You don’t have to tune in right here and right now to see double standards at work — they are, alas, scattered over every element of our culture. Double-standards about sex and gender are a given – hello, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Katie Couric, Michelle Obama and, now, Lindsey Vonn! — but we see double-standards across the board in terms of how partners in relationships are treated externally, and the roles that are or are not expected of them — and of course whether or not you are wearing clothes at any given point along the process makes a difference, too. How are the rules still different for women? Who has broken those rules, and what happens to them? Where does the “power” from “empowerment” come from? What messages do we get from the media? And how do things change depending on how naked you are? These questions and more will be answered in this online panel starting…NOW.

Remember this scene from Basic Instinct? Remember what happens next in this scene? It’s a pretty well-known cinematic moment. I’m not going to show it here, but here’s a link to a clip labeled simply: “Basic Instinct: Interrogation Scene” – and for most people, it’s pretty instantly recognizable just what scene they’re talking about.

If this doesn’t make you smile then you really need to lighten up: the entire Today Show staff — anchors, correspondents, producers, directors, makeup artists, lighting, sound and camerapeople and a dude who can apparently ride a unicycle all teamed up to do a one-take viral video for the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feelin’” — and it’s delightful. The whole thing snakes in, out, and around 30 Rock in what clearly is way more fun than the last thing *you* did at work. You need to watch this right now.

A few things go through your mind when you look at the inaugural cover of Pole Spin magazine: (1) Wow (2) I don’t think I can do that (3) I’m not sure where to put my eyes (4) I wonder if that’s comfortable (5) I definitely couldn’t do that (6) there’s a Pole Spin magazine? But yes, it’s true – there is a Pole Spin magazine, celebrating the grace and strength and physical fitness of the women – and men! – who work the pole, fearlessly, flexibly and with pride.

Does Rana Sobhany hate instruments? No, she just doesn’t need them — her instrument is the iPad, from whence she has been crafting crowd-pleasing beats pretty much since the tech-toy’s launch. And now comes her first video, for a song composed entirely on the iPad, and shot entirely on the iPhone 4.

Remember all the drama around Conan O’Brien losing the Tonight Show? The 60 Minutes interview, the live shows, the Team Coco rallies, the buzzy social media campaign, the Conan Blimp? By the time the clock hit 11 pm on November 8th, it was a pretty big deal — a veritable Television Event. And the ratings [...]

Rahm Emanuel’s first TV spot, set to air tomorrow, has been released on YouTube. It’s called “Tough,” which is meant to refer to the “tough decisions” that his home city of Chicago faces — but also, no doubt, to reinforce Rahm’s reputation as a tough guy, one who has already walked the walk. Still, it’s a walk from the West Wing to the Rose Garden, not necessarily down Michigan Avenue. How will this resonate with Chicagoans?

I was on CNN on Thursday to discuss the recent ruling by the National Labor Board, which ruled that an employee’s use of Facebook counts as legally protected free speech where discussing work-related issues, even where it disparages the employer or the employee’s supervisors. Still, as I told Ali Velshi, that does not mean you should rush to trash your employer on social media.

Some of the best SNL impressions aren’t impressions at all, but rather spoofy exaggerations of characters that take the joke to the nth degree: Maya Rudolph‘s Donatella Versace; Phil Hartmann‘s Sinatra; Andy Samberg‘s Mark Wahlberg; Eddie Murphy‘s Gumby. Add to the list Will Forte‘s, and now Bill Hader‘s version of Chinese leader Hu Jintao, which [...]

This week, Bloggingheads won the Internet.

Bloggingheads — pioneer in DIY web video which allowed a rainbow of bloggers, columnists, thinkers and pundits to debate with each other onscreen via webcam — launched their split-screen creation five years ago, on November 1, 2005, with an endearingly low-fi, brainily-awkward and awkwardly-brainy discussion between founders Robert Wright and Mickey Kaus. From there a web empire of wonkitude was born, quickly becoming a cult favorite amongst the super-keen blognoscenti types who were only too happy to spend an hour chewing over the political, media and social questions of the day. They’ve had an incredibly impressive run – and almost more impressive is the video inside, which toasts 5 years of B’heads with an incredible video mashup of its cerebral celebrities “singing” a thematically-rewritten version of “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” Good times.

Today is Veteran’s Day — one day out of the year for you to remember and celebrate and thank the men and women in uniform who serve this country — but for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), that’s just one of 365 days each year for doing that. Founder Paul Rieckhoff has [...]

Well hello there, stranger! Welcome back! It’s been a while. Actually, it hasn’t really been a while — in fact, over the past few months it feels a lot like Conan O’Brien hasn’t really left. Well, to us — we are all well-acquainted with just how aware he is of having lost his late-night perch [...]

