Gaza Film Exposes Deadly Breast Cancer Taboos

Animated feature is strong, if generic, hyper: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree that French studio Illumination Entertainment has made a strong first entry into feature animation with Despicable Me, featuring Steve Carrell voicing a cartoon baddy who adopts three little girls. But it has the misfortune to premiere within weeks of Pixar's beloved Toy Story 3.

• Despicable Me "cannot be faulted for lack of trying," AO Scott writes in the New York Times . "If anything, it tries much too hard, stuffing great gobs of second-rate action, secondhand humor and warmed-over sentiment into every nook and cranny of its relentlessly busy 3-D frames. It tries so hard to be likable that you may hate yourself for hating it."

New report focuses on disparities in funding, incidence, survival

(NEWSER) - The number of women diagnosed with lung cancer is soaring, but federal funding for research lags even though the disease is more common than cancer of the breast, prostate, and colon—combined. A new report drills down on research about women and lung cancer, sorting out findings about incidence, gender disparities, and survival. Perhaps most interesting, "all federal spending for lung cancer research amounts to $1,249 for each lung cancer death," Richard Know writes for NPR . "Spending for breast cancer research is 21 times higher—$27,480 per death." More»

Female protagonist is a poor argument for stodgy Amelia

(NEWSER) - This weekend's battle at the multiplex, where sci-fi trounced Amelia Earhart, has carried over into the world of virtual opinion. Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday fired the first shot, and Sady Doyle fires back, explaining that she senses a “note of condescension.” See Amelia, Hornaday implores. “No Manolo Blahniks! No Abba! No vampires!” “Yes,” Doyle responds. But “no good reviews, either!” And why should women be forced to see “movies with ‘strong female protagonists,’ whether or not they want to?” More»

'Superstar of four-letter words' hits Guardian's front page, losing its bite

(NEWSER) - Rest assured, Dear Reader: As a respectable organization, Newser won’t publish what Kathleen Deveny in Newsweek calls “the rudest, crudest, most taboo term in the English language.” To be blunt, on this issue we must punt, because, on a family website, that dog just won’t hunt—even though Deveny insists the C-word is losing its bite. “The superstar of four-letter words” still “shocks in a way few words still do,” (f*** you, F-word), but it doesn’t pack the same punch. More»

Gender myths, unreported cases allow problem to persist unchecked

(NEWSER) - A mother’s love is supposed to be sacred, which may explain why Britain is struggling to face up to child molestation at the hands of women, Charlotte Philby writes in the Independent. Stats are hard to come by, but one UK abuse organization says 11% of callers in 2004—more than 8,600 people—complained of abuse by a woman. "I dread to think of the true scale of the problem," says one psychologist. More»