Victoria's Secret Under Fire for 'Sexy Little Geisha' Outfit

Victoria's Secret Under Fire for 'Sexy Little Geisha' Outfit - Victoria’s Secret sends models down the runway in angel wings and next-to-nothing outfits, but it’s a “Sexy Little Geisha” outfit that has the nation’s most famous lingerie company in hot water.

The Columbus, Ohio, company, famous for its annual televised Fashion Show, has removed its entire "Go East" collection of Asian-inspired lingerie wear from its website after feeling heat from bloggers for the "Sexy Little Geisha" it described on its website as "Your ticket to an exotic adventure."

The $98 lingerie one-piece featured a "sexy mesh teddy with flirty cutouts and Eastern-inspired florals," according to its description, which has since been removed, on its website. The outfit also included a removable obi belt with a bow in back and came with a matching fan and hair chopsticks.

The "Go East" collection drew criticism last month for an apparent Photoshop job done on one of its models, and then the "Sexy Little Geisha" number was singled out this month by bloggers who questioned the company's taste.

"Considering the complicated history of geishas, repurposing the "look" for a major corporation to sell as role-playing lingerie seems a bit tasteless," wrote Jessica Wakeman on the women's website Frisky.com.

"It's the kind of overt racism masked behind claims of inspired fashion and exploring sexual fantasy that makes my skin crawl," blogger Nina Jacinto wrote on Racalicious.com .

"When someone creates a collection like this, making inauthentic references to "Eastern culture" (whatever that means) with hints of red or a fan accessory or floral designs, it reinforces a narrative …," she wrote. "But when a company takes it one step further by developing a story about how the clothes can offer a sort of escape using explicit sexualized and exploitive language, it takes the whole thing to another leve l…"

While the product has now disappeared from the Victoria's Secret website, screen grabs of it have gone viral. Links for both the "Sexy Little Geisha" URL and for the entire "Go East" collection now lead straight to the company's home page.

Victoria's Secret has not made a statement on the line, or its disappearance. A request for comment by the company from ABC News was not returned. ( ABC News Blogs )

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Samsung Galaxy S3 gets head start on rival iPhone

Samsung Galaxy S3 gets head start on rival iPhone - Samsung Electronics launched its top-of-the-range Galaxy S3 smartphone in Europe on Tuesday, aiming to outsell its previous model that helped the South Korean company topple Apple as the world's largest smartphone maker.

The Galaxy S3, which tracks the user's eye movements to keep the screen from dimming or turning off while in use, hits stores in 28 European and Middle East countries, including Germany, as Samsung aims to increase its lead over Apple months ahead of its new iPhone, expected in the third quarter.

Samsung has tried to create the kind of frenzy around the launch that has become the norm for Apple's new gadgets. But some customers will have to wait a couple of weeks to get their phone because of delays in making it in a newly-invented "Pebble Blue" color.

Customers pose for the media after they were first in line to buy Samsung Electronics' new Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphones during a late night sale event in Berlin May 28, 2012. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

In Berlin, about 50 customers queued outside the BASE mobile phone shop on Monday night eager to be the first to lay their hands on the S3.

Also in Frankfurt some 100 people were in the queue this morning when the Deutsche Telekom shop on the city's busiest shopping street The Zeil opened.

"That's about the same as when the latest iPhone went on sale," said 21-year old Steven Barth, who was taking orders at the shop. "I think our publicity campaign also helps. We are giving away about a hundred Galaxys today, in this shop."

Robert, a student from Frankfurt, who declined to give his last name as he should have been studying, said he had already ordered his Galaxy S3.

"I didn't really like it when Apple was selling the iPhone only via Deutsche Telekom. That's when I decided to buy a Samsung and never left," the 28-year old said.

Other Frankfurt cellphone stores were not so busy.

And in Paris, several cellphone stores did not have the S3 and sales assistants said they did not know when they would get it.

"Consumers have been waiting for the Galaxy S3. It's one of the few emblematic smartphone launches this year," said Laurent Lame, marketing director of devices for French operator SFR.

He said Samsung was aiming for a similar buzz as with iPhone launches.

