| From the Internet to pop culture icon
If she attended UCLA, 25-year-old Tila Nguyen might get lost in the crowd. The Texas-raised model is a thin 4 feet 11 inches. She's hardworking, intelligent and loves Los Angeles for the same reasons any other college-aged hottie would – the weather and the opportunities, of course. But on the Internet, Nguyen is not just another face in the crowd. She is a celebrity. “Let's say MySpace.com is a high school. I might only have two or three close friends, but I am the most popular girl in school," she said. “I was popular throughout my life." Nguyen, more famously known by her Internet alias Tila Tequila, has achieved the distinction as the MySpace user with the most friends – by far. Today, the Internet personality's page registers almost 2 million network connections.
Odds of Three-Way Tie
Karpagam Rajagopal almost made game-show history on July 3, 2000. That's the day "Jeopardy" aired her second appearance, after she won $7,500 on the previous episode. Entering the final round of wagering, the library specialist from Fallon, Nev., known to her friends as "Jeeks," was tied with her opponents at $5,200. The other two bet everything, a typical strategy on the long-running, long-studied TV quiz show. But Ms. Rajagopal feared she might face a pop-culture question in the category "1962," which was 25 years before she emigrated to the U.S. from India. She bet $5,000. All three contestants correctly answered ... .
Will Freud finally slip?
It would have been disappointing to leave the annual meetings of the American Psychological Association, Division 39 (Psychoanalysis), in Toronto this week without hearing a Freudian slip. Luckily, in a panel on the sorry state of psychoanalytic research in universities, Joel Weinberger, a professor at Adelphi University on Long Island, N.Y., observed that, by failing to adequately mentor the students who will take their place, "we are shooting ourselves in the groin." It was rich, because psychoanalysis is indeed gravely wounded, unable to attract new talent because of its financial impotence, and dying a slow death on the margins of academia, where it is maligned by mainstream psychologists as unscientific, sex-obsessed, postmodern witchcraft. So where else would the mortal blow be struck against this century- old talk therapy? Achilles had his heel.
The Problem With Letting The Government Provide Private-Sector ...
There are many in this country who love the idea of government providing us with certain services that are now provided by the private sector. Health care is a big one, and lately free wi-fi internet access has become another one. Some cities have spent citizens' tax dollars to erect wi-fi systems which blankets the municipality in question with "free" internet. Many (including the writers at the popular technology blog Gizmodo) have cheered the creation of these tax-funded public internet systems, but now that cheering has died off as one of the "free" internet systems in Boston has come up against the problem with all government-managed services: They're run by stupid politicians. Apparently the bureaucrats in Boston have decided that the popular technology/politics/pop culture/cool-stuff-in-general blog Boing Boing isn't fit for public consumption and have decided to block it from being accessed through the city's internet system. Why? Because the blog used a "banned combination phrase." Whatever the hell that rather Orweillian-sounding term means. And if Boston can ban Boing Boing for disallowed "combination phrases" how long until they're banning political sites for, say, "hate speech" (PC-speech for criticism) against Islam? Or criticism against a politician who just happens to be in a position to ban websites on the public system? The point here is that the politicians in Boston have created a public internet system, and now are starting to decide what sort of content the public can access on it. Which might not sound like that big of a deal given that not everybody uses the public system, but when combined with the impact a tax-funded internet system has on the marketplace of internet service providers in general it becomes a huge deal.
Polishing Milwaukee: Brew City is expanding its reach as venue for ...
MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee still loves beer, but arts, culture, museums and festivals are on tap, too.
"In a sense we have it all," said Dave Fantle, spokesman for Visit Milwaukee, which markets the area. "We have it all in a neat package. It's a matter of getting our arms around that package and promoting it and letting the world know about all the attributes that are here in Milwaukee."
That's the image Milwaukee officials are trying to promote in an effort to attract more tourists. New projects in Milwaukee in recent years have included the Midwest Airlines convention center; the new Miller Park baseball stadium; an architecturally significant addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum on the shore of Lake Michigan, designed by the renowned Santiago Calatrava; and the Discovery World science and technology center, also on the lake shore, which opened last fall.
Research finds that culture is key to interpreting facial expressions
The University of Alberta study reveals that in cultures where emotional control is the standard, such as Japan, focus is placed on the eyes to interpret emotions. In cultures where emotion is openly expressed, such as the United States, the focus is on the mouth to interpret emotion.
Across two studies, using computerized icons and human images, the researchers compared how people from Japanese and American cultures interpreted images, which conveyed a range of emotions.
"These findings go against the popular theory that the facial expressions of basic emotions can be universally recognized," said Dr. Takahiko Masuda a U of A professor in the Department of Psychology. "A person's culture plays a very strong role in determining how they will perceive emotions and needs to be considered when interpreting facial expression"
These cultural differences are even noticeable in computer emoticons, which are used to convey a writer's emotions over e-mail and text messaging.
Another look at SNL
NBC has ordered another documentary on the history of "Saturday Night Live," this time focusing on the show's up-and-down ride through the 1990s.
"Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation" is the third in a series of films about the late-night institution by director-producer Kenneth Bowser. .
Captive on the carousel of time
I'M AN UPPITY female," Joni Mitchell says while sitting in the kitchen of her house in an upmarket neighbourhood of Los Angeles. "In the media, there's no one like me. I'm as good as - and better than - most. But I'm not given my fair shake." Mitchell's house is big, warm and rustic, very much the abode of a working artist. A large pot of brushes sits out; a giant painting is propped against a wall. She looks healthy and serene, younger than her years, dressed in a casual smock and no-nonsense boots, and laughs readily and infectiously.
When Mitchell announced her retirement as a recording artist in 2002, she did so spitting bile at what the music business had become. She bowed out with Travelogue, an orchestral revisiting of her earlier work, and quietly set about directing her creativity at her surviving passion: visual art.
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