This is EVIL

Is anything too much these days? The Yale Daily News is reporting that one of their senior art students, Aliza Shvart made abortion into an art project she will display next week:



Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

Apparently Shvart found men willing to donate their sperm for the project, but don't worry world, they weren't paid. And then she forced miscarriages over a 9 month period, without consulting a doctor.

Really, is this a joke! Who would approve this project? Shvart does say that she is hoping to spark a conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. Oh boy if this is true, I can only imagine what would happen.

As a journalist, I think that I would have trouble covering and reporting this objectively. How could any one with a soul do that? I would hope this were joke, but I really do not know what I would do if I was assigned this piece. I think it would haunt me.

I hope that she shared this information to spark controversy without actually doing the project. According to the article, not many people or groups around the campus knew what she was doing. So their is a possibility that this is false. If this is true this is disgusting and disappointing.

Travel Channel Boot Camp

Just for you seniors out there. The Travel Channel offers this cool 4 day course in film making boasting, "Introducing Travel Channel Academy - the only professional-grade, travel-focused digital film making boot camp on the planet."

It's a bit pricey at $2000, but it seems like a good way to network.

Airing Some Dirty Laundry

Oh my! Tricia Welsh-Smith, wife of Philip Smith, president of the Shubert Organization, the largest theater owner on Broadway and self proclaimed writer, actress and good egg has made a YouTube video about the ugly details of her failing marriage.

But even more importantly her sex life! Or lack there of. Welsh-Smith claims in the video that she and her estranged husband who is 30 years her senior never had sex. So she makes a phone call asking his daughter, who is the same age as Welsh-Smith, what she do with the Viagra, porn and other dirty things she bought.

This is ugly, ugly, ugly. This video was not a spur of the moment, product of anger. Instead, Welsh-Smith had a camera crew come to her apartment in New York and record this video in high definition, and throughout the video it is clear that she is going to post this on YouTube.

This is citizen journalism at its juicy worst. Now socialites can post the dirt from their marriage (or divorce) before the tabloids, and gossip columns get hold of this and start speculating. Yet has she saved her self embarrassment? I don't think so.

First off she is very emotional in the video and obviously very mad. This video then is a means to one embarrass her husband and two garner a sympathetic fan club for Welsh-Smith, who repeatedly claims that this divorce is unwarranted.

Sure this is ugly, but who doesn't love a good scandal in the morning.

Keeping up the Space Theme

Yesterday's first pitch at Yankee Stadium during the Red Sox, Yankees game actually happened thousands of mile above homeplate. Out of this world!

What's the Matter?

The New Scientist blog is reporting that scientists in Italy say they are on the verge of explaining what "dark matter" actually is. Apparently for years science has argue that this phenomena has even existed.

The controversy dates back to 1998 when the DAMA collaboration claimed it had found evidence for particles of dark matter passing

through its detector located in an underground laboratory deep within the Gran Sasso mountain, Italy. Dark matter is the invisible,

mysterious stuff thought to make up nearly 90% of matter in the universe.

I find it fascinating that there is still some much about space that no one on Earth knows about. I wasn't alive in the 1960s, but there seemed to be an overwhelming belief in pop culture that we would be traveling from planet to planet, solar system to solar system already.

And yet, we are no where close. It seemed that 50, 40 even 30 years ago technology was growing and advancing at unworldly rates. Sure that happens with electronics, I am well aware that the laptop I bought last summer is old and out dated.

But what about space exploration? Americans landed on the moon in 1969. That's almost 40 years ago. Since then, almost nothing has happened. There is a space station, and a robot went to Mars... and that's it. Is it possible that conspiracy theorists are correct? Is there a huge bunker somewhere in the desert that hosted the entire moon landing? It's an interesting thought...

Boys Gets Stabbed in Head with Dull Butter Knife

A few days ago, Tyler Hemmert an 11 year old Vancouver Boy was sitting in the park with a friend of his. Suddenly another boy comes by and stabs him in the head. The Today Show ran the story on this morning's broadcast.

The 11-year-old Vancouver boy needed doctors to remove a butter knife from his head on Sunday. He says he and friend Nate Leach were sitting on a park bench when another boy became angry with them and hurled the knife.
Nate ducked. Tyler didn’t.

To read the article watch the video accompanying this click here.

Why does this seem like its such a big joke! Meredith Vieira interviewed Hemmert and his father and everyone seemed to laugh it off as if to say: "That's right, I'm that guy."

Hemmert ended up being perfectly fine. But this is not a light hearted, my puppy saved little Timmy from the well kind of story. A young boy threw a knife at another young boy. It was lodged in his head! This is a problem.

I know that the morning shows prefer to keep the news light, but their audience is mothers. Isn't it? Would any mother who's kid's head was at the receiving end of a dull knife in flight be a little bit more up in arms about this. Was this a neighborhood bully picking on some kids? If so this is a problem.

The story is not that a boy was stabbed in the head, rather what are children doing in their neighborhoods after school and on weekends. And are the bully initiatives really working in school systems?

The End For Couric??

The New York Times is reporting that Katie Couric is set to leave her job at CBS earlier than expected...Way earlier. Originally Couric was contracted to anchor The Evening News into 2011. Now there are reports that she will depart CBS in February after the presidental elections. There have even been reports that she could go as early as two weeks.

The evening news shows have been losing popularity at hurricane wind like pace. CBS with the addition of Couric has had record low audiences. But is it because of Couric or is it because there is simply no audience for the that type of news venue.

It's hard to tell if Couric made a mistake by leaving the Today Show. It's hard to tell if anyone really cared. The Today show has not suffered much in terms of ratings and the other reporters on the show don't really seem to miss her. I liked her, but I like Meredith Vieira just as much. Vieira seems more comfortable and natural in the position anyway. If I were Couric I would go to my upper East Side Mansion and have my millions of dollar bills consol me.