The Ninja's Snake
Bitis nasicornis is a venomous viper species found in the forests of West and Central Africa. A big viper, it is known for its striking color pattern and prominent horns on its nose. No subspecies is recognized.
This snake occurs in forested areas, rarely venturing into woodlands. Its range is therefore more restricted than B. gabonica.
How to Feel Like A Dog
Tailly, a wearable wagging tail, is the weirdest new way to express your feelings
Forget mood rings, now Japanese developer Shota Ishwatari has a new nonverbal way to communicate.
Tailly is a wearable wagging tail which reacts to the user’s heart rate.
Ever observed your dog happily wagging his tail and longed for a cute, nonverbal way to express your feelings?
Good news: your very own wearable tail could be just a few generous donations away.
Tailly, a furry faux tail attached to a belt, is designed to react to your emotions just like a real tail would, according to developer Shota Ishwatari. Heart rate sensors inside the belt cause the tail to wag faster or slower according to your mood.
"When you get excited, the tail waggles wildy, and when you calm down, it will swing slowly," Ishwatari says in a video posted on the Kickstarter.com page he created to help fund the project.
"Normally it hangs down, but every now and then it momentarily springs into movement."
The Tailly's belt contains a sensor that reads the wearer's heart rate. The tail then wags faster or slower accordingly.
Tailly will be available in a variety of colors, according to the Kickstarter page.
"You could even wear Tailly on a date and express your true feelings through the wagging tail," the developers suggest.
Ishwatari is also the creator of Necomimi, a pair of wiggling cat ears, and says fans clamored for a matching tail.
If this sounds like a brilliant idea to you, don't wait -- the deadline to fund Ishwatari's project is Sunday, January 6. If the project moves forward, he aims to deliver Taillys to customers by August.
Chinese Girl's Scam
Is he a gay? Transgender? NO. He is just crossdresser. He was born with name Che Ying Zhong but (I don’t know how or why) he’s known as kiyoshi sakurazuka. He was born at Hunan, China.
Name: kiyoshi sakurazuka
Real Name :澈樱冢 = Che Ying Zhong (CMIIW)
Birthday : April 4, 1984
Height : 160cm
Weight : 40kg
Blood type : A
Constellation : Aries
Gender : Male. ?????
Birthplace : Hunan, China
Graduate : Beijing Institute of Technology
Hobbies : Transgenders !!
How To Get Naked Women Read A Book For You
Fleshing Out the Narrative
On the Pleasures of Having Naked Women Read to You
Tools
About 150 men and women (almost exactly even) gathered at Odd Fellows Hall to watch five naked women read selections from their favorite science-fiction novels and short-story collections. Wearing boots or high heels and nothing else (except for Jesse Belle-Jones, who wore a pair of bouncing, glittery antennae and had her nipples painted a bright radioactive green), they sat on two red vinyl couches for well over two hours, reading for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. The event was the third in Seattle's arm of the Naked Girls Reading empire, a series founded in Chicago in 2009 that has already expanded to 10 cities, with nine more on the way. The evening's host, burlesque performer Indigo Blue—dressed as a librarian in a tight skirt—announced that Seattle's franchise was "already the largest and most successful Naked Girls Reading in the country."
Despite the beauty of the five naked women, the titillation part of the evening ended fairly quickly. There was no dancing, twirling, or bending over backward; legs remained primly crossed or tucked together. Unless you're a 13-year-old boy (with remarkable facial hair and a really good fake ID), you're not going to be aroused by the mere proximity of naked women sitting in front of a coffee table covered with Star Wars paraphernalia. Which means that the reading itself has to be good, or else you're going to get pretty fucking bored pretty fucking quickly.
Luckily, the reading was very good. The readers had clearly practiced the material extensively—something many veteran authors on book tours can't be counted on to do—and they lovingly selected the excerpts for maximum impact, introducing each piece with a brief bit about why they think it's important; Violet Tendencies began her selection from Tanglewreck by announcing that "if it weren't for the Atlantic, I would stalk" British author Jeanette Winterson. If booksellers had shown up with a few copies of the featured books, they probably would have sold several on the readers' unabashedly nerdy enthusiasm.
The selections weren't inherently sexy—Heidi Von Haught read the hilarious Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy passage that introduces the deadly dull terrors of Vogon poetry (it makes your esophagus crawl up and strangle your brain), and Belle-Jones read a disturbing Orson Scott Card story about a sociopath who finds a mutant infant shoved, half-drowned, into a toilet—but sometimes the context loaded the stories with additional meaning, as when Polly Wood read James Blish's pulpy Star Trek novelization, Spock Must Die!, bringing a whole new tension to the Kirk/Spock relationship as she crossed and uncrossed her legs. They went around the couches three times, reading from Philip K. Dick, Madeleine L'Engle, Jorge Luis Borges, China Miéville, and a selection from Dune (the audience spontaneously let loose with a lascivious "Ooooh!" when Indigo Blue announced that Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic was up next).
Bare breasts are a wonderful reading accessory—they serve as a thermometer of the reader's interest. When a woman is reading from a small paperback novel that she loves, she holds it in front of her, cradled in her palms and prized open with her thumbs, her breasts cozied up against each other, nipples pointing together as if cross-eyed from concentration. And you can tell if a woman is interested in a story because her breasts are pointed, rapt in attention, at the reader. If the story too thick with chewy adjectives (one of the Ray Bradbury stories read by Vienna La Rouge), the breasts fall backward, aiming in opposite directions.
It would be easy to point to Naked Girls Reading as a sign of some sort—an indication that "normal" readings are boring, for instance—but that, of course, is lazy bullshit. Just a few blocks away from Odd Fellows Hall, Pilot Books is hosting a monthlong festival of fully clothed small-press authors, with a reading every night in March. The bookstore has been packed with adoring attendees sitting cross-legged on the carpet, eager for brief readings from authors such as Joshua Beckman and Chelsea Martin (whose deadpan delivery of one-liners like "There should be a word for the kind of laugh you make when you're trying to make it seem like you're the type of person who laughs naturally" marked her as the result of a literary miscegenation between Dorothy Parker and Tao Lin).
If anything, the avid reception for Naked Girls Reading simply shows that there's still plenty of room in Seattle for readings of all kinds, from the prurient to the nerdy to the experimental—or all three put together. The fact that Naked Girls Reading is so uncontroversial is a refreshing reminder that the literary and the carnal can live in silly harmony. But there's always room for an eensy bit of controversy: At the end of last Sunday's reading, Blue announced that the next Naked Girls will be on Sunday, April 4—Easter Sunday—and that the reading would be religious themed. The audience giggled in anticipation.
Transgender Child Banned for Using Toilet
'Live life as a girl': transgender child's parents sue school
Transgender kid's mum demands equality
A Colorado family is planning to file a civil rights lawsuit after a school banned their transgender 1st-grader from using the girls' restroom. Six-year-old Coy Mathis was born male, but wears girls' clothing.
A six-year-old girl with vibrant violet hair has become the unlikely poster child for the rights of transgender people after her school barred her from using the girls' bathroom.
The family of Coy Mathis has filed a civil rights lawsuit against her Colorado school over the issue, which has become a cause celebre since hitting the headlines this week, CNN reported on Thursday.
Coy was born a boy but according to her mother she started expressing herself as a girl at the age of 18 months.
Told to live life as a girl, six-year-old Coy Mathis' parents are now suing her school over toilet access.
When the behaviour continued, the parents sought medical advice and were told that their child was transgender - a little girl in a boy's body.
Though they diagnosed Coy as having a gender identity disorder, doctors recommended against surgery until she is older.
They told her parents to let her "live life as a girl," Coy's father Jeremy told a press conference announcing the lawsuit on Wednesday.
When the child was in kindergarten at Eagle Elementary School in Fountain, Colorado there was no problem because Coy was allowed to use the girls' bathroom.
But in December school officials told the family that Coy could no longer use the girls' facilities and would have to use the boys' or nurse's bathroom instead.
"That wasn't a safe environment for her," said Coy's mother Kathryn Mathis, a nurse.
"It set her up for a lot of harassment and it wasn't a place where we were able to let her be because we want her to be safe and we want her to be healthy."
Their case was taken up by the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which hopes that Coy's story will have far-reaching ramifications.
"For many transgender people, discrimination is a daily part of life. Unfortunately for Coy, it has started very early," lawyer Michael Silverman said.
"The world is going to be looking at the school (to) send a message to the world and teach tolerance, fair play and equal rights."
The school said its decision "took into account not only Coy, but other students in the building, their parents and the future impact a boy with male genitals using a girls' bathroom would have as Coy grew older."
Kathryn Mathis is not blind to the possibilities but fears the district will stigmatise her daughter at a crucial stage in her development.
"They're punishing a 6-year-old for something that hasn't happened and may not happen," she told CNN on Thursday.
"Her body development is none of their business. That is up to her and her doctors in the future.
"Right now we need to be protecting a 6-year-old, not a middle-schooler or a high-schooler."
"We are hoping that they will change their minds and they will teach that you can love somebody and accept somebody even if they are different."
The case has sparked strong reaction on social networks and news sites.
On CNN alone over 16,000 people had commented on the report by Thursday.
News of the case came amid signs of mounting acceptance in the US of alternative lifestyles.
The US Supreme Court is set to consider an appeal against a ban on gay marriage based on the fact that it violates the equal rights of gay couples.
So-called Proposition 8 was passed in a statewide California ballot in 2008 and a new Field Poll has suggested that 61 per cent of Californians now approve of same sex marriage, compared to 32-per-cent opposed.
More than 100 prominent Republicans have filed a so-called friend-of-the-court brief urging it to strike down the gay marriage ban, the New York Times reported.
Newspapers Company for SALE !!
For sale: big, bold US dailies at knockdown prices
Shakeup in newspapers, following ownership changes at several dailies, portends dramatic changes in a key media segment
Washington: Some of America’s largest and most storied metropolitan newspapers are up for sale, in a sign of the turmoil facing an industry struggling to find a business model in the digital age.
The Boston Globe recently went on the market as its parent company, The New York Times Co., said it was exploring options for the daily.
The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun are also on the auction block, along with five others owned by parent Tribune Co., which is refocusing after bankruptcy.
The shakeup in newspapers, which follows changes in ownership at several other large US dailies, portends dramatic changes in a key US media segment.
