Saturday Morning Coffee Break: The Wedding Dance

If you haven't had your coffee this morning, go grab a cup, and come back to watch this short film.  It was absolutely amazing.  I have been wanting to share this video since it was released last month, but I needed to find the right time.  And today's the perfect day.  So, even if you don't drink coffee I hope you enjoy today's Saturday Morning Coffee Break.  Oh, and grab your tissue box too.

On Valentine's Day last month, Elliot London, a 31-yr old director trying to make it in Hollywood, released this three-minute film titled, "The Wedding Dance".  It has a surprise ending and truly hits close to home for so many Gay Americans.  You can read more about Elliot on his Vimeo page and learn more about his dreams and aspirations to help the LGBT community.  Learn about his growing up poor, being an only child, and terrified of the day when his fellow classmates would find out his deepest, darkest secret - that he was gay.

I'm here wishing you great success Elliot, and hope your dreams come true. ~ Peter aka Blade7184

If you wish to look back at some previous issues, click my logo below and enjoy.  Make sure to check out Saturday Morning Coffee Break every Saturday for another classic or current gay short film.

Credits for Elliot London's short film, The Wedding Dance are after the jump.  Feel free to visit the links he has provided or you can visit his YouTube page for this information as well.

Only in America

You gotta love it, it is too hilarious not to.

America's Drunkest Singles

Now, we all know the Irish love to drink their lives away, but so do American's - especially American single men and women.  Check out this pretty cool chart that describes which cities are light drinkers, heavy drinkers, drinkers by religion affiliation, gender and education.

In recognition of St. Patrick’s Day and all those who’ll be drinking green beer this Saturday, we decided to take a look at how the drinking habits of singles vary across the United States.

The infographic below shows the cities with the highest and lowest percentages of self-identified drinking levels, based on how people answer the “How much do you drink?” profile question. Surprised that Vegas is home to the highest percentage of light drinkers? What about D.C. being the highest? Tell us in the comments.

Also, if you haven’t yet, take our poll and tell us: “Has too much drinking ever ruined a first date?” We’ll post the results this week. by Erin Scottberg

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

You didn't think I'd forget my most loyal readers, did you?  LOL.  Happy St. Patrick's day my friends and hope these hot guys can make you smile :-).  Make sure you wear green, and don't party too hard.

 Want to see more hot guys in green?  Check them out after the jump...

Laugh of the Day: Lie Detector

Dane only has one chance to make a stellar first impression. Good thing there's a lie detector present at his job interview! *BEEP* He's screwed. And he's going to find out just how much the truth really hurts.

I was a little hesitant to watch this at first, but as the interview went on it got more and more hilarious.  Old lie detectors have you connected to all kinds of belts, nodes, and crap like that, but not with the lie detector 3000, it's programmed to go off whenever you tell a lie.  So if you lie about the size of your penis, the shows you currently watch, or if you've stolen from previous employers, things can get ugly, or hired. LOL.

directed by PAUL EMERSON
written by DANE HANSON and MIKE HEIM
dp RICH YODSUKAR
cast MIKE HEIM, DANE HANSON, and DANNY GUTIERREZ
produced by GOOD RIDE MACHINE

Quoted - Martin Luther King, Jr. on Loving Your Enemies

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.” 

~ Martin Luther King Jr. from his speech, A Knock at Midnight

Cyanide and Happiness: Charles' Relationship 2

I don't think Charles' relationship is going to well...

View the 1st Charles' Relationship comic here

Japanese Trailer of The Avengers

Well you've already seen the American version, so how does the Japanese version look like?  Let's just say, it has tons of new footage, including some new shots of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.  Take a look for yourself...
 

YouTube Description:  Marvel's "The Avengers" is the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, NickFury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

I Quote That - All The Same

Oh, how true... and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love you my precious Ry.

Crimes of the Century - No. 15 - America's Biggest Art Heist

AMERICA'S BIGGEST ART HEIST, 1990

 

This is the second time I have mentioned art as one of the "Crimes of the Century," and rightly so.  While the second issue of the series focused on the most famous art heist in the world, the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.  Today we look at the largest, most expensive art heist in the world.  And it happened on American soil, only 22 years ago.

In the coming weeks, as you read through the 25 crimes Time Magazine has selected, you will wonder which of them will remain in the popular, perhaps even the artistic imagination in the years to come? How will they be retold and with what kinds of lessons and cautions in mind? Here's the 15th issue of Time's infamous list of 24 notorious crimes.  How do you think they will fare?

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Isabella Stewart Gardner was an heiress andthe wife of a rich man. And so she went shopping, buying an eclectic but extravagant collection of artwork on sprees through Europe in the early 20th century. Among her treasures were a Vermeer ("The Concert") and a Rembrandt ("Storm on the Sea of Galilee"), two certified masterpieces. When she died in 1924, Gardner stipulated that the small but exquisite museum in Boston she had built to house her treasures should have nothing new added to it; nor should any of the art be repositioned. Both rules were violated on March 18, 1990, when two men dressed as Boston cops waltzed into the museum after 1 a.m., tied up the guards, shut off the alarm system and took off with the Vermeer, the Rembrandt and several less valuable pieces. The police at one point estimated the value of the stolen goods at $300 million. It is still listed as the biggest American art robbery on the FBI's website. That's because nothing has been recovered. 

 

In the 17 years since the theft, there may have been one tantalizing glimpse of the Rembrandt when unknown men brought a Boston Herald reporter to a warehouse where he saw what he believed was the "Sea of Galilee." But otherwise, the fear is that the thieves grabbed what they could, sometimes crudely, and may now not know what to do with their haul. The Vermeer, one of only 32 known works by the artist in existence, may be worth at least $70 million, and so beautifully famous that it is unsellable on the open market. So the greatest art heist in American history may have been a botch, a tragedy so terrible that the thieves may have to destroy the very treasures they stole in order to conceal their guilt.

TIME Magazine posted this article online several years ago, along with a list of 24 additional notorious crimes that I have been posting and will continue to post every Saturday on my blog.  Hope you enjoy.

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To read the previous 14 crimes - click my logo below.

 

Congress vs. Planned Parenthood

Qbo The Robot Sees Its Own Reflection and Recognizes It

Meet Qbo, the robot.  Created by Francisco Paz, Qbo is able to use recognition software in conjunction with pre-programmed responses to recognize its own image.

In the video below, the lime-green Qbo transits to the "Object Recognition" state from its internal state machine, to learn to recognize its mirror image, as if it were a regular object. Technically, how does Qbo do it?

According to it's YouTube Description:

The "Object Recognition" state is implemented to execute simultaneously different ROS nodes: one responsible for the head and base movement; another to select an object from the image using the stereoscopic vision; another to recognize objects or learn new ones. The object recognition algorithm uses "SURF" descriptors and the "Bags of Words" approach (through the OpenCV library), and stores images in Qbo's internal storage system.

Qbo has several stored answers and behaviors in an internal knowledge base, that we upgrade as the projects evolves, to make questions or orders to Qbo such as "What it this? or "Do this". Qbo interprets the object "Myself" as a an ordinary object, for which it has special answers in its internal knowledge base such as "Woah. I'm learning myself" or "Oh. This is me. Nice". Qbo selects its reflection in the mirror in the image that he sees using the stereoscopic vision, and one of our engineers interacts (speaks) to him so that Qbo can learn to recognize himself as another object. For direct interaction, Qbo uses the open-source software Julius for speech recognition (in the video, you see how Qbo receives the order to turn around, and he responds to it by moving its base 90 degrees), and Festival for voice synthesis.