could be dangerous: Target has pledged $120,000 in cash to promote the legalization of homosexual marriage.
Just saw this in an email from one of my professors who is an adviser for the Lesbian and Gay Vet Med Association at school. Target’s website says it will donate 100% of T-shirt sales from customers during the month of June to Family Equality Council.
Signal boost. Target appears to be working on some pennance for past transgressions. Good on ‘em.
Source: archer-and-anders
Current BAFTA betting
how do you number
can someone please explain these to me? I’m an idiot. But a curious idiot. Take pity on me?
Here’s the part where I admit how much I know about sports betting (hint: it’s a bit, but not too much):
Those numbers you’re looking at are the odds-on chance that a given actor has of winning in his category. You can reinterpret all of these numbers by turning the fraction into a decimal. When it’s just a whole number assume that’s already been done for you. The closer the resulting number is to 1, the better the actor’s chances of winning are (that relationship is represented as n:1). It also gives you an idea of how much you will be paid if you bet one unit of currency on a given actor. So if I bet a dollar (sorry, I’m American) on Andrew Scott to win and he does, I’ll be paid $1.88 (minus fees).
Let’s take the supporting actor category, since only one booker has posted their odds there. Andrew Scott has a 15/8 chance of winning, which is actually 1.875:1. Compare that to Martin Freeman’s odds of 11/4, which is 2.75:1, you can see that they’re predicting Andrew Scott has a better shot at winning the BAFTA.
These numbers are based on an algorithm that the bookmakers keep secret, and it’s some combination of mentions in the press, online, supposedly some insider information, bets they’ve already taken for each actor, and like, magic. It’s the same system they use in horse racing. They make a lot of money doing this because people like to gamble and they take a fee out of everyone’s bet. So while it is a good way to take the pulse of a given contest, it’s certainly not set in stone. The primary object of these stats is to entice people to bet, and in my opinion they’re only slightly more reliable than asking Paul the Octopus (he’s actually dead now, so you can’t ask him anyway).
Source: lornasp
Here’s an informative graphic for the day. Click for source and discussion.
Other things you should know: Iran is suspected by many world powers of trying to develop nuclear weapons. One of many reasons for this is that they’ve been really cagey about allowing inspectors to come in and check out some of their facilities. (they’re also enriching uranium to levels higher than they need for nuclear energy, but speculation about Iran’s nuclear ambitions are actually beside my point)
The UN has this committee that’s in charge of handling diplomatic work with Iran over this issue called the P5+1 (also called the E3+3 in Europe), which stands for the permanent five members of the UN Security Council- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus one rotating member from the nonpermanent part of the council (right now that’s Germany). Which is to say the six countries negotiating with Iran about Iran’s nuclear future are all bearers of nuclear weapons themselves.
This is a really difficult topic for me to write about and I have to do it about once a month. It’s hard because often a successful summit means that the group has agreed to nothing more than meeting again to continue talks (they just wrapped up in Istanbul and will have more next month in Belgium). I was listening in on a call this afternoon with some experts on the subject who were sounding very optimistic- two weeks after the next summit Iran is going to face some pretty serious economic sanctions that could really hurt its citizens, unless they make something work, so the pressure is on. Next month is going to be very interesting, I think.
- Weather forecast: 18 degrees with sunshine.
- English Person: Quick let's get the BBQ, paddling pool and deck chairs out, let me go get my shorts and flip flops oh and don't forget the sun tan cream factor 50.
- WELSH PERSON: What is this strange, bright light? Oh my God, get inside children, get inside, it could be dangerous, have we got anything to protect ourselves, no, only raincoats, oh help, what's this odd feeling, I'm not cold, it must be what we've read about... warmth.
- SCOTTISH PERSON: WIT THE FUCK IS THAT
- Texas Person: Oh God. OH GOD. WHERE DID THE WARMTH GO? JESUS SAVE US ALL. HURRY TO CHURCH AND PRAY, CHILDREN, PRAY THAT THIS FROZEN LANDSCAPE SOON THAWS.