But the desire to sell is motivated by factors other than cashing out, given the grim reality that newspaper companies no longer attract a litany of buyers or the hefty prices they once fetched.
Despite their legendary status, they are worth only about a tenth of the value from their heyday of a decade or two earlier, said Ken Doctor, a media analyst at the research firm Outsell.
“These are the papers which broke national stories,” he said. “They have been important—and they have been the ones hardest hit by all the changes and digital disruption.”
The Boston Globe, which was acquired by The New York Times Co. in 1993 for $1.1 billion, “will sell for around $110 million today”.
Some recent deals have confirmed rock-bottom prices: The Chicago Sun-Times was sold in 2011 for a reported $20 million, from $180 million in 1994, and the Philadelphia newspaper group including The Philadelphia Inquirer sold for $55 million, compared with $515 million in 2006.
Such financial reality bodes ill for the Chicago Tribune, whose owners have apparently hired investment bankers for a sale.
US newspapers “would have commanded billions a few years ago,” said Alan Mutter, a former Chicago and San Francisco newspaper editor who now consults on media ventures involving journalism and technology.
But having depended “very heavily” on classified ads—down about 75% from an all-time high, according to Mutter—metro newspapers belong to “the hardest area now,” given that free sites such as Craigslist have taken over.
Newspapers are hobbled by high distribution costs, declining circulation and the consequent loss of ad revenues.
Mutter said among potential buyers, “you won’t see any newspaper companies except possibly News Corp.,” the media conglomerate led by Rupert Murdoch that owns both The Wall Street Journal and New York Post.
But he said Murdoch was a “trophy buyer”, interested in the prestige of a newspaper and being able to use that for influence.
Analysts say the economics of smaller newspapers are not as dire, but that big city dailies, even with drastic cuts in newsrooms and other costs, are finding it tough to make a profit. Billionaire Warren Buffett has been buying small-city papers while steering clear of the larger ones.
Even the highly regarded The New York Times and Washington Post are slashing costs and looking at new ways to drive digital revenues.
The Times has had a paywall since 2011 and now earns more from subscribers than from advertising. The Post is considering a metered paywall and is also weighing a sale of its downtown headquarters.
The industry is also closely watching the fate of newspapers in New Orleans and several other cities which are cutting back publication to three times a week, a move that may have helped cut expenses while maintaining ad revenues.
There may be other glimmers of financial hope for large newspapers. For one thing, many have rich real estate holdings that can help ease their crisis.
“There are buyers who say the value of the dirt under the paper was worth more than what they were paying,” said Mutter.
The Most Racist Restaurant
Beijing restaurant sign banning Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipinos and dogs triggers online fury
A SIGN at a Beijing restaurant barring citizens of nations involved in maritime disputes with China - along with dogs - has triggered a wave of online outrage among Vietnamese and Filipinos.
The Beijing Snacks restaurant near the Forbidden City, a popular tourist spot, has posted a sign on its door reading "This shop does not receive the Japanese, the Philippines, the Vietnamese and dog(s)."
Photographs of the controversial sign have gone viral in Vietnamese-language forums and featured heavily in Philippine newspapers and websites.
Vietnam's state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper ran a story saying the sign had "ignited online fury". It claimed many Vietnamese feel this is another example of Chinese "extreme nationalism that deserves to be condemned".
"It's not patriotism, it's stupid extremism," Sy Van wrote in Vietnamese in a comment under the story, published on the paper's website.
China is currently in border disputes with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The sign provoked thousands of posts on Vietnamese social networking sites and newspaper comment threads.
"This is teaching hate to the younger generation," Facebook user Andrea Wanderer wrote in Vietnamese.
"The owner of the restaurant has obviously been brainwashed by their government," added Facebook user Chung Pham.
Filipinos greeted the photo with a mixture of fury and amusement.
"Blatant racism at Beijing Restaurant," journalist Veronica Pedrosa wrote in one widely-shared tweet, while Facebook user Rey Garcia used a comment thread on a news site to retort: "Who cares, they almost cook everything, even foetus and fingernails."
Vietnam and the Philippines are locked in a longstanding territorial row with China over islands in the South China Sea. China and Japan have a separate acrimonious dispute over islands in the East China Sea.
Philippine Foreign Department spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters in Manila that the Beijing restaurant sign was simply one "private view" about the maritime dispute.
The photos were originally posted on Facebook.
The sign's wording is particularly inflammatory as it recalls China's colonial era, when British-owned establishments barred Chinese from entering.
A sign supposedly reading "No Dogs and Chinese allowed" became part of Communist propaganda after it was said to have hung outside a park in Shanghai when Western powers controlled parts of China.
It has become part of Chinese folklore and featured in the 1972 Bruce Lee film Fists of Fury - but many historical experts say no such sign ever existed.
The controversial Beijing sign was still in place today, according to the restaurant owner who gave only his surname of Wang.
"No officials have contacted me about it. This is my own conduct," Mr Wang said.
Coca Cola Scam !!
Carrie And Sarah Jones, Mother-Daughter Duo, Scammed Coca-Cola Out Of $200,000
Carrie and Sarah Jones bilked Coca-Cola out of more than $200,000 by manipulating a bottle cap contest and then selling their winnings on eBay, Oregon news site NWCN.com reports. Contest participants entered a code found under their bottle caps on the Coke website to win prizes. It’s still unclear how the Albany, Oreg., mother-daughter team was able to figure out so many winning codes.
