U Can’t Touch Mormon Jesus

Remember that cartoon that explains Joseph Smith’s Christianity fanfiction? The one that would eventually become banned by Mormons for laying it all out a little too clearly? Some wags somewhere on the intertubes have finally… FINALLY… turned it into a meme.

A little hard to follow the lyrics, but after repeated listening, you can get all the lulz.

U Can’t Touch Mormon Jesus
{advertisement}

Gay Students of Brigham Young University: It Gets Better

This broke my heart.

It broke my heart at least partly because these students are all Mormon, and are less capable of questioning their religion than they are capable of questioning their peers or the gender roles proscribed to them, and partly because they faced such disapprobation at the hands of others that shared their faith.
Continue reading “Gay Students of Brigham Young University: It Gets Better”

Gay Students of Brigham Young University: It Gets Better

Invisible Children #Kony2012 filmmaker detained for masturbating in public

No idea whether he was on something or had a nervous breakdown or what, but apparently this is, um, a bit out of character for Jason Russell. The San Diego police department has taken him to a medical facility after he apparently went something close to crazy in public. Specifically, via NBC:

Jason Russell, 33, was allegedly found masturbating in public, vandalizing cars and possibly under the influence of something, according to Lt. Andra Brown. He was detained at the intersection of Ingraham Street and Riviera Road.

Brown said Russell was acting very strange.

“Due to the nature of the detention, he was not arrested,” she said at a press conference. “During the evaluation we learned we probably needed to take him to a medical facility because of statements he was saying.”

Continue reading “Invisible Children #Kony2012 filmmaker detained for masturbating in public”

Invisible Children #Kony2012 filmmaker detained for masturbating in public

#Kony: It’s Complicated

We’ve all seen Invisible Children’s “Make Him Famous” campaign, attempting to bring war criminal Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, to justice. If you somehow missed it, here’s the video again.

However, the situation is far more complicated than the video makes it appear, and I can’t help but feel that for everything this video does that’s right, there’s two more things wrong.
Continue reading “#Kony: It’s Complicated”

#Kony: It’s Complicated

There are no dragons in space

I’ve got about a dozen maddening things I want to write about, almost no time in which to do any of it, and a fairly full day ahead of me today (as with yesterday). So, here. Something awesome instead. Valve (yes, Valve!) created an official Skyrim mod, available on Steam for the PC version. Wonder what happened to the Space Core after being sucked out into space at the end of Portal 2? Well, he’s apparently shielded enough to survive reentry… on another planet.

Says a bunch of unique stuff like “Archery? Hmm. Smithing? Hmm. Don’t need ’em. Go to space. Only skill you need.” Also, you can apparently use the Atronach Forge to build a unique helmet, and you can return him to space with the help of a giant.

Yes, seriously.

There are no dragons in space

Obama: Dragonborn

I can’t believe I missed this the first time around, when it was edited for the Tonight Show. And I can’t believe that, despite the meme being essentially “something gets moved violently, overdub Fus Ro Dah”, that it manages to make me laugh most of the time.

It was edited from this meeting — check 10 seconds before the end of the conference for how it actually went down. That’s some damn good video editing up there, I have to say.

Obama: Dragonborn

Thibaulting is the new Tebowing

Via @artologica on Twitter, evidently someone caught a snapshot of French Canadian goalie Jocelyn Thibault on one knee. This is, of course, meme-worthy.

Jocelyn Thibault in a one-knee pose quite similar to Tim Tebow's praying pose

One of these days I’m going to have to give in and ape Tebow’s prayer pose myself. Only, maybe, picking up a penny. Or petting a cat. Certainly, catching me in something like a prayer is honestly no worse and no less hypocritical than a faithful Christian violating Matthew 6 blatantly like Tim Tebow keeps doing.

(Yes, all three of our surnames are pronounced the same.)

Thibaulting is the new Tebowing

Keyboard cat vs Corporate Personhood

Join all these internet memes in fighting against corporate personhood in the United States. It’s probably the single biggest thing you can do to fix the listing ship of democracy. Though Mentos geysers under the listing side of the ship might help too.

Yes, I’m Canadian. What happens in the States has ripple effects throughout the world, like it or not, so of course I’m getting in on spreading this meme.

Keyboard cat vs Corporate Personhood

Time lapse video of aurora borealis from Norway

Via Phil Plait, another absolutely incredible time-lapse video by Terje Sorgjerd.

And one of the neatest parts of the video: a cameo appearance by Vega.

The video was shot at Kirkenes and Pas National Park in northern Norway — yes, northern Norway, around 70° north latitude. As an example, down here at more temperate latitudes, Vega gets pretty high in the sky, almost directly overhead. But that far north it doesn’t; in fact, that far north Vega never sets! It’s a circumpolar star, like Polaris itself. You can see that for yourself in the video: Vega is the bright star near the center of the frame starting at 21 seconds in. It’s in the video for about 10 seconds, and you can see it’s moving downward in a slow arc, but clearly won’t get anywhere near the horizon.

Unbelievable beauty. Just unbelievable. Hell of a way to start the year.

Time lapse video of aurora borealis from Norway