CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Black Mirror Announces Season 4 Episodes and Actors

Black Mirror is a wickedly funny, very irreverent and frequently brilliant television series at Netflix about our modern obsession with technology, devices and computer.  The eponymous "black mirror" refers to the screen of an unpowered device. Recently, the producers announced that Season 4 will contain six episodes and revealed the titles and actors involved:

• “Arkangel” stars Rosemarie Dewitt, Brenna Harding and Owen Teague. It is directed by Jodie Foster.
• “Black Museum” stars Douglas Hodge, Letitia Wright and Babs Olusanmokun. It is directed by Colm McCarthy.
• “Crocodile” stars Andrea Riseborough, Andrew Gower and Kiran Sonia Sawar. It is directed by John Hillcoat.
• “Hang the DJ” stars Georgina Campbell, Joe Cole and George Blagden. It is directed by Tim Van Patten.
• “Metalhead” stars Maxine Peake, Jake Davies and Clint Dyer. It is directed by David Slade.
• “USS Callister” stars Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson and Michaela Coel. It is directed by Toby Haynes. Brooker has co-written this episode with William Bridges.

Notice that Jodie Foster will be directing one of the episodes ("Arkangel"). The Season 3 episode "San Junipero" revolves around a very interesting lesbian love story and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy awards.

It is expected that Season 4 of Black Mirror will begin streaming before the end of the year.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Serena Williams Announces Engagement To Alexis Ohanian

Serena Williams blew up the internet on Thursday when she announced that she is engaged to be married to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Williams, 35, is a 22-time major tennis champion while her fiance, 33, is a well-known Silicon Valley investor and was twice named to Forbes magazines 30 under 30 to watch.

The story of the engagement was posted to reddit in poem form:

I came home
A little late
Someone had a bag packed for me
And a carriage awaited
Destination: Rome
To escort me to my very own "charming"
Back to where our stars first collided
And now it was full circle
At the same table we first met by chance
This time he made it not by chance
But by choice
Down on one knee
He said 4 words
And
r/isaidyes

Ohanian's net worth is estimated to be under $10 million while Williams' is said to exceed $150 million. Hopefully, a prenuptial agreement is in the offing! Also, one hopes that Williams' engagement ends better than the one her bestie Caroline Wozniacki  had with  golfer Rory Mcilroy.

Good luck and congratulations to the happy couple!

Facebook Broadens Gender Options For 150 Million Users

Interesting news! Facebook announced a new option for users based in the United States to customize their gender on their Facebook profiles "About" section. I was able to change my facebook profile so that it says "cisgender male."

The Williams Institute, a think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles, estimates there are at least 700,000 individuals in the U.S. who identify as transgender, an umbrella term that includes people who live as a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth.

The change at Facebook drew dozens of appreciative postings on the company's diversity website, although there were some pointing out the need to change relationships beyond son and daughter, and asking for sexual preference options.

The move by Facebook represents a basic and a yet significant form of recognition of the nation's growing transgender rights movement, which has been spurred by veteran activists and young people who identify as transgender at younger ages. The Human Rights Campaign last year found that 10 percent of the 10,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender youths it surveyed used "other" or wrote in their own gender terms.

Will you change your gender identity on Facebook?

Hat/tip to Wonder Man

Queer Quote: Aaron Swartz

Lots of people around the world are mourning the news today of the death of Aaron Swartz at age 26 (by suicide). Swartz was well-known around internet freedom as a pioneer and prodigy. He was one of the co-founders of the reddit social networking site as well as instrumental in promoting RSS feeds and stopping the "Stop Online Privacy Act" last year in the U.S. Congress.

Interestingly, Swartz was part of a generation of young people who see sexuality as more fluid and a different construct than older people (like yours truly). In 2009, in  an article he wrote an article titled "Why I am Not Gay" explaining this belief, which I am excerpting here as today's Queer Quote:

Having sex with other people of your gender isn’t an identity, it’s an act. And, like sex in general among consenting adults, people should be able to do it if they want to. Having sex with someone shouldn’t require an identity crisis. (Nobody sees having-sex-with-white-people as part of their identity, even if that’s primarily who they’re attracted to.)

People shouldn’t be forced to categorize themselves as “gay,” “straight,” or “bi.” People are just people. Maybe you’re mostly attracted to men. Maybe you’re mostly attracted to women. Maybe you’re attracted to everyone. These are historical claims — not future predictions. If we truly want to expand the scope of human freedom, we should encourage people to date who they want; not just provide more categorical boxes for them to slot themselves into.

Interesting ideas. I don't disagree with his hope, but I think it discounts the power and historical echoes of the heterosexist society that we currently live in. Thoughts, anyone? If so, please add your responses in the comments.

 Hat/tip to TowleRoad

PHOTO: This is Why Same-Sex Marriage Matters

The picture above showing this unlikely pair in Washington getting a marriage licence like many other same-sex couples on Thursday December 6 around 1:30am has gone viral on the internet.

