Photo: AP Photo/Cliff Owen

There’s the notion that the affair is somehow Broadwell’s fault. How could Petraeus resist? Broadwell with her “form-fitting” clothes, “tight skirts,” and “toned arms” — in other words, “a shameless self-promoting prom queen” and a “slut” to boot — apparently “got her claws” into him. “The anecdotes and chatter that implicitly or explicitly wonder at the spidery wiles she must have used to throw the mighty man off his path are laughably ignorant of history,” says Frank Bruni at The New York Times, “which suggests that mighty men are all too ready to tumble, loins first.” And it’s further evidence that women are “unfairly assigned the role of gatekeepers of sexual morality,” says Alison Yarrow at The Daily Beast, “a designation that makes them easy to blame when men fall short.”

Why the media’s coverage of the David Patraeus affair is sexist

(Source: theweek.com)

ER did more than make George Clooney a superstar. It also changed the way America ate. In three 2004 episodes, the show explored a minor plot arc about a teenager who learns he has high blood pressure. The show’s physician characters advise the young man to exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables.

While the plot sounds humdrum, it scared viewers straight. In 2007, researchers from the University of Southern California’s medical school published a paper in the Journal of Health Communication that found that viewers who caught these episodes of ER had started walking or exercising more, eating more fruits and vegetables, or getting their blood pressure checked. How can anyone say watching TV is bad for you?

The 25 most powerful TV shows of the past 25 years (via Mental Floss)

Tattoos — once the province of rock stars and ne’er-do-wells — have become thoroughly mainstream. Indeed, today not only are tattoo artists enjoying a robust growth-industry, their counterparts — the tattoo-removal experts — are busily tending to Americans who regret that faded tribal design encircling their biceps or have discovered that the Chinese character on their wrist has an unwelcome meaning. Here, a numerical guide to America’s tattoo obsession:

$2.3 billion — Annual revenue of the tattoo industry

21 — Percent of Americans who have a tattoo

$80 to $100 — Average per hour cost of a tattoo

$200 — Cost of a laser tattoo removal session

10-15 — Sessions needed to remove a tattoo

32 — Percentage increase in tattoo removals over the last year

More numbers…

(Source: theweek.com)

While California ska-punk band No Doubt made little impact with their first album, their second, Tragic Kingdom, and hits like “Don’t Speak” positioned them as the go-to dance party band of the decade. Unfortunately, follow-up albums fell flat and in 2004 Gwen Stefani went solo. For the first time in 11 years, the band has reunited with a new album and a punchy single “Settle Down” that is “classic No Doubt.”

Here, 8 other 90s bands releasing new tracks. 

(Source: theweek.com)

Comic-con’s 10 buzziest revelations

Brave’s Merida, the celebrated first female hero of a Pixar film, is a tomboy. She’s a skilled archer, she fights, she detests girly clothes, rejects all her male suitors, and explicitly expresses that she does not want to get married. So, asks Adam Markovitz in a controversial article at Entertainment Weekly, “Is Merida gay?”

It isn’t just that the character bristles at “traditional gender roles” that raises suspicion, Markovitz says. It’s the timing of Brave’s release to coincide with major parades in New York and San Francisco in honor of LGBT Pride Month, which he thinks was an intentional decision. The argument sparked a firestorm of commentary.

Is Merida a thinly disguised gay character, and, if so, does it matter?

When Girls premiered in April, it was lauded as a “once in a decade” masterpiece. Critics called the HBO comedy, about barely employed twenty-somethings living in New York City, “revolutionary” and “groundbreaking” for its frank depiction of sexuality and coming of age, and dubbed writer-director-creator-star Lena Dunham the “voice of a generation.”

Throughout its first season, the zeitgeist-capturing series sparked intense debate over race, gender, and Dunham’s polarizing lead character, Hannah. The season one finale, which aired Sunday night, found Hannah questioning her relationship while her friend Jessa spontaneously marries.

A full season later, does Girls live up to its pre-release praise?

When junk email became known as “spam,” Spam the pork-esque product faced “the greatest marketing challenge in its 75-year history.” Eventually, Spam embraced its inner punchline, rolling out an ad campaign with tag lines like “Glorious Spam!” and a mascot called Sir Can-a-Lot.

Result: Spam has thrived. Here, 7 other dramatic rebranding campaigns

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Occupy Sesame Street! Breaking photos from Tauntr.com

YES!

Awesome.