It’s Friday! The last Friday in August. Wait! How did that happen? How does the time seem to fly, so? That means for many of us, this is a three-day weekend. All the more reason to be happy that Friday is finally here!

To celebrate, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:

Besides Michael Brown, Whom Else Does The New York Times Call “No Angel”?.

Ferguson’s booming white grievance industry: Fox News, Darren Wilson and friends.

Cops Hold Mother And Four Kids At Gunpoint Because They Thought Her Red Nissan Was A Tan Toyota.

John Oliver mocks inaccurate Internet headlines by destroying a Pinata.

Matthew Yglesias: Michael Brown didn’t do anything as a teen that I didn’t — but only one of us got killed.

Mike Huckabee Pleads With Australia To Stop Canceling Anti-Gay Hate Group Conference Venues.

Same-sex couples still fighting for equality with these three federal agencies.

Confronting Lovecraft’s racism.

Nitpicking the nitpickers.

Gorgeous 3D printed Prosthetic Born of Boredom. Dumb headline. The prosthetic hand is awesome, however.

‘These Murders Are A Steady Drumbeat’: A Year After Trans NYC Murder, Community On Edge.

The dirty little secret inside the fight for gay marriage: moralists want to own the sex lives of straight people, too. I don’t know how this can be a secret, we’ve been telling you this for YEARS!

Judge Posner’s Blistering Benchslaps At The Same-Sex Marriage Arguments.

Evolution’s Baby Steps.

Quark Quartet Fuels Quantum Feud.

Finally! Secret of Death Valley’s ‘Sailing Stones’ Is Revealed.

The ‘Times’ Of London Reverts To Type To Motivate Reporters.

Republicans Poll Ladies, Learn Ladies Too Dumb To See Republicans’ Awesomeness.

Dumbo Octopus Gives Rare View. (Video embedded below)

Unusually Large Dumbo Octopus Sighting:

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KAZAKY – PULSE:

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AsapSCIENCE — Your Brain On Coffee:

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ROSEWATER Trailer:

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Energetic roofer can’t help but samba to Latino music:

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Destruction – Brett Gleason (Official Video):

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Wilson Knight – Just Missed The Train:

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MDNGHT – Breeze:

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It’s Friday! The week is nearly over. That means tomorrow night the new season of Doctor Who premieres! How have I contained myself all week?!

Until then, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:

Half Of The United States Lives In These Counties.

Having been a robbery suspect in the past does not justify a roadside execution.

LGB People Who Seek Counseling From Religious Sources Are MORE Likely to Attempt Suicide.

Alabama County Commissioner Thinks Constitution Based On Ten Commandments, Is Incorrect.

Email Is Still the Best Thing on the Internet. “Email — yes, email — is one way forward for a less commercial, less centralized web, and the best thing is, this beautiful cockroach of a social network is already living in all of our homes.”

Ark Encounter Theme Park Takes $18 Million In Taxpayer Subsidies, But Non-Christians Can’t Work There. And it’s not just that you have to be a Christian to apply, most Catholics, mainline Protestants, and certain types of Fundamentalist beliefs don’t qualify, either.

‘Soldiers’ Inventories’ Photo Series Details 1,000 Years of Gear Worn in War.

John Oliver won’t be your therapist: How he torpedoed the reassuring tropes of fake news.

2014 Hugo Award Winners.

TALKING STAMPS: TINY VINYL RECORD POSTAGE STAMPS THAT WERE PLAYABLE, 1972.

A worm with legs? No, you’re not seeing things.

Don Pardo dies at 96; ‘Saturday Night Live’ announcer.

Nineteenth century astronomers had it right, 20th century got it wrong and it drastically delayed the search for exoplanets.

Fact-checking John Oliver’s claim that Keene, N.H., officials wanted armored vehicle to thwart terrorism at pumpkin fest.

The mystery of the falling teen birth rate.

OPENLY GAY SINGER ‘DIES’, REBORN AS TOTALLY ‘STRAIGHT’ COUNTRY SINGER ‘NATE GREEN’.

