One World: October 2011

Friday, October 21, 2011

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Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update October 21st, 2011

10 of the best theatre and performance venues

Posted about 23 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Edinburgh's theatre, live music and comedy venues offer the great, the grand and the intimate, writes Michael MacLeod
? As featured in our Edinburgh city guide
The Scottish parliament

One of the best free shows in Edinburgh is likely to be found at the Scottish parliament. It's a hugely popular tourist attraction and current first minister Alex Salmond thrives off the attention as the undisputed star of the show. The SNP leader has some entertaining contenders too. The best time to visit Holyrood is on Thursdays when first minister's question time is held. Call in advance for a ticket though, as seats in the public gallery tend to fill up fast.
? Foot of the Royal Mile, Holyrood, 0131-348 5200, 0800 092 7600, scottish.parliament.uk . Free. Opens 10am with last entry 3.30pm
Traverse Theatre

New works take centre stage here, with a truly alternative programme often tackling edgy topics. There's a terrifically imaginative programme of audience engagement initiatives too, such as A Play, A Pie and A Pint where you can watch a 45-minute play over lunch then talk to the writers and cast in the brilliant bar-cafe. Untitled Projects, who last year transformed the Traverse into an astro-turfed garden, will take that experimentation a step further this October with The Salon Project : inviting the audience to take part in an imagination of an opulent 19th-century Parisian salon. Each guest has their measurements taken when booking tickets and will be costumed in full period evening dress, an idea typical of the theatre's audacious artist in residence, Stewart Laing.
? 10 Cambridge Street, 0131-228 5383, traverse.co.uk . Box office open 10am-6pm, tickets start from ?6 with one free ticket for every 10 booked for groups
Festival Theatre

Don't be fooled by the modern glass-fronted facade, they've been putting on shows at this site for more than 180 years. With one of the largest stages in the city and 1,900 seats, the Festival Theatre is a favourite of Scottish Ballet and Scottish Opera . It is also a key venue in the annual international festival. The rest of the year it's a good bet for family friendly musicals and, more recently, big-name comedians. Some performances are accompanied by British Sign Language (BSL) signing for the hard of hearing.
? 13/29 Nicolson Street, 0131-529 6000, fctt.org.uk/festival_theatre . Box office open 10am-6pm, tickets from ?18 with group discounts on bookings of eight or more
King's Theatre

Fondly regarded as the city's pantomime hub, the King's has a great tradition as a variety theatre and is well used by local amateur groups. The Edinburgh Gang Show , performed by local scouts and guides, has been on the calendar here since 1960. The theatre's furnishings have fallen victim to its own success, with heavy usage leaving much of the theatre looking worn. A refurbishment project is due to continue into 2012 and will see a new box office and improved disabled access. Despite being A-listed, the 1906 building is very much alive as an example of heritage continuing to meet demand.
? 2 Leven Street, 0131-529 6000, fctt.org.uk/kings_theatre . Box office open 10am-6pm, tickets from ?10
Church Hill Theatre

Built in 1892, this former church is now one of Scotland's leading non-professional theatres. You're likely to catch adaptations along the lines of Rent, Footloose and Copacabana. Owned by the city council, "the Churchy" is a busy hub of the Morningside community thanks to the independently owned Loopy Lorna's Cafe , which, along with the box office, takes up most of the ground floor. Upstairs, the auditorium holds 350 and its large stage is popular with most of Edinburgh's non-professional theatre and dance companies.
? 33 Morningside Road, 0131-447 7597, assemblyroomsedinburgh.co.uk/theatre . Box office opening times vary so check in advance, tickets start at ?5
The Playhouse

All the big musical tours stop off here; Scotland's biggest theatre ? with 3,000 seats. Period features from the 1929 building's previous role as a cinema remain intact, but its popularity is mainly down to mainstream programming: the Britain's Got Talent tour, Les Mis?rables and Jimmy Carr are all regulars. Balcony seats are unforgettably cramped, so seek out floor seats if you have the choice. Thanks to its design, built into the steep Greenside slope, there are great views of the orchestra pit wherever you sit.
? 18-22 Greenside Place, 0844 947 1660, edinburghplayhouse.org.uk . Box office open from noon to 8pm (6pm on non show days), tickets from ?12
Bedlam Theatre

The UK's oldest student-run company is based in this imposing 1864 former church building. Despite its grand exterior, the auditorium holds just 92 people. Poetry readings, comedy sketch shows, bold musicals and the Fat Cat Cafe keep the theatre buzzing even after the fringe. The city's own improv troupe, The Improverts , play every Friday at 10.30pm with a show based entirely on audience suggestions ? a recipe they've relied on for three decades. Bedlam is heaps of fun and rightly treasured by its supporters. Writing workshops and open auditions mean the theatre's red door is always open to those keen to take part.
? 11B Bristo Place, 0131-225 9893, bedlamtheatre.co.uk . Box office only open during show hours, ticket prices vary from free to ?10 during the fringe
Usher Hall

Major orchestras, high-profile music-makers and pop titans, including Adele, make the Usher Hall's lineup consistently world class. Classical music lovers are well catered for by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra ? each has performances regularly throughout the year. A series of daytime concerts allows Scotland's younger musical talent the chance to perform. A fourth bar has been added with the construction of a new glass wing, with efforts made to improve disabled access.
? Lothian Road, 0131-228 1155, usherhall.co.uk . Box office open 10am-5.30pm Monday to Saturday, tickets from ?10
Royal Lyceum Theatre

The Lyceum's own performing company puts on seven shows every year, employing 50 full-time staff. They tend to rework classics, traditionally tackling a Shakespeare play each year ? it's lovely to return more than once and see the same faces performing in new roles. The Victorian building's 658-seat auditorium feels cosy and grand at the same time, with stunning ornate plasterwork throughout. It's not all tradition though: the Lyceum's artistic director Mark Thomson is renowned for his ambitious productions, with John Clifford's Faust 1 and 2 among brave adaptations staged recently.
? Grindlay Street, 0131-248 4848, lyceum.org.uk . Box office open 10am-6pm Monday to Saturday, tickets for previews are ?5, Wed/Sat matinee tickets are ?16 and Saturday evening show prices start at ?14.50
Ross Bandstand

This landmark open-air venue in Princes Street Gardens, at the foot of Edinburgh Castle, is only used a handful of times a year. It currently hosts orchestral fireworks concerts during the festival and the likes of Biffy Clyro and Primal Scream at Hogmanay but could soon become a lot busier. Talks are ongoing between current owners, the local council, and prospective events companies to stage concerts throughout the year. Worth a visit for the view alone, although the bandstand itself is deemed a "crumbling eyesore" by the local newspaper, which has campaigned for the 1935 structure to be revamped.
? West Princes Street Gardens, 0131-221 6335, Events Edinburgh:Ross Bandstand . Gates open from 7am to 7pm in summer, closing at 5pm in winter
? Michael MacLeod writes for the Guardian

* Edinburgh
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Michael MacLeod

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Rennsport Trivia: Keys of the Gods Edition

Posted about 22 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Few historic racing cars are as immediately identifiable as the Porsche 917. Stuttgart's twelve-cylinder monster and the cars it spawned took the German marque to some of the most famous podiums in the world, and it gave the company the overall Le Mans win it had long wanted. The most iconic 917 is perhaps the [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caranddriver/blog/~3/iK4TYOAWDWM/
Brad Keselowski Ruby Tuesday Dodge Carl Edwards Copart Ford Denny Hamlin

Half-term days out for kids

Posted about 21 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

From drawing and reading workshops to seal-watching and star-gazing, we've got plenty of ideas for keeping the kids happy over next week's half-term holiday
Children's book festival, London

Some of the best-loved children's authors, including Francesca Simon, creator of the Horrid Henry series, and Caroline Lawrence, author of The Western Mysteries, will be giving talks and fun workshops at the inaugural Word Up! children's literature festival in Dulwich, south London. Some events are sold out but as of today there was still availability for actor Mackenzie Crook introducing his debut, self-illustrated book, The Windvale Sprites; hugely popular kids' stand-up comedian James Campbell; and John Hegley's session of bonkers stories and poems. The weekend kicks off with an opening procession featuring music and puppets.
? 01803 867373, wordupfestival.co.uk , 22-24 October, Alleyn's School, Townley Road. Tickets ?4-?6 for most day events and ?8-?10 for evening events
Words and pictures, Newcastle

More fun inspired by favourite fictional characters is on hand at Seven Stories, the Newcastle gallery dedicated to the art of children's books. Half-term kicks off with a Doctor Dolittle weekend, where some of the cast of the musical (at Whiteley Bay Playhouse from 3 November) will bring the stories to life. Later in the week, the Spellbinding Storyparty will feature tales, games and songs inspired by witches and wizards (25 and 27 October; ?2.50, under-fours free, booking essential); an after-hours tour of the new Daydreams and Diaries exhibition ends with cake in the Artists' Attic (25 October, ?5, age 8+): and a Horrid Henry Halloween Party invites little ones to dress their "mummy" and guess what's in the coffin (26 and 28 October, ?3, booking essential).
? 30 Lime Street, Ouseburn Valley, 0845 271 0777, sevenstories.org.uk
Birds of prey and creepy crawlies, Surrey

Denbies Wine Estate near Dorking is the largest vineyard in England but there's a lot more to it than necking Surrey Gold. This half-term, birds of prey will be on display (23 October, noon, free admission); there'll be spooky story telling (25 October, 11.30am and 2.30pm, free admission); the Bullfrog youth theatre company will be presenting their adaption of Alice in Wonderland (26 October, 11am & 2pm, children ?6.50, accompanying adults ?2.50, booking essential), and a creepy crawlie road show will make parents' skin crawl but no doubt delight children as they get a chance to handle snakes and tarantulas (28 October, 11am and 2pm, children ?6.50, adults free).
? London Road, Dorking, 01306 876 616, denbies.co.uk
See the seals on Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire

In autumn, Ramsey's community of Atlantic grey seals give birth to more than 400 white-coated pups on the shores of the island, an RSPB reserve . Take a boat trip around the island to view the seals and other wildlife from sea level, or walk the three-and-a-half-mile trail among the coastal heathland and enjoy spectacular views from the 120m cliffs.
? visitpembrokeshire.com , daily until 31 October. Boats depart St Justinians at 10am and noon, returning at 4pm; adults ?15, children ?7.50
Meet the Royal Navy and the RAF, Hampshire and Shropshire

Submarines are spooky enough with their eerie sounds and lighting, but this half-term second world war-era HMS Alliance at the Royal Navy Submarine Musuem in Gosport, Hampshire (submarine-museum.co.uk ), will be scarier still with a "spooky tour" and a chance to meet the captain, who will let you in on some tall tales of life below the waves. Free with a valid museum ticket (adults ?10, children ?7, under-fives free) 27-30 October.
Meanwhile, those interested in airborne action should make a beeline for the Royal Air Force Museum (01902 376200, rafmuseum.org.uk ) at Cosford in Shropshire for its Helicopter Half Term. Take a look inside a replica air ambulance and watch a real (Sea King) helicopter land; older kids will love the chance to talk to air ambulance and search and rescue crew, and flight engineers and technical sergeants who have logged time on the Sikorsky MH-53 helicopter on display.
? Sessions with the search and rescue team and the air ambulance crew will take place from 11am-1pm and 2-4pm each week day and will be located in Hangar 1. Entry to the event and to the rest of the museum is free
Learn to draw, nationwide

Galleries and museums across the country are taking part in the Big Draw. At Tate Liverpool, children are invited to create their own art from the collection by taking transparent drawings which they then turn into 3D wire structures (tate.org.uk , all week, 1.30-4.30pm, free, age five-plus). And at the Cartoon Museum in London (020-7580 8155, cartoonmuseum.org , workshops free, booking essential) you can find out how cartoonist Sally Kindberg creates her comic strips (22 October) and comic artist Steve Marchant will teach you how to draw cartoons (23 October). There should be a project near you to inspire the little artists in your family
? Find events near you at campaignfordrawing.org/bigdraw (until 31 October)
The sky at night, Northumberland

The skies above Kielder Forest are the darkest in Britain, and on 26 October there's a chance for families to join experts in viewing them through the Kielder Observatory's telescopes. You may be lucky enough to catch the tail end of Orionid's meteor shower display; if not, you are sure to see some spectacular sights on this moonless night. The evening event includes a talk, a tour of the observatory and, of course, the chance to gaze upon distant galaxies or universes that formed billions of light years ago.
? kielderobservatory.org , or contact Gary on 07805 638469, 8-11pm, ?8
Off to be the wizard, Leicestershire

Harry Potter may have hung up his wand for the final time this summer, but wizard wannabes can try their hand at mixing magic potions at the National Space Centre's School of Wizardry over half-term. The idea is that kids will "discover the magic of science" through the Halloween Wizardry programme, as boffins teach them the secrets of disappearing water and they try their hand at exploding bubbles and changing liquids. Classes run throughout the day and are included in the admission price. Bridget, the Nasa ExoMars mission test robot, will also be visiting the centre between 26 and 29 October, and will drive across a simulated Martian surface.
? spacecentre.co.uk , adults ?13, children (5-16) ?11, under-5s free. With Giftaid entry, visitors receive a free annual pass
The Eden Project's big chill, Cornwall

The Eden Project, whose rainforest biome domes normally bask in tropical temperatures, will feel a chill wind next week as the ice rink returns, decorated for Halloween. Over half-term the site will feature a wishcraft tent with pumpkin carving demonstrations, wand making and potion mixing. And on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October you can shake your bones at the Little Monsters' Ball, a family disco with fancy dress.
? 01726 811972, edenproject.com . Adults/children ?22/?8.50 on the door or ?18.70-?19.80/free-?8.50 if booked online, under-fours free; 40-minute skate sessions ?5pp; Monsters' Ball (6pm to 9pm), ?7 per ticket, plus ?2 for a 20-minute skate

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Watch Out For This Netflix Phishing Scam

Posted about 20 hours ago by joelpomales to joelpomales's posterous

Watch Out For This Netflix Phishing Scam
via The Consumerist by Ben Popken on 10/20/11

There's an email that's been going around that pretends like it's from Netflix and they're having trouble with your credit card. Actually, it's from scammers and they want to steal your credit card.
A .zip file is attached to the email which says it's from "netflix@accounts.com ." The instructions say that your credit card was declined and they need you to download the .zip, open the .zip in your browser, and enter your info.
Here's the full text of the email:
"Dear Netflix Member,
Your payment method was declined for one of several reasons, such as insufficient funds or an expired credit card.
To correct the problem, please update your credit card or add a new one in order to be able to use your Netflix account in the future.
This is a reminder to update your credit card as soon as possible.
Please download the form attached to this email, unzip it and open it in a web browser.
Once opened, you will be provided with steps to update your account.
We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure your account safety.
Sincerely,
Netflix Member Service,"
You should always be wary of opening strange attachments. They may contain viruses. If you think an email like this is legitimate, you should go to the service's main page by typing the address in your browser and navigate to the appropriate section yourself. Or call them directly.
(Thanks to Nick!)

Jacquelyn Butler Wins Better Half Dash at Charlotte

Posted about 20 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Better Half Dash Quotes: Jacquelyn Butler (No. 6, winner) ? ?All of the girls did really good. It was fun out there. I want to go back and do it again next week. That was crazy but a lot of fun. I don?t know when I passed her [Allgaier]. All of our tires were wearing [...]
Source: http://thefinallap.com/2011/10/15/jacquelyn-butler-wins-better-half-dash-at-c...
Hans Klenk Peter de Klerk Christian Klien Karl Kling Ernst Klodwig

Benedict Allen: my greatest mistake

Posted about 19 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Explorer Benedict Allen has been haunted for decades about having to eat his faithful dog to save his life when lost in the Brazilian rainforest
Since the age of 10 I'd wanted to be an explorer. My dad was a test pilot flying Vulcan bombers and I wished I could be an adventurer like him. So in 1982, I saved up and planned my first trip across the north-eastern Brazilian rainforest.
After five months of trekking, being passed from one indigenous tribe to another, not really knowing what I was doing, I came across some goldminers who attacked me in the night. I was only 22, naive and very scared.
In the darkness I fled towards my canoe. With me was a dog I'd found in a village a few months before; I'd healed its paw, and it had become my companion. But in the chaos, the canoe capsized and I lost everything. I ended up walking on my own, lost in the rainforest with only the dog for company.
As we walked we got steadily weaker and, after about three weeks, I was starving to death; I had malaria and I was delirious. But the dog had become incredibly important to me in terms of keeping my hopes up. We were both suffering, but we were in it together.
I couldn't see myself, but I knew how bad the dog looked. I drew a little jokey cartoon in my diary of us both fantasising about eating one other; I knew it was becoming a very real proposition. I started thinking more about what I might have to do if I ever wanted to see my mum and dad again.
I remember lying on my back one day and thinking I wouldn't get up again if I didn't eat something; the only thing left was to eat the dog. I managed to cook a few bits using a survival kit. It gave me a little strength to keep going but, in a way, I was even more terrified, as knew I'd played my last card.
Some days later, miraculously, I saw a chink of daylight; I'd been in a dark tangle for as long as I could recall, but soon I was standing in a farmer's crop. He treated me with an anti-malarial drink and I was taken to hospital.
When I got back to Britain I was too ashamed to tell my parents how badly things had gone. Then the local paper asked me about the trip. I let slip about the dog and before I knew it the nationals were on to it; my sorry tale became a two-page spread in the Daily Mail. The RSPCA came round with a sack of hate mail.
I often wonder whether what happened was a mistake or not; obviously it kept me alive but it has also haunted me. In a way it has driven me in my career, fuelling my desire to understand why I had survived. But it has always been something I've wanted to rectify.
Benedict Allen is speaking at deafblind charity Sense 's annual lecture on 15 November (email lecture@sense.org.uk ).

* Work & careers
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Graham Snowdon

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Electronic Fuel Injection testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Posted about 18 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

NASCAR, Teams Pleased With Continued Progress Being Shown With EFI Systems DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (OCT. 17, 2011) ? Teams representing 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars turned upwards of 400 miles Monday during a test of Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Both NASCAR officials and drivers were optimistic about the continued development [...]
Source: http://thefinallap.com/2011/10/17/photos-efi-electronic-fuel-injection-testin...
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Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Breakfast Braid (with Maple Brown Sugar Glaze)

Posted about 17 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Another new pumpkin recipe! In this breakfast braid, tender, flaky, almond-scented pastry envelops pumpkin pie custard topped with buttery cinnamon pecan streusel. Maple brown sugar glaze and toasted pecans top the whole shebang, creating a perfect autumn breakfast (or dessert, or lunch, or dinner...!)
This braid looks fancy, but don't be fooled. It's one of the easiest things I make. The dough is lovely to work with -- it doesn't need to rise, barely needs any kneading, and isn't too sticky or finicky. It?s the perfect beginning pastry. If you?ve ever used canned crescent rolls, this dough is a textured a lot like that. I'm always amazed that such gorgeous results can be achieved with such little effort.
Especially if you've never made anything like this, I hope you'll give it a try. It really does make you feel like a rockstar to serve a pretty braid to your family :)

Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Breakfast Braid with Maple Brown Sugar Glaze
----------------

Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking. Inspired by The Luna Cafe , with glaze from Caitlin Cooks
Yield: About 4-5 servings of 2 slices each
Easy Dough Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup milk, minus 1/2 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Pumpkin Pie Filling Ingredients:
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/8 cup sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/8 teaspoons cinnamon*
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg*
1/4 teaspoon ginger*
1/8 teaspoon allspice*
*You could probably substitute a teaspoon or so of pumpkin pie spices for these.
Pecan Streusel Ingredients:
1/8 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/8 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoons cup cold butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Maple Brown Sugar Glaze Ingredients:
1 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoons real maple syrup
pinch salt
3/4 cup powdered sugar
cinnamon for sprinkling
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the creamy pumpkin pie filling. In your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy and smooth. Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice and mix until combined. Set in fridge while you make your braid.
Toast your pecans. Spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for about 6 minutes or until fragrant, stirring about halfway through the cook time. Transfer nuts to a plate to cool. Raise oven temperature to 425 degrees F.
Make your pastry dough. In the bowl of a food processor, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the cream cheese and butter into the flour mixture and pulse to cut the fat into the flour (about 6 pulses). Add the milk and almond extract and blend into a loose dough.
Turn the dough onto a sheet of lightly-floured parchment paper and knead very lightly for just 4-5 strokes (be careful not to overwork the dough or it'll be tough! Don't worry about getting it smooth -- just knead for these few strokes and let it stay a little rough.)
Very lightly flour the top of the dough and place another sheet of parchment paper on top. Between two sheets of parchment paper, roll the dough to an 8- by 12-inch rectangle (I lift the paper off every now and then and flip the dough and repeat on the other side, to ensure the dough isn't sticking). Remove the top sheet of parchment and discard. Measure and mark the dough lengthwise into thirds. Spread your creamy pumpkin pie filling down the middle third of the dough -- try to keep your filling about 1/4 inch from the mark on both sides.
Make the streusel topping. Combine the flour and brown sugar in a medium bowl and using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until you have crumbly streusel. Mix in 1/4 cup of toasted pecans (save the rest for decorating the finished braid). Sprinkle streusel over top of pumpkin mixture in center of dough. Really pile it on!
Continue assembling the braid (see photos at the bottom of this recipe, which show the process of marking and assembling a raspberry almond braid, for guidance). Make 2 3/4-inch slight diagonal cuts at 1-inch intervals on each the long sides. Do not cut into the center pumpkin-filled area. Fold strips, first one from one side and then one from the other side in a rotating fashion, over the filling. It will now resemble a braid. Use the sheet of parchment to transfer your braid to a baking sheet (at this point, you can brush the pastry with a mixture of 1 beaten egg and a teaspoon of water if you want it darker than mine. I didn't bother). Bake in the 425 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, until the dough is cooked through and the top is lightly browned. Let the braid cool slightly while you make your glaze.
Make the Maple Brown Sugar Glaze. Combine the butter and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the butter melts, whisk in the brown sugar, syrup, and salt, stirring until the brown sugar melts. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the powdered sugar. Drizzle the glaze over the top of your braid. Sprinkle the braid with toasted pecans and a dusting of cinnamon. Serve immediately. Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container and microwave for about 20 seconds to serve.

To read about how I wholeheartedly embrace nerdiness, see the great lengths I was willing to go to to get out of the mile run as a child, and see more pumpkin braid photos, please head over to Willow Bird Baking !
x-posted to food_porn, cooking, picturing_food, and bakebakebake
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NASCAR makes Lionheart decal to honor Dan Wheldon (PA SportsTicker)

Posted about 16 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

NASCAR is providing all its teams a decal that honors Dan Wheldon to place on their cars this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
Source: http://www.nascarracinglive.com/nascar/nascar-makes-lionheart-decal-to-honor-...
Paul Hawkins Mike Hawthorn Boy Hayje Willi Heeks Nick Heidfeld

10 of the best films set in Edinburgh

Posted about 15 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Edinburgh on film isn't just Trainspotting it's classics: Chariots of Fire, romance: One Day and thrills: Burke and Hare. Here are 10, picked by Andrew Pulver, film editor of the Guardian
? As featured in our Edinburgh city guide
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Ronald Neame, 1969

Muriel Spark's celebrated 1961 novella was, until Trainspotting, Edinburgh's most readily identifiable contribution to modern literature. Inspired largely by Spark's own time at [James] Gillespie's school , this elaborate, empathetic satire on a fascism-admiring teacher would not have been expected to be a major candidate for Oscar attention, but Maggie Smith won the best actress award in 1969, after Ronald "Poseidon Adventure" Neame directed the film version. Sixties Edinburgh has no problem standing in for 30s Edinburgh: the Marcia Blaine school is sited in the Edinburgh Academy building in Henderson Row, while it's possible to stand in the exact same spot as Maggie Smith on the Grassmarket and bellow: "Observe, little girls, the castle!", shortly before decamping to Greyfriars Kirkyard .
? Henderson Row, Grassmarket, Edinburgh Castle, Barnbougle Castle
Trainspotting, Danny Boyle, 1996

The opening scenes of Trainspotting , in which Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner pound along Princes Street to the sound of Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, have rightly gone down as among the most iconic in British cinema. And you couldn't get more Edinburgh either, as Renton and Spud slither down Waterloo Place, right by the station. In actual fact, much of Irvine Welsh's high-octane ode to the Edinburgh junk life was filmed in Glasgow, including the Begbie pub fight scene and the Volcano club. But no film has done more to put Edinburgh on the map in the modern era.
? Princes Street, Waterloo Place, Leith Street
Chariots of Fire, Hugh Hudson, 1981

Being as it is about the feats of two British athletes at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, Chariots of Fire is not always high on the list of great Edinburgh movies, but as one of the athletes concerned is Scottish flier Eric Liddell , the city becomes a quiet character in its own right. Primarily, it stands for the don't-mess-with-me spirit of the Christian faith that sustains Liddell ? causing him to knock back as august a person as the future Edward VIII. The Edinburgh skyline, as seen from Arthur's Seat, gets a good workout, but my favourite bit is Liddell tipping his cap to the statue of John Knox, located in the courtyard of the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall, just off the Mound.
? Arthur's Seat, Princes Street, The Mound, Broughton Place, Holyrood Park
Regeneration, Gillies MacKinnon, 1997

A real change of pace this: Pat Barker's intense, subtle novel about war-damaged soldiers receiving treatment at the Craiglockhart War Hospital (now part of Napier University ) was adapted into a film by Gillies MacKinnon, best-known perhaps for the Glasgow gang film Small Faces . Regeneration wasn't actually shot at Craiglockhart, a suburb in the south-west of the city but mostly at Overtoun House near Dumbarton. Even so, it summons up wonderfully well the spirit of the period, and the atmosphere of civilised inquiry under the stewardship of WHR Rivers as he treats his most famous patient, poet Siegfried Sassoon , after the horrors of the first world war.
Hallam Foe, David Mackenzie, 2007

A weird one-off of a film: Jamie Bell plays a strange young man called Hallam Foe . He is oedipally obsessed with his dead mother (as well as his current stepmother), and crawls over rooftops to spy on a fellow employee and then holes up in a clocktower with bird's eye views of the city. The clocktower is the one belonging to the Balmoral Hotel, an utterly distinctive neo-gothic pile only a few yards away from the Scott monument. Director David Mackenzie had previously examined the underbelly of Glasgow and its canal system in Young Adam . Perhaps not as successful as his former movie, Hallam Foe, especially its hotel-worker scenes, presents a distinctive and different perspective on city life.
? Balmoral Hotel on Princes Street, Scott monument on Princes Street, Cockburn Street
Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle, 1994

Before Trainspotting there was Shallow Grave . With its opening shots tearing along the cobbles of the New Town, before coming to rest outside a front door on North West Circus Place, Shallow Grave oozed Edinburgh; if nothing else, it's got the best flats in Britain. Hence the suitability of its location for this Blood Simple-esque thriller about a dead flatmate and a suitcase full of money ? even if Christopher Eccleston's opening voiceover states: "This could be any city." As with Trainspotting, certain key scenes were filmed in Glasgow, such as Ewan McGregor's journalist-office scenes, which took place at the Evening Times in Albion Street.
? North West Circus Place, New Town
The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet, 2010

Working from a never-filmed screenplay by Jacques Tati , Edinburgh-based animator Sylvain Chomet turned this melancholy story of an itinerant magician into a wistful love letter to his adopted home town. Tati had originally planned to film in Czechoslovakia; Chomet, who had made the magnificent Belleville Rendezvous , set it in 1950s Edinburgh, with an anonymous-looking boarding house for hard-up variety artistes the main location. There are, however, wonderful sequences readily identifiable as Edinburgh landmarks: principally, Jenners department store on Princes Street, as well as spectacular views of the Old Town and the Castle.
? Princes Street, Edinburgh Castle, Old Town
Festival, Annie Griffin, 2005

To the rest of the world, the festival is Edinburgh, and it was inevitable, perhaps, that someone would get around to making a film about it ? and call it Festival . That someone turned out to be fringe theatre maven Annie Griffin , who did a very nice job of pulling together disparate story strands to make sense of the festival's sprawl. As you'd expect, the packed streets make for a natural film set, and right from the opening credits, Griffin takes up the opportunity. You want scenes of actor types handing out leaflets on the High Street and the Mound? They're all here.
? Royal Mile, High Street, Old Town, Princes Street, The Mound, George Square gardens, Abercromby Place
Burke and Hare, John Landis, 2010

If there's one thing historical Edinburgh stands for, it's corpse-stealing. The Burke and Hare murders , in 1827 and 1828, have imprinted themselves on the popular imagination, and resulted in a string of movie adaptations. The most recent, and probably best known, is the one sta

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Facebook newsfeed post by: Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho wrote:

All men and women are connected by an energy which many people call love, but which is, in fact, the raw material from which the universe was built. The energy cannot be manipulated, it leads us gently forward, it contains all we have to learn in this life. If we try to make it go in the direction we want, we end up frustrated, disillusioned, because that energy is free and wild.
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Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update October 19th, 2011

Video: The art of the wheelie

Posted about 24 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Filed under: Videos , Motorcycle
We tend to keep our one-wheeled shenanigans pretty simple. Blame it on an old bike or anatomical deficiencies all you like, but the truth is, getting one wheel in the air on asphalt is a nerve-racking proposition. So when we see skills like those in the video after the jump , we can't help but fire up a round of the old slow clap. The clip shows one talented individual with a bike's nose in the air for a solid minute and a half, and he could clearly ride it much longer if he wanted. Now, this isn't a plain vanilla wheelie. Oh no. This rider takes the time to exit the freeway, make a right through an intersection and change lanes all while on the rear tire.
This is typically where we say something along the lines of "don't try this at home." And this case is really no different... so, don't try this at home. And if you do, just make sure you're wearing the proper gear when you get the itch to point your motorcycle toward the sky. Hit the jump to check out the clip for yourself.
Continue reading The art of the wheelie
The art of the wheelie originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/17/the-art-of-the-wheelie/
Alan Dennis Kulwicki Travis Wade Kvapil Robert Allen Labonte Terrence Lee Labonte Randy Joseph Lajoie

