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August 2009

Adult Costumes

Adult Costumes

Isadora Duncan made a great impact on dance costume today. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries she “throws off the corset, bares her limbs, and dances barefoot” (Penrod 13). Duncan began a new look, inspired by the Greeks, of tunics and scarves. This simple costume inspired a new form of dance costume and new ways of moving (Penrod 13). This imitation of the Greek clothing freed the naturally beautiful lines of the human body and movement. This change in costume extended the dancer’s space, and caused the costume to be made to conform to the curves and shapes of the body as much as possible (Art of Production 57).

The eyes are the most expressive part of the face. To enhance their features dancers should draw attention to and make their eyes appear larger. However, to maintain unity, the intensity of the eyes must be balanced with color and shape of the lips. The color of the lips needs to be complimentary to the skin color and costume (Art of Production 123).

Scottish FA chief wants Arsenal's Eduardo punished (AFP)

GLASGOW (AFP) –
Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith wants UEFA to punish Arsenal striker Eduardo for diving in the Champions League play-off round second leg against Celtic.

Eduardo won a crucial penalty in Arsenal's 3-1 win at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday after tumbling theatrically to the turf as Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc came out to make a save.

Celtic midfielder Massimo Donati called for Eduardo to be banned in the aftermath of the match and Smith wants UEFA, European football's governing body, to act retrospectively to punish the Croatia international in the same way they dealt with Lithuania striker Saulius Mikoliunas, who cheated to earn a spot-kick against Scotland at Hampden Park in September 2007.

Video evidence was used to sanction Mikoliunas, who was banned for two matches.

Smith said: "Eduardo is a terrific player who has battled back from a serious injury to resume playing at the highest level.

"However, on Wednesday he showed disrespect to the game by his actions in winning a penalty against Celtic.

"Since I came into this post, I have raised the issue of simulation time and time again - both here in Scotland and with FIFA and UEFA.

"I don't think that I have received enough support in my efforts to eradicate what I believe to be one of the most serious threats to the integrity of football. Last night showed exactly why we must take this issue seriously.

"We have shown the courage to use retrospective punishment when it comes to simulation and I would urge UEFA to do so in this instance. Everything that can be done to stamp it out must be done - starting right now.

"We need a serious debate on these issues. Everyone in football has a responsibility to set the right example to our youngsters.

"We can talk all we want about Fair Play campaigns, but taking action would be a much more powerful deterrent and would send the right message to players everywhere."

Even Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admitted it was not a penalty and Donati, who scored Celtic's goal in stoppage time, added: "If it is clear on TV then UEFA must act against Eduardo and ban him.

"I think he should get a two-match ban because it wasn't a penalty. I told him that and everyone in the Celtic team told him that."

Celtic defender Glenn Loovens was also in no doubt Eduardo had dived.

"I don't think he even speaks English so there was no point talking to him," Loovens added.

"It is very disappointing but that is football. It's sad it happened to us.

"I don't think it is really fair. But it helped his team take the lead. There is a referee and a linesman to see those kind of things."

Wine Gift Baskets

Sometimes a gift basket will have themes, such as Christmas, baby shower, housewarming and Valentine's Day. Often a basket will be made to suit the recipients' needs, such as diabetic, vegan/vegetarian, gluten intolerance. Gift Baskets do not need to include food and drink, although it is the most standard practice.

Archaeological sites in the Middle East show that weaving techniques were used to make mats and possibly also baskets, circa 8 000 BC. Baskets made with several interwoven techniques were common at 3 000 BC.

Wine Gift Baskets

Iran's Khamenei says protests planned before vote (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) –
Iran's supreme leader said on Wednesday he did not believe the leaders of opposition protests that erupted after the country's June presidential vote were agents of foreigners.

Iranian officials have previously portrayed the protests as a foreign-backed bid to topple the clerical establishment. They have accused Western powers, particularly the United States and Britain of fomenting the unrest, a charge denied by Washington and London.

"I do not accuse the leaders of recent events as being the agents of foreigners, including America and Britain because it has not been proven to me," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by state television.

"But there is no doubt that this movement, whether its leaders know or not, was planned in advance," Khamenei said in a meeting with university students.

Some hardliners have repeatedly called for the arrest of opposition leaders who say the vote was rigged to secure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Former President Mohammad Khatami said trial confessions by moderates accused of fomenting the post-election unrest were made under "extraordinary conditions" and were invalid, an Iranian news agency reported.

At Tuesday's trial, the fourth since the June polls, senior reformer and Khatami ally Saeed Hajjarian was reported as saying he had "made major mistakes during the election by presenting incorrect analyses."

"I apologize to the Iranian nation for those mistakes."

A prosecutor demanded maximum punishment for Hajjarian who is accused of acting against national security, a crime which can carry the death sentence.

"These confessions are invalid and have been obtained under extraordinary conditions ... such claims are sheer lies and false," Khatami, who backed the main moderate candidate in the election, was quoted as saying by the ILNA news agency.

Also in the dock on Tuesday were several other moderate figures, including former Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh and former Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Aminzadeh -- both of whom held their positions under Khatami.

