Blogs are known for giving logo makeovers a hard time—The Gap is the most recent example of this, although the Sci-Fi Network’s SyFy rebranding was rightfully excoriated not so long ago, too—but we should all take a moment to admire Comedy Central’s new logo: It’s clean, it’s smart, it’s a play on the copyright symbol, […]
Paul Constant
Posted inMovies & TV
George Lucas Is On the Way to Becoming the Evilest Person in Cinematic History
Via Gizmodo: Oh, ick! According to Mel Smith—friend of George Lucas and director of Radioland Murders—the creator of Star Wars is “buying up the film rights to dead actors.” He says that Lucas plans to resurrect them in future movies using 3D technology
Posted inBooks
Amazon Under Fire for Dropping WikiLeaks
Amazon Web Services issued a statement explaining why they dropped WikiLeaks from their servers, saying “It’s clear that WikiLeaks doesn’t own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content.” Boing Boing points out that making it a copyright issue is probably not the smartest thing in the world: Does this add up? Amazon […]
Posted inPolitics
Newt Gingrich’s 12-Step Plan
So yesterday, Newt Gingrich unveiled his 12-step plan to make a permanent Republican majority. You can read or watch his speech here, but the gist of it involves fighting federal expansion at a state level. Most of his ideas involve either reforming education or stopping Obama’s health care plan. He saves the real Republican red […]
Posted inBooks
And The Winner of the 2010 Bad Sex in Fiction Award Goes To…
…The Shape of Her by Rowan Somerville. Here’s an excerpt: He caught her rhythm, pulling and releasing, cradling and crushing; pushing up through his fingers with each swing, mining up, like an otter through wet sand. Her sounds shifted from moans to grunts, insistent, almost desperate cries from the throat … He unbuttoned the front […]
Posted inMedia
The Internet Is Getting Magazinier
This morning, Project, Richard Branson’s iPad-only magazine, went live in the iTunes store. Publishers Weekly gives a little glimpse inside the first issue. It looks very magaziney. Speaking of which, Gawker head Nick Denton is announcing a new layout for Gawker that will launch in 2011. He’s saying farewell, in part, to the eternal bottomless […]
Posted inGossip
The Oscar Hosts Just Got a Whole Lot Prettier
James Franco and Anne Hathaway will host this year’s Oscars. Franco is probably a lock for a Best Actor nomination for 127 Hours, which will be awkward but not-unprecedented. This at least guarantees that I will watch this year’s Oscars; if the banter becomes too grueling, I’ll happily watch these two hosts on mute for […]
Posted inPolitics
Sarah Palin’s Zombie Problem
The ratings for the second episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska bombed out. It lost 40% of its audience from the first episode. Between this and Bristol Palin losing on Dancing with the Stars, maybe the Palin family’s hold on television audiences isn’t as ironclad as we have been led to believe*. (Although some DwtS viewers […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Aaaaaahhh!!! There Are Hornets Everywhere!!!!!!!
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: Aaaaaahhh!!! Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: Aaaaaahhh!!! Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!
Posted inTech
Can Do Better
The Hairpin (which has totally replaced the space in my heart formerly occupied by Jezebel) linked to Can Do Better. It’s a Hot Or Not-type website in which you can vote on whether a specific person in a relationship could find someone more attractive to date. (Warning: Clicking over to the site activates a brief, […]
Posted inTech
Facebook Wants to Control Your Communication
As Steve mentioned briefly in GMN, Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook employees announced today that they’re putting their message system on steroids, launching a cross-platform messaging system that enables people to keep in touch with an “informal” linked system that includes e-mail, text messaging, and IM. (There will be @facebook.com e-mail addresses available, but the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Dino De Laurentiis
The producer of over-the-top movie spectacles died at age 91. He’s responsible for good movies (Manhunter), bad movies (Dune), and King Kong Lives, the mind-bogglingly bizarre sequel to the 1976 giant-gorilla-on-the-World-Trade-Center remake of King Kong: It feels like a certain kind of old Hollywood movie has died with De Laurentiis. He was responsible for the […]