Creating Revolutions...From Paris

"By being natural and sincere, one often can create revolutions without having sought them."--Christian Dior. The beautiful, timeless black evening gown I showed you yesterday, was created with aplomb by Christian Dior. It still holds up so elegantly today. The year Mr Dior created that dress? 1953 autumn winter collection. I highly recommend an excellent book "Christian Dior--The Biography" by Marie-France Pochna. What? You're not going to read it? Well then, I'll have to share one more lovely quote from the book. "A truly civilized people does not scorn the minor arts, for it knows how important the manifestations of living can be, even when embodied in a less permanent form of expression than marble or indelible ink."

Just when you thought it was safe to go back onto the golf course ...

The year-end scandal continues into the new year

Let's start off with some beefcake from Vanity Fair ... why not? Nothing else to do

'G-spot' doesn't appear to exist, researchers say

Only the British could write this with a straight face

Some are firm believers

The elusive erogenous zone said to exist in some women may be a myth, say researchers who have hunted for it.

Their study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine is the biggest yet, involving 1,800 women, and it found no proof.

The King's College London team believe the G-spot may be a figment of women's imagination, encouraged by magazines and sex therapists.

But sexologist Beverley Whipple who helped popularise the G-spot idea said the work was "flawed".

She said the researchers had discounted the experiences of lesbian or bisexual women and failed to consider the effects of having different sexual partners with different love-making techniques.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8439000.stm

Huge tomb found near Cairo

Not a tiny tomb, nor a moderate tomb, but a huge tomb

Archaeologists say the tomb still has much to reveal

Archaeologists in Egypt have said they have discovered the largest known tomb in the ancient necropolis of Sakkara, to the south of Cairo.

The tomb dates back 2,500 years to the 26th Dynasty and contains important artefacts, including mummified eagles.

It is one of two newly discovered tombs found by an Egyptian team working close to the entrance of Sakkara, the burial ground for Egypt's ancient capital.

The tomb consists of a big hall hewn out of the limestone rock.

There are a number of small rooms and passageways where ancient coffins, skeletons and well-preserved clay pots were discovered, as well as the mummies of eagles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8440364.stm

World's tallest building opens

Early tenants complain of lack of parking and slow elevator rides to the top

The world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa (popularly called the Burj Dubai),

was lit by laser lights during its opening ceremony in Dubai Jan. 4.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/2010/0104/World-s-tallest-building-Is-the-Burj-Khalifa-a-herald-of-economic-woe

Happy Birthday, Isaac

Ok, Ok, about the apples thing, but is gravity the reason temperatures rise and fall?

Today on the Google home page, an animated apple is falling, over and over, with a satisfying plunk—a 367th birthday tribute to SirIsaac Newton.

The English scientist was born especially tiny but grew into a massive intellect and still looms large, thanks to his findings on gravity, light, motion, mathematics, and more.

Legend has it that Isaac Newton formulated gravitational theory in 1665 or 1666 after watching an apple fall and asking why the apple fell straight down, rather than sideways or even upward.

"He showed that the force that makes the apple fall and that holds us on the ground is the same as the force that keeps the moon and planets in their orbits," said Martin Rees, President of Britain's Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of science, which was once headed by Newton himself.

"His theory of gravity wouldn't have got us global positioning satellites," said Jeremy Gray, a mathematical historian at the Milton Keynes, U.K-based Open University. "But it was enough to develop space travel."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100104-isaac-newton-google-doodle-logo-apple.html

Lost Amazon complex found

Maybe if they spent more time making crops instead of "crop circles," they'd still be around

The crop circles of Santa Teresinha, Brazil, are seen in an undated photograph.

Hundreds of circles, squares, and other geometric shapes once hidden by forest hint at a previously unknown ancient society that flourished in the Amazon, a new study says.

Satellite images of the upper Amazon Basin taken since 1999 have revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks spanning a distance greater than 155 miles (250 kilometers).

Now researchers estimate that nearly ten times as many such structures—of unknown purpose—may exist undetected under the Amazon's forest cover.

At least one of the sites has been dated to around A.D. 1283, although others may date as far back as A.D. 200 to 300, said study co-author Denise Schaan, an anthropologist at the Federal University of Pará in Belém, Brazil.

The discovery adds to evidence that the hinterlands of the Amazon once teemed with complex societies, which were largely wiped out by diseases brought to South America by European colonists in the 15th and 16th centuries, Schaan said.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100104-amazon-lost-civilization-circles.html

GW as seen from England

Getting to the bottom of it

Brown Wardle, Whitworth, Lancashire, about 24 hours ago
Image: Howard Maunders, Beautiful Britain On this Day

Today, when hundreds of schools in the north are closed due to ice, you may recall that the Met Office forecast a mild winter. (That prediction came after the Met forecast a "barbecue" summer; as you may have noticed we experienced more than 40 sodden days of rain.) These predictions were part of the Met's insistence on global warming, and reflect poorly on its grasp of the weather.

Emails from East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Centre suggest that Brits have been involved in covering up lack of scientific support for manmade global warming.

But a number of stalwart Brits have been involved in uncovering the scientific evidence that there is no manmade global warming. Christopher Booker , Lord Monckton and Philip Foster come happily to mind. Richard North has written a devastating series on the global warming financial scam. All worth reading if you are interested in the future.

Willie Brown tells the truth

WILLIE BROWN ON CALIFORNIA’S PROBLEMS: “If we as a state want to make a New Year’s resolution, I suggest taking a good look at the California we have created. From our out-of-sync tax system to our out-of-control civil service, it’s time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue about what we’ve become. . . . Talking about this is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders. But at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs.”

Oh, Al?

Temps Plunge to Record as Cold Snap Freezes North, East States...
CHILL MAP...
Vermont sets 'all-time record for one snowstorm'...
Iowa temps 'a solid 30 degrees below normal'...
Peru's mountain people 'face extinction because of cold conditions'...
Beijing -- coldest in 40 years...
World copes with Arctic weather...

COLD, COLD, COLDER

Never argue with 75% of Americans

ACTION / REACTION: Obama Moving America To The Right? “Only a fourth of all Americans approve of the direction Obama and Congress are taking the country, according to a Gallup survey. A similarly dismal proportion approve of the job being done by Congress under the leadership of Reid and Pelosi. Nearly three-fourths of those surveyed prefer that Congress do nothing to reform health care rather than take final action on either the Senate or House versions of Obamacare. And 79 percent of Americans view government corruption as the most important issue facing the country.”

Name calling