Nobody likes their world-view challenged:

The Vatican has banned the makers of Angels & Demons, the latest book from Da Vinci Code bestseller Dan Brown to be turned into a movie, from entering the Holy See and any church in Rome.

The Catholic Church is still angry over The Da Vinci Code, which suggested that Jesus may have been secretly married to Mary Magdalene. When the movie came out, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said: “Boycotting this film is the least we can do. The book and the film are a pot pourri of nonsense, a phantasmagorical cocktail of inventions.”

Link

Blogs are like any other form of media. Once they challenge values of the dominant class or societal group, they are often censored. This is mostly the case when you talk about politics. Blogger arrests have hit a record high.

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

The first time I’ve heard the term ‘green noise’ was today, in this NY Times article about how environmentally conscious consumers are beseiged by a great deal of information on how to lead an eco-friendly life. Are we having too much information about the environment? What’s the solution? Who is right?

Ms. Burnham, 35, recycles religiously, orders weekly from a
community-supported farm, buys eco-friendly cleaning products and
carries groceries in a canvas bag. But she admits to information
overload on the environment — from friends, advice columns, news media,
even government-issued reports. Much of the advice is conflicting.

“To
say that you are confused and a little fed up with the often
contradictory messages out there on how to live lightly on the earth is
definitely not cool,” she said in an e-mail message. “But, heck, I’ll
come out and say it. I’m a little overwhelmed.”

She is, in other
words, a victim of “green noise” — static caused by urgent, sometimes
vexing or even contradictory information played at too high a volume
for too long.

The Guardian has a hilarious side-splitting review of The Incredible Hulk, done entirely in Hulk speak. Go read it.

Hulk. Smash!” Yes. Hulk. Smash. Yes. Smash. Big Hulk smash. Smash cars.
Buildings. Army tanks. Hulk not just smash. Hulk also go rarrr! Then
smash again. Smash important, obviously. Smash Hulk’s USP. What Hulk
smash most? Hulk smash all hope of interesting time in cinema. Hulk
take all effort of cinema, effort getting babysitter, effort finding
parking, and Hulk put great green fist right through it.

The NY Times has an interesting article on female sexuality, which one researcher refers to a continuum between heteosexuality and homosexuality:

Heterosexual women, Dr. Chivers and her colleagues found, were no more excited by athletic naked men doing yoga or tossing stones into the ocean than they were by the control footage: long pans of the snowcapped Himalayas. When straight women viewed a video of a naked woman doing calisthenics, on the other hand, their blood flow increased significantly.

What really matters to women, Dr. Chivers said, at least in the somewhat artificial setting of watching movies while intimately hooked up to a device called a photoplethysmograph, is not the gender of the actor, but the degree of sensuality.

Man: Where have you been all my life?
Woman: Hiding from you.

Man: Haven’t I seen you someplace before?
Woman: Yes, that’s why I don’t go there anymore.

Man: Is this seat empty?
Woman: Yes, and this one will be if you sit down.

Man: Your place or mine?
Woman: Both. You go to yours, and I’ll go to mine.

Man: So, what do you do for a living?
Woman: I’m a female impersonator.

Man: Hey baby, what’s your sign?
Woman: Do not enter.

Man: How do you like your eggs in the morning?
Woman: Unfertilized.

Man: Your body is like a temple.
Woman: Sorry, there are no services today

Man: I would go to the end of the world for you.
Woman: But would you stay there?

Man: If I could see you naked, I’d die happy.
Woman: If I saw you naked, I’d probably die laughing.

Man: If I could rearrange the alphabet I’d put u and i together
Woman: Really, I’d put f and u together

“Star Wars IV: A New Hope”

1. “She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.”
2. “Curse my metal body, I wasn’t fast enough!”
3. “Look at the size of that thing!”
4. “Sorry about the mess…”
5. “You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought.”
6. “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”
7. “You’ve got something jammed in here real good.”
8. “Put that thing away before you get us all killed!”
9. “Luke, at that speed do you think you’ll be able to pull out in time?”
10. “Get in there you big furry oaf, I don’t care *what* you smell!”

“Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back”

1. “And I thought they smelled bad…on the *outside*!”
2. “Possible he came in through the south entrance.”
3. “I must’ve hit it pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh, kid?”
4. “Hurry up, golden-rod…”
5. “That’s okay, I’d like to keep it on manual control for a while.”
6. “But now we must eat. Cum, good food, cummm…”
7. “Control, control! You must learn control!”
8. “There’s an awful lot of moisture in here.”
9. “Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?”
10. “I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me!”

“Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi”

1. “Rise, my friend.”
2. “Open the back door!”
3. “Hey, point that thing somewhere else!”
4. “It’s just a dead animal…”
5. “Not bad for a little furball.”
6. “How can they be jamming us if they don’t know we’re coming?”
7. “Come here, I won’t hurt you. You want something to eat?”
8. “Keep on that one, I’ll take these two.”
9. “I want you to take her. I mean it, take her!”
10. “I don’t think the Empire had wookies in mind when they designed her, Chewie.”

Top ten sexually tilted lines from the trilogy

10. “What could possibly have come over Master Luke?”
9. “Hey, point that thing someplace else.”
8. “You’re a jittery little thing, aren’t you?”
7. “I never knew I had it in me.”
6. “Someone must’ve told them about my little maneuver at the battle of Taanab.”
5. “There is good in him, I’ve felt it.”
4. “Grab me, Chewie. I’m slipping — hold on. Grab it, almost…you almost got it. Gently now, all right, easy, easy, hold me, Chewie. Chewie!” (Han) with “A little higher, just a little higher.”
3. “Short help’s better than no help at all.”
2. “Hey, Luke, thanks for coming after me — now I owe you one.”
1. “Back door, huh? Good idea!”

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system. Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development: typically all underlying source code can be freely modified, used, and redistributed by anyone.

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Sven Prim is a terrific artist that specializes in photo retouching and his portfolio features some magazine work along with some morbid, graphic novel-ish stuff. There isn’t a lot of info on his website, not even an artist statement so I guess his art will have to speak for itself. Check out these selections: