News: David Blaine, Spiders, NFL Draft, Methodists, George Bush

Bush disapproval rating breaks Gallup poll record: "President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt."

Breathe: David Blaine to attempt record-breaking inhale on Oprah.

Queer Month at Rhode Island College plagued by vandals.

"Possesses a V-shaped torso with a well-defined upper body, good bubble, developed calves and good chest thickness." Craigslist ad or NFL Draft profile?

Gay joke ban rejected by British House of Lords: "The television stars Rowan Atkinson and Christopher Higgins, who is himself homosexual, are among the prominent figures to have spoken out against the proposal to create a new offence of incitement to 'homophobic hatred'. ...Peter Tatchell, the prominent homosexual rights campaigner, also spoke out against the measure, arguing that freedom of speech should be sacrosanct."

Brad Pitt is a ruff rider.

Gay-straight alliance challenged in Janesville, Wisconsin.

David Beckham to strip for Ellen Degeneres?

Market: Clay Aiken will premiere his new album to audience of housewives on QVC.

Plague of venomous spiders shuts hospital in Australia: "The black spiders with a red stripe, close relatives of the black widow, are about 2-4 centimetres (0.8-1.6 inches) long and common across Australia. Their bites can cause severe pain, muscle spasms and death, although no fatalities have been recorded since an anti-venom was introduced in the 1950s."

Methodists hold convention in Fort Worth, brace for debate on homosexuality: "...there will almost certainly be another round of heated debate and contentious votes over whether the UMC should change its official position that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and withdraw its ban on noncelibate gay pastors. Recent General Conferences have seen protests by gay-rights supporters. Eight years ago in Cleveland, some 200 demonstrators, including two bishops, were arrested for disrupting proceedings. Still, most experts believe the big tent of the UMC will hold, however the winds blow in Fort Worth. Some even say the denomination has turned a corner toward unity."

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News: David Blaine, Amazon, Dog Reason, Manolo Blahnik

BREAKING: Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill dropped from National Defense Authorization Act. More from Lane Hudson at the HuffPo: "There are a couple problems with this situation. First, it doesn't even make sense. The House of Representatives was able to pass a fully-inclusive stand alone hate crimes bill this year. It defies logic to tell us now that they don't have the votes now that it is attached to the Defense Authorization bill. If anything, it should make it significantly easier to pass. After all, this is legislation that I'm told is supported by about 80% of the public in opinion polls. It's also named after a kid who was beaten to death and has become an icon in American history. But, the Democrats are scared that Bush may veto the bill and they'll get blamed for trying to starve soldiers. There go the Democrats again. Scared of our own shadow."

Brazilian gay magazines are popping out of the woodwork: "following the footsteps and recent success of Junior magazine, DOM (or De Outro Modo) is the second big gay publication to debut in Brazilian newstands this year."

TIRED? David Blaine announces what he'll do for his next trick.

British city of Brighton first to ban racist, anti-gay "murder music".

Gay rights pioneer Bob Kohler dies. Village Voice: "Bob Kohler, gay activist, former owner of the Loft on Christopher Street, Stonewall veteran, founder member of the Gay Liberation Front, ACT UP member, and longtime fixture of Charles Street, died on Wednesday at the age of 81. The cause of death was cancer, according to family friends. A Queens native who lost a kidney in World War II, Kolher was remembered as tireless fighter for gay rights, transsexual rights, queer youth, and people with HIV/AIDS who never gave up the struggle even as he battled illness and advancing years."

Scare: Manolo Blahnik making shoes for men.

Gerard Butler shows off some muscle.

National Board of Review launches film awards season: "For 2007 They've chosen Best Picture: No Country For Old Men (The rest of their top ten is: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bucket List, Into the Wild, Juno, The Kite Runner, Lars and the Real Girl, Michael Clayton and Sweeney Todd." Check out the rest of the nominees here.

