German women's magazine Brigitte has declared it will no longer use professional models in its fashion shoots. But reaction to the first all-amateur issue has been mixed, with observers criticizing the magazine for not going far enough to fight anorexia. At first glance the new issue of Germany's Brigitte looks just like a normal fashion magazine. Attractive, perfectly made-up young women show off stylish clothes from labels like French Connection, Escada and H&M, glancing flirtatiously over their shoulders, pouting their lips or staring pensively into the distance. But something about the photos looks different. A prominent tummy here and noticeable wrinkles there reveal that these are not size-zero Amazons straight from the catwalk, but real women. As of the January issue, which hit the newsstands Saturday, Brigitte will use only amateur models in its fashion shoots.
At first glance the new issue of Germany's Brigitte looks just like a normal fashion magazine. Attractive, perfectly made-up young women show off stylish clothes from labels like French Connection, Escada and H&M, glancing flirtatiously over their shoulders, pouting their lips or staring pensively into the distance.
But something about the photos looks different. A prominent tummy here and noticeable wrinkles there reveal that these are not size-zero Amazons straight from the catwalk, but real women. As of the January issue, which hit the newsstands Saturday, Brigitte will use only amateur models in its fashion shoots.
Lady Gaga's single "Poker Face" and Susan Boyle's debut album "I Dreamed A Dream" were crowned Britain's biggest-selling records of 2009, the Official Charts Company said on Sunday. New Yorker Lady Gaga's debut single, "Just Dance," was number three in the official singles chart of 2009, just behind Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling." Boyle, the runner up of the "Britain's Got Talent" TV show, claimed top spot in the year's album chart after "I Dreamed a Dream" sold more than 1.5 million copies in six weeks.
New Yorker Lady Gaga's debut single, "Just Dance," was number three in the official singles chart of 2009, just behind Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling."
Boyle, the runner up of the "Britain's Got Talent" TV show, claimed top spot in the year's album chart after "I Dreamed a Dream" sold more than 1.5 million copies in six weeks.
One of the riskiest movies of all times is now officially one of the most successful at the box office. When "Avatar" opened, its solid but far from stellar results left 20th Century Fox uncertain about whether the $430 million that it and two financing partners had invested to produce and market the 3-D film would pay off. Less than three weeks later, there's no doubt. Director James Cameron's science-fiction epic on Sunday became only the fifth movie in history to gross more than $1 billion worldwide and, by far, was the fastest to do so.
When "Avatar" opened, its solid but far from stellar results left 20th Century Fox uncertain about whether the $430 million that it and two financing partners had invested to produce and market the 3-D film would pay off.
Less than three weeks later, there's no doubt. Director James Cameron's science-fiction epic on Sunday became only the fifth movie in history to gross more than $1 billion worldwide and, by far, was the fastest to do so.
Anti-smoking watchdogs are up in arms about Sigourney Weaver's character lighting up in the movie Avatar, but James Cameron says that her character's cigarette habit was a critique of videogamers.
On another matter, I've read a lot of comparisons prior to seeing the movie and I thought it was obvious to see that Avatar borrowed quite a bit from Japanese manga.
"Iron Mike" was the anchor of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a gritty job in one of the grittiest teams in American football.He played for the Steelers from 1974 to 1989, winning the Super Bowl - the annual championship of the National Football League (NFL) -- four times, three as captain. He was inducted into the pro football hall of fame, and came to be seen as an icon of the sport.All of which makes his demise all the more poignant. Even before he retired in 1990, he began to suffer mental problems. He displayed symptoms of dementia, memory loss and depression. As his behaviour grew more erratic, he found it hard to hold down a job and by his death in 2002 aged 50, he was reported to be sleeping homeless in railway stations or in the back of his pickup truck.Such an ignominious an end for so huge a personality marked a low point of American football. At the time of Webster's death, the condition from which he was suffering -- repetitive brain injury, later dubbed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE -- was not even recognised, let alone understood.But over the past eight years, partly as a result of Webster's death, pressure has mounted on the NFL, the professional sport's governing body, to confront what has been described as a ticking time-bomb that could be facing hundreds of thousands of players.
"Iron Mike" was the anchor of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a gritty job in one of the grittiest teams in American football.
He played for the Steelers from 1974 to 1989, winning the Super Bowl - the annual championship of the National Football League (NFL) -- four times, three as captain. He was inducted into the pro football hall of fame, and came to be seen as an icon of the sport.
All of which makes his demise all the more poignant. Even before he retired in 1990, he began to suffer mental problems. He displayed symptoms of dementia, memory loss and depression. As his behaviour grew more erratic, he found it hard to hold down a job and by his death in 2002 aged 50, he was reported to be sleeping homeless in railway stations or in the back of his pickup truck.
Such an ignominious an end for so huge a personality marked a low point of American football. At the time of Webster's death, the condition from which he was suffering -- repetitive brain injury, later dubbed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE -- was not even recognised, let alone understood.
But over the past eight years, partly as a result of Webster's death, pressure has mounted on the NFL, the professional sport's governing body, to confront what has been described as a ticking time-bomb that could be facing hundreds of thousands of players.
duh, there crumples another inflated icon, manly men playing rugby should think while they still can...
the cranium was built for more enlightened diversion! ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
A different approach to policing in Southland that included officers visiting criminals at home for a friendly chat had contributed to a 17 per cent drop in crime in the region, a police boss said. Southland police area commander Inspector Barry Taylor said they had been working since July on increased urgency and accountability, with a big focus on reducing crime rather than just arresting criminals. As a result, indicative crime figures - which were not official police statistics - showed overall crime in Southland was down 17 per cent for the first five months of the reporting year, compared with the same period the previous year, Mr Taylor said. Burglaries were down 28 per cent, while provisional indicators showed other types of crime were also down, he said. "We have just had a bit of a look at how we are going about our business and we felt we could do it a bit smarter, and the initial indicators are we are on the right track." The altered approach to policing included working to prevent crime rather than react once a crime had been committed, he said.
