Labor Statistics Conspiracy

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By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times - WASHINGTON — The unusually steep drop in the U.S. jobless rate just weeks before the presidential election has sparked howls of protest from some conservatives that the White House cooked the books to boost President Obama's chances.

The outcry began Friday morning on social media just minutes after the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the September unemployment rate had plunged to 7.8% from 8.1% in August.

Obama administration officials strongly denied any manipulation.

Still, the conspiracy theory gained traction early when Jack Welch, the widely respected former chief executive of General Electric, asserted on Twitter that the fix was in to give Obama a boost following what many analysts said was a poor debate performance Wednesday night.

Rothko Painting Vandalised in Tate Modern

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From Telegraph

A squatter accused of scrawling graffiti on a £50 million Mark Rothko painting donated to the Tate gallery by the artist himself appeared in court today.

Wlodzimierz Umaniec, 26, was accused of writing his name and "12A - A potential piece of Yellowism" on Rothko's Black on Maroon at the Tate Modern gallery on London's South Bank on Sunday afternoon.

His solicitor indicated that he would plead not guilty, and hinted that his client would 'like his day in court.'

Dallas Cowboys' Victoria's Secret Branch

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From ABC
 

Ikea Caught Photoshopping Women Out of Its Saudi Arabian Catalog

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From Gawker by Neetzan Zimmerman

Sweden's trade minster issued a formal rebuke of the country's iconic furniture retailer Ikea for airbrushing women out of the Saudi Arabian version of its familiar ready-to-assemble furniture catalog.

Metro, which was first to notice the stark differences between the Saudi catalog and the company's 26 other editions, pointed out that, not only were images of women scrubbed from all the photos, but the female designer of Ikea's "PS" furniture line was also "deleted" from the publication.

"It's impossible to retouch women out of reality," Ewa Björling, the trade minister, told the free daily. "These images are yet another regrettable example that shows we have a long road ahead when it comes to gender equality in Saudi Arabia."

Ikea has since apologized for the decision to remove women from its Saudi catalog, saying in a statement, "we should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue is in conflict with the IKEA Group values."

No word, however, on whether it plans to reprint the catalog with the original photos intact.

 [image via imgur]

Maude Apatow & Rebel Wilson to Form Rap Group?

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Lady Gaga: Oversized Pink & Blue Dress in France!

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From JJ

Lady Gaga wears an over-sized two tone dress while leaving her hotel on Saturday (September 22) in Paris, France.

The 26-year-old singer recently opened up about gaining 25 pounds and sent a message to her fans about accepting her even after her weight gain.

“Thank [you] to my fans who love me no matter what, and know the meaning of real beauty & compassion. I really love you,” Gaga tweeted.

Gaga also shared a quote from Marilyn Monroe, saying, “To all the girls that think you’re ugly because you’re not a size 0, you’re the beautiful one. It’s society who’s ugly.”

Jonathan Franzen's "House for Sale" Opens

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From Playbill by By Adam Hetrick

A stage adaptation of "Freedom" author Jonathan Franzen's autobiographical essay "House for Sale" will receive its Off-Broadway world premiere in October under the wings of the Transport Group at the Duke on 42nd Street.

Daniel Fish has adapted the essay and will also direct House for Sale, which will begin previews Oct. 13 towards an Oct. 24 opening. The production will continue through Nov. 18.

According to the Transport Group, "House for Sale follows Franzen as he travels to his childhood home in Missouri to sell the family house following his mother's death. Beset by memory and feeling a keen burden to sell the property for a price his exacting mother would accept, Franzen purges the home of personal artifacts, unearths hidden mini-treasures, and selects the realtor who will sell this reliquary of family memories. Exploring ideas of change, loss, and the value of the 'quintessential American Dream,' House for Sale is a daring exploration of the merging of art forms as well as an examination of the very essence of the human condition." 

 

A WRINKLE in TIME: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L'Engle, Illustrator Hope Larson

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From Amazon
  
The world already knows Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, Calvin O'Keefe, and the three Mrs--Who, Whatsit, and Which--the memorable and wonderful characters who fight off a dark force and save our universe in the Newbery award-winning classic A Wrinkle in Time. But in 50 years of publication, the book has never been illustrated.  Now, Hope Larson takes the classic story to a new level with her vividly imagined interpretations of tessering and favorite characters like the Happy Medium and Aunt Beast. Perfect for old fans and winning over new ones, this graphic novel adaptation is a must-read.

Jerry Seinfield's "Really?" Letter To The New York TIMES

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From Pop Watch by Maane Khatchatourian

Jerry Seinfeld is really, really ticked off. The comedian penned a letter to The New York Times in response to TV critic Neil Genzlinger’s Monday column about the abuse and overuse of one of Seinfeld’s favorite words: ”really.”

”Really, Neil? Really? You’re upset about too many people saying, “Really?”? I mean, really,” Seinfeld writes.