B&B review: Ingthorpe Grange, North Yorkshire

Posted about 23 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

With flagstoned hallways, enormous bedrooms and wisteria at the windows, this beautifully restored manor house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales leaves guests on a high
The journey to Ingthorpe Grange is going to go down as one of my all-time favourites. Travelling south across the Pennines is sheer car-advert stuff. We skirt the dales, turning off the A65 just before Skipton and end up ? at the sonorous command of the satnav Irishman ? in a farmyard. Oops.
I give in and telephone (which ruins my personal best of 15 reviews in a row without assistance). Now we're on the right track (no, it really is a track), which deposits us on the driveway at Ingthorpe Grange.
Ooh ? some house. I would say posh, but then again, hens are scratching about in the porch. Here's our B&B landlady, Leslie Lockyear, who moved (it says on the website) from Petworth in West Sussex with husband Sean and three children. That's a bit of a scenery shift.
We catch a waft of something fragrant in the flagstoned hallway, and glimpses of vast rooms. Up, first, to deposit our things. This time, I'm bagging the biggest room (and by that I mean biggest ever, ever, in a B&B, with a bathroom to match) and Clare is in a more manageably proportioned pink room overlooking a pizza oven in the back garden. She has a large bathroom along the hall.
From the natural arrangement of fresh flowers to stone mullion windows, the Julian Chichester modern four-poster to the depths of a bath with a view of cows grazing ? the room is so fabulous, I wish I could spend all evening up here.
"She's managed to make an austere house light, airy and informal," says Clare, hitting the nail on the head as we trot down for tea in the comfortable expanse of drawing room.
Through foliage which tickles the windows, we have far-reaching views across a small formal garden to endless pasture. No light pollution tonight, that's for sure. Leslie brings tea and explains that she worked for the Max Mara fashion label in Chelsea, but wanted to return to the north (she is from Lancashire). Her passion now is interiors. She and Sean renovated the house seven years ago, but began B&B in 2009, persuaded by the owners of nearby Hellifield Peel Castle (featured on C4's Grand Designs and now an upmarket B&B) who needed somewhere to recommend when they were full.
"If people come expecting giant flatscreen TVs and shiny marble, it's not going to happen," Leslie says. "You might lose a bit of water pressure when you're having a shower, but people look relaxed when they leave."
We're falling under Ingthorpe's spell, but also getting hungry. Leslie reserves us a table at foodie pub The Angel Inn at Hetton. Armed with directions, we hit the road again and find that most encouraging of scenes ? busy staff, and punters crowding to get in. We make the most of a piscatorial menu. Proven?al fish soup, seabass with seared queenie scallops and lobster sauce, cod with broad bean puree and warm tartare sauce. What a find.
I hit the sack with a sense of wanting to hold on to the night, to savour every moment in this perfect setting, the sweetest air drifting in through windows which open through a curtain of wisteria.
The dining hall, in which breakfast is laid, evokes monastic refectories. Nothing abstemious about breakfast ? a salad of soft fruit eaten off Villeroy & Boch, spot-on poached eggs and, according to Clare, "very nice, light, unsmoked bacon". This is a fantastic B&B. We leave Yorkshire on a high.
? Booking advised for The Angel Inn (01756 730263, angelhetton.co.uk ). Starters from ?6.25, mains from ?12.95
sally.shalam@guardian.co.uk

----------------
WHAT TO DO IN THE AREA: BY THE LOCALS
A day out

Ingthorpe sits amid the drumlin fields of Gargrave, soft hills formed in the last ice age ? from high up they resemble a basket of eggs. Footpaths and bridleways crisscross the area. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is not far and a walk along its banks is wonderful. For the more adventurous we are close to the dramatic craggy landscape of Malham Cove , a world heritage site.
Leslie Lockyear, landlady of Ingthorpe Grange
Bolton Abbey (boltonabbey.com , ?6 per vehicle, including all passengers) is a 20-minute drive away. You can visit the ruins and walk along the River Wharfe. Drive into the moors and visit Haworth , home of the Bront?s. Not only can you imagine yourself in one of the novels but you can explore the steep, cobbled streets and the many cafes and artisan shops. Children love the steam train ? the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway stops here (kwvr.co.uk , family day pass ?35 for two adults and three children). LL
Skipton is best known as the Gateway to the Yorkshire Dales, but there are many walks on the doorstep ? radiating from the Canal Basin and Skipton Woods in the centre of town. A ride on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway (embsayboltonabbeyrailway.org.uk , family pass ?20 for two adults and two children) is a must for young families.
Anne Waddington, of The Tempest Arms, Elslack (01282 842450, tempestarms.co.uk )
The town of Grassington and the surrounding countryside is perhaps the most popular place to visit within the dales. There are miles of footpaths and tracks leading through the most captivating scenery. The main street is full of small, independent shops, selling food, crafts and gifts. AW
A top pub

The Tempest Arms (details as before) won Les Routiers Pub of the Year 2011. The Bull at Broughton (01756 792065, thebullatbroughton.com ) is one of the Ribble Valley Inns co-owned by celebrity chef Nigel Haworth. LL
In Linton, between Skipton and Grassington, is the 17th-century Fountaine Inn (01756 752210, fountaineinnatlinton.co.uk ). Set on the village green and boasting wood fires and cosy corners, this is great for walkers, with good pub grub. AW
A spot of culture

Skipton's Craven Museum & Gallery (cravenmuseum.org, free ) is currently exhibiting a rare edition of Shakespeare's First Folio. At the top of the main street stands Skipton Castle (skiptoncastle.co.uk , adults ?6.50, children ?3.90) ? one of England's best- preserved medieval castles. AW
A meal out

Bizzie Lizzie's fish and chip shop (36 Swadford Street, bizzielizzies.co.uk ) is a Skipton institution. Or take a tour of the Copper Dragon Brewery (01756 704560, copperdragon.uk.com ) and have a pint with a meal at its bistro. AW

* Hotels
* Yorkshire
* United Kingdom
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* Food & drink

Sally Shalam

Gwen Stefani Halle Berry Hayden Panettiere Haylie Duff Heidi Klum

Wheldon airlifted to hospital

Posted about 22 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Dan Wheldon has been airlifted to University Medical Centre in Las Vegas following a huge 15-car accident in the early stages of the IndyCar Series finale. Pippa Mann, who climbed aided from her car, as well as JR Hildebrand have also been taken to the hospital by road. Wheldon, this year's Indianapolis 500 winner, was one of at least four drivers whose cars became airborne in the crash, which occurred on the 12th lap of the race.
Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/indycar-news/indycar/wh...
Bruce Kessler Nicolas Kiesa Leo Kinnunen Danny Kladis Hans Klenk

A photography course in the Tatra mountains

Posted about 21 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Slawek Kozdras won a photography course in Slovakia's Tatra mountains in our 2010 Been there photo competition. Here he reveals the results Been there photo competition
Gallery: see Slawek's photos from the trip
Enter this year's photo competition
It's strange to go on a photography trip to Slovakia but to land in Krakow in Poland ? where I'm originally from.
Poland welcomed us with beautiful sunshine. After about an hour and a half's drive, billboards in Slovak appeared, then the jagged peaks of the Tatra mountains appeared on the horizon and we instantly found ourselves in the midst of a violent burst of hail.
Changing weather conditions were to accompany us for the next few days. Normally, rain, storm, hail, clouds and other nasty weather phenomena aren't welcome on holiday, but they are indispensable elements of successful landscape photography. There's nothing better than a mountain stream bathed in sunlight set against the intense blue of an imminent mountain storm.
We used an utterly cosy guesthouse, Penzion 2004, in a small, sleepy village, Stara Lesna, as our base. The aim of the trip was to learn how to take better landscape photos. Lesson number one was that it requires a strong will. It's not easy to force yourself to get up at 3.30am, especially on holiday. Lesson number two was patience. Out of five sunrises/sunsets, four were bland and we had to leave the site empty-handed, or rather empty-carded.
The only way to ease the hardship and occasional disappointment was to enjoy the company and focus on the thought of hot herbal tea waiting for us in the mountain cottage we stayed at for one night ? a remote haven in Tatra national park. So remote, in fact, that not long before our arrival and just a stone's throw from where we were based, a bear broke into a ranger's cottage while he was inside, locked in his bedroom. The ranger tried shouting, clapping and turning the telly on maximum volume but nothing would scare the animal away. He finally managed to frighten the bear by turning the vacuum on.
Aside from the lessons in bear-scaring, there was much to learn about photography. We discovered that it is wise to enter restaurants with one's camera clearly visible. In one place a very kind waitress noticed our cameras while we were having tea. She asked if we could help her out and take pictures of their dishes. There was one condition ? whatever she brought out to be photographed, we would have to eat. How could we say no? After enjoying delicious local masterpieces of dumplings with sheep's cheese, cabbage soup and blueberry pies as a thank you, we were offered bright smiles and herbal vodka.
All in all, it was a magnificent trip thanks to our tutors, Matt and Lee. I polished my technical photography skills using their tips and learned how to use filters and long exposures. The newly gained knowledge is very useful in capturing landscapes but also in other areas of photography. I also learned that the Tatra mountains, and Slovakia in general, are hidden gems definitely worth exploring.
? Tatra Photography (0161-408 8988, tatraphotographyworkshop.com ) offers a three-night Lakes and Waterfalls holiday in the Tatra mountains from ?599 including Gatwick-Krakow flights, three nights' full-board accommodation at Penzion 2004, four days' tuition and transfers. The next workshops take place from 20-23 and 27-30 October

* Slovakia
* Travel photography
* Photography
* Learning holidays
* Europe
* Short breaks

Genelle Frenoy Georgianna Robertson Georgina Grenville Gina Carano Gina Gershon

Big Dairy Accused Of Pricefixing Milk By Paying For Cows To Be Killed

Posted about 20 hours ago by joelpomales to joelpomales's posterous

Big Dairy Accused Of Pricefixing Milk By Paying For Cows To Be Killed
via The Consumerist by Ben Popken on 10/18/11

