ST. LOUIS - Gillette Co. ads claiming its M3Power razor raises hair up and away from the skin are "unsubstantiated and inaccurate," a federal judge said in siding with Gillette's chief competitor, Schick-Wilkinson Sword.
U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in Connecticut granted Schick a preliminary injunction prohibiting the use of the television and print ads. Gillette was also ordered to change packaging for the product and remove in-store displays that feature the false claims.
Wednesday's ruling said the depiction in Gillette advertising was "greatly exaggerated" and "literally false."
How many ads would be pulled because they "greatly exaggerate" or are "literally false"? Me thinks a lot.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Correction of the Day
From - you guessed it - the NY Times:
The Side Effects column in Science Times on Tuesday, about the gradual disappearance of the wooden fishing boats called dories from the Grand Banks of the North Atlantic, described the geography of Nova Scotia incorrectly. It is a peninsula, not an island.
The Side Effects column in Science Times on Tuesday, about the gradual disappearance of the wooden fishing boats called dories from the Grand Banks of the North Atlantic, described the geography of Nova Scotia incorrectly. It is a peninsula, not an island.
What Does It Mean?
I'm not sure what this means. Should white coaches be hiring more black assistants? Should black coaches be hiring fewer? Vice versa? Since most of Div. I college basketball is black, should most coaches be black? Do good players make good coaches?
HOUSTON (AP) -- White head coaches are less likely than their black counterparts to hire black coaches as assistants, limiting black coaches' careers in schools with Division I basketball, a study released Tuesday suggests.
Texas A&M University's Laboratory for Diversity in Sport surveyed 191 Division I men's basketball programs and found that blacks make up 30 percent of assistants on the staffs of white head coaches and 45 percent of assistants to black head coaches.
"We have a long way to go before we can say there is fairness in some college hiring practices,'' said study author George Cunningham.
HOUSTON (AP) -- White head coaches are less likely than their black counterparts to hire black coaches as assistants, limiting black coaches' careers in schools with Division I basketball, a study released Tuesday suggests.
Texas A&M University's Laboratory for Diversity in Sport surveyed 191 Division I men's basketball programs and found that blacks make up 30 percent of assistants on the staffs of white head coaches and 45 percent of assistants to black head coaches.
"We have a long way to go before we can say there is fairness in some college hiring practices,'' said study author George Cunningham.
Democratic Party Politics...It's Fantastic!
Some East St. Louis Democratic Party workers told Mark Kern days before he was elected St. Clair County Board chairman that voters would have to be paid to support him, the first witness in a federal vote fraud trial testified today.
Dannita Youngblood, who worked at city hall and for the city party, told a jury that her boss, Kelvin Ellis, informed Kern of the political realities in a conference telephone call, heard by others as well, within a week before the Nov. 2, 2004, election.
She said Ellis, a party stalwart and then director of regulatory affairs, told Kern he was perceived in the predominantly-black community as a "racist' and might need to spend $10 per vote to get support. She said Ellis described a need "to pay the voters to come out."
...On Oct. 30, the St. Clair County Democratic Party provided $67,000 to Ellis and other East St. Louis Democrats to get out the vote. No county party officials are charged in the case.
Dannita Youngblood, who worked at city hall and for the city party, told a jury that her boss, Kelvin Ellis, informed Kern of the political realities in a conference telephone call, heard by others as well, within a week before the Nov. 2, 2004, election.
She said Ellis, a party stalwart and then director of regulatory affairs, told Kern he was perceived in the predominantly-black community as a "racist' and might need to spend $10 per vote to get support. She said Ellis described a need "to pay the voters to come out."
...On Oct. 30, the St. Clair County Democratic Party provided $67,000 to Ellis and other East St. Louis Democrats to get out the vote. No county party officials are charged in the case.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
NUTS!
ATHENS (Reuters) - Obesity, which already affects more than 300 million people and an alarming number of children, must be recognized and treated as a disease with deadly complications, a leading expert said on Wednesday.
Up to 8 percent of total healthcare costs in some Western countries are attributable to obesity and related problems. It is a leading cause of preventable death -- so shedding excess weight is not just about looking good.
