Valkyrie

The scene in 1992: a fitting at Calvin Klein, where Nadja Auermann, a 6-foot fashion Valkyrie, was trying on the nude-toned slip dress she was to model on the Klein runway. 

“She totally filled it out in this voluptuous way,” recalled Nian Fish, whose job as creative director of the KCD public-relations agency involved overseeing the proceedings. 

An instant later, a scrap of a girl emerged from behind the racks to shimmy into the same dress. “It was falling away from her body,” Fish said. “We put sandals on her, and the whole silhouette changed.” 

 The girl was Kate Moss, and her fragile air heralded the sea change that would do away with the excesses of the 1980s in favor of a stripped-down and louche approach to dress that would define the new decade.

White Rose

In LADY RAWHIDE #1, the masked heroine faces not only the corrupt forces of the government - bent on intimidating the populace through privation and cruelty, but also a new team of vigilantes known as the Sisters of the White Rose.  The Sisters, inspired by the legends of Zorro and Lady Rawhide, have taken up the struggle against tyranny.  While Lady Rawhide supports their goals, she cannot condone their bloody methods and finds herself facing off against her own devotees!

"Lady Rawhide is a thief, a bandit, a rogue," explains Eric Trautmann, writer of the five-part miniseries.  "But she exists in a time and place where, as a woman, society has strictly defined what her behaviour should be.  Her vigilante, Robin Hood-esque actions are subversive, and her overtly flamboyant costuming rejects those social conventions.  She's driven by a desire to control her environment on her terms… and society's encumbrances be damned."

Humid

Flamenco diva Soledad Barrio is the only woman onstage this time. Her company, Noche Flamenca, is halfway through its latest run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, and hulking male figures surround her with their shadows.

The male singers are hoarse as if from breathing dust, the guitarists focused and alert, and the male dancers are tense, their heels striking the floor.

The atmosphere seems humid with their sweat and desperation. Clearly terrible things have happened: Lovers have been untrue; money has run out; people have been murdered. And worse can be expected. Flamenco thrives on such intimations of tragedy, expressing red streams of emotion.

Poles

The song may have been called "Party in the USA," but when Miley Cyrus recently treated her Teen Choice Awards audience to a pole dance atop an ice cream truck, dressed in extremely short shorts, black boots and a bra-revealing tank top, the general impression was that the party was taking place in a strip joint.

Mothers of little girls cringed: Who provided the pole? And since when do Miley's backup dancers gyrate like the Pussycat Dolls?

Then there is the August issue of Elle, which features America's favourite 16-year-old in a number of contrived poses. In one, she's in black stilettos, with an exposed midriff, striking a backbend-pelvic-thrust combo. On the cover, she's in a leather push-up bustier, her cleavage revealed.

The overall impression of the girl in these pictures is perhaps the opposite from what is intended: She projects not confident sexuality but confusion. Even when reclining on her back offering up her black thigh-high boots for inspection, Miley seems to be saying not "Take me!" but, "Do I really have to do this?"

Rae Bareli

Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi won a by-election by a huge margin on Thursday, and will return to parliament from the Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh, TV stations said.

Gandhi sought re-election upon quitting in March after the opposition accused her of violating the constitution by being a lawmaker as well as head of the National Advisory Council.

Former

Former Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman has paid tribute to the thousands of men who gave their lives in wartime when she launched a new Royal Air Force supporters club.

The TV presenter visited Lincolnshire to lend her support to the Official Royal Air Force Memorial Flight Club.

Miss Vorderman, was accompanied at RAF Coningsby by her boyfriend Graham Duff, a former Red Arrows Squadron Leader. The new RAF club will give supporters greater insight into the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which includes the Spitfire, Hurricane and Dakota aircraft, and how it runs.

