The best title sequences not only express the concept of a show, feature the typographic logo, and present the key production and cast members, but they capture our attention and draw us in to the show’s mood. These are the 60 Coolest Main Title Sequences of All Time.

(via The 60 Coolest TV Show Title Sequences of All Time)

Mark Wahlberg’s insensitive comments about 9/11 have sparked incredulity everywhere from Twitter to the cover of the New York Post. Earlier this week, in an interview with Men’s Journal, the actor seemed to confuse himself with Chuck Norris: If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’ Wahlberg has apologized profusely for his lightning-rod remarks — but the pocket pundits of Tumblr and other meme machines have already had their say. Check out the following slide show for some of the most notable examples of Wahlberg-inspired Internet art. (via Marky Mark saves the universe! - Internet Culture - Salon.com)

In 2001, DVD players outsold VCRs for the first time ever. I can’t claim that this advent of home technology was the reason that “puzzle films” like Christopher Nolan’s “Memento,” David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” and Richard Kelly’s “Donnie Darko” caught on, but it’s a reasonably sound guess. With VCRs, you could watch a film at home, you could pause it, and you could rewind it. But DVDs were made to withstand intense scrutiny: high-res freeze-frames, replaying and jumping chapters, and of course those neat little bonus features that held the promise of providing supplemental material to the film. (via Dvd reviews - Salon.com)

Until last week, Dean Atta was relatively unknown; unless you were deeply immersed in the world of spoken word you probably wouldn’t have heard of him. Then, in the wake of the conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, he wrote his poem I Am Nobody’s Nigger, and took the internet by storm. In five days, his poem had received in excess of 15,000 hits and gained him an extra 1,000 followers on Twitter. The poem was, he says, a reaction to “the injustice of the death of Stephen Lawrence”, and to the loose usage of the N-word. “Watching Panorama, where they reconstructed his murder, and hearing that the N-word was the last thing they said when they stabbed him really struck a chord with me.” (via Dean Atta: meet the iPhone poet | Books | The Guardian)

From Tahrir Square to the scene of John Galliano’s racist rants, pictures and videos from the public have been increasingly used in media coverage (via Arab spring leads surge in events captured on cameraphones | World news | The Guardian)

(via Iraq: What Remains by Christopher de Bellaigue | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books)

One of the most striking aspects of the recent Republican Party Presidential debate was the way the candidates, each in his own way, tried to out-do each other in their disdain for gay marriage and their willingness—nay, their ardent vows!—to do everything possible to make sure that homosexual couples never gain the right to matrimony. One day soon, someone will play back that debate as an exercise in historical shame, much as we now watch documentary clips of serene racial bigots denouncing the efforts of the black freedom movement in days of yore. (via News Desk: Obama and Gay Marriage : The New Yorker)

“We do not need the regular media to get this out, at all. We are creating our own media.” So says one of the subjects in #whilewewatch, Kevin Breslin’s new film about Occupy Wall Street, which will get a screening in the Financial District next Wednesday a few blocks from the former encampment that was the genesis of the Occupy Wall Street movement. (via Kevin Breslin, son of Jimmy, debuts his Occupy Wall Street documentary | Capital New York)

A detailed examination of more than 20 million Tweets about the race for president finds that the political discussion on Twitter is measurably different than the one found in the blogosphere-more voluminous, more fluid and even less neutral. But both forms of social media differ markedly from the political narrative that Americans receive from news coverage, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, which examines campaign coverage and the online conversation from May 2-November 27. (via Twitter and the Campaign | Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ))

Social media has not only been at the core of major protest stories, but drove some of 2011′s biggest news, from Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring. Digital tools such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have defined this year’s social movements by giving rise to a new generation of activism. In 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign was touted for its social media prowess. 2011′s stories of online mobilization share a common thread, differentiating them from the U.S. President’s election effort: grassroots organization by average individuals. (via 9 Social Media Uprisings That Sought to Change the World in 2011)