Catalonia, Stranger Things, Grace Jones, Kevin Keller, Sebastian Gorka, Manchester, Grey’s Anatomy: HOT LINKS

OTHER THINGS. Nobody says Stranger Things than Donald Trump.

CATALONIA. Parliament votes to declare independence from Spain: “Undeterred by the government’s threat to seize control of Catalonia, separatists in the region’s Parliament passed a resolution to “create a Catalan republic as an independent state.” In protest, lawmakers opposed to independence walked out of the chamber before the vote.”

GOTH SHRUB. Grace Jones can still bring the glamour.

RIVERDALE. Kevin Keller plot line is causing some raised eyebrows.

TENNESSEE. Neo-Nazis plan weekend rally: ‘The white supremacist Nationalist Front will hold a series of “White Lives Matter” protests at various points in Tennessee on Saturday, October 28, 2017. The events will begin at 10am EST and culminate in a private social event that evening. With an expected attendance of around 200 people, this could be the largest gathering of white supremacists since Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Virginia.‘

SEBASTIAN GORKA. Hillary should be executed for Uranium deal. “If this had happened in the 1950s, there would be people up on treason charges right now. The Rosenbergs, okay? This is equivalent to what the Rosenbergs did, and those people got the chair. Think about it. Giving away nuclear capabilities to our enemies, that’s what we are talking about.”

NEW YORK. Police seek nose-picking masturbator who rides the subway.

L.A. North Hills man sentenced to life in prison for killing wife, gay son: “Prosecutors say Issa had a longtime gambling problem and needed cash. Authorities say he attacked his family because he wanted to sell the house despite his wife’s objections and because he had an extreme disgust of his son’s sexuality.”

KENYA. Man gets life-changing surgery to reduce 11 lb. testicles and three-foot penis. “Teased by his classmates and unable to afford surgery, Mr Opiyo dropped out of school and became a recluse, convinced the devil had cursed him.”

UK. Christian thrown out of university for anti-gay remarks loses appeal: ‘Ngole, 39, wrote during a debate on Facebook that “the Bible and God identify homosexuality as a sin”, adding that “same-sex marriage is a sin whether we like it or not. It is God’s words and man’s sentiments would not change His words.”’

GREY’S ANATOMY. Giacomo Gianniotti and Jesse Williams are baring their anatomy next week.

MANCHESTER. Gay village bar removes “brain tumor” cocktail from menu: “A bar has removed an ‘insensitive’ advert for a drink called ‘Brain Tumour’ after a complaint from a man whose mother died from the condition.”

CLASSICAL GUITAR OF THE DAY. Stranger Things.

DRAG RACE CHAT OF THE DAY. Cell phones, MySpace, and Screen Names.

FRIDAY FLASH.Christiaan De Donder-De Kort and Ivan Montis.

 

 

The post Catalonia, Stranger Things, Grace Jones, Kevin Keller, Sebastian Gorka, Manchester, Grey’s Anatomy: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad.

Catalonia, Stranger Things, Grace Jones, Kevin Keller, Sebastian Gorka, Manchester, Grey’s Anatomy: HOT LINKS

This Guy Built A Treehouse In His Living Room From Upcycled Barn Wood
Chris Brandler is a guy who has taken ‘upcycling’ to a whole other level.

Not content with sanding down an old chest of drawers and coating them in a sample pot of Farrow & Ball, he’s made a career out of turning old barn wood into beautiful pieces of furniture – and was even commissioned to kit-out swimmer Tom Daley’s house.

He’s also the only person we’ve come across to build a treehouse in his home. Along with his wife Polly, who looks after visuals and branding, he was kind enough to show us around this real-life childhood dream.

Take a peek.

Check out more of Brandler London’s work here.

sourced.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2017/10/27/this-guy-built-a-treehouse-in-his-living-room-from-upcycled-barn/

Rosie O’Donnell: Honest and Heartbreaking in This Interview About Trump

The out comedian and actress spoke candidly to W about the bully-in-chief: “He was allowed with impunity to brutally assault me and my character for a decade.”

www.advocate.com/women/2017/10/27/rosie-odonnell-honest-and-heartbreaking-interview-about-trump

Stolen “Love Island” sex tape features ‘explosive’ bisexual threesome with gay Instagram star
The naughty tape was purportedly stolen from a publicist’s car.

www.queerty.com/stolen-love-island-sex-tape-features-explosive-bisexual-threesome-gay-instagram-star-20171027?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

One Million Moms Enraged at Disney Channel for Introducing a Gay Kid to Popular Series ‘Andi Mack’

The American Family Association subgroup One Million Moms is predictably enraged over the Disney Channel’s groundbreaking introduction of a gay character into its popular series Andi Mack.

RELATED: Teen Character to Realize He’s Gay in Groundbreaking Storyline on Top Disney Channel Show ‘Andi Mack’

Writes the group in a call to action on its website:

 What is wrong with having family-friendly content that is acceptable for all ages or even leaving a couple of networks solely for children’s entertainment? Disney Channel is gradually becoming another Freeform Network. As one of only a few channels catering to children, it cannot possibly be that Disney Channel has a financial need for more adult viewers.

