Controversy sparked by tattooed Barbie_ On the 50th anniversary, blonde doll Barbie and her brunette friend Nikki have gotten a makeover.However, unlike the one that implied being dressed by legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, this one has already gotten parents all up in arms, since it’s telling young girls that tattoos are cool and stylish, as the British tabloid The Sun sums it up.

Top prices at collectible and antique auctions in 2011, A very nice article about antique appraisals and the affecting parameters of collectible has been published (2011) on eBay thanks to the Lennon Hall Antiques ebay shop.I asked the permission to republish it here. If I may add a note, I would also consider the demographic evolution, that means the (growing) wave of retiree and pensioners coming to collecting and having money to spend (well, for now). For example it is estimated that in 2050 half of the population in Switzerland will be over 60 years old. I only wonder if the present pension system will still exist (the young, working-age people paying for the retirees).

Knox book to aid Kerchers?_ The family of British student Meredith Kercher said on Tuesday their ordeal would not end until they found out the truth about her murder, after Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were acquitted by an Italian appeals court.
Stephanie Kercher, Meredith's sister, said they would first wait for the court's written explanation of Monday's verdict.
"Once we've got the reasons behind the decisions for this one, then we can understand why they have been acquitted of it and work toward finding those who are responsible," she told a news conference in Perugia as Knox waited at a Rome airport for a flight to London and then on to Seattle.
"That's the biggest disappointment, not knowing still and knowing that there is someone or people out there who have done this," she said.
The acquittal of Knox and Sollecito leaves Rudy Guede, an Ivorian drifter and drug dealer, as the only person convicted of the killing which investigators believe was committed by more than one person.