Binaryjesus

If you need something to worship, then worship life — all life, every last crawling bit of it! We’re all in this beauty together!

When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.

The Governor of Iowa's SUV was clocked at 84 MPH. A senior member of Iowa's police force called it in, but the SUV wasn't pulled over. He complained about the incident. He's now been fired.

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Rush Holt (D-NJ) has introduced a bill called the "Surveillance State Repeal Act" that repeals the PATRIOT Act and much of FISA (though it leaves some pretty terrible parts of FISA intact). It's only 8 pages long, but it has the potential to do a lot of good.

The Surveillance State Repeal Act would:

1. Repeal the PATRIOT Act (which contains the telephone metadata harvesting provision).

2. Repeal the FISA Amendments Act (which contains the email harvesting provision).

3. Ensure that any FISA collection against a US Person takes place only pursuant to a valid warrant based on probable cause (which was the original FISA standard from 1978 to 2001).

4. Retain the ability for government surveillance capabilities to be targeted against a specific natural person, regardless of the type of communications method(s) or device(s) being used by the subject of the surveillance.

5. Retains provisions in current law dealing with the acquisition of intelligence information involving weapons of mass destruction from entities not composed primarily of U.S. Persons.

6. Prohibit the government from mandating that electronic device or software manufacturers build in so-called “back doors” to allow the government to bypass encryption or other privacy technology built into said hardware and/or software.

7. Increase the terms of judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) from seven to ten years and allow their reappointment.

8. Mandate that the FISC utilize technologically competent Special Masters (technical and legal experts) to help determine the veracity of government claims about privacy, minimization and collection capabilities employed by the US government in FISA applications.

9. Mandate that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regularly monitor such domestic surveillance programs for compliance with the law, including responding to Member requests for investigations and whistleblower complaints of wrongdoing.

Rep. Rush Holt Bill To Repeal PATRIOT And FISA Amendments Acts Now Live, Ambitious

(Image: the future will judge us, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from figgenhoffer's photostream)

We’ve discussed the Corn God before in these comics, but this is the first time he’s shown up in person, I think. Corn God 1, YHWH 0.

Okay! That’s enough for now. Go buy an adorable stuffed bunny.

Noticed Netflix's House of Cards on DVD at my local Costco.

Is it just me or does this seem really strange?

If you've paid any attention to the Internet over the last few years you're probably aware that real life ducks are not exactly as friendly and personable as the ones in cartoons.

What if children's television reflected the fact that real duck life has more in common with, say, Oz, than Duck Tales? It would probably look a lot like this.

May be NSFW.

Video Link

Andy sez, "Why should all world protesters have to wear the mask of a white guy? We made wearable Guy Fawkes masks of men and women of all skin tones." Download them all.

Diversifying the "Anonymous" Guy Fawkes Mask - ANIMAL (Thanks, Andy!)

The artist explains,

I thought a lot of folks out there could benefit from learning how to with introverted people. I drove my ex crazy by being introverted. He thought that I was being "distant" and "purposely ignoring him as part of a passive-aggressive power play". Here I was just enjoying his company without talking.

Here's a printable version.

(HT: @ClaireRPorter)

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has released a set of templates for letters to send to harassing debt collectors. These letters contain the binding language required by fair debt collection laws and should cause debt collectors to back off. What's more, they remind debt collectors of the penalties for ignoring such a letter and let them know that you know your rights and are willing to enforce them against the hounds.

New ways to combat harmful debt collection practices (via Consumerist)

(Image: Chopping off my little finger, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from nihonbunka's photostream)

Summer at the Warhol

Hip hop

Martin Schoeller: Indentical

Wedding programs tend to be pretty boring, but when you theme them after the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, they become a lot more interesting and cool -especially when they include a word search at the end just in case guests get bored while waiting for the ceremony.

Link

We cover a lot of geeky wedding stuff on Neatorama, but if you just can’t get enough nerdy wedding pictures (whether or not you’re in the midst of planning a wedding), here are some fantastic bouquets and boutonnieres perfect for any geeks ready to join together in matrimony.

