Yoga is the neo-yuppie craze that’s found its way into mainstream American gyms - and homes - over the past several years. It’s got a certain social status attached to it now; you can almost picture the big name celebrities going to their yoga and pilates classes, right? Unfortunately, this leads to a public perception that yoga isn’t for everyone, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Hatha yoga - the most popular - is marketed by gyms as a fitness routine and one of the less cerebral forms on offer. You don’t need to assemble an altar to practice it; you just need to buy a mat and some really cool yoga pants. Read the rest of this entry »

Blogging passed silently into the mainstream years ago, showing us the wonderment that is a cryptic Rosie O’Donnell poem or the company messages of a big name CEO. Everybody blogs now; even my computer-confused mom has a LiveJournal account.

Need further proof? Here are a few of the strangest bloggers we’ve come across to prove that Everybody Blogs.

• The much-maligned United States Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) blogs.

• A dead World War I soldier blogs.

• Scottish police dogs in training blog (in first person!). A few of them, actually.

• Iranian president (and American adversary) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blogs.

Two young women who reportedly caused a disruption on a Southwest Airlines flight from Tampa to Los Angeles are accusing the airline of discrimination - because they’re pretty.

“I think they were just discriminating against because we were young decent-looking girls. I mean, nobody else on the plane looked like us except us,” commented Sarah Williams, who was questioned by police officers after having a profanity-filled argument with another passenger. “[The flight attendants] were like older ladies. We were younger. Who knows, they could have been just jealous of us because we were younger.” (view the video here)

That’s right - we all have chips on our shoulders because we’re uglier than them. Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing and PR consultant Francine Hardaway makes our latest edition of NewsWatch for a blog entry that is just too true: a short-and-sweet commentary on our multi-tasking culture. Shouldn’t all great articles start with the line, “Bill Clinton talked on the phone while receiving his famous blowjob from Monica Lewinsky…”?

Of course, Hardaway is 100% right. Today’s NOW culture is about instantaneous information, and more recent communications technologies have been designed for just that purpose. Read the rest of this entry »

This article from ABC News highlights an important study that came out this week, which found that bisexuality is neither a phase nor a myth, but rather a distinct sexual orientation. But look closer at the link provided and see if you can’t spot the problem.

ABC News’ title line for the article reads, “‘Lesbian Until Graduation?’ It’s a Myth”; meanwhile, the title within the article says, “Study Shatters ‘Bisexual Until Graduation’ Myth”.

So what exactly is the myth here? That ABC News will report a landmark study on the validity of bisexuality, whilst simultaneously confusing it with what the study confirms is a completely different sexuality (homosexuality)?

Clearly all the reporting in the world still won’t allow stereotypes and misconceptions to die that easily.