WASHINGTON |
Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:59pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Virginia man is suing Starbucks Coffee Co after his 5-year-old daughter allegedly found a video camera in a Washington cafe bathroom pointed at the toilet.

William Yockey, of Norfolk, is asking for $1 million in the civil suit on four counts, including breach of privacy, his lawyer, Hank Schlosberg, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Yockey and his daughter went into a Starbucks in downtown Washington to use the restroom during an April sightseeing trip, he said.

After using the unisex toilet, the girl discovered a digital video camera hidden in the U-shaped drain pipe under the sink. The camera was aimed at the toilet and recording, Schlosberg said.

“The little girl was very upset and the father was irate,” he said.

Yockey contacted the manager, who called police.

The incident is at least the third involving a camera in a Starbucks bathroom this year.

A man was arrested in May for placing a camera in a California Starbucks and recording at least 40 women. A man was arrested in June for putting a camera in a Florida Starbucks.

Starbucks spokesman Alan Hilowitz said: “We take our obligation to provide a safe environment for our customers and our employees very, very seriously.”

Such incidents as the alleged camera placement were “extremely, extremely rare” given that the company has 17,000 stores in the United States, he said.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Greg McCune)

Article Source here

LOS ANGELES |
Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:23pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Moviegoers pining for a return to the lush moon of Pandora in James Cameron’s “Avatar” will finally get their chance — first-hand.

Walt Disney Co, teaming with the Oscar-winning director and News Corp unit Fox Filmed Entertainment, will begin building from 2013 a section at its Orlando theme park that will mimic the thriving green landscape depicted in the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Under their agreement, Disney — which typically sticks to its own franchises and properties in designing rides — won exclusive global theme park rights to the Avatar franchise. It will eventually take Avatar “lands” beyond Orlando’s Disney World.

“Our goal is to go beyond current boundaries of technical innovation and experiential storytelling, and give park-goers the chance to see, hear, and touch the world of ‘Avatar’ with an unprecedented sense of reality,” Cameron said in a statement.

“Avatar,” which chronicled the struggle of the alien Na’vi against marauding resource-ravenous humans, grossed almost $3 billion worldwide and triggered the current renaissance in 3D-film making. Cameron is planning sequels to the blockbuster hit, which surpassed his own “Titanic” as the highest-grossing movie in history.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Edwin Chan; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Article Source here

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON |
Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:59am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) – The public adored John Martin’s apocalyptic images of destruction and chaos yet the art establishment shunned him, helping to consign the British artist’s works to the storage vaults.

Now a new show at London’s Tate Britain gallery seeks to remind modern viewers what all the fuss was about nearly 200 years ago, when thousands of people queued to see Martin’s work.

Charting the artist’s rise to stardom, fall from grace and brief posthumous rehabilitation, “John Martin: Apocalypse” represents the largest display of Martin’s works seen in public since 1822.

The exhibition, which runs from September 21-January 15, 2012 also features Martin’s “lost” masterpiece, “The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum,” painted in 1821 but badly damaged in a flood in 1928.

Experts have carried out a painstaking restoration of the large, dramatic canvas, and the work will be seen in public for the first time in almost a century.

“His images touched the lives of thousands of ordinary people in Britain and around the world, but his reputation has suffered from art world snobbery and misunderstanding,” said Martin Myrone, curator of the show.

Martin is best known for his large canvases depicting spectacular scenes from the Bible, legend and history in which the romanticized backdrop — architectural or natural — dwarfs the human element.

Among the earliest examples on display in the exhibition is “Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion,” dated 1812, based on James Ridley’s popular Orientalist fantasy “Tales of the Genii.”

Myrone said the picture was deliberately designed and executed to have maximum impact at the Royal Academy exhibition where it was first displayed.

He said Martin chose the upright format rather than the more familiar landscape, and painted in bright red to draw viewers’ attention to the dramatic work.

“John Martin was trying to make a name for himself and grab public attention,” Myrone told reporters at a preview of the show.

The tactic worked, and Martin built on his early success with a series of blockbuster paintings, notably “Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon” (1816), “The Fall of Babylon” (1819) and “Belshazzar’s Feast” (1820).

Two were purchased by Martin’s former employer in 1821 and went on display in a touring exhibition around the country that was highly profitable for the organizers but made little or no money for Martin himself.

The artist, never slow to eye a commercial opportunity, aimed to match the success of that tour with his own solo exhibition in London, where “The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum” was the centerpiece.

Soon after, he turned his attention to producing a series of mezzotint engravings to illustrate John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” after receiving a hefty commission.

His work with prints helped spread his fame around the world, although they did little to enamor the critics who became increasingly hostile to his work.

John Ruskin, the arbiter of artistic taste in the 19th century, once wrote: “Martin’s works are merely a common manufacture, as much makeable to order as a tea-tray or a coal-scuttle.”

