Autocowrecks: Mile-High Insurance Doesn't Exist Either - Epic Fail ...

Source: http://failblog.org/2011/11/04/epic-fail-photos-autocowrecks-mile-high-insurance-doesnt-exist-either/

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G-20 rejects extra help for debt-strapped Europe (AP)

CANNES, France ? Europe failed to get the leaders of the world's wealthiest economies to help out with its debt troubles, but everyone left a G-20 summit Friday relieved that at least they forced the Greek prime minister not to hold the world hostage with a bailout vote.

It took a public berating of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, and Greece's politics are in upheaval as a result, but the shaky bailout plan appears back on track for now.

Investors had been hoping the Group of 20 nations would lend the struggling eurozone a helping hand ? but the G-20 leaders said Europe needs to help itself first. They said the International Monetary Fund could be beefed up to help more, but not for at least three more months.

The debt crisis that rocked the 17-nation currency union for the past two years has reached a new high and now threatens to push the world economy into a second recession.

Despite the political firepower at the summit ? which included the leaders of Europe, China, Russia, Brazil, India and the United States, among others ? meeting was overshadowed by political turmoil in Greece and worries about Italy, which accepted IMF supervision of its reform efforts.

The IMF move was an highly unusual intervention into the affairs of one of the world's leading economies.

Europe's own rescue efforts, cobbled together at several crisis meetings last week, left open many important questions, making cash-rich countries like China, Russia or Brazil reluctant to commit more than just words.

"It's important that the IMF sees its resources reinforced," Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, told reporters. However, any decisions on how to reinforce the IMF were left until February.

The lack of detail disappointed markets, with stocks, bonds and the euro falling. Italy's borrowing rates, in particular, hit worrying new highs.

With their own finances already stretched from bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal ? and traditional allies like the United States wrestling with their own problems ? eurozone countries were looking to the IMF to use its financial reserves and rescue experience to help prevent the debt crisis from spreading to its larger economies, such as Italy and Spain.

The most likely way the eurozone could still get additional financing is through a special account under the auspices of the IMF, into which individual countries could make payments. Those investments in turn could then be used to boost the currency union's own bailout fund, the euro440 billion ($606 billion) European Financial Stability Facility.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF chief Christine Lagarde both said that at the two-day meeting not a single country made a firm commitment that it would participate.

The broader increase of the IMF's resources, which also remained vague, is designed to help countries around the world, not just the eurozone.

Barroso said several countries had indicated they would provide bilateral loans to the IMF ? which would give it more funds without collecting money from reluctant members like the U.S.

The G-20 final statement also said the IMF should somehow issue more special drawing rights, or SDRs, the fund's own reserve currency that can be exchanged for cash with central banks around the world. SDRs can just be created and do not require new commitments from IMF member states.

Finance ministers will now have to work out the details of these measures. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the G-20 would next deal with the topic in February.

The lack of progress on the debt crisis troubled some countries that would be hard hit by another recession in the eurozone.

"Every day that the eurozone crisis continues, every day it isn't resolved, is a day that has a chilling effect on the rest of the world economy," said British Prime Minister David Cameron. "We are ready to do our part to help stabilize the world economy. ... But you can't ask the IMF or other countries to substitute for the action that needs to be taken within the eurozone itself."

The G-20 announcements show how dramatically the powers have shifted within the IMF.

Until two years ago, the IMF ? dominated by the traditional powers in Europe and the U.S. ? mostly applied its painful financial adjustment programs to poor and emerging economies in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Now, it's growing powers like China, Brazil and South Africa that have to decide whether helping Europe is a worthy investment.

In an effort to do just that, Italy, the eurozone's third largest economy with a debt load of 120 percent of gross domestic product, asked the IMF for help monitoring promised budgetary and structural reforms on a quarterly basis.

The country's borrowing rates have risen sharply this week ? and jumped further on Friday ? on fears that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi does not have the political strength to implement the reforms.

