Since my last thread got closed for unknown reasons lets start it up again ^_^
Post your favorite Celebritys

pictures preferred

Michael Fassbender


sooo smexy

robert downey jr


Grard Butler


Jeremy Renner


Kevin Spacey

another new movie Weekend 2011

another review

I thought some of you might enjoy this article. :biggrin:
Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle

Quote:Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.

The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.

Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV.

Figuring out the structure of proteins is vital for understanding the causes of many diseases and developing drugs to block them.

But a microscope gives only a flat image of what to the outsider looks like a plate of one-dimensional scrunched-up spaghetti. Pharmacologists, though, need a 3-D picture that "unfolds" the molecule and rotates it in order to reveal potential targets for drugs.

This is where Foldit comes in.

Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools.

To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.

Cracking the enzyme "provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs," says the study, referring to the lifeline medication against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

It is believed to be the first time that gamers have resolved a long-standing scientific problem.

"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," Firas Khatib of the university's biochemistry lab said in a press release.

"The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."

One of Foldit's creators, Seth Cooper, explained why gamers had succeeded where computers had failed.

"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," he said.

"Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans. The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."

There is a bit of a buzz that tomorrow will see an announcement to introduce marriage equality effectively doing away with the need for civil partnerships in the UK. Word is that an announcement will be made tomorrow afternoon at the Liberal Democrat Conference. Let's see .....

http://sosogay.org/2011/government-set-t...e-rumours/

saw it in the ny times review:

trailer of the n american release is on imdb dot com as: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3104742425/

any one going to see it

i cant believe almost everyone i know NEVER even heard of "The Fall" by Tarsem

that movie is just Brilliant... its a master piece of art...
it cant be compared to other movies but i really recommend it...
the music, directing, scenery, and even acting is just perfect....
the cute little girl in that movie is just captivating... she will force you to
stare to the screen till the last moment

i showed this movie to many of my friendz... and every single one of them
just fell in love with it

So I have a feeling that this movie is going to be just totally fucking amazing and brilliant...

It's about this guy, Archie, who is going to kill himself on camera.

Here's the trailer:




I just...I really love this kind of movies. And they started this think about 'I am an Archie'. You make a vid or a little post about why you are an Archie. I feel like many people exploit that just to seek attention, but... Anyways, I can't even put it into words how awesome this movie is going to be.
Today I am going to make a video about why I am an Archie, but I feel like I can't even grasp all my frustrations...which is even more frustrating of course.

Here is their facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/ArchiesFinalProject

You can find them on twitter @iAmAnArchie

Please tell me what you guys think. I'm going to make a thread about another movie that deals with something similar, yet very different and that topic is extremely important to me.

Ok, being the "newbie" here, I hesitated when I thought about starting this thread.

Has anyone ever have a movie change your life in a major way?


In 2005 I went and saw Brokeback Mountain, and it blew me away. I left the theater feeling like I had been kicked in the stomach. I was determiend that I was going to bring all my friends to this movie, but that meant I had no one to talk to regarding the movie until they saw it.

Later that same evening, I Googled "Brokeback Mountain forum" and found an online community for fans of the movie. We were from all over the world, and we all had the strong feelings regarding this movie.

In 2006, one of the women who helped to run the forum posted that she had "nothing to do" on the second weekend of August, and she had an acre of land behind her house. Maybe we can all meet up?

I sent her an email, telling her not to expect a big turn out.....Texas in August? Talk about hot!

Well, I was wrong.....we ended up with 85 people in her backyard for the weekend. We all got rooms at a local hotel, and spent the weekend eating, drinking, dancing, and getting to know each other.

Since then, we've been having get-togethers, in different locations. Since 2006, I've been to 15 different states, and 5 countries: England, Italy, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

I've also had two relationships with guys who were also "Brokies" (as we call ourselves). They didn't last, but they were good relationships, and I have no regrets.


anyone else had an amazing experience in their lives due to a movie?

This is actually good news in a state that has a ban on same-sex marriage in their Constitution.
Nebraska high court clarifies same-sex custody rights

Quote:Friday, August 26, 2011

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court issued a decision Friday that clarifies the custody rights of same-sex couples in the state.

The court ruled that a lesbian woman can pursue custody and visitation after her relationship ended with the child's biological mother because she had been acting as the boy's parent.

The ruling will send the dispute between Teri Latham and Susan Schwerdtfeger of Omaha back to a lower court for hearings about whether Latham should be granted visitation rights.

The two lived together as a couple for more than 15 years before having a son together in 2001. The two women chose a sperm donor together and shared the cost of the fertility treatments for Schwerdtfeger's pregnancy. Both sides agreed Latham acted as the boy's mother for the first several years of his life before the relationship ended in 2006.

"The relationship between Latham and Schwerdtfeger, however, is not the deciding factor," the court said in its ruling. "The record is clear that Schwerdtfeger consented to Latham's performance of parental duties. Schwerdtfeger encouraged Latham to assume the status of a parent."

Latham's attorney, Tyler Block, said this ruling will be important for same-sex couples as well as for other non-married couples where someone who is not the biological parent acts as a parent.

"They got it exactly right," Block said. "They applied Nebraska law and helped give clarification on how it applies in these particular situations."

