Think you can handle a gallery of animals with hearts in their fur? We double dog dare you to try.

fastcompany:

Plunge, a project from artist Michael Pinsky, features blue LED lights placed around prominent central London monuments, with each light marking the sea level 1,000 years from now (92 feet above sea level using a “business as usual” scenario). Remember: this kind of rapid sea-level rise could happen sooner. We just don’t know.

Ah! This combines two things we really love: LED lights and our doom.

This week’s cover story examines the return of the culture wars and how Obama set a contraception trap for the right.

Here’s a preview:

The more Machiavellian observer might even suspect this is actually an improved bait and switch by Obama to more firmly identify the religious right with opposition to contraception, its weakest issue by far, and to shore up support among independent women and his more liberal base. I’ve found by observing this president closely for years that what often seem like short-term tactical blunders turn out in the long run to be strategically shrewd. And if this was a trap, the religious right walked right into it.

Take a look at the polling. Ask Americans if they believe that contraception should be included for free in all health-care plans and you get a 55 percent majority in favor, with 40 percent against. Ask American Catholics, and that majority actually rises above the national average, to 58 percent. A 49 percent plurality of all Americans supported the original Obama rule forcing Catholic institutions to provide contraception coverage. And once again, American Catholics actually support that more controversial position by a slightly higher margin than all Americans, with 52 percent backing it. So on religious-freedom grounds, the country is narrowly divided, but with a small majority on Obama’s side.

And on the issue of contraception itself, studies have shown that a staggering 98 percent of Catholic women not only believe in birth control but have used it. How is it possible to describe this issue as a violation of individual conscience, when no one is forced to use contraception against their will, and most Catholics have already consulted their conscience, are fine with the pill, and want it covered? This is not like abortion, a far, far graver issue. Even the church hierarchy—in a famous commission set up by Pope John XXIII to study birth control—voted to allow oral contraception under some circumstances, only to be controversially vetoed by Pope Paul VI in 1968. And the truth is, there is no real debate among most actual living, breathing American Catholics on the issue, who tend to be more liberal than most Americans. They long ago dismissed the Vatican’s position on this. And after the sex-abuse scandal, they are even less likely to take the bishops’ moral authority on sexual matters seriously.

Read the whole thing by picking up a copy on newsstands tomorrow, on iPad today—or just read it on the Beast right this minute.

World, presenting Steamship Authority! (Taken with instagram)

producermatthew:

According to Klout users, News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch is most-influential about terrorism, hacking and cloth diapers.

Murdoch is currently the third most-influential social CEO on the Klout 50. [source]

(via soupsoup)

Pinterest Fail

Pinterest, that website your friend from college is using to compile pictures of cupcakes and wedding dresses, just misstepped big-time when representatives from Mitt Romney’s campaign came knocking over a parody account on the site.

nwkarchivist:

The 2012 Grammy Awards Air Sunday.

Just as the Grammy Awards have always aired. We miss the glory days. *sigh*

dceiver:

—“Newt Gingrich’s ‘Dream Team’ Photo Reminiscent Of ‘Downton Abbey,’” via HuffPost Comedy.

And then there’s this. Hoorah for speedy memes!

(via cheatsheet)

This is the photo that flashed on the screen when Newt Gingrich took the stage at CPAC—the conservative mega-conference happening this weekend. Do you see who we see!?

[h/t Chris Moody]

extrapickles asked: does anyone know more about all the "you go girl" tags around the city? can think of two others off-hand (side of a building on corner of 6th and avenue a, a single stair between the lower and upper levels on the downtown side of the w 4th subway stop).. are there more? who's behind them?

Good question. We have no idea, but part of us wants to point the finger at Lana Del Ray because, well, why not? Anybody else know where these “You Go Girl” tags are coming from? What product are we going to be compelled to buy once it’s revealed? Help us answer these important questions.