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‘American Able’ intends to, through spoof, reveal the ways in which women with disabilities are invisibilized in advertising and mass media. I chose American Apparel not just for their notable style, but also for their claims that many of their models are just ‘every day’ women who are employees, friends and fans of the company. However, these women fit particular body types. Their campaigns are highly sexualized and feature women who are generally thin, and who appear to be able-bodied. Women with disabilities go unrepresented, not only in American Apparel advertising, but also in most of popular culture. Rarely, if ever, are women with disabilities portrayed in anything other than an asexual manner, for ‘disabled’ bodies are largely perceived as ‘undesirable.’ In a society where sexuality is created and performed over and over within popular culture, the invisibility of women with disabilities in many ways denies them the right to sexuality, particularly within a public context.

Too often, the pervasive influence of imagery in mass media goes unexamined, consumed en masse by the public. However, this imagery has real, oppressive effects on people who are continuously ‘othered’ by society. The model, Jes Sachse, and I intend to reveal these stories by placing her in a position where women with disabilities are typically excluded.

Dear Apple: parody is a good sign. It means you’re reaching people. I’m no fan of Ellen, but cut it out. Really.

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With Illinois struggling for cash, ComEd is offering half a billion bucks to lawmakers, but the trade-off could be higher electric bills for customers.

The Chicago-area utility giant offered Tuesday to give the state $500 million. That could help offset education cuts and a plethora of other funding shortfalls in a budget carrying a $13 billion deficit. And it comes as lawmakers scramble for budget Band-Aids with a scheduled May 7 adjournment rapidly approaching.

In return, the power company wants a rate increase locked in for four years by state law.

The profit motive of the corporation coupled with the coercive power of the state. What could possibly go wrong?

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Last weekend, powerful thunderstorms drenched Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi, dumping over 13 inches of rain on the region in two days. Creeks, lakes and rivers swelled with the rainwater, overflowing their banks, washing away roads, and causing the deaths of at least 24 people so far. The Cumberland River, which winds through downtown Nashville, Tennessee, crested Monday at 51.9 feet, 12 feet above flood stage, spilling into the city and surrounding neighborhoods. As the waters are now receding, cleanup and recovery begins, as municipal workers begin to repair power supplies and water treatment plants, and residents return to their homes to recover what they can. (38 photos total)

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Buildings and city streets are still under floodwater as the sun sets on May 4, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Jeff Gentner/Getty Images) #

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They’ve emptied their bank accounts, abandoned vacations and started taking the bus. Now, they fear for their jobs: The Greeks bemoan the difficult crisis that has taken over their country. Above all, they feel humiliated by Germany.

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What angers Lestaris is that Greek citizens now have to take the fall for the false deficit statistics fabricated by the previous government. It also hurts him that Greece is now widely seen by other EU countries as a nation of lazy people who earn a lot of money, squander it quickly and rely on outside support to stave off national bankruptcy.

News flash, Lestaris – we don’t see you that way. Greece is seen as tax-evaders with a corrupt government. And the best you can do is follow the Argentine example: let go of the connection to the currency you coupled yourself to, and cut deep.

This is how you build a bridge…

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As BP prepares to lower a four-story, 70-ton dome over the oil gusher under the Gulf of Mexico, the Russians — the world’s biggest oil producers — have some advice for their American counterparts: nuke it.

Komsomoloskaya Pravda, the best-selling Russian daily, reports that in Soviet times such leaks were plugged with controlled nuclear blasts underground. The idea is simple, KP writes: “the underground explosion moves the rock, presses on it, and, in essence, squeezes the well’s channel.”