Hava Hershkovitz, 79, fled her native Romania as a child to escape the Nazis during World War II. Her tale of survival, and her later contributions to local communities across Israel, helped her top 13 other finalists this week to win Miss Holocaust Survivor 2012.
“It’s not easy at this age to be in a beauty contest,” Hershkovitz said. ”But we’re all doing it to show that we’re still alive.”
The pageant is the first — and likely the last — of its kind, and has stirred up quite the global controversy. Critics argue that judging women who had suffered persecution on physical appearance was inappropriate.
“It sounds totally macabre to me,” said Collete Avital, chairwoman of Israel’s Holocaust survivors’ umbrella group. ”I am in favor of enriching lives, but a one-time pageant masquerading [survivors] with beautiful clothes is not what is going to make their lives more meaningful.”
Nearly 200,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel today. The country’s annual Holocaust Day is among the most solemn occasions on their calendar.
From : bbc
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FBI: Ten Most Wanted “The FBI is offering rewards for information leading to the apprehension of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Select the images of suspects to display more information.”
A kind of depression called hospitalism (anaclitic depression) can be seen in institutions where children did not receive enough emotional care. These children become apathetic and withdrawn, even though they may be cared for physically. – Provided by RandomHistory.com
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sniff your way to love? Singles who have attended so-called pheromone parties haven’t ruled it out.
The get-togethers — which have been held in New York and Los Angeles and are planned for other cities — ask guests to submit a slept-in T-shirt that will be smelled by other participants.
Then, voila! You can pick your partner based on scent, or so the theory goes.
The parties started out as an experimental matchmaking fest by a California woman weary of online dating, but it turns out they also have a root in science. Researchers have shown that humans can use scent to sort out genetic combinations that could lead to weaker offspring.
At a dimly lit art gallery in Los Angeles on a recent night, partygoers huddled around several tables covered with plastic freezer bags stuffed with shirts and an index card bearing a number. Once they found one they liked, a photographer snapped a picture of them holding the bag and projected it onto a wall so the shirt’s rightful owner could step forward and meet his or her odor’s admirer.
Konstantin Bakhurin, a 25-year-old neuroscience graduate student, said he bypassed the bags that smelled like baby powder or laundry detergent or perfume in search of something more unique: the owner of a distinctive yellow-T-shirt whose fragrance he described as “spicy.”
“I think it’s probably a bit more pseudoscience,” said Bakhurin, who attended with two fellow graduate students from University of California, Los Angeles. “I just kind of came here for kicks to see what would happen.”
The parties are a marked contrast to the proliferation of online dating sites, which demand countless details from singles, and in some ways are taking romance back to its most primal beginnings.
Read HERE.
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A Saudi man accused of planning a series of terror attacks across the U.S. including one against former President George W. Bush was found guilty today in a federal court in Amarillo.
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa, was arrested in February 2011 after federal agents secretly searched his apartment near Texas Tech University in Lubbock and found bomb-making chemicals, wiring, a hazmat suit and clocks.
Authorities also discovered Aldawsari’s journal, handwritten in Arabic, in which he wrote he’d been planning a terror attack in the U.S. for years and that it was ‘time for jihad,’ or holy war, court documents showed.
He faces up to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 9 in Amarillo.
After the jury left the courtroom Wednesday, Aldawsari, 22, sat with his attorneys before being led off by U.S. Marshals.
His attorneys claimed that because Aldawsari didn’t have a bomb made or a target pinpointed, he couldn’t have attempted to use a bomb.
‘It’s always disappointing when you lose but at the same time, it was a very difficult case at the outset,’ said defense attorney Dan Cogdell.
‘We did the best we could under the circumstances.’
Cogdell said Aldawsari is likely to appeal the verdict at some point. He described his client as ‘the antithesis of what you’d expect him to be.’
On Feb. 1, 2011, Carolina Biological Supply of Burlington, N.C., a chemical company, reported a suspicious $435 order by Aldawsari to the FBI.
Separately, Con-way Freight, the shipping company, notified Lubbock police and the FBI the same day with similar suspicions because it appeared the order wasn’t intended for commercial use.
Diego G. Rodriguez, the FBI special agent in charge for the region, credited both companies for calling authorities.
‘You have our deepest and everlasting respect and gratitude for calling the FBI when you learned that the chemicals ordered and shipped were suspicious,’ said Rodriguez.
Within weeks, federal agents had traced Aldawsari’s other online purchases, discovered extremist Internet posts and secretly searched his off-campus apartment, computer and email accounts and read his diary, according to court records.
President Barack Obama was notified about the plot before Aldawsari’s arrest.
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Picasso
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The Giant Weta
One of the heaviest insects in the world, the giant weta is an example of island gigantism—the phenomenon in which isolated species evolve to become unusually large in the absence of restraints such as predators. Giant wetas are found primarily on New Zealand’s offshore islands, having been driven almost to extinction elsewhere in New Zealand by introduced mammalian predators. They are fairly tame, passive insects that resemble giant grasshoppers. How heavy are the largest wetas?
