Let me smell yo …

Ok, this is NSFW (Not safe for work), but must be watched…. I am blown away (haha I love puns) by this…

Lyrics after the jump…

Happy Earth Day!

Wisconsin Senator Gaylord (uproarious laughter) Nelson first proposed a national day to celebrate the earth in September of 1969. The Vietnam War was wrecking Southeast Asia’s jungles, the Cuyahoga river caught fire in Cleveland, and South Carolina’s Savannah River nuclear power plant was melting down. The negative aftereffects of mass consumerism and industrialization that emerged during the end of World War II were spreading across North America like a terrible monstrous weed.

All of those events–and the other events that contributed to America’s first environmental movement–were important factors in increasing American’s awareness of the fragility of our natural environment and the long term consequences of its neglect. All of that stuff is incredibly important, but to me there is one event that stands out beyond all the rest.

The picture above was taken on the 7th of December, 1972. Colloquially called the “blue marble” picture, it is the first picture ever taken of our planet. Although this occurred after the first ”official” Earth Day, I think it was the single most important promoter of environmentalism we saw in the twentieth century.

It has since become the most widely distributed picture in human history. It reminds us that what we have is incredibly special and vibrant, but also susceptible to our carelessness. It’s difficult to frame our perspective in the universe when we have our feet firmly planted on the earth’s soil, but we exist in an incredibly precarious state. If we imperil the planet’s habitability, we have nowhere to turn. We are surrounded by a bleak inhospitable vaccum that would freeze our lungs and immediately suck the life out of us if we stepped into it for only a moment. Thinking of conservation and sustainability with that perspective tends to reorganize one’s priorities.

Imagine what it must have been like to look upon this picture for the first time back in 1972. Take some time today to view the high-res version here.

There’s only one of these. Take care of it, and have a great day.

Nixon W. Bush

Who is the worst President in the history of the United States?

OK, obviously. Let me revise the question: Who is the worst President in the history of the United States (active Presidents excluded)?

There are a few names you might be tossing around in your head. Hoover. Buchanan. Harding. But, chances are that there is one especially demonic, psychotic, megalomaniacal gargoyle that immediately leaped forward and started doing somersaults as soon as you finished reading the question.

NIXON

For years, I feel like our generation has lived in Nixon’s shadow. He was always the nadir of American politics. No one ever had anything nice to say about the former President, and he was the constant subject of ridicule for comedians and cartoonists. His physical appearance was ghastly-the demented eyes, the sagging jowls, the profuse sweating, the constant fidgeting, as if he were trying to slip out of his suit without unbuttoning anything. He spoke in a horrible guttural growl that made him sound like a gorgon with laryngitis.

One of the entries for the Guilt By Association music video contest. Selected as one of three category winners, as best entry using Petra Haden’s cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”.

Directed by Kerri-Ann Doherty and her grand team over at JuiceBox Films. For information about working with Juicebox email Kerri@juiceboxfilms.com

This song is from the Guilt By Association album on which some of the top indie artists cover their favorite guilty pleasure pop songs in their own unique way. Out Sept 4th on Engine Room Recordings.

To listen to more songs from the album go to http://myspace.com/guiltbyassociation

I really like “Don’t Stop Believing”, and this version is killer… The “Guilt By Association” album has been one of my favorites for the past few months, finding this video was fortuitous…

Who’s Embarrassing Themselves on the Internet Today?

This is weird.

You are a trophy wife. Your husband, who is a major Broadway theater operator and a quarter century older than you, decides to divorce you. Since you signed a pre-nuptial agreement before you got married, you have no means for supporting yourself, and your future looks pretty bleak.

So, how do you make the best of a very bad situation? Post a video of yourself on YouTube, where you tearfully recount all of the abuses you’ve endured, slander your former spouses’ sexual prowess, and then call up his office and start screaming at the person on the other line!

Lama Yo Mama!

This weekend, His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke in Seattle, and I was lucky enough to have Megan drag me along. I use the verb ‘drag’ because I was not initially inspired to attend this appearance when I first heard about it. Like any healthy skeptic, I regard most authority figures with extreme suspicion, especially when they derive their authority from a religious source. But, at the end I felt very differently about this particular devil. He had a lot of really thoughtful things to say, and I appreciated the opportunity to hear them.

The line outside the stadium snaked all the way around the block, which offered great opportunities for people watching. The evangelicals were out in full force with megaphones, signs, and t-shirts, warning all the attendees that Buddhism leads directly to eternal damnation.

NES RBI Baseball reenactment…

Perhaps the most infamous moment in all of baseball… This is the entire bottom of the 10th inning from game 6 of the Red Sox/Mets 1986 World series… I can’t even begin to guess how long this took the person who did it…

The 10 Things You Should Know About John McCain

MoveOn.org just released a top ten list about John McCain that covers a few facts and connections unlikely to receive much coverage from the mainstream media. Each assertion is backed up with a hyperlink embedded within the text, so please feel free to research something if it sounds unfounded to you.

I know it’s unlikely that Hillary will receive the Dem’s nomination, but if she does, I strongly urge anyone out there who is considering a vote for McCain over Hillary to take a look at this:

High-Res Map of the U.S. Carbon Footprint

Click for larger version

From Wired Magazine…

A team of scientists has completed a carbon dioxide emissions inventory of the United States plotted down to 100-square-kilometer chunks.

That means that the NASA- and Department of Energy-funded scientists can detail emissions across all 9 million square kilometers that compose the United States. For a full explanation, check out the video that Purdue’s Kevin Gurney put together, which features a number of other excellent CO2 visualizations. Andy Revkin, the New York Times‘ environment-beat writer, put a memorable headline on a post about the video, calling it, “Breath of a Nation.”

The work, known as The Vulcan Project, has already yielded a significant discovery: Previous CO2 estimates that used population as a proxy for emissions overestimated the Northeast’s greenhouse-gas generation, while underestimating the coal-heavy Southeast’s contribution.

via Wired

Joscho Stephan

I’m not a huge fan of Gypsy Jazz (which is to say I’ve never given it a chance), but I am a fan of great guitar playing in general. This kid (I say kid as he is in his early 20s) has some major skills… This is Joscho Stephan doing his version of Bossa Dorado and keeping me entertained enough to watch it at least 10 times…