A different approach to policing in Southland that included officers visiting criminals at home for a friendly chat had contributed to a 17 per cent drop in crime in the region, a police boss said.
Southland police area commander Inspector Barry Taylor said they had been working since July on increased urgency and accountability, with a big focus on reducing crime rather than just arresting criminals.
As a result, indicative crime figures - which were not official police statistics - showed overall crime in Southland was down 17 per cent for the first five months of the reporting year, compared with the same period the previous year, Mr Taylor said.
Burglaries were down 28 per cent, while provisional indicators showed other types of crime were also down, he said. "We have just had a bit of a look at how we are going about our business and we felt we could do it a bit smarter, and the initial indicators are we are on the right track."
The altered approach to policing included working to prevent crime rather than react once a crime had been committed, he said.
According to Blumenthal the U.S. polity now has tens of millions of low-information but politically active voters whose interests are narrowly focused on personal spiritual salvation, whose political conception of right and wrong have shrunk from Judt's moral concern about overall fairness and who controls the commons, to a near-exclusive preoccupation with superficial moral questions about abortion, gay marriage and whether the politician they vote for has been "saved." This habit is all the more socially dangerous insofar as these same people have built a hermetic parallel culture within the U.S. whose home schooling, megachurches, and charismatic preacher/father figures provide constant reinforcement of authoritarian tendencies. Blumenthal says many things in his tour de force: that the fundamentalist religious phenomenon is fueled, particularly among its leaders, by a culture of personal crisis whereby bizarre and destructive behavior actually constitutes merit if it somehow leads to one being "saved;" by an authoritarian outlook that is at its base one of sado-masochistic impulses; by a disturbed relationship to authority; and by a variety of sexual obsessions. Did the reader know that James Dobson, the ayatollah of Focus on the Family, was a big fan of serial killer Ted Bundy, and profited monetarily from the relationship? That Tom DeLay, who called the House into a special session to prohibit Terri Schiavo's husband from disconnecting her from life support, had in fact pulled the plug on his own father? That the creationist or, to use the approved euphemism, "intelligent design" movement is an artifact funded by a millionaire fundamentalist once institutionalized for insanity?
According to Blumenthal the U.S. polity now has tens of millions of low-information but politically active voters whose interests are narrowly focused on personal spiritual salvation, whose political conception of right and wrong have shrunk from Judt's moral concern about overall fairness and who controls the commons, to a near-exclusive preoccupation with superficial moral questions about abortion, gay marriage and whether the politician they vote for has been "saved." This habit is all the more socially dangerous insofar as these same people have built a hermetic parallel culture within the U.S. whose home schooling, megachurches, and charismatic preacher/father figures provide constant reinforcement of authoritarian tendencies.
Blumenthal says many things in his tour de force: that the fundamentalist religious phenomenon is fueled, particularly among its leaders, by a culture of personal crisis whereby bizarre and destructive behavior actually constitutes merit if it somehow leads to one being "saved;" by an authoritarian outlook that is at its base one of sado-masochistic impulses; by a disturbed relationship to authority; and by a variety of sexual obsessions. Did the reader know that James Dobson, the ayatollah of Focus on the Family, was a big fan of serial killer Ted Bundy, and profited monetarily from the relationship? That Tom DeLay, who called the House into a special session to prohibit Terri Schiavo's husband from disconnecting her from life support, had in fact pulled the plug on his own father? That the creationist or, to use the approved euphemism, "intelligent design" movement is an artifact funded by a millionaire fundamentalist once institutionalized for insanity?
Brains in middle age, which, with increased life spans, now stretches from the 40s to late 60s, also get more easily distracted. Start boiling water for pasta, go answer the doorbell and -- whoosh -- all thoughts of boiling water disappear. Indeed, aging brains, even in the middle years, fall into what's called the default mode, during which the mind wanders off and begin daydreaming.Given all this, the question arises, can an old brain learn, and then remember what it learns? Put another way, is this a brain that should be in school?As it happens, yes. While it's tempting to focus on the flaws in older brains, that inducement overlooks how capable they've become. Over the past several years, scientists have looked deeper into how brains age and confirmed that they continue to develop through and beyond middle age. Many longheld views, including the one that 40 percent of brain cells are lost, have been overturned. What is stuffed into your head may not have vanished but has simply been squirreled away in the folds of your neurons.
Brains in middle age, which, with increased life spans, now stretches from the 40s to late 60s, also get more easily distracted. Start boiling water for pasta, go answer the doorbell and -- whoosh -- all thoughts of boiling water disappear. Indeed, aging brains, even in the middle years, fall into what's called the default mode, during which the mind wanders off and begin daydreaming.
Given all this, the question arises, can an old brain learn, and then remember what it learns? Put another way, is this a brain that should be in school?
As it happens, yes. While it's tempting to focus on the flaws in older brains, that inducement overlooks how capable they've become. Over the past several years, scientists have looked deeper into how brains age and confirmed that they continue to develop through and beyond middle age.
Many longheld views, including the one that 40 percent of brain cells are lost, have been overturned. What is stuffed into your head may not have vanished but has simply been squirreled away in the folds of your neurons.
where the nuts are? ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