All were charged with fomenting huge street protests that followed the June presidential election that returned hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some confessed to "mistakes."

Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh was also accused of acting against national security and espionage at Tuesday's trial, charges likely to anger Washington.

Tajbakhsh told the court that Khatami had met billionaire financier George Soros in New York, Iranian media reported, but Khatami said this was also a "lie."

The June 12 vote has plunged Iran into its most serious internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and has exposed deep divisions in the establishment's ruling elite.

"NO MASS BURIAL"

Analysts see the mass trials as an attempt to uproot the moderate opposition and put an end to opposition protests.

Rights groups say hundreds of people, including senior pro-reform politicians, journalists and activists, have been detained since the election. Many are still in jail.

Moderate politicians and influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of Ahmadinejad, have called for the detainees' immediate release.

One of those in the dock in Tuesday's trial accused Rafsanjani's son of encouraging moderates to allege that the poll was rigged. Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani denied the claims.

In a televised debate before the election, Ahmadinejad accused Rafsanjani's family of corruption. The official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday Rafsanjani's family had issued a complaint to the judiciary against Ahmadinejad, but it did not give details.

Mehdi Karoubi, one of the defeated candidates, has also angered hardliners by claiming some imprisoned protesters were raped and abused in jail, a charge government officials have rejected as "baseless."

But a parliamentary committee set up to investigate the cases of detainees said it would be ready to consider any evidence submitted by the pro-reform cleric.

Karoubi was quoted as saying this week that four people who say they were sexually abused in jail were ready to provide testimony to parliament, but that they did not feel secure.

Committee member Farhad Tajari said the judiciary chief and the speaker of parliament had "given the necessary security guarantees to those who are ready to testify about sexual abuse in prison" but that he did not see the claims as reliable.

The reformist website Norooz said last week "tens" of people were buried in unnamed graves in the largest cemetery in Tehran on July 12 and 15 -- about a month after the election, suggesting those buried had been protestors.

But a former head of the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery said no "mass burial" had ever taken place there. A politician said on Tuesday a parliamentary committee was looking into a rumor of burials at the site.

The losing candidates say 69 people were killed in the unrest but the authorities put the death toll at 26.

Cardiology Equipment

The heart of a vertebrate is composed of cardiac muscle, an involuntary striated muscle tissue which is found only within this organ. The average human heart, beating at 72 beats per minute, will beat approximately 2.5 billion times during a lifetime (about 66 years). It weighs on average 250 g to 300 g in females and 300 g to 350 g in males.

The structure of the heart varies among the different branches of the animal kingdom. (See Circulatory system.) Cephalopods have two "gill hearts" and one "systemic heart". Fish have a two-chambered heart that pumps the blood to the gills and from there it goes on to the rest of the body. In amphibians and most reptiles, a double circulatory system is used, but the heart is not always completely separated into two pumps. Amphibians have a three-chambered heart.

http://www.jakenmedical.com/Cardiology-Equipment/

Lower Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a lipidic, waxy alcohol found in the cell membranes and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. It is an essential component of mammalian cell membranes where it is required to establish proper membrane permeability and fluidity. Cholesterol is the principal sterol synthesized by animals, but small quantities are synthesized in other eukaryotes, such as plants and fungi. It is almost completely absent among prokaryotes, which include bacteria. Cholesterol is classified as a sterol (a portmanteau of steroid and alcohol).

The name cholesterol originates from the Greek chole- (bile) and stereos (solid), and the chemical suffix -ol for an alcohol, as François Poulletier de la Salle first identified cholesterol in solid form in gallstones, in 1769. However, it was only in 1815 that chemist Eugène Chevreul named the compound "cholesterine".

Lower Cholesterol

Billy Bob Thornton in the ring for boxing movie (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) –
Million Dollar Billy Bob? Billy Bob Thornton is attached to star in "Pound for Pound," a boxing drama based on a novel by F.X. Toole, the author of the book that was the source for "Million Dollar Baby."

Ron Shelton will write and direct the indie film.

The project centers on the parallel lives of a retired, widowed boxer who's beset by depression after his grandson is killed in a car accident and an up-and-coming teenage Latino fighter from a difficult background. The lives of the two intersect in unexpected ways.

Toole was the pen name for the late boxing cutman Jerry Boyd. Two years after he died, the stories in his collection "Rope Burns" became the basis for the Clint Eastwood/Paul Haggis drama "Million Dollar Baby." The 2004 movie earned $207 million worldwide, was nominated for seven Oscars and won four, including best picture.

"Pound' was published two years later, the manuscript shaped by Toole's agent, Nat Sobel, and a freelance editor.

Among Thornton's upcoming projects is the baseball drama "Three Nights in August," which he will produce and star in.

Shelton also plans to direct "Q School," a golf comedy he wrote that Tim Allen and Dennis Quaid are eyeing for starring roles. The movie takes the director, known for a range of sports-themed movies such as "Bull Durham" and "White Men Can't Jump," back into the ring for the first time since "Play It to the Bone," a Las Vegas-set boxing picture he wrote and directed which starred Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson.

