This Is A Part Of Me! Now Katy Perry shows off her retro cartoon nail art at Tokyo premiere

Katy Perry showed her love for retro cartoons with some Daria-inspired nail art in Tokyo today for the premiere of her fly-on-the-wall film 'Part of Me'.

The design featured nine of the characters from the '90s animated series, but clearly Daria is the 27-year old singer's favourite as she appears twice, on both Katy's left thumb and right forefinger.


Her cartoon heroes: Katy Perry shows off her latest nail art creation with faces from MTV's Daria on each nail.
"It doesn't get better than hand painted Daria nails" tweets Katy Perry hours before her movie premiere

The pop singer matched her animated nails with a cloud print prom dress and some towering purple sandals.

Daria was a cult cartoon that ran from 1997 to 2001 which followed the day-to-day life of a cynical teenage girl

As a social outsider, Daria suffered in a world filled with idiotic classmates and patronising adult figures.

The animated series was one of MTV's highest rated shows during the 90s.<

It was a spin-off from Mike Judge's 'Beavis and Butthead' where Daria was a recurring character in the show.

Katy tweeted about her funky manicure earlier in the day after her visit to the Tokyo nail salon ES Nails:

'It doesn't get any better than hand painted DARIA nails by the girls at ES Nails TOKYO!'

And her excitement didn't end there as Katy later tweeted about how much she was looking forward to the evening's film screening:

'Excited to hang out with my Japanese fans tonight & FINALLY premiere my movie PART OF ME! Saved the best for last of course...'

From left to right: Brittany, Daria and Jane converse at school in one episode of the edgy cartoon series.

Her fans were just as happy to see her, especially when the 'Teenage Dreams' singer gave a select few some loving hugs.

Katy also posed happily for photos, brightening each snapshot with a winning smile that seemed to indicate the heartbreaking failed marriage is very much a distant memory.

Since her split from Russell Brand, Katy has been linked to a number of high profile bachelors, but rumours are rife that the 'I Kissed a Girl' singer is back with notorious lothario John Mayer.

Katy Perry's outfit is more understated than her nails in a simple cloudprint promdress and skyscraper sandals

Centre Stage: Katy Perry looks out to the Tokyo audience with happiness and affection after tweeting how excited she is to hang out with her Japanese fans

Katy was said to be ‘devastated’ when John dumped her this summer so understandably her friends and family are reportedly concerned over the relationship.

Especially as Katy has appeared to have fallen madly in love with John.

Steady as she goes: Holding on to her fan and minder for support as the former Smurfette leans in for a photo.

Pen ready: Katy Perry has her pen ready to sign autographs for her supportive fans.

A source close to the singer said: ‘She’s been telling everybody who cares to listen how great John is and it’s clear that she is totally in love with him.

Whether she loves the 'Your Body is a Wonderland' singer or not, her adoration for quirky outfits is clearly as strong as ever.

Along with a 'South Park' onesie, Minnie Mouse ears and a Smurfette halter dress, now Katy can add 'Daria' nails to her long list of cartoon-inspired ensembles.

Hugs all round for Katy Perry as she embraces a young fan whilst wearing a goofy grin. She quickly switches to a much more winning smile in a snapshot.

Art program helps Alzheimer's patients focus

Many museums have created programs to make their exhibitions accessible to people in wheelchairs or the blind. The Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College, in Collegeville, Pa., is reaching out to people with mental disabilities.

When curators set about to select paintings from their collection for their new exhibition called "Access-Ability," they sought the advice of elderly people at Parkhouse, a nearby nursing facility.

"Who would paint something like that, that has nothing to with anything in the whole world, and then put a tulip in there?" said resident Sarah Stercula, looking at a laminated print of a bluish abstract painting of flowers.

"But the tulip, honey, is sitting with other flowers," said fellow resident Fran Dubon, a retired high school art teacher.

"Yeah, but they don't look like flowers to me," Stercula retorted. "If I saw that, I'd say it's just a bunch of junk."

Both Stercula and Dubon suffer from dementia, and require close nursing supervision. But during this argument, their opinions seem perfectly lucid, even if Dubon believes Francoise Gilot's "Tulips" (1991) was painted in the early 1970s.

"That's definitely from that period," said Dubon, pounding the table. "All her friends thought it was beautiful."
"Her friends thought it was beautiful?" asked Stercula in disbelief.

"When it was painted, oh sure. Because it's the period she's used to seeing," said Dubon, looking askance at Stercula. "You're not fond of this style, I think."

And then they all laughed. Laughing is an unusual reaction for many Alzheimer's patients and people suffering with dementia.

"In a normal setting, they are more anxious, tearful, not knowing what's going on," said Sally Hawk-Jones, activity director at Parkhouse. "You don't perceive your environment in a way that's going to keep you calm. It's easy to get afraid and upset."

But in this quite room, four elderly women in different stages of dementia have been looking at art and talking about it for more than an hour. "That's unheard of," said Hawk-Jones.

People suffering from Alzheimer's have degenerating brains, but certain parts of the brain could be functioning perfectly well. The curators and directors of the Berman Museum are using art to stimulate those normal parts of the brain. Berman is the only museum in this region associated with ARTZ: Artists for Alzheimer's, an organization that trains museums on how to engage with people suffering from dementia.
Parkhouse has a long history of busing its residents to the Berman for outings, and now it's partnering with the museum to develop programs that engage residents whose minds are slipping. Several times this year, Berman staff arrived at the Parkhouse with an armload of laminated prints of images in the collection. In small groups, in quiet rooms (a calm setting is crucial), staff and residents go through each image and talk about feelings and memories they conjure.

The Berman's director of education, art historian Susan Shifrin, has to reign in her academic training in these situations.

"If we get into a conversation about whether residents like sandwiches as a result of looking at a "Sandwich and Soda," by [Roy] Lichtenstein, then our goal is met," said Shifrin. "We talk about the art, but we're focused on having an exchange, having their voices heard and validated, and they are interrelated."

Regardless of an artist's intention or historical context, here the art is used to trigger dormant memories and emotional reactions, brain functions which Alzheimer's can leave intact.

"That's another way of tapping into who these people are, in their real lives," said Shifrin, whose own mother suffers from Alzheime'rs. "I'm not sure every art historian is cut out to do this, but for me it's the most meaningful thing I've done."

It doesn't matter if Fran Dubon believes "Tulips" was painted in the 1970s or that Sarah Stercula hates images of abstract flowers — on this particular morning, they were focused and articulate.

"I like to go places where I can sit and hear people talk," said Stercula "I can't say I take it all home with me, 'cause I don't. My brain isn't..." Stercula chuckles and gestures to her head.

"But I love just knowing that I might hear somethng that I can put in my book when I get home. I know what I'm doing, and maybe someday I'll be able to do a lot more of it."

In October, Sarah, Fran and the other residents will take a day trip to the Breman, to see the real paintings up close. "Access-Ability" will be on display until Dec. 2.

Design bridges science and art

Building helps showcase the Synchrotron, writes Stephen Crafti.

The National Centre for Synchrotron Research Design by architects Bates Smart.

THE Australian Synchrotron in Blackburn Road, Clayton, was not designed for the general public. The circular building was purpose built as a research complex for scientists, both local and international. But the latest building, by Bates Smart, the National Centre for Synchrotron Science, bridges the gap between science and the wider community.