The Revolution of Maria da Fonte, or Revolution of the Minho, is the name given to a popular revolt in the spring of 1846 against the Cartista government of Portugal (presided over by António Bernardo da Costa Cabral, 1st Marquess of Tomar). The revolt resulted from social tensions remaining from the Liberal Wars, exacerbated by great popular discontent generated by new military recruitment laws, fiscal alterations and the prohibition on burials inside churches. It was begun in the area of Póvoa de Lanhoso (Minho) by a popular uprising that little by little extended to the whole north of Portugal. The instigator of the initial riots was a woman called Maria, native of the freguesia of Fontarcada, who would become known by the nickname of Maria da Fonte. As the initial phase of the insurrection had a strong female element, she ended up giving her name to the revolt. The uprising afterwards spread to the remainder of the country and provoked the replacement of the government of Costa Cabral by one presided over by Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela. When queen Maria II dismissed that government in a palace coup, known as the Emboscada (Ambush), on October 6 that year, and instead nominated marshal João Francisco de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha to form a new one, the insurrection was reignited. The result was a civil war of 8 months, known as the Patuleia, that was only ended by the signing of the Convention of Gramido on 30 June 1847, after the intervention of foreign military forces from the Quadruple Alliance.

Newseum Honours Hamas

Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist organisation, with an associated military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,  located in the Palestinian territories.

Newseum Honors Hamas Terrorists Alongside Daniel Pearl | FrontPage Magazine

Statuesque

Campaigners are planning to erect the first public statue of Mary Queen of Scots in her homeland.

Supporters from the Marie Stuart Society want to place a £100,000 bronze statue outside Linlithgow Palace, in West 
Lothian, in her honour.

Margaret Lumsdaine, president of the society, said: “Although there are a few small statues in private places, we don’t know of any official public statues of Mary Queen of Scots.

“She is the mother of the United Kingdom, because her son James VI united the English and the Scottish crowns.

“Mary is in a line of iconic Scots and I think most Scots would like to see a statue in her memory. It will be educational to our children and add an interest to tourism.”

Tamworth

Only a year has passed since Tamworth fitness fanatic Kelly Davis nervously set foot on stage in her first bodybuilding competition Miss Galaxy Universe.

Fearing she would be criticised by her on-looking more experienced rivals, the 33-year-old conquered her fears finishing third in the Fitness models section and winning the Yummy Mummy section.

Read more: http://www.thisistamworth.co.uk/Female-bodybuilder-Kelly-Davis-ready-Miss-Galaxy/story-18881921-detail/story.html#ixzz2SGAKmcnz
Follow us: @thisistamworth on Twitter | thisistamworth on Facebook

Hyatt

 President Barack Hussein Obama nominated long-time friend and ally, Penny Pritzker to become the nation’s secretary of commerce today. Ms. Pritzker is the heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune and only the 3rd female in history to be nominated to this cabinet level position of female leadership.

If accepted, Pritzker will follow in the footsteps of interm Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank. Blank was previously the Acting Secretary from July 2011 until October 2011.

“It’s a known fact that women have a better history of balancing budgets better than men,” quipped Tracey Trottenberg, founder of Amazing Women International. “The world is starving for Female Leadership. When we, as women, hold ourselves back, we hold everyone back. And there are so many ways we do this. Yet when we allow ourselves to shine, be powerful, joyful, strong and soft, everyone around us grows. The nomination of Pritzker is a good one, not just because she is a woman, but because she is a powerful, economically sound leader and emodies female leadership at the highest level.”

Temptress

A 1960s temptress known for her role as Bond girl Pussy Galore is coming to seduce audiences at the Rose.

Honor Blackman, whose 60-year career included The Avengers and Goldfinger, is starring in an on-stage foray of her life behind the scenes.

She says: “I hope the audience can expect an enjoyable evening. The show is about my life.

“My director and I thought it was rather better to do it as a question and answer, and that is not to say he has much of a question in it.”

The show will seat her opposite director Richard Digby Day, with whom she has worked before.

Psychologically crushed by a series of events that tarnished her family name and claimed the lives of her father, mother, grandmother and her two dear brothers, Antigone commits a crime that sends Creon, king of Thebes, and her uncle respectfully, into an outrage. Tempered with anger, Creon eventually orders the execution of Antigone by way of exile in a sealed cavern where she hangs herself; a glorified death.

Feist

Honor Blackman has played feisty, sexy women many times in a career which spans more than 60 years.

She was Pussy Galore opposite Sean Connery's James Bond in Goldfinger (1964) and on television at the same time she was Cathy Gale opposite Patrick Macnee in The Avengers.