Lagarde said the IMF hopes to start checking whether Italian measures promised to the eurozone are actually implemented by the end of November, to target "a lack of credibility."

___

Jamey Keaten, Joe McDonald, Angela Charlton, and Greg Keller contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111104/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_g20_summit

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93% 50/50

All Critics (147) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (137) | Rotten (10)

Still, it's Gordon-Levitt's choices that continue to impress. Sure, he owned one of the most jaw-dropping sequences in last summer's blockbuster Inception. But the actor remains drawn to profoundly human-scale hurts and quiet triumphs.

Gordon-Levitt is an agreeably undemonstrative actor who plays well opposite the burbly Rogen.

Chances are about 90/10 that you'll enjoy 50/50.

Scene by scene, 50/50 can be both amusing and moving, with the tightly wound Gordon-Levitt and the boundaryless Rogen forming an oddly complementary pair. But as a whole the movie never quite coheres.

In other hands, Adam might well be hard to take. But as the comedy in 50/50 turns darker, Gordon-Levitt, who's maybe the most natural, least affected actor of his generation, makes prickly plenty engaging.

An everyman tale with plenty of heart and honesty, the serious subject matter is regularly enlivened with jolts of genuine hilarity, some of it in delightfully questionable taste.

It's refreshing to see a movie that embraces the ugly side of what happens to complicated personal relationships. Its quite uncomfortable at times, and the frank exploration of the cancer patient journey makes the comedy even funnier.

It is tough to make a comedy about cancer, since it touches us all. It is not funny. When you have Seth Rogen in a film, however, anything can be funny.

The elements of 50/50 that do work are strong enough to carry the film along and affecting enough to bring losers like me to tears in their cinema seats.

Tackles a distressing subject with a healthy dose of humour, thanks to a sharply observed script, well-rounded, likeable characters, astute direction and a trio of terrific performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick.

There couldn't be a more serious subject, yet Gordon-Levitt and especially Rogen (who co-produced the movie) make the comedy seem both spontaneous and organic.

Nimbly switching gears between heartful drama and uproarious comedy, 50/50 tackles the near-impossible and makes a film about cancer that'll have you crying like a baby one minute and laughing so hard your sides hurt the next.

Jonathan Levine directs a film that may be one of the year's best but still makes one yearn for the serious and uncompromising films of the 1950s and 1960s.

Yes, cancer can be funny. Sort of.

Films about cancer aren't generally this funny. And while this movie isn't a comedy, beyond its generous dose of realistic humour, it has a smart, personal script that dares to face a difficult situation head on.

Life is hard. Cancer is hard. Relationships are hard. Family is hard. '50/50' managed to find the power in all of those things and give us plenty of laughs so we're not simply in a ball crying.

A near-great movie made out of the hardest-to-thread, most oxymoronic genre imaginable - "cancer comedy."

a good movie with a moderate sense of daring that ultimately spends too much time telling the wrong story

With its excellent cast and emotionally intelligent script, 50/50 isn't necessarily a feel good movie about cancer, but is an exceptional telling of one man's story, mixed with a perfect balance of sympathy and laughs.

Interesting commentary on how we deal with difficult situations, and makes a strong case for our desperate need for each other -- especially when the odds are stacked against us.

... surprisingly funny, while also honestly poignant and dramatic.

...one of the unexpected pleasures of the fall movie season.

"50/50" is a tear jerker film that has me calling it one of the best films of 2011.

Add 50/50 to your want to see list. And then make an appointment for your annual physical with your doctor.

Even with its flaws and age limits, 50/50 isn't half bad.

50/50 is noble in its own way but not especially affecting. In its homey style and jokiness it's as comfortable as an old shoe, and I don't know that a movie about cancer should be comfortable.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/5050_2011/

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Jury to begin considering fate of Jackson doctor

Dr. Conrad Murray listens as defense attorney Ed Chernoff, not pictured, gives the defense's closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Dr. Conrad Murray listens as defense attorney Ed Chernoff, not pictured, gives the defense's closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Walgren delivers his closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/ Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Defense Attorney Ed Chernoff addresses the jury during the defense's closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Dr. Conrad Murray prepares to leave for lunch recess after the prosecution had delivered its closing arguments during the final stage of Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/ Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Walgren projects a calendar on screen to chronicle events for the jury during his closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/ Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

(AP) ? Jurors in the involuntary manslaughter case of Michael Jackson's doctor begin deliberations Friday after a six-week trial that painted Conrad Murray as either an inept and opportunistic physician or a naive outsider granted access to the pop superstar's inner realm.

The seven-man, five-woman panel listened intently Thursday as prosecutors and defense attorneys argued over whether Murray should be convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Jackson's death in June 2009.

The physician's attorneys attacked prosecutors and their witnesses, saying they had over time developed stories and theories that placed the blame for Jackson's death squarely on Murray.

Jackson died from a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol, which Murray acknowledged giving Jackson to help him sleep.

The real reason Jackson died, defense attorney Ed Chernoff argued, was because he craved the powerful anesthetic so much that he gave himself a fatal injection when Murray left his bedside.

"They want you to convict Dr. Murray for the actions of Michael Jackson," Chernoff said.

"Poor Conrad Murray," prosecutor David Walgren replied in his final speech to jurors. "Michael Jackson is dead. And we have to hear about poor Conrad Murray and no doctor knows what it's like to be in his shoes."

Walgren noted that several doctors who testified ? including two who were called by Murray's attorneys ? said they would have never given the singer anesthesia in his bedroom.

Murray is solely to blame for Jackson's death, Walgren argued, saying Murray had purchased more than four gallons (15 liters) of propofol to administer to Jackson and had been giving him nightly doses to help him sleep.

Walgren repeatedly described Murray's treatments on Jackson as unusual and called his actions on the day of the singer's death ? including not calling authorities and not mentioning his propofol doses to paramedics or other doctors ? "bizarre."

Murray was essentially experimenting on Jackson, Walgren said. Murray should have known Jackson might die from the treatments, yet he lacked the proper life-saving and monitoring equipment.

"What is unusual and unpredictable is that Michael Jackson lived as long as he did under the care of Conrad Murray in this situation," Walgren said.

The prosecutor repeatedly invoked the singer's children, Prince, Paris and Blanket, and said Murray's actions left them without a father. The children, who range in ages from 9 to 14, were not present, but Jackson's parents and several of his siblings attended closing arguments.

The Houston-based cardiologist's culpability will be decided by jurors, who heard from 49 witnesses and have more than 300 pieces of evidence to consider. They were given lengthy instructions about how to deliberate and interpret the case.

If Murray is convicted, he faces a sentence that ranges from probation to four years behind bars, and he would lose his medical license. The sentence will be decided by Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor and not the jury; the judge will receive input from attorneys for both sides and probation officials if necessary. A recent change in California law means that Murray, 58, might serve any incarceration in a county jail rather than a state prison.

If acquitted, Murray would be free from criminal prosecution, but will likely be pursued by medical licensing authorities in the states of California, Nevada and Texas.

In order to convict Murray, jurors will have to determine the cardiologist was substantially responsible for Jackson's death.

Despite days of scientific testimony about what likely happened in Jackson's bedroom from experts for Murray and the prosecution, Walgren acknowledged that some things about the events in the King of Pop's bedroom that led to his death will never be known.

"The people won't prove exactly what happened behind those closed doors," he said. "Michael Jackson could give answers, but he is dead."

___

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report.

___

McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-04-Michael%20Jackson-Doctor/id-e173f5fefda048d48dde4c2b74f7b71c

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Open fight: Uchiha Madara's true form

This is an open fight to any roleplayers out there. Madara awaits patiently for his next opponent only to show how powerful the leader of the Uchiha clan is. He wishes to fight an upperclassman because he has no time to waste time on useless weaklings.

The setting of this fight is in the afternoon, on acres and acres of battlefield. Large pillars comes from the ground in different areas of the battlefield. Patches of dead grass are spotted throughout the area and the wind blows at mild miles per hours, forcing dust to fly around.

RP Rules:
No Godmodding
No going out of turn
No T1,T2, nor T3

Let's have fun guys!!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/jKxeNQTz9to/viewtopic.php

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"X-Factor" leads Fox to nightly ratings win (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Fox scored an overall ratings win Wednesday night on the strength of "The X Factor," while "Modern Family" took the night's top rating spot and NBC suffered a night of declines, according to preliminary numbers.

"The X Factor" on Fox from 8 to 10 posted a 3..9 rating/10 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, which gave the network the highest average in the demographic and 11.4 million total viewers.

ABC started the night with "The Middle" at 8, which was down 9 percent with a 2.9/9 and 9.3 million total viewers, followed by "Suburgatory," which was also down 9 percent, taking a 3.1/8 and 8.4 million total viewers.

"Modern Family" at 9 took a modest decrease but still won the night's best performance in the demographic with a 5.6/14 and 13.2 million total viewers, which made it the most-watched program of the evening. "Happy Endings" at 9:30 was steady with a 3.5/9 and 7.8 million total viewers. "Revenge" closed the evening at 10 on an up note, growing 11 percent to a 3.0/8 and 8.5 million total viewers.

There was little in the way of good news for NBC, which started the evening with "Up All Night" at 8, taking a 14 percent decline from its last original airing two weeks ago for a 1.8/5 and 4.7 million total viewers. Following a repeat of "Up All Night," "Harry's Law" at 9 slipped 15 percent to a series low with a 1.1/3 and 7 million total viewers. "Law & Order: SVU" closed the night at 10 with a 9 percent decline, tying its series low with a 2.0/5 and 7 million total viewers.

CBS launched the night at 8 with "Survivor," which received a 3.5/10 and 11.8 million total viewers. "Criminal Minds" at 9 was down 8 percent from its last original airing two weeks ago, taking a 3.6/9 and 12.8 million total viewers. "CSI" closed the night with a 2.7/7 and 10.6 million total viewers.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111103/media_nm/us_ratings

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Nissan raises full-year forecast on sales outlook (AP)

TOKYO ? Nissan Motor Co. said Wednesday its net profit for the July-September quarter slipped 4.3 percent from a year earlier, but the automaker raised its earnings outlook for the full-year on projections of higher sales.

Japan's second-biggest vehicle manufacturer seems to be weathering the strong yen and tsunami disaster better than some its rivals, including Honda and Mazda.

"In spite of unfavorable currency fluctuations, numerous natural disasters and a volatile global economy, we remain on track to deliver a significantly profitable full-year performance," CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a press release.

Sales are growing in Europe, China and the U.S., said the maker of the March subcompact and Leaf electric car.

Nissan, which is allied with Renault SA of France, raised its forecast for the full-year through March 2012 to 290 billion yen ($3.63 billion) from the 270 billion yen projected in June. Still, that would represent a 9 percent fall from profit of 319.2 billion yen in the previous year.

It projects annual sales will grow to 9.45 trillion yen from an earlier forecast of 9.4 trillion yen.

It also raised its unit sales forecast 3.3 percent to 4.75 million vehicles for the fiscal year. Sales projections for China ? 1.25 million units ? are nearly as high as the forecast for North America, at 1.35 million.

Nissan's quarterly net profit declined to 98.4 billion yen ($1.26 billion) from 101.73 billion yen last year, while half-year profit slid 12 percent to 183.4 billion yen ($2.3 billion) as sales rose 1.1 percent to 4.367 trillion yen ($54.73 billion).

During the first half of the fiscal year, sales in China rose 18.2 percent to 595,000 vehicles, claiming about 7 percent of the market there.

