Annie Pei

More by Annie Pei

Vice Magazine Runs Female Writer Suicides Spread

6/18/2013

Vice has stirred up a LOT of controversy with their recent Women in Fiction issue, but not for any of the written short stories or interviews that were published as part of the series. Rather, the outrage has been directed towards a fashion spread that features famous women writers who committed suicide.

The spread, named “Last Words” by the Vice staff, shows models posing as the writers at their time of death. Those featured include a model wading into water as Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself, and another solemnly kneeling in front of an open oven, paying a tasteless homage to Sylvia Plath. Along with the authors’ names, age at death, and cause of death, the captions also mention the clothes being displayed, just in case we wanted to buy them.

Vice has since taken “Last Words” off its website and apologized for offending its readers. All the photos, however, can be found at Jezebel and all over the Web.

NEWSFLASH: Need-to-Know Stories 6/9 - 6/15

6/16/2013

The NSA drama deepened as 29-year-old Edward Snowden admitted to leaking last week’s government surveillance documents, claiming that citizens deserved to know that their right to privacy was being violated. Meanwhile, wildfires in Colorado have claimed lives as they rage on, uncontained. In Syria, the UN has put the official death toll from the country’s civil war at a staggering 93,000…and counting.

Want more grim but important details? Read on for this week’s NEWSFLASH!

Edward Snowden Comes Forward as Source of NSA Document Leak

The U.S. intelligence service made headlines everywhere last week when it was revealed that the NSA authorized officials to collect citizens’ phone records and Internet data in the name of national security. Early this week, a former undercover CIA employee came forward and revealed that he leaked the documents.

Edward Snowden, 29, is currently being pursued by the U.S. government while he resides in Hong Kong. Snowden had apparently fled Hawaii with four laptops worth of classified information about the NSA security surveillance program, so reports The Guardian to whom Snowden gave his first interview.

“I’m not going to hide,” Snowden told The Washington Post. “Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest.”

Brazil Health Ministry Scraps ‘I’m Happy Being a Prostitute' Campaign

6/10/2013

It’s always fascinating to see what safe sex campaigns exist around the world, and one in Brazil recently caught everyone’s attention. Dubbed the “I’m happy being a prostitute” campaign, Brazil’s health ministry rolled out a series of online posters that showed smiling women next to slogans that promoted safe sex, such as “you can’t see me without a condom, my love.”

But then the same health ministry turned around and pulled all the posters last week. Though most of the posters only carried messages about safe sex, many citizens were unhappy with the depiction of happy prostitutes.

Now Brazil’s health minister Alexandre Padilha is claiming that the posters were put up by mistake. He’s gone to add, “I do not think this is a message the ministry should be sending. Our campaigns orient people how to avoid sexual transmitted diseases.”

NEWSFLASH: Need-to-Know Stories 6/2 - 6/8

6/9/2013

This week, U.S. intelligence services came under fire for a new surveillance program that allowed the government to obtain private details about Internet users’ activities, with the Obama administration claiming that the data collection was all in the name of national security. Internet control made it to the forefront again when U.S. soldier Bradley Manning's trial officially began, with Manning proclaiming his innocence after leaking hundreds of thousands of classified government information to Julian Assange's WikiLeaks. Elsewhere in the world, Turkey is still mired in chaos as protests against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rage on. Meanwhile, Santa Monica was thrown into turmoil Friday morning following a shooting rampage that left five people dead and a community at a loss for words.

Needless to say, this week has been fairly grim. Read on for more details, and this week's NEWSFLASH!

Top Secret Documents Reveal Government Surveillance of Phone Records and Internet Data

Gunman Leaves 4 Dead, 5 Wounded in Santa Monica Shooting Spree

6/8/2013

A man dressed in black killed four people before police took him down during a shooting spree in Santa Monica on Friday morning. The number of wounded stands at five, with one victim reportedly in critical condition.

Police say that the rampage began in a home just east of Santa Monica College. The gunman appeared to have killed two people in the house before setting it on fire.

He then hi-jacked a car and forced a woman to drive him towards the college. Eyewitnesses recount that the man got out of the car at two intersections and began indiscriminately firing at people, cars, and buildings. Two people were shot in their car, one of whom died while the other was rushed immediately to a local hospital.

The gunman fatally shot one more woman before exchanging gunfire with police, during which he was taken down.

Earlier reports from the shooting initially pegged the number of dead at six. This was later corrected once police confirmed the official number of victims.

Police are still in the process of identifying the suspect, though they describe him as being between the ages of 25 and 30. No motive for the shooting spree has been established either, as police have ruled out a connection between the shooting and President Obama’s appearance at an event just miles away.

Does the Government Have YOUR Phone Records? NSA’s Secret Court Order to Verizon Revealed

6/6/2013

On Wednesday, Britain’s national newspaper The Guardian published a secret court order that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) sent to phone company Verizon in April. The court order demanded that Verizon hand over millions of their customers’ phone records for a three-month period that began on April 25 and is set to end July 19.