“I mean, it boggles the mind that they could single-handedly fool a multi-billion dollar company like Coca Cola," Mike Wood of the Albany police department told NWCN.
A Coca-Cola spokesman declined to comment on the case to The newspapers.
The prosecutor in the case argued that the odds were stacked against one city, let alone one household, winning so many prizes, as frustrated contest participants can probably attest. In addition, the contest prohibited one family from winning more than 5 times, a limit prosecutors believe the Jones’ avoided by creating email addresses using other people’s identities, according to the AP.
The two, who pled guilty to computer crime, will have to pay Coca-Cola back to the tune of almost $50,000.
But that could be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how much they were able to make off the prizes. The Albany police accused the two of claiming thousands of prize codes, including for things like concert and movie tickets, as well as gift cards, according a report from the Albany Democrat-Herald. They then grouped the prize codes together and sold them on eBay.
With eBay's auction format, bidders can sometimes end up paying more than face value for an item -- even a gift card.
Criminals aren't the only ones adept at using the internet to their advantage when it comes to company contests. According to one eBay guide, contest participants can sell any prizes they win from Coke contests, but not the points they redeem from Coke's ongoing "rewards" promotion. In addition, some avid McDonald's Monopoly players have used Craigslist and other websites to trade pieces in an aim to win the game.
Oddly enough, the mother-daughter team isn't the first to rip off a major company through a promotional contest. The FBI arrested 8 people in 2001 for allegedly netting $13 million in fraudulent McDonald’s prizes. The crime ring was charged with fixing the outcome of games like McDonald’s Monopoly by controlling access to the high-prize game pieces, according to the AP.
BadAss Girl in The Town
Chinese executive caught outsourcing 12-year-old daughter’s homework to his employees
Students were asked to follow their parents to their home towns and either draw a picture, create a video, take photographs or write an essay about the changes over the past decades.
A Chinese manager outsourced his 12-year-old daughter’s homework to nine of his employees.
The senior executive’s plan was disclosed when one of his disgruntled workers told a local newspaper.
The worker, who gave his name as Mr. Chen, said it took three days to finish the work. “We stayed up late for two nights,” he said. “The girl was quite demanding. She only needed to do one of the four options but insisted on doing them all, without getting involved herself in any way.”
We stayed up late for two nights
Students were asked to follow their parents to their home towns and either draw a picture, create a video, take photographs or write an essay about the changes over the past decades.
Mr Chen, a professional photographer, said he was in charge of taking the pictures.
Other workers were drafted for the video and the essay, one person had to upload the work on to the school website and the company driver transported the team around town.
The newspaper said the local primary school had cautioned the boss, who remained unnamed.
The Public Enemy - The Whistler
City, annoying local man reach a deal on 'whistle while you walk' rule
Naked On Olympics Closing Ceremony
What was the Price Tag on that? Jessie J takes to the stage in nude bodysuit THREE times at Olympics closing ceremony
Taking to a stage in a barely-there nude bodysuit in front of millions of people on just one occasion would be enough for most people.
But not for Jessie J, who certainly made sure she stood out from the crowd at tonight's London 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony in not one, but two, revealing garments.
Arriving in the arena on the back of an open-top Rolls Royce, the 24-year-old singer showed off her svelte physique in a nude one-piece with black sequin detailing.
Belting out her hit track Price Tag, the star would have looked practically naked if it wasn't for a few strategically-placed leave patterns adorning the garment.
Jessie was proud to flaunt her figure as she took to the mammoth stage alongside Tinie Tempah and Taio Cruz, where the trio performed a medley of hits and finished off with Bee Gees' hit You Should Be Dancing.
But it would seem the raven-haired bombshell is somewhat of a fan of nude jumpsuits.
Later in the evening, the brave starlet accompanied Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen on stage wearing an unusual one-shoulder and one-legged number with silver sequin embellishment.
As a video of the the late Freddie Mercury was played to the crowd, the trio performed iconic hit We Will Rock You to close the section.
Jessie was just one of a number of artists to showcase their talents at tonight's closing ceremony, including the likes of One Direction, Elbow, the Spice Girls, Emeli Sande and Take That.
Snake Village In China
China's No 1 snake village Zisiqiao in Zhejiang makes a fortune out of snakes
A farmer showing snakes he breeds at his snake farm in Chongqing. Snake farming is a big business in China. In Zisiqiao, a small village measuring just 0.9 square kilometers in East China's Zhejiang province, residents farm 4 million serpents. It has earned the reputation as China's No 1 snake village. Most villagers have an annual income of 50,000 yuan ($7,937) to 60,000 yuan
Snakes, one of the world's most feared creatures, have changed Yang Hongchang's life and brought fortune to his home village in East China's Zhejiang province.
Dubbed the snake king, 62-year-old Yang is running a business worth tens of millions of yuan by raising more than 20,000 serpents. Some, including highly poisonous vipers and cobras, are sources of medicine and food. Others form part of a snake culture museum.
At Yang's snake farm, hundreds of the reptiles squirm in dry ponds prevented from escape by 0.8-meter-tall brick walls. They have one of the largest number of collective nouns in English: a bed, a den, a knot, a nest or a pit of snakes.