"Obesity is not an aesthetic problem. It is a very complex problem tightly connected to diabetes, atherosclerosis (blocked arteries) and other major health problems and causes of death," Professor Constantine Tsigos, chairman of the 14th European Congress on Obesity, told Reuters ahead of the meeting.
"It has to be treated and confronted seriously."
The four-day congress with 2,000 experts from 80 countries will focus on all aspects of obesity. But much of it will be devoted to its consequences, which include cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, diabetes, depression and some cancers.
"The emphasis has been put on the complications to increase the awareness of obesity as a disease and a serious condition with many risks associated with it," said Tsigos.
Up to 8 percent of total healthcare costs in some Western countries are attributable to obesity and related problems. It is a leading cause of preventable death -- so shedding excess weight is not just about looking good.
"Obesity is not an aesthetic problem. It is a very complex problem tightly connected to diabetes, atherosclerosis (blocked arteries) and other major health problems and causes of death," Professor Constantine Tsigos, chairman of the 14th European Congress on Obesity, told Reuters ahead of the meeting.
"It has to be treated and confronted seriously."
The four-day congress with 2,000 experts from 80 countries will focus on all aspects of obesity. But much of it will be devoted to its consequences, which include cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, diabetes, depression and some cancers.
"The emphasis has been put on the complications to increase the awareness of obesity as a disease and a serious condition with many risks associated with it," said Tsigos.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Too Little, Too Late
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the energy giant's collapse.
In a unanimous opinion, justices said the former Big Five accounting firm's June 2002 conviction was improper. It said the jury instructions at trial were too vague and broad for jurors to determine correctly whether Andersen obstructed justice.
"The jury instructions here were flawed in important respects," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court.
In a unanimous opinion, justices said the former Big Five accounting firm's June 2002 conviction was improper. It said the jury instructions at trial were too vague and broad for jurors to determine correctly whether Andersen obstructed justice.
"The jury instructions here were flawed in important respects," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court.
Quote of the Day
Passing affections easily produce words; and words are cheap; and godliness is more easily feigned in words than in actions. Christian practice is a costly, laborious thing. The self-denial that is required of Christians, and the narrowness of the way that leads to life, does not consist in words, but in practice. Hypocrites may much more easily be brought to talk like saints, than to act like saints. -- Jonathan Edwards
Great!
Who needs math and reading skills when you can have a teacher with a "commitment to social justice."
Brooklyn College's School of Education has begun to base evaluations of aspiring teachers in part on their commitment to social justice, raising fears that the college is screening students for their political views.
Brooklyn College's School of Education has begun to base evaluations of aspiring teachers in part on their commitment to social justice, raising fears that the college is screening students for their political views.
Why We Hate The Media
This morning's Today Show lineup:
- Katie got a hair cut
- Matt may be bald, but he's not impotent
- Spokane mayoral sex scandal
- Michael Jackson
- Paris Hilton getting married
Wow, hard hitting stuff.
I Think This Course Was Offered At Centre
Roger Kimball takes down the academy...again.
Readers will recall that the Greek hero Hercules was required to perform a series of twelve labors, each seemingly impossible for a mortal. The fifth of these labors was to clean the Augean Stables in a single day--a task of ablution that can truly be described as Herculean since the huge stables were home to thousands of cattle. He managed to do it by diverting two rivers so that they rushed through the stables, flushing them of the accumulated ordure.
Clever chap, Hercules. And one, I have often thought, whose services would be of particular use to the contemporary university. Consider this newly posted "call for papers" from two professors, one at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the other at University College, London:
“Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets”
What could this possibly mean, you ask? Olga Gershenson (the U. Mass gal) and Barbara Penner (University College), the editors of this proposed contribution to the annals of scholarship, explain:
We invite contributions for the edited collection Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets.
Public toilets are amenities with a functional, even a civic, purpose. Yet they also act as the unconscious of public spaces. They can be a haven: a place to regain composure, to ‘check one’s face,’ or to have a private chat. But they are also sexually-charged and transgressive spaces that shelter illicit sexual practices and act as a cultural repository for taboos and fantasies.
This collection will work from the premise that public toilets, far from being banal or simply functional, are highly charged spaces, shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division. Indeed, public toilets are among the very few openly segregated spaces in contemporary Western culture, and the physical differences between ‘gentlemen’ and ‘ladies’ remains central to (and is further naturalized by) their design. As such, they provide a fertile ground for critical work interrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design.