In other regions, sales in Europe increased 22.6 percent to 339,000 vehicles, and those in North America grew 10.8 percent to 642,000. Sales in Japan declined 14 percent to 283,000 vehicles.

Nissan is also doing well in emerging markets such as Thailand and Indonesia. Sales in Brazil increased 88.2 percent to 29,300 vehicles. The company said it is investing $1.5 billion to build a factory in Resende, Rio de Janeiro state, with a target completion date in the first half of 2014.

Nissan said it had sold 15,600 of the recently launched zero-emission Leaf electric car through September.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111102/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earns_nissan

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Bhutan 'Idol' rocks dragon lutes, Buddhist hymns

The musician strummed his dragon-headed lute, launching a nervous young woman into a high-pitched, ululating song broadcast live across the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

The judges' were unsparing. She was out of synch with the music, one said. The other consulted historical scriptures and discovered she got the lyrics wrong.

It's clear "Bhutan Star" is not just another low-budget knockoff of the "American Idol" juggernaut. This wildly popular show, which forces contestants to sing the nation's fading traditional songs, is Bhutan's most promising weapon in its fight to save its culture from being overrun by globalization.

Conservative grandparents, Buddhist monks, rebellious teens and almost everyone else with a TV gather every Saturday and Sunday to watch contestants belt out classical Buddhist compositions. Jaded youngsters have started humming folk tunes in the street.

"When young guys like us can sing this, (kids) think, 'Why not?'" said Tandin Dorji, a 24-year-old office worker and a contestant on the show.

Nestled in the high peaks between India and China, the "Land of the Thunder Dragon" long maintained an insular existence, with traditions nearly frozen in amber and no paved roads, phones or postal service until the 1960s.

Men wore the gho, a knee-length robe, with high black socks and elaborately decorated silk boots. Women wore the kira, a floor-length woven dress. They snacked on toasted rice and butter tea and listened to homegrown music. Even as young Bhutanese went abroad to study, and Bollywood movies colonized the nation's two theaters, its traditions dominated.

Then, in 1999, came TV, the Internet and what Education Minister Thakur Powdyel calls "the onslaught of global culture."

The changes to this slow-paced nation of 700,000 were lightning fast.

Story: Facebook campaign heralding change in Bhutan?

Kids now wear jeans and leather jackets and gel their hair into spikes. They eat Lay's potato chips, drink Pepsi and listen to infectious Korean pop songs they pass around on cassettes and thumb drives. Kinzang Dema, the granddaughter of a renowned classical singer, sees no shame in playing Justin Bieber's "Baby" from her cellphone speaker.

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"We get carried away by all that stuff," said Yeshi Dem, 15, who guiltily revealed her love for the Korean soap opera "Boys Over Flowers."

Sensing that guilt, Nidup Dorji, a popular 37-year-old writer, actor, composer and singer, wondered whether Bhutanese were ready to embrace their culture again, but with a modern twist.

He recorded a classical album in 2006 and was convinced it went blockbuster by Bhutan standards ? selling 8,000 cassettes and 3,000 CDs ? because he spiced it up with modern Spanish guitar and drums.

The next year he turned to TV.

He appropriated the format of "Idol," which he had seen on satellite TV. He then used Bhutan's pop genre known as rigsar to lure kids into watching the folk music called boedra and the more complex zhungdra, classical, high-pitched religious songs composed by Buddhist lamas and reminiscent of Chinese opera.

Each week, the contestants perform one rigsar song with a modern band on one side of the stage and one song of either boedra or zhungdra with a traditional band on the other playing the dramnyen lute, the yangchen dulcimer and the fiddle-like chiwang. There are two sets of judges as well.

Genteel criticism
The series has the production quality of a junior high talent show held in a past-its-prime Vegas nightclub and broadcast on local public access television.

Some contestants start over, forget the words or sing seriously off-key. Most stand stock still, though a few slowly sway to the music.