The Mural That Was Used as a Long-Jump Mat. And just a few days later, CUMMING’S SKAGIT MURAL MYSTERY SOLVED.

George Takei Gloriously Responds To Stupid Questions About Gay People.

Christian Writer Says It’s Hard to Imagine Vicky Beeching is Gay Because Men Find Her Attractive. Think about that for a moment…

Humans Did Not Wipe Out the Neanderthals, New Research Suggests.

Why the MPAA thinks all gay people should be rated ‘R’.

Sam inspires college athletes to come out.

Nobody Knows How Many Americans The Police Kill Each Year.

Police in a Missouri suburb demonstrate how not to quell a riot. (Thanks to Zammi for the link)

Convicting Darren Wilson Will Be Basically Impossible.

More Fergusons are coming: Why paramilitary hysteria is dooming America.

In case you missed it, earlier this week I wrote about (Un)real Characters, and about feeling Powerless after my husband was in an accident, and about local hate-crimes: Shootings.

Garfunkel and Oates – Rainbow Connection (sweet video):

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Into the Spotlight – Episode 85: Fontfolly (um, yes, that’s me being interviewed on an Everfree Network radio show…:

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ASAPscience The Science of Depression:

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ERASURE – Elevation (BT Remix):

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Matthew Connor – How Is July Already Over? (live action stop-motion and noir fashion):

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It’s Friday! The week is nearly over. It’s time to celebrate!

As usual, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:

Robin William’s Top Ten Reasons to be Episcopalian.

Robin Williams’ daughter leaves social media after receiving abuse. (Learning what some people did, leaves me ashamed to be human)

The Domestic Cat Genome Has Been Fully Sequenced, and It’s Fascinating.

Jennifer Ouellette: The english major who taught herself calculus.

The unstoppable march of the upward inflection?

Gay “Doctor Who” Fans Take Best Engagement Photos In All Of Space-Time.

Are Christians persecuted in the United States?

Spacecraft films Pluto’s largest moon in orbit. Pluto has multiple moons, but it isn’t a planet any more, based on a criteria that has nothing to do with its own properties, and if applied strictly to Earth or Jupiter would disqualify them, too… But here, the pictures are pretty.

Steady miniaturization led some dinosaurs to find ways to better adapt for the long-term survival of their line.

Beautiful Glowing Beaches Look Like Something From Another World.

The Glory of Math Is to Matter.

GOP governors gaily canoodle brothers who equate homosexuality with satan; no homo.

Super Bowl Champion, Russell Wilson, Swats Away Fox Host’s Criticism Of Michelle Obama.

Techno-Archaeologists Used an Abandoned McDonald’s to Hijack a Satellite.

Court rules against ‘rapture’ parents.

A Lost Way of Making Bodies From Before Skeletons and Shells.

This Extreme Antarctic Insect Has the Tiniest Genome.

Ants May Boost CO2 Absorption Enough to Slow Global Warming.

Experience the proto-internet running on an Apple IIgs in your web browser.

The completely ridiculous story of how Dan Roth met Robin Williams in a comic book store.

This Is The Terrifying Result Of The Militarization Of Police.

Mom confronts TERF bigotry aimed at her family.

The science behind typos slipping throuhg the cracks.

Mystery fish baffles experts after washing up in Tathr.

Where Do the Five Million Plus Non-male Non-Female Americans Fit Into the Gay Marriage Discussion?

Trolls….

We’re Here, We’re Queer, We’re Making Your Comics.

Iranian Woman Nabs Highest Prize in Mathematics.

New Research Links Extreme Weather to Global Warming.

Image of the day: Don’t blink. And try not to laugh.

When The Media Treats White Suspects And Killers Better Than Black Victims.

Raising a Trans Child Is Not Child Abuse.

