Brooklyn Mutt

"You can follow someone on Twitter, friend them on Facebook, quote or be quoted by them in a..."

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:12:31 -0500

“You can follow someone on Twitter, friend them on Facebook, quote or be quoted by them in a newspaper article, but until you taste their bread, you don’t really know them.”

- David Carr (via rubenfeld)

Scientists believe that this is the animal from which everything...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:39:44 -0500

Scientists believe that this is the animal from which everything else evolved. The first multicellular being that spawned every living being in this world through billions of mutations, from fish to amphibians to reptiles to birds to mammals to you. It’s an amazing discovery. Its name is Otavia antiqua, and it is the oldest animal ever discovered: 760 million years old. Scientists claim that it used to chill out in calm, nice, shallow waters, chewing on algae and bacteria through its pores and into its little tube body.

Read: You Come From This Thing: The Oldest Animal Ever Discovered - Gizmodo

43% Say Random Choices From Phone Book Better Than Current Congress

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:18:00 -0500

43% Say Random Choices From Phone Book Better Than Current Congress:

With positive ratings for Congress at an all-time low, it may come as no surprise that a plurality of voters nationwide believes a group of people randomly selected from a telephone book would do a better job than the current legislators.

h/t @ThinkProgress

firstfamily: Let’s Move with Michelle Obama (by LNightFan1) As...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:05:59 -0500

firstfamily:

Let’s Move with Michelle Obama (by LNightFan1)

As part of the Let’s Move! initiative, Jimmy visits the White House to compete in a fitness competition with Michelle Obama.

futurejournalismproject: A hash tag we can get behind:...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:05:15 -0500

futurejournalismproject:

A hash tag we can get behind: #JournoSpeak

Putting a Face to Internet Trolls More —...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:27:12 -0500

Putting a Face to Internet Trolls

More — Gizmodo [BBC via The Next Web]

huffingtonpost: Sixty-five percent of liberal Democrats told...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:01:21 -0500

huffingtonpost:

Sixty-five percent of liberal Democrats told the researchers that they’d had one-night stands as opposed to 49 percent of Republicans. However, while Dems didn’t seem to take issue with one-time sexual encounters, a large proportion of Republicans were against them completely.

Among other sexual no-no’s of the right-wing the survey found include sex before marriage, friends with benefits and having sex on the first date.

Match.com Single In America Study: 11 Secrets Of Singles’ Sex, Dating And Politics

nedhepburn: think-progress: Demonstrating: The EXTREME...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:52:04 -0500

nedhepburn:

think-progress:

Demonstrating: The EXTREME marshmallow cannon!

(Pro tip: Want to be invited to the White House? Be a 14 year old who clearly designed the best invention ever).

This is going on a stamp, right? This is the best picture of anything.

producermatthew: tpmmedia: The Ninth Circuit court of appeals...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:37:50 -0500

producermatthew:

tpmmedia:

The Ninth Circuit court of appeals on Tuesday declared California’s Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in the state, unconstitutional. The decision sets up what is almost certain to be a Supreme Court ruling on the matter. Of course California isn’t the only state wrestling with the issue of marriage equality. Here’s a look at where things stand across the country.

It’s important to note that today’s filing was an opinion, not an order. An order is needed to lift a stay that is currently preventing same-sex couples from marrying in California; as it stands now, county clerk offices are still not issuing marriage licenses to those couples.

"My favorite line of Mrs. Obama is when a journalist asked her if she thought her skirts were not too..."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:37:01 -0500

“My favorite line of Mrs. Obama is when a journalist asked her if she thought her skirts were not too tight and she answered, ‘Why you don’t like my big black ass?’ This is a line I admire.”

- Fashion “genius” KARL LAGERFELD, in the pages of Metro, which includes this statement from FLOTUS’s spokeswoman: “Mrs. Obama never made that statement.”

Oh, so he’s not only a fashion genius — he’s a racist, too.

(via Metro)

"To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past. Your..."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:27:15 -0500

“To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past. Your history is not your destiny.”

