Corporations, Companies, and Supporters of SOPA
Posted: January 15, 2012 Filed under: Business, Crime, Fashion, Film, Internet, Media, Sports, Strange, Style, Techology 5 Comments »If this Pastebin document, created by Anonymous members involved in Operation Hiroshima, is to be believed, the following companies lobbied Congress in support of SOPA.
I smell a boycott… and the weird thing about this list is, how are most of these companies affected by online piracy? Especially all these clothing companies…
PetMeds
3M
ABRO Industries, Inc.
Acushnet Company
Adidas America
Bose Coporation
Burberry
CBS Corporation
Chanel USA
Coach
Columbia Sportswear
Dolce & Gabbana
Electronic Arts, Inc. (individuals within have voiced opposition?)
Entertainment Software Association
THIS IS A SELF-BRANDING POST
Posted: January 2, 2012 Filed under: Internet, Media 3 Comments »Really, I am writing this all for a piece I am posting on my recently resuscitated hyper-local blog the Albany Park Post (hopefully), in which I explain how EveryBlock broke my heart.
You could also call this a “self-promotional” post, and when I feel like updating my “about” page, I will probably replace the text with the following:
I was hired by the Daily Dot officially in June. This is my first real grown up job, so I don’t want to fuck it up. I work way more than 8 hours a day, leaving very little time for other blogging. This explains my silence across multiple platforms I used to write on.
The Daily Dot’s public beta launched in September.
Since our public beta launch in September, my work has been linked to (or can I cheat like every other writer and say “featured”?) on The New Yorker, the New York Times, Media Bistro, TechCrunch, TechMeme, USA Today, Gawker, Venture Beat, Time Magazine, The Daily What, others I can’t even remember but appreciate dearly, and most recently, Time Out Chicago and The Atlantic.
I was also interviewed by the Guardian, and Sky News.
Happy Birthday, Raquel Welch!
Posted: September 5, 2011 Filed under: Art, Entertainment, Film, Media, Women | Tags: Freddie Mercury, Myra Breckinridge, One Million Years BC, Raquel Welch, YouTube 1 Comment »Yes, I know it is also Freddie Mercury’s birthday. Considering all the digital love he’s gotten (which he deserves, don’t get me wrong, even if he is dead), I thought I’d share with who ever is reading this blog my favorite videos of Welch. If you don’t know who she is, go skim her wikipedia page first please.
These are all found on YouTube, because my new job is to cover YouTube…
I first came upon Rachel Welch, like most of America, when I watched One Million Years B.C. (Starting the Earth’s Children book series in Junior High will do that) It is only fitting that I begin this video list with a compilation of her from One Million Years B.C.
I don’t expect you, dear reader, to watch all of the above video, but I do expect you to watch all of the one below. It’s only 3 minutes long, and while there is no dialog until the very end, I can promise it is engaging. It’s literally one of the best fan compilations on YouTube.
Dead Squirrel Girl’s Parents Defend Video: “We Hoped It Would Touch People”
Posted: May 12, 2011 Filed under: Internet, Media 17 Comments »The Daily Dot, the Internet’s hometown newspaper, is launching this summer—but we’ve already started searching out the best untold stories in the Web’s community. Here’s one from correspondent Fruzsina Eördögh, about two parents who posted a video of their daughter that some viewers found a little too viral.
She’s known on the Internet as “Dead Squirrel Girl”: Thea, a three-year-old dancing in what some see as macabre fashion with a just-killed rodent. The video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times — and the parents have been judged by the Internet and found wanting. But instead of reblogging the video with a snappy witticism about parenting, the Daily Dot actually called Thea’s mom and dad.
Here’s their story.
Three years ago, Sean Leonard, an acupuncturist and artist in Sarasota, Fla., was out walking his greyhound Ivy. They came upon a squirrel and before Leonard could intervene, Ivy snapped its neck with a ferocious shake. Leonard returned home to tell his wife, who suggested they collect the squirrel and bury it in their garden, as a gentle way of introducing their 3-year-old daughter, Thea, to the concept of death.
When the parents re-emerged from the house after collecting a shovel, Thea had picked up the squirrel—and Leonard, who had wanted to document the event, had his camera rolling.
“She was in ecstasy holding the squirrel, snuggling it,” said Leonard. “She was smothering it with love, and at that point we knew nothing would be accomplished by stripping her of it.”
Game of Thrones is one of the most feminist shows on TV
Posted: April 25, 2011 Filed under: Entertainment, Media, Women | Tags: A Song of Ice and Fire, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, Ginia Bellafante, HBO, Huffington Post, New York Times 1 Comment »
I watched the second episode of Game of Thrones last night, and I was even more pleased with the adaptation of the book than I was last week. After the episode ended though, the first thing I thought about was Ginia Bellafante.