The find has reignited public debate on the domestic government’s right to spy on U.S. citizens. In response to public outrage, the Obama administration defended the court order, arguing that the collection of phone records was necessary for their counter-terrorism operations.

While the court order doesn’t include the content of phone calls, it does ask Verizon for other telling information found in customers’ phone records. Call location, recipient, duration, and time are some of the details Verizon needs to divulge, though it remains unclear as to whether the order applies to Verizon’s wireless or residential customers.

The revelation has given way to accusations that the Obama administration is being “beyond Orwellian” in its actions. Expect more government statements to follow as the President and the NSA try to defend their actions.

Paris Jackson Hospitalized After Possible Suicide Attempt

6/5/2013

Paris Jackson, 15, daughter of deceased singer Michael Jackson, was hospitalized early Wednesday morning at around 2 a.m. following a possible suicide attempt. A 911 call made half an hour before Jackson’s hospitalization demanded a response to a “possible overdose” at the girl’s Calabasas home, though it was later revealed that Jackson had cut her wrists.

There has so far been no confirmed motive behind Jackson’s attempted suicide, however many are looking to her Twitter account for clues. A recent tweet on Jackson’s account depicted an escalating argument with an unknown person, and some tweets before that indicated that Jackson was facing problems in her private life that clearly distressed her.

Some believe that Jackson attempted to commit suicide after she wasn’t allowed to attend a Marilyn Manson concert. A source close to the family has come forward to deny those claims.

Hospital staff have confirmed that the girl will recover and is in stable condition. A TMZ source reportedly close to the girl mentioned that Jackson had previously tried to commit suicide, though her statement has not been confirmed by anyone else.

Twitter's Vine App Sees First Marriage Proposal

6/5/2013

Twitter’s Vine app prides itself on capturing small, intimate moments in zero to six second videos with one tap of your finger. It’s storytelling in a snapshot, just like Twitter with its 140 character tweet limit.

Vine did, indeed, catch one of those fleeting moments Tuesday night when Curt Buthman proposed to girlfriend Marsha Collier using the app! In six seconds, the L.A. business consultant presented her with a ring and asked her to be his bride.

Once Marsha accepted, pretty much the entire Twitterverse blew up with congratulatory tweets. While we wish them the best, Curt’s proposal also leads us to wonder how digital media will evolve to grow even more intimate. Clearly, digital media and social media networks have revolutionized the way we interact with one another, so how is it now transforming our traditional ideas of marriage and engagement?

Sound off in the comments! In the meantime, congratulations to Curt and Marsha!

A Collegiette's Guide to Health Insurance

6/4/2013

For many of us, college brings newfound independence, which leaves us free to make our own decisions regarding our well-being. Yet despite being dedicated to eating (somewhat) healthy and (hopefully) exercising whenever we can, there is one component to preserving our good health that we, as collegiettes, often overlook: health insurance.

Even though most U.S. colleges require that their students have coverage, the workings of health insurance are still a mystery to many college undergrads. But with health care at the center of political debate today, it’s essential to understand what health options are available to you as a collegiette, and how health insurance impacts your life.

Fortunately, the seemingly complicated mechanics of health insurance can be easy to understand! By unpacking all of the whys, whats, and hows behind health insurance, you’ll better understand why health insurance is so important, what options you have, and how it affects your life during and after college.

What is health insurance, and why should I have it?

The first misconception about health insurance, according to Mark Colwell, manager of consumer marketing at GoHealthInsurance.com, is that it’s a plan that guarantees you access to the health care system.

“[Health insurance] is actually a risk management product that gives you access to the financial system,” explains Colwell. “It’s a product that lets you get the money for health-related treatments, not necessarily the treatment itself.”

NEWSFLASH: Need-to-Know Stories 5/26 - 6/1

6/2/2013

 

Turkey was unexpectedly launched into chaos this week following a protest that started as a peaceful demonstration against a government plan to demolish a park, but which quickly escalated into a riot that saw police violently put down protestors. In Pakistan, reports that a powerful Taliban commander was killed by a C.I.A. drone strike surfaced mid-week following much discussion and debate about U.S. drone policy. But amidst all the drama, the most bizarre news story of the week sprang from China, where a baby boy was found lodged in a toilet pipe after an accident.

This week was a busy one for international news indeed. Welcome back to NEWSFLASH, where we break down the biggest world news for you!

Protests Erupt in Turkey, Spread to Other Parts of Country Amidst Police Brutality

What began as a protest in Istanbul’s Taksim Square has now spread to other parts of Turkey, including the country’s capital Ankara. As of Saturday, Turkish officials reported that approximately 90 separate protests had taken place all around the country.

The major protests began on Friday near Istanbul’s Gezi Park, spawning what many are calling an Occupy Gezi movement. A few demonstrators had organized a sit-in earlier on in the week to oppose official plans to construct a shopping center in place of the park, one of Istanbul’s few remaining green spaces.