"This building was designed to showcase the research that's being done at the Synchrotron. It's part gallery/museum. It also includes a lecture theatre and administrative facilities that aren't available in the Australian Synchrotron," says Architect Kristen Whittle, a director of Bates Smart.

"Our brief was to create a gateway building to the Synchrotron, a strong signal for those driving along Blackburn Road."

'This building was designed to showcase the research that's being done at the Synchotron': Kristen Whittle. 

In contrast to the Australian Synchrotron, which is curvaceous and clad in steel, the Bates Smart design is rectangular and luminous. Completely clad in polycarbonate panels (each 500 millimetres wide by 10.5 metres in height), the National Centre for Synchrotron Science conceals a concrete shell.

Between the concrete and polycarbonate panels is a gap of approximately 600 millimetres, which allows purple fluorescent light to emit a range of purple hues at night.

During the day, the panels have a pink/green hue, as they were finished in a special paint.

 "The choice of purple was driven by this colour in the sky, at both dawn and dusk, when there's a change from day to night and vice versa," says Whittle. "The building is about light and how the properties, as well as the colour, can be magical."

The lecture theatre is illuminated by customised circular neon lighting on the ceiling. 

While the Bates Smart design appears windowless from the street, the blurred outlines of windows become clearer as one approaches the entrance. Large picture windows within the concrete walls are discretely positioned in conference rooms and meeting areas, while still creating that veil of mystery.

"We wanted the design to be quite ethereal, something that draws you in, that makes you slightly curious," says Whittle.

Past the entrance, there's a 50-metre long corridor with a ceiling height of three metres.

Bates Smart compressed this gallery-like space, with white walls and concrete floors. Including reception area and a pre-function space, this gallery acts as breathing space before a double height space is revealed.
"The interior is deliberately restrained. We wanted to explore the essential qualities of light," says Whittle.

The quality of light in the building is brilliantly demonstrated by feature walls that encase the 350-seat lecture theatre. The laminated acrylic panels which make up these walls are covered in a unique film that provides a translucent glow. Dubbed the ''light wall'', it's as much an art piece as a functional device.

One of the most impressive spaces in the building is the lecture theatre. Featuring felt covered walls and ceiling, the raked seating is illuminated by customised circular neon lighting on the ceiling.

"This building is about light, how it moves, as well as how it reacts with the felt," says Whittle.

The National Centre for Synchrotron Science does make an impact on busy Blackburn Road. But in contrast to the exterior, the interior is highly restrained, allowing the qualities of light to create a series of wonderful experiences, for school groups, the general public or those using the building on a daily basis. "The design is also about bridging science and art," says Whittle.

Endless Canvas delivers unique art experience to Berkeley

Juxtaposition of artworks at “Special Delivery Bay Area,” a street art extravaganza in west Berkeley. 

Take an abandoned 36,000 sq ft former ink factory with giant circular holes punched in the ceilings and views through rusty metal-framed windows of a steel plant, a freeway and San Francisco Bay. Add the building’s owner, who has a penchant for art and an openness to big ideas. Mix in a collection of one-word names like Swampy, GATS, and Yoder, that belong to artists, many of whom are local and several of whom are highly regarded in the street-art world. What do you get? One of the most exciting shows the Bay Area has seen for a long while.

“Special Delivery Bay Area 2012,” the third graffiti mural exhibition organized by Bay Area street art blog and zine Endless Canvas, made its grassroots debut on Sept. 8 when, despite the fact that the exact location of the show was not revealed until the eleventh hour, an estimated 5,000 people showed up to west Berkeley’s Carbon Warehouse in the old Flint Ink building at 1350 Fourth Street to soak up the wall-to-wall art. Many did so again on the afternoon of Sunday Sept. 23 — young and old, families with young kids, photographers, and the merely intrigued.

Every inch of the old Flint Ink building on Fourth Street has been used as a canvas for murals.

The vacant building, long a haunt for graffiti artists, belongs to Alan Varela, President of construction company ProVen Management, who sits on the board of the Oakland Museum of California, and who intends to convert the space into offices. But, before he does, he has helped to bring a unique experience to Berkeley.

The good news is “Special Delivery” will not be forgotten once the contractors begin their work. According to Endless Canvas, after the building has been refurbished, a selection of artists will be invited back to install permanent murals on its interior walls. And the current art has been documented by a photographer, a short film has been made of the exhibition, and a book is in the works.

There are three stories worth of art in a variety of styles at the show, orchestrated by Bay Area’s Endless Canvas.

The show is scheduled to be open to the public again on Sunday Sept. 30, from noon to 6pm. Details can be found on the Special Delivery website.

Art of the state: fascist Italy's paintings go on show

An exhibition in Florence strives to present 1930s Italy as a cauldron of experimentation. Instead, it's a bleak journey into the aesthetic lifelessness of a totalitarian society

Flat white … Antonio Donghi's Woman at the Cafe (1932), featured in Palazzo Strozzi's exhibition The 30s: The Arts in Italy Beyond Fascism

In 1938 Adolf Hitler arrived at Santa Maria Novella railway station in Florence to be greeted by red, white and black swastika banners, Italian fascist symbols, fake statues and choreographed crowds. He was taken by Benito Mussolini through this beautiful city of the Italian Renaissance to admire its masterpieces. Hitler saw himself as an artist. He had been to art school. Now he communed with Michelangelo while the masses cheered his every step.

Six years later, in 1944, German troops retreating through Florence blew up all of its historic bridges except the fabled Ponte Vecchio and mined the medieval centre. Hitler's embrace was deadly.

It is deadly still. Susan Sontag once published an essay called Fascinating Fascism. I don't know about fascination, but the death-force of fascism, its murder of the human heart, grips a major exhibition in Florence that sets out to reveal the richness of the arts in 1930s Italy. This show slides inexorably into the poisonous cesspit of Europe's history.

Anni Trenta ("the 30s") at the Palazzo Strozzi explores the culture of Italy under the rule of Mussolini when he and Hitler seemed to many observers around the world to be the coming men of a new Europe. Democracy was discredited. The Depression seemed to have revealed basic flaws in free markets and elected governments, as the historian Mark Mazower shows in his profound book Dark Continent. It was the corporate states of fascism with their massive public projects that appeared to offer a way forward – unless you were on the left and looked to Stalin's Russia.

The most terrifying and best part of Anni Trenta is its side-exhibit about Hitler's visit to Florence. This captures the true monstrosity of the era. History is well told here. But does the art of the fascist era deserve to be reclaimed and enjoyed apolitically?

This is where the exhibition gets in trouble.

Its subtitle is "The Arts in Italy Beyond Fascism". It strives to present fascist Italy as a cauldron of creativity where rich experiments were taking place. It totally fails to make that case. In reality, this is a depressing, bleak journey through the art of a totalitarian state. The new Europe of fascism was a dead end. It bred heartless mediocrity. Paintings of strident men in front of mighty locomotives and chic women looking icily glamorous do not in the least challenge my assumptions – in fact they seem to be typical of what you might think fascists would hang in their galleries.

