damn, now THAT is my kind of carwash!!!
(Source: mancrushoftheday)
Mary II, 1662 - 1694. Reigned jointly with William III, 1688 - 1694
After 1677
Mary II was the eldest daughter of the future James VII and II and his first wife, Anne Hyde. This beautiful mezzotint by Abraham Blooteling was printed after her marriage to William of Orange in 1677, as it includes her title as Princess of Orange inscribed in Latin. Lely’s portrait, which this print is a reproduction of, was painted around the time of her marriage and shows her sitting in a landscape, holding a posy of flowers. The scalloped hem of her sleeve, just visible on the right-hand side, is more obvious in the painted portrait and would indicate to a contemporary audience that Mary was playing a pastoral role, such as a shepherdess or nymph. These roles were made fashionable from popular plays and masques, and deemed suitable for the depiction of young brides in portraits.
Really?
In 1987, Delta Airlines apologized for arguing in plane crash