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)

Karzai's campaign claims victory in Afghan vote (AFP)

KABUL (AFP) –
The head of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's re-election campaign said Friday the incumbent was decisively leading the count and there would be no need for a second round run-off.

"From what we have obtained so far, we can claim that there is no need for a run-off and we can claim that we're in the lead," campaign chief Din Mohammmad told AFP.

"We have got this figure from our observers at the (voting) sites," he added.

Obama stands by public option in healthcare debate (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
U.S. President Barack Obama stood by proposals to create a government-run health insurance program on Thursday while insisting the move was merely one element of a wider plan to reform the industry.

A debate over the so-called public option has overshadowed Obama's plan to expand health coverage to tens of millions of Americans while reducing costs and making the health insurance sector more competitive.

On Sunday Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the public option was "not the essential element" of the overhaul, sparking furor among supporters and forcing the White House to clarify its message about Obama's chief legislative priority.

"She really didn't misspeak. The surprising thing is she'd been saying this all along," Obama told a radio program on Thursday, referring to Sebelius.

He said he believed the public option was important.

"What we've said is we think that's a good idea, but we haven't said that that's the only aspect of health insurance," Obama said.

"What she essentially said was...all these other insurance reforms are just as important as the public option."

A opinion poll published in The Washington Post on Friday showed a drop in public confidence in the way Obama is handling healthcare.

According to the Washington Post-ABC News poll, disapproval of Obama's handling of healthcare reached 50 percent -- the highest of his presidency -- this month. Forty two percent of those surveyed say they now "strongly disapprove" of the way he is dealing with his top domestic priority, the Post said.

Obama's healthcare plan have been hit from both sides, with liberal members of his own Democratic party pushing for major changes while Republicans and conservative Democrats fret about cost and government involvement.

Critics have seized on the public option idea, saying it would be too expensive in an age of soaring deficits and could amount to a government "take-over" of U.S. healthcare while driving private insurers out of business.

Democratic Party activists meanwhile have been upset by any sign the White House is dropping its support for the public plan, which Obama says could help keep private insurers in check and bring prices down.

TICKED OFF

"I'm getting a little ticked off that it feels like the knees are buckling a little bit," said one caller on the radio program.

"You have an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate, and you own the whole shooting match. And...it's very frustrating to watch you try and compromise with a lot of these people who aren't willing to," he said.

Obama, who has pinned considerable political capital on the reform drive, responded by saying: "We are going to get healthcare reform done."

House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said the final bill would not survive in the House without a public option -- reflecting views of liberal Democrats who have mustered vocal support for the public plan idea.

"There is no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option," she told reporters in California.

She said the president was not backing off the public option either. "No he isn't. He isn't at all," she said.

Several versions of healthcare reform bills are encountering difficulties in the Democratic-controlled Congress. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the White House and Senate Democratic leaders were mulling breaking healthcare legislation into two parts and passing the most expensive portions without Republican support.

"I think we have to be very careful about splitting it off," Pelosi said, acknowledging, however, that procedural reasons could lead to such a move.

She said whether the legislation ended up as one or two bills, it would have to lower costs and improve care.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles)

WHO predicts 'explosion' of swine flu cases (AP)

BEIJING – The global spread of swine flu will endanger more lives as it speeds up in coming months and governments must boost preparations for a swift response, the World Health Organization said Friday.
There will soon be a period of further global spread of the virus, and most countries may see swine flu cases double every three to four days for several months until peak transmission is reached, said WHO's Western Pacific director, Shin Young-soo.
"At a certain point, there will seem to be an explosion in case numbers," Shin told a symposium of health officials and experts in Beijing. "It is certain there will be more cases and more deaths."
WHO has declared the swine flu strain a pandemic, and it has killed almost 1,800 people worldwide through last week. International attention has focused on how the pandemic is progressing in southern hemisphere countries such as Australia, which are experiencing winter and their flu season.
But it is in developing countries where the accelerated spread of swine flu poses the greatest threat as it places underequipped and underfunded health systems under severe strain, Shin said.
Governments must act quickly to educate the public, prepare their health systems to care for severe cases and protect those deemed more vulnerable to prevent unnecessary deaths, he said.
"We only have a short time period to reach the state of preparedness deemed necessary," Shin said. "Communities must be aware before a pandemic strikes as to what they can do to reduce the spread of the virus, and how to obtain early treatment of severe cases."
Pregnant women face a higher risk of complications, and the virus also has more severe effects on people with underlying medical conditions such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and diabetes, WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a video address.
WHO earlier estimated that as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years — nearly one-third of the world's population.
Health officials and drug makers, meanwhile, are looking into ways to speed up production of a vaccine before the northern hemisphere enters its flu season in coming months. Estimates for when a vaccine will be available range from September to December.
WHO has stressed that most cases are mild and require no treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities, especially in poorer countries.
The last pandemic — the Hong Kong flu of 1968 — killed about 1 million people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.
Swine flu is also continuing to spread during summer in the northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear with warm weather, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.