This show cannot make decadent futurists – their early brilliance long gone – or conservative neo-classicists any more vital than they were. What it does reveal, however, is how fascism used art to shape society in subtle ways. It appreciated the value of a busy, well-funded official art world. Italian fascism worked through what the communist thinker Antonio Gramsci – who died in 1937 after years in fascist prisons – called "hegemony": by spreading tentacles of involvement through civil society.

Where this exhibition succeeds is in revealing the fascist institutionalisation of art. We see paintings that won fascist Italy's Bergamo prize, and designs for public art. Art was a component of fascist society.
The result was a strange, lifeless aesthetic bubble where prizes were given and artists were promoted for works that were at best muted by fear, at worst glorying in mad delusion. "Fascism says, 'Long live art, let the world die,'" said the German communist Walter Benjamin at the time.

The art of Italy in the 1930s is an art of the dead. When Hitler was taken up San Miniato al Monte on his 1938 visit, he said he could finally understand his favourite painting, Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead (which does in fact depict a cemetery on this hill overlooking Florence).
In a city of beauty, all he responded to was the allure of the grave.

Is Kate Middleton a princess? Details on her complicated royal title

She married Prince William and she's the future Queen of England, but is Kate Middleton a princess? It's a question that's been asked repeatedly since the 30-year-old married into the royal family in April 2011. While the one-time commoner has often been referred to as 'Princess' Kate or 'Princess' Catherine she is technically not a princess.

Just hours before Kate Middleton and Prince William exchanged vows at their Royal wedding, Queen Elizabeth granted Prince William the titles of Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus. By marrying William, his new bride went from Kate Middleton to officially: Her Royal Highness Princess William Arthur Phillip Louis, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus. Kate's title and style is quite the tongue twister which is why she's often referred to as simply the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Kate, or mostly commonly Kate Middleton.

Prince William was reportedly upset he was given a dukedom. Instead, it was suggested he wanted to remain known as Prince William and his bride Princess Catherine. But according to reports this created a predicament for the Queen as 'Princess' is typically reserved as a title given through birth not marriage. 

William's mother, Princess Diana as she was commonly referred to, was actually Diana, Princess of Wales and was not actually a princess either. She was given the title of Princess of Wales when she married Charles because he was (and still is) the heir to the throne. That title is typically given to next in line to the British monarch.

Actress to sue anti-Islam filmmaker in federal court – lawyer

 

Actor Cindy Lee sues YouTube, its owner Google for releasing excerpts of amateurish film ‘Innocence of Muslims’.

 

An actress suing the producer of an anti-Islam movie that has spawned violent protests across the Muslim world plans to drop her suit and file a new case in federal court over copyright claims, her lawyer said on Monday.

Cindy Lee Garcia, who appeared in the "Innocence of Muslims," filed a lawsuit last week in a state court in Los Angeles against Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the California man thought to be behind the movie, claiming she was duped into playing a role and her life has been put at risk as a result.

Her case also named YouTube and its parent company, Google Inc., as defendants for their role in distributing the short, crudely made film on the Internet. A California state court judge on Thursday rejected her motion for an order for YouTube to pull the film off its site.

"Today we will dismiss the state court lawsuit, but we're going to file again today in federal court," Garcia's lawyer, Cris Armenta, said on NBC's "Today" show.

"My client has a copyright claim," she said. "We intend to enforce it."

Garcia's is the first-known civil lawsuit connected to the video that depicts the Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer and a fool.

Armenta asserted that third-party content distributors hold some responsibility for the content on their platforms.

"I think we should be very clear that Google and YouTube are doing the wrong thing, that they say in their own terms and guidelines that hate speech is not allowed," Armenta said. "How can this not be hate speech? How can this not be wrong, morally intellectually, legally?"

Google previously rejected a request by the White House to reconsider its decision to keep the clips on YouTube, but the company has blocked the trailer in certain Muslim countries such as Egypt and Libya. The White House had asked Google to evaluate whether the video violated YouTube's terms of service.

In her lawsuit, Garcia, of Bakersfield, California, accused a producer of the movie, whom she identified as Nakoula using the alias Sam Bacile, of duping her into appearing in a "hateful" film that she had been led to believe was a simple desert adventure movie.

The film helped generate a torrent of violence across the Muslim world during the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and in the following days.

The violence included an attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed. U.S. and other foreign embassies were also stormed by furious Muslims in cities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

On Friday, 15 people were killed during protests in Pakistan, and over the weekend a Pakistan minister offered $100,000 to anyone who kills the movie's maker.

For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is blasphemous. Caricatures deemed insulting have provoked protests and drawn condemnation from officials, preachers, ordinary Muslims and many Christians.

Afghanistan bans Pakistan newspapers over ‘Taliban propaganda’

Afghanistan on Saturday banned all Pakistani newspapers, accusing the publications of supporting the Taliban and seeking to undermine the government, an official said.
The papers will be blocked at their entry points in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan which border Pakistan.

“The Afghan government decided to ban all Pakistani newspapers in Afghanistan,” government spokesman Sayed Ihsanuddin Taheri told AFP.

“In recent months Pakistani newspapers have started an anti-Afghan government campaign, especially in the eastern provinces.”

“The papers print Taliban propaganda, question the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and run an anti-government campaign,” he added.

An interior ministry statement said the papers also “target Afghan forces” in their articles. Afghanistan border police have already started collecting all Pakistani newspapers from shops and newspaper stands in Nangarhar province, the spokesman said.

Relations have soured between Afghanistan and Pakistan over attacks carried out across their porous and often unmarked border in the past several months that have left a number of Afghan civilians dead and wounded.

Islamabad says Pakistani Taliban are using havens in Afghanistan to resume attacks in north-western Pakistan. Kabul, in turn, has complained about cross-border artillery shells and rockets being fired from Pakistan. Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said Thursday that attacks from Pakistan into his country were “a matter of deep and serious concern” and had caused “unprecedented anger and frustration among Afghans”.

Pakistan minister places bounty on anti-Islam filmmaker

A Pakistani official placed a $100,000 bounty on the head of the maker of an anti-Islam film that has sparked a wave of violence and anger, as Muslims mounted fresh protests worldwide.

Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour also called on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to join the hunt and help accomplish the "noble deed".

Bilour spoke to reporters Saturday in the northwestern city of Peshawar, a day after violent nationwide demonstrations against the "Innocence of Muslims" film left 21 people dead and more than 200 injured.

"I announce today that this blasphemer who has abused the holy prophet, if somebody will kill him, I will give that person a prize of $100,000," Bilour said, urging others to shower the killer with cash and gold.

"I also invite Taliban and Al-Qaeda brothers to be partners in this noble deed," he added. "I also announce that if the government hands this person over to me, my heart says I will finish him with my own hands and then they can hang me."

Protests against the low-budget film, which mocks Islam, have erupted across the Muslim world, leading to more than 50 deaths since the first demonstrations on September 11.

A French satirical magazine's publication this week of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed has further stoked anger.

 

The producer of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is reportedly a Los Angeles-based 55-year-old Egyptian Copt and convicted fraudster, currently out on parole.

US media reports say Nakoula wrote and produced the film, using the pseudonym Sam Bacile before being identified. Police questioned him before he went into hiding with his family.

Thousands of Islamist activists in Pakistan staged demonstrations again Saturday but there was no repeat of the previous day's widespread violence.

