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Zippers are everywhere this fall – from brooches, gloves, and bangles to clutches, booties, and sexy heels Leather heel, Manolo Blahnik for Thakoon...Chinese Laundry Women’s Betsey Zipper Platform ($89.95)

Like ‘it’ bags and shoes, fashion has dresses which become ‘it’ after celebrities wear them numerous times. If YSL Tributes dazzled every single red carpet, then Roland Mouret’s Pigalle dress accomplished the same effect, being seen on everyone from Dita von Teese to Heidi Klum. Heidi Klum, Jennifer Lopez, Dita von Teese, Beyonce, Nina Garcia

Gianfranco Ferre, Zac Posen, Sonia Rykiel, Betsey Johnson, Anna Sui Fall/Winter ‘09You may love them or hate them, but colorful tights are the hottest thing on the fall runways. From colorblocked tights at Sonia Rykiel to ornamental at Anna Sui, from electric reds at Betsey Johnson to vibrant yellows at Zac Posen, colored tights are celebrating their trendy moment.

<p>Long and lean skirts paired with knitted cardigans and jackets are not just the favorite uniform of modest girls, it’s the fall’s new trendy look...</p>

Despite the conventional wisdom that emerging demographic trends would lead to the emergence of a Democratic majority, it appears that there’s some good trends for the Republicans. Reyling on Clark Bensen’s PoliData apportionment estimates, Michael Barone finds, in a piece entitled “Demographic Trends Could Make It Harder for Obama and Democrats,” that several states are likely to gain House seats (and thus Electoral Votes) at the next reapportionment.

Coffee, it's sometimes said, is one of America's premier cultural obsessions. Over the past two decades no company has done better at satisfying and exaggerating that obsession than the $12bn Starbucks Corp. But after years of solid growth, the Seattle-based chain is at a crossroads. It is no longer a coffee house offering a 'coffee experience' with its novel culture and distinct language but a cumbersome global corporation selling a lifestyle brand in need of new energy and direction.

A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot. The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants over many regions; movements of species to higher latitudes and altitudes in the northern hemisphere; changes in bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia; and shifting of the oceans' plankton and fish from cold- to warm-adapted communities. "Humans are influencing climate through increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and the warming world is causing impacts on...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Emily again topped the list of most popular baby girl names last year, registering as No. 1 for the 12th straight time. Jacob led among names for boys for the ninth year in a row. New parents didn't stray far from past habits in 2007 when naming their babies. Only one name — Elizabeth — is new to the top-10 list, returning after a two-year absence. Samantha, which previously ranked 10th, dropped to No. 12, according to the latest list released Saturday by the Social Security Administration. Biblical names continued to dominate the boys' list. Besides Jacob,...

British Muslims perform their traditional prayers By 2035, there will be about 1.96 million active Muslims in Britain, compared with 1.63 million church-going Christians, according to calculations by Christian Research, a think- tank. The figures are published in the latest in a series of reports entitled Religious Trends. The think-tank has warned that 4,000 churches could close by 2020 if congregations continue to shrink at current rates. According to the most recent figures from the Church of England, regular Sunday, weekly and monthly attendance each fell by one per cent in 2006. Fewer than a million people attend church...

In a downtown loft apartment in Denver, Colorado, a group of 30-something women is having a party. They joke easily with each other about men, cats and botox. It's more Sex and the City than Psycho, but party organiser Dana Shafman would have them believe they could easily be victims of violent crime. She runs a company that sells Tasers, the electric stun guns used by security forces around the world. In Colorado and other US states, it's legal for ordinary people to own them. Dana's marketing them to women as the ideal personal protection device. "I've been to everyone's...

An analysis of recent temperature data by two scientists at the Australia Bureau of Meteorology. Waiting for Global Cooling (PDF)

The trouble with doom-and-gloom predictions -- whether they be about oil shortages, food scarcity, water wars or population explosions --is that most are based on the linear extrapolation of short-term trends. If, say, rice prices rise, alarmists assume they will keep rising indefinitely at the same rate -- and then produce scary-looking graphs that show trend lines veering up into the wild-eyed blue yonder. But history shows that human adaptation invariably intervenes --especially in parts of the world that have the benefit of a market economy. Scarcity drives innovations that pull the world back from the brink. Consumers take high...