Why Conservatives Should Want to Ban Divorce. A better headline: “If Conservatives were really out to protect traditional marriage, they would do this thing, but they don’t, which tells us they are lying about not being anti-gay (as if anyone with more than half a brain didn’t already know that)”

How to Be Polite. This is a much more awesome essay than the title may make you think…

Prom Date – Good Morning, Boyfriend [Official Video]:

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Carol Burnett and Robin Williams -The Funeral:

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Röyksopp & Robyn “Monument” – is it a music video, a science fiction movie, or something else:

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Lauren Bacall’s ‘Applause’-worthy trip to Greenwich Village:

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Inspiring 99-year-old woman competes in Gay Games:

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Favorite Whose Line Moments – Robin Williams:

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It’s Friday! And we’re getting ready to leave town to attend a wedding. So I’m running around a little crazed right now…

Here’s a collection of news and other things that struck me as worthy of being shared:

Beware a bro who knows what he ‘deserves’: the friendzone is only purgatory if women’s decisions are less valid.

Wingnut Nurse Sues Family Planning Center For Not Giving Her Job Just Because She Says She Won’t Do Job.

James Garner, Witty, Handsome Leading Man, Dies at 86. While I am old enough to have seen and loved him as Brett Maverick, he’ll always be James Scott “Jimmy” Rockford to me… except when he’s being King Marchand.

Fort Worth Is Recruiting Gay Cops, and They Won’t Even Be Openly Harassed by Colleagues.

An important perspective… Even if I don’t agree with all of his points. The Shifting Landscape on LGBT Issues in the Evangelical Church.

Really bad and inaccurate headline. Most progressives I know do completely understand this. What we continue to not get is why folks like the author keep apologizing for the irrational bigotry of the fundamentalists, and why he and others keep referring to the fundamentalist evangelicals as merely traditional. What progressives fundamentally don’t get about traditional Christians.

Elephants’ Superior Sense Of Smell Beats Out Other Mammals In Surprising New Study.

Calling for a Debate Over Pluto’s Nature.

Moose drool can undermine grass defenses.

Why Has the Sun Gone So Quiet? – because it’s plotting something nefarious!!!

Bats can navigate using polarized light.

All You Need To Know About the 10% Brain Myth, in 60 Seconds.

NASA releases never-before-seen supernova photos from Chandra Observatory.

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic hits No. 1 with ‘Mandatory Fun’.

You guys, will you please pipe down so Sen. Rubio can dismantle your deserved freedoms?

John Boehner Finally Confirms Bush is Responsible for Immigration Crisis, Admits Obama is Trying to Fix It.

Michael Brown will save his waning movement by grouping homosexuality with incest.

Quickly And Quietly, Rep. Jared Polis Just Created A New LGBT Rights Bill.

Woman Says She Overheard IBM Execs Say They Won’t Hire Women Because They Get ‘Pregnant Again And Again’.

Tessa Hartmann: John Barrowman’s gay kiss at Commonwealth Games was ‘inappropriate for children’.

A New Face for the ‘Ex-Gay’ Movement.

Sci-Fi: why do so many gays love it?

Who Owns Science Fiction/Fantasy?

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert battle for title of World’s Biggest Star Wars Fan!:

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‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Explains the Internet to Fox business reporter:

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George Takei Tells How He Was Sent To An Internment Camp At Age 5. And Somehow It’s Not Horrifying!:

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Wicked Medley – Peter Hollens & Nick Pitera:

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MNEK – Wrote A Song About You:

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Futile & Fooled – Brett Gleason (Official Video):

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Pomplamoose covers Cher – Believe (In Life After Love):

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“Weird Al” Yankovic – Mission Statement:

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It’s Friday!

Again!

I mean, wow, where did the week go?

Here’s a collection of news and other things that struck me as worthy of being shared:

Why Classic Rock Isn’t What It Used To Be. Five-thirty-eight dot com looks at the statistics of radio play. (Thanks to MintRainbow1 for the link)

BBC staff ordered to stop airing “debates” featuring members of the anti-science fringe. (Thanks to Wildrider51 for the link)

Five Legitimate Scientific Controversies. None of them are probably what you’re thinking they are.

Physicists spot potential source of ‘Oh-My-God’ particles. This has nothing to do with the Higgs Boson.

New Species Found in an Everyday, Store-Bought Mushroom Packet.

World’s biggest-ever flying bird discovered: Twice as big as the royal albatross.

