So I’ve been hearing chatter that the DNC had hired an advertising firm to come up with some sort of little Obama salute. Something that can be mimicked at the convention to show a mass sense of unity as well as (presumably) flashed on the skreet as some sort of high-sign.

After a bit of research I stumbled upon this on the site for Los Angeles-based Loyalty Creative:

Boy, that’s one sweet hand-signal-thingy. Very creative!

The moment I saw it I knew what it was and I knew exactly what it inferred. I saw this and thought of only one thing.

With only moderate tinkering I think I’ve refined the image but strengthened the message.

I have to admit that I like my version better:

Seriously.  What are the strong points does it have over Bloglines?

I find Bloglines’ ability to skip piles of pap a lot easier than the Google Reader.

Having to scroll over/past content to mark as read seems incredibly tedious.  When you scan 400+ new items a day spread over 500+ blogs it gets old fast.

And don’t tell me to pare down the number of blogs I monitor. Bloglines handles it fine and in good fashion.  I just don’t see the need to use Google Reader whatsoever.

I’m surprised. I like every other effort they’ve made.

I’m not an economist but I feel people have missed a few points regarding the recent hike in gas prices and arguments for domestic exploration.

Real quick: Oil companies are publicly held entities. They therefore have to keep their shareholders in mind; it’s part-and-parcel of our economic system. What do shareholders want? Solid performance, growth in sales, and increased profits. To them the recent rise in gasoline prices can only be viewed as a boon.

How did it happen? We seem to have managed to get as close to supply and demand parity as we have been in decades. Simply put: supply is currently at demand and prices have corrected commensurately.

This is a function of free-market Capitalism. Prices are up and these companies and their shareholders are enjoying the benefits of record-breaking profits. Why on Earth would these companies be at all interested in increasing supply? An increase in supply should see a corresponding drop in price, and a drop in price would see a reduction in profit. The very concept of opening up domestic exploration and/or recovery runs contrary to the company’s and shareholders best interests.

The problem runs deeper, however. Countless individuals and organizations are partially to heavily invested in the petroleum industries via mutual funds, pension funds, and retirement accounts. Would anyone really want to meddle with the market and negatively impact these wide-spread investors? Tampering with markets thirty-five years ago resulted in a worsening of the oil crisis under President Nixon, cascading through the Carter presidency.

Lastly, ask yourself why politicians would ever vote for opening up reserves and wastelands for exploration. The politicians posit, posture, and pander to the Environmentalists and the NIMBY’s by fighting “for the environment,” all the while riding the Environmental wave to re-election. At the same time — and this is the point people seem to be oblivious to — by their legislative inactivity the politicians are protecting the profitability of a major industry (a favor likely to be returned, no?).

If only those constituents knew that by protecting ANWR, the California and Florida coasts, and preventing oil shale recovery their elected officials are actually doing more for Evil Oil then anything else could. Clever, huh?

You Belong in 1955

You’re fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

But I find this funny.

Dyslexia is a social fig leaf used by middle-class parents who fear their children will be labelled as low achievers, a professor has claimed.

Julian Elliott, a leading educational psychologist at Durham University, says he has found no evidence to identify dyslexia as a medical condition after more than 30 years of research.

“There is a huge stigma attached to low intelligence,” he said.

“After years of working with parents, I have seen how they don’t want their child to be considered lazy, thick or stupid.

“If they get called this medically diagnosed term, dyslexic, then it is a signal to all that it’s not to do with intelligence.”

He added: “There are all sorts of reasons why people don’t read well but we can’t determine why that is. Dyslexia, as a term, is becoming meaningless.”

Ouch!

Link

Why do I have the song At the Hop stuck in my head? I’m stumped.

NEW YORK, New York (AP) — Here’s a bet there won’t be any Beatles songs on the next “Dancing With the Stars.” ABC announced Wednesday that Paul McCartney’s estranged wife, Heather Mills, will be among the competitors.

Mills will be the first contestant with an artificial limb to compete on the series, which returns for its fourth season March 19. She lost the leg in a motorcycle accident in 1993.

Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno, boxer Laila Ali, former basketball star Clyde Drexler and actor Vincent Pastore, who played gangster Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on “The Sopranos,” are also in the cast.

Jerry Springer, one of last season’s competitors, teased ABC’s “Good Morning America” audience before tossing out Mills’ name.

“She may be a sentimental favorite,” said Springer, even though Mills has Yoko Ono-like favorability ratings among many Beatles fans. Her selection delivers a message that whatever challenges people face in life, they can dance, he said.

Mills is an activist for animal rights and elimination of the use of land mines.

“Dancing With the Stars” has proved to be a substantial hit for ABC, although this is the first time it will air when a season of Fox’s “American Idol” is under way. ABC will air its dancing competition on Monday and Tuesday nights to avoid going head-to-head with “American Idol.”

Actor and former country star Billy Ray Cyrus, former ‘N Sync member Joey Fatone, Miss USA 2004 Shandi Finnessey, former “Entertainment Tonight” host Leeza Gibbons, model Paulina Porizkova and former “Beverly Hills, 90210″ star Ian Ziering round out the cast.

Link

A truly wonderful video with some integral lessons.

Link [Made by this guy.]

If you watch the video it shouldn’t be a surprise that I found it on Neal Boortz’s site. What caught me off guard is that he appears to be in the film in the first minute.

Update: While there’s a striking resemblance to the High Priest, I’ve been informed by writer/director David McElroy that the guy in the still from the film is decidedly not Mr. Boortz.

Either way it’s a great little piece. Celebrity appearance or not, it’s still on-point.

What a clever way to get the religious right & uptight to put up or shut up.

OLYMPIA, Wash. - An initiative filed by proponents of same-sex marriage would require heterosexual couples to have kids within three years or else have their marriage annulled.

Initiative 957 was filed by the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance. That group was formed last summer after the state Supreme Court upheld Washington’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Under the initiative, marriage would be limited to men and women who are able to have children. Couples would be required to prove they can have children in order to get a marriage license, and if they did not have children within three years, their marriage would be subject to annulment.

All other marriages would be defined as “unrecognized” and people in those marriages would be ineligible to receive any marriage benefits.

“For many years, social conservatives have claimed that marriage exists solely for the purpose of procreation … The time has come for these conservatives to be dosed with their own medicine,” said WA-DOMA organizer Gregory Gadow in a printed statement. “If same-sex couples should be barred from marriage because they can not have children together, it follows that all couples who cannot or will not have children together should equally be barred from marriage.”

Supporters must gather more than 224,000 valid signatures by July 6 to put the initiative on the November ballot. Opponents say the measure is another attack on traditional marriage, but supporters say the move is needed to have a discussion on the high court ruling.

Link