Other roles have included The Upper Hand on television and theatre productions of The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and Cabaret. On film she was in A Night To Remember with Kenneth More, about the sinking of the Titanic.

Read more: http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/wants-ask-Honor-like-kiss-Sean-Connery/story-18745054-detail/story.html#ixzz2QuPNRmRl
Follow us: @thisissomnews on Twitter | thisissomerset on Facebook

The world's number one was spotted posing up a storm in a high-waisted, monochrome bikini for a photo shoot on Miami Beach.

Wearing the high chequered and strip patterned bottoms and a black top, the 31-year-old looked like she was having fun posing on the beach.

She let her hair flow naturally around her shoulders, with her only jewelry being a ring and bulky gold earrings.

Beached

Tennis Amazon Serena Williams was posing for a Miami Beach photo shoot. On this beautiful sandy beach, she was found flaunting her legs, arms and breasts.

In an array of dresses that she wore, she was found wearing a high-waisted bikini. Definitely, the tennis star has a great body on the court. There was no anxiety as she seemed to be relaxed. Not at all camera shy, the tennis star was perfect in this field as well.

Tana Louise

Tana Louise was a burlesque striptease artist, nicknamed the Cincinnati Sinner, in the 1950s. However, she was more famous as a fetish model.

Submissive

Yaya Han is a costume designer, maker and model in the United States.

Submissive

Cycletta

A scientist who has done pioneering work on global warming has been killed in a road accident, it has emerged.

Dr Katharine Giles, who worked at University College London (UCL), was involved in a collision with a lorry while cycling to work on Monday.

The 35-year-old had carried out important research relating to the Arctic and Antarctic.

Her death comes just three months after a senior colleague, Prof Seymour Laxon, 49, died in a fall, hitting his head and suffering a brain haemorrhage.

The head of the earth sciences department, Prof Philip Meredith, told staff and students: "We are all left with a sense of the outrageous unfairness with which some of our best colleagues have been taken from us.

"Katharine had a bright future ahead of her. She graduated with a first class degree in earth and space sciences from UCL, studied under Seymour for her PhD, and went on to forge her own career as a research fellow and most recently as a university lecturer."

Left Bank

We are talking in the Saint James hotel in the 16th arrondissement of the French capital, a venue even more aristocratic than the Hôtel Fouquet on the Champs Elysées, the Sarkozy clan’s one-time favourite hang-out. 

On the periphery of Bruni’s classy old-money stamping ground of Auteuil, and amid the black and white Napoleon III stucco, turquoise and scarlet silk, and crystal chandeliers of the hotel, Bruni is the quintessence of Left Bank chic in jeans and T-shirt, looking younger, taller and more slender than in recent photos.

Berezniki

Jailed Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, who is currently serving a two-year sentence at a penal colony in the Perm region town of Berezniki, may be transferred to another correctional facility, two news reports said Wednesday.

The regional prosecutor's office has demanded that Alyokhina be transferred to another prison after a check found that she, a first-time offender, had illegally been placed in a prison with repeat offenders, Kommersant reported.

Prison regulations also prohibit inmates from being placed in solitary confinement more than once in the same colony, and Alyokhina has been in solitary confinement twice. In November, Alyokhina asked prison officials to place her in an individual cell because of a conflict with two other inmates. After 90 days in solitary confinement, Alyokhina asked to be left there for a longer period.

Wallflower

The Harry Potter star, Emma Watson, had been tipped for the lead role in Disney's live-action adaptation of the classic fairytale, but has reportedly changed her mind, according to Variety.

Variety writer Marc Graser announced the news on his Twitter feed, writing: "Emma Watson has decided not to star in Disney's Cinderella"

It is thought that Emma - who is up for best female performance at the MTV Movie Awards for Perks Of Being A Wallflower - could have chosen instead to star in Beauty And The Beast, which she was also linked to. The new version would be directed by Guillermo del Toro, and written by Trance screenwriter Joe Ahearne.

Arrogant

There was not much to be said about the original Lara Croft. "She barely had a voice, let alone a character," admits Rhianna Pratchett, lead writer on the latest instalment. She was not even originally British. The character – a gender-flipped evolution of developers Core Design's original hero Rick Dangerous, himself little more than a carbon-copy of treasure-hunter Indiana Jones – was first conceived as Lara Cruz, before a trawl through a phonebook threw up the purposely bland British surname Croft.

