created from an easy to use tool on his page. It invites you to become his producer. If you click on it, you are taken to a page where you can see a artists profile, hear clips, see photos and videos, and decide if you are in. If you like what’s there, then you can support him in various ways, such as simply becoming a fan, engaging in more active publicizing of his career, or even helping fund a recording and music video. I’d say this guys worth the supporting. He’s already got an album out, with some real talent involved, so it sounds great, but that’s the thing about this site. You decide yourself.
Other artists are not so slickly produced. You have to spot the raw talent that might be there if they had the chance.
Here’s a funny clip in which Irish comedian Dave Allen recount his first brush with Catholic doctrine when he was but a child of four, brought to my attention today by a post in The Dixie Flatline. Cross yourself “in the name of the Father, the Son and into the hole he goes,” then enjoy!
Is it a stereotype that gays care so little about current events and what is going on in the world, unless of course it affects us directly? You can’t shut us up about Marriage Equality. The common belief is that we are a bunch of sex-obsessed, promiscuous sluts, but in fact an awful lot of us want “happily ever after” as much as anyone else, a lot of us are willing to make the commitments and compromises necessary for a stable long term relationship, and we’re willing to work for it. In fact, a lot of us have gone for it, with (it can be done here) or without the legal sanction of the states or countries we live in. If you’re not so aware of this, it’s because stable couples who have their ups and downs, who bicker from time to time, even fight, then make up, but who live pretty ordinary lives are not the stuff of interesting entertainment, be they gay or straight.
But what about politics and social issues beyond marriage equality? How much do we care about that stuff?
There’s a crisis in the ghettos of urban America and the solution in Resurrection Eggs! Amen! Check out the video below.
I’m glad they figured that out. I just can’t believe it took so long. Dig deep everyone! Send these good people money to buy plastic eggs for everyone and urban crime and poverty will be a thing of the past!
-via “Poor People Just Need Jesus” at Joe. My. God.
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Dario Beck on a movie set in Spain
I do rather like this music video. Dario Beck, a young Italian who has movie star good looks, is caught in the shower singing that 1963 standard “Blame it on the Bossa Nova,” by Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, and is soon transformed into a night club star, dressed to wow. Of course he catches attention in the shower, too. Beck is a movie star of sorts. Not only has he appeared in movies and television in Europe, but he’s a Titan Men exclusive.
Here, though, he is modest, dancing and singing in his tighty whities, even though he’s in the shower. It is YouTube, not XTube. Still, it’s damn sexy. I’ve got to say, a lot of actors in his line of work might have gone for something more form-fitting, trendy, and well, upscale but sleazy, with a designers name emblazoned big on the waistband, but from my perspective, nothing could be hotter than the plain white briefs. We really get the impression this guy is singing in the shower with no one watching, and we’ve caught him doing it. There’s something boyishly innocent about his demeanor, just having fun, living the fantasy. Most importantly, that’s his real voice, free of enhancements as far as I can tell. Pretty damn good.
Is nothing sacred? I guess we knew it would happen sooner or later. Grindr was hacked and personal information, really personal information, shared all over the place. It happened in Australia, but the vulnerability is in the app everywhere. According to the article in the Sydney Morning Herald
The hacker discovered a way to log in as another user, impersonate that user, chat and send photos on their behalf.
The vulnerabilities are also present in Blendr, the straight version of the app, according to a security expert who said both apps had “no real security” and were “poorly designed”.
Wake up call! I’ve always thought that logo looked kind of scary. Maybe we should take it as a warning, it’s the mask that will be ripped away.
An update to the software is coming to address the vulnerability, according to PinkNews.