Yang recalled when he started raising the slithery creatures in his courtyard. The snakes often escaped from the ponds on summer nights. "When I woke up, I would find snakes on my pillow, on my bed, in my shoes. It was really horrible. But gradually I got used to them and they became less terrifying."
Herbal medicine and blood serum are used as antidotes to snake bites.
Nearly four decades ago, Yang was a farmer in Zisiqiao village in Deqing county, Zhejiang province. The harvest from the infertile land barely fed the villagers that mainly relied on farming.
Unfortunately, Yang, the only person able to work in his poverty-stricken family, caught a spondylitis disease that caused severe pain to his waist.
"Farm work had to be done despite the pain because my wife was ill and two children were young. I eventually found it impossible to sleep at night due to the pain," Yang said.
A doctor suggested he should try medicinal wine made from the red-banded snake. Unable to afford to buy snakes from the market, where they sold for more than 100 yuan ($16) for enough to make a bottle of snake wine, Yang decided to catch snakes in the mountains near the village.
He found many villagers had already been catching snakes and sold snake gallbladders to animal vendors. The gallbladder is a valuable traditional Chinese medicine that is believed to be effective in curing lung diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments.
Snake wine cured Yang's disease but he began to worry about the snakes. "I was thinking how we could sustain the industry if we continued catching wild snakes and put them in danger of extinction," he said.
In 1985, Yang borrowed 10,000 yuan and started the then unprecedented experiment of breeding snakes in the 60-square-meter courtyard of his house.
After initial failure, he eventually successfully incubated about 30,000 snake eggs and sold baby snakes for more than 80,000 yuan in 1987, which was quite a large sum at a time when most families earned no more than 100 yuan a month.
"The news stirred the whole village," he recalled. Inspired by Yang's success, more villagers invested in snake breeding.
I Hate You Mother Mary!
Argentina: Scandal provocative photos of female students at a religious school
The province of La Rioja is scandalized by a group of students from Sacred Heart College, who posed so sexy with religious images.
These teenagers about 15 years, who were the horns making notes for example an image of the Sacred Heart and also approaching their languages so erotic to the Virgin Mary.
The girls were dressed in their uniforms and apparently the pictures were taken in the school itself, although the most striking picture is not a clear context, as they appear semi-naked with just a kind of boxers at the bottom and back.
Another photo shows one of them, in a men's room, pretending to urinate in a urinal. The funny thing is that the school is just for girls and the men's room not normally used.
Chinese Actress Showing Her Breasts
Chinese Actress Sun Feifei’s Almost Showing Breasts
Hostess Fang Ling accidentally steps on the hem of Sun Feifei’s dress at an Esquire fashion event in Beijing
Sun Feifei (simplified Chinese: 孙菲菲; traditional Chinese: 孫菲菲; pinyin: Sūn Fēifēi; born February 21, 1981 in Hebei) is an actress from China.(not to be confused with fashion model Sun Fei Fei born in 1989).
In 1993, she started her education at the Beijing Dance Academy as a middle school student and then subsequently joined the Department of Chinese classical dance at the academy. After graduating from the academy, she chose to commence a career as an actress. In the serial Perfect Father, she portrayed a cute girl. Impressed by her lovely appearance and ingenuous temperament, the TV fans began to become acquainted with the new star. In 2009, Sun starred in a historical serial Kongque dong nan fei (孔雀东南飞), which featured a melancholy romance.
Vagina Slips on Les Miserables Premiere
'They saw everything!': Anne Hathaway left 'devastated' after she's embarrassingly pictured without underwear
It has happened to Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, but now the usually demure Anne Hathaway has been caught going commando, in embarrassing pictures taken at the premiere of her new film.
In what's being dubbed as 'Full Hathaway-gate', the Les Miserables star suffered the major wardrobe malfunction in the full glare of the media spotlight as she exited her car at the premiere of her new movie in New York on Monday.
Anne is said to be 'devastated' after news publications around the world ran the pictures.
Emerging from her car and onto the red carpet, eager photographers snapped away and unwittingly caught Anne- who was wearing a stunning creation by designer Tom Ford - in full exposure - on a night she chose to forgo underwear.
The usually sophisticated actress was clearly embarrassed by the wardrobe malfunction, which was largely due to the thigh high split of her black figure-hugging dress falling open as she got out of the car by swinging both her legs onto the pavement, flashing her lady parts in the process.
And Anne, 30, was allegedly overheard telling Vanity Fair writer Ingrid Sischy at a luncheon the following day about the 'devastating' mishap.
'I was getting out of the car and my dress was so tight that I didn’t realize it until I saw all the photographers’ flashes,” Anne told the journalist at the luncheon, as reported by NY Daily News.
'It was devastating. They saw everything. I might as well have lifted up my skirt for them.'
Since the unfortunate mishap, which is out of character for the usually demure and pulled together Anne, many fashion editors have offered words of advice on how to avoid showing off too much flesh.
'It’s so much better to be caught in Spanx,' one fashionista said.
Though Anne can be consoled by the thought that most celebrities have endured an embarrassing wardrobe mishap, after failing to master the art of stepping out of a car.
Even Kate Middleton was once famously photographed revealing her underwear trying to get out of a vehicle, and many have flashed a little too much of their cleavages on the red carpet.