New Horizons Enters ‘Pluto-Space!’ To Celebrate, Here Are Pictures Of The Dwarf Planet.

Listen to the Oldest Song in the World: A Sumerian Hymn Written 3,400 Years Ago.

Should the LGBT Rights Movement Forgive and Forget?

Supernova Reveals Origins of Universe’s Dust.

Guy Finds FBI Tracking Device On Car, Posts Pics Online… FBI Shows Up Demanding It Back.

Gay Marriage Ban Overturned in Colorado, But Utah Just Made Things Really Interesting.

Astronomers Discover Milky Way Galaxy’s Most Distant Stars.

Claiborne Richardson Wants Pictures of a Kid’s Cock. Richardson is an Assistant Attorney General in Manassas, Virginia, who is trying to prosecute a teen-age boy on the charge of “creating child porn” not because the teen-ager created porn, but because the teen-ager sent a picture of himself naked to his teen-age girlfriend. Claiborne has ordered police to take pictures of the kid naked, and then got a warrant from a judge ordering the kid to be taken to a hospital, pumped full of drugs to make him have an erection, and take pictures of him like that in order to prove that the pictures the kid sent his girlfriend are him. This is insane. If a kid taking a picture of himself naked with his cellphone is producing child porn, isn’t all this picture taking by the police also producing child porn?

Adam Lambert channels the hell out of Freddy Mercury. Wow (and awesome to see Brian and Roger still rocking!):

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Freaks Like Me by Todrick Hall:

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Jessie Ware – Tough Love:

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My secret boyfriend, Mika, sings a wonderfully bouncy tune in French while rocking a Fist Full of Dollars/Lawrence of Arabia/James Bond/Maltese Falcon/is there a classic movie they didn’t hit homage!:

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Thank the great flying spaghetti monster, it’s Friday! I don’t know about you, but I have had a grueling week. Here’s a collection of news and other things that struck me as worthy of being shared:

Captain America Isn’t Just Any Hero. “…given the era he was born in and his class and religious/ethnic background, there is no way in hell Steve Rogers didn’t grow up as a Democrat, and a New Deal Democrat at that, complete with a picture of FDR on the wall.”

Glenn Beck: ‘Liberals, You Were Right,’ We Should Never Have Gone into Iraq. And this is not the Onion!

Spacetime Might Be a Superfluid, and That Could Help Explain Gravity.

Poll: No gay marriage ‘revolt’ coming.

Americans Think It Should Be Illegal To Fire Someone For Being Gay, Don’t Realize It’s Not Already.

Animation’s gay revolution isn’t as progressive as you think.

Rick Perry, This Is What Happens When People Are Forced to Live in the Closet.

Hillary Clinton Meets The Republican Squirrel, Responds In The Best Way Ever.

Jason Hanna And Joe Riggs, Texas Gay Fathers, Denied Legal Parenthood Of Twin Sons.

A Victory in the Long War Over Seattle Math Education.

At the Supreme Court, the NRA Finally Loses One.

Marriage Equality Opponent Admits ‘No Difference’ Between Same Sex And Heterosexual Families.

We’re losing all our Strong Female Characters to Trinity Syndrome. (Thanks to @JayelleAnderson for the link!)

Why Gay Pride Still Matters And Isn’t Just About Parades And Parties.

How One Student Uncovered Multiple Constitutional Violations at His High School.

Scientists Discover Massive “Ocean” Near Earth’s Core.

Focus on the Family falls off the wagon, returns to its anti-gay addiction.

How to Win at Bridge Using Quantum Physics.

Gun violence and mental illness: Study addresses perception vs. reality.

Is There Life on Charon?.

How to build a quantum-entangled superclock.

In case you haven’t already seen this tripping video shot in a single take, OK Go – The Writing’s On the Wall -:

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NPR StoryCorps animates a story of a big brother (you made need a kleenex):

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David Letterman – Sam Smith: “Stay With Me”:

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The Game of Thrones Title Sequence You Didn’t Know You Needed (it’s a parody, and I know nothing about the show, but found it quite funny):

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