News

Topless women on skates, bikes and foot drew a surging crowd of grateful gawkers in Columbus Circle yesterday when they doffed their shirts to affirm the right to bare a lot more than arms.

The 10 or so women gathered and showed nearly all to protest the arrest of Jill (Phoenix) Feeley, who said she was taken into custody this month after going half naked on the lower East Side.

But Feeley and friends soon found out that taking such a revealing stance in New York can be risky.

World Trade Center movie it had to happen sooner or later because money needs to be made out of all, even from the Schindler's list. Oliver Stone just follows the steps of Spielberg, he shows the story of the survival and rescue of two Port Authority policemen John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno who were trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after they went in to help people escape.

A computer expert has spoken of his astonishment at seeing a taxi driver interviewed on BBC television news in the mistaken belief it was him. Guy Kewney was invited to BBC Television Centre to answer questions on the legal battle between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer. As he watched the BBC's News 24 channel in a reception area while waiting to be interviewed, he was gobsmacked to see "Guy Kewney" appear on the screen.

Iced venti soy chai latte (numbers from US)

Community Outreach: "Starbucks makes my community a better place."

10,500+ retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.
40 million+ customers per week worldwide.

For the fiscal year that ended (Oct. 2) Starbucks reported:
20% gain in sales, to $6.4 billion,
27% rise in earnings, which hit $494 million.

Bravo! An interesting article today in the Education Guardian, poses the question of whether UK universities are too reliant on overseas students.

This is something which I have been thinking ever since I started the MA course at Ravensbourne (when I realised there were only 4 British students (out of 18) on the course). So I think it’s about time this issue got some coverage.

The basic premise of the article International Rescue is that the UK universities have changed in dramatic and complex ways since the governments 1999 initiative to increase the intake of international students, which has generated billions of pounds in fees. In 2004, this revenue brought in £4bn in fees (and possibly this amount again in spending on living costs in the UK). Some universities gain a third of their total income from overseas fees, highlighting the importance of this financial input.

The announcement by house/band hybrid Planet Funk that they will be distributing their latest single (out next month) via mobile phone is another landmark in new media history.

After Gnarles Barclay's already annoying track reached "number 1" a couple of weeks ago through downloads alone, we are continuing to see new practises in terms of media distribution.

This is remnants of last night's snow. I haven't got a picture which truly justifies the extent to which it snowed but I can say it it was a bit of a shock when I opened the curtains this morning. Everything was covered in a blacket of snow.

Never in my life can I remember snow in April. It's a cliche to say it, but surely this is a sign of global warming.

Having been preoccupied with other things lately I have just had a chance to look at last weeks news and realsied that sadly Stanislaw Lem died on Tuesday (28 March).

A truly amazing man, and he had a wonderful "innings" aged 84 when he died. Solaris is a fantasitic book. I've read a little bit about Lem and I find his concepts fascinating. Definitely one of modern histories great scientist/philosophers/authors, and perhaps one of the few people who are so at ease with both art and science.