A new class action lawsuit accuses several dairy industry juggernauts of paying mainly small farmers to send their entire herds to the slaughterhouse in order to reduce the supply of milk and jack up milk prices.
The lawsuit contends that a national trust of dairy trade groups, Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) funded a "dairy herd retirement" program which sent 500,000 cows to slaughter in order to boost milk prices from 2003-2010. CWT's own website (PDF) says the initiative increased profits by $9.5 billion for agribusiness.
In 2010, a similar lawsuit against Land O' Lakes accused the company of fixing egg prices by paying for poultry herds to be thinned under an "animal welfare" program. That case settled for $24 million.
Read the lawsuit (PDF)
Dairy Price-Fixing [HBSSLAW]
COK Uncovers $9.5 Billion Price-Fixing Scheme: National Milk Producers Federation and Other Dairy Industry Groups Accused of Antitrust Violations [COK]

Rennsport Reunion IV Concours: Porsche Motorsport History on Pit Lane

Posted about 20 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Saturday's Rennsport activities concluded with a concours. Instead of the traditional golf-course lawn, the cars were in their natural habitat: About 80 racing-pedigreed Porsches ?were on display on pit lane. The gathering showcased the amazing cross-section of important and simply cool-looking race cars on hand. And it even smelled like racing. The best-in-show winner was [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caranddriver/blog/~3/N9RIuonsqfA/
Matthew Roy Kenseth Alan Dennis Kulwicki Travis Wade Kvapil Robert Allen Labonte Terrence Lee Labonte

10 best guided walks in London

Posted about 19 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Fancy a trip down Diagon Alley, a view of an elusive Banksy or a look at the spot where William 'Braveheart' Wallace was executed? Here are 10 top London guided tours
London is best seen on foot. But in a city so historically, culturally and geographically vast, you might need a guide. Fortunately, a burgeoning community of tour operators is ready and waiting to lead you through the streets of London. Ten of the many options ? including the mainstream and the more offbeat ? are suggested below. Check the websites for full details, as most walks require pre-booking.
Fox & Squirrel Art Walks

New company Fox & Squirrel prides itself on knowing the best lifestyle venues in the capital. Regular walks explore London's fashion, arts, vintage, architecture and food scenes. On a typical arts walk, you'll visit three contemporary galleries. A curator or artist will not only explain the work on show, but also the oft-bewildering nature of the London arts world.
? The next Arts walk is on 8 October, 3pm, Peckham Library, ?15, 90 minutes, foxandsquirrel.com
Old Map Man

Nearly all tour guides thrive off London's unrivalled history. Ken Titmuss, AKA the Old Map Man, goes one step further by physically conjuring up lost London using historic maps. For example, he'll not only lead you to Charles Dickens' former home, but also show you a 19th-century map with a gap where this house was about to be built. Tours operate all over London, but there's no fixed rota so check the website for details.
? Tour starting points vary, next tour 19 October at 11am. Most walks cost ?8 and last two hours, londontrails.wordpress.com
Olympic tours

All eyes will be on London in 2012 for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Public access to the main Olympic Park is restricted during the build-up, but a guided walk around the perimeter offers a tantalising preview. Blue Badge guides from Tour Guides Ltd provide daily outings. The tours begin in the Lower Lea Valley, where you'll learn about the area's still-visible industrial heritage. You'll finish up on the Greenway, a raised walkway through the middle of the Olympic Park with spectacular views of the main stadia.
? 11am every day from Bromley-by-Bow tube station, adults ?9, children ?6, walks last around two hours maximum, tourguides2012.co.uk
Black History Walks

Explore the history of London's African populations with these regular tours in the City, West End, Docklands, Elephant and Castle and Notting Hill. You'll hear how much of England's wealth was built on African labour and resources, discover the streets that carry African names, and learn to spot African architectural influences. There's no regular rota of walks, so check the web site for upcoming events.
? The next City tour is on 9 October at 2pm, ?7 adults, ?3 children, around two hours, blackhistorywalks.co.uk
Liars' London

Lesser tour guides are often accused of "making stuff up" for the sake of a good story. This tricksy tour makes a virtue of embellishment and deceit. You get two tour guides, one of whom tells the truth while the other tells porkies. Your task is to guess which one is the fibber, with a prize for the most astute member of the group. Liars' tours are organised by London Street Tours and are available for Kensington, Chelsea, Blackfriars, London Bridge and Bloomsbury (assuming that their spokesperson is telling the truth).
? Group tours available on request at ?7.50 per person, minimum group size of 20, londonstreettours.co.uk
Charles Booth Poverty Maps

Sean Patterson has numerous tricks up his sleeve to bring the sights and sounds of Victorian London to life. One minute you're ushered into a local supermarket to learn about the history of ice cream, the next you're dropping into the local pub for a pint of Best. Patterson draws on the work of Charles Booth, the Victorian philanthropist who mapped poverty levels across all of London's streets. Patterson uses the map to point out areas that remain down-at-heel, and ones that have prospered. His main tours explore the fascinating but little-known streets of Deptford, and he's working on sequels elsewhere.
? Tours run most Saturdays and Sundays from central Deptford, ?10, three hours, charlesboothwalks.com
London Street Art Tours

There's much more to street art than Banksy. Graff guide Griff knows many of the artists personally, and will open your eyes to this vibrant subculture. By the end, you'll be able to tell your Roas from your Malarkys and your Eines from your Sweet Toofs. And Banksy? You'll also be shown a few of his lesser-known pieces, hidden from general view. Tours usually focus on the Shoreditch area, this being London's main hotbed of street art. Weekend tours will also take you up to Hackney on a more extended expedition.
? From Old Street tube station every Tuesday (10am) and Thursday (6pm), ?10, two hours. A four-hour tour costs ?15, on Saturdays at 11am, streetartlondon.co.uk/tours
London's Lost Rivers

A lost network of rivers is buried beneath the roads of modern London. Most are now sewers, but all have left their mark on the world above. Tom Bolton, author of the recent book London's Lost Rivers: A Walker's Guide, will show you how to read the landscape and spot these ancient watercourses ? from the slopes of nearby roads to tell-tale street names. His next trek, on 8 October, follows the elusive River Neckinger, which rises in Southwark and drains into the Thames in Bermondsey. Periodic tours are available, but don't run to a rota.
? 8 October, from Bernie Spain Gardens, 2.30pm, ?5, two hours, strangeattractor.co.uk/further
Harry Potter Tours

Perfect for families, these wizarding tours of London seek out locations from the eight movies. One tour explores the City of London, home to Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron. Another will leave you spellbound in Westminster, where you'll discover the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Muggles are welcome. The tours are by London Walks, who've dominated the guided walk scene in the capital for decades, and offer many other themed excursions.
? City tours run every Wednesday from Temple tube station, 6.30pm, Westminster tours run on Saturdays from Westminster tube station, at 2pm, adults ?8, children ?3, free for under-8s, walks.com
Smithfield Earlybird

Forget the Tower of London. Smithfield is undoubtedly the bloodiest location in the capital, with a long history of executions (including William "Braveheart" Wallace), centuries of heretic-burning and a famous peasant-slaying (the Revolt was stamped out here). Smithfield has also been the site of a butchers' market for centuries, which still thrives today. This turbulent and fascinating history is best explored in the early morning, when the market is bustling. Join a representative of the City Guides group for an early-bird tour.
? Tours run once a month, with the next on 20 October, 7am, ?8, 90 minutes, cityoflondontouristguides.com
Matt Brown is editor of online listings magazine Londonist.com and an obsessive walker

* London
* United Kingdom
* Walking holidays
* Short breaks

Jenny McCarthy Jessica Alba Jessica Biel Jessica Cauffiel Jessica Paré

Michigan GMC Dealers Ready for Self-Driving Vehicles? By 2020 is the Goal says General Motors

Posted about 19 hours ago by MI Auto Times to MI Auto Times

From vehicles with no seatbelts or airbags, to added safety technologies and now, finally self-driving vehicles, General Motors is bringing the future of driving to the industry. Michigan GMC dealers may see these vehicles as early as 2020.
DETROIT, M.I. - Michigan GMC dealers may have watched as new safety technology was created and added to the many new vehicles that are being produced: rearview cameras, side sensors for lane safety and more. As the need for more safety continues, automakers such as General Motors persist in the discovery, design and production of new technologies. GM's current venture? Self-driving vehicles.
The goal at this point is to have vehicles able to be partially driven by an occupant while other abilities will be automated by the middle of the decade. By the end of the decade, the plan is to have a much more sophisticated system that allows for the vehicles to drive themselves with no driver involved in the main functions of the vehicles.
"The technologies we're developing will provide an added convenience by partially or even completely taking over the driving duties," said Alan Taub, the vice president of global research and development for GM, in a GM press release. "The primary goal, though, is safety. Future generation safety systems will eliminate the crash altogether by interceding on behalf of drivers before they're even aware of a hazardous situation."
Michigan GMC dealers may know that the combination of sensors, radars, portable communication devices, GPS as well as cameras are the basis for the information that is fed directly to the vehicle's computer system. Digital maps will also help give the occupant the freedom to concentrate on everything else aside from driving.
There are already some technologies that General Motors has brought to its vehicles such as a lane departure warning system for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain; a side blind-zone alert for vehicles such as the Buick LaCrosse, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe; finally, there are many vehicles that are stocked with back-up cameras.
"In the coming years, we believe the industry will experience a dramatic leap in active safety systems, and, hopefully, a dramatic decline in injuries and fatalities on our roadways," Taub said. "GM has made a commitment to be at the forefront of this development."
Other technologies that General Motors is working on in the coming years include:
·         an industry-first with a crash avoidance system, which will use a camera to help driver avoid a front-end and lane departure crash
·         vehicle-to-vehicle as well as vehicle-to-infrastructure communication systems that will gather information from other vehicles, roadways and even traffics signals
·         the EN-V urban mobility concept which is a combination of GPS with vehicle-to-vehicle communication and distance-sensing technologies
Consumers will be able to look to Michigan GMC dealers and other across the country to find the safety and security that they have come to know is available in a General Motors vehicle but will soon come with the ability to relax comfortably without needing to watch the road.
MI Auto Times covers all Michigan automotive news all the time, featuring newly released vehicle recall information, relevant Michigan automaker news, vehicle ratings and comparisons, and everything else auto-related Michigan and world readers need to know.
Got a hot tip? Send your news tips to news@miautotimes.com or connect with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MichiganAutoTimes .
[Source(s): GM Media]