"Samsung has closely guarded the details of the phone to create a sense of secrets and confidentiality that then makes the launch into an event. They do 'teasing' like Apple does now," Lame said.

A spokesman for Vodafone in Britain said the device had been the most pre-ordered Android device in its line-up ever.

MASSIVE MARKETING

The smartphone, running on Google's Android operating system, boasts a 4.8-inch screen, one of the largest on smartphones ever, and much bigger than the 3.5-inch display on the iPhone 4S.

Top global carriers - from Britain's Vodafone to Singapore's SingTel - have started to promote the S3 aggressively, fuelling speculation the smartphone could top its predecessor, the Galaxy S2's 20 million sales worldwide.

Samsung itself has said it expects the new flagship model to outsell its predecessor.

Samsung introduced its first Galaxy in 2010, three years after the iPhone's debut, to counter Apple's roaring success in smartphones when the troubles of bigger rivals Nokia and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion had started.

Samsung sold 44.5 million smartphones in January-March - equal to nearly 21,000 every hour - giving it 30.6 percent market share. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones, taking 24.1 percent market share.

"The Galaxy S3 is a real challenger to the upcoming iPhone," said Francisco Jeronimo, an IDC analyst based in London. "This is likely be one of the most sold smartphones this year, though the real test will come when the next iPhone is launched."

In the race for global smartphone supremacy, Apple has accused Samsung of copying some of its products. The South Korean company counter-claims that Apple has infringed its patents. Both have denied the allegations, and a long-running court saga continues.

Apple plans to use a larger screen on the next iPhone, according to people familiar with the situation. The current iPhone 4S model was introduced last October.

Samsung has launched its own music service on the Galaxy S3, putting itself head-to-head with Apple. It has previously rebranded existing music and video services.

"Samsung is not known for our content services; we make good hardware products but we haven't done much in the content space but that's changing," T.J. Kang, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics' Media Solution Center, said.

"We are doing it to create a better experience for our users. There are things we could do better if we have complete control over all of the service."

MORE ROUNDED

In a departure from its predecessor, whose look and feel became the main subject of the legal dispute with Apple, the latest Galaxy has a more rounded outline. It also has voice recognition, dubbed S Voice, which will inevitably be compared with Apple's Siri, and image recognition software that can tag and share photographs.

Prices vary depending on the contract. A model with 16 gigabytes of memory costs up to 189 pounds ($300) under a 12-month contract with Vodafone. A similar package for the iPhone 4s costs 159 pounds, but comes with a more expensive monthly data plan.

Samsung said it will release the S3 via 296 carriers in 145 countries by July.

Profit from Samsung's mobile division nearly tripled in January-March to $3.6 billion, accounting for 73 percent of operating profit.

Analysts estimate its global marketing campaign for the S3 will likely have cost several hundred million dollars.

Samsung - whose shares have gained 82 percent since late-August, beating Apple's 58 percent rise - is now banking on an aggressive marketing campaign ahead of the summer London Olympics to further drive sales. It has said its mobile market share in China doubled after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"The S3 is supported by an unprecedented promotional campaign," said Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insight in London. "Samsung's timing with the Galaxy S3 is perfect." ( Reuters )

• ($1 = 0.6396 British pounds)
• ($1 = 1185.3500 Korean won)

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Pillow Fight World Cup Ruffles Fine Feathered Foes

Pillow Fight World Cup Ruffles Fine Feathered Foes - If you think competitive pillow fighting is just a chance to see scantily clad women beat the stuffing out of each other, then you haven't heard about the Pillow Fight World Cup, which is as pure as a freshly cleaned bedsheet.

The May 17 battle royale is a joint venture between a Brooklyn artist who for years has thrown pillow fight parties in warehouses and on rooftops, and a group of Austrian woman who want to turn the childhood game into respectable adult competition.

"It's less brutal than boxing, but you still need technique," said Maylin Kretzschmar, 26. She's one of three Austrians in the tournament. "It's a fun sport. I don't want to punch someone in the face, but you can still get rid of your aggression."

