Archive for June, 2011

OMG! Adorbz of the Day: Adorable little Gleek dons a Dalton Academy uniform and does his best Darren Criss to the tune of the Warblers rendition of “Teenage Dream.”

After The Jump: Mini Warbler does his Mini Warbler thing at Glee Live! in San Diego:

Click to see more… »

Does What It Says On The Tin of the Day: *Crosses “watch an armless man angrily trash a South Beach hotel lobby” off Bucket List.*

[thd.]

This x That:

Know This:

• Weinergate: Nancy Pelosi says she’s “deeply disappointed,” calls for Ethics Committee investigation; Ben Smith: “Can Weiner keep his seat?”; The Hill‘s Ballot Box: Weiner’s seat “unlikely to fall to GOP.”

• Deadliest day for American forces in Iraq since ’09 as six troops killed in rocket attack.

• Syrian protest violence continues as dozens killed in northern city.

• RIP: Leon Botha, DJ and well-known Progeria survivor, dead at 26.

• Former International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleads not guilty to sexual assault charges.

• Rick Santorum announced bid for Republican presidential nomination.

Read This:

• Katie Couric will host syndicated daytime talk show on ABC.

• British Board of Film Classification bans Human Centipede sequel for posing a real harm risk to potential viewers.

Look At This:

• LIFE: Before and After D-Day: In Color.

The Other:

• NewsFeed: Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ Album Banned in Lebanon.

• Tea x Time List: The 5 Most Unusual Nominees For President. Ever.

• Above: Fully functional papercraft Leica M3 and pinhole CCTV camera by Matthew Nicholson (template PDFs coming soon). [via.]

Crazyass Japanese Thing of the Day: Speaking of dangerous playground equipment, here’s a 51m-long playground slide from Nagano prefecture that’s been dubbed “Japan’s longest playground slide.”

Double dare ya.

[japanprobe.]

RIP: Singer-songwriter Andrew Gold, whose single “Thank You for Being a Friend” was memorably re-recorded by Cynthia Fee to be used as The Golden Girls theme song, passed away Friday of a heart attack. He was 59.

Gold’s other successful singles include the top 10 hit “Lonely Boy,” and 1978′s “Never Let Her Slip Away.” His version of the Mad About You theme song “Final Frontier” was used by NASA as one of the Mars Pathfinder’s “wake up” songs.

[people.]

PSA of the Day: When an angry (ex-)customer phoned Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse Theater to complain about the establishment’s no-texting policy (for the record, she was warned twice before being kicked out), they did what any amazing movie house would do: They turned her rambling rant into a “Don’t Talk or Text” PSA which they intend to play before all R-rated movies.

(sNSFW, rambling rant.)

[drafthouse / thanks helraisr!]

Powerful Photo of the Day: Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson — descendants of Homer Adolph Plessy and John Howard Ferguson of the infamous racial-segregation-upholding Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson — stand on the very same spot in New Orleans where Plessy was arrested for refusing to move from the whites-only rail car, triggering the landmark case.

Keith, the great-grandson of Homer Plessy’s first cousin, and Phoebe, the great-great-granddaughter of John Ferguson, met in 2004 and founded the Plessy & Ferguson Foundation — an organization dedicated to civil rights education — a short time later.

“The first thing I said to her,” Plessy says about their initial encounter, “was, ‘Hey, it’s no longer Plessy versus Ferguson. It’s Plessy and Ferguson’.”

[wapo.]

Follow Up of the Day: Rep. Anthony Weiner appeared before the press this afternoon after a short delay co-opted by none-other-than Andrew Breitbart to tearfully confess a series of “inappropriate communications” with six women he met online. He stressed that his relationship with these women had no physical component whatsoever, but refused to elaborate on the exact nature of the exchanges.

Weiner further admitted that the now-infamous underwear pic was in fact tweeted by him, and the hacking fabrication his used to cover it up was meant to protect his loved ones.

Calling his behavior “a destructive thing,” Weiner offered the media no clear-cut explanation for his actions, but said he knew what he was doing was a mistake. The congressman said he has no intention of resigning his post, believing he did not violate any law nor break the oath to his constituents.

Asked about how his marriage would fair in light of his admission, Weiner said he loves his wife “very much” and they two “have no intention of splitting up over this.” He later added that his wife had knowledge concerning some of these relationships “since before we were married.”

Meanwhile, ABC News posted an interview it conducted with Meagan Broussard, a 26-year-old woman who claims to have been one of the women with whom Rep. Weiner engaged in “a sexually-charged electronic relationship.”

[cityroom / abcnews / video: msnbc.]

Afternoon Snack: This squirrel is pretty well-mannered. You know, as far as squirrels go.

[pettube / presurfer.]

Shirtless Politician of the Day: Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment has been steadily dripping fuel on the flames of Weinergate by slowly leaking allegedly damning images of Rep. Anthony Weiner throughout the day, with the coup de grace being the shirtless pic above.

According to BigGovernment, a young woman has come forward with photos she claims were sent to her by Weiner on May 20 via a Yahoo! email account belonging to the Congressman. The same post goes on to say that, in addition to a pic very similar to the one that got the Weinergate ball rolling, another photo sent to the woman “leaves nothing to the imagination.”

“You’re going to know who this [young woman] is by tomorrow,” Breitbart said. She is going to come out of her anonymity in a very short time. She will be coming forward to communicate the means by which she received these photos. I think it will be clear that she is telling the truth.” ABC News has apparently conducted an interview with the woman, and is currently deciding when it will air.

Meanwhile, across town, another woman has come forward to allege that she received “200 sexually explicit messages from Weiner from a Facebook account the Democratic politician no longer uses.” According to RadarOnline and Star magazine who spoke with the woman jointly, Rep. Weiner allegedly told the woman he had a “ridiculous bulge” and when she ask for a photo he helpfully provided her with one.

Rep. Weiner is expected to address these new allegation at the press conference scheduled for 4PM ET.

[biggovernment / radar / cityroom.]