PREVIOUSLY: A 13-year-old boy who was attacked while walking home from school earlier this month in a Philadelphia suburb said Tuesday that he had been bullied since the beginning of classes. Seven teenagers were in custody Tuesday in connection with the videotaped beating of the teen, authorities said.A video taken on the cell phone of one of the suspects shows the boy being kicked, dragged through the snow and stuffed into a tree, then hung from his jacket on a tall wrought-iron fence. On the video, the boy can be heard screaming as his attackers laugh. MORE BLEEDING GREEN NATION: […]
SCHOLAR: Mona Lisa Was A Dude
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A male apprentice, longtime companion and possible lover of Leonardo da Vinci was the main influence and a model for the “Mona Lisa” painting, an Italian researcher said. But the researcher, Silvano Vinceti, said Wednesday the portrait also represents a synthesis of Leonardo’s scientific, artistic and philosophical beliefs. Because the artist worked on it at various intervals for many years, he was subjected to different influences and sources of inspiration, and the canvas is full of hidden symbolic meanings. “The ‘Mona Lisa’ must be read at various levels, not just as a portrait,” Vinceti said. This is one […]
WHITE STRIPES: Dead Leaves On The Dirty Ground
RELATED: The White Stripes would like to announce that today, February 2nd, 2011, their band has officially ended and will make no further new recordings or perform live. The reason is not due to artistic differences or lack of wanting to continue, nor any health issues as both Meg and Jack are feeling fine and in good health. It is for a myriad of reasons, but mostly to preserve What is beautiful and special about the band and have it stay that way. Meg and Jack want to thank every one of their fans and admirers for the incredible support […]
How I Learned To Stop Worrying & Love The Packers
BY REBECCA GOODACRE When I was told that the Super Bowl was taking place during the first week of February, all I could think about was the time that Justin Timberlake revealed the nipple-tasseled right breast of Janet Jackson to 95 million people. As controversial and unforgettable as this moment was, the Super Bowl it turns out is not just an event to facilitate public nudity. So, if it’s not just about showcasing Miss Jackson’s purple-nerple, it must be about the raw talent of two teams of highly-trained and talented football players going head to head. The best playing against […]
EMPEROR STRIKES BACK: 5 Killed, Hundreds Wounded As Pro-Mubarak Thugs Clash With Protesters
[Photos by Sarah Carr] JERUSALEM POST: Machine gunfire was heard on Wednesday night, shortly after Egyptian state television ordered all demonstrators to evacuate Cairo’s Tahrir (Liberation) Square. A spokesman from the Egyptian Health Ministry on Wednesday said that 600 people were injured and one man was killed in the recent round of clashes that erupted in central Cairo earlier in the day. Numerous explosives were hurled as the pro-regime mob attempted to push through a no-man’s land towards the anti-Mubarak protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir (Liberation) Square. As Supporters and opponents clashed, raining stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in […]
China Pulls Plug On Penn Museum Silk Road Exhibit
Details are scant, but news came through earlier today that Chinese authorities have withdrawn their support for the Silk Road exhibit that was due to open this weekend at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology after months of pre-opening promotion, including right here on Phawker. Apparently the Chinese have taken their mummies and related artifacts and gone home. The press preview scheduled for Friday has also been canceled, and thousands of pre-sold tickets will be refunded. The museum’s spokesperson has not responded to a request for comment beyond the press release we’ve posted after the jump…DEVELOPING
REVIEW: Theophilus London’s A Lover’s Holiday
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD Rather than glamorizing a past-life of blood-drenched mobster-isms or a history entrenched with money counting machines, Theophilus London boasts a Wildean lifestyle with a confidence akin to Prince in the mid-‘80s. He talks about chic German-built cars, rendezvous with unnamed women at lavish hotel rooms and having casual meetings with music elites, such as Mark Ronson and Damon Albarn— two of his benefactors. His fashion style is enigmatic, donning a thick-rimmed pair of expensive plastic shades and a baseball cap that looks fresh outta ’92. His personality and style seem to shoot directly into the already-dug-out vein […]
SIDEWALKING: Only 137 Days Until Summer
Ocean City, New Jersey, at dusk some time last summer by JEFF FUSCO
WORTH REPEATING: Ain’t Love Grand?
[Berretta 76, Tritone, undated by Jonathan Valania] INQUIRER: For the next year or so, Pete and Camille were best friends — but strictly that. “People would say, ‘You should go out, you’d be such a great couple!’ And I’d say, ‘Him? We fight too much! We would kill each other.’” Pete was having similar conversations. But while working on their first album, Black Beauty, romance slipped in. Camille and Pete both felt it, and both resisted. Camille told him it was hard enough being a female rock singer without people whispering that her success was in some way tied to […]
HIGHER ED: What Price Knowledge?
[Photo by Ella Chappell]y BY LAURA WESTERMAN For the last three months I’ve been constantly clicking through the BBC website reading column inch after column inch of news about the tuition fee battle in my home country while studying for a year abroad at Temple University, where the out-of-state student population pays up to $27,000 per year to study. The ongoing fight against the tuition fee increase in the U.K. over this period has provoked an intense political stand-off between politicians and British students. As you may recall, back on December 9th of last year thousands of students and protesters […]
EXIT THE PHAROAH: The Slow But Certain Abdication Of Hosni Mubarak Has Already Begun
[Artwork by DonkeyHotey] UPDATE: Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has said that he would not run for re-election – but refused to step down from office, the central demand of millions of protesters who have demonstrated across Egypt over the last week. “I never intended to run for reelection,” Mubarak said in his televised address, which aired at 11pm local time on Tuesday. “I will use the remaining months of my term in office to fill the peoples’ demands,” he said. That would leave Mubarak in charge of overseeing a transitional government until the next presidential election, currently scheduled for September. He […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller and a team of Times reporters worked with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for months before the Times published hundreds of classified documents obtained by WikiLeaks late last year. In Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Keller described how the Times’ relationship with Assange began to deteriorate after the paper published several of the Afghanistan war logs provided by WikiLeaks. On Tuesday’s Fresh Air, Keller explains why the Times decided to publish the documents, the impact of those cables and why he came to regard Julian Assange as “elusive, manipulative and volatile.” Keller […]
How About Some Ice On That Shit Snow Sandwich?
The above illustration was released yesterday by city officials in the hopes of stanching the inevitable Snowplowgate. ACCUWEATHER: A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING. A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM EST THIS EVENING THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. * PRECIPITATION TYPES: FREEZING DRIZZLE WILL BE TAPERING OFF THIS AFTERNOON. STEADIER PRECIPITATION DEVELOPING LATER TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING MAY TAKE THE FORM OF RAIN OR FREEZING RAIN…AS THERE IS STILL SOME UNCERTAINTY WITH REGARD TO THE AMOUNT OF LOW LEVEL COLD AIR IN PLACE WHEN THE PRECIPITATION REDEVELOPS. THE PRECIPITATION SHOULD END […]