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2008 – The U.S. troop surge in Iraq and increased community involvement have helped improve coalition detention operations there, the U.S. commander in charge of those operations said yesterday. Since the troop surge, the coalition has seen positive trends in the capture and release rates among Iraqi detainees, in detainee-on-detainee violence in coalition facilities, and in recapture rates among detainees who have been released from custody, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, Multinational Force Iraq’s commander of detention operations, told reporters in Iraq. The coalition has more than 23,000 detainees in custody, Stone said. This population size...

A fond farewell to 209 once-common things that are either obsolete or well on the way In his 1970 book, Future Shock, futurist Alvin Toffler warned that the last few decades of the 20th century would bring a widespread physical and psychological overload. "When we lived in an agrarian world as peasants, life was set by the seasons, and things were slow. Terribly slow," says Toffler. "You still had the same plot of land your whole life. Your son's life wasn't going to be that different than your father's." A drastically accelerating world, he predicted, was more than humans would...

America is a religious nation in the eyes of the world. But a new study revealed that the majority of Americans do not rank their relationship with God as the most important personal connection in their life. Seven out of 10 American adults choose their earthly family over their Heavenly Father when asked to choose the most important relationship to them, according to a Barna study released Monday. One-third said their entire nuclear family is most important, while nearly a quarter (22 percent) named their spouse and one-sixth (17 percent) pointed to their children. An additional three percent of American...

IT has never been easier to read up on a favorite topic, whether it’s an obscure philosophy, a tiny insect or an overexposed pop star. Just don’t count on being able to thumb through the printed pages of an encyclopedia to do it. A series of announcements from publishers across the globe in the last few weeks suggests that the long migration to the Internet has picked up pace, and that ahead of other books, magazines and even newspapers, the classic multivolume encyclopedia is well on its way to becoming the first casualty in the end of print...

Are there more atheists and agnostics in this country than is commonly supposed? Two studies -- last week's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum and one published two years ago -- suggest so. The 2006 study from the University of Minnesota does not examine the question of how many non- believers there are but rather makes clear the troubling depth of Americans' distrust of them. Asked whether they would disapprove of a child's wish to marry an atheist, 47.6% of the 2,000 randomly selected people interviewed said yes. When asked the same question about Muslims and African Americans,...

AP Poll: More Say They're Democrats Mar 6 04:16 PM US/Eastern By ALAN FRAM Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - More people say they are Democrats than said so before voting started in this year's presidential contests while the number of Republicans has remained flat, a survey showed Thursday. The Associated Press-Ipsos poll had additional bad news for the GOP: The number of independents and moderates satisfied with President Bush and the country's direction has dipped to record or near-record lows. John McCain, who has wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination, appeals to many independents. But the high levels of...

[snip] The shift in religious affiliation, or away from religious affiliation, has the most correlation, in my view, with that range of religious cultural assumptions than with any specific doctrine. And when people move from one affiliation to another, they are choosing a better cultural fit. [snip] Here’s what this looks like on the ground. There is a large United Church of Christ (liberal Protestant) church in a western suburb of Chicago where 90% of the large and active church membership was not raised in the Congregational tradition. More than half of this church’s growing membership were formerly Catholic. The...

WASHINGTON — In the marketplace of American faith, Catholicism is the big loser. No other religion in the United States has lost more members to other faiths, or to no faith at all, than Catholicism, according to the new survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The survey, conducted in 2007, found that 31 percent of Americans were raised Catholic, but less than 25 per cent of them still identify as Catholic. Roughly 10 percent of all Americans have strayed from Catholic roots, the study reported. Despite the loss, the survey shows that Catholics still represent...

Politics and the street fight between Hillary and Barack Obama aren't the only games in town. A bachelor acquaintance of mine, a prosperous man in his 40s, was new in town and wanted to meet the love of his life, to marry, and become a father and citizen (and voter). So, I organized a small cocktail party and invited several attractive women in their late 30s who are still looking for Mr. Right (and might be willing to settle for Mr. Good Enough). They're women with professional careers but want marriage and family, too. They feel a mild panic that...

Evangelical Christianity has become the largest religious tradition in this country, supplanting Roman Catholicism, which is slowly bleeding members, according to a survey released yesterday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Evangelical Protestants outnumber Catholics by 26.3 percent (59 million) to 24 percent (54 million) of the population, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, a massive 45-question poll conducted last summer of more than 35,000 American adults. "There is no question that the demographic balance has shifted in past few decades toward evangelical churches," said Greg Smith, a research fellow at the Pew Forum. "They are...

Fewer People Claim Religious Affiliation Survey Of 35,000 Finds Religious Landscape Changing POSTED: 1:10 pm EST February 25, 2008 UPDATED: 2:29 pm EST February 25, 2008 The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds. The study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for it sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population. While much of the study...

More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations. For at least a generation, scholars have noted that more Americans are moving among faiths, as denominational loyalty erodes. But the survey, based on interviews with more...

George Barna, the beloved Christian pollster, recently announced to the world in his book “Revolution” that the institutional church was dead. That was not a problem, however, because Barna also announced a “New Reformation” that would sweep our land. He promised that this was going to “amount to a Third Great Awakening in the United States, but with a very different look, feel and outcome than previous religious upheaval.” According to Barna, the age of the local [read: institutional] church was dead and would be replaced by simple house churches and other non-traditional gatherings of believers. The book caused quite...

Whites to be minority in U.S. by 2050, study shows Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 07:29 EST WASHINGTON — Immigration will drive the population of the United States sharply upward between now and 2050, and will push whites into a minority, projections by the Pew Research Center showed Monday. "If current trends continue, the population of the United States will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005," an increase of nearly 50%, the study by the Washington-based think-tank said. More than 80% of the increase will be due to immigrants arriving in the country and their...

New research by George Barna, America's leading Christian pollster, is challenging assumptions about the political loyalties of born-again Christians. The findings are not likely to be pleasant news for the Republican Party.

According to the Family Research Council, a new Barna poll shows that the "born again," whatever that might this week, now overwhelmingly support Hillary (20% of the "born again" vote) and Obama (18%). How is it possible that seemingly devout Christians could support the party that stands like a phalanx behind partial birth abortion and redefining marriage into oblivion and opposes biblical free market principles? Look no further than "America's Pastor" and the Saddleback Church, where Obama and Hillary were guests last year. Rick Warren, while claiming to be acting in a Christian, conciliatory manner, treating these leftwing politicians as...

Fewer people are visiting national parks and taking part in outdoor activities such as camping, according to new research that suggests people are falling out of love with the natural world.The study by US conservationists discovered an "ongoing and fundamental shift away from nature-based recreation" that they say could threaten future efforts to preserve wilderness areas. The experts say people now make up to 25% fewer trips than they did in the 1980s, and say the rise of computer games could be to blame.Oliver Pergams, a biologist at the University of Illinois, and Patricia Zaradic of the US Environmental Leadership...

Image courtesy of istockphoto.com. click for info Born Again Voters No Longer Favor Republican Candidates February 4, 2008 (Ventura, CA)One of the most reliable constituencies of the Republican Party in recent years has been born again Christians. A new national survey of likely voters conducted by The Barna Group, however, shows that the Republicans have lost the allegiance of many born again voters. The November election is truly up for grabs - and if the election were held today, most born again voters would select the Democratic Party nominee for president, whoever that might be. Born Again Voting Pattern...

Abortions At Lowest Level Since Roe! January 17, 2008 This is great news and proves that the pro-life movement and it's positive message on a culture of life works. It also proves that more education and better science doesn't translate into more abortions, but less. Why? because women understand more than ever that abortion kills a human being. With 4D ultrasound and understanding the begining of life better scientifically one cannot put the blinders on any longer and rely on the empty rhetoric that we just don't know when life begins or it's nat really a human. It's still disappointing...

As one smoker said at the Detroit Auto Show, "Do you know what smokers have to go through today just to smoke? It's like they're trying to erase us from history." More and more carmakers are making it harder to smoke in one's own vehicle by replacing lighters and ashtrays with storage spaces and power outlets. The trend is driven by "pressure from anti-smoking groups, fewer smokers and the need for the extra storage space." According to the United Health Foundation, about 20.8% of the population smokes, which means about 60 million people. According to Apple, 100 million people have...

The abortion rate in the United States has fallen to its lowest level since 1974, the first full year after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the procedure nationwide, new data show. The annual rate has been falling steadily since 1981, paralleling a sharp decline in the number of abortion providers. Recent years also have seen an upsurge in legislation making it more difficult for women to access abortions and for doctors to perform them. Thirty-five years after the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, in which the Supreme Court said women have a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, states have...

The abortion debate has raged since 1973, when the Supreme Court gave abortion constitutional protection, but the basic law of the land has proved immutable. Abortion is legal, and it's going to remain legal for a long time. Laws often alter attitudes, inducing people to accept things—such as racial integration—they once rejected. But sometimes, attitudes move in the opposite direction, as people see the consequences of the change. That's the case with abortion. The news that the abortion rate has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years elicits various explanations, from increased use of contraceptives to lack of access...

Conservatism around the world seems to be suffering from some sort of nervous breakdown. This takes different forms in different countries as we would expect from a political disposition that stresses the local, the practical, and the traditional. Still, the breakdown seems to be more acute in the English-speaking world than in continental Europe and elsewhere. It also exhibits certain common features. Let me begin with an acute example: “mainstream” conservative parties in all countries for the last thirty years have shunned nationalist voters and the causes that arouse them from immigration to anti-supra-nationalism. This has resulted in the rise...

The abortion debate has raged since 1973, when the Supreme Court gave abortion constitutional protection, but the basic law of the land has proved immutable. Abortion is legal, and it's going to remain legal for a long time. Laws often alter attitudes, inducing people to accept things -- such as racial integration -- they once rejected. But sometimes, attitudes move in the opposite direction, as people see the consequences of the change. That's the case with abortion. The news that the abortion rate has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years elicits various explanations, from increased use of contraceptives...

Here are three obituaries I am thrilled to write Let us remember three of the cultural trends that died – or were at least mortally wounded – in the previous year, hopefully for the betterment of all mankind. The discrediting of Hollywood "protest." Hollywood will never give up trying to make Americans think like Barbra Streisand, but 2007 showed that it might have a harder time raising money for the effort. In the last year, Hollywood dropped enough anti-war bombs to launch its own Shock and Awe campaign. Robert Redford's star-studded Lions for Lambs was panned by critics and moviegoers...

The number of Americans who consider themselves to be Republicans jumped nearly two percentage points in December to 34.2%. That’s the largest market share for the Republican brand in nearly two years, since January 2006 (see history from January 2004 to present).

<p>While a majority of American adults still believe that Jesus should be the focus of the holiday season, a growing segment of the population disagrees.</p> <p>A recent poll conducted by the Rasmussen Reports found that 27 percent of respondents said that there should be less of a Christian emphasis on the holidays. That's up 10 percentage points from a year ago when just 17 percent of adults felt that way.</p>

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll on the topic of abortion finds that the attitude Americans have on the controversial political issue is moving in the pro-life direction. The Washington Post /ABC news survey find a six percent shift in public opinion towards the pro-life direction in the last six months.The media outlets conducted a poll from December 6 to 9 of 1,136 American adults and the survey contained a three percent margin of error.The poll asked respondents, "Do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases or illegal...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2007 – Positive trends in Iraq’s Anbar province are permanent, the commander of coalition forces in western Iraq said today. Iraqi security forces in the province are shouldering the security burden, and they are 19 months away from assuming full control in what was once the al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq, Marine Maj. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, commander of Multinational Force West, told Pentagon reporters. Violence in the Sunni-dominated province has dropped precipitously. November was the 10th month in a row of declining violence, Gaskin said during a video-teleconference from Baghdad. Put another way, this time last...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Republican Party efforts to attract Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing minority in the country, have faltered in the last year as many prefer the Democrats' position on illegal immigration, a study found. The study by the Pew Hispanic Center released on Thursday said: "After spending the first part of this decade loosening their historic ties to the Democratic Party, Hispanic voters have reversed course in the past year. Illegal immigration has been a prominent issue in the contest to be the Republican nominee for next November's presidential election, with candidates vying to appear toughest on an issue that...

2007 Trends Analysis: Americans Reformulating Christianity By Audrey Barrick Christian Post Reporter Tue, Dec. 04 2007 09:34 AM ET As fewer Americans identify themselves with Christianity, research indicates that those who remain Christian are redefining what "Christian" means. Study: Christianity No Longer Looks Like Jesus Younger generations are not bound by traditional parameters of the Christian faith and instead are embracing values that are not necessarily based on biblical foundations, according to a recent analysis by The Barna Group. Although faith is an acceptable attribute and pursuit among most young people, their notions of faith do not align with conventional...

The Wal-Mart Era, the retailer's time of overwhelming business and social influence in America, is drawing to a close. Using a combination of low prices and relentless expansion, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. emerged from rural Arkansas in the 1970s to reshape the world's largest economy. Its co-founder, Sam Walton, taught Americans to demand ever-lower prices and instructed businesses on running a lean company. His company helped boost America's overall productivity, lowered the inflation rate, and strengthened the buying power for millions of people. Over time, it also accelerated the drive to manufacture products in Asia, drove countless small shops out of...

THE great myth about divorce is that marital breakup is an increasing threat to American families, with each generation finding their marriages less stable than those of their parents. ...The story of ever-increasing divorce is a powerful narrative. It is also wrong. In fact, the divorce rate has been falling continuously over the past quarter-century, and is now at its lowest level since 1970. While marriage rates are also declining, those marriages that do occur are increasingly more stable. For instance, marriages that began in the 1990s were more likely to celebrate a 10th anniversary than those that started in...

Number of hunters falls, worrying some By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer Sun Sep 2, 4:53 PM ET Hunters remain a powerful force in American society, as evidenced by the presidential candidates who routinely pay them homage, but their ranks are shrinking dramatically and wildlife agencies worry increasingly about the loss of sorely needed license-fee revenue. New figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that the number of hunters 16 and older declined by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006 — from 14 million to about 12.5 million. The drop was most acute in New England, the Rocky...

I believe that most here are now aware of the NASA GISS temperature data that was corrected by a Canadian researcher, Steven McIntyre, now shows the hottest year in the USA is not 1998, but rather the year 1934. This post is just to point out two things: 1) the order of the hottest years and 2) the media coverage of this hugely important data correction to US yearly temperatures. From the corrected data posted by NASA, it now shows the correct hottest years as follows, beginning with hottest:http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.D.txt 1934 1998 1921 2006 1931 1999 1953 1990 1938 1939 1954...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2007 – The security situation in eastern Baghdad is improving, the coalition commander for that region said today. (Video) Attacks against coalition forces and Iraqi civilians are down, said Army Col. John Castles, commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. “From where I’m sitting, things are starting to look pretty good,” he told Pentagon reporters via teleconference from Camp Taji, Iraq. “Overall throughout the area of operations, the security situation has been improving.” Castles’ unit is responsible for security operations in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah and Sadr City areas. Adhamiyah is a Sunni-dominated area in eastern...

I’ve just read a most interesting 2004 book by Oxford historian Alister McGrath, arguing that we are currently looking at the twilight of atheism. That’s certainly my impression, judging from the remarkably ill-advised antics of the recent anti-God campaign. One thing the campaign made quite clear is that atheistic materialism is not some neutral middle ground on which we can happily do science experiments together. On the contrary, your local atheist now wants you to know that he is militant, and that could be trouble for you if you are a theist or non-materialist of some kind. Well, trouble for...

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2007 – It is too early to discern trends out of the U.S. troop “surge” as part of the Baghdad security plan, defense officials said here today. Speaking on background, the officials discussed the quarterly report to Congress, titled “Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq.” The report was released yesterday, but the cut-off for data in the report was May 14. “It is too early to assess the impact of the new way forward,” a senior defense official said. The final U.S. brigade combat team does not become operational until this week, the official said. The...