Like most female fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, I was very disappointed in Bellafante’s review of the first episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, but I passed off her disregard for the show (and fantasy in general) as part of the same sentiment older women have for video games – the view that fantasy (and video games) are just for children or young males. When Bellafante says she doesn’t know any woman that likes fantasy, I believe her. She is from a time before video games, before the rise of the internet. Bellafante’s culturally learned distaste for the fantasy genre (and most geek culture) is also indicative of her outdated view of gender constructs. Ilana Teitelbaum writes it well in her Dear New York Times: A Game of Thrones is not just for Boys: Read the rest of this entry »
Gamers have an Image Problem
Posted: April 19, 2011 Filed under: Entertainment, Media, Techology, video games, Women | Tags: Casual game, Gamer, Games, GameStop, girl gamer, Jane McGonigal, Michael Cera, Mike Fahey, Reality is Broken, Video game 1 Comment »Abstract: This image problem is rooted in a failure by the mainstream media (and film) to treat video games as an
acceptable pastime, making gaming “a dirty word“, and perpetuating the notion that women shouldn’t have authorship over technology around them. The male gaming community is only partially responsible, and this will be discussed in a subsequent post. This post was formulated after analyzing video game coverage by major female-oriented publications and by my personal memory of video game scenes in movies.
“One of the things we were trying to combat with 3G was how girls are discouraged from learning anything about technology beyond how to use it, [not] to be responsible or have a form of authorship with it.” - Terence Hannum, Internship and External Relations Coordinator at Columbia College
Any female in her 20′s that plays video games knows gaming has an image problem. Not only does the community you play in make you feel unwelcome a la the blog ”Fat, Ugly or Slutty“, your parents find your enjoyment of video games off-putting, as do 30-somethings co-workers. I’ve had more than one conversation at slightly older dinner parties become painfully awkward when I mention I like/want to write about video games. The women scan the room and decide it is time to mingle. Then I am left with some guy, and as the silence continues between us, I begin to question his intentions. Sometimes I can see this male have an OMG-GIRL-GAMER-freak-out moment, all in the eyes, and when it abides he hesitantly remarks I must be the male gamer fantasy or some other weird crap. Then I decide it is time to mingle.
My mom keeps thinking I will grow out of my love of video games. She is not impressed when I tell her I am laying down plumbing because my city’s population explosion is forcing me to expand my city limits.
There is a common thread behind these awkward interactions: people born before the 80′s view video games as either a waste of time or a childish hobby. How can that be, when video games have been around for 30 years - and adults now play video games and teachers use video games as part of their curriculum? Read the rest of this entry »
Balancing the Budget is Easy
Posted: April 17, 2011 Filed under: Media, Politics, Techology, video games | Tags: Budget Crisis, David Leonhardt, Deficit, Government shutdown, Joe Biden, Medicare, New York Times, President Obama, Ryan Paul, United States, United States Congress Leave a comment »Will Congress balance the budget? Will there be a government shut-down? Are we going to rob from the rich to give to the poor, or are we going to rob from the poor to give to the rich? Are we going to become communists? Are we going to become corporate fascists? Are we all going to die?
Every time I feel myself getting sucked into the media hysteria that is the budget deficit, I go back to an interactive deficit puzzle created presumably by the New York Times economics columnist David Leonhardt in November of last year.
This interactive deficit puzzle has soothed me many times, and each time I begin the puzzle, I am reminded of how simple and effective it is. I can balance the budget without hurting the elderly or the poor, and upon balancing the budget, I am left feeling joyful. My euphoria only lasts for a few minutes though, because in completing Leonhardt’s puzzle, I am left wondering why the budget has taken months to balance when I can balance it in less than five minutes… has every member of Congress sat down and used a tool like this?
I know all those fogies in Congress probably don’t remember anything from their last economics class, so maybe a puzzle/tool/application like Leonhardt’s would be most helpful in getting these elected officials to think about budget deficit concepts in terms of money and not social agenda. Leonhardt’s project breaks down US spending and tax areas in concise and understandable language, and with its point and click format, even new computer-using Congressmen can understand how to solve the deficit.
Can’t the Speaker of the House and Joe Biden send out a mass e-mail to all Congressmen demanding everyone use Leonhardt’s interactive puzzle before the next session? That mass e-mail should close with a line something like… “Any elected official that refuses to use Leonhardt’s puzzle because it is on the New York Times site will be barred from the floor.”
^^ If the rest of the United States looks like this, I just might move to Canada. Collecting firewood is only fun the first couple of times… ^^
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New Yorkers (and the world) need to chill out over the Great Bronx Zoo Cobra Escape
Posted: April 1, 2011 Filed under: Media, New York City, Science | Tags: Bronx Zoo, Egyptian cobra, Japan, Libya, new york city, Rahm Emanuel, Reptile, Snake, Twitter Leave a comment »
There's this rumor going around saying Lilith slept with snakes...
So, I am not a “snake expert”, and the post below is based off my limited experiences with snakes at friends houses and from my observations at the zoo. Oh, and, the fact that snakes are cold-blooded, meaning snakes are the temperature of their surroundings.