WWF: More than half of Amazon will be lost by 2030. "Almost 60% of the region's forests could be wiped out or severely damaged by 2030, as a result of climate change and deforestation...Destroying almost 60% of tropical rainforest by 2030 would do away with one of the key stabilisers of the global climate system, it warned. Such damage could have a knock-on effect on rainfall in places such as central America and India, and would also destroy livelihoods for indigenous people and some 80% of habitats for animal species in the region. The 'point of no return', in which extensive degradation of the rainforest occurs and conservation prospects are greatly reduced, is just 15-25 years away - much sooner than some models suggest, the report warns."

Man accused in anti-gay bottle-throwing case in Scottsdale says he didn't do it: "A bouncer at a downtown Scottsdale bar told police he watched as a man coming out of a nearby bar curled his right hand around a beer bottle and hurled it through a gay man's car windshield, racking up the third gay hate crime in the city in the last year. But James Randall Walker, the 24-year-old airplane mechanic arrested for tossing the bottle, said in an exclusive Scottsdale Republic interview that his is a case of mistaken identity. 'I'm not the right guy,' Walker said."

Dogs can sort photos into categories, or at least know what other dogs look like: "At first, the pooches were simultaneously shown photographs of a landscape and of a dog, and were rewarded if they selected the latter, using a paw-operated computer touch screen. After attaining a good level of computer savviness, the dogs were then shown an unfamiliar landscape and dog photos. They continued to correctly identify the pictures with the dog. In the final phase of the experiment, the dogs were shown an unfamiliar dog that was superimposed on a landscape that had been used in the training phase. The animals were still able to pick out the dog in preference to an image of just a landscape. Range told New Scientist that this is proof that dogs have reasoning abilities."

Alarm in Britain after U.S. says it has the right to kidnap British citizens wanted for crimes: "A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it."

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David Blaine: Seven Minutes in Seven Seconds

In case you missed last night's David Blaine stunt, he missed beating the breath-holding record by two minutes (cue debbie-downer music), but you can watch this short strip and get the gist of it.

Okay, here's where he starts to go a little cross-eyed...

Concentrate...

It's unclear whether the pain we see here is from the lack of oxygen or from the throngs outside who had nothing better to do tonight and won't shut their pieholes.

Finally, he's out: "I am humbled so much by the support of everyone from New York City and from all over the world. Thank you so much, everybody . . . I love you all."

Another day, another bizarre chapter in street art ends in New York City.

If that wasn't enough, you can watch the whole clip here...

(thanks dino)

Previously
David Blaine: The Human Prune [tr]
Lincoln Center: The Empire Strikes Blaine [tr]

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David Blaine: The Human Prune

Yikes. Check out these shots of David Blaine's hands after living in his fishbowl for nearly a week. Imagine what, um, other parts of him look like.

I haven't made my way up to Lincoln Center to see him yet, but I think I better get up there before his skin starts falling off.

And bring some Palmolive.

Previously
Lincoln Center: The Empire Strikes Blaine [tr]
David Blaine at Lincoln Center [tr]

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Lincoln Center: The Empire Strikes Blaine

So, David Blaine took the plunge today, beginning his weeklong stint as the Lincoln Center goldfish. But for some reason, all I can think of when I see the photos is Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, except, of course, that Blaine isn't forced to wear a supersize pair of Pampers.
(more photos by Gothamist's Jen Chung (above) on flickr)

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David Blaine at Lincoln Center

No, the 33-year-old magician won't be performing any tricks on stage. He'll be living in an aquarium in front of Lincoln Center for an entire week starting May 1st. While this sounds a bit less daunting than fasting for 44 days in an acrylic box suspended above the Thames River (his last quest for attention), it also sounds a bit sexier, provided he isn't wearing a wetsuit. He also plans to try and break the world record for holding breath. Not for a week, mind you, but as a stunt at the end of his swim with the fishes.

And given the skin-altering effects of water (not to mention the shrinkage factor!) he may emerge looking like a human prune.

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