- Alen Cohen

Mariko says some things that make me roll my eyes at yoga, but this one stuck with me all through class.
(via mar-see-ah)

"12345"

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:26:20 -0500

“12345”

- The password Syrian President Bashar Assad apparently had for some of his email accounts, which were hacked by Anonymous. (via villagevoice)

The World of Charles Dickens, Complete With Pizza Hut - NYTimes

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:58:01 -0500

The World of Charles Dickens, Complete With Pizza Hut - NYTimes

Prop 8 declared unconstitutional: What you need to know

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:16:00 -0500

newsweek:

ruthoutspoken:

Here’s the breakdown of what you need to know:

Today’s ruling: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 vote that Prop 8 is not constitutional. This affirms Judge Vaughn Walker’s earlier ruling that Prop. 8 violated the U.S. Constitution by denying rights to a certain group of people.

“Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently,” the justices wrote in the decision. “There is no such reason that Prop 8 could have been enacted.”

What’s next: Expect an appeal from the opposition shortly. The case will either go to the full 9th Circuit (only 3 ruled Tuesday), or it will head directly to the Supreme Court on appeal. The Supreme Court would look at the case, at the earliest, next term, if they even decide to take the case.

Does this mean same-sex can now marry in California: No. A stay is likely to be put on marriages. In addition, an appeal would prevent marriage from occurring.

Help ‘splainer, thanks ruthoutspoken.

"You know, the Redskins suck. I’m tired of watching everyone else in the Super Bowl. Ain’t been..."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:57:52 -0500

““You know, the Redskins suck. I’m tired of watching everyone else in the Super Bowl. Ain’t been right since they left D.C.”

He went on to write “It’s time for our team to come home where they belong.”

He also wrote - In all caps - DAN SYNDER SUCKS.”

- Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry took to Twitter while watching the Super Bowl.

"And to all the folks who are here, don’t let your robots wander off anywhere."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:13:00 -0500

“And to all the folks who are here, don’t let your robots wander off anywhere.””

- Pres. Obama, today, speaking at the White House Science Fair.

"There was a lot riding on that particular race in Nevada and it was interesting, because the numbers..."

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:01:00 -0500

““There was a lot riding on that particular race in Nevada and it was interesting, because the numbers were much, much greater than you thought,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News. “And a lot of people are giving me credit for that. And I will accept that credit.””

- Trump says he deserves credit for Romney’s decisive Nevada win - The Hill

newyorker: Attack Dog McCarthy’s detailed résumé, posted on...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:09:12 -0500

newyorker:

Attack Dog

McCarthy’s detailed résumé, posted on the Web site of his advertising company, omits his most notorious creation—the Willie Horton ad. Paid for by a political group officially acting separately from the campaign of George H. W. Bush, it was the political equivalent of an improvised explosive device, demolishing the electoral hopes of Dukakis, then the governor of Massachusetts. Its key image was a mug shot of Horton—a scowling black man with a dishevelled Afro. Horton, a convicted murderer, had escaped while on a weekend pass issued by a Massachusetts furlough program. A decade earlier, Dukakis had vetoed a bill that would have forbidden furloughs for murderers. After escaping, Horton raped a white woman and stabbed her fiancé. McCarthy knew that showing Horton’s menacing face would make voters feel viscerally that Dukakis was soft on crime. Critics said that the ad stoked racial fears, presenting a little-known black man as an icon of American violence.

- In this week’s issue, Jane Mayer writes about Larry McCarthy - master of the negative TV ad. McCarthy was the brains behind the ad above and now heads the pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future: http://nyr.kr/x3O8Sb

"Money is not speech"

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:48:49 -0500

lessig:

I’m a critic of Citizens United. I’m a supporter of an amendment to reverse it (among other things). I’m even (sort of) a supporter of an amendment to declare “corporations are not persons.” But I am not a supporter of any amendment that purports to declare “Money is not speech.”

My former dean, Geof Stone, explains why in this piece in the Huffington Post. Stone’s work as a First Amendment scholar actually set the framework for the Court’s core First Amendment jurisprudence (not the Citizens United bit, but the content neutral/content based, etc. bit).

I would urge all who care about this issue to think through his piece carefully. My view has been that we need to attack the problem, not with radical changes that would have loads of unintended consequences, but with targeted responses, that would actually address the problem the Court has created.

So, e.g., with this issue: Imagine a city council passed a resolution that said no one could spend more than $100 on a race for City Council (aka, an incumbency protection resolution). If “money is not speech,” how is that successfully attacked?

THANK YOU!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:24:43 -0500

Passed a HUGE milestone over the weekend. Thank you everybody!