Myrone said he suspected “some form of class prejudice” in such judgments, while Tate Britain director Penelope Curtis saw parallels between Martin’s self-promotion and that of contemporary artist Damien Hirst.

The exhibition, organized roughly chronologically, dedicates a separate room to Martin’s “Last Judgment” triptych painted toward the end of his life.

According to the Tate, the pictures were on show from 1854, the year of Martin’s death, until the 1870s, travelled across Britain as well as to New York and Australia and were seen by up to eight million members of the public.

By the turn of the 20th century, they were out of sight and out of mind, dismissed as examples of Victorian “bad taste.”

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Article Source here

By Dorene Internicola

NEW YORK |
Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:15pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – If the economic downturn has forced you to scrap that pricey gym membership or those private yoga lessons, don’t despair.

Times may be hard, but experts say finding cost-free ways to get, or stay, fit has never been easier.

“Just going to the gym is not as important as an active lifestyle,” said Shirley Archer, spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise. “We have to shift that mindset. There are tons of free options.”

Archer, a Florida-based fitness instructor, said studies show that people who go to the gym twice a week but are otherwise inactive, are less fit than people who don’t go to the gym but are routinely active during the day.

“You can start with something as simple as walking,” she said. “Public parks offer organized walking groups. Or start a walking group at your office. You want to be moving at least 150 minutes a week, but that can be broken up into 10 minute bouts.”

Volunteerism, Archer said, is a way to follow your passion to cost-free activity.

“If you’re into the environment, you can volunteer to clean up parks and beaches. You can join Habitat for Humanity to help build a house. All require physical activity and you’re contributing something positive.”

Free professionally-led fitness classes have proliferated since the downturn, according to Archer, as private studios seek to attract ever-scarcer dollars and public venues strive to maintain healthy communities.

“Lots of private studios recognize that not everyone can afford to pay and they will offer classes for free or for a contribution,” she said.

Families strapped for cash can apply for membership scholarships at the YMCA, which engages more than 10,000 neighborhoods in the United States.

“The scholarship program is offered every year,” said Katy Leclair, of the Lake View, Chicago, Illinois facility. “It’s income-based and open to all members of the community.”

For those who prefer their communities online, free fitness websites offer workouts, access to fitness experts and daily tips. Changing monthly challenges, such as boot camp exercises or 10-minute workouts, help to keep boredom at bay.

“Our fitness challenges are popular among new members,” said Nicole Nichols of sparkpeople.com, a free, advertiser-supported site which claims 10 million registered members. “We push them with prizes.”

Nichols said the local public library is an overlooked resource for the latest fitness DVDs, and then there’s YouTube.

“Realistically, you can set up your own gym at home for less than $50,” she said. “Resistance bands can be had at a yard sale for a couple of dollars. A pedometer is a simple, inexpensive tool to make you realize how much you’re moving.”

Bartering for fitness is another possibility.

Even pricey yoga studios will sometimes trade cleaning chores for studio time.

“I knew someone who worked one or two nights a week at the gym in return for free membership,” Nichols said.

Archer said if after downloading free apps to your smart phone and working out to exercise TV, you still yearn for a fitness center, check online for free trial memberships, which can run to a week or 10 days.

There’s a lot of information out there,” Archer concluded. “Just google ‘free exercise’ and put in your town.”

Article Source here

BEIJING |
Mon Sep 19, 2011 2:04am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has ordered a popular television talent show off the air for a year after it exceeded broadcasting time limits, replacing it with programs that “promote moral ethics” such as public safety and housework tips, state media said on Monday.

Episodes of talent show Super Girl, akin to American Idol or the X Factor, were supposed only to run for a maximum of 90 minutes, according to rules set in 2007, but sometimes exceeded the limit, the China Daily reported.

Hunan Satellite Television, which produces Super Girl, has agreed to follow the broadcast regulator’s ruling to remove the show and replace it with public service programing, the newspaper quoted deputy editor-in-chief Li Hao as saying.

“Instead, the channel will air programs that promote moral ethics and public safety and provide practical information for house work,” Li said.

“I believe the reason that forced the administration to ‘regulate’ this program is that some television hosts in the program made inappropriate comments and some did not dress properly,” Jin Yong of China Communication University, told the paper.

“The style might have offended some older viewers.”

China routinely censors anything it considers politically sensitive or offensive, from songs to films, in contrast to the stirring patriotism fare it promotes on mainstream stations, though widespread piracy means bans are often easy to skirt via bootlegged DVDs or on the Internet.

Super Boy, another singing contest, was ordered in 2007 to show only “healthy and ethically inspiring songs”, avoid “gossip” and not show “bad taste” scenes of screaming fans or tearful losing contestants, the China Daily said.

In a statement on its website (www.sarft.gov.cn), the regulator said it had also suspended a television station in northern China for showing programs which showed disrespect toward an elderly parent and magnified family conflict.

(Reporting by Sabrina Mao and Ben Blanchard)

Article Source here