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: ^#1

Trend Watch: Rompers

The Demoiselles offer their take on a summer trend--rompers. What do you think? I've been pretty anti-romper, but they did... more

sgwhites
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Unleash Your Artistic Sim In Artist Colony

I-play today announced the launch of Artist Colony for PC. Check it out: Fueled by love, betrayal and creative genius, this... more

MrKLM
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Toronto artist Alex McLeod creates 3D rendered landscapes

Alex uses a number of 3D programs, three or four in total for each artwork. Some programs are good for sculpting, some for fluid... more

Oito
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Native American boy fights Texas school over hair cut

A Native American boy is fighting a Texas school district for the right to keep his long hair. A small rural school district in... more

locutus
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Sarkozy says Muslim burqas are 'not welcome' in France

President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Monday at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is a sign of the "debasement" of women and that it won't be welcome in France.

The French leader expressed support for a recent call by dozens of legislators to create a parliamentary commission to study a small but growing trend of wearing the full-body garment in France.

In the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament, Sarkozy laid out his support for a ban even before the panel has been approved - braving critics who fear the issue is a marginal one and could stigmatize Muslims in France.

"In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles southwest of Paris.

"The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement - I want to say it solemnly," he said. "It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."

In France, the terms "burqa" and "niqab" often are used interchangeably. The former refers to a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with only a mesh screen over the eyes, whereas the latter is a full-body veil, often in black, with slits for the eyes.

Later Monday, Sarkozy was expected to host a state dinner with Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani of Qatar. Many women in the Persian Gulf state wear Islamic head coverings in public - whether while shopping or driving cars.

France enacted a law in 2004 banning the Islamic headscarf and other conspicuous religious symbols from public schools, sparking fierce debate at home and abroad. France has Western Europe's largest Muslim population, an estimated 5 million people.

A government spokesman said Friday that it would seek to set up a parliamentary commission that could propose legislation aimed at barring Muslim women from wearing the head-to-toe gowns outside the home.

The issue is highly divisive even within the government. France's junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, said she was open to a ban if it is aimed at protecting women forced to wear the burqa.

But Immigration Minister Eric Besson said a ban would only "create tensions."

A leading French Muslim group warned against studying the burqa.President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Monday at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is... more

retro_Syl
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113 responses

18 days ago

: ^#6

New photos for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

HIt the link for some more great looking pics.

Nettle
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79 responses

18 days ago

: ^#7

4th Wall Gallery to feature exhibition of art by Dr. Seuss

At Storyopolis Fine Art in Los Angeles, owners Matthew and Kristine Abramowitz grew accustomed to having such customers as Brad... more

Apocalipstick
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0 responses

14 hours ago

: ^#8

Brad Pitt’s foundation unveils 14 duplex designs for New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward- 7/2/2009 11:06:00

Gehry Partners, William McDonough + Partners, and BNIM are among 14 architecture firms commissioned by Brad Pitt's Make It... more

slovelett
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6 responses

1 day ago

: ^#9

What your tattoo locations say about you

Tattoos are reverse time machines: with time travel you can send a warning back to your younger self, with tattoos you send a... more

TravG73
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71 responses

26 days ago

: ^#10

Scientists Create Eerie Ambient Music Using Human Brains, MRI Machines

A professor at Trinity College in Connecticut has written what is essentially a MIDI player for the human brain, converting MRI... more

slagface
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28 responses

4 days ago

: ^#11

New Banksy Exhibition in Bristol

Graffiti artist Banksy has pulled off an audacious stunt amid tight secrecy to stage his biggest ever exhibition. A burned-out... more

advertisehere
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13 responses

28 days ago

: ^#12

Star-faced LIAR!

The girl who said she fell asleep while getting three stars tattooed on her face and woke up with 56 of them has lied to us.... more

abbym0308
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44 responses

17 days ago

: ^#13

Parents (Financially) Support Tween Phenomenon at the Box Office

"In Hollywood the recent news that Miley Cyrus is to star in a remake of The Bodyguard and that Zac Efron will headline a new version of Saturday Night Fever seems particularly poignant. For it represents a passing of sorts, an axis shift between generations. It is the tacit acknowledgement that a movie industry once built upon the solid efforts of John Travolta dramas and Kevin Costner thrillers is now utterly in thrall to the glamour and the power of the new tween superstars.

Selling the dream of ordinary kids in ordinary high schools doing extraordinary things (putting on musicals, becoming handsome vampires), these inviolably wholesome and family-friendly entertainers are fuelling merchandising bonanzas and breaking box-office records. Ticket sales, for instance, for the three recent movies from Cyrus, Efron and Pattinson have already reached $750 million (£456 million) on exceedingly modest budgets — the High School Musical movie cost only $11 million to produce. In the current cash-strapped climate, says Ali Jaafar, international editor of Variety, this is regarded as the pre-eminent business model. “These guys are being offered everything right now,” he says. “They are seen as the next generation of stars, and producers want them attached to their projects because they know the studios will immediately say ‘Yes!”

And yet, tween success is not simply the result of giant corporations such as Disney cynically exploiting gullible children, says Barry Rosenbush, producer of the three-part High School Musical series. “The interesting thing about the tween audience is that they’re still connected to their parents,” he says. “Parents still need to give their permission to buy things, to download off iTunes, to buy DVDs. So an interesting dynamic develops between the parents and the children, where the parents want the children to go to High School Musical because it’s empowering, and to Twilight because it’s about romanticism. All good clean family entertainment that makes parents feel safe.

Indeed it is the parents of tween consumers who are the silent drivers of this boom, says Greg Livingston, co-author of The Great Tween Buying Machine: Marketing to Today’s Tweens, and the chief development officer at WonderGroup, a tween marketing agency in the US whose clients include Disney and Hasbro. “The former Generation X and Y kids who are parents now have this entirely inclusive family philosophy — they include their children in all decisions, from what food they’re going to eat to what car they’re going to buy,” he points out. “The dynamic between parents and young children really changed [in the past decade] and they became what we call a superconsumer: a mom and a kid together.”""In Hollywood the recent news that Miley Cyrus is to star in a remake of The Bodyguard and that Zac Efron will headline a new... more