The director of the Etiquette School of New York, Patricia Fitzpatrick, advised: 'Knees together girls! When you’re sitting, you sit with your knees touching.'
Or better yet: 'Wear underwear!'
Free Photo Shoot With Playboy
Santos Laguna player poses with small child and the Playboy magazine he just bought
Santos Laguna defender Felipe Baloy is more than happy to pose with fans of all ages, even if he just stopped off to buy the newest issue of Playboy. And when a young fan in Velcro shoes and a full Santos kit wanted a picture with Baloy, the Panamanian international kindly knelt down, smiled and accidentally held his transparent bag containing the Playboy in for the picture.
Of course, there was no harm done (the boy is oblivious to the bag) and it was very nice of Baloy to make a young fan's day by stopping and smiling for the shot, but the child will probably appreciate the amusing photo even more when he's a little older.
Currently in first place in the Mexican Clausura, Santos plays Club America at the Estadio Azteca on Saturday before playing Monterrey in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final next week. And the accommodating Baloy clearly has his reading material ready for the difficult stretch ahead.
The World's 10 Failed Currencies
Over the years many economies have suffered a downturn. Many a times the result is due to rampant inflation or a hyperinflation. In such times, a country’s currency is discarded, reformed or replaced.
The top 10 failed currencies of the world are:
10 Papiermark:
The Papiermark was the currency of Germany in 1914. It rose during the outbreak of World War 1, when Germany failed to repay war reparations to the allied nations according to the Treaty of Versailles. This led to France and Belgium occupying parts of the German industrialized areas which pressured the government to pay salaries and war debt which in turn led to hyperinflation in 1923-24. Circulation of Papiermark was stopped after this with Rentenmark replacing Papiermark at the relation of 1 trillion Papiermark = 1 Rentenmark.
9 Pengo:
The Pengo was the currency of Hungary from 1927 to 1946. It was further subdivided into 100 fillers. It was initially introduced as a strong replacement to the Austrian-Hungarian Korona. The effects of World War 2 and The Great Depression put a strain on the currency and it suffered hyperinflation. The Hungarian Pengo’s highest denomination was the 1,000 note. A year later it was ten million. And by mid-1946, it was 100 million trillion. This amount of hyperinflation forced the government to remove the Pengo and introduce Forint as the new currency.
8 Chilean Escudo:
The escudo was the currency of Chile between 1960 and 1975. It was further subdivided into 100 centesimos. When Salvador Allende was elected as the president of Chile in 1970, he nationalized industries and dramatically increased social spending to promote equality of wealth. He adopted an expansive monetary policy that initially produced economic growth but later led to a rise in inflation causing widespread labor strikes and falling exports. This kind of price-fixing also led to a rise in black markets for critical commodities. The inflation rate reached 1200% by 1973 and Escudo was replaced by Peso in 1985.
7 Peruvian Sol:
The sol was the currency of Peru between 1863 and 1985. It was subdivided into 10 dineros or 100 centavos. Sol was originally introduced to attract foreign investment. Peru increased public spending in the 1980s without a plan for dealing with the resulting debt which led to inflation and slow investment. In 1985, the government replaced the Sol with the Inti at an exchange rate of thousand to one. By 1990, inflation had reached 400% and a 10 million Inti note was created to deal with hyperinflated prices. After 6 years, the Inti was replaced by a new version of the Sol with a conversion rate of one billion to one.
6 Zimbabwe Dollar:
The Zimbabwean dollar was the currency of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2009. It underwent three redonimations with high face value paper denominations including a $100 trillion banknote. The political turmoil and hyperinflation rapidly eroded the currency and the Zimbabwe dollar became least valued currency in the world. It reached 624% in 2004 and 1,730% in 2006. A year later, inflation zoomed to 11,000% and money was denominated in increments of 100 million dollars. In 2008, the money was replaced by a new dollar that was equal to 10 billion of the old dollars.
5 Argentine Peso:
The Peso is the current currency of Argentina. It suffered turmoil from 1975-1992. A sharp recession in 1975 caused the Argentine peso to denominate to 1000 note. A year later 5000 note was issued. By 1979, there was a 10,000 Peso banknote and by 1981, the Argentine Central Bank had introduced a 1,000,000 Peso note. The country’s economy declined, further worsening the situation between 1981 and 1982 and Argentina’s GDP fell 12% which was the worst single year decline since The Great Depression.
4 Kwanza:
The Kwanza is the currency of Angola. Four different currencies using the name kwanza have circulated since 1977. It was worst hit from 1975 to 2002 when the country was plagued by civil war. In 1991, the largest note was the 50,000 kwanza denomination. By 1994, the government issued the 500,000 banknote. In 1995, the readjusted Kwanza was introduced for 1,000 Kwanzas. This currency also had a 500,000 denomination. When Angola changed its currency again in 1999, the new Kwanza was introduced, exchanging for 1,000,000 of the readjusted Kwanzas. By this time, the new currency was equal to one billion of the pre-1991 Kwanzas.