Hildebrand leaves hospital

Posted about 18 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

IndyCar driver JR Hildebrand has been released from hospital after sustaining injuries in the Las Vegas crash in which Dan Wheldon lost his life.
Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/indycar-news/indycar/hi...
Al Keller Joe Kelly Dave Kennedy Loris Kessel Bruce Kessler

Adriana Lima?s Hot, New Victoria?s Secret Shoot

Posted about 17 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Proving why she?s one of the world?s top models, Adriana Lima is featured in a new series of photos from Victoria?s Secret.
In the set, Adriana shows off a variety of new lingerie including some sexy black outfits as well as flirty colorful creations, all the while looking flawless.
And it sounds like Ms. Lima has been a busy girl as of late, thanks to an appearance on the Turkish version of ?Dancing with the Stars,? called ?Yok Boyle Danse.?
Adriana looked fabulous in a sexy red dress as she mesmerized the audience with a pair of dance performances before joining the judges at the table.
Embedded media -- click here to see it.
Hayden Panettiere Haylie Duff Heidi Klum Heidi Montag Hilarie Burton

Rennsport Trivia: Keys of the Gods Edition

Posted about 16 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Few historic racing cars are as immediately identifiable as the Porsche 917. Stuttgart's twelve-cylinder monster and the cars it spawned took the German marque to some of the most famous podiums in the world, and it gave the company the overall Le Mans win it had long wanted. The most iconic 917 is perhaps the [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caranddriver/blog/~3/iK4TYOAWDWM/
Al Keller Joe Kelly Dave Kennedy Loris Kessel Bruce Kessler

Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Breakfast Braid (with Maple Brown Sugar Glaze)

Posted about 15 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Breakfast Braid with Maple Brown Sugar Glaze
----------------

To read about how I wholeheartedly embrace nerdiness, see the great lengths I was willing to go to to get out of the mile run as a child, and see more pumpkin braid photos, please head over to Willow Bird Baking !
x-posted to food_porn, cooking, picturing_food, and bakebakebake
Elisabeth Röhm Elisha Cuthbert Eliza Dushku Emilie de Ravin Emma Heming

Turner replaces Wheldon at Surfers

Posted about 14 hours ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Briton Darren Turner will replace the late Dan Wheldon in this weekend's Armor All Gold Coast 600 at Surfers Paradise.
Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/turner-replace...
Dick Gibson Gimax Richie Ginther Yves Giraud Cabantous Ignazio Giunti

Listed industrial giants decaying, English Heritage warns

Posted about 13 hours ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update

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Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update October 18th, 2011

Mountain biking in Canada

Posted 2 days ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

For a mountain biking break you can't do better than the stunning terrain of British Columbia, the sport's spiritual home
"I thought we'd start with Thirsty Beaver, definitely take in Steam Donkey and Space Nugget, and perhaps if there's time we can check out Bucket of Blood. Did you bring your dodgeballs?"
Hauling his mountain bike out of the back of his truck, guide Mike Manara set off through the steaming Canadian drizzle towards the first creek crossing of the day, leaving me desperately searching for my ? how can I put this ? balls. I would find these homemade cakes much later on, gently oozing chocolate and peanuts between the bike tools in my backpack, a casualty of being thrown around a network of trails the collective naming of which sounded more like the latter stages of some gruesome illness than a fun day out on a bike.
"Nine years ago there were no riders in Cumberland," said Mike over lunch, a hastily arranged tree stump picnic stop well away from the bear poo we had spotted earlier. "But now the car park at the rec centre is full every weekend with people coming to mountain bike and that's great."
It's not an overstatement to say that British Columbia is mountain biking. The region on Canada's west coast has passionately nurtured both the sport's champions and its evolution, even giving the name to a particular genre of riding known as "north shore" (elevated wooden trails which act as bridges and launches for jumps), which was born on the northern shore of Vancouver's harbour. Travel up the Sea to Sky highway for 70 miles and you reach the behemoth of Whistler, a mountain resort which has invested so enthusiastically in its mountain biking infrastructure that it attracts 250,000 people a year into its purpose-built park and trails.
Cumberland lacks all of Whistler's sass and advertising savvy, an acute failing about which the small town is entirely unconcerned. It lies on Vancouver Island's east coast in an area known as the Comox Valley, 25 minutes south of Mount Washington ? another major outdoor sports destination.
From its founding in 1888 until its mines closed in 1966, Cumberland was a busy coal-producing town ? complete with bitter labour disputes and a reputation for hard living among its inhabitants which earned it the nickname Dodge City.
It is on this industrial heritage that the United Riders of Cumberland have gradually developed a network of trails, utilising the old logging tracks ? on Steam Donkey you can even feel the old sleepers underneath your wheels ? which surround the town.
"When I arrived 10 years ago there was nothing," said Jeremy Grasby, whose opening of the Riding Fool Hostel spearheaded Cumberland's transformation from dying community into sporting destination. "I mean, we're talking tumbleweed blowing across the street, you know?
"I don't know why I came here. I just love mountain biking and I love mountain bikers so it seemed to make sense. I had no grand plan, just open the place and see how it goes."
The hostel took over a 19th-century building that had for three generations been a hardware store belonging to CH Tarbell and sons, the original signage for which now hangs in the living room. Lodgers are diverse: we entered to find a chairlift operator at Mount Washington, full of youthful seasonaire glee, sitting on one sofa, while poring over a map were three fortysomethings pondering whether their UK-honed cycling skills were going to be enough for the terrain. Bikes stood in the hallway ? the Dodge City Cycles (dodgecitycycles.com ) shop shares the building and mountain bike magazines were weighing down most of the tables. The hostel works in conjunction with Island Mountain Rides to organise guided rides for visitors both in the immediate area and further afield. It's fair to say that two wheels rule at the Riding Fool.
Most of the trails ? many of which you can ride straight from the hostel's front door ? are single track, hand built by people living locally, giving each one a story and a character of its own. Thirsty Beaver weaved through wet, lush forest, the creation of a group known as the River Rats ? chaps on the mature side of 50 with time on their hands and a love of carpentry, hence the beaver totempoles which dot the route and the expansive use of wooden bridges.
Three hours after surviving Bucket of Blood (a tree? a corner? oh no!), we were propping up the bar at the Waverley Hotel, where Pink Floyd tribute band the Pigs were inching their way through Dark Side of the Moon. The ceiling was pockmarked with wine corks and dry ice curled around the bike that swung gently from the rafters. Behind the bar was a glass door leading to the walk-in refrigerator which also served the off?licence next door.
Cumberland's main street, Dunsmuir Avenue, plays host to an eclectic mix of businesses from coffee shops and tattoo parlours to organic bakeries and vintage clothing stores. It's all a far cry from the adventurous terrain which surrounds the town and the rowdy history which the modern incarnation has inherited.
The following day Mike decided we needed to explore the riding in Strathcona Provincial Park , up on the Forbidden Plateau, so called because of the legend of the disappearance of women and children from the Comox tribe who were hiding there to escape raiders. It was a long and dusty slog to the start of the trails, but as we ascended, the view over to the mainland dulled the pain enough to suspend the use of bad language. We were heading for a trail named Cabin Fever which, as soon as we turned off from the fireroad ascent, was nothing short of extraordinary. Cresting bare rock outcrops with wide open vistas, we dived into dappled forest runs ending on tight, sandy corners twisting through low shrubbery. We rode back to Mike's truck on Bear Bait, a brilliantly mischievous trail which ducked over and under splayed tree roots, suitable for any rider with a sense of fun.
"I think you've earned a Lucky," said Mike before dumping a 15-can pack of Lucky Lager on the truck bed. Such is the enthusiasm with which the residents of Cumberland consume this brand of lager that it was named the Luckiest town in Canada in 2002 with more cans sold there than anywhere else in the country. Not bad going for a population of 2,800 people.
"There has been mountain biking here since mountain biking began," said Jeremy later. "I guess we are lucky ? the riding is phenomenal but we also have that smalltown community feel. There's everything you need."
And you're going to need those dodgeballs.
? The Riding Fool Hostel (2705 Dunsmuir, +1 250 336 8250, ridingfool.com) has dorm beds for C$25.75pp (?15) and doubles for ?45. Island Mountain Rides (islandmountainrides.com ) runs half?day tours from ?45pp and full?day epic rides from ?60pp. For more information, visit britishcolumbia.travel

* Cycling holidays
* Canada
* Vancouver
* North and Central America
* Cycling

Susan Greenwood

Adrianne Curry Adrianne Palicki Aisha Tyler Aki Ross Alecia Elliott

Low-sodium recipes

Posted 1 day ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Hi all --
Do any of you have a reliable site for good low-sodium recipes?
Danica Patrick Daniella Alonso Danneel Harris Deanna Russo Denise Richards

Button tops final practice in Korea

Posted 1 day ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Jenson Button proved that McLaren's Friday pace was not down to the weather as he went quickest in the final practice session for the Korean Grand Prix at Yeongam The 2009 world champion initially hit the front with 23 minutes of the hour-long session to go in a time of 1m38.005s, but was knocked off the top spot by his team-mate Lewis Hamilton shortly afterwards.
Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/butt...
Kyle Busch Toyota Kimmy Z Line Designs Toyota Parker Kligerman Trevor Bayne