Ugyen Tshomo's time ran out as she delivered a breathy, shaky performance and her mike was turned off. When she kept singing, it was turned back on.

Story: Bhutan king and queen share first public kiss

The judges, while far more polite than those on "Idol," are brutal by the genteel standards of a country that measures its development by the homegrown calculation of Gross National Happiness.

One judge told a contestant she sang as if she had not had enough to eat. Another gave perplexing advice to former monk Tsheten G. Tashi, who forgot some lyrics and sang the rest far out of tune: "When two bulls fight, only one can win."

Tshering Lham sang a mournful lament in an ancient Tibetan dialect about a homesick princess who had to leave China to live with a king in Tibet.

Both judges give her six out of 10.

"You have a good voice, but you are not staying in tune," said Ugyen Tshering.

'The only entertainment we have'
The show is run under a complex system that mixes judges' scores with cellphone text votes to whittle the 25 singers down, awards immunity to popular ones, lets judges save some voted off and throws two new "wild card" singers into the mix halfway through the season.

Though there are no weekly ratings, the show receives 70,000 to 80,000 text votes at 5 ngultrum (ten cents) a vote every week, Dorji said. It has sold thousands of cassettes and DVDs, inspired its own copycat show and been praised by the prime minister in Parliament for restoring Bhutan's dying musical heritage.

"It's the only entertainment we have in Bhutan," said 16-year-old Gyelwa Kuenzom. "We are learning from it, the traditional songs, it's really enjoyable."

Nearly all 900 monks in Tsheten Dorji's monastery watch the show.

"Wisdom is given by the words of some songs," the 29-year-old monk said.

Slideshow: ?American Idol? season 10 finale

"Bhutan Star" is only one part of an all-out scramble to protect the nation's culture.

Filmmaker Karma Tshering twisted another foreign import, the beauty pageant, to revive interest in old Bhutanese textiles. His Miss Bhutan contestants don't model swimsuits, but outfits from the 1800s borrowed from a museum as they answer questions on culture, language and traditional Buddhist manners.

The government, with its law requiring traditional dress in public widely flouted, has turned to the schools to win back the next generation, overhauling the curriculum to emphasize culture, religion and the environment, said Powdyel, the education minister.

Students now start the day with a two-minute exercise in Buddhist mindfulness, folding their hands in their laps, closing their eyes and clearing their heads of Facebook friends, Twitter messages and other distractions.

"What is modern is always more tempting and even more aggressive. It might not necessarily be more authentic and fulfilling," Powdyel said.

Preserving culture
At Lung Tenzampa Middle Secondary School, principal Kinley Pem said it's working: Many children have traded in their Nike book bags for traditional woven ones. Those with long, gelled hair and blonde highlights acceded to haircuts that were not exactly forced on them, but were the result of intense pressure.

"We were happy that we could get them back to the culture," she said.

But Pem was ambivalent about TV. "The children, they learn a lot. They are very expressive, confident," she said, crediting foreign shows. On the other hand, "they want to be like the Koreans."

"Bhutan Star" is making at least a small dent in that, said Kheng Dema Wangchuk, 25, a contestant on an earlier season of the show who now plays in its classical band.

Audiences for his traditional gigs in local clubs have tripled as Bhutanese realize pop tunes are only popular for a month or two, while classical songs last for generations, he said.

Yet Dorji, the producer, constantly struggles with the delicate balance of bringing his audience back to its cultural roots while still keeping it entertained.

While crimson robed monks sat beside parents in traditional dress at a recent "Bhutan Star" concert at a packed amphitheater, at least half the crowd wore Western clothes as they listened to a cover version of Cee-Lo's U.S. pop hit "Forget You," playing from the speakers before the show.

And while the contestants wore traditional dress, they sang only modern rigsar music; Dorji said the crowd was in no mood for education.

"If we played classical music," he said, "this place would clear out."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45161046/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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