- California Person: QUICK, EVERYONE WEAR YOUR COLD WEATHER CLOTHES WHILE IT LASTS! IT'LL PROBABLY BE OVER IN AN HOUR, MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!
- Unless You Live in Humboldt County, CA, where it's: SPRING IS HERE! QUICK LET'S HAVE A KINETIC SCULPTURE RACE AND PLAY THE GUITAR OUTSIDE ON THE GRASS! (though do bring a tarp, because the grass is still wet)
- Hawaii Person: THIS IS NOT FAIR WHAT DID WE DO? IT'S BEEN FREEZING FOR ALMOST A MINUTE, THIS IS PROOF OF THAT GLOBAL WARMING CRAP GET EVERYONE INSIDE; EVEN THE DRUGGIES, NO ONE DESERVES TO BE THIS COLD EVER
Source: wrennyjen
Source: reddit.com
They’re pouring latex on him to make a false chest. So that they can place the arc reactor prop in him and make it legitimately look like it’s embedded in is flesh and with tears and scar tissue. The latex is colored so they can see where they are applying and how thick the layers are. It will then be airbrushed to his skintone and details like nipples scar tissue discoloration will be added.
Here’s that picture:
Then the reactor prop is added to the dimple. Basically the latex becomes fake skin and they tear part of the center open to embed it.
Now you can see how realistic it looks.
Sort of. They wouldn’t sculpt a prosthetic on him directly- that would require way too much of his time and would make it more likely to cause inconsistencies and errors. They’re just taking a cast here.
It’s been a while since I’ve done this for mask-making in theatre, but I’m sure the process is very much the same. The blue material is probably some kind of algenate. It’s super-flexible once it’s set and takes a very detailed impression of his chest. The green material is probably still algenate, but slightly more rigid (but still quite flexible), and it’s to keep the cast intact when they peel it off of him and set it in a still more rigid form. They then make a bunch of fake chests out of latex as quickly as possible because that blue layer shrinks as it loses water. They make multipes so that he doesn’t have to sit through the cast-taking process again. Also because it means you can work on multiple prosthetics at once (there are probably versions with and without lights or whatever other effects the thing needs)
That picture of him with the chest dimple is his actual chest (some boys have concave chests. Convienent that RDJ is one of them!) after the cast has been removed. You can tell because the edges of where the cast was are still all goopy from the lubricant, and he look relieved to be free. You have to sit very still for several minutes to like a half an hour for the cast to set. It’s surprisingly stressful (especially when you’re taking a cast of a face).
Source: a-passion-crime
I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, “You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I’m not your agent and I’m not your mommy. I’m a white piece of paper, you wanna dance with me?” And I really, really don’t.
Aaron Sorkin (via thatwasnotveryravenofyou)
It is so comforting to know that even Aaron Sorkin feels this way, because it’s how I feel every. single. time.
(via wilwheaton)
Writers of every stripe, holla.
(via wilwheaton)
Source: wejustdecidedto
This is as much a problem in my 20s (and it’s looking to persist through my 30s) as it was in my teens.
(via doctorjohnlock)
Source: teenagerposts
till-the-end-of-my-days-sherlock:
Why is Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle not on this blog yet? What is wrong with me?
As compensation, have TWO pictures of his ‘tache. (All his writing talent comes from there. He uses it to communicate with Watson, like a moustache-radio.)
Moustaches of importance.
He needs to be in every Sherlockian’s blog.
His stache… O_o
Dat ‘stache
Bow down to our real Overlord.
Rule 1 of the Sherlock Fandom: Reblog the creator of Sherlock.
Rule 2: If you don’t reblog the creator, YOU WILL BE BOMBED.
Praise him
Remember, friends, when this dapper motherfucker sent Sherlock over the falls to his death, initially he meant to keep him dead.
Sometimes at night, you can hear the echoes of our forebearers, anguished cries of DOYYYYYYYYYLE!!!!!!
(via gorramitgirl)
Source: notablemoustaches
