It was probably hard to miss the introduction after logging in, but Gmail introduces 31 “themes.” For those unfamiliar, themes will allow you to change how Gmail looks and feels (colors, images, etc).   Gmail has been more than ready and heading for this for some time with color coded labels, Firefox’s customizable/theme-able browser and add-ins like Better Gmail and Better Gmail 2, which allow you to add a few extra minor themes to Gmail.  Why not have a more customizable webmail? Give the power back to the people!  Change your theme by going to “Settings” and selecting “theme”.

Learn more here.

In the picture, I’m using the “Tree” theme. Its a local based theme. I think it changes depending on the weather.

The Week in Rap from Week in Rap on Vimeo.

“The latest in the Mmm, Sexy Pink Breast Cancer!”

via Hoyden about Town

Eepybird’s Sticky Note Experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Apparently this has been floating around the Internet for about a month now, better late, right? These people probably wasted at least a day to do this, but it’s worth wasting 3 minutes of yours to watch.

(CNN) — Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a woman who shot herself as sheriff’s deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home.

“And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America.”

National Review via Harpers

The NYT reported today that Damien Hirst’s Sotheby’s auction, which closed Tuesday, brought in over $200 million in sales for 223 works, breaking the record for a single artist auction by $180 million. But what about that global financial meltdown everyone’s talking about? Six percent unemployment? Pension funds evaporating? Anyone?

“We’re still appealing to a small percentage of the world’s population,” said Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in London. “These people are sophisticated and they still have budgets for art.”

Pardon me for noticing, but I think the notion that anyone has a line item for this is, say it with me, bullshit. But if Wall Street is imploding and everyone but Phil Gramm agrees we’re in a Recession Recession and not just a Mental Recession, then who’s buying?

Mr. Barker, who was the auctioneer for most of the sale, said he could see a lot of new faces in the room. In addition to collectors from the Middle East and Asia, Russians continued to support the art market…“The Russian collectors at the turn of the century loved the avant-garde,” Mr. Barker said, referring to the 1890s. “It’s coming full circle.”

Read more…

Bashirah Muttalib has a very Variety-ish column up at, of all places, Variety, talking about how filmmakers love shooting in Florida. Why? Because shooting a movie in the FLA is less expensive than taking a family of four to Disney World, that’s why.

Florida’s incentives offer feature productions a 15%-22% cash rebate with a $625,000 qualified spend. Since July 2004, recipients have spent more than $256 million in the state on Florida wages, local services and products and provided approximately 35,000 industry jobs.

Blah, blah, blah, numbers, blah, blah, blah. But there’s no denying that Florida is the Big Lots of film locations (high volume, low prices and quality only an I-4 corridor voters could love). Sure, there have been some gems (Stranger Than Paradise, Ullee’s Gold), but even the dumbest kid in class answers the question right sometimes. After the jump, the five worst movies ever made in The Most American Sate. Read more…

OMG. HAS THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER DESTROYED THE EARTH YET?!

Didn’t think Stephen Soderbergh could trick anyone into distributing his four-hour, double-header Che Guevera biopic? Think again, bitches! IFC Films hates money so much, it bought both two-hour pieces of Che—The Argentine and Guerilla—at the Toronto Film Festival for an undisclosed amount. If you’ll recall, most of the reports back from Cannes about this project involved critics getting into knife fights over its merits. But one thing is now certain: Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to see this movie.

IFC will release the epic Che Guevera biopic—which screened at the Toronto Film Fest this week—for a one-week qualifying awards run in December. Companion films will play in New York and Los Angeles.

 

In January, “Che” will be released through IFC In Theaters, the company’s day-and-date distribution platform, meaning the biopic will be available at the same time in theaters and via video-on-demand. It also will be funneled through IFC’s exclusive video rental deal with Blockbuster Video.

One week qualifying release, followed by a January release in IFC-owned theaters? So basically Soderbergh has been driven so mad by Oscar fever, he let himself be talked into letting his longsuffering baby go straight-to-video number—just like Get Smart’s Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control. Bet Benicio can’t wait to make it a Blockbuster night.

Kindly allow the Passivist a brief moment to geek out. Okay. It’s been noted by a few political-science-fiction fans that there is a passing resemblance between the Republican ticket and two of the main characters on Battlestar Galactica. But it’s more than looks that binds this foursome together. To the bios!

Colonel Saul Tigh: Boozing second-in-command of the Battlestar Galactica. Had sexy cougar wife. Spent time in a Cylon detention facility where he was tortured and ultimately lost his right eye. Willing to die for his country/species. Often makes poor decisions under stress. Erratic behavior due to deep dark secret that he his actually a machine.

President Laura Roslin: Former Secretary of Education. Made President of the Colonies after all the other members of the government on her home planet are incinerated. Generally acknowledged as unqualified for the office. Religious nut determined to use those convictions to lead her people towards the mythical planet Earth. Instead of killing the secret cylon love child of one of the officers on the ship, she has it adopted by a clueless young girl. Has cancer, but tries to laugh about it.

Now that Barack Obama has said he loves us in front of 80,000 of his closest friends, the question that still tugs at my heart is: Why has no one made an Obama cover of the cult song-poem hit “Jimmy Carter Says Yes?” Take a look at the lyrics. Swap out Jimmy with Barry and the song is still totally on message. The break-it-down section in the middle even has a particular Obama-esque retorical flourish to it.

As your President, I, Jimmy Carter 
Know it is possible to run a government efficiently 
With out sin or any corruption 
I will do my level best 
To run the government decently without any statement of eruption 
Errors and wrongdoings I will reveal to the public 
For corruption whie I’m in office I will not barter 
I’ll stand tall like Old Glory, faithful to the Republic 
Security will prevail as sure as I’m the President 
President Jimmy Carter

Oh America, Jimmy/Barry ain’t gonna treat you bad. He’s good for you. So good.

Listen to the original after the jump, plus video of a rock-solid rendition of the song on the auto harp. Read more…

How amazing are these illustrations for the New York Times Magazine piece “Final Days?” The artist is R. Kikuo Johnson and his website is very, very good.

So — 17-year-old Bristol Palin can’t be the mother of Trig Palin (the 5-month-old down-syndrome baby) because she is 5 MONTHS PREGNANT RIGHT NOW!

Obama, responding to a reporter’s question that Democrats were trying to spread rumors about the Palin family, said: “Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be…and if I ever thought there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they’d be fired, O.K.?”

Obama said the pregnancy “has no relevance to Governor Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president.” He added that, “my mother had me when she was 18. How a family deals with issues and teen-age children — that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics.”

When I read Obama’s comment I felt ashamed of myself for peddling these rumors with so much enthusiasm. But then I was like…Palin & McCain favor abstinence only sex education. Palin refuses to fund or support sex-ed programs. And she’s gotten a lot of credit for “walking her talk” so by that logic it’s useful to note how few of us can walk the “abstinence-until-marriage” talk.