The impact of ecological limits on population growth

Posted 1 day ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Demographers are predicting that world population will climb to 10 billion this century. But with increasing pressure on water and food supplies will this projected population boom turn into a bust?
The hard part about predicting the future, someone once said, is that it hasn't happened yet. So it's a bit curious that so few experts question the received demographic wisdom that the Earth will be home to roughly 9 billion people in 2050 and a stable 10 billion at the century's end. Demographers seem comfortable projecting that life expectancy will keep rising while birth rates drift steadily downward, until human numbers hold steady with 3 billion more people than are alive today.
What's odd about this demographic forecast is how little it seems to square with environmental ones. There's little scientific dispute that the world is heading toward a warmer and harsher climate, less dependable water and energy supplies, less intact ecosystems with fewer species, more acidic oceans, and less naturally productive soils. Are we so smart and inventive that not one of these trends will have any impact on the number of human beings the planet sustains? When you put demographic projections side by side with environmental ones, the former actually mock the latter, suggesting that nothing in store for us will be more than an irritant. Human life will be less pleasant, perhaps, but it will never actually be threatened.
Some analysts, ranging from scientists David Pimentel of Cornell University to financial advisor and philanthropist Jeremy Grantham, dare to underline the possibility of a darker alternative future. Defying the
optimistic majority, they suggest that humanity long ago overshot a truly sustainable world population, implying that apocalyptic horsemen old and new could cause widespread death as the environment unravels. Most writers on environment and population are loathe to touch such predictions. But we should be asking, at least, whether such possibilities are real enough to temper the usual demographic confidence about future population projections.
For now, we can indeed be highly confident that world population will top 7 billion by the end of this year. We're close to that number already and currently adding about 216,000 people per day. But the United Nations "medium variant" population projection, the gold standard for expert expectation of the demographic future, takes a long leap of faith: It assumes no demographic influence from the coming environmental changes that could leave us living on what NASA climatologist James Hansen has dubbed "a different planet."
How different? Significantly warmer, according to the 2007 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ? as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit more than today on average. Sea levels from two to six feet higher than today's ? vertically, meaning that seawater could move hundreds of feet inland over currently inhabited coastal land. Greater extremes of both severe droughts and intense storms. Shifting patterns of infectious disease as new landscapes open for pathogen survival and spread. Disruptions of global ecosystems as rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns buffet and scatter animal and plant species. The eventual melting of Himalayan glaciers, upsetting supplies of fresh water on which 1.3 billion South Asians and Chinese (and, of course, that number is rising) depend for food production.
And that's just climate change, based on the more dramatic end of the range the IPCC and other scientific groups project. Yet even if we leave aside the likelihood of a less accommodating climate, population growth itself undermines the basis for its own continuation in other ways. Since
1900, countries home to nearly half the world's people have moved into conditions of chronic water stress or scarcity based on falling per-capita supply of renewable fresh water. Levels of aquifers and even many lakes around the world are falling as a result. In a mere 14 years, based on median population projections, most of North Africa and the Middle East, plus Pakistan, South Africa and large parts of China and India, will be driven by water scarcity to increasing dependence on food imports "even at high levels of irrigation efficiency," according to the International Water Management Institute.
The world's net land under cultivation has scarcely expanded since 1960, with millions of acres of farmland gobbled by urban development while roughly equal amounts of less fertile land come under the plow. The doubling of humanity has cut the amount of cropland per person in half. And much of this essential asset is declining in quality as constant production saps nutrients that are critical to human health, while the soil itself erodes through the double whammy of rough weather and less-than-perfect human care. Fertilizer helps restore fertility (though rarely micronutrients), but at ever-higher prices and through massive inputs of non-renewable resources such as oil, natural gas, and key minerals. Phosphorus in particular is a non-renewable mineral essential to all life, yet it is being depleted and wasted at increasingly rapid rates, leading to fears of imminent "peak phosphorus."
We can recycle phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, and other essential minerals and nutrients, but the number of people that even the most efficient recycling could support may be much less than today's world population. In 1997, Canadian geographer Vaclav Smil calculated that were it not for the industrial fixation of nitrogen, the world's population would probably not have exceeded 4 billion people ? 3 billion fewer than are alive today. It's likely that organic agriculture can feed many more people than it does currently, but the hard accounting of the nutrients in today's 7 billion human bodies, let alone tomorrow's projected 10 billion, challenges the hope that a climate-neutral agriculture system could feed us all.
Food production also requires many services of nature that conventional agronomy tends to ignore in projecting future food supplies, and the dependability of these services appears to be fraying. Roughly one out of every two or three forkfuls of food relies on natural pollination, yet many of the world's most important pollinators are in trouble. Honeybees are
succumbing to the tiny varroa mite, while vast numbers of bird species face threats ranging from habitat loss to housecats. Bats and countless other pest-eaters are falling prey to environmental insults scientists don't yet fully understand. And the loss of plant and animal biodiversity generally makes humanity ever-more dependent on a handful of key crop species and chemical inputs that make food production less, rather than more, resilient. One needn't argue that the rising grain prices, food riots, and famine parts of the world have experienced in the past few years are purely an outcome of population growth to worry that at some point further growth will be limited by constrained food supplies.
As population growth sends human beings into ecosystems that were once isolated, new disease vectors encounter the attraction of large packages of protoplasm that walk on two legs and can move anywhere on the planet within hours. In the last half-century, dozens of new infectious diseases have emerged. The most notable, HIV/AIDS, has led to some 25 million excess deaths, a megacity-sized number even in a world population of billions. In Lesotho, the pandemic pushed the death rate from 10 deaths per thousand people per year in the early 1990s to 18 per thousand a decade later. In South Africa the combination of falling fertility and HIV-related deaths has pressed down the population growth rate to 0.5 percent annually, half the rate of the United States. As the world's climate warms, the areas affected by such diseases will likely shift in unpredictable ways, with malarial and dengue-carrying mosquitoes moving into temporal zones while warming waters contribute to cholera outbreaks in areas once immune.
To be fair, the demographers who craft population projections are not actively judging that birth, death, and migration rates are immune to the effects of environmental change and natural resource scarcity. Rather they argue, reasonably enough, that there is no scientifically rigorous way to weigh the likelihood of such demographic impacts. So it makes more sense to simply extend current trend lines in population change ? rising life expectancy, falling fertility, higher proportions of people living in urban areas. These trends are then extrapolated into an assumedly surprise-free future. The well-known investor caveat that past performance is no guarantee of future results goes unstated in the conventional demographic forecast.
Is such a surprise-free future likely? That's a subjective question each of us must answer based on our own experience and hunches. Next to no research has assessed the likely impacts of human-caused climate change, ecosystem disruption, or energy and resource scarcity on the two main determinants of demographic change: births and deaths. Migration related to climate change is a more common subject for research, with projections ranging from 50 million to 1 billion people displaced by environmental factors ? including climate change ? by 2050. The mainstream projections cluster around 200 million, but no one argues that there is a compelling scientific argument for any of these numbers.
The IPCC and other climate-change authorities have noted that extremely hot weather can kill, with the elderly, immune-compromised, low-income, or socially isolated among the most vulnerable. An estimated 35,000 people died during the European heat wave of 2003. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites research projecting that heat-related deaths could multiply as much as seven-fold by the century's end.
In the past few years, agronomists have lost some of their earlier confidence that food production, even with genetically modified crops, will keep pace with rising global populations in a changing climate. Already, weather-related disasters, from blistering heat waves to flooded farm fields, have contributed to widening gaps between food production and global consumption. The resulting price increases ? stoked also by biofuels production encouraged in part to slow climate change ? have led to food riots that cost lives and helped topple governments from the Middle East to Haiti.
If this is what we see a decade into the new century, what will unfold in the next 90 years? "What a horrible world it will be if food really becomes short from one year to the next," wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds told The New York Times in June. "What will that do to society?" What, more specifically, will it do to life expectancy, fertility, and migration? Fundamentally, these questions are unanswerable from the vantage point of the present, and there's a lesson in this. We shouldn't be so confident that the demographers can expertly forecast what the world's population will look like beyond the next few years. A few demographers are willing to acknowledge this themselves.
"Continuing world population growth through mid-century seems nearly certain," University of California, Berkeley, demographer Ronald Lee noted recently in Science. "But nearly all population forecasts... implicitly assume that population growth will occur in a neutral zone without negative economic or environmental feedback. [Whether this occurs] will depend in part on the success of policy measures to reduce the environmental impact of economic and demographic growth."
It's certainly possible that ingenuity, resilience and effective governance will manage the stresses humanity faces in the decades ahead and will keep life expectancy growing in spite of them. Slashing per-capita energy and resource consumption would certainly help. A sustainable population size, it's worth adding, will be easier to maintain if societies also assure women the autonomy and contraceptive means they need to avoid unwanted pregnancies. For anyone paying attention to the science of climate change and the realities of a rapidly changing global environment, however, it seems foolish to treat projections of 10 billion people at the end of this century as respectfully as a prediction of a solar eclipse or the appearance of a well-studied comet. A bit more humility about population's path in an uncertain and dangerous century would be more consistent with the fact that the future, like a comet astronomers have never spotted, has not yet arrived.

America Ferrera Amerie Amy Cobb Amy Smart Ana Beatriz Barros

CUP: Charlotte Power Rankings

Posted 1 day ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Carl Edwards is now on top of the FOXSports.com/SPEED.com Power Rankings...
Source: http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-charlotte-motor-speedway-power-rankings...
Paul Hawkins Mike Hawthorn Boy Hayje Willi Heeks Nick Heidfeld

Do energy prices make your blood boil? | Open thread

Posted 1 day ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Profit margins on typical tariffs have soared in recent months. Tell us your thoughts on the energy market ? and your bills
The average profit that big energy firms make out of dual-fuel customers has risen to ?125 per customer, up from ?15 in June , according to the regulator Ofgem, representing a 733% increase in just four months. Ofgem's chief executive, Alistair Buchanan, has expressed concern that the rise in margins highlights a continuing lack of competition in the area: "When consumers face energy bills at around ?1,345 they must have complete confidence that this price is set by companies competing in a fully competitive market. At the moment this is not the case."
We'd like to hear your experiences of paying energy bills. Do you think there's enough competition between providers? Is gas and electricity something you now use more carefully after prices have soared? Do you feel there's enough protection afforded to consumers?

