I'm So Straight

Thought this video was hilarious!

Life imitates Apple

It’s an Apple store!
Or is it? 

They looked like Apple products. It looked like an Apple store. It had the classic Apple store winding staircase and weird upstairs sitting area. 

The employees were even wearing those blue t-shirts with the chunky Apple name tags around their necks.

This story has been propelled into the online world from the moment it first appeared by the original blog (post title link) - it has been only a couple of days and this story has been covered on BBC, Wall Street Journal, and even the Toronto Star.

Someone in Kunming, China has created this store to an exacting degree. Apple doesn't recognize them or the products they are selling. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Hand-Drawn Holograms

This is a really cool effect that I find rather baffling.

Reading the site's explanation : chatoyant holography : helped me get a better understanding, though.

CHANCE FAVORS THE *CURIOUS, PLAYFUL* MIND

Sports stars show their support

OUT magazine has gathered together a beautiful series of images "of straight sports stars who have stood up for fairness and tolerance, shoulder-to-shoulder with their LGBT peers."

Ben Cohen, Hudson Taylor, Michael Irvin, Mike Chabala, and Nick Youngquest

The world of pro sports is notoriously unwelcoming to out athletes, one of the last bastions of homophobia. From hate-filled fans to teammates who won’t share the showers to bigoted sportscasters, the toxic environment can ruin a career or even end a life. But at the vanguard of a move to change that is a small band of straight sports stars who have stood up for fairness and tolerance, shoulder-to-shoulder with their LGBT peers. Here, we salute them.

CLICK ON THE POST TITLE to see the whole series.

My favourite books set to music

The Tales of the City series are my favourite books of all time! They capture a time that many people who survived the 70's look back at fondly. I loved the PBS mini-series [ IMDB ] as well, so I hope and pray that this musical does it justice.

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Tales of the City refers to a series of eight novels written by American author Armistead Maupin. The stories from Tales were originally serialized prior to their novelization, with the first four titles appearing as regular installments in the San Francisco Chronicle, while the fifth appeared in the San Francisco Examiner. The last three titles were never serialized, but were instead originally written as novels.

Now, three decades after Armistead Maupin mesmerized millions with his daily column in the city's newspapers, his iconic San Francisco saga comes home as a momentous new musical. Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City unleashes an exuberant celebration of the irrepressible spirit that continues to define our City by the Bay.

The series opens with the arrival of Mary Ann Singleton, a naive young woman from Cleveland, Ohio, who went on vacation to San Francisco and impulsively decides to stay. She finds an apartment at 28 Barbary Lane, the domain of the eccentric marijuana-growing landlady Anna Madrigal. Mary Ann becomes friends with other tenants of the building: the hippyish bisexual Mona Ramsey; heterosexual lothario Brian Hawkins; the sinister and cagey roof tenant Norman Neal Williams; and Michael Tolliver, a sweet and personable gay man known to friends as Mouse (as in Mickey Mouse).

Beyond the house, lovers and friends guide Mary Ann through her San Franciscan adventures: Edgar Halcyon, Mary Ann's and Mona's boss; Edgar's socialite daughter DeDe Halcyon-Day; and DeDe's scheming bisexual husband Beauchamp Day all provide a glimpse into a more affluent Californian class, while Mrs. Madrigal's mother and owner of the Blue Moon Lodge brothel, Mother Mucca, brings mystery and comic relief. Mona's ex-lover, D'orothea Wilson, returns from a modelling assignment in New York, while Michael's lover and DeDe's gynecologist, Jon Fielding, becomes part of the social group. Michael's lovers later in the series include Thack Sweeney and the significantly younger Ben.

Here is the first part of the PBS series on YouTube

Community is Bubbling to Bublé

World's first-ever senior citizen LipDub! Residents from Clark Retirement Community in Grand Rapids, Michigan team up with Grand Valley State University Film & Video Production students, alumni, and professors to create this sassy video to the jazzy-sweet contemporary crooning of Michael Bublé.

This place looks like so much fun I want to live here!

Clark Retirement Community LipDub *OFFICIAL*

Gonorrhea superbug resistant to all antibiotics

A superbug strain of gonorrhea that’s resistant to all available antibiotics has been discovered in Japan, posing a potential threat to public health worldwide, infectious disease experts say.

