Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Some recent news items
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Space Oddity:
An Indian father and son have been arrested for allegedly defrauding a businessman by pretending to work for NASA. The duo told investors that they were building a device called the 'rice puller', which could be used to generate 'electricity from thunderbolts'. They convinced one businessman to buy what was in fact a copper coated plate for £157,600 and told them it could be sold to Nasa, via India's Defence Research Development Organisation, for around £4.1bn. Virender Mohan Brar, 56, and his son 30-year-old son Nitin were reported to have duped 30 people across India, carrying out displays of the bogus device while dressed in doil resembling space suits and pretending to be from NASA. Police paraded them in and out of their foil space suits:
Virender Mohan Brar (right) and his son Nitin
They were previously arrested for selling snakes they claimed had medicinal properties. Other scams reportedly included selling magic mirrors and two-headed snakes.
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Reminds me of the following:
WARNING:
I hate hoax warnings, but this one is very important.
If a man comes to your front door and says he is conducting a survey and asks you to show him your breasts and your buttocks, DO NOT show him either. This is a SCAM!!!!!!! He only wants to see your tits and your ass. I wish I'd gotten this yesterday. I feel so stupid and cheap now.
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Let's get ready to rumble:
American boxer Rod Salka had what he thought was a great idea in order to play a mind game against Mexican fighter Francisco Vargas. Salka showed up to the fight sporting red, white and blue trunks in a brick pattern with the words "America 1st" on the waist, a clear reference to Donald Trump's promise to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep immigrants out of the United States.
As it turned out, Vargas was not intimidated by the trunks, and he proceeded to beat up on Salka for six rounds before Salka quit on his stool.
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Anne Frank story #1:
A new book by a man called Gerard Kremer, 70, who is the son of a member of the Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and has the same name, claims to have fresh evidence as to Anne Frank’s betrayal, The book claims that a Jewish woman named Ans van Dijk informed on those hiding in concealed rooms in a building in Amsterdam, being Anne, her family and the van Pels family. They were in hiding from July 1942 until the arrest by the Gestapo in August 1944. Anne kept a diary she had received as a birthday present, and wrote in it regularly. Following their arrest, the Franks were transported to concentration camps. In October or November 1944, Anne and her sister, Margot, were transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died, probably of typhus.
Anne’s father, Otto, the only survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that her diary had been saved by one of the helpers, Miep Gies. The diary is poignant and remarkable in its outlook, observations and in recording the development of a young girl into womanhood.
Anne Frank
Kremer claims his father, who died in 1978, knew Van Dijk and that after she was arrested by Nazi intelligence on Easter Sunday 1943, she regularly turned up at the Nazi offices in disguise. He also writes that in August 1944 his father heard Van Dijk talking to people in the offices about Prinsengracht - where the Franks were hiding in a canalside warehouse.
Ans van Dijk
Ans van Dijk was executed after Hitler fell for her informing on, and involvement in the capture of, 145 people, including her brother and his family.
A spokesperson for Anne Frank House has commented: “In 2016, the Anne Frank House carried out research into the arrest of the Frank family and the other four people in hiding in the secret annex. Ans van Dijk was included as a potential traitor in this study. We have not been able to find evidence for this theory, nor for other betrayal theories.”
Anne Frank #2:
Using imaging software, researchers have worked out the text in Anne Frank’s diary that she obscured by pasting brown paper over tow pages. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam announced that the pages contain “five crossed-out phrases, four ‘dirty’ jokes and 33 lines about sex education and prostitution.” Frank wrote the pages on September 28, 1942, about two months after she and her family went into hiding. Some excerpts:
- A joke: “A man had a very ugly wife and he didn’t want to have relations with her. One evening he came home and then he saw his friend in bed with his wife, then the man said: ‘He gets to and I have to!!!’”
- Another joke: “Do you know why the German Wehrmacht girls are in Holland? As mattresses for the soldiers.” (“Wehrmacht” was the name for the German military force).
