Friday, July 31, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
HUF: San Francisco
Don;t miss out: There is a HUGE HUF SALE happening @ the Sutter St. location in Downtown SF. .Are they closing out? I hope not!
Somali Pirates: The Saga Continues
Monday, April 13, 2009
Shepard Fairey, you are a genius..
Yeezy's in Court
WICKED
Show Review
Total waste of time.
JUST KIDDING! Wicked is so delightful! My favorite is the gal that plays Glinda. She is so Molly Shannon-esque hilarious! Go see it. It’s in San Francisco till September!
Britney Spears
4.12.09 – San Jose
Concert Review
I miss Britney 2.0.
BRICK
Satisfied the inner tapeworm: Err, yes… 2 appetizers and 2 entrees later.
Repeat visitation: maybe only for appetizers & drinks
Amazon.com...lets get it together shall we?
"In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
Ashlyn DMember ServicesAmazon.com Advantage"
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Those in Glass Houses...
Barbie's real life dream house created in Malibu!
Via: Laist.com
Innovative? or just ugly?
Hopes dim in search for survivors of Italian quake
A fire department spokesman said rescuers might call off the operation on Saturday night or Sunday after a search beneath the ruins of a four-storey building in the mountain city of L'Aquila failed to turn up anyone alive.
With Easter around the corner, the thousands of people made homeless by the earthquake tried to find some normalcy in tents and borrowed quarters.
At the main tent city, where some 2,000 survivors are sheltering, makeshift chapels with Bibles and rosaries were set up in plastic tents for people to pray and an Easter mass will be celebrated on Sunday.
One estimate put the damage at up to 3 billion euros ($4 billion), but its impact on Italy's economy, which is worth nearly 2 trillion euros a year and is already mired in recession, is expected to be limited.
China congratulates NKorea's Kim on re-election
Chinese President Hu Jintao congratulated Kim Jong-Il on his re-election as leader of North Korea, state media said Saturday, amid widespread international condemnation of Pyongyang's rocket launch.
Hu said in a message that Kim's re-election on Thursday as chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission is an "expression of sincere support and profound trust", Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
"I believe that the fraternal Korean people will surely register steady fresh successes in the construction of Korean-style socialism... under the leadership... headed by you," Hu was quoted as saying.
"It is the consistent policy of the party and Government of China to consolidate and develop the Sino-DPRK (North Korea) good neighbourly relations of friendship and cooperation," he said.
Hu noted this year marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between the communist neighbours.
China remains the North's staunchest ally, keeping it afloat with economic aid and helping it diplomatically.
Last Sunday, North Korea fired a rocket over Japan in what Pyongyang called a satellite launch, while Washington, Tokyo and Seoul say it was really an illegal test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Beijing has defended North Korea's right to peaceful use of space, refusing to allow a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the launch.
Ethical questions over harvesting dead son's sperm..
DALLAS (AP) - Nikolas Colton Evans had talked about how much he wanted to have a child, but the 21-year-old died after he was punched and hit his head on the ground in a fight. That would have been the end of it, if it weren't for his determined mother, a court order and a urologist.
Missy Evans has harvested her dead son's sperm and hopes to find a surrogate and one day raise her son's child. It's a decision that ethicists say raises troubling questions; one called the potential offspring a "replacement child."
Evans isn't concerned about what others might think. She says she is only doing what her son would have wanted. "He would love me so much for doing this," she said.
Austin police say Nikolas Evans was punched during a fight on an Austin street early March 27 and then fell to the ground, striking his head. He died April 5. Police are still trying to identify the person who hit him.
After a doctor told her that nothing more could be done for her son, Missy Evans came up with the idea of harvesting his sperm. She discussed the idea with her ex-husband, her older son and other family members, and said all supported her wish to help a part of Nikolas live on through his future offspring. She said her son once told her he wanted three sons and had already picked out names. She described Nikolas as an "old soul" interested in filmmaking, politics, music and old movies.
"My son wanted to graduate from college. He wanted to have children. And someone took that away from him," said Evans, 42, of Bedford, located between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Evans had to go to court to get permission to harvest his sperm. On Tuesday, a Travis County probate judge granted her wish - ordering the county Medical Examiner's Office to keep her son's body chilled to at least 39.2 degrees and allow access so an expert could take the specimen.
Evans' attorney Mark Mueller said no one opposed the plan.
An Austin urologist volunteered her services and collected testicular tissue from the body Wednesday night. Missy Evans said she's been told much of the sperm is viable and is making plans for it to be stored.
Decisions such as Evans' must be made quickly, and allow little time for a grieving person to reflect on the choice, one ethicist said. Using the sperm brings up more issues.