The amusingly outraged letter to the editor, which uses the word ”really” 10 times, comes to the defense of the ”lazy” comedy writers who use the word that Genzlinger claims is ”undoing 2,000 years’ worth of human progress.” Seinfeld defends Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment “Really!?! With Seth,” which used to star Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers and which Seinfeld himself contributed to in 2010; and turned the tables on Genzlinger by ripping him for using the phrase, “wrap my head around it.” “Don’t preach to us about ‘Really?’ and then wrap our heads around things,” wrote Seinfeld. “You crumbled a bit of civilization off there yourself.”

Seinfeld’s keen observation about everything and nothing couldn’t come at a better time — his five-borough New York City comedy tour kicks off tomorrow. I really hope he addresses the “R word” in his routine.

ABC Family's Portrayal of Age-Discrepant Relationships

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This is an excerpt from the manuscript/first draft of my forthcoming creative non-fiction book, The Allure of Nymphets, From Charlie Chaplin to Mark Sanchez Man’s Fascination with Young Women:

On the very popular ABC Family teen drama, Pretty Little Liars, which was adapted from the series of books that I wrote about in a previous chapter, 16-year-old brunette Aria met Ezra at a bar, kissed him and “made out” with him in the bar’s bathroom before she found out the next day that Eric was actually Mr. Fitz, her new English teacher. But unlike Lux and Eric on the television show Life Unexpected, and maybe that is why Life Unexpected was cancelled after its second season, things did not stop there. Aria and Mr. Fitz continued to make out, among other places in his car and in his apartment. 

You may be asking yourself, “How can a television show get away with portraying a sixteen-year-old in a relationship with her English teacher and get away with it?” The answer is, "Easily." Pretty Little Liars is set in Pennsylvania where the age of consent is, you guessed it, sixteen-years-old. The writers strategically set the show in Pennsylvania, so they could legally shock its viewers. (It's worth mentioning here that Rob Lowe, met a girl in a bar as well, took her back to his hotel room, and videotaped himself having sex with her. And just like with Mr. Fitz, Rob was shocked to learn later that the girl was sixteen-years-old, but since the encounter occurred in Los Angeles where the age-of-consent is eighteen, Rob was forced to pay an undisclosed amount of money to the girl, do community service, and speak at prisons and halfway houses.)
 

When Mr. Fitz tried to end the liaison, not because of their age difference, but because he feared losing his job, Aria was portrayed as the aggressor in the relationship and as desperately wanting them to remain a couple.

France Unveils Zidane Head-Butt Statue

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From WP by Melissa Bell

Retired French soccer player Zinedine Zidane has plenty of victories to his name, having been a key player when France won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship.

But Algerian-born artist Adel Abdessemed was more interested in memorializing one of Zidane’s more aggressive moments on the field.

This week, Paris’s Pompidou Center unveiled a 16-foot statue depicting Zidane head-butting Italian opponent Marco Materazzi in the chest, the infamous move that got Zidane ejected from the 2006 World Cup final.

“This statue goes against the tradition of making statues in honor of certain victories. It is an ode to defeat,” exhibition organizer Alain Michaud told Agence France-Presse.

Zidane claimed after the head-butt that knocked Materazzi down that the Italian defender had insulted his mother and sister. Zidane was sent from the field with a red card in the match’s 110th minute, and Italy went on to win. Zidane retired after the match.

Ken Burns' THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE Footage Subpoened

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From The Guardian by Andrew Pulver

Renowned US film-maker Ken Burns has refused to comply with a subpoena served on him by New York City in connection with his film The Central Park Five, about a notorious miscarriage of justice.

Lawyers for New York are demanding to examine footage and notes that Burns and his team compiled during the making of their film as the city seeks to defend the actions of its officials in the aftermath of the horrific rape in 1989 of a jogger in Central Park.

Five black teenagers were convicted in 1990 for the attack, but they were cleared in 2002 after convicted murderer Matias Reyes confessed to the crime. The five subsequently launched legal action against the city for malicious prosecution, but the city has refused so far to settle.

Burns's documentary about the case, which premiered at the Cannes film festival earlier this year, alleges that the teenagers' confessions were forcibly extracted and that racism played a significant part in the police's decision to arrest them.

The Approval Matrix: Week of October 15, 2012

DMX Uses Google For the First Time

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Honest Toddler's Blog and Twitter Feed

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From Parenting by Sabrina James
 
@HonestToddler has taken the Twittersphere by storm. His identity is unknown and he hides behind a deceptively earnest pen name. He speaks for our children and calls all parents out with such precision that we can’t help but laugh (and cry a little) wondering if he could possibly be our very own child with a Twitter account. Who is Honest Toddler? Like the famed underground street artist Banksy, HT is prolific, subversive, and everywhere, reminding us just how powerless we parents truly are…and how awesomely fun that actually is. 

Honest Toddler