Psst, New Yorkers! The cobra is a cold-blooded reptile, and it’s 40 degrees outside! Why would the escaped cobra even leave the Reptile building?
Because there is obviously nothing to fear, I have to assume this is all because New York, New York was feeling jealous over all the national (and international) media attention Chicago’s been getting because of our newly elected Mayor Rahm Emanuel. As proof of how awesome our new mayor is, his fake twitter account is being made into a book. Does Mayor Bloomberg even have a fake twitter (a good one)? And are the tweets of the fake Bronx Zoo Cobra going to be made into a book? I scoff at myself for even posing the question. Well, maybe if the cobra actually kills someone.
You can probably tell, I don’t find the fake Bronx Zoo Cobra twitter account funny mainly because I refuse to forget that snakes are cold-blooded… (just like how squirrels can’t pickpocket people because they don’t have hands – I’m looking at you, Justin Kaufmann-)
As to why journalists (and their readers/viewers) have eaten this silly story up, my guess is the escaped Bronx Zoo cobra story lightens an otherwise somber international community worried about Japan, Libya, and budget deficits.
UPDATE: Before I hit the Publish button I google-newsed “bronx zoo cobra”, and do you know what was at the top of my search? The Egyptian cobra was found inside the Reptile building. I am soooo good.
Like me, the director of the Bronx Zoo Jim Breheny also doesn’t understand all the hub-bub over the snake, as evident by his behavior in the above press conference video.
Media Update on the troll Tamtampamela
Posted: March 15, 2011 Filed under: Strange, Women, Media, Internet | Tags: Atheism, Japan, tamtampamela, poe, God, Richard Dawkins, Perez Hilton, Miami New Times, Mary Sue, Urlesque, successful troll, internet trolling, Troll, Encyclopedia Dramatica 2 Comments »
Image by mygothlaundry via Flickr
Ugh. I did not want to update my wordpress again today, because I like having the picture of me interviewing Rahm Emanuel on my front page, but it can’t be helped. I want the world to know (well, potential employers) that I broke the news that tamtampamela was a troll (see my time stamp)… Read the rest of this entry »
Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami reveal American Stupidity, Insensitivity
Posted: March 12, 2011 Filed under: Environment, Media, Science, War | Tags: Anglo-Maori wars, Atheism, Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Australia, Facebook, Hawaii, Hiroshima, Japan, Karma, nationalism, New Zealand, No Child Left Behind, Nuclear weapon, Pacific Ocean, Pearl Harbor, solar flare, State of American Education, Tsunami, Twentieth Century, United States, what caused the 2011 sendai earthquake?, World War II 11 Comments »
Image by The U.S. National Archives via Flickr
EDIT: The internet is telling me all these anti-Japanese sentiments began with a Family Guy staff writer’s joke tweet. He deleted the tweet and apologized, though other Americans might actually mean it as evident by their Facebook vitriol?
The last 48 hours for Japan have been rough: two earthquakes, a tsunami, and fears of nuclear meltdown.
A logical, possible explanation? A solar flare.
Some cesspoolian Americans, however, viewed these natural phenomena as the work of a spiritual deity. These Americans believe the universe was angry at Japan for Pearl Harbor, and decided to wait more than 50 years to dish out karmic justice. Except these Americans didn’t say it like that. More like: ”Fuck Japan! Remember Pearl Harbor? Karma’s a bitch!” Yeah.
When I think of all the Americans that never learned of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, my forehead wrinkles with worry. No Child Left Behind is doing a worse job than we imagined!
If I had to pick a country, between the United States and Japan, that would get karmic retribution for actions in World War II, I’d pick the United States (body count, occupation). If I were to follow the Facebooking-karmic-justice-Americans logic, where nature takes it upon herself to punish man for the things he does to his fellow man, I’d have to assume that Katrina, the tornadoes tearing up the midwest, the BP Oil Spill (why not?) and every other natural catastrophe to hit the states EVER, is retribution for things America did in prior wars. Or am I being silly here, because America don’t have to worry about karmic retribution? I don’t know the rules to this karma-blame-game… maybe America is exempt.
But what about New Zealand? Following the logic stated above, one could argue the Christchurch earthquake happened because of the Anglo-Maori wars centuries ago. And the flooding in Australia? Oh, the universe is always punishing that country – they’re a country of criminals, you see?
But really, why Pearl Harbor?
My hypothesis: the film ”Pearl Harbor” played recently (ahem, on repeat for a week) on some cable channel, making the battle of Pearl Harbor fresh in commonplace American minds. These Americans heard the world “Japan” on the news, and were like, “I just watched a movie with Ben Affleck, and that tsunami country bombed us in the movie! Serves them right, durrr, derr.”
(I don’t know if “Pearl Harbor” aired recently, but this makes me think my idea has merit…)
CLOSING EDIT: That joke flew over my head and now I feel silly. Perhaps all those Facebook people were really imitating Alec Sulkin. Reddit does not know this yet, nor does Viceland.com, linked above. (3:30pm CST)