- On menstrual cycles: Frank wrote that when a young woman got her period it would be “a sign that she is ripe to have relations with a man” but added “one doesn’t do that of course before one is married.”
- On prostitution: “[a]ll men, if they are normal, go with women, women like that accost them on the street and then they go together. In Paris they have big houses for that. Papa has been there.”
Monday, May 28, 2018
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Princesses and their Wedding Gowns
A look back at other royal weddings and the wedding gowns,
interesting not only for the gowns but also for a trip down the royal wedding
memory lane.
From:
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Who:
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Queen Letizia of Spain
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When:
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2004
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Which designer:
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Manuel Pertegaz
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Who:
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Princess Clair of Luxembourg
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When:
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2013
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Which designer:
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Elie Saab
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Who:
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Princess Olga, Duchess of Apulia
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When:
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2008
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Which designer:
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Prada
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Comment:
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“My wedding dress was designed for me by Prada out of
gold sari fabric. I wanted to look like a mythical Byzantine empress
returning from a conquest.”
- Princess Olga
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Who:
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Princess Tatiana of Greece and Denmark
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When:
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2010
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Which designer:
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Angel Sanchez
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Who:
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Princess Madeleine of Sweden
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When:
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2013
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Which designer:
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Valentino
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Who:
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Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
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When:
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2011
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Which designer:
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Alexander McQueen
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Comment:
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Why is there a guy with a hose in the background?
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Who:
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Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece
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When:
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1995
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Which designer:
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Valentino
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Who:
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Princess Mette-Marit of Norway
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When:
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2001
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Which designer:
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Ove Harder Finseth
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Who:
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Princess Sofia of Sweden
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When:
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2015
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Which designer:
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Ida Sjostedt
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Who:
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Princess Stephanie of Luxembourg
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When:
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2012
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Which designer:
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Elie Saab
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Who:
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Queen Soroya of Iran
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When:
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1951
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Which designer:
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Christian Dior
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Who:
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Princess Maxima of the Netherlands
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When:
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2002
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Which designer:
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Valentino
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Who:
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Princess Victoria of Sweden
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When:
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2010
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Which designer:
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Par Engsheden
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Who:
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Princess Sarah of Brunei
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When:
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2004
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Which designer:
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Unknown
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Who:
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Queen Anne-Marie of Greece
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When:
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1964
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Which designer:
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Unknown
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Comment:
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“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
-
Teddy Roosevelt
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Who:
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Princess Marie of Denmark
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When:
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2008
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Which designer:
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Arasa Morelli
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Who:
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Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Parma
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When:
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2012
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Which designer:
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Addy van den Krommenacker
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Comment:
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The princess of whisky and cheese?
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Who:
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Princess Anne
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When:
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1973
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Which designer:
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Maureen Baker
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Comment:
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That’s Her Maj, Her Maj’s mother and sister in the
front. And is that a youthful Prince
Charles behind the Queen Mother?
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Who:
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Princess Noor of Jordan
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When:
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2003
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Which designer:
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Unknown
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Who:
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Crown Princess Mary Of Denmark
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When:
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2004
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Which designer:
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Uffe Frank
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Comment:
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Go the Tassies, home of the (extinct) Tasmanian Tiger,
the Tasmanian Devil, Erol Flynn and Princess Mary of Denmark. And they get
left off the map of Oz a lot.
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Who:
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Norwegian Princess Martha Louise
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When:
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2002
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Which designer:
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Wenche Lyche
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Who:
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Princess Diana
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When:
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1981
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Which designer:
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David and Elizabeth Emanuel
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Comment:
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Awful! Reminds me of
. . .
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Who:
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Zara Phillips, daughter of Anne Princess Royal
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When:
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2011
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Which designer:
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Stewart Parvin
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Who:
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Queen Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
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When:
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1923
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Which designer:
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Madame Handley
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Who:
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Princess Ekaterina of Hanover
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When:
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2017
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Which designer:
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Sandra Mansour
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