More than 5,000 protesters, including hundreds of women, marched towards the parliament in Islamabad chanting "We love our Holy Prophet" and "Punishment for those who humiliated our Prophet".

Some 1,500 people from the hardline Islamist Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Sunni religious groups rallied in front of the US consulate in the eastern city of Lahore, chanting "The US deserves only one remedy -- jihad, jihad".
Smaller protests took place in the southwestern city of Quetta, as well as in Peshawar, where six people died in Friday's protests, and in the southern port city of Karachi, where 15 people were killed Friday.

Witnesses estimated that more than 45,000 people joined Friday's nationwide rallies, mainly members of right-wing religious parties and supporters of banned terror groups.

Those numbers, however, were still considered small in a country of 180 million.

Four more people died overnight from wounds they received during the protests, taking toll of those killed across Pakistan on Friday to 21, health officials said.

The combined total of wounded in Karachi, Peshawar and the capital Islamabad was 229.

In Nigeria, meanwhile, tens of thousands of people protested in the second city of Kano, burning images of US President Barack Obama and stomping on the American flag.

The procession of men, veiled women and children stretched for several kilometres (miles) through the city, the largest in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

They shouted "death to America, death to Israel and death to the enemies of Islam". There were no reports of violence.

The demonstration was organised by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a pro-Iranian group that adheres to the Shiite branch of Islam.

In Lebanon, thousands of supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah movement took to the streets in the southern town of Bint Jbeil.

Women in black chadors carried colourful Islamist flags alongside young children holding the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

Hezbollah parliamentary representative Nawaf al-Moussawi told the crowd the film was "... not merely a trivial creation carried out by a group, but American politics intended to be disseminated to the Western world."

He also warned against reprisal attacks on the Christian community.

In east Jerusalem about 500 Palestinians, accompanied by a marching band, protested against both the film and the cartoons in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

In Germany, 1,500 people staged a peaceful protest in the western city of Dortmund, a day after similar demonstrations in other German cities.

A German far-right group's threat to screen the video has prompted heated debate over whether or not the authorities should ban the film on security grounds.

In neighbouring Austria, about 500 people protested outside the US embassy in the capital Vienna.
In France, riot police were out in force in several parts of Paris to enforce a ban on protests, a week after an unauthorised demonstration against the film led to 150 arrests.

Social networks had been awash with appeals for French Muslims to defy the ban and hold fresh protests.

French police have arrested a man in the western city of La Rochelle for having allegedly called on a jihadi website for Stephane Charbonnier, chief of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, to be decapitated.

Your Brain On Music, As Explained by Mickey Hart

UCSF professor of neurology Adam Gazzaley, left, explains how the EEG headset worn by Mickey Hart, right, transmits images of the rhythms of Hart’s brain to the screen on the far left.

He was caring for his grandmother, which was just fine with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. Except she wasn’t speaking.

She had been officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s some time before, and she hadn’t spoken in a year. Not one word.

Finally, Mickey pulled out his drum, and played a simple rhythm. One she knew.

She spoke. “Mickey?” She knew his name!

Mickey Hart was fascinated. What was it about the rhythms that had such a power over a deteriorating brain?

Is the Golden Gate Bridge an enormous undetectable harp, playing at frequencies we humans can’t hear? As Mickey mused about this possibility on stage, Adam Gazzaley, professor of neuroscience at University of California at San Francisco, began explaining the science behind the rhythms in our brains.

“There are five simultaneous rhythms in the brain,” Gazzaley explained. “If they accelerate too much, that’s what a seizure is. The rhythms of your brain are a factor in perception, decision making, memory, attention and language. They tend to try to synchronize, like kids on a swing. They’re connected to many diagnoses,the most obvious being Parkinson’s or tinnitus, where you hear a ringing in your ear. But you probably wouldn’t think of depression or dyslexia, both of which are affected by the brain’s rhythms.”

Could you prove that music directly improves the brain? Gazzaley thinks he’s proven so. His Neuromancer musical video games tracked participants’ abilities to multitask – a skill that drops more than 30% between age 20 and age 70 – and improved both their abilities to multitask and their memory.

Gazzaley and Hart took show and tell to the next level today by strapping an EEG on Hart as he paced, clutching a drum, and images of the rhythms coursing through his brain were displayed on the giant screens throughout the hall. After the appropriate number of oohs and aahs, Gazzaley explained what was happening, adjusting to show more or fewer rhythms coursing through Mickey’s brain. “This is scary,” Mickey joked. “I’m trying not to think of my first wife.”

Visualized: the EEG scan of Mickey Hart’s brain.

No more time for looking at Mickey’s brain, though. It was time to dance. “Follow me!” Mickey said, or something along those lines, and the crowd did, coalescing in the back of the room as an endless parade of various musical instruments and quasi-musical instruments (a cowbell?) came out of nowhere. Suddenly, there was a foot-stomping beat that reverberated louder and louder through the convention hall, as more and more AARP members joined the drum circle. Mickey led, sometimes from a drum set on a platform in the middle, sometimes

“Vibrations are all around us,” Mickey had said earlier, and on Saturday afternoon in Hall D,a few hundred AARP members made it so. What a way to close another great Life@50+ event! See you all next year in Vegas and Atlanta.

An AARP member dances and drums with Mickey Hart on Saturday in New Orleans while participating in the annual Life@50+ Conference and Expo.

How to Preserve a Liberal Heart

There's a lot of talk this election season about the underlying philosophies of liberals and conservatives. Maybe that's true of all election seasons, but this one seems especially pronounced. I imagine it's because of how polarized our nation has become. Tuning into the news for half an hour will prompt any thinking person to wonder, how exactly did we get to this point? 

For me, it brings to mind the famous saying (often attributed to Winston Churchill): "If you're not liberal at 20 you have no heart; if you're not conservative at 40 you have no brain." 

This quote has always fascinated me, and lately I’ve been thinking about it more. My fascination stems from the fact that, frankly, it’s hard to fathom ever identifying with the conservative people I’m exposed to these days, let alone becoming one of them in 20 years.  But according to Churchill, I am par for the course. 

If there’s truth to the quote (and there must be some, or else people wouldn’t quote it), does that mean some middle-aged conservatives I meet were more liberal in their youth? And if so, what changed them?

I decided to suspend disbelief for a moment and look ahead into my hypothetical future. Putting myself into Churchillian shoes, I dreamed up what events might take place in my life to slowly chip away at my liberal heart, and mold it into a conservative brain.

I started by thinking about where I’m at now: five years out of college and a working professional ever since. That’s enough time to know what the “real world” is like (paying rent, starting a 401k, paying taxes) but not long enough to forget all the opportunities I was given to succeed along the way (a safe neighborhood to grow up in, plenty of food, a quality education, parents who supported my hobbies and helped me through college). It’s also easy to remember that not all my peers were lucky enough to have those same opportunities. 

On top of that, there’s my friend circle. I have friends who work at corporations, at schools, at banks, at publications and non-profits, and a sibling who works 90-hour weeks in a hospital.  I’m constantly reminded that important work is not always lucrative—and vice versa. So all in all, my 20-something life seems perfectly conducive to having a liberal heart.

Now let’s look into the future.

Sometime over the next five years, perhaps I’ll get a fancy promotion. And that promotion will be the result of all my hard work. Now a decade out of college, all those opportunities I was given to get to where I am are a more distant memory. I’m busy— and all I remember is that I busted my hump, did a great job, and finally gained some hard-earned recognition. Go me! 