"That child's biological father will be dead. The mother may be an egg donor, anonymous or gestational surrogate," said Tom Mayo, director of Southern Methodist University's Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.
"This is a tough way for a kid to come into the world. As the details emerge and the child learns more about their origins, I just wonder what the impact will be on a replacement child," Mayo said. He said the desire to replace a deceased child is a classic scenario that, in this case, took a nontraditional turn.
"The underlying desire would be very strong, even if she wouldn't describe it that way," he said.
Art Caplan, chair of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said that in the past decade there have probably been about 1,000 such requests by spouses, mothers, girlfriends and others in the U.S. - but most "don't wind up using it."
Caplan said hospitals may have protocols for dealing with such requests, but there are few laws or regulations regarding the practice. It's usually up to a urologist to decide whether to perform the procedure, he said.
It would be rare for a child to be born from sperm retrieved from a dead person, said Melissa Brisman, an attorney on the American Fertility Association's legal advisory council.
"This is an unexpected death in which there are tons of emotions and you don't even know if you want to do it," she said. Mark Vopat, a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Youngstown State University in Ohio, questions whether the court should have granted the mother's request. He said that while Nikolas Evans may have told his mother he wanted children someday, it's wrong to assume he also would have wanted to father a child posthumously if he died prematurely. "This is a disturbing sort of case," he said.
Missy Evans said she is unsure when she'll be ready to seek a surrogate to carry her son's child. But she added that she has no second thoughts about the plan.
"This is probably going to bankrupt me and I will do whatever I can to make it happen," she said.
What do you think?
Amy Adams...W Magazine...
Via W Magazine
Before Amy Adams was nominated for an Oscar, the redheaded actress could be found folding shirts at the local Gap. In a candid interview in the May issue of W, the Doubt star dishes about life before becoming famous and the changes that stardom brings. And while she has since worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Leonardo DiCarprio, Kirstie Alley, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, landing the Gap job at age 18 was a dream come true. “[It was] a huge deal, because with the 40-percent-off discount I could finally buy things that weren’t on sale!” the star tells W. And for a girl in high school, that meant a lot. “We were defined by the clothes we bought at the mall,” she says. And while Amy now has her pick of labels like Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera, her teenage years were more about making do. “I would make fake Guess jeans by buying a cheaper brand with a triangle label and then cutting it off so you could still see the triangle outline. It’s so sad that I did that! But I really wanted to be one of those girls,” Amy recalls about trying to keep up with the cool crowd.
Goodbye King, We'll miss you..
final issue.
Kanye "Murdered" on South Park!
South Park did an amazing spoof on Kanye and his ego. This was his response:
SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT’S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT……AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER. I USE TO USE IT TO BUILD UP MY ESTEEM WHEN NOBODY BELIEVED IN ME. NOW THAT PEOPLE DO BELIEVE AND SUPPORT MY MUSIC AND PRODUCTS THE BEST RESPONSE IS THANK YOU INSTEAD OF “I TOLD YOU SO!!!” IT’S COOL TO TALK SHIT WHEN YOU’RE RAPPING BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE. WHEN YOU MEET LITTLE WAYNE IN PERSON HE’S THE NICEST GUY FOR EXAMPLE. I JUST WANNA BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM. I NEED TO JUST GET PAST MYSELF. DROP THE BRAVADO AND JUST MAKE DOPE PRODUCT. EVERYTHING IS NOT THAT SERIOUS. AS LONG AS PEOPLE THINK I ACT LIKE A BITCH THIS TYPE OF SHIT WILL HAPPEN TO ME. I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I’M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE BUT I’M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. I’M SURE THE WRITERS AT SOUTH PARK ARE REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DRAW MY CREW. THAT WAS PRETTY FUNNY ALSO!! I’M SURE THERE’S GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN THIS… THAT’S HOW YOU KNOW IT’S ME!
Sigh. I love this man.
Conservatives Upset Over Obama Bow to Arabs
It was the bow seen around the world.
Last week, President Obama greeted King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia with what appeared to be a bow, outraging conservatives who say the leader of the free world has no business bending over to foreigners. But the White House denies that the president bowed.
A video of the greeting shows Obama significantly stooping before the 84-year-old monarch. The alleged bow left a bitter taste with many conservatives.
“I think he bent over with both hands to shake his hand,” Gibbs said before asking why the incident was being raised a week after it happened.When a reporter said people were still discussing the incident, Gibbs used his signature sarcasm to dismiss the claim. “I can only imagine it is of great cause and concern for many people struggling with the economy,” he said.