motorcycles for gnomes!
I have made myself a shirt that says the above. Other shirt ideas:
GUNS FOR EVERYONE
STARVING FOR ART
IDEAS ARE FOOLISH. WE SHOULD BAN THEM.

If you think of every hand as an untapped llama, there are billions of llamas out there!

GR: I want to be in a place where I can sleep and hang out at the same time.
JB: That's being dead, isn't it?

[insert image here: a selfish shellfish]

It seems to me that it's rather selfless to watch someone starve to death, if s/he really wants to.

Sudden Poll! Would trying to sell "limited edition shirts" be a viable business model? For instance, I've got some shirts that I've already made, for which I frequently get compliments and that I love all to pieces. Examples include not only the above MOTORCYCLES FOR GNOMES, but also BLAME GOD; YOUR PLAN HAS ONE FATAL FLAW; and $10 FOR THE ANTIDOTE. It occurs to me that I could also adapt some of my previous greeting card ideas into shirts, such as IT'S CANCER (though that one really works best as a greeting card, methinks).

However, I have no interest in making a CafePress shop or anything like that. I like the hand-lettered look, probably not just because of the whole calligraphy thing but because I'm quite arrogant about my conscious efforts not to brand myself with other people's slogans/ideas. But it would be pretty cool to sell Lydia-brand shirts. After all, as this incredibly brilliant article on the brand underground puts it: Perhaps the first lesson of the brand underground is not that savvy young people will stop buying symbols of rebellion. It is that they have figured out that they can sell those symbols, too.

So: what if I make limited edition shirts? Basically, make some shirts with the above slogans by hand -- each subtly different -- and attempt to sell them individually for more money than your normal slogan'd shirt. Maybe do many of them by commission -- for instance, wait for a person to request a certain slogan and put half the money down before actually making the shirt. Sure, if one of my slogans takes off I guess someone might start CafePressing the things (although I suppose I could copyright them? can you do that? not that it'd be that effective if people really wanted to steal the slogans), but then the "originals" will have more cachet. Is this a good idea?

...

Ecuador considers enshrining women's right to sexual pleasure in law
A new inalienable right could be enshrined soon in Ecuador's constitution: the pursuit of sexual happiness for women.
It's funny how "obvious" it is that men don't need a similar provision. Is that true? I mean, the instinct is always to say that it's way easy for men and they don't need any fucking provisions to feel capable of seeking sexual pleasure, you know? But I'm not sure if that has to be true, or it's (at least partly?) bias. We all know that men have a way easier time getting off. And that's gotta be partly biological. But there is a cultural aspect -- it's very difficult for women to determine what they want sexually, not just because it's biologically harder -- and not just because there are far fewer accepted social examples that show women how they can get off (porn largely seems to fulfill this function for men) -- but because the world hammers the lesson into our heads that the real point, the real goal, of sex is for the man to get off. Not for the woman. So I think I do admire this provision, because the more social backing there is that says: "Yes, you do have a right to your own sexual needs and pleasure despite the fact that you're a woman," the fewer women will have an impossible time with understanding and asking for those things. I could go on, but this is probably a whole post in itself.
from miketodd13.

Spiders see love in a different light
For people, ultraviolet B (UVB) is an invisible, cancer-causing ray to be blocked with sunscreen and dark glasses, but for a species of jumping spider, the light sets a romantic mood. In the first evidence of an animal having the ability to see UVB, researchers have found that the ornate jumping spider uses the light in mating displays.
from fleurs_du_mal.

Lesbos islanders dispute gay name
Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term "lesbian".

Cool discussion of the current shift from read-only to participatory media
I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. ... She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, "What you doing?" And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."
Here's something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment ... they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing.
I can't remember where I got this ... though apparently it was posted on BoingBoing.

EveryBlock: a news feed for your block
EveryBlock is a new way to keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city.
It seems to mostly be crime right now, but methinks it's got a lot of potential to go further.

[Exalted] The best way to deal with Invincible Sword Princess, the hypothetical overpowered Dawn Caste
Assume you're a Sidereal.
You put together a Resplendent Destiny which is "ISP's lovable yet bumbling comic-relief sidekick". Set up a lot of astrology effects to support this.
... and hilarity ensues. I love it when people really get how Sidereals are supposed to work.
from MCP.