Now fast forward five more years. Maybe I’m married and have a bun in the oven. So my husband and I take the nice lump sum from my promotion and raise (and perhaps his, too), and start looking for a place to buy a home. That place will have to have good schools, so my kids can enjoy opportunities like I had. If I can’t find good enough schools (which is possible, since state budgets have been chipped away for many years), then I might have to spend that money on a private school. Whether public or private, this high-achieving school will surely be filled with high-achieving people. As my kid spends more time there, and starts to achieve, I may start thinking: “Hmm, why can’t all those other kids in other schools just work harder like my kid, and achieve all these great things?”

Around this time, perhaps I’ll get another promotion at work. By now, I’ve worked so long and hard, I’ll start thinking similar thoughts about the people I interview for jobs. I’ll want impressive candidates with impressive backgrounds. And if they’re not so impressive, I may start to think, “Well, they must not have worked hard enough. I did it. Why can’t they?”

And so my hypothetical transition from liberal heart to conservative brain begins. I’m sure there are a million more ways it could happen. But the good news is, from where I sit now, it seems like there’s an obvious way to prevent this rightward shift: constant reminders of all the outside factors that had a hand in my success.

I look at my parents, who are well over 40, and see two bleeding heart liberals. And I think about the most important values they’ve instilled in me, and the one that readily comes to mind is the importance of always saying “thank you.”

Michelle Obama said it best in her dazzling DNC speech: “When you’ve worked hard and done well and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. No. You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.”

Beautiful art can also be born within confinements, says artist Naiza Khan

Artist and curator Naiza Khan in Tehran (above). Khan speaking to the audience at T2F about the pictures she took and the people she met during her stay.

KARACHI: Sometimes, it takes only two weeks to make one realise that home is where the art is. Artist Naiza Khan discovered that Tehran is not short of thriving artists, but there is no free space for them to unleash their creativity.

During her two-week art residency in the capital of Iran, Khan had to conceal her camera and pose as an idle passerby to be able to document her stay through photographs.

With a hijab covering her hair according to the country’s laws, Khan observed that there was certain anxiety among people due to the restrictions imposed by the government.

A visual artist and curator, Khan spoke to the audience at The Second Floor on Thursday about her pictures and experiences in Tehran. She shared a picture of a board at a pizza joint which said ‘you cannot take off your hijab here’ – a concept which is perhaps alien to most in Karachi since there is no law which makes the practice compulsory for women.

While observing the stark contrasts between Pakistan and Iran, one of the main aspects she noticed was the freedom artists enjoy in the former. Not only does the government have sanctions on the dressing and lifestyle of people, says Khan, it has stringent restrictions for the artist community since the green revolution in 2009.
The ministry of culture and Islamic guidance keeps a tight rein on artists who often cannot teach or produce material that contains nudity, political remarks or is of ‘revolutionary’ nature.

The government’s policy towards arts and culture is quite indomitable, says Khan, so much so that the artists boycott the government.

There are, however, brilliant publications on contemporary photography, along with multiple websites and online journals, says Khan in appreciation of the Persian artists. Such work within confinements has produced “exotic” calligraphy and photography.

“Most of the people, however, have come to terms with these laws and restrictions,” says Khan, adding that she didn’t necessarily agree with what they have to go through.

Khan’s work showcased her journey from the tandoor to all the breads she found in five bakeries on her street, tilted ‘Bread of the People’. “My hosts told me that they boycott bread and milk every Tuesday to protest against the high rates of these two dairy items,” explained Khan. “It exuded a sense of unity and solidarity, not like the divided protests we carry out.”

Safest place in France? The new Islamic art exhibit at the Louvre

Gonzalo Fuentes Saudi billionaire Prince Waleed bin Talal, his wife Princess Amira al-Taweel, left, and Azerbaijan's first lady Mehriban Aliyeva visit the new Department of Islamic Arts galleries at the Louvre museum in Paris, 

 

Is this the safest place in France right now? 

No, not the offices of Charlie Hebdo, which are probably the unsafest. But if you want to avoid getting caught in an outpouring of anti-Western rage, try the Louvre, which has just opened a new $130 million wing devoted to Islamic art. Says the BBC:

 

This is the most significant and innovative architectural extension to the Louvre since IM Pei shook the venerable institution with his glass pyramid in 1989.

At the time, there were many who argued that his structure would destroy the classical beauty of this palace of art. Now, of course, it is among the most popular attractions in Paris.

Opening this weekend in the neo-classical, 19th Century Visconti courtyard of the Louvre, the new Department of Islamic Art has a undulating glass and metal roof, resembling a floating carpet, under which will be displayed the largest and most significant collection of Islamic art in Europe.

There’s always the danger that something in the display will offend a mullah somewhere, but the odds are improved by the fact the biggest single donor to the exhibit was Prince Waleed Bin Talal,of Saudi Arabia, who gave about $20 million. “Since 9/11, it is the duty of all Muslims to explain to the West what real Islam is like and how peaceful the religion is,” he told the BBC. Let’s hope there isn’t a video display.

Pop art pioneer Lichtenstein in Tate Modern retrospective

The first major retrospective show of American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's work is to go on show for the first time in 20 years at a gallery in London next year.

The Tate Modern is to host the most comprehensive collection of the artist's work aiming to demonstrate the importance of Lichtenstein's influence, his engagement with art history and his enduring legacy as an artist.
Famed for his use of Ben-Day dots, bold lines and anguished heroines portrayed in his earlier works, Lichtenstein, whose first exhibition in 1968 was panned by art critics, pioneered a new style of painting inspired by industrial print processes but executed by hand.

Curator Sheena Wagstaff, who spent four years working on the exhibition, said she looked at 5,000 pieces of Lichtenstein's work before whittling it down to the key 125 pieces that will go on show.

"He is a quintessential pop artist but there's a whole lot of other work that you don't know about that is just as important," Wagstaff told reporters.

The show will feature influential paintings such as "Drowning Girl" from the Museum of Modern Art in New York and "Look Mickey", on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington as well as the Tate's own "Wham!" piece.

"The highlights of the show, I think will be for many people, revisiting old friends like the romance and war series with these sort of great anguished heroines and this virile air force pilots," Wagstaff told Reuters.
There are 125 works from private and public collections from around the world, comprising paintings, sculptures and drawings.

There will be other highlights of the show that will surprise visitors, Wagstaff added, such as a series of large nudes or the sublime Chinese landscapes Lichtenstein painted in the final years of his life.

The exhibition which is a collaboration between the Art Institute in Chicago, where it is currently being shown before moving to The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and London's Tate Modern.
The show, entitled "Lichtenstein: A Retrospective", runs from February 21 to May 27.

"He is this creature of really absorbing ambiguity and it's been a wonderful journey, for us curators to readdress the significance of Lichtenstein," Wagstaff added.

"You recognize a Lichtenstein, whatever style he is emulating."

Sotheby's to Sell Art in China

Auction house Sotheby's BID +0.93% notched a gain against rival Christie's in the world's largest art market, becoming the first foreign company allowed to sell art and other collectibles in China.