* Energy bills
* Energy
* Consumer affairs
* Household bills

Erika Christensen Estella Warren Esther Cañadas Eva Green Eva Longoria

Kenny Wallace: 2012 Might Be My Last Season Driving In NASCAR

Posted 1 day ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Kenny Wallace - Photo Credit: Tom Pennington / Getty Images for NASCARKenny Wallace loves racing and plans to keep running dirt cars until he's 60 years old. But his time in NASCAR may not last much longer. Wallace said Wednesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway he's "exhausted trying to find money" from sponsors in what seems...more»
Source: http://www.catchfence.com/2011/nationwide/10/13/kenny-wallace-2012-might-be-m...
Oscar González Aldo Gordini Horace Gould Jean Marc Gounon Emmanuel de Graffenried

Ray Aghayan obituary

Posted 1 day ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

Award-winning costume designer who dressed Judy Garland and Diana Ross and oversaw the Oscar red carpet
Now that television talent contests are gussied up to Vegas standards, it's less easy to appreciate the discreet glamour that was the speciality of Ray Aghayan, who has died aged 83. But for 60 years, he guaranteed that difficult divas would arrive on screens and stages projecting perfection. Glamour was so much his habitat, he supervised over a dozen Oscar shows.
His initial diva, he remembered, was even more terrifying than Barbra Streisand: Princess Fawzia of Egypt, first wife of the last Shah of Iran, a woman of movie appearance and wilfulness. Aghayan came from an Armenian family in Tehran, and his widowed mother, Yasmine, designed clothes for the ruling Pahlavi family; the boy, starstruck by Hollywood, was certain he, too, could create, and the amused Fawzia summoned him via her ladies in waiting. She explained to him that she had to wear mourning dress, but didn't want to be extinguished by it. So he drew her "this big black tulle thing trimmed with droopy red ostrich feathers". It was sewn, defiantly worn, and after that no grand dame scared him.
His mother took his cinema passions seriously enough to send him to California to study. In Los Angeles, he dropped out of architecture and into acting, then: "I was directing a play and found we didn't have enough money to hire a designer. So I designed the costumes."
He went into television in the mid-50s, when most of its costuming was re-used from movie stock, or agency hires. NBC or CBS budgets for original commissions were reserved for big variety specials, and Aghayan was confident that whatever the level of luxe, he could supply it. It was steady work, culminating in 1963-64, when he costumed Judy Garland's regular shows. Edith Head had been commissioned, but exited, fast. Garland was trouble. But Aghayan was a fan ("If you can sing like that it doesn't matter how hard you are", he said), and her demands were minimal: she wanted to wear spike heels. As her legs were long and thin, Aghayan thought this was a great idea, and he was sure of the way she should look. "The lady was like the Statue of Liberty: you know what she wears." He defrumped Garland with slacks under over-blouses, simply cut but surface-decorated at $350 a time, to catch the light in monochrome. Garland wore them on her late tours, including the famous 1964 London Palladium gig.
Aghayan's success meant he needed assistance. It arrived at his door in the form of Bob Mackie, a young designer who sketched better than anyone and became Aghayan's professional and personal partner for life. They shared an aesthetic based on old Hollywood and burlesque ? fearless with feathers and rhinestones, but lightened up and styled for wit. Sometimes as a duo, sometimes solo, they produced costumes for Diana Ross in her Supremes days, Dinah Shore, Julie Andrews and Carol Channing ? the latter getting a Broadway gown with 80lb of crystal beading, its scarf so weighted that Channing, flinging it over her shoulder, damaged the scenery.
Aghayan never went as far into parody as Mackie, but he did enjoy pastiche in a short movie career, rebranding Doris Day in a mad mod mode for Caprice (1967). The terrible seriousness, and serious terribleness, of Doctor Doolittle (1967) put him off big films, although he and Mackie rallied to Ross and Streisand, picking up Oscar nominations for Lady Sings the Blues (1972) ? the shoulder treatments of Ross's dresses amplifying her slight frame to more closely match Billie Holiday's broader form ? and Streisand's Funny Lady (1975), the sequel to Funny Girl, a masterclass in bias cut. Aghayan alone had a nomination for Gaily, Gaily (1969), and among his Broadway productions was nominated for a Tony in 1970 for Applause, the musical of All About Eve: he draped rows of fringe from Lauren Bacall's loping frame, to dance in lieu of her feet.
Aghayan campaigned successfully for an Emmy category for costume, and he and Mackie shared the first award, in 1967, for a television movie of Alice Through the Looking Glass. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences still assumed that nothing on the box was purpose-made, however, and a member asked Aghayan what he did that was worth recognition, stating: "You shop for clothes and you bring it in and you put on stars and they wear it." Aghayan replied: "I want you, tomorrow, to go to the May Company [a department store] and buy me, and bring here, the Red Queen's costume."
He and Mackie were aware that the studio workrooms of trained craft hands were closing in LA; New York was a long way to go to get 10,000 sequins applied at speed. So in 1968, along with Elizabeth Courtney, formerly of Columbia Pictures, they set up their own Californian atelier, later exporting its output to Broadway. Many showbiz customers also wanted unique dress-up ensembles, at a time when Paris couture was low on handworked glamour. So the duo obliged, a custom-making venture that turned into retail collections in the 1980s. Mackie had the wow factor, Aghayan supplied the subtle flattery. The Costume Designers Guild executive director, Rachael Stanley, said: "Whenever there was a problem trying to make something work, Ray could come in and take a look at it and say, 'Oh, the problem is ...'" The guild gave him a lifetime achievement award in 2008.
Aghayan was asked to advise on the televising of the Oscar shows from the late 1960s. He didn't have a veto over red-carpet choices, but up until the mid-1980s, when couture houses began to fight to place their designs on stars' backs, his recommendation was heeded. By his last Oscars, in 2001, he felt costume design ? the dress as character or an extra asset on a charismatic performer ? had been overtaken by fashion advertising.
He won an Emmy and several nominations for the Oscar shows, and designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 LA Olympics, with 50 designs mass-produced into 11,000 outfits of white sportswear: happy, summery, the summation of his fantasy America.
Mackie survives him.
? Ray Aghayan, costume designer, born 28 July 1928; died 10 October 2011

* Oscars
* Awards and prizes
* Emmys
* Television
* Design
* Broadway
* Theatre
* United States

Veronica Horwell

January Jones Jennie Finch Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Gareis Jennifer Garner

2013 Porsche Boxster Spied Undisguised: Sleeker, Lighter, No Hybrid, Possible Turbo Four

Posted 1 day ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Sleeker styling and a four-cylinder engine for Porsche?s sublime roadster. The latest 911 has been revealed, and the third-gen Boxster will be Porsche?s next big debut. The mid-engined roadster is, after all, a close sibling to the iconic 911, although Porsche has certainly learned to hide the connection a bit better than with the pre-2002 [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caranddriver/blog/~3/BiRdvTIVHCE/2013_porsche_...
Johnny Herbert Al Herman Hans Herrmann François Hesnault Hans Heyer

Blackpool's 'gag pile carpet' unfurled

Posted 1 day ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

It contains the catchphrases from some of the best-loved comedians and has been likened to the Angel of the North - but horizontal.
On a rainy and windswept October day, the comedian Ken Dodd unveiled a comedy carpet in Blackpool.
The carpet - made of granite and concrete - features catchphrases and jokes from hundreds of famous comedians, including Dodd, Frankie Howerd, Tommy Cooper and Morecambe and Wise. It was constructed beneath Blackpool Tower.
Officials in Blackpool likened it to the Angel of the North - but horizontal. The larger catchphrases can be seen from the top of the tower that looms above it.
The 2,200m square installation features 160,000 individually cut letters spelling out the famous one liners. The ?4m project has taken five years from conception to installation.
Some of the catchphrases and jokes include: "I had a ploughman's lunch the other day. He wasn't half mad."
The artist Gordon Young said: "I'd been looking at photographs of stars and the Blackpool Tower was a recurring backdrop to the photos ? Eric and Ernie in deck chairs, Ken Dodd, Les Dawson.
"It soon became obvious that Blackpool had been a magnetic chuckle point for the nation."
As Dodd unveiled the carpet, he exclaimed: "By jove missus, what a beautiful day!"
You can see more images of the comedy carpet here.
The Blackpool Gazette has a video of the launch. The news report contains the immortal line:
"They talk about the Hollywood Walk of Fame - but no-one else has one of these!"
Ken Dodd has performed in the resort every year since 1954. He told the Blackpool Gazette: "I think it's going to be visited by millions. The people of the north love to laugh, above anything else.
"Blackpool is the greatest show town in the world."
But my favourite headline goes to the Yorkshire Post which described the launch as a "gag pile carpet".

* Blackpool
* Regeneration
* Comedy

Helen Carter

Dania Ramirez Danica Patrick Daniella Alonso Danneel Harris Deanna Russo

Dodge Motorsports, 2011 NSCS Bank of America 500 Post-Race Recaps

Posted 1 day ago by rovenlunger to rovenlunger's posterous

Dodge MotorsportsKURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ultra Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 13th ?It was just a frustrating night for our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. I thought we had the lucky dog there about halfway through the race. We were just tight in and loose off all night. And we got bit twice when the caution came out...more»
Source: http://www.catchfence.com/2011/sprintcup/10/16/dodge-motorsports-2011-nscs-ba...
Max Jean Stefan Johansson Eddie Johnson Leslie Johnson Bruce Johnstone

Calling time on the curry house

Posted 1 day ago by kimtopps to kimtopps's posterous

The term 'curry house' is a lazy lumping together of some wonderfully diverse culinary traditions and it's time we moved on, says Sejal Sukhadwala
Just in case there aren't enough PR-led themed events going on this month ? the London Restaurant Festival, the London Cocktail Week and Chocolate Week - it seems we're also at the beginning of National Curry Week , just a couple of weeks before Diwali .
As it's one of the nation's favourite cuisines, I don't know whether we need an annual celebration of "over 200 years of Indian restaurants in the UK", but at least this has a commendable aim of raising funds for hunger- and poverty-related charities. But I found myself irritated with the website's calls for curry lovers "to get out and visit their local curry houses". It's a term I loathe.
I have no idea where it originates - perhaps someone dreamt it up after Sake Dean Mahomed set up the Hindoostane Coffee House in 1810 , widely regarded as the UK's first Indian restaurant. Wherever it comes from, it never fails to irk me when it's bandied around as a catch-all - it does no justice to the hugely complex and diverse regional cooking of India, never mind Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. "Curry house" lazily lumps all these cuisines together; it's as ignorant and twee as labelling the different cuisines of Europe "continental".
To me, the outmoded phrase evokes 70s and 80s restaurants with flock wallpaper, piped music, obsequious waiters in bow ties and greasy glow-in-the-dark curries. It belongs to the era before sun-dried tomatoes and mobile phones were commonplace, when ginger and garlic were considered e