The picture shows Larry Duncan, 56, and Randy Shepherd, 48, as they apply for a marriage license in the King County Administration Building.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, they told Schenker they moved to Washington 7 years ago because it was more gay friendly.

The soft-spoken couple from North Bend, who have been together for 11 years, finally reached the front of the line about 1:30 a.m. As they took an oath in front of a representative of King County, Schenker captured the simple moment with a master’s eye. She said that as part of documenting the event, she was looking for a picture that would challenge stereotypes.

Somewhere NOM is muttering to themselves, saying "Oh, $&%*^(!"

Facebook and Same-Sex Marriage: Happy Together

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes (left) and former Freedom to Marry
political director Sean Eldridge were married this weekend at home in Garrison, NY

Lots of news combining Facebook and gay marriage today. First comes the news that one of Facebook's founders, Chris Hughes, got married to his longtime boyfriend Sean Eldridge at their home in Garrison, NY.

From the marriage announcement in yesterday's New York Times:

Mr. Hughes (left), 28, works from New York, Garrison and Washington as the publisher and editor in chief of The New Republic magazine. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. He founded Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin. Mr. Hughes also led the online organizing for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. He is the son of Brenda Hughes and Arlyn Ray Hughes of Wilmington, N.C. His mother retired as a mathematics teacher at Newton-Conover High School in Newton, N.C. His father retired as a sales manager at the Snyder Paper Company in Hickory, N.C. 

Mr. Eldridge, 25, is the founder and treasurer of Protect Our Democracy, an advocacy group based in Garrison that seeks campaign finance reform. He is also the president of Hudson River Ventures, an investment firm in Garrison. He was until July 2011, the political director of Freedom to Marry, a group that advocates same-sex marriage. He graduated from Brown.

Congratulations to Sean and Chris!

In other Facebook and gay marriage news today it was announced that the social media behemoth will include new icons that will allow users to indicate that their relationship status is that they are married to someone of the same sex. Last year Facebook made news when they added options like "in a civil union" and "in a domestic partnership" as possible relationship status selections.


GLAAD reports:

Facebook has rolled out a new feature providing additional recognition for its users who are married to a person of the same sex. Now these users who have indicated on their Facebook timeline that they are married will be recognized by new same-sex marriage icons, rather than the marriage icon used for straight married couples.

Of course, one of the first questions that comes to mind is "does anyone still use Facebook?" But besides that, this is an excellent demonstration that the good guys continue to win the ongoing kulturkampf over LGBT equality as one of the most visible companies in Silicon Valley (and really, the world). Facebook has previously demonstrated its bona fides on the side of LGBT equality by releasing an It Gets Better video by their employees, taken active steps to stop bullying and recognizing LGBT pride through a Facebook "hack."

Hat/tip to kenneth in the 212 and joe.my.god.

What Browser Do You Use?

Matthew Yglesias over at Slate posted the above diagram showing the rise of Google's Chrome and the fall of Microsoft's Internet Explorer as popular browsers used to access the World Wide Web.

I use Chrome as my primary browser but at work "for da gubmint" most of the applications are written to be optimally run using Internet Explorer.

According to this blog;s stats, roughly 37% of you use Chrome, then 22% Firefox, 19% Internet Explorer and 9% Safari.

What browser do you prefer to use?

Tumblr On Path To Overtake Blogger This Year

The above graph was brought to my attention by Talking Points Memo. Apparently it was created by the guy behind the popular xkcd comic, Randall Munroe. It shows that in terms of google searches the term "tumblr" is increasing rapidly and can be estimated to overtake the term "blog" later this year (October 12, 2012).

I actually have a tumblr account myself, but haven't really used it that much. To me, it just appears to be more better suited for more picture-related blogging (or tumblr-ing)!

What do you think? Who will win: blogger or tumblr? (I bet Google just buys tumblr and makes the question moot.)

Internet Websites Go Dark To Protest SOPA

Today many websites are observing a "blackout" day to call attention to dangerous legislation before Congress which would fundamentally alter the Internet, called the Stop Online Privacy Act or SOPA. Participants include Google, Wikipedia and Boing Boing, among many others.

The White House announced its opposition to the legislation over the weekend.

LGBT blogs are in the mix as well, with Karen Ocamb's LGBT POV, TowleRoad and Bilerico Project participating in the online SOPA  protest.

Which E-mail Program Do You Use?

This interesting chart comes from Talking Points Memo, who snagged it from Business Insider. BI is reporting that Facebook's new planned email service could have a significant impact on other big players on the Internet:

If Facebook's email service is a success, it's bad news for Yahoo and AOL, which are already losing users. It's also bad news for Google, which uses Gmail as a launch point into search, Google Apps, and to small degree social stuff through Buzz.

What would it take for Facebook email to be a success? Well, Facebook has 150 million active users in the United States. It's unlikely to convert all those users, but if it can get just a third of them to start using its email, it would have the second most popular email service in the U.S.

Which email program do you use?