China has emerged as the leading market for art only recently. In 2011, the country was responsible for 41% of the world's art sales, making it the biggest market for art for the second year running, according to market tracker Artprice.

But international auction firms like Sotheby's and Christie's until now have been restricted from holding sales within China. Since 2005, Christie's has licensed its name to a domestic Chinese auction firm but doesn't own a stake in the venture.

The new Sotheby's project would hold sales at the planned free port project that partner GeHua is developing at Beijing's Capital International Airport. China restricts the trade of art and other prized historical items, banning the export of what the government labels as "cultural relics," and places heavy import taxes on collectors who bring art to the country. The free port, projected to take up almost 900,000 square feet, is a tax-exempt storage facility that its planners hope will become a trading hub for art and other collectibles.

While the Chinese government has barred foreign auction firms in the country, domestic companies have flourished, with Beijing Poly International Auction Co. and China Guardian Auctions Co. becoming the world's third- and fourth-largest houses, ranking after Sotheby's and Christie's.

The Art Of Preserving A High School 'Wallflower'

Charlie (Logan Lerman), Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson) navigate the joys and pains of high school in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

The hero of both the novel and the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a high school freshman loner named Charlie whose best friend committed suicide the previous spring. He's on psychiatric meds, lots of them, and still has blackouts and mysterious visions of a doting aunt who died when he was 7.

At school, he's shoved by bullies and jeered at by girls, and he's literally counting the days until he graduates. The story is set in the early '90s, before widespread Internet usage, when misfits had little access to others of their ilk, and Charlie won't talk to his parents or teachers. But he's so desperate to convey the turbulence of his inner world that he decides to write letters — anonymously — to a person he once heard about who did a nice thing for someone at a party. Those letters frame both the book and the film.

The novel's author, Stephen Chbosky, adapted and directed the movie himself, and, novice though he is, he's done a beautiful job. I actually like the film better than the book, which is written in a faux-naive voice I found irritating, as when Charlie ruminates on a dream about a girl he likes named Sam:

"And we were both naked. And her legs were spread over the sides of the couch. And I woke up. And I had never felt so good in my life. But I also felt bad because I saw her naked without permission. I think I should tell Sam about this. ... "

No, don't tell Sam. Please. The film is less pathetic, and funnier. At a football game, doleful Charlie (Logan Lerman) musters the courage to sit beside a fast-talking prankster from shop class named Patrick, played by pale, stringy-haired scene-stealer Ezra Miller. Patrick's stepsister, a senior, is the aforementioned Sam, played by Emma Watson, and the three bond so fast that Charlie's head spins — and keeps spinning.

But this wouldn't be much of a movie if the drama stopped with Charlie's acceptance on "the island of misfit toys." The Perks of Being a Wallflower turns out to be as much about the fear of loss as about the joy of being accepted. Charlie's in love with Sam, who'll go away to college at the end of the year and, besides, is involved with another guy. And Charlie is so traumatized about his dead friend and his dead aunt — who's seen in flashbacks and looms large in his psyche — that he can't feel the bliss of togetherness without simultaneously seeing it all slip away. He longs, he says, to believe in something infinite.

Lerman has thick, dark hair and puppy eyes, and strikes me as too handsome to be an entirely credible wallflower. But he knows how to convey not just reticence but a kind of excruciatingly active paralysis. And the rest of the cast could hardly be better — especially Ezra Miller, whose Patrick is a screwball dynamo as well as one of the best depictions I've ever seen of a gay kid who simply can't stay in the closet.

As Sam, Emma Watson is a bit like visiting royalty trying hard to show she's a fun person. But she pulls it off, and her movie-star glamour adds to Charlie's — and our — vision of Sam as delightfully accessible yet somehow out of reach.

Near the end, Charlie writes to that nameless recipient that he knows he'll never feel things with the same rawness and momentousness he does at age 16 — not even at age 17. But by capturing this wallflower at the instant of its bloom and preserving it for all time, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is both painful and elating.

Louvre opens Islamic art wing amid cartoon row

 A look inside the new 100m euro (£80m) wing, with its 'floating carpet' roof 

The Louvre Museum in Paris is opening a new wing dedicated to the art of Islam. It has taken a decade and nearly 100m euro (£80m) and comes to fruition amid tensions between the Muslim world and the West. 

This is the most significant and innovative architectural extension to the Louvre since IM Pei shook the venerable institution with his glass pyramid in 1989.

At the time, there were many who argued that his structure would destroy the classical beauty of this palace of art. Now, of course, it is among the most popular attractions in Paris.

Opening this weekend in the neo-classical, 19th Century Visconti courtyard of the Louvre, the new Department of Islamic Art has a undulating glass and metal roof, resembling a floating carpet, under which will be displayed the largest and most significant collection of Islamic art in Europe.

The new extension of the museum has generally been welcomed, but comes at a very sensitive time in relations between the West and the Muslim world.

The gallery, partly funded by the French government, is a statement which underlines its desire to be in the forefront of engaging with the Arab world and the Middle East, in all areas, from culture to politics.
The biggest single donor, is Prince Waleed Bin Talal,of Saudi Arabia. His 17m euro (£13.5m) donation has helped to make the gallery possible. It has been a decade in the making and, when I spoke to him, he told me why he was willing for his foundation to contribute to this project:

Art spanning 14 centuries is on display

 

"Since 9/11, it is the duty of all Muslims to explain to the West what real Islam is like and how peaceful the religion is."

The gallery is being unveiled at a time when the West's relationship with Islam is as tense as it has been for some time. At least 80 people were arrested last weekend in Paris, when French Muslims demonstrated outside the US embassy protesting against the anti-Islam film, Innocence of Muslims, which was made in the US.

Since then, France's satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, has published cartoons portraying and lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.

Muslims who planned a demonstration on Saturday were told by police that they were forbidden from gathering. Add to this, the decision by the satirical magazine to print another 70,000 editions, all featuring the cartoons.

Mindful of the context, when President Francois Hollande attended a VIP gathering to mark the week of the gallery's opening, he said: "The honour of Islamic civilisations is older, more vibrant and more tolerant than some of those who pretend to be speaking in their name today.

"It is the exact opposite of the obscurantism that annihilates the principles and destroys the values of Islam by spreading violence and hatred."

But there is some question over who this gallery is aimed at. Marwan Mohammad is a writer and spokesman for CCIF, the Collective Against Islamophobia. During a walk around the multicultural area he grew up in, he said: "If we ask people in the street, not many would be aware that the Islam gallery has opened, they won't know about it.

"There is also an Islamic cultural centre near here, funded by the government, but no one attends, because it doesn't relate to them. The gallery displays a vision that is Orientalist, and not inclusive of the Muslim community".

According to Mohammad: "President Hollande sees Islam only as a cultural element and history, but not as a real, living culture in its midst".

Not surprisingly, the Louvre is keen to focus on the art, the culture and the civilization they want to present in the gallery; a civilization which is plural and not seen only through the prism of religion.

• October 2002 - President Chirac proposes new Islamic art department
• July 2008 - ground breaking
• 2,500 works of art to be exhibited in new gallery
• 4,600 sq m in new gallery
• Louvre holds 18,000 pieces of Islamic art in its collection

Sophie Makariou is the director of the gallery and the head of its new Islamic Art Department: "This huge world was built by a lot of different people and they used various languages. Arabic, of course, which was the first language of the Islamic world, and later we can say it was really an imperial language in the Islamic world, and then later Turkish languages."