Stop the presses! Public toilets are "shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division." Have you ever heard of anything more startling? No wonder academics at the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts and one of London's most distinguished universities are excited. You see what new avenues of research our humanities departments are opening up!
What you really see, of course, is the pathetic intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the humanities. "Fertile ground," forsooth! It is certainly well-manured ground. "[I]nterrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design" -- what nonsense. And what clichéd nonsense to boot. Is there a computer program that inserts some form of the verb "interrogate" and "inscribe" every thirty words? Or are Ms. Gershenson and Ms. Penner so thoroughly indoctrinated in the rhetoric of lit-crit-speak that they naturally emit this sort of rubbish?
Readers will recall that the Greek hero Hercules was required to perform a series of twelve labors, each seemingly impossible for a mortal. The fifth of these labors was to clean the Augean Stables in a single day--a task of ablution that can truly be described as Herculean since the huge stables were home to thousands of cattle. He managed to do it by diverting two rivers so that they rushed through the stables, flushing them of the accumulated ordure.
Clever chap, Hercules. And one, I have often thought, whose services would be of particular use to the contemporary university. Consider this newly posted "call for papers" from two professors, one at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the other at University College, London:
“Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets”
What could this possibly mean, you ask? Olga Gershenson (the U. Mass gal) and Barbara Penner (University College), the editors of this proposed contribution to the annals of scholarship, explain:
We invite contributions for the edited collection Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets.
Public toilets are amenities with a functional, even a civic, purpose. Yet they also act as the unconscious of public spaces. They can be a haven: a place to regain composure, to ‘check one’s face,’ or to have a private chat. But they are also sexually-charged and transgressive spaces that shelter illicit sexual practices and act as a cultural repository for taboos and fantasies.
This collection will work from the premise that public toilets, far from being banal or simply functional, are highly charged spaces, shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division. Indeed, public toilets are among the very few openly segregated spaces in contemporary Western culture, and the physical differences between ‘gentlemen’ and ‘ladies’ remains central to (and is further naturalized by) their design. As such, they provide a fertile ground for critical work interrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design.
Stop the presses! Public toilets are "shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division." Have you ever heard of anything more startling? No wonder academics at the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts and one of London's most distinguished universities are excited. You see what new avenues of research our humanities departments are opening up!
What you really see, of course, is the pathetic intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the humanities. "Fertile ground," forsooth! It is certainly well-manured ground. "[I]nterrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design" -- what nonsense. And what clichéd nonsense to boot. Is there a computer program that inserts some form of the verb "interrogate" and "inscribe" every thirty words? Or are Ms. Gershenson and Ms. Penner so thoroughly indoctrinated in the rhetoric of lit-crit-speak that they naturally emit this sort of rubbish?
Johnny Don't Need to Read
From the Sacramento Bee:
Lawmakers voted Thursday to ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages.
The bill, believed to be the first of its kind nationwide, was hailed by supporters as a way to revolutionize education.
Lawmakers voted Thursday to ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages.
The bill, believed to be the first of its kind nationwide, was hailed by supporters as a way to revolutionize education.
This Is What I Call Moral Clarity
HOMOSEXUAL priests in the Church of England will be allowed to “marry” their boyfriends under a proposal drawn up by senior bishops, led by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The decision ensures that gay and lesbian clergy who wish to register relationships under the new “civil partnerships” law — giving them many of the tax and inheritance advantages of married couples — will not lose their licences to be priests.
They will, however, have to give an assurance to their diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex. The bishops are trying to uphold the church doctrine of forbidding clergy from sex except in a full marriage. They accept, however, that the new law leaves them little choice but to accept the right of gay clergy to have civil partners.
The decision ensures that gay and lesbian clergy who wish to register relationships under the new “civil partnerships” law — giving them many of the tax and inheritance advantages of married couples — will not lose their licences to be priests.
They will, however, have to give an assurance to their diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex. The bishops are trying to uphold the church doctrine of forbidding clergy from sex except in a full marriage. They accept, however, that the new law leaves them little choice but to accept the right of gay clergy to have civil partners.
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