Terrific and heart-rending article written by a GTA4 addict who consciously decided to abandon his life of productivity to gain a greater understanding of both cocaine and Pixeltropolis, San Andreas.

For more on video game addiction, listen to this classic Mep debate on WoWs similarity to crack.

Next!

As you probably read in the news today, President Obama officially announced a new START arms control treaty with Russia which will reduce each side’s nuclear arsenal to 1,500 strategic warheads, along with other delivery and verification protocols which will ensure the reduction is actually happening.  (This is, of course, still more than enough to annihilate everything hundreds of times over, and there are many more warheads “in reserve” on each side, so we’ve got a long way to go…but still.)  Assuming the Senate ratifies said treaty (which, admittedly, might take a little time thanks to the party of teabaggers party of inciting violence party of lies party of No Republicans in that august body), and for those keeping score at home, that means that in the first fourteen months of the administration:

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Just another couple people thinking for themselves.

For 63 years, Goshen College has refrained from playing the national anthem before sporting events because the song prioritizes war and allegiance to country over peaceful devotion to God. Sixty-three years ending this year.

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I’m late to the party here, but I just spent almost an hour catching up on this group: a chorus of fifth graders from Staten Island, in a public school no less (how shocking! /snark), who thanks to exactly the kind of music teacher the schools need more of (and believe me, he’s not getting rich doing this) is producing some pretty amazing arrangements.  They’ve been featured on Nightline, Good Morning America, and have had a bunch of celebs weigh in with their praise, all while fighting budget cuts and skeptics who wonder whether this is the “right kind of music”…but that’s not really important.  What’s important is that, every once in a while, something comes along to remind us that there might be some hope for us after all.

…or both?  You decide with this picture, via Game Culture:

No shield this, bitches!

On its face, this wildly popular YouTube piece, The TV Theme Medley, is a potpourri of pop-culture fare performed by a talented and versatile musician/tv addict. A deeper analysis after the jump…

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Thanks to the Titans of Internet Industry, Google, anyone with a computer and an internet connection can now create an ad campaign and purchase network or cable time slots relatively cheaply. Here’s a little video discovery of this amazing new service run by the folks at Slate.

I spent Sunday amongst a pulsing throng of humanity attending the 2010 LA Marathon. While there, I happened upon Internet Celeb Klaus Pierre, who had recently crossed the finish line.

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If you’ve listened to your Mass Media Overlords recently, you may be aware that the US Census is now considered a hugely controversial program. National radio frass-heap Rush Limbaugh has even begun to encourage his devotees to abstain from answering any race-based counting questions to stymie government programs that rely on this type of data. Other such objections have been handily summed up by Satirist Sub-Commander, Stephen Colbert.

Only 2200 years after Archimedes used a mirror-powered heat ray to ignite invading Roman barges, modern humans have found that death rays prove an ample source of energy.

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