An international team of researchers identified the highly drug-resistant strain of Neisseria gonorrhoeae — the bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted infection — through genetic analysis.

Dubbed H041, the strain has extreme resistance to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics, the last remaining drugs still effective in treating gonorrhea.

“This is both an alarming and a predictable discovery,” researcher Dr. Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, said in a statement. “Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it.

A spokesman for the Public Health Agency of Canada said the federal agency is not aware of any cases of H041 strain in this country.

Gonorrhea is one of the most common STIs in the world and can cause infertility, increase HIV transmission, and have profound effects on infants born to infected mothers, including blindness. Left untreated, the disease can be fatal.

Syphilis is on a comeback

“The rates of STI in Alberta are the highest in Canada and that’s just unacceptable," said Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky. "Therefore we are taking aggressive and coordinated action on this very serious public health issue.”

“Alberta rates for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis exceeded the national rate in 2009,” said Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. André Corriveau.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

While syphilis infections in Alberta used to be found almost exclusively among gay men living in Edmonton and Calgary, the demographics have shifted as the outbreak has worsened.

'The outbreak is now largely among those identifying their sexual orientation as heterosexual.'—The Syphilis Outbreak in Alberta, Report December 2010

"The outbreak is now largely among those identifying their sexual orientation as heterosexual," the report says.

Edmonton and Calgary continue to have the highest number of cases, but Fort McMurray and Lethbridge are the new "hot spots," with rates exceeding the larger cities.

READ MORE HERE

Syphilis cases spike in Halifax

Doctors in Halifax are treating a rising number of syphilis cases, mostly among men.

Cases of the sexually transmitted infection have spiked since 2008, when it was virtually unknown in the city.

The resurgence of syphilis in Halifax follows a national trend.

In 2001, there were 300 cases in Canada. The numbers have been rising ever since, with outbreaks in Alberta and New Brunswick. In 2009 — the most recent numbers available — there were more than 1,600 cases across Canada.

Edgy anti-syphilis ads raise eyebrows

"Welcome to PlentyofSyph.com. In moments, you'll be connected to plenty of profiles, greetings and genital sores from hot local singles infected with syphilis," the ad reads.

Dr. Andre Corriveau, Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health, said the point of the campaign is to grab the attention of young people.

"Even though the site is designed as a lure or way of attracting people there really is a serious undertone," he said.

Alberta has the highest rate of syphilis in the country and the numbers are still growing. In 2009 there were about 280 new cases of the disease, compared with just two a decade earlier, Corriveau said.

You think Plenty of Fish.com is helpful in finding dates?

Be sure to VISIT PlentyofSyph.com

Or get more info about Syphilis HERE at Don't You Get It.ca

Many people infected with syphilis do not have any symptoms for years, yet remain at risk for late complications if they are not treated. Although transmission occurs from persons with sores who are in the primary or secondary stage, many of these sores are unrecognized. Thus, transmission may occur from persons who are unaware of their infection.

We DO exist!

Photo by Semco Salehi

“Iranian queers do exist,” said Arsham Parsi, executive director of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees. “We want to raise awareness for (their) rights.”

Arsham Parsi

Through his Toronto-based organization, Parsi has helped bring more than 50 gay, lesbian and transgendered Iranian refugees to Canada since he fled the country himself in 2005.

Homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran. Its ultra-conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once proclaimed there were no gay people in the country. It’s an atmosphere that puts even relatives of gay Iranians at risk; Parsi’s family had to move to Turkey after his activism led to threats against them.

No mayor? No problem.

CP24/Chris Kitching

People carry a large rainbow flag along Yonge Street during the 2011 Pride parade Sunday, July 3, 2011.

With an estimated crowd of more than one million people, Toronto's annual Pride Week parade went off with its usual exhibition of colour, heart-pounding music and skin Sunday as people celebrated 31 years of Pride, despite Mayor Rob Ford's controversial absence.

For organizers and many participants, the record-breaking event was more than a massive celebration that takes over several city streets.

The parade was a chance to remind Toronto and the rest of the world there is still plenty of work to do to achieve equal rights for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) communities worldwide. CLICK HERE for a discussion of where we are.

Click on this post's title to watch videos of the entire Pride Parade as covered by CP24.