Here are some more "Wonderful Illusions"

Can you find the human faces ???
What about this one -- do you read the word LIAR or see a face ???

China in the Mist

For more spectacular images like these, click on the link below:

We'll all be going up to see her . . . sometime.

Mae West quotes

Virtue has its own reward, but has no sale at the box office.

Goodness, what lovely diamonds.
Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.

No gold-digging for me... I take diamonds! We may be off the gold standard someday.

It takes two to get one in trouble.

I'm no angel, but I've spread my wings a bit.

A man in the house is worth two in the street.

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about you lately.
You must be awful tired.

I'm a woman of very few words, but lots of action.

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before

On this day in 1980, Mae West died at age 87.

All in good time . . . but not here.

In 1967 the U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it captured in 1967, and implicitly called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist.

We'll never forget that day in 1963

Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963--President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin today.

He died of a wound in the brain caused by a rifle bullet that was fired at him as he was riding through downtown Dallas in a motorcade.

Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was riding in the third car behind Mr. Kennedy's, was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States 99 minutes after Mr. Kennedy's death.

Mr. Johnson is 55 years old; Mr. Kennedy was 46.

Shortly after the assassination, Lee H. Oswald, who once defected to the Soviet Union and who has been active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, was arrested by the Dallas police. Tonight he was accused of the killing.

Believe it or not ???

On this day in 2004, Donald Trump's casino empire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

For more good stuff from "The Onion" click on the link below.

Nixon done in by Deep Throat and the 18 1/2 minute tape gap

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Two Who Played Key Roles in Helping to End the McCarthy Era

In 1953 Milo Radulovich, an Air Force reservist, was threatened with discharge from the Air Force Reserve because of allegations that he was a security risk.

What aggrieved him -- and eventually thousands of other Americans who learned of his plight -- was that his own loyalty was never questioned. He stood accused of politically incorrect ties -- namely, his "close and continuing association" with his Yugoslavian immigrant father, who subscribed to a Socialist newspaper from the old country, and his left-leaning activist sister, who had demonstrated against war and racial discrimination.
On Oct. 20, 1953, Edward R. Murrow (shown above) devoted an entire installment of his documentary show "See It Now" to Radulovich, who appears in a clip from the program in "Good Night, and Good Luck," the 2005 Oscar-nominated movie about the battles at CBS over whether Murrow should take on Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communist crusade.

That program, Murrow's producer Fred Friendly wrote in the foreword to Michael Ranville's 1997 book "To Strike at a King: The Turning Point in the McCarthy Witch-Hunts," "peeled back the wretched excess of communist witch-hunts" to reveal that one of its latest victims was no more and no less than a hardworking father of two who was studying on the GI Bill to become a meteorologist.

The show blew open the floodgates of public opinion -- for Radulovich (shown below in 1953 with his family) and against the hysteria of the era and its main instigator, McCarthy.
Five months later, Murrow went after McCarthy himself in a show that, according to Friendly, could never have succeeded had they not first aired "The Case Against Lt. Milo Radulovich." McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, never recovered from the attack, destroyed by his own words and the power of television entering its golden age.

"The downfall of Joe McCarthy began with the Radulovich story as told by Murrow and Friendly," National Public Radio commentator Daniel Schorr, a former colleague of Murrow's, told The Times on Tuesday.

By the time those stories caught Murrow's eye in early 1953, McCarthy's anti-communist campaign had been going on for three years. Murrow and Friendly had been waiting for the right moment to take him on. "See It Now" tackled major issues by focusing on one person caught in its storm, what Friendly called "the little picture."

When Murrow read about Radulovich, he approached his producer with an impish grin on his face. As he thrust a copy of the Detroit News article at Friendly, he said, "This could be the little picture for your McCarthy story."

Friendly agreed, and the two promoted it against the wishes of many CBS News executives, including Chairman William Paley.

The CBS reporter who was sent to Dexter to interview Radulovich was Joe Wershba, now 87 and living on Long Island. He remembered the young reservist as "the All-American boy . . . very pleasant, very articulate." When Friendly saw the film of the interview, he told Wershba, "I'm fired, Ed's fired, but we're going to turn out the greatest broadcast ever done on television!"

It was Murrow's most memorable hour.

"We believe that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, even though that iniquity be proved and in this case it was not," Murrow said on the program about Radulovich. "Whatever happens in this whole area of the relationship between the individual and the state, we will do ourselves. It cannot be blamed upon [Soviet Premier Georgi] Malenkov or Mao Tse-tung or even our allies. And it seems to us . . . that this is a subject that should be argued about endlessly."

