chanel lays off 200 in paris

chanel cuts staff in paris according to the timesof london.

robert fisk and the independent weigh in on israel’s christmas war in gaza

click here for the artcle ‘leaders lie, civilisations die.’ the post has 428 comments and counting,

is intolerance monopolized by left or right

is intolerance now monopolized by the left? and is the center more or less filled with apathy? the 90s, during the clinton administration was filled with media images of right wing fanatics harassing women at planned parenthood. these images have given way to lefties giving george w. bush the finger, harassment of mormons, and calling rick warren unprintable names. this editorial in the wall street journal makes a good argument for rick warren being a solid choice for speaking at barack obama’s inauguration. and points out that the political left (barney frank, etc.) could be the nail in the coffin for an obama presidency. while frank and the faction he represents may believe that obama has a mandate. the obama people are well aware that during this election, they only won the cities and made a very poor showing in the countryside.

disney pulls plug on christian themed film; walden media looks for new partner

walden media, which owns the rights to the c.s. lewis series, the lion the witch and the wardrobe, is looking for a partner for the voyage of the dawn treader, the 3rd in the series. apparently prince caspian didn’t perform as planned. although this is probably more due to disney deciding to show the film in summer as opposed to christmas like the original film which made almost $800m worldwide. despite disney’s lousey marketing campaign and poor choice of a release date, the film still managed to eek out almost $500m worldwide. it’s a good investment for any studio interested in dollar signs.

michelle obama with do rag in hawaii

barack and michelle obama are enjoying their holidays at a $3500/day resort in hawaii, the home state of the president elect. michelle obama got caught by the daily mail sporting a wrap and a fairly unfashionable do rag.

researches force subjects to view bad jon cusack film

reasearches had research subjects view a string of romantic movies released between 1995 and 2005. one of which was the bomb ’serendipity,’ starring jon cusack. their conclusions indicate that watch romantic comedies can ruin your love life.

the bbc reported this information 1 week ago. time magazine (always on top of breaking news), just got around to reporting on this today.

deep throat dead at 95

so, the watergate leak who was assigned the name ‘deep throat’ in the best selling non-fiction book, ‘all the president’s man’ and who led to the downfall of richrd m. nixon was the associate director of the FBI during the nixon administration. w. mark felt put bob wooward and carl bernstein formerly of the washington post on the map.

dartmouth offers early retirement

you can read the whole story here. according to the union leader newspaper, ‘dartmouths’s endowment has dropped 6 percent, or $262 million. more than a third of the college’s $420 million operating budget (excluding grants) is supported by distributions from the endowment’

ex-nasdaq chairman goes down with pyramid scheme

how is the media covering this story? here’s what’s happening with the uk press: the weekend edition financial times buries the most important information of the story in the article, that bernard madoff is an ex-chairman of nasdaq. the independent makes a similar mistake and essential runs a version of the ft story including a quote about madoff taken from the financial time (which the independent references) which the financial times also includes in their article.

greek protests spread across europe

according to the german news magazine der spiegel,solidarity protests have happened in cities such as madrid and copenhagen. earlier this week the greek embassy in berlin was briefly occupied. how serious this is or not is unclear.

baader meinhof komplex golden globe nominee

the baader meinhof komplex, perhaps the only film worth seeing this year, stars mortiz bleibtreu (who made an international name for himself in ‘run lola run’) and marina gedick (the lives of others) has been nominated for a golden globe award.

oprah tries to win back viewers admits shes 200 pounds

dissed by sarah palin and watching her ratings tumble all year, oprah winfrey goes on the defensive. by admitting she’s 200 pounds. what does this bring her? sympathy. american women love to stand around the water cooler and moan about their thighs and hips and this bulge and that bulge. so maybe oprah is trying to re-cement this bond.

greece riots go beyond student’s death

we are now in day 6 of rioting in greece. the catalyst of which was the death of a teenager shot by a police officer. now that the kid has been laid to rest, the veil is quickly being pulled off this sweet holiday country made famous by of course greek mythology, the olympics as well as more recently maria callas, jackie-o and otto rehagle and greece’s surprising win of the european championships some years ago.

so how is the press covering this story. well, it seems the u.s. media is still very much focused on the imagery of students running around athens and such in black hoodies throwing stones and whatever else they can get their hands on. now that unions have begun to strike, the british newspapers as well as television stations such as the bbc and sky, have started digging for the underlying causes. in this bbc article the headline reads ‘greek economy woes fuel backlash’ and highlights the rising costs and inflations since greece joined the euro under what the daily telegraph calls, dubious circumstances, in 2001, in an article entitled ‘greek fighting: the eurozone’s weakest link starts to crack.’

david axelrod on fox news chicago on rod blagojevich and obama senate seat

various incarnations of this video keep getting pulled from youtube. wonder if barack obama’s friends at google have anything to do with this.

henry m. source for memento

if you remember “memento,’ the excellent film by christopher nolan, you might recall that the lead character has no short-term memory. the plot, which unfolds backwards put nolan, who co-wrote and directed both ‘batman begins’ and ‘the dark knight,’ on the map. could his tale have been inspired by the story of henry m.. a patient whose brain surgery went wrong, leaving him with perm. amnesia. not quite the same thing but who knows.

ulrike meinhof, portrayed by martina gedeick in the very well done film ‘the baader meinhof komplex’ had her brain removed by the german authorities following her suicide in the 1970s. as they wanted to see if the brain tumor she had removed in the 60s may have contributed to what they felt was an out-of-character deliquency. according to the bbc, as of the early naughties, the government still had her brain in a jar.

incoming government’s new job creation plan

this new job creation plan proposed by barack obama, heavily weighted towards building and improving roads and highways, looks a whole lot like what mike huckabee proposed during one of the endless republican debates earlier this year.

what about high speed trains connecting american cities left to right?

michelle obama and the grinch separated at birth

sometimes doesn’t michelle obama look like a dr. seuss character? most first ladies do. barbara bush could’ve been the lorax. although it’s actually al gore who speaks for the trees. nancy reagan definitly resembles any random dr. seuss character.

in terms of separated at birth. michelle obama and the grinch. by claiming michelle o resembles the grinch is not to say that she _is_ the character. although earlier this year she and barack obama told people magazine and politico that they don’t give their kids christmas presents.

newspaper ad revenue falls 2 billion big ones

adage reports that u.s. newspaper avenue took a big dip to the tune of 2 billion dollars this past quarter both in print and online. the full article is here.

no filibuster proof u.s. congress

the run-off election in georgia has produced a republican winner. saxby chambliss beat jim martin by 60 to 40%. sarah palin, mitt romney, mike huckabee and john mccain all went down to georgia to help seal the deal while barack obama didn’t make the trip, but allowed his voice to be used in radio advertisements. so the democratic party will not get 60 votes in the senate and it will be possible for the republicans to block bills passed by the house. the check and balance system does work.

is it true what karl rove said, that barack obama has reverse coattails in the south?

depression christmas cards a big hit for the holidays

humours cards with images from the 1930s makes you feel like maybe we’re not so bad off. you can find them at depressing times website.

the long depression

how often have you heard by the incoming obama administration that we are faced with the greatest economic crisis since the great depression. there’s a compelling article on the chronicle of higher education website about how this recession we’re entering has more in common with the economic crisis that triggered the long depression which began with the panic of 1873 which began with a mortgage crisis.