Eight women armed with fluffy weapons and dressed like athletes, not sex symbols, will step into a converted boxing ring in Brooklyn, N.Y. to beat each other mercilessly with feather filled pillowcases.

The American working with the Austrians is Andrew Thompson, creator of Punk Rock Pillow Fight, a sporadically scheduled whack-happy night for amateurs with live music.

His Punk Rock Pillow Fight events are open to men and women, but when the Austrians approached him about a ladies-only World Cup, he didn't object.

The upstart tournament contrasts with a rival Canadian Pillow Fight League. The six-year-old organization is a descendant of foxy boxing and mud wrestling, and banks on the sex appeal of its fighters to put fannies in the seats.

Thompson, 36, said lingering memories of these types of fleshy events make it tough for him to find ladies to enter the Pillow Fight World Cup.

"Females think this is some sexy lingerie pillow match and they don't want to be a part of it," said Thompson. "But I wouldn't be a part of any event like that either. I'm up against this stigma."

The disapproval cuts both ways.

Stacey Case, the Pillow Fight League founder, has frowned on the newcomers for creating what he says is a watered-down version of his carefully crafted enterprise.

"Anybody can do it, but what we think is that we're the only ones who do it well," said Case. "I've organized 65 events, not just one event like these guys."

Case also revealed to AOL Weird News that he plans to stage an international pillow fighting tournament of his own next year and to award bigger prizes.

"Any idiot can get a cup made," Case said, "but I spent three grand on a belt."

Until then the so-called sport is in the hands of Kretzschmar and her compatriots. They see the event as a chance to raise the profile of a game most people haven't played since sleepover parties in elementary school.

The rules for the Pillow Fight World Cup closely resemble the brand of pillow fighting waged by the Austrians in their training gym in Vienna.

Matches are fought in two rounds, each lasting two minutes. Judges award points for hits to the body and head. Contestants are penalized for turning their backs to their opponents and for dropping to a knee.

The most serious injury the gladiators face are occasional cuts on their knuckles, Kretzschmar said.

Thompson shares the Austrians' enthusiasm for pillow fighting, but for him, it's just a fun way to act immaturely.

"When I started Punk Rock Pillow Fight here in New York, it was to make something awesome out of nothing and to have a regressive childhood experience," he told AOL Weird News.

"I'm down for a good fight, but [the Austrians] take it much more seriously than I do."

Other entrants know it sounds silly to compete in the World Cup, but that's not stopping them.

"When I told my mom that I was entering," said Jennifer Tullock, 27, of New York, "She rolled her eyes and said 'Go strong.'" ( aol.com )

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Is Boston in danger?

Radioactive rain from Japan: Is Boston in danger? - Small amounts of radiation are found in rainwater from California to Massachusetts. Does it pose a health threat?

Trace levels of radiation have been detected in samples of rainwater in Boston. Researchers say it's almost certainly coming from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was severely damaged by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami earlier this month. Is the contamination bad enough to pose a health concern here in the U.S.? Here, a brief guide:

The city of Boston covered by an early spring fog: Very low levels of radiation have been detected in samples of rainwater in Boston. Photo: CC BY: Derek

Just how radioactive is this rain?

Not very. Only trace amounts of radiation have been detected. Radiation from natural sources, such as the sun and uranium in rocks, can be 100,000 times higher. Plus, Massachusetts authorities didn't find radiation in the air near the spot where they detected radiation in rainwater. Tests by the Environmental Protection Agency have found radiation in rainwater at dozens of other testing sites — including in California and Nevada — but the levels there are also extremely low.

Does this pose a health risk?

No. "We're talking about many orders of magnitude below what we would consider a risk," says Nevada radiation physicist Eric Matus, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal. Massachusetts health authorities say kids can still play safely in the rain, pets can still drink rainwater, and people can continue eating vegetables from their gardens.

Could the danger rise if Japan's nuclear crisis gets worse?

Maybe a little, but not much. Scientists believe the radiation we're seeing now was probably emitted when Japan's crisis was at its worst. Iodine-131, the radioactive isotope detected in the rainwater samples, has a half-life of just eight days, so any current contamination will soon dissolve to an undetectable level. And a nuclear engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that even if the Japanese plant experienced a complete meltdown, radioactive rainwater would be unlikely to pose a health threat in Massachusetts.

