obama, you're doing it RIGHT.

obama just sneak attacked congress and used some loophole to appoint richard cordray as the head of the CFPB, which of course stands for consumer financial protection bureau. terrible name, great agency. it's the brainchild of 2Pz fave senate candidate, elizabeth warren, and its going to work on keeping the banking / credit / lending industries from raping your pocketbooks every chance they get.

anyway, obama nominated him, and the republicans filibustered it, as they are want to do. so he waited until they went out of town for christmas, then used something called a "recess appointment" to pop him in there. and guess what: RICHARD CORDAY IS A JEOPARDY CHAMP!!

It will be viewed by the Washington punditocracy as a tough-minded executive act defying Senate Republicans, playing to a worried liberal base, and raising a possible legal challenge with constitutional ramifications.

But President Obama's Wednesday selection of Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, to run the spanking-new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also just smart and necessary.

If our politics weren't quite so polarized, and folks stuck a bit more to the facts in public debate, maybe far more people would know what Cordray symbolizes. They would know that they should be happy that a frustrated White House has circumvented a Senate filibuster last month and will try to actually protect consumers.

And it's probably fitting that Cordray, who had a strong reputation in Ohio for investigating suspect mortgage foreclosure practices, is also a five-time "Jeopardy" champ. (via)

and it looks like barack's got 3 more appointments lined up. i like it.

t.i. + dr. dre : f*ck da city up

their mixtape is out. listen / download here.

trending : yeti crabs

i saw this three times on the internet in a 24 hour period, so i absolutely must share it with you:

Scientists doing their first exploring of deep-sea vents in the Antarctic have uncovered a world unlike anything found around other hydrothermal vents, one populated by new species of anemones, predatory sea stars, and piles of hairy-chested yeti crabs.

The yeti crabs seem to cultivate "gardens" of bacteria on their chests, which are covered with hairy tendrils. These bacterial mats almost certainly provides the crabs with sustenance, Rogers said. In turn, predatory seven-armed sea stars stalk the periphery of the vents, snacking on unfortunate crabs. (via) 

y'all're gross. see a video of them here.

they found a lot of cool stuff down there, so be sure to read all about it.

fred carrie thao mirah

performing "push it" on the portlandia tour.

#whitegirlproblems

Joel: speaking of basketballz
i want to watch the grizz game
but the stupid tv is playing the knicks game and the nets game and some other dumb game
me: did you know memphis and tennessee are playing each other right now?
Joel: i didnt know!
me: also not on tv
Joel: god DAMMIT
this would never happen in tennessee

...

Joel: i wonder if that bar mulligans would play the grizz for me
if i was wearing my grizz hat
me: definitely
im pretty sure its not called that
but i just know they would
Joel: oh
whats it called
mcfaddens?
me: mcsorleys?
dan mcguinness
Joel: flying saucer
me: cool beans
Joel: yeah i think thats it

Look at Marcus Bachmann's Face in this Video

He was buying doggy sunglasses. Jesus Christ on a cracker that's gay. Also, Gawker is reporting on the giant cold sore he was sporting after sucking too much deeyuck.

blurg snurck atturck

David: i would run a marathon if i could stop every mile and eat a slice.
i would do that today
me: hmm

you broke my heart.

you guys are such the worst.

look how cute!

rick perry just tweeted a photo of himself running in texas, with a confusing allusion to the fact that he intends to continue in the race for the republican nomination. and i'm not even mad at him because look how cute his outfit is!!!111

racin' to the morgue.

(via)

nerd alert: art history remakes

 People are recreating paintings in photographs. some are really good. CHECK IT OUT.

that's a lot of food and the internet is for jerks

First of all, I don't care if you say "you can't cook," you should not be ordering 2.6 meals a day delivered to you. That's IN. SANE.

Second of all, I had no idea you could order cookies, where would i get cookies from? That's a good idea. 

Third of all, the internet takes issue with these statistics (of course)

1. James says:

   There stats on the Pizza are a little off… 800,000 Pizzas at 3 inches per box is 2.4 million inches or 200,000 feet…
   That would make each story 1ft 4in tall…
   And… even if right… I didn’t know the empire state building was 1000 stories tall!?!?! DOH!
   

2. John says:

   Aww poor seamless. . .

   They’re good at getting food delivered. . . we don’t pay for them to compile statistics! (thankgod :P)
   
   UPDATE!!!!!
    
   Shannon says:
   While there is certainly a typo in the pizzas category (The Empire is NOT 1000 stories tall), it is accurate, at approximately 3″ per pizza box, that it the height would be the same as 150 Empire State Buildings for 800,000 pizzas. Check the height of the Empire State Building and do the math. It DOES add up.
   

wtf happened.

fix it.

mass transit porn

New Yorkers, next time you moan about how long your commute is (i.e., when your leave work today), don't make your complaints aimlessly. Aim them straight at the subway lines that could've taken you home faster if only they'd been built! To do so, Balance Media and WNYC's John Keefe offers this handy map of the 11 proposed-but-never-fully-built subway lines in New York overlaying the city's subway system as it actually exists today. The subways-in-the-sky include a bunch of outer-borough amenities, such as the two additional trains connecting Queens and Brooklyn and another connecting (gasp) Staten Island to the rest of the city. And lower Manhattan certainly gets some love as well, with three more lines of its own going to Brooklyn, including the fabled 2nd Avenue line the MTA has actually started building in the Upper East Side (no jinx). The map's fancy and interactive, with text bubbles explaining each nonexistent line, so you ought to head over to WNYC's website to play with it yourself. (via)

yes i will!! going right now!

there's also an awesome story (with slideshow) about all the ghost stations!

a match made in the bowels of hell

Michele Bachmann has a last-minute TV ad up in Iowa in which she compares herself to Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who will play in his first career playoff game this weekend, despite the fact he only completed six passes last week and was unquestionably the worst quarterback over the last month of the regular season. The ad mentions none of that, choosing instead to note that Bachmann and Tebow both have "no baggage" and that "like Tebow, she keeps fighting and she just keeps winning votes." (via) 

no compromise! no flip-flops!

in the end, it looks like that ad didn't work. i'm predicting the same fate for tim teabag in the NFL caucuses.