Angry Birds

Etsy seller RBKCreations makes all kinds of awesome custom wedding bouquets and boutonnieres. This Angry Birds bouquet would be perfect for throwing to a crowd, but it would be even better if the bride used a slingshot for the bouquet toss.

Muppets

If you really want to do something creative with your bouquets, RBKCreations will even custom make a themed wedding bouquet just for you. Here is a sample from one custom order she made, with a Muppets theme. Personally though, if I were the bride, I’d be bummed I didn’t get any characters on my bouquet.

Mario

RBKCreations also makes these adorable Mario-inspired wedding bouquets with felt fire flowers and button-adorned mushrooms. She even makes matching bridesmaids bouquets and fire flower boutonnieres for the groom and his groomsmen.

Super Mario Galaxy

If you’re going to be married inside of a hobby and gaming store with a TARDIS as your altar, you’d better have a few other great geeky touches to your wedding as well. Fortunately, Laura and Calvin lived up to their self-proclaimed nerdom, incorporating lines from The Princess Bride into their vows, serving up Mario cupcakes for dessert and using a bouquet inspired by Super Mario Galaxy, complete with hovering stars and mushrooms.

Fire Flowers and Minifigs

Sarah and Chris geeked out their wedding with homemade fire flower bouquets and boutonnieres built with custom-made Lego Minifigs –Chris’ appears to be a tiny little He-Man. The groomsmen then completed their geektastic look with some sweet 8-bit ties.

Princess Peach

What character would better suit a gamer wedding with bright pink bouquets than Princess Peach? As if her tiny figure popping out of the bride’s flowers weren’t cute enough, the boutonnieres also featured a Mario character –little toad hiding behind a flower. Anna and Jonny’s wedding featured a variety of other adorable gaming touches as well, including guest gift boxes that look like puzzle boxes and centerpieces coming out of old NES cartridges.

My Bouquet Lollipop

Love candy almost as much as you love your sweetheart? Then this lollipop wedding bouquet would be perfect for ceremony, just as it was perfect for Melanie and Justin.

Now That’s Sweet

If you have such a sweet tooth that only three swirly lollipops in a bouquet seems like too few, then you’d certainly enjoy Julia’s bouquet that features nothing but lollipops and giant jawbreakers. The entire thing is so adorable that it’s easy to imagine Vanellope Von Schweetz of Wreck It Ralph carrying at her wedding –but let’s just hope she didn’t toss this heavy bouquet at a flock of single girls.

Maximum Geekdom Go

Flickr user ElsaWolf’s bouquet incorporates three distinct areas of geek culture –Doctor Who fandom, steampunk and a love of literature, specifically Sherlock Holmes. The bottom of the bouquet features a sonic screwdriver wrapped in copper wire to add a touch of steampunk flair and the flowers are made from pages torn from Sherlock Holmes stories.

Want to make your own paper roses out of a book that has particular meaning to you or your partner? Well, 100 Layer Cake has a fantastic how to guide to putting together your own bookish bouquet.

Avengers Assemble

This Avengers boutonniere is perfect for any grooms who happen to love comics. Best of all, each groomsman gets to choose the Avenger he likes the most –and while Offbeat Bride writer Jamie’s husband chose The Avengers, you could easily take inspiration from this and select your own favorite super hero team.

Nightwing and Batgirl

Laura and Seth wanted to save money on their wedding, so they opted to make the bouquet and boutonnieres themselves. As it turns out, this probably worked out for the best because the resulting bouquet and boutonnieres, made from the pages of comic books, perfectly suited their Nightwing and Batgirl themed wedding.

Butterflies

Whether you are a lepidopterologist (someone who studies butterflies), a collector of butterflies or just think they’re pretty, this butterfly bouquet by Martha Stewart is an amazingly cute and unique DIY bouquet alternative.