The first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, tonight will give way for the first orange Speaker of the House: John Boehner.

It’s a historic night — not only did the House of Representatives flip from Democrats to Republicans by the largest margin since 1948, but, as NBC’s Brian Williams succinctly put it last night, Pelosi just became “the first female ex-speaker of the House.”

Watch for Marco Rubio — he’s going to be everywhere. I bet the Sunday talk show bookers are already fighting over him now.

Rubio, the handsome, well-spoken, telegenic, just-39-year old newly-minted Senator from Florida, is something everyone can agree on: The GOP, from whence he sprang, and which preferred him to the ousted Charlie Crist; the Tea Party, whose principles he trumpeted early and who will be eager to claim a mainstream, non-kooky candidate; both of them, eager to find any common ground between them; and the media, who loves a young, telegenic, well-spoken rising star like nobody’s business.

Joe Scarborough makes the point early on Morning Joe: “We’re all talking about the House right now – it is the Senate that has become more conservative, by so many degrees.”

The Democrats lost the House by a huge flip — Nate Silver called it at 243 seats, with a net gain of 65 for the GOP, in the biggest flip from one side to the other since 1948. But as Scarborough points out, even though the headline is that the Dems get to hold the Senate, the overall tone of the Senate has shifted right.

How TV moments are made: Putting the only two women ever to run on a presidential ticket together on camera for the very first time. Tonight on Fox, Megyn Kelly and Brett Baier welcomed Fox News regular Sarah Palin, Republican vice-presidential candidate from 2008, and Geraldine Ferraro, Democratic vice-presidential candidate from 1984. Exulted Kelly: “They [...]

There were over 200,000 people at yesterday’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, and a whole lot of them had signs. Tommy Christopher covered the beat from the perspective of someone who arrived earlier and was much closer to the front; I covered the late-to-the-party-gee-it’s-crowded-can-you-hear-anything?-they-clearly-weren’t-expecting-this-many-people shift, who came equally bedecked and be-placarded, because apparently that’s how you take your country back. There were bears, puns, twins, Hitler mustaches but ironic Hitler mustaches,

Rihanna is so damn hot. Andy Samberg’s “Shy Ronnie” is so damn not. Which is just one of the fun juxtapositions set up by the second installment of the getting-close-to-being-pretty-damn-iconic “Shy Ronnie” SNL digital short.

Today is the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert “Rally For Sanity And/Or Fear” in Washington, D.C., on the Mall. It’s the place where Martin Luther King Jr. held his historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963, and where Glenn Beck, along with Sarah Palin, held their own “Restoring Honor” rally on that same day this past August, 46 years later. Now, in a sort of response, thousands and thousands and thousands of people have converged and are converging on Washington for this rally, hoping to restore something else: Sanity, yes, but also integrity, respect for facts, rationality and, yes, progress.

Emily Gannett is tireless. I know this because I have traded emails with her at 2 a.m. only to later wake blearily to a chipper morning missive sent south of 6 a.m. before her morning run. She’d be that woman of whom people say “I don’t know how she does it” even if she didn’t [...]

Jessica Jackley has a gift for making people want to fork over their cash. To total strangers. Far, far away. Does she run a shady Ponzi scheme? Is she a Nigerian Prince? Far from it – as the co-founder of kiva.org, the ground-breaking micro-finance non-profit which pairs willing online small-sum lenders with entrepreneurs starting small [...]

Today is Oct. 17, 2010 — five years after the premiere of newly-sprung Daily Show correspondent Stephen Colbert‘s spinoff starring vehicle, The Colbert Report. The Repor — silent t, natch — debuted in the fall of 2005, after a certain media tide had turned with the Bush administration (remember the Newsweek Koran case? Remember the [...]

In a few minutes, Facebook founder — and recent reluctant dramatized movie subject — Mark Zuckerberg will address the crowd at Ycombinator’s Startup School at Stanford University, following up a stellar slate including Groupon founder Andrew Mason, Quora founder Adam D’Angelo, Sun Microsystems founder Andy Bechtolsheim, Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman and angel investor big daddy [...]

30 Rock aired its live episode last night — twice — and I thought it was terrific (there have been some mixed reviews, but not from people who are smart and love comedy). One of the highlights was the cameos: Julia Louis Dreyfus, Matt Damon, Bill Hader, semi-regulars Chris Parnell, Rachel Dratch — and fan-fave [...]

There’s a tendency when the offspring of a famous person does something notable to define them by their more-famous parent. But this week, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is being defined by his insanely talented daughter, Allison Williams, who stars in the viral video sensation Mad Men theme-song mashup. “The Mad Men Theme Song, [...]