3 Yugoslav Dinar:
The Dinar was the currency of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 2003. The dinar was further subdivided into 100 paras. There were eight distinct dinars. The hyperinflation in the early 1990s caused five revaluations between 1990 and 1994. Between 1988 and 1989, the Yugoslavian Dinar’s largest denomination was 2,000,000 notes. The New Dinar replaced the Dinar in 1992 with the highest denomination being 50,000. By 1993, this was 10,000,000,000. The government simply removed six zeros which made the new dinar replace the old dinar at rate of 1 to 1,000,000. The next year, a new currency was introduced the rate of 1 to 1,000,000,000. In 1994, inflation was increasing by a rate of 100% per day.
2 Belarusian Ruble:
The Ruble is the currency of Belarus. In 1993, the largest Belorussian note denomination was the 5,000 Rubles. By the end of the decade, this had increased to 5,000,000 notes. The government replaced the new Ruble at an exchange rate of 1 to 1,000 old Rubles. Presently, the highest denomination is the 100,000 note, which is equal to 100,000,000 1993 Ruble.
1 Greek Drachma:
Drachma has been the currency of Greece during many periods. Greece went through its worst inflation in 1944. In 1942, the highest denomination was 50,000 drachmai. By 1944, the highest denomination was 100,000,000,000 drachmai. In the 1944 currency reform, 1 new drachma was exchanged for 50,000,000,000 drachmai. Another currency reform in 1953 replaced the drachma at an exchange rate of 1 new drachma = 1000 old drachmai. More info
The lessons learnt from these were that when it comes to value and stability of the currency, the more it is printed, the less is the worth.
Triumph - Honda - BSA collaboration
Choppahead Tronsa, Triumph, Honda, BSA in One Bike
Choppahead's Tronsa's name has nothing to do with the movie Tron, if this is the first thing you thought of. Tronsa is a short name Choppahead had to come up with because Triumph-Honda-BSA would not ever do. Believe it or not, but the Tronsa is really what it names says it is, and even more.
A 75 Triumph 'Bonnevilla T140 provided the engine, transmission and the brakes, while the fork and swingarm came courtesy of a Honda motorcycle, while the gas tank and frame have been kindly donated by a '68 BSA.
Now, what's even stranger is the fact that all these parts coming from three different bikes have been matched by Choppahead and are holding together quite well, as the Tronsa is ridden on a daily basis by its actual owner.
The old Bonneville engine was completely rebuilt and Amal carbs have been fitted, together with a Boyer electronic ignition and a custom, hand-made underseat oil tank. The Tronsa contains in fact a lot of other Choppahead custom parts beautifully integrated in this build, but they're just too many to be listed here.
Whereas pretty much every custom bike is “unique”, the Choppahead Tronsa is by far one bike we rarely get to see.
The Most Romantic Clever Wedding Proposal
When Brendan proposed to Christie at Sydney Uni ... with a physics paper
"I guess we won the internet.", Christie Nelan.
When Sydney physicist Brendan McMonigal got down on one knee to propose to his partner of seven years, Christie Nelan, he pulled out a physics paper, not a ring.
His paper, Two Body Interactions: A Longitudinal Study, is laden with science geek speak and tracks the couple's relationship, including a graph ("happiness over time") and the all important question.
Brendan McMonigal and Christie Nelan.
The happy couple ... Brendan McMonigal and Christie Nelan.
Fellow physics major Nelan - who said yes - published a link to a digital copy of the proposal on social news site Reddit this week and it went viral, viewed over 1.7 million times with tens of thousands of Facebook shares and dozens of news articles.
"I guess we won the internet," said Christie.
While the proposal actually happened on March 23 last year (their seventh anniversary), she decided to publish it online this week ahead of their wedding (March 23 this year).
Christie said the pair, both 26, had no idea it would be so popular. "The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Lots of comments telling us to go make smart babies, to 'enjoy your entanglement', and lots of congratulations."
McMonigal lured Nelan to the spot where they had met at the University of Sydney, where they both studied advanced maths and physics, saying he needed to show her a paper he was having trouble understanding but had left it at the university.
"I subtly got down on one knee to get the paper from my bag and hand it to her, then stood up to wait for her reaction," he said.
"She hadn't noticed what was happening at all, but as a typical physics grad, she read the abstract and then skipped straight to the conclusion and quickly cottoned on."
Nelan said she had a feeling a proposal was brewing but was still "blown away".
"We had been in a date 'war' for a while, as I thought our anniversary was the 23rd [of] May, when we actually started dating, but he thinks it is the 23rd [of] March, when we first met," she said.
"So I knew he would propose on the 23rd [of] March, so he could win the date war."
McMonigal is now doing his PhD on "galactic haloes" in the gravitational astrophysics group at the University of Sydney, while Nelan works as a science communicator in the Questacon Science Squad.
There are dozens of geeky marriage proposals that have gone viral online. Many use modified video games as props, such as the gamer who proposed by spelling out "Lisa Will You Marry Me" in coins in Super Mario World or the guy who harnessed the development team and voice actors from Portal 2 to help create him a custom version of the game for his proposal.
In February last year, Len Kendall harnessed viral media site BuzzFeed to help create and spread a proposal in the form of a meme called "Say Yes Katie".
In 2010, Chad Clay proposed to his partner via a mock iPhone TV commercial that he created and arranged to be played at their local cinema, where the pair had their first date.
Isle of Mann Sues Indonesia
Cap Kaki Tiga Brand Disputed by British Man
The lawsuit was registered under No 66/Merek/2012/PN.Niaga.Jkt.Pst in Central Jakarta Commercial Court.
