Tag Archives: parliament

South Korea Parliament Turns Into WWF Match

Daniela GuernicaJuly 22, 2009 //

Shattered glass, broken furniture, biting, shoving, beating, jumping and throwing blunt objects — just another day in Parliament in South Korea. Yesterday, a female lawmaker was rushed to the hospital with injuries after an ordinary session turned into an episode of “UFC Ultimate Fighting.” The rampage began when members of the majority party, the Grand National Party, tried to enter the building to vote on a bill loosening restrictions on media ownership of TV networks. Men and women from the opposing parties began stacking up furniture to block the ruling members from entering the National Assembly. When that didn’t work, they took to clawing each other’s eyes out. Peeps who opposed the bill attacked anyone trying to approach the podium by throwing heavy objects and even body-slamming them.
Keep reading »

The EU Doesn’t Want Sex to Sell Anything Anymore

Wendy AtterberrySeptember 12, 2008 //

David Beckham may be one of the best things to have happened to the game of soccer since cleats were invented, but he’s also one of the best things to have happened to advertising since the dawn of modern media…at least in my book. I mean, have you seen his nearly nude Armani ads? [Now you have! See above! -- Editor]

Well, if the European Parliament has anything to do with it, our friends on the other side of the pond may not have the good fortune of gazing at Beckham’s chiseled abs in glossies and on the sides of buses for much longer. Earlier this month, the Parliament voted in favor of a report drafted by the Women’s Rights Committee that aims to more tightly monitor nudity in marketing campaigns and to end the use of gender stereotypes.
Keep reading »

The Daily Squeeze: Love Leave, Women Working Out, And Gray Hair

Catherine StrawnMarch 7, 2008 //
  • Next week, the Finnish Parliament will discuss whether to grant working adults one week of “love leave” a year. This proposal is aimed at helping to reduce the number of divorces (half of all Finnish marriages end in divorce — like the U.S.!) and the number of people suffering from depression. Research there has shown that Finns want more time with loved ones than higher wages. [Reuters]
  • Harvard has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours each week to allow Muslim women to exercise without having to be completely covered. When in public, Muslim women must cover their hair and most of their skin, which probably makes exercising an especially sweaty, uncomfortable affair. [AP]
  • A 50-year-old writer posted a profile on Match.com with a photo of herself with gray hair. She monitored the number of “winks” and e-mails she received, and then she removed that profile and put up the same profile three months later with a different photo, this one of her with brown hair. She repeated this experiment in different geographic areas. All three times she received more “winks” with her gray-haired picture than the one that showed her with brown hair. We have no idea what this means for those of us under 50, but we might have to keep this in mind and skip the hair dye in a few years. [More]

    • Keep reading »