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Desperate: Europeans, who are fueling a black market in organ sales
Controversial: The GOP’s contempt vote against AG Eric Holder
Prodigy: A 16-year-old golfer, who shot a 61 twice in three days
Dropped Dead: An ex-Wall Street banker, moments after he was convicted of arson
Surfaced: Footage of Hillary Clinton saying “Shame on you, Barack Obama,” in a new Romney ad
Filthy Rich: Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James, who’s raking in $1 million a week
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Algerian Leader Muhammad Boudiaf Assassinated (This day in 1992)
Boudiaf was an Algerian political leader and a founder of the National Liberation Front, which directed the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) against France. Boudiaf was captured in 1956 and imprisoned. He was freed after Algeria gained independence, but his opposition to the new regime led to a 27-year exile. In 1992, he was invited back to head the government and deal with rising religious influence in politics. Months later, he was assassinated by a bodyguard while doing what?
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Houston’s Strip Clubs Hit by New ‘Pole Tax’
The city of Houston is turning to an unusual source to help fund rape investigations: strip clubs.
The City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that requires strip clubs to pay a $5-per-visitor fee to help pay for the analysis of biological evidence collected from rape victims in hopes of identifying their attackers.
Cash-strapped Houston is looking to an unusual source to finance rape investigations: strip clubs. The city council voted Wednesday to require strip clubs to pay $5 per visitor to help analyze biological evidence from rape victims. Nathan Koppel has details on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.
Police in Houston, and in many other parts of the U.S., lack the money to promptly analyze evidence such as hair particles and blood specimens, gathered by investigators in packets known as rape kits. Houston estimates it has 6,000 rape kits that have yet to be scrutinized by crime laboratories.
Supporters of the ordinance, which was supported by Mayor Annise Parker and approved on a 14-1 vote, contend that strip clubs should shoulder some of the costs of rape investigations because the establishments can cultivate unhealthy attitudes toward women that can lead to sexual assaults.
“There are negative secondary effects associated with adult-entertainment establishments,” said Ellen Cohen, the council member who championed the ordinance, which could generate up to $3 million in annual revenue.
The fee would also apply to clubs that stage occasional adult entertainment, such as “a wet T-shirt contest or naked sushi contest,” according to the ordinance, which states all the revenue is to go toward processing rape kits.
There are an estimated 30 clubs subject to the tax, according to Ms. Cohen’s chief of staff.
Critics strongly question attempts to tie strip clubs to violence against women, calling the fee unfair. “There is no known correlation between people going to nice, high-end gentlemen’s clubs and rape,” said Albert Van Huff, a Houston lawyer who represents local strip clubs.
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With the added irony of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg being an evil Joooo.
CAIRO: Arabic-speaking Facebook users want the social networking website to add an “Insha’Allah” button to the platform for the Middle East. And Facebook seems ready to make the move to boost its regional presence.
According to Immanuel Simonsen from Multilingual Search, “Facebook has identified a strong wish from Arabic natives to include an “Insha’Allah” (Arabic term meaning “God Willing” that indicates hope for an aforementioned event to occur in the future) button for Facebook events.”
While Facebook may not be the most popular social media network in the Arab world, this addition “looks to be the first new localized feature for the Arabic market.”
Social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, played a fundamental role in organizing the uprisings throughout the Arab World in 2011. Usage of these networks is growing exponentially as political changes continue to take place.
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Lt. Col. William Conde pauses in front a fallen soldier memorial after a ceremony for two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan earlier this month, Thursday, June 28, 2012, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. The Army’s 4th Brigade Combat Team held the ceremony for Pfc. Vincent Ellis of Tokyo, Japan; and Pfc. Nathan Davis, of Yucaipa, Calif. (AP Photo/Anchorage Daily News, Marc Lester)
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Do like this guy did: chuck your trash into a volcano. POOF! Gone!
Watch carefully in the first couple of seconds or you’ll miss the bag getting chucked in there. The guys are very small and in the center of the image.
“The test was performed with a box of camp waste (largely food rests) in a bin bag. Estimated weight 30kg, Size 60x60x60cm. Fall height, about 80m. The lake reacts with violent lava fountaining activity, presumably in part due to steam produced from the organic matter.”
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Woman makes portraits with a single piece of thread and many small nails. See the link, here, for detailed photos and more info.
Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita creates mind-boggling portraits by wrapping a single UNBROKEN black thread around galvanized nails, on a clear white board.
In the four years since I started Oddity Central, I’ve had the opportunity of discovering many great artists. Most of their works are nothing short of impressive, but there are a few whose artistic genius is simply breathtaking. Kumi Yamashita is definitely one of those few. The Japanese artist living in New York City uses all kinds of common objects to create arresting images, in her quest of exploring art beyond the confines of traditional media. Perhaps her most impressive technique is creating portraits by using a single thread weaved around a series of nails, on a white background. We’ve seen portraits created with thread and nails before, but nothing quite like what Yamashita can do.
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