Civilization Progress Report: In which we learn British Petroleum is overly fond of Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" as long as you replace "Love" with "Oil"

It's been a difficult week hasn't it? I mean sure a lot of us had Monday off, but the environment didn't. Neither did Madonna's scrappy team of web writers. And then suddenly, the rule of three became a reality as a beloved television star boarded an elevator to The Golden Palace in the sky. Yeah, it's been a real nails-on-sandpaper kind of week. This week, we're also featuring a twist! Much like how the oil spill is suffocating all sentient life beneath it along the Louisiana coastline, we're going to top-load your end-of-week effluvia with BP-related muckery.

• Here are photographs of many seabirds trapped in oil slicks off the coast of Louisiana. [Boston.com]

Continue surfing the oil slick after the jump.

• As the company's branding crisis continues, BP spokesman Randy Prescott is not terribly bugged that his parent company is endangering certain species of shellfish... [The Lens]

• ...or turning down eco-friendly clean-up ideas that include peat moss and recycled hair. [Inhabitat]

• Iceland: Where everyone dances because BP has yet to bludgeon their environment to smithereens! [BuzzFeed]

• On President Obama's move to extend benefits of gay federal workers to their partners, I would turn to Meryl Streep's exasperated aside from The Devil Wears Prada: "By all means, move at a glacial pace." [WaPo]

• Apparently HTML copy of Madonna offering a hollow statement slapped onto a little-read website re: openly gay Malawi couple who were pardoned by their president for being themselves is bigger news than the openly gay Malawi couple who were pardoned by their president for being themselves. [Rolling Stone]

• A gay McDonald's advertisement--which is France's second most important cultural contribution to the world--is headed to Iran. (See fig. 1 for the country's most important cultural contribution ever.) [Queerty]

fig. 1

• Apparently The Huffington Post's entire editorial team is not only asleep at the wheel, but they've allowed their jalopy to recklessly careen into a ditch, where a zombie has climbed into the driver's seat. [HuffPo]]

• In America, you can pay $20 to watch your entire identity get reduced to sloppy stereotypes but you can't enjoy something that attempts to realize it in three dimensions. [TheWrap]

• In lieu of the real thing, the state of New York is offering same-sex couples a chance to have a pretend wedding. [Politically Illustrated]

• And finally, Rue McClanahan, you were a firecracker. [New York Times]

Mister Rohin Guha has written for Gawker, Blackbook, Paper, New York, and many other media outlets. Once a week he'll be checking in on civilization and giving us a progress report.