Are we even sure the radiation is coming from Japan?

Yes — scientists have little doubt the contamination drifted across the Pacific from Japan. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio found trace amounts of iodine-131 that match what was leaked from the damaged Fukushima reactors. Indeed, the scientists were expecting radioactive rain from Japan, says Case Western professor Gerald Matisoff. "We knew that the weather pattern was bringing it in this direction." ( theweek.com )

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Your computer will get to know all about you

Your computer will get to know all about you - Microsoft's head of research says that computers of the future will recognise you and be more intuitive than ever - Microsoft’s Kinect accessory for the Xbox gaming console sold eight million units in 60 days – in a radical new approach to gaming, it uses a camera simply to “read” a user’s movements and insert them into a video game. “You are the controller” is the slogan, and, in short, the device allows people to take up bowling, tennis and much more, simply by standing in front of their TV screens.

That, however, is only half the story: according to Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, the Kinect way of working offers a taste of how we will interact with computers. It is, he says, a “natural user interface” that, along with voice, will redefine the future of computers. Increasingly autonomous computers, Mundie suggests, will complete tasks that humans will think too mundane.

For once, too, this may not be the spin of a giant corporation: when Kinect launched, it was immediately seized upon not just by fans, but also by a community of computer scientists keen to hack into its inner workings and repurpose the device. That meant that 3D image capture – and of course Star Wars light sabres – were immediately demonstrated on YouTube in a way that Microsoft had never intended. Now the company says not only that hacking is acceptable, but it’s gone so far as to produce a developers’ kit for amateurs and researchers, while also working on a version for commercial organisations.

Mundie, speaking to The Daily Telegraph on the 20th anniversary of Microsoft’s research department, says that it’s his job to “look three to 20 years out from today”. He says that when Bill Gates founded the company, he’d always realised how important it was that it had a long-term view. “It helps us weather the storms,” says Mundie, “and from time to time we inject new capabilities that take the products forward by a significant leap. Sometimes one of those leaps is so new and significant that it is disruptive and opens up a new market. Kinect would be a good example of that”. Although he stops short of saying that he’s known Kinect was the future for decades, it’s a clear – and plausible – implication.

According to Mundie, however, the idea of “gesture, touch and voice” as a new, default way of controlling complicated machines is only a means to an end: “For a long time, the computer has been used as a tool. We have been trying to work out how to make it more like a helper, so that it acts with a degree of autonomy, understands you, and starts to become intuitive.”

The nearer future, however, is likely to see computers simply “complete tasks autonomously,” says Mundie. “In the same way as when you have a team of people and you ask them to do a task, and then they complete it autonomously.”

People’s meaning and intention, in fact, is the bigger challenge, rather than getting computers to help. “As an individual sometimes it is appropriate to speak, sometimes to nod your head, sometimes both at the same time. It’s situational,” says Mundie. “What we’ve been working on is how to map better what you’re thinking to what the computer understands. Traditionally that’s been by typing or clicking with a mouse but some people find that difficult.” He compares the process of learning to play a video game with learning a musical instrument, and says that the natural user interface will eliminate some of that tedious process.

To make the most of this new vision, Mundie says we’ll start to think of computers on a small, mobile scale, via laptops and PCs and then on a larger, room-size level. “People will,” he says, “interact on the walls. We are already seeing this through things like telepresence. There will be screens that people carry around with them and unroll and use them on the wall.”

That may sound implausible. In fact, however, Mundie suggests that the technology we’re using will become increasingly inconspicuous, even though “moving forward there will be more robust identity mechanisms” to protect security.

“Software’s role is to make complicated things easier,” he says. “Sometimes in the process software itself gets more complex, but it’s a balance. The bulk of humanity wants simple, then humans evolve to the next level too.”

For some, the prospect of hidden computers on every surface may not be terribly enticing. But as Mundie puts it, “Microsoft really did change the planet. And we are just getting warmed up. There is more opportunity for world changing things now than ever before.” ( telegraph.co.uk )

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