Among the 2,500 objects in the gallery, there are mosaics from the Damascus mosque and a delicately carved ivory box from 928, and a 15th Century Mamluk porch.

This gallery was really former President Jacques Chirac's idea. He said he wanted to highlight the contributions of Muslim civilizations to Western culture.

Chirac, who vigorously opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq, constantly pushed for the idea of a "dialogue of cultures" to break down the misunderstandings between the West and the Muslim world.

Pacifiers may stunt emotional growth for boys: Study

A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that the over-use of pacifiers may impact the emotional development of infant boys. 

 

Overusing pacifiers on infant boys may have a negative impact on their emotional development, a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found.

While major organizations such as the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics have previously sounded the warning that pacifiers can increase the risk of dental abnormalities and ear infections, this is the first study to look at possible social and psychological consequences.

Professor of Psychology Paula Niedenthal, who led the study, said infants get a lot of information, as part of their emotional development, when they observe and mimic the facial expressions of adults.

This vital learning of expression and emotion may be impeded when the infant’s mouth is constrained with a pacifier, researchers found.

The effect is similar to that seen in studies of patients receiving injections of Botox to reduce wrinkles. Botox users experience a narrower range of emotions, and often have trouble identifying the emotions behind expressions on other faces.

This got the researchers behind the study thinking about critical periods of emotional development, like infancy, and could there be a similar effect if you always had something in your mouth preventing you from mimicking and resonating with facial expressions of adults around you.

According to Niedenthal, there is a real possibility that interfering with the way the face is used to process information may have negative consequences for emotional information processing, and this may turn out to be for boys only.
“
The University of Wisconsin-Madison study had three components, the first of which studied the faces of a group of six- and seven-year-olds while watching a video of “emotionally expressive adult faces.” Information on pacifier use was derived from the parents.

“We found the longer the pacifier use, the less facial mimicry in boys,” Niedenthal said.

A second study of about 160 college-age adults, men and women, used a questionnaire to measure them on a number of standard psychological personality-type scales, particularly “perspective-taking,” a key component of empathy. Again, the results show longer pacifier use in males.

A third study featured a questionnaire of about 480 college-age adults in what Niedenthal called an “emotional intelligence scale, which is in part the ability to read emotions in others and yourself.” According to the professor, the results of this backed up what was found in the other two studies.

Explaining why there was so such results for females, Niedenthal said girls have an advantage over boys when it comes to emotional development because society allows them to embrace them their emotions.
“We almost expect boys and in some cases desire that they not be as good or as sensitive about emotional cues,” she said.

Niedenthal said parents often feel “guilty” about using pacifiers to silence fussy children, which makes discussion of how to use them effectively sometimes difficult.

“I think the conversation is more complicated than the use or non-use of pacifiers. There can be use of pacifiers that may be helpful or may have no clear social or psychological consequences, for example, pacifier use at night,” Niedenthal said.

“I think parents have to think about whether the child needs a pacifier and, if they need a pacifier, what the consequences are for the child socially,” she added.

Obesity higher in boys than girls: study

 

A StatsCan report has found that close to a third of young people in Canada are classified as overweight or obese.

Canada's boys are three times more likely than girls to be obese, according to new research that is exposing alarming and lopsided gender differences in the nation's childhood obesity rates.

A new Statistics Canada report finds that 19.5 per cent of boys aged five to 11 are obese, compared to 6.3 per cent of girls of the same ages.

Experts say that it's long been recognized that obesity tends to occur in higher rates in boys than girls, "but certainly not as in-your-face as those numbers are," said Dr. Katherine Morrison, medical director of the metabolism, obesity and health program at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, Ont.
"I don't recall levels looking at three times higher, as we're seeing here," she said.

Overall, the study found that close to one-third of young people - 31.5 per cent or 1.6 mil-lion youth in Canada - were classified as overweight or obese. The study was based on actual measured heights and weights of 2,123 children and adolescents in Canada, aged five to 17, between 2009 and 2011.

Though the estimates haven't changed significantly over the last decade, the authors said more research is needed to know for certain whether the once fast-rising pace of obesity is slowing.

"Regardless, the estimates remain high and are a public health concern, given the tendency for excess weight in childhood to persist through to adulthood," they write.

Excess weight in childhood is increasingly being linked to ill-nesses once only seen in adults, including "adult-onset" Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal blood fats, abnormal blood clotting, thickening of the arteries and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Studies have shown that adolescents who are overweight have a 14-fold increased risk of having a heart attack before they turn 50.

Children with obesity also have higher levels of depression and low self-esteem. They're more likely to be teased or bullied at school.

In the new study, 19.8 per cent of the five-to 17-year-olds were classified as overweight in 2009 to 2011, and 11.7 per cent were obese. The percentage that was overweight was similar across age groups.
More profound was the difference between boys and girls.

Overall, 15 per cent of boys were obese, compared to eight per cent of girls. But the gender split was most pronounced at ages five to 11.

Part of the difference relates to new World Health Organization standards that were used to measure obesity; doctors say the old standard was known to underestimate obesity.

But the new cutoffs alone aren't enough to explain away the three-fold difference in obesity rates reported among five-to 11-year olds, experts say.

Screen time - time spent in front of a TV, computer, video game and smartphones - is strongly linked with childhood obesity. Children who spend two hours or more with screens per day are twice as likely to be overweight or obese than those who took up one hour or less. Studies have shown that screen time is higher among boys than girls. Children as young as five are using hand-held game consoles.

"We also know that kids eat while they watch, and they eat what they watch," said Dr. Tom Warshawski, head of pediatrics at Kelowna General Hospital and chair of the Childhood Obesity Foundation.
"They're heavily marketed and exposed to unhealthy foods and beverages."

But McMaster's Morrison also wonders, "Is there some under-lying biological differences in terms of how the environment is impacting males and females regarding obesity? This sort of begs that question, that you're seeing it so young."

In her clinic, Morrison sees 11-year-old boys with weights "up into the 170-to 180-pound range."
In a study published two years ago, more than 60 per cent of 860 pediatricians and family doctors in Canada surveyed identified parents who are overweight themselves as fundamental barriers to curbing the numbers of children who are growing up overweight.

Morrison said she isn't reluctant to raise the issue of parental responsibility. "But it's how it's raised," she said. "Parents, obviously their role is to try and do the best within their family, and I honestly believe that is the motivation of the parents I see. ... They don't wish this on their children, and they hope they can do it somehow differently."

Some observers caution that the study didn't measure fat. "It could be that the boys have increased muscle mass to fat mass for a given BMI (body mass index) than the girls," said Robert Ross, professor in the school of kinesiology and health studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

Ross said it's a positive sign that overall rates of obesity among children appear to be levelling off. What's not clear, he said, is, "have we stopped the bleeding, or is this a blip on the screen?"

Either way, "we're nowhere near where we want to be. We have prevalence rates that are sky high," Ross said. "Our children may not live as long, and as well, as we will," he said. "Where is the outrage?"

High alert! Bank group warns of heightened risk of cyber attacks

JPMorgan Chase Co's international headquarters are seen on Park Avenue in New York.

