2011 In News Photographs

Here is a collection of striking images.  Be warned, though: a few are gruesome.

2011 Retrospective in Lego

News stories reproduced in glorious Lego!

Monday Therapy: Royal Wedding Punjabi Style

Here's a hilarious link sent by an Indian friend of mine.  The original T-Mobile commercial is here.

Jon Stewart on Osama's End: "A Good Night For Human People"

I am pretty much in love with Jon after this.  I've embedded three pieces of Jon's show from yesterday (after the fold).  The clips are hilarious (some content warning), and he manages to combine both humor and a moment of serious and personal perspective in the second clip: "Last night was a good night for me, and not just for New York or DC or America, but for human people."  He also makes a piquant point about Al Qaeda being left behind even if it is still dangerous.

Awesome Hi-Def Photography

Cool!

Nerd Journal: Well, There's No Cause to be RUDE

Sure, I laughed at the media hoopla over yesterday's royal wedding and I mocked stupid journalists, but I watched the wedding anyway because I wanted to see the pageantry, and I actually found the ceremony quite moving in ways that both did and did not have to do with the fact that two young people were getting married -- a thing that in itself is an act of hope and faith no matter who the bride and groom are.  There is also something deeply affecting about choral hymns sung in a place of history and splendor (and "Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer" is probably my favorite hymn ever for times both of joy and pain).  A few random thoughts:

Awesome: Unbridled Joy

KUDOS, SIR!  There is a time for decorum and solemn ceremony, and there is a time for freewheeling exuberance.  The wedding is over, so it's time for some fun -- like somersaults under the gorgeous spring foliage.  The TV news reader disapproves, but blogger Cranmer, a serious and thoughtful fellow, is plainly delighted.  There is something glorious in joy.  You forget yourself in it.  And it cannot help but share its pleasure.  We have enough po-faced finger-waggers, especially of the self-proclaimed religious sort.  I'm charmed to see an example to the contrary.  UPDATE:  The cartwheeling verger's name is Ben Sheward.

Mini-Rant About Royalty

I thought the wedding was lovely, the bride radiant, and the groom handsome, but as soon as the ceremony ended and all the idiotic newscasters started gabbing, the spell was broken.  Rant below the fold.

The T-Mobile Royal Wedding

The media frenzy about today's royal wedding has some folks grumbling and other folks laughing and still other folks rolling their eyes.  I personally think this hilarious commercial by T-Mobile is delightful.  The royal lookalikes (and the lookalike of the Archbishop of Canterbury) are rather good, and the music even better.  (If I ever get hitched, this is probably what my wedding bash would look like.)  As for Wills and Kate -- I mean, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge --congratulations and good luck, you crazy kids!

Too Much Royal Wedding Hoopla

I don't know about you, but I think I've had about enough.  Don't get me wrong -- I wish Wills and Kate all the best as they get hitched; marriage, so married friends tell me, is hard work.  Still, the media frothing over the royal wedding is reaching ridiculous levels, and a certain level of American frenzy is just as ridiculous.  As the Cinema-Mad Sibling emailed me, http://www.whyamericansshouldcareabouttheroyalwedding.com/  I rather like this hilariously piquant little quote of the day:

If George Washington knew you were Tweeting about the British royal wedding, he'd snatch the iPhone from your hand and kick your @$$.