By choosing to abandon family-friendly entertainment, Disney’s inexplicable choice to move toward more “adult” fare may ultimately prove to be a huge mistake.

Disney’s first gay kiss aired earlier this year on Disney XD’s animated series “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.” The scene took place at a concert where the band played a romantic tune that inspired many couples in the audience to kiss; a few of those couples — none of which involved a main character — were same sex.

The Disney Channel is deliberately choosing to “move forward” and promote adult content to children. By choosing to move in the direction of more “adult” stories and content, the Disney Channel – and the entire Disney media empire – may be choosing to sacrifice something far more precious… children’s innocence.

Disney won’t budge on this.

The post One Million Moms Enraged at Disney Channel for Introducing a Gay Kid to Popular Series ‘Andi Mack’ appeared first on Towleroad.

One Million Moms Enraged at Disney Channel for Introducing a Gay Kid to Popular Series ‘Andi Mack’

Google Pixel 2 XL Review
Google’s Pixel smartphones are designed from the ground up to be the purest expression of what an Android smartphone should be.

They are simple, incredibly powerful yet ultimately devoid of all personality, instead opting to give you a blank slate upon which you can build the smartphone of your dreams.

The first Pixel did in many ways perfectly encapsulate this utopian vision, but it was not without its flaws. The larger version felt too big for its screen size, while the wedge shape didn’t have everyone convinced. Then there was the small storage coupled with a sky-high price tag.

It also felt like it was trying too hard, perfectly shown off with an annoying ad campaign designed to convince you that you didn’t need that iPhone anymore.

Sadly the Pixel 2 does still have a similarly-focused advertising campaign, but this time Google has given its phone a true sense of purpose. Powered by the company’s formidable AI, the Pixel 2 is your ultimate companion for the outside world, a hitchhiker’s towel if you will.

Design

This is by far and away Google’s best-looking product so far. The all-metal body has given a soft-touch matt finish that feels almost like stone to the touch yet has none of the weight that you would expect.

It’s comfy and grippy to hold and unlike so many other smartphones out there it almost never picks up fingerprint marks or smudges. The same cannot be said for the glass accent at the top however.

Google has made the wholly intelligent decision of moving the camera from being underneath the glass accent in the original Pixel to its own metal-ringed housing. The previous design looked neat but the moment you cracked any part of that glass you ran the risk of utterly ruining the camera too. This is no longer a problem.

There’s very little else of note other than the lone USB-C port at the bottom, twin stereo speakers and finally the huge P-OLED curved display that takes up just about the entire front of the phone.

Screen

Speaking of which the screen on the Pixel 2 XL is a 6-inch Plastic OLED display that boasts a resolution of 2880×1440.

Now since our time using it the display has become an issue of controversy in two areas: Colour reproduction and screen burn-in issues.

Addressing the first it is unmistakably clear that what Google has done here is go for what it believes is accuracy over anything else. Unfortunately accuracy doesn’t look good when showing it off to your friends or looking at it every day.

When we first started using it the difference was stark. Colours looked a little muted which meant that was is very clearly red in the Gmail icon looks almost brown on the Pixel 2 XL’s display. Google thankfully does give you the option of turning on a feature called Vivid Colours which then gives the screen a much-needed boost.

Secondly, there have been reports of screen burn-in issues for some customers. This is where the pixels effectively show a residual ‘ghost’ of a previous image that has been used over and over again.

In this instance it looks as though the menu icons at the bottom can be ‘burnt’ into the display. It’s a very subtle effect but considering how expensive this phone is you wouldn’t expect to see something like this happening after just a few weeks, or even a few years.

To be clear, we have no concrete information of how widespread this issue is and in our own testing we haven’t had any problems whatsoever. With this in mind though we would say that if you do get the Pixel 2 XL, keep a close eye on how the display is performing and at the first sign of trouble contact Google or the shop you bought it from, you’ll almost certainly get a free replacement.

Google says it is actively investigating these reports and the hope is that it is just an isolated issue, no-one wants to see a repeat of the Note 7 fiasco all over again.

These issues aside we have to say that it is still a very good display, just not the best we’ve ever seen.

Camera

The original Pixel had one of the best cameras we’d ever seen on a smartphone and we’re happy to report that Google has once again raised the bar with the Pixel 2.

The interface is simple, practical and places almost all of the heavy-lifting on the Pixel itself. All you have to do is be in roughly the right time and place.

Google uses a combination of its own machine-learning software combined with a much bigger sensor to squeeze every last drop of detail out of the images it takes.

The results are astonishing, and while some might question the purity of what you’re ending up with the simple fact is that for 99% of customers, all they care about is pointing it in the right direction and ending up with something that on the surface at least looks like it could have been captured on a professional camera.