Scrabble

Even a traditional bouquet can easily be geeked up with the addition of a few Scrabble tiles. Just look at how beautiful and delightful Amanda and Nick’s “Love” Scrabble bouquet ended up.

Maps

Etsy seller CraftingbyKnight’s map bouquet is perfect for any cartologists out there, or just for anyone who plans to travel quite a bit after the reception is over. Best of all, since she custom makes the bouquets, you could specifically request map pages that have special meaning to you –for example, the city where you and your partner met, the places you both grew up, where you hope to move, where you are honeymooning, etc.

I’ve always wanted a semi-gothic red wedding dress with a red and black matching bouquet at my own wedding, but after writing this, I think I might want red gerbera daisies (my favorite flowers) with some black bats floating above them like the stars above the Mario Galaxy bouquet. What about you guys, if you could get any geek bouquet or boutonniere for your dream wedding, what would it look like?

We all played with paper cutouts as kids, but Helen Musselwhite never grew out of it. In fact, she elevated the whole thing into works of art. The details are stunningly gorgeous!

Beauties Butterfly

Beauties Garland

10

Hawthorne Blackboard

Sanctuary (L) and Wild Wood (R)

Ghost Butterflies

Under The Moon of Love

Happy House

View more over at Helen's website - via Yatzer 

A recent poll conducted by WIN/Gallup International concluded that ~13% of the globe self-identifies as atheist (more than twice the percentage seen in America). Here's how those atheists are distributed around the world.

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Not only is The Queen of Chibilabd's cosplay of Velma and a reall-life version Scooby post-apocalypse style impressive, it's even a dead ringer for the Threadless shirt that inspired it (it's called We've Got Some Work to Do Now if you're interested). I'm particularly impressed with her great Dane munching on the zombie arm just for the sake of the cosplay.

Link Via Fashionably Geek

Some little piggie might have gone to the market, but this little piggie is who I want to hang out with on a hot summer day. He knows how to relax on a hot summer day, complete with a nice ice cream cone.

Link

In 1874, Cincinnati, Ohio built a huge main library. This architectural marvel remained in use until 1955. Can you imagine wandering from tier to tier of the stacks in the main hall? Or looking through the stereoscope at photographs?

Link -via Erik Kwakkel

(Photos: Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County)

Last February, Chevalier von Windsor posted a bunch of gorgeous, amazing photos from the UK's phone booth graveyard, near the village of Carlton Miniott (scroll right to the bottom). The contrast between the normally shiny and proud red call-boxes and these dusty, decaying corpses makes the photos work.

Sunday Assemblies are breaking out all over. Now, you have the chance to start one in your neighborhood and get a visit from co-founders Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones!

Here’s a list of locations already working to organize regular gatherings*:

• Brisbane, Queensland
• Chicago, IL (Hemant’s note: I’m helping with this one!)
• Leeds, UK
• Seattle, WA (Ericka’s note: And I’m helping with this one!)
• Silicon Valley, CA
• Vancouver, BC

Don’t see your town listed above? Well, then you need to start your own Sunday Assembly! Here’s how you can do it:

1. Go to Eventbrite and see if there’s a local event for your area.
2. If there isn’t one, set one up for your town under the name “Sunday Assembly XXXX” (where XXXX is your city). Make sure the cost for tickets is free!
3. Set the date to some time in October (if you’re in the U.K.) or November (for the U.S. and Australia). This isn’t the final date; it’s just a placeholder for now.
4. Invite your friends and spread the word!
5. Start a Google Group for your area (Also call it “Sunday Assembly XXXX”).

The deadline for these groups is September 15th. On that date, the 40 locations around the world with the highest number of RSVPs will be selected to get a visit from Pippa and Sanderson in October or November to launch their local Sunday Assemblies as part of the 40 Dates Roadshow!

This is something you’ll want to be a part of, so get on board before it’s too late!

*If you want your event to be listed on this page, post a link to it in the comments and I’ll add your city to this list.

Believe in me

theartofanimation:

Robson Borges