From there, a legend was spun: Croft became the orphaned daughter of architect and all-round swashbuckler Lord Richard Croft. She acquired a stately manor house, a boarding-school education and the received pronunciation of the aristocracy. Yet those who played the first game could be forgiven for forgetting all of that. A back-story appeared in the manual, but on screen we saw little more than a pistol-toting babe in skimpy clothes, with a waist about the same width as one of her thighs and an implausible pair of breasts.

Over the sequels that followed, although she rarely ditched the hot-pants and crop-top, she developed more of a personality. Gamers came to recognise her as fearless, even arrogant, thrill-seeking and callous, bold and brave: in short, a badass. This characterisation helped counterbalance the brazen sexuality of the character design, even making it possible to argue she was some kind of feminist icon. So it was a risky move on the part of the prequel's developers Crystal Dynamics to strip a character who has often been derided as sexist of the skills and attitude that once served as an emphatic riposte to the allegation.

Teflon

The return of Lara Croft in her first video game in three years will see a “more human” character than the one depicted by Angelina Jolie on the big screen, its lead writer has said.

Rhianna Pratchett penned the story of the new Tomb Raider – described as a “reboot” by developers – which sees Croft fresh out of university and fighting for survival after being shipwrecked on a mysterious island.

Ms Pratchett, the daughter of world famous fantasy author Terry Pratchett, said she wanted to focus on the origins of the iconic adventurer, rather than the “Teflon Lara” portrayed in previous games and by Jolie in the film adaptations.

“With this story we had carte blanche to go back and reboot as we saw fit”, she said. “Lara’s a very strong woman, she’s very confident, she’s very brave, she’s very resourceful. But we wanted to go back to a time when those traits were below the surface.

 

Esther

{EAV:2a9931aaaaf2a270}

Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther.

Transformer

Sandberg is the Harvard-educated chief operating officer of Facebook and a self-avowed feminist who wants to transform the role of women in the workplace. She is also incredibly wealthy — reportedly worth hundreds of millions — and is too often tone-deaf to her voice of privilege. This makes it hard to close the distance between lucky her and the women who could most benefit from her advocacy. It’s a problem that plays out time and again in “Lean In.”

 

Lund

SHE may be known as the cop in acclaimed series The Killing, but actress Sofie Gråbøl has been left smitten by a Glaswegian craft artist.

The star, who played Sarah Lund in the hit Danish show,
was given a cross-stitch
 portrait made by fan Louisa
 Cudahy as part of a craft tribute to the programme.

Louisa, who can be found on Twitter and Tumblr as AnonymityBlaize, said it took about three weeks to finish the piece.

The 33-year-old, from the west end, said: “It was very 
exciting to get asked to make the piece for Sofie – I basically bounced around the flat like Tigger, then I promptly got on the internet to order the extra thread I’d need to make it.

Antigone

Audi Griffith (Shell Lake) will play Antigone, the sister who is driven by her moral beliefs to bury the brother denied all ceremonial rites and left to the scavengers. Creon, her uncle, played by Phil Warner (Rice Lake), is the new king who has said anyone denying his edict prohibiting the burial will be stoned to death. Thus, the conflict between a personal ethos and state rule is set up. Ismene, Antigone’s sister, will be portrayed by Kelsey Egbert (Shell Lake). Spencer Peck (Spooner) will be Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiance. Other characters are the guard, Justin Peck (Spooner); Messenger, Frank Abad (Rice Lake); Teiresias, Joel Friederich (Sarona). Typically in Greek tragedies a chorus of elders of the city speak to the audience, giving background or perspective and at times conversing with the main characters. Mike Zeckmeister (Shell Lake), Nick Baumgart (Shell Lake), and Ron Carlson (Spooner) will make up the trio of Theban statesmen. Eurydice, wife of Creon, is played by Dawn Smith (Rice Lake). Tracy Zeckmeister (Shell Lake) and Vic Sacco (Spooner) will provide a sound design for the production through the use of hand drums.

 Artwork by Nerraw.