A financial services industry group warned U.S. banks, brokerages and insurers on Wednesday to be on heightened alert for cyber attacks after Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase experienced unexplained outages on their public websites. The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which is widely known as FS-ISAC, 

raised the cyber threat level to "high" from "elevated" in an advisory to members, citing "recent credible intelligence regarding the potential" for cyber attacks as its reason for the move. The problems with the websites at the two banks came after an unidentified person posted a statement on the Internet threatening to attack Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange as a "first step" in a campaign against U.S. companies. The posting said the attacks would continue until the film that had stirred up anti-U.S. protests across the Middle East was "erased" from the Internet.

It was not possible to identify the person who posted the statement. Nor was it clear if the threat had anything to do with the issues at either of the two banks.

Dan Holden, director of security research at Arbor Networks, said that several U.S. banks were under assault by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) campaign. He declined to identify them by name.
An outside security contractor who was familiar with the attacks said that they were "massive" in scope.
Denial-of-service attacks seek to disrupt websites and other computer systems at the targeted organization by overwhelming their networks with computer traffic.

Fraud alert
The move by FS-ISAC came just two days the FBI published a "fraud alert" advising financial services firms that cyber criminals may be disrupting service to their websites in a bid to keep banks from noticing a recent surge in fraudulent large-sized wire transfers.

"Often these DDoS attacks are part of a more sophisticated blended threat - One that utilizes DDoS as a diversion for more complex, difficult to detect techniques with the intention to extract customer data or financial information," said Holden of Arbor Networks.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to say if the tactics cited in the fraud alert were related to the problems experienced by the two banks.

On Wednesday the consumer banking website of JPMorgan Chase & Co was intermittently unavailable to some customers. The problems followed issues with the website of Bank of America Corp on Tuesday amid threats on the Internet that a group was planning to launch cyber attacks on a U.S. bank.

JPMorgan Chase spokesman Patrick Linehan said: "We're experiencing intermittent issues with Chase.com. We apologize for any inconvenience and are working to restore full connectivity."

A Bank of America spokesman reported no continuing problems on Wednesday. "Our online banking services have been, and are, up and running," Mark Pipitone said. "The vast majority of our customers have not experienced any issues."

'Ensure constant diligence'
The short advisory from the industry group urged banks and other industry members to "ensure constant diligence in monitoring and quick response to any malicious events."

The Reston, Virginia-based group is owned by dozens of firms, including the two banks, as well as Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley. Insurers including American International Group, Allstate Corp and State Farm Insurance also belong to the group, as do credit card companies MasterCard Inc and Visa Inc.

The advisory also cited a warning from Microsoft Corp that hackers have attacked some of its customers by means of a security bug in its widely used Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft has yet to release software to fix that security flaw. The German government advised the public to stop using Internet Explorer until an update is released. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has advised users to follow steps recommended by Microsoft to reduce the risk of attacks but noted that those measures may not fully secure the browser.

Policy debate
The warning from FS-ISAC comes as the Obama Administration is considering issuing an executive order that could instruct government agencies to take action to help better protect the nation's critical infrastructure from cyber attacks.

Legislation that would strengthen the government's ability to help secure private networks has so far been stalled in Congress by groups concerned about privacy issues as well as business groups that oppose increased regulation of their activities.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, on Wednesday sent letters to the 500 biggest U.S. companies, challenging them to improve their computer security. He blamed the defeat of the legislation on concerns raised by "a handful of business lobbying groups and trade associations."

He asked the companies to identify their own best practices and to spell out their concerns about government-conducted risk assessments that were part of the cyber security bill. He warned that the companies could face "reactive and overly prescriptive legislation" if nothing were done until some cyber disaster.

During a speech to the annual Air Force Association conference, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter complained that businesses are not doing enough to protect their own networks, saying he was disappointed that the legislation has not passed Congress.

Officials with FS-ISAC could not be reached to comment on the decision to raise its cyber threat level. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the advisory from the industry group.

French expats on alert for retaliation

The French satirical magazine 'Charlie Hebdo', featuring a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover, led to a petrol bomb attack on the magazine's offices in Paris.

TENS of thousands of French expatriates in Muslim countries are on alert today amid fears they could be a target for Islamic radicals in a rising tide of anger over depictions of Mohammed. 

Protests that have left more than 30 people dead since September 11 have, until now, largely targeted the US, which has taken the brunt in the outcry over the California-produced Innocence of Muslims film.

The US yesterday made the first public acknowledgment that it was investigating indications al-Qa'ida's North African affiliate was connected with militants involved in last week's attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other diplomats died in the first attacks linked to the anti-Muslim film.

French ministers fear the focus of the extremists' anger could shift to Paris's overseas outposts following a satirical weekly's publication of cartoons featuring obscene images of the founder of Islam.

Embassies, consulates, cultural centres and international French schools in about 20 Muslim countries will be closed on foreign ministry orders today for fear of retaliatory violence following weekly prayers.

Hundreds of Afghans protested last night for the first time against the French cartoons and staged fresh rallies against the US-made film. About 300 students chanted "death to France, death to America" in a western neighbourhood of the capital Kabul.

The French shutdown came into force early in Egypt, where schools were to close for the weekend from yesterday. In Tunisia, French schools were shut down from Wednesday until next Monday after the ruling Islamists branded the cartoons a "new attack" on their religion.

France's Socialist government faced a dilemma over how to manage the anger of the country's own four million Muslims in the wake of weekly Charlie Hebdo's publication of the cartoons.

Thousands of extra copies were due to hit newsstands overnight after the weekly's usual print run of 75,000 copies sold out in hours.

Ministers have criticised the timing of Charlie Hebdo's publication of the cartoons but made it clear they support the magazine's right to express its opinions. Critics have pointed out that the same freedom of expression does not seem to be extended to French Muslims who want to give vent to their anger over the cartoons.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls banned all protests over the Innocence of Muslims following a violent demonstration last weekend near the US embassy in Paris and has made it clear he will not sanction any mass protests over the cartoons either.

Muslims attending prayers at mosques in France today will hear an appeal for calm but community leaders have also pressed the government to do more to restrict the ability of media to publish "insulting" material, arguing that incitement to religious hatred should be put on a par with race hate crimes.

The government was forced to deploy riot police to protect Charlie Hebdo's offices, which were fire-bombed last year following the publication of an edition "guest-edited" by Mohammed that they dubbed "Sharia Hebdo".

The left-wing, libertarian weekly's editor, Stephane Charbonnier, was assigned police bodyguards, but he was unrepetent.

"The world context will never be favourable to having a laugh at the expense of radical Islam or religion in general," he said. "If we take account of context we will not be able to talk about anything any more, the satirical press is doomed. We're screwed."

The acknowledgment of a possible al-Qa'ida role in the fatal Benghazi attack came at a congressional hearing in which officials were peppered with questions about the adequacy of security at the US consulate in Libya.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that US intelligence officials were examining evidence that operatives for al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb had a series of conversations with members of Ansar al-Sharia, a local militant group sympathetic with al-Qa'ida, on the day violent protests broke out in Cairo and Libya.

Testifying before a Senate committee yesterday, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, said intelligence officials were examining such links.

"We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al-Qa'ida or al-Qa'ida's affiliates, in particular, al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb," he said, calling the assault on the consulate a "terrorist attack".