To this end Google now offers its own version of the ‘Portrait Mode’ effect that has swept through smartphones of late. Unlike Samsung and Apple which use dual-lens systems, Google’s Pixel 2 creates this background blur through software alone.

Despite this, Google’s version might be the best of them all. No it can’t offer the increased lighting enhancements that the iPhone 8 and iPhone X can but on sheer accuracy alone the blurring effect is astonishingly good.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Pixel 2 XL’s front camera can also take Portrait photos and honestly, they’re just as excellent as the rear camera.

Video should also get a mention here as Google has employed its own image-stabilisation and once again the results are very impressive indeed. Movement during video is smooth, with very few artefacts appearing throughout.

It can record at 60fps in 1080p, however it is limited to 30fps at 4K. It can also shoot slo-mo footage at either 120 or 240 fps.

Features

The Pixel 2 XL runs pure Android 8.0. That means there’s no bloatware, no apps you weren’t expecting and you’ll be first in line for new updates as they’re pushed out by Google.

Android has evolved a lot in the last few years, taking on board ideas from other manufacturers and even ideas from Apple’s iOS.

The result of which is that this is Google’s most accomplished operating system yet. It’s fantastically simple to use and yet still highly-customisable.

It’s also full of small but notable little features that just make using the phone on a day-to-day basis that much easier.

Icons now have a little notch above them whenever there’s a notification, swipe left and you’ll get your very own customisable news feed that shows the latest news about your favourite topics, local weather as well as contextual information about a journey you’re taking.

The always-on lock screen now uses the smartphones microphones to recognise music that’s being played around you. In case you’re worrying about privacy, it’s actually drawing on an internal database of over 10,000 songs so the microphone recordings will never leave the phone.

The notification tray at the top has also been streamlined to organise your notifications by app rather than time you received them. If we’re being honest it’s not our favourite part of Android and it can still feel quite busy to look at when you’re trying to quickly disseminate the most important information.

A new and more quirky feature is the addition of something called Active Edge. It’s only available on the Pixel 2 XL and it uses sensors built into the sides of the phone allowing you to squeeze it to launch Google Assistant. We’ve seen this before on HTC’s U11 and as we found with that phone it can become extremely useful if you’re the kind of person who likes using voice assistants a lot. Sadly it’s not customisable.

If you’re wondering why we haven’t mentioned the processor or RAM yet there’s a very good reason which is that quite simply it’s not important. The Snapdragon 835 and 4GB of RAM are considerably more than enough to power this phone and everything we’ve thrown at it has run smoothly and opened quickly.

The battery life is also excellent. We’ve been consistently getting a full day out of it and at one point we could even throw some virtual reality content at it and still have enough battery to see us through to the end of the day.

Conclusion

With the exception of the current screen issues that appear to be plaguing some handsets this is without doubt the best smartphone Google has ever made.

It doesn’t have the same WOW factor as say the Samsung Galaxy or Note 8 but it instead it opts to be quietly brilliant instead. It’s extremely well-built, sturdy and a joy to use on a day-to-day basis.

The camera is truly remarkable, and with the recent news that Google has actually hidden a dormant imaging chip inside the Pixel 2 the camera will only get better.

The Pixel 2 isn’t just an impressive piece of hardware, it’s the foundation upon which Google will build it’s AI-first future. As we move into 2018, Google will add new AI-powered features to the Pixel 2. From Google Lens to predictive messaging and even allowing your camera to literally remove objects from the world around it.

Who should buy the Google Pixel 2 XL?

This is not a case of Android vs Apple anymore. By now people have chosen their ecosystems and generally become locked into them. If you’re looking to get a new Android smartphone then, the Pixel 2 is without doubt one of the best smartphones we’ve ever used. It’s just so quietly competent in every single thing that it does. As a warning however, we have to recommend that you keep a close eye on the screen or simply wait until Google has worked out if it’s actually a serious issue or just an isolated problem.

Who shouldn’t buy the Google Pixel 2 XL?

The Pixel 2 is an expensive smartphone, it’s also designed to showcase the pinnacle of what Google can offer in terms of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. If being on the bleeding edge isn’t for you then Android offers you an absolute treasure trove of cheaper alternatives. Just be sure that you can go without the camera on this phone, it really is that good.

The Google Pixel 2 XL is available now in 64GB or 128GB for £799 and £899 respectively.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/google-pixel-2-xl-review_uk_59ef6310e4b07cf8380ca85d

Asexuality: Shape and size may vary

www.glaad.org/blog/asexuality-shape-and-size-may-vary

Politician Brian Sims Is in Love, and His Constituents Know It

The Pennsylvania legislator recently featured his partner in new campaign materials, something he was long warned against doing.

www.advocate.com/politics/2017/10/27/politician-brian-sims-love-and-his-constituents-know-it

19-year-old diver Aidan Faminoff reveals what inspired him to come out
“This is your life, so own it and live how you want.” 

www.queerty.com/19-year-old-diver-aidan-faminoff-reveals-inspired-come-20171027?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29