Mann, according to Russel, has used the logo with the name Triskelion for centuries and also uses it for the currency and the flag. Wen Ken Drug, Russel continued, uses the logo without a license from the Isle of Man for its product.
Russel demands Panel of the judges to revoke the Cap Kaki Tiga brand, registered by Wen Ken Drug Pte Ltd. Moreover, He also requests the court to stop the product and withdraw it from the market.
Furthermore the applicant also listed Brand Directorate of Minister of Law and Human Right as co-defendant since the institution has imprudently approved Wen Ken Drug’s registration application.
Genesis Death Sandwich
Biblical scholars claim to discover "Genesis death sandwich"
The name refers to a familiar rhetorical structure — sandwiching bad news in between the good. In the case of Genesis, the slices of white bread are themes of life, and the slimy cold cuts in between are mentions of death.
"The structuring of life and death in Genesis appears to be something that hasn't been noticed before," researcher Gordon Rugg, a senior lecturer in Computing and Mathematics at Keele University in the United Kingdom, wrote in a Feb. 21 blog post. "We think it's a standard literary device being used on a larger scale than had been previously realized. No aliens, no secret codes, no conspiracies, but some striking images, and a great name for a band."
For their study, Rugg and his colleagues ran the King James version of the text through software known as the Search Visualizer, which plotted mentions of life in red and death in green on a single gridded page representing the whole book. Their results showed frequent mentions of life in the opening and closing verses of Genesis, while themes of death were clustered in the middle. They say the device is an example of a literary convention known as inclusio, also called bracketing, where one theme frames another.
Rugg acknowledged that it is uncertain whether or not this "death sandwich" convention was applied to the text intentionally. Nonetheless, he says it might have been used to cushion the negative messages of death, or perhaps to put life and death in stark contrast.
"Whether it was a deliberate use of inclusio or a subconscious use is an open question," Rugg wrote. "We don't think that this structure is likely to be a coincidence, given the number of times the two words occur within Genesis, and given that these are themes that have long been recognized as significant within it."
Rugg and his colleagues ran other searches using the software for words not considered significant by scholars, finding no specific patterns in the book of Genesis. However, they did find the word "woman" appears overwhelmingly in the first part of Genesis, while it rarely pops up in the second half, Rugg wrote. Another term, "begat," illustrates something scholars have long recognized -- that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John mirror the themes and structures of the Old Testament (which includes Genesis); sure enough, "begat" showed a striking cluster in the first part of Genesis, mirroring what was found in the first part of the gospel of Matthew, Rugg said.
Rugg and David Musgrave of Amridge University in Alabama presented their research at November's meeting of the Association of Schools of Oriental Research in Chicago.
Kicked Off Because Taking Photos on Planes
Travel writer Mathew Klint kicked off United flight 'for taking a photo'
That's exactly what happened to travel writer Mathew Klint on a United Airlines flight from New York to Istanbul last week.
In his travel blog Live and Let Fly, Mr Klint says the incident was traumatising and highly embarrassing.
He had been booked to fly business class and wanted to provide a review. So he started to take photos for the blog.
"As I settled into my seat, I pulled out my iPhone to take a few pictures of the seat. When I held the phone at forehead level to take the picture below, a flight attendant came running over and told me that I could not take any pictures of the cabin,” Mr Klint writes.
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Mr Klint claims the flight attendant then directed him to a section of the in-flight magazine that explains you can't take photos or video without getting permission unless it's of you and your friends and not of the plane.
So what did Mr Klint take a photo of?
He claims (the photo is published here) that he took one photo of the in-flight entertainment system on United.
Mr Klint says he stopped taking photographs as soon as he was asked. He then tried to explain that he was a travel writer and intended to do a review.
"I want you to understand why I was taking pictures. I hope you didn't think I was a terrorist. Here is my business card [offering her one]. I write about United Airlines on an almost-daily basis and the folks at United in Chicago are even aware of my blog."
Soon after Mr Klint says he was approached by a Global Services representative who told him that he must leave the flight immediately.
Other passengers on the flight have confirmed that Mr Klint did stop taking photographs when he was asked to by the flight attendant.
United Airlines confirmed to news.com.au that they had spoken to Mr Klint. An investigation into the incident is underway.
A spokesperson told news.com.au that passengers were welcome to record their experience on planes, but they should be careful not to record staff members without consent.
"We have spoken with Mr. Klint about his experience,” a United Airlines spokesperson said. "Separately, we welcome customers to record their personal experiences on board provided they don't take photos or videos of customers and crew members without their consent. This is both a security and service measure we take that also respects the privacy of other customers. United's policy was implemented in 2010."
Mr Klint insists he followed the flight attendants instructions and stopped photographing as soon as he was asked.
"Perhaps I should not have used the term 'terrorist'” he said.
Mr Klint says he does not blame United for the incident, although he is still clearly distressed by it.
"I will not tar and feather United Airlines as a whole based on the unfortunate actions of one FA and one pilot. Our 10-year relationship means something and I am not going to split because of one bad day. Having said that, United must now earn my trust back. More importantly, I want to see the airline move in a direction that no passenger is ever again put in the position that I was.”
What do you think? Should passengers be allowed to take photos on board planes?
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