News: Civil Disobedience, Mariah Carey, iPhone 3GS, O.J.

Savage: One year Civil Disobedience plan for gay rights.

Schwarzenegger: Prop 8 challenge should be decided by the courts.

End sign?

Listen: Mariah Carey's new single "Obsessed".

Portland Mayor Sam Adams woes continue: home payment default.

Gizmodo's review of the iPhone 3GS.

Madonna's new kid Mercy and her peeps.

Biologists: Same-sex relationships may drive evolution. "Same-sex sexual behaviors are flexibly deployed in a variety of circumstances, for example as alternative reproductive tactics, as cooperative breeding strategies, as facilitators of social bonding or as mediators of intrasexual conflict. Once this flexibility is established, it becomes in and of itself a selective force that can drive selection on other aspects of physiology, life history, social behaviour and even morphology."

Australian poll: 60% support marriage equality.

It's the 15th anniversary of the O.J. chase.

Thousands flock to Banksy show. "During the show’s opening weekend, almost 8,500 people flooded the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, about eight times what the venue would normally expect."

Sex change in China could require permission from the police: "The proposed guidelines, posted Tuesday, say candidates for surgery must show an agreement from police to change their sex on their identification cards once the procedure is complete. The ministry posted the draft guidelines to invite public and professional opinions before July 10. China has no laws against sex change surgery, and the ministry says the guidelines are necessary to regulate the procedure."

Jamie Dornan all buttered up for new Calvin Klein campaign.

Anti-gay attack on College Street in Toronto: "Around 2:30am on the morning of Jun 7 — after a night out at El Convento Rico dance club on College St — Corey John and Takonda Majikwa were walking west toward Ossington when a group of men approached them. 'They were drunk and had open beer bottles in their hands,' says John. 'When they approached us they were making remarks as 'faggot,' 'fudge packer' and 'you and your girlfriend.'"' 

Why people tend to enjoy Cristiano Ronaldo's time off best.

Larry Kramer praises book on pre-Oscar Wilde gay sex in Britain: "Certainly nothing like this has appeared in America, thus allowing queer and gender studies to pretty much swamp, nay drown, the gay history field with their gobbledygook theorizing of what might have happened. This ludicrous state of affairs prohibits making statements such as: "they did then what we do now," without the wrath of queer theorists raining down insults of an uncommonly vitriolic nature. You don't have a right to say that! say they. You can't prove it! say they. It's been here all along since the beginning of history, say many others of us. Well now it can be said, and proved, in Britain at any rate, thanks to Upchurch."

First Look: China's Massive Three Gorges Dam Project from Space

Here's one of the first images astronauts on the International Space Station have released of China's Three Gorges dam project, as water fills up behind the dam (lower right) in a reservoir 600 kms long:

"The epic scale of the dam project is matched by the level of controversy it continues to generate. Concerns about major environmental impacts, the relocation of 1.2 million people, and the flooding of 13 cities, more than 1300 villages, archeological locations, and hazardous waste dumps were raised throughout the planning and implementation. Environmental concerns include increased seismicity from the loading of the water, landslides, changed ecosystems, accumulated pollution, increased chances for waterborne diseases, and salinity changes in the Yangtze estuary."

The dam was completed in 2006. This photo was shot on April 15, 2009.

News: Stephen Hawking, Blindness, Paul Rudnick, Tuna, Morrissey

2009 Pulitzer Prize winners announced.

Stem cells to cure most common form of blindness: "Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time. The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells. This week Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical research company, will announce its financial backing to bring the therapy to patients." 

Milo Ventimiglia brings back 50's cut...

Got Talent: Britain has Susan Boyle, while Sweden has Naked Boys Dancing.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan recognized Friday's Day of Silence.

Madonna falls off horse, blames paparazzi.

Parents of gay children come out of the closet in China...

Kelly Clarkson does not hook up - video.

Bishop Gene Robinson: Civil and religious marriage should be separate. "In this country, it has become very confusing about where the civil action begins and ends and where the religious action begins and ends, because we have asked clergy to be agents of the state."

Bluefin tuna to be extinct by 2012?

Morrissey has meltdown over smell of grilled meat at Coachella.

Lady GaGa refuses to reveal anything about her teacup.

Paul Rudnick responds to Ted Haggard as fellow-heterosexual-with-issues Pastor Stan Belker: "As a teen-ager, I found that I was attracted both to serving Our Lord and to Jimmy Wiggins, the assistant coach of my high-school soccer team. I was in torment, and I would pray for hours on end, asking God why He would command me to love Him so deeply and at the same time just go and create Jimmy’s snug little soccer shorts."

Stephen Hawking "very ill" according to Cambridge University.

Gay controversy on UK version of The Apprentice as one contestant wants to re-brand the British seaside town of Margate as a gay resort and a teammate tells him she'd never let a homosexual come near her son.

Rice University survey shows growing support for gay rights.

Gawker Headquarters seating chart.

Australian crocodile bait.

Sacha Baron-Cohen apologizes to Madonna over adoption gag: "Madonna was said to be upset at a scene in Bruno’s forthcoming film which mocks her attempts to adopt an African baby. And we hear that shame-faced 37-year-old Sacha has sent her a bouquet of flowers to apologise.  An insider said: 'Sacha is always out to make great comedy – and if he upsets people along the way, so be it. But when word reached him that Madonna thought his sketch was insensitive, he sent her a bouquet of flowers to say, ‘No hard feelings’.'"

Some super slo-mo beauty.

Anti-gay hate crime convictions in Wales double in three years.

Iowa Republicans claim advisory that state recorders must perform same-sex marriages comes across as "veiled threat": [Victoria Hutton of the Iowa Department of Public Health] wrote in the e-mail: 'Following is the response from our attorney from the Iowa Attorney General's office. All county recorders in the state of Iowa are required to comply with the Varnum decision ... and to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples in the same manner as licenses issued to opposite gender applicants.'"

Dolphin Force Field Blocks Chinese Ship from Somali Pirates

Who needs snipers when you have dolphins?

"Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday. The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's. The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness before the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while."

Apparently, however, they're loyal to the Chinese.

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #453

CHINA AND YOUTUBE: This is the footage of Chinese brutality against Tibetans which has led to the censorship of YouTube in China.

ROBOFISH: These $29,000 fish are to be deployed shortly to monitor pollution in the seas of northern Spain. What's to prevent them from not being ingested by predators fooled by the realism?

SIMON COWELL: Discusses Obama's mention of him on 60 Minutes.

MICHELLE BACHMANN: The congresswoman wants Minnesotans "armed and dangerous" over Obama's tax plan.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #444

FINALLY, TONIGHT: Jesus is everywhere.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Obama sings to Ted Kennedy at the Kennedy Center.

DIRTY TRICKS: FOX 25 investigates duplicitous tactics by Massachusetts marriage equality foes.

MEGHAN MCCAIN vs ANN COULTER: Rachel Maddow toasts the feud. Here's the piece to which she refers.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.