Schwerdtfeger's attorney, Angela Tiritilli, said her client is disappointed with the ruling because it will likely mean several more years of court proceedings. But Tiritilli said the ruling should help clarify parental rights in the state.

"What we're seeing here is a good trend: the court is not simply dismissing same-sex parental rights," Tiritilli said.

Schwerdtfeger had argued that Latham hadn't done enough since the relationship ended to maintain her parental rights. Latham quit providing financial support for the boy and wasn't involved in making decisions on his behalf.

Plus, 10-year-old Parker Schwerdtfeger told a judge last year that he didn't want to continue to have a relationship with Latham.

The court said that it appears the main reason why Latham hasn't had much contact with the boy is because Schwerdtfeger restricted her access to the boy.

"The amount of visitation Latham has been afforded does not appear to reflect a lack of desire on her part to be an active part of P.S.' life," the court said.

But Latham will have to prove at trial that it is in the boy's best interest for her to have a relationship with him, the court said.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights wrote a brief supporting Latham's argument because the center believes courts should recognize the custody rights of same sex couples as long as they meet the legal standard to qualify for parental rights.

The Center for Lesbian Rights said it believes parent-child relationships are intended to be permanent and shouldn't be undone if a child's parents separate.

This case did not deal with the question of whether same-sex couples can marry or get divorced, which is prohibited under the state Constitution.

Think Progress: Top Eight Pro-LGBT Arguments In The Obama Administration’s Anti-DOMA Brief

By Igor Volsky on Aug 22, 2011

Quote:Joe Sudbay reports that the Justice Department has filed a brief in support of Edie Windsor’s challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Windsor was forced to pay exorbitant federal inheritance taxes after her wife passed away because the government could not legally recognize their 44-year relationship (the couple married in Canada in May of 2007 and their union was recognized in New York). Since President Obama announced that he would no longer be upholding the constitutionality of the Act, House Speaker John Beohner (R-OH) has hired former solicitor general Paul Clement to defend the measure from legal challenges.

In its brief, the government argues that Section 3 of DOMA — which defines “marriage” as a legal union between a man and woman for federal purposes — is inconsistent with the equal protections clause, “as it denies legally married same-sex couples federal benefits that are available to similarly situated opposite-sex couples.” The document reviews the the long history of “discrimination based on prejudice and stereotypes” against LGBT people from the federal and state governments and private parties, and articulates the following equality-affirming arguments:

1) DOMA IS GROUNDED IN ANIMUS TOWARD GAYS: “[O]ne of the goals of DOMA was to provide gays and lesbians with an incentive to abandon or at least to hide from view a core aspect of their identities, which legislators regarded as immoral and inferior. This record evidences the kind of animus and stereotype-based thinking that the Equal Protection Clause is designed to guard against.”

2) ORIENTATION IS NOT RELATED TO ABILITY TO PERFORM: “Just as a person’s gender, race, or religion does not bear an inherent relation to a person’s ability or capacity to contribute to society, a person’s sexual orientation bears no inherent relation to his or her ability to perform or contribute.”

3) ORIENTATION IS AN IMMUTABLE CHARACTERISTIC: “Over ten years ago, in considering whether gays and lesbians constituted a “particular social group” for asylum purposes, the Ninth Circuit recognized that “[s]exual orientation and sexual identity are immutable,” and that “[h]omosexuality is as deeply ingrained as heterosexuality.” … “[E]fforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation are generally futile and potentially dangerous to an individual’s well-being.”

4) DISCRIMINATION ON ‘RELIGIOUS GROUNDS’ IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL: “And even if Congress’s opposition to gay and lesbian relationships could be understood as reflecting moral or religious objections, that would remain an impermissible basis for sexual-orientation discrimination…Discouraging homosexuality, in other words, is not a governmental interest that justifies sexual orientation discrimination.”

5) DOMA IS UNRELATED TO DEFENDING TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE: “Section 3 denies benefits to couples who are already legally married in their own states, on the basis of their sexual orientation and not their marital status. Thus, there is not the ‘substantial relationship’ required under heightened scrutiny between an end of defending ‘traditional’ marriage and the means employed by Section 3.”

6) GAYS MAKE GOOD PARENTS: “[T]here is no sound basis for concluding that same-sex couples who have committed to marriages recognized by state law are anything other than fully capable of responsible parenting and child-rearing. To the contrary, many leading medical, psychological, and social welfare organizations have issued policies opposing restrictions on lesbian and gay parenting based on their conclusions, supported by numerous studies, that children raised by gay and lesbian parents are as likely to be well-adjusted as children raised by heterosexual parents.”

7) DOMA HURTS CHILDREN: “Section 3 does nothing to affect the stability of heterosexual marriages or the child-rearing practices of heterosexual married couples. Instead, it denies the children of same-sex couples what Congress sees as the benefits of the stable home life produced by legally recognized marriage, and therefore, on Congress’s own account, undermines rather than advances an interest in promoting child welfare.”

8) ‘RESPONSIBLE PROCREATION’ NOT A MARRIAGE PREREQUISITE “[T]he ability to procreate has never been a requirement of marriage or of eligibility for federal marriage benefits; opposite- sex couples who cannot procreate for reasons related to age or other physical characteristics are permitted to marry and to receive federal marriage benefits.”

Read the full brief here.