The public reaction, Wershba said, "was phenomenal. We got 12,000 letters," the vast majority outraged about the injustice to Radulovich.

"It was the first viable blow struck against Joe McCarthy," Ranville said. "The historical significance is that this wasn't some college professor or someone from the ACLU. This was a common man who was frightened about being able to support his family. And he was not someone from Los Angeles, Chicago or New York, but Dexter, Mich., population 1,500."

A month after the broadcast, the Air Force cleared Radulovich and allowed him to keep his commission. Several months later, in 1954, the Senate censured McCarthy. He died three years later of alcohol-related illness at age 48.

Murrow, who with Friendly had paid out of his own pocket to advertise the show when the network wouldn't, ultimately suffered from the show's success. Paley was not eager for shows that offended advertisers, and "See It Now" went off the air in 1958. Disgusted by the growing commercialism of the medium, Murrow left journalism in 1961 and died of lung cancer in 1965 at age 57. Milo Radulovich died Monday, November 19, 2007 at age 81.

Creating a Shangri-La in the sky but at what cost ???

BEIJING -- Fly on a Chinese airline and you will be pampered by flight attendants who look eerily alike. They are young, beautiful and practically the same height.

This is not a coffee-tea-or-me stereotype but the result of a rigorous selection process that is much more old-fashioned beauty pageant than equal-opportunity job interview.

If you're older than 24, don't bother applying.

If you aren't at least a couple of inches taller than the average Chinese woman, go home.

And if your legs are even remotely similar to tree trunks, don't call us, we'll call you.

Sound like a throwback to the dark ages of workplace discrimination? Here, in the world's fastest-growing aviation market, prohibitive entry barriers are not only tolerated, they're flaunted as symbols of excellence.

With the Attributes of Goddesses

Female pop stars who attain the attributes of goddesses -- emblematic names, signature fragrances, the floating hair of Botticelli's "Venus" -- tend to share a few qualities. They are athletic vocalists, usually with multi-octave ranges, who can hold a note longer than most magicians can stay submerged in water. Their signature songs blend romantic axioms with the more current language of self-help. Their music is frequently dismissed as banal, yet often helps regular folk contemplate profundities, at weddings or funerals, or when a baby is born.
These traits link Whitney to Mariah to Shania to Céline to Faith to Beyoncé to Christina to Alicia, although each has her own strengths and quirks. But something subtler also connects them. Musically, they're border jumpers. On the surface, they epitomize pop banality, but they regularly defy their home genres, blithely disregarding musical rules that hem in more admired (and usually male) pop practitioners. Whitney Houston (above) set the template for this role by turning a country hit, Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," into a smash that redefined crossover R&B.

The mainstream's pop goddesses also blur lines on the level of identity. Many are biracial. Céline Dion is obviously bilingual. All pop stars are mandated to continually remodel themselves, but few do so as dramatically as Mariah Carey, who fled innocence (and Tommy Mottola) to become hip-hop's super-sexy honey. Christina Aguilera's been a teen sweetie, a sex radical and a retro vamp. Beyoncé, one suspects, hasn't even begun to show us her thousand faces.

More trend-focused dance-floor queens -- the ones who follow in Madonna's boot steps -- turn their makeovers into performances. For them, style comes first, and feeling flows from it. The goddesses take us inside the process, their songs chronicling how it feels to change from within. Their music is all about becoming bigger and better, with motivational lyrics, surging semi-operatic melodies and churchy rhythms. They show us how, as Oprah says, to run toward our best.

Chat shows, women's magazines and chick lit belong to the same world, where women rule -- and struggle. As theorist Laura Kipnis has pointed out, "Femininity in its current incarnation . . . is built on an underlying sense of female inadequacy." Pop goddesses represent women's constant fight to keep fulfilling their exhaustingly inexhaustible potential.
So, it's no shock that the two new goddess offerings commanding the charts have been packaged as transformations. Dion is "Taking Chances" on her eighth studio album; on her third, Alicia Keys (above) is finally, truly presenting herself "As I Am."

In reality, neither album deviates much from what these women have previously accomplished. Keys continues to develop her warm, contemplative approach to hip-hop R&B. Dion, celebrating the end of her long Las Vegas run, employs some new producers to go beyond ringing the rafters but remains most convincing at full blast.

Ron Paul Silver Dollars

The Ron Paul Silver Dollar was to sell for $20 but they are reportedly selling for $170 on e-bay.

"We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln, "Address Delivered At The Dedication Of The Cemetery At Gettysburg," November 19, 1863.

The Ghost of Valentino

Rudolph Valentino was one of the greatest romantic idols of Hollywood’s silent movie era. His career, however, was cut short when he died at the age of 31 from complications of an ulcer. Immediately after his death, the “Latin Lover” began to haunt his home grounds of Hollywood and to this day, is said to be its most active ghost. Valentino has been spotted in a number of places, most often in his former mansion – the Falcon’s Lair. Here, his image has been seen in the hallways, in his old bedroom, peering from a window on the second floor, and in the stables. One stable worker, after having seen Valentino petting his favorite horse, promptly quit his job and never returned. He has also been spied at his beach house in Oxnard and the Santa Maria Inn in Santa Maria Inn where he has been known to continuously knock on the door and reclines on the bed. The Sheik’s shimmering form has also been seen floating among the costume department at Paramount Studios and roaming the catwalks above Studio Five. Lastly, he has also been sighted near his resting place in the Cathedral Mausoleum at Hollywood Forever Memorial Park.

Look What's Coming Your Way

Hyundai’s new Genesis concept is an indication of the company’s ambitious plans for the US market. It’s a V8-powered RWD sedan designed to put Hyundai in the same class as brands like Chrysler.

The Genesis will be Hyundai’s first American RWD drive car and has been designed from the ground-up to be capable dynamically. Weight distribution is a healthy 53:47 and the body structure is claimed to be stiffer than a BMW 5-series or Mercedes E-class.

To give the big sedan some go, Hyundai has fitted it with a “Tau” 4.6L V8 engine developing more than 300hp. The Genesis will accelerate to 60mph in 6 seconds using the V8, but there are plans to use a range of engines, as well as the possibility of a supercharged or turbo model. Transmission duties are done by a 6-speed automatic.

The Genesis is similar in size to a Chrysler 300, which would be one of its main competitors.

Interior features fitted to the model include HID xenons, Bluetooth, HD radio, active cruise control, and sat-nav. You can expect the production model to have an up-market interior complete with woodgrain and leather seats and leather trim, too.

A production version is expected to go on sale in the second-half of 2008, with prices for a 3.8L V6 expected below $30,000.

For an Underwater Adventure . . .

Thinking about enjoying a bit of underwater adventure in your own personal submarine? Spanish designer Guillermo Sureda-Burgos has created concepts for three subs that'll let you take one or two of your closest friends along with you. One of the subs, the XS100 Trio Alpha, holds three people, and the second and third versions, the XS100 Duo Beta and XS100 Duo Delta, can seat two submariners.

The boats' design is similar to the U-boatWorx personal submarines with each cockpit individually pressurized so the sub can dive to deeper depths. The designer didn't say how deep the subs are capable of diving, but they're probably limited to around 100 to 150 feet.

Aimed at luxury yacht owners, Sureda-Burgos says the tiny craft will be built with reliability and safety in mind, and once the final designs have been completed, the subs may be able to scoot around the water at 4 to 6 knots.

"Old Scout" won the Big Prize

The 1902 Olds, affectionately called "Old Scout" won the first transcontinental race for motor-driven vehicles. The Olds crossed the country in 44 days in 1905. It traveled from New York City to Portland, Oregon at a 100-mile-a-day clip. Dwight B. Huss grappled with the tiller as he steered the on-cylinder Olds through wheel-deep mud and water and bounced over rough mountain trails. This journey proved beyond all doubt that the automobile could provide dependable transportation. Huss and Milford Wigle, his mechanic and relief driver, arrived in Portland in triumph to the cheers of approximately 350,000 people. For his record-establishing journey, Huss received a prize of $1,000.

UP UP AND AWAY

In 2003 Kevin Brooker and Rick Sheppe won the Transcontinental Glider Race across the USA flying an HpH 304C and Bill Kenyon finished second flying a 304CZ making it a one - two punch for HpH Glasflugel sailplanes and pilots!

Keeping Up With the Browns

Remote Lake Rotoroa (above), 12 miles long and 460 feet deep on New Zealand’s South Island, offers some of the best brown trout fishing in the world.

Comet Illuminated

This spectacular image of comet Tempel 1 was taken 67 seconds after it obliterated Deep Impact's impactor spacecraft. The image was taken by the high-resolution camera on the mission's flyby craft. Scattered light from the collision saturated the camera's detector, creating the bright splash seen here. Linear spokes of light radiate away from the impact site, while reflected sunlight illuminates most of the comet surface. The image reveals topographic features, including ridges, scalloped edges and possibly impact craters formed long ago.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD

What is a kinetic sculpture race ??

The Kinetic Sculpture Race has been an annual event in Ferndale, California since 1969. It began when local sculptor Hobart Brown "improved" the appearance of his son's tricycle, and was challenged to a race down Main Street by Jack Mays. Soon, another twelve machines entered to inaugurate the first race. Neither Hobart nor Jack won; instead, the first winner of the Kinetic Sculpture Race was Bob Brown of Eureka, California whose sculpture was a smoke-emitting Turtle that laid eggs. The race became an annual feature of Ferndale, California's annual Art Week; later became a cross-country event and one year had two races; hence the 39th running in 2007. In addition, other ongoing kinetic sculpture races happen around the world including the Balitmore Kinetic Sculpture race which is officially associated with the California race.

In this context, kinetic sculptures are cross-country, human-powered vehicles made to go on sand, water, pavement and other surfaces encountered on the annual 3-day World Championship of the sport held on Memorial Day weekend (last weekend in May) in Humboldt County, California. Hobart Brown passed away last week at the age of 73.

A Hobart Brown Quote: "Money doesn't always bring happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars." -- Hobart Brown

Public Enemy No. 1

Jeffrey Scalf still hopes to convince his neighbors in Mooresville to embrace Indiana's infamous native son. That would be John Dillinger, Scalf's great-uncle; but the idea hasn't gained much traction. "We make far more of a deal that Mooresville is the hometown of Paul Hadley, who designed the state flag," says librarian Bill Buckley.

For now, there's no statue or plaque in Dillinger's honor. No streets are named after him or mark his escapades. At one point, city leaders even told a local McDonald's to take down posters and other artifacts honoring Dillinger, or hawk its burgers and fries elsewhere.

That attitude still exists today, to Scalf's amazement. "There's a market in this," he says. Indeed, so many souvenir hunters have chipped pieces from Dillinger's headstone at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis that the family has replaced it five times. People have showed up uninvited at the Dillinger farm house just outside Mooresville and dug up the lawn, searching for loot stolen more than seven decades ago.

It has made Scalf so nervous that he has hidden all of his Dillinger memorabilia -- a handwritten jailhouse letter, a favorite straw boater hat, the fragile black leather belt the bandit wore the night he died.

He's storing it in the one place that would make Dillinger howl.

Inside a bank vault.

Bathing Beauty

Peter Shire designed this walk-in shower down to the very last grout line. The large tiles on the wall were all hand-built and painted by Shire according to his own drawings.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

She Defined Beauty and Perfection

Elizabeth Taylor is considered by many to be the most beautiful actress of all time.

Once New York's Tallest Skyscraper

Combining several innovations--steel structure, elevators, central heating, electrical plumbing pumps and the telephone--skyscrapers came to dominate American skylines at the turn of the century. The world's tallest building when it opened in 1913, architect Cass Gilbert's 793-foot Woolworth Building was considered a leading example of tall building design. Soon one of many new towering structures, the Woolworth building and other skyscrapers symbolized America's "can do" spirit.

In the blink of an eyelash . . .

Harnessing the electrical impulses of sight, scientists have built a robot guided by the brain and eyes of a moth.

As the moth tracks the world around it, an electrode in its tiny brain captures faint electrical impulses that a computer translates into action.

The moth, immobilized inside a plastic tube, was mounted on a 6-inch-tall wheeled robot. When the moth moved its eyes to the right, the robot turned in that direction.

The research, presented at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in San Diego this week, marked the latest advance by scientists who are trying to perfect the link between brain and machine.

The technology might one day help people who are paralyzed or have lost their limbs regain the ability to move. Scientists have developed experimental devices that allow those patients to move cursors on a screen or crude robotic hands using only their thoughts.

Nostradamus has been credited with predicting the reign of Napoleon, the atom bomb, the moon landing and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Nostradamus has been credited with prophesying dozens of pivotal episodes in recent history, including the rise of Adolf Hitler, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and, most recently, the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. On the Internet, Nostradamus followers and hoaxers alike have put together detailed interpretations of Nostradamus' works, as well as fabricated passages.

Small-Town Ingenuity Still Lives

A working prototype of the Aptera has finally been released. This diesel-electric hybrid, which weighs only 850 lbs., can get up to 230 mpg at 55 mph. Going from 0 to 60 in less than 10 seconds, the vehicle can go up to 150 total miles without a charge. Steve Fambro of Accelerated Composites, aka Aptera Motors, created the bullet-shaped two-seater in his garage, proving small town ingenuity still lives. The company has set a tentative price of $20,000 to its 3-wheeled creation and is already taking pre-orders.

“Venice – Bronze Morning”

Bruce Yardley -- Oil on Canvas

"Traghetto - Grand Canal Venice"

Jeremy Barlow -- Oil on Board

More Cool Art That Will Mess With Your Head

Maxim Gorky and the Russian Revolution

Maxim Gorky was revered as the leading Russian artist and intellectual associated with the 1917 Revolution throughout the lifetime of the Soviet Union. But did he really approve of Lenin and the Soviet experiment? Did indeed he meet his end at the hands of Bolshevik agents? Orlando Figes reassesses the position of this pivotal figure in a magazine article in "History Today."

Among the portraits of Soviet heroes that used to hang in every Russian school and library the one of Maxim Gorky was nearly always given pride of place with Lenin. Gorky was an icon of the Soviet cultural establishment. He was hailed as the first great Russian writer to emerge from the proletariat, as a life-long friend of the Bolsheviks, and as the founder of Socialist Realism, the artistic doctrine of the Stalinist regime which said that the artist should depict Soviet life, not as it was, but as it should be in the socialist utopia. The Soviet cult of Gorky took off in his own lifetime: there was a trilogy of films about his youth; the main street in Moscow was named after him; and his native city of Nizhnyi Novgorod was renamed Gorky.

Yet there was another Gorky, the man behind the icon, whom the Soviet public was not allowed to know. In his native land Gorky was a writer with a hagiography but no biography. The opening up of the Soviet archives has revealed a much more complex and tragic figure than the one that appeared in the censored collections of his works in. Russia. From his journalism (long known in the West) and his voluminous correspondence (most of which was buried in the archives) it is clear that Gorky was no devout Bolshevik, that he harboured doubts about the revolution.

Spectacular Photo "Torrens Sunset" by "inaudible" on Flickr

View of the Torrens river in Adelaide, South Australia, taken from the University footbridge. This photograph has been stitched vertically from three horizontal 50mm shots on slide film. (Photo by "inaudible" on Flickr.

They Made Television History

All 68 Episodes of the Landmark Series On 20 DVDs! Upstairs, the Bellamy family negotiated the scandals and successes of the English aristocracy. Downstairs, their loyal and lively servants showed far less reserve when confronting the challenges of their lives. Together, their stories made TV magic.When UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS debuted, network executives fretted that the series was not commercial and viewers would switch off in the thousands. More than thirty years later, it is universally recognized as one of the most successful and important shows in television history, seen by over 1 billion people worldwide and the winner of 9 Emmys, a Golden Globe and a Peabody, among many other awards.Take a final journey back to 165 Eaton Place with this comprehensive set featuring all 68 episodes of the unforgettable masterpiece, digitally remastered for presentation on DVD. The collection also includes the rarely-seen retrospective Upstairs Downstairs Remembered: The 25th Anniversary Special.

Art of San Juan Capistrano

The Eternal Search

"It's just Beauty that's calling me, the beauty of the far off and unknown, the need of the freedom of great wide spaces, the joy of wandering on and on—in quest of the secret which is hidden over there, beyond the horizon."

Eugene O'Neill
Beyond the Horizon

Hollywood Parade is Back

The parade, shown in the early '50s, rebounded after being discontinued during World War II. But by the 1960s, the event's luster and drawing power had faded. Canceled earlier this year, the parade has received new life. Click the link below for details.

The Mystery of A Madman

"Among twentieth-century statesmen perhaps none was so self-contained, enigmatic, mysterious and unapproachable as the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. To his closest comrades-in-arms and to foreign statesmen and diplomats he was a man of few words, reticent, patient and imperturbable, pacing or smoking quietly while he worked his way through a problem. His calm, thoughtful demeanour convinced even Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill that they could work with him and, to a degree, take him at his word. In the Soviet Union and in the Communist Bloc created after First World War, by coercion or as a voluntary act of allegiance, Stalin was the wise, omniscient, certainly unchallengeable, leader. His portrait appeared everywhere; the slogans praised his genius; and the history books told only of Stalin and his unerring capacity to be right. His was the steady, purposeful hand which, however dreadful the sacrifices, would guide the masses on the arduous path to Communism." -- Paul Wingrove

It ain't over 'til it's over !!!

In 1948 President Harry S. Truman narrowly won re-election over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey.

The Spruce Goose on the Loose

On this day in 1947 Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden airplane, the Spruce Goose, on its only flight, which lasted about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California.