| Iggle Piggle co-star 'fired over suit complaint'
In another incident in May 2006, Mr Blake says he suffered pelvic injuries after being asked to lean over for long periods while wearing the pink and brown bear suit. After visiting hospital he was signed off work for a week with an injured pelvis. Mr Blake added: "I do believe in my heart of hearts that if I didn't mention anything about the suit or the verbal abuse, I would still be working at Ragdoll now. "I complained that the choreography caused me pain but I was told to carry on regardless. "It was fun being a teddy bear, it was a fun job. If I had just shut my mouth and took the abuse, I would still be there." In The Night Garden is a BBC children's television series, particularly aimed at babies and preschool children, produced in 2005 by Ragdoll Productions.
56-year Disney Legend helped create `Small World'
In need of a job in 1944, Santa Monica High School graduate Joyce Carlson followed a friend to Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif., where she landed work in the traffic department delivering mail and office and art supplies. But what started as just a job turned into a career for Carlson, who spent the next 56 years involved first with Disney animated movies and then theme park attractions worldwide. Carlson, who helped ink animated films such as Cinderella, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty before helping create the original model for the ''It's a Small World'' attraction for the 1964 New York World's Fair, died of cancer Wednesday at her home in Orlando, Fla. She was 84. As part of Walt Disney Imagineering, the company's theme park attraction design division, Carlson worked on many attractions but is most closely identified with ``It's a Small World.'' In addition to working on the model for the ride, she was known as the artist behind many of its singing dolls.
Art Deco tours show the various architectural styles of the era
Modern day South Beach is still a vibrant monument to the Art Deco designs of the late 1920s and '30s. The narrow streets are lined with hotels and buildings designed with curved edges, porthole windows and pastel-colored facades, all touchstones of the style. The Miami Design Preservation League is offering tours of the Art Deco district - guided, recorded and one that can even be done listening on a cell phone. On a recent sun-drenched morning, guide Erika Brigham, who has lived in the area since 1988, kicked off the tour with a lively talk about the architectural history of the neighborhood. She wore palm tree-shaped earrings, a gold-and-black speckled visor and a T-shirt promoting the annual weekend event celebrating Art Deco, which was scheduled this year for Jan.
MySpace makes deal with states to protect young users
The social networking Web site MySpace will work with officials from 49 states and the District of Columbia to implement new measures to shield young users from sexual predators, authorities announced Monday.
The Web site has agreed to implement design and policy changes to protect users from harmful images and contact from adults, according to a statement from state Attorney General Bill McCollum. Some new policies include creating a closed section reserved for high school users under 18 and creating a registry in which parents can submit their child's e-mail address to prevent children from signing in or registering a profile.
MySpace will also work with the attorneys general to develop an Internet Safety Technical Task Force to develop an identity authentication system.
Kara Walker pushes boundaries
New York — It's the day before Kara Walker's solo show opens at her gallery in the heart of Chelsea's art district. Passers-by hoping for a sneak peek stoop to peer beneath the half-lowered shades. Callers inquire whether she will be present at the reception — people who want to meet her, or even, the gallery owner suggests, touch her, as groupies would a rock star. The 37-year-old Walker is not just a star. In today's art world, she is a supernova. And this is the former Atlantan's moment: A triumphant retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, one of three exhibits in New York alone. She's on magazine covers, in bookstores. Critics suggest comparisons to Goya, the venerated Spanish Old Master. .
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