News: New York Most Unequal 1% | British Manor Born Host Castle Creepers | Nigeria Gay Rights Petition | Editorials 12/3

Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Christopher Ketcham’s The Reign of the One Percenters explores income inequality and the alleged death of culture in New York City. New York is the most unequal city in America, where the top 1 percent of households enjoyed 44 percent of income in 2007.

“The One Percenters consist of just 34,000 households, about 90,000 people”, writes Ketcham. “Relative to the great mass of New Yorkers—9 million of us—they’re nobody. We could snow them under in a New York minute.”

UN Climate Talks in Durban South Africa

Environmental activists demonstrate outside the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which continues this week in Durban, South Africa. (Mike Hutchings, Reuters / December 3, 2011)Today’s LATimes writes that environmentalists and other countries now have serious questions about US intentions to cut global emissions and aid developing nations efforts to also do so. Also from NYT, Record Jump in Emissions in 2010, Study finds.

Homosexuals in Nigeria

A new bill that outlaws gay marriage in Nigeria has mobilized the global community.

Wapo writes that criminalizing gay groups and organizatioins could seriously jeopardize millions of dollars of AID-directed foreign aid. Presently Nigeria has the second highest number of people living with AIDS on the continent, according to the United Nations.

It was the British who first banned gay sex, as colonial rulers of Nigeria. While both Christian and Islamic groups support the anti-gay legislation, it’s shuddering to read that in Nigeria’s north. where Islamic Shariah law prevails, gays and lesbians face death by stoning.

After achieving a for-now moratorium on anti-gay legislation in Russia, thanks to a gobal reponse of 250,000 signatures organized by All Out, Anne has now signed a similar petition to legislators in Nigeria. About 12,000 signatures have been organized in the last 24 hours, for a current total of 52,119. Please sign this peition if you believe that even working on behalf of a nonprofit gay organizations should not subject one to 14 years in jail.

More DFR

From Brazil with Love blog, devoted to collaging artworks from the best magazines around the world. Tip by Trendland. 

Hear Goldie Hawn sing the Beatles ‘A Hard Days Night’ and many more YouTube soundtracks on Brazil’s FFW Fashion Forward. Also Amy Winehouse Tears Dry New Song 2011 from Lioness.

When in Rome …

The Crass, Beautiful Eternal City by Indrid D Rowland The New York Review of Books

Anne of Carversville 12/3

Gertrude Hegelund | Sebastian Kim | Numero #129 Dec/Jan 2012 | Ensorceleuse

AOC Private Studio

Vika Falileeva | Nyra Lang | Deutsch Magazine #46

Mackenzie Hamilton | Rony Shram | Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam December 2011

Kate King | Sean & Seng | 032c Fall/Winter 2011 | The Art of Cool

AOC Style

Daria Strokous | Ben Hassett | Numero #129 Dec/Jan 2012 | Dans le vent

Mariacarla Boscono | Javier Vallhonrat  | Flair Magazine March 2005 |  ‘Ritratti di Nuovo Stile  Archived

Sensuality News 12/3

SN Living

Theres Alexandersson | Peter Gehrke | Elle Sweden November 2011 | Miami Glam

Raquel Zimmermann | Angelo Pennetta | NYTimes Holiday 2011 | The Full Brazilian

Calling All Castle Creepers

THE DRAWING ROOM at Eastnor Castle near Wales, which brings in nearly $5 million each year from events and other activities. Photo by John Spinks.Living manor born sounds like ‘la dolce vita’. The new WSJ Magazine reminds us that privilege often costs a pretty penny. 

To keep the lights on and hedges trimmed some owners of British estates are now in the lucrative private tours business for history buffs and antiques connoisseurs. In many cases, an overnight stay is part of the consummate luxury experience. Read on Upstairs, Downstairs and In Between.

News: Who Owns Your DNA? | Wired on Amazon | Climate Chaos in Durban | Video Games Impact Brain | Editorials 12/2

Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Suspended!

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has suspended his campaign for president, accusing the media and the court of public opinion of spinning details of his private life “so as to create a cloud of doubt over me and this campaign and my family.” Read on at Politico.

Marvelous Martha

Photograph by Richard Choi for WSJMartha Stewart is front and center in WSJ’s ‘a day in the life of Martha’ interactive, a feature in the latest WSJ Magazine. See if you can keep up with 70-year-old Martha Stewart, sitting pretty at the center of her sprawling $200 million corporation.

Your DNA Is Theirs?

Sharon Terry by Marc Ninghetto for WSJThe Internet has unleashed citizen journalism, global protests and now citizen scientists writes Amy Dickser Marcus in today’s WSJ Essay. Asking why science should be limited only to professionals, ordinary people like Sharon Terry (above) are taking control of their own health data.

“It’s my data,” says Ms. Terry, who is now president and chief executive of Genetic Alliance, a network of organizations that do research, advocacy and education around genetics, in Washington, D.C. “But it gets locked away in some database that I can’t get to.”

Annual Climate Change Chaos

via Earthimes.orgGovernment climate change negotiators in Durban, South Africa have until December 9th to reach three goals. In Wilted greenery, the Economist writes that factionalism and waning interests among nations to keep the commitments made in Copenhagen in 2009 could result in a breakdown of the whole UN process in Durban.

More DFR

Advancement and Chinese Women

Following up on yesterday’s Diane von Furstenberg speech to Chinese women, the Economist writes Thesky’s the limit, arguing the China is probably the most enlightened place for women workers in Asia, but “it’s not exactly heaven.”

The supply of female talent is abundant, says Jin Yu, a partner with McKinsey in Beijing and their most senior woman in China, but once you start funnelling it the numbers come down. She also concedes that there is room for improvement in the way that Chinese companies nurture potential female leaders. The same goes for the Chinese body politic: only 13 of the 204 members elected at the most recent meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s central committee (its top decision-making body) were women.

Violent Video Games Impact Brain Function

For the first time researchers have shown that sustained changes occur in the region of the brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control in just one week of playing violent video games.

28 young men with low prior exposure to violent video game playing underwent fMRI analysis at the beginning of the study. Half the group then played a shooting video game for 10 hours at home for one week. The second group didn’t play the game.

“These findings indicate that violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning,” Dr. Yang Wang, MD, of Indiana University School of Medicine said. “These effects may translate into behavioral changes over longer periods of game play.” Read on at Science Daily

More Science Daily Headlines

Age-Old Remedies Using White Tea, Witch Hazel and Rose May Be Beneficial, Study Suggests

Heart Attack Risk Differs Between Men and Women, study confirms again that women have a more challenging health risk from plaque disruption. See New Hidden Heart Attack Culprit Identified in Women.

Moral Dilemma: Would You Kill One Person to Save Five? 90 percent of study participants said yes.

Vegetables, Fruits, Grains Reduce Stroke Risk in Women

Sharp Decline in Pollution from US Coal Power Plants, NASA Satellite Confirms

Anne of Carversville 12/2

Iza Olak & David Guerre | Esther Haase | Vanity Fair Italia Dec 7 2011 |  Arthur & Marilyn

AOC Private Studio

Kendra Spears | Mariano Vivanco | Muse December 2011 | ‘Madame X’

Anastasia | Sven Baenziger | Grazia December 2011 | Effetto Smoking

Karmen Pedaru | Hedi Slimane | Vogue Paris Dec/Jan 2012 | Last Night

Emily Baker | Tom Allen | Muse Magazine December 2011

Francesca Cortevesio | Pino Leone | Bambi Magazine Issue 8

Anja Rubik | David Bailey | i-D Winter 2011 | Let’s Warm Up

Dioni Tabbers | Koray Birand | Vogue Spain December 2011 | Only for Your Eyes

AOC Body

Andie MacDowell & Sarah Margaret | Eric Guillemain | Vanity Fair Italia November 2011

AOC Apple Valley

Cornelia Guest’s Many PETA-Friendly Projects

AOC Style

Skye Stracke & Taylor Fuchs | Robert Nethery | METAL Magazine November 2011

McKenzi Hendricks | Aingeru Zorita | METAL Magazine November 2011

Sensuality News 12/2

SN Living

Aaron Tilley | Bionda Castana Spring 2012

Angela Lindvall | Tesh | Elle France December 2011 | En Robe Et Noir

Raquel Zimmermann | David Sims | Vogue Paris Dec/Jan 2012 | Queen of Noise

Jennifer Pugh | Kayt Jones | Elle Russia November 2011

Amazon Heads Up from Wired

In Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think, Wired writes that Amazon’s entry into the tablet sweepstakes could be rufther evidence that Jeff Bezos may well be the premier technologist in America.

Soulmates: Like the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, Anne of Carversville & Sensuality News are 'just the right amount of wrong'

Watching this terrific commercial for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, produced by Digital Kitchen, the tag line and imaging remind us of Anne of Carversville and Sensuality News:

“just the right amount of wrong”

The music is ‘Booty Swing’ by Parov Stelar. If Digital Kitchen makes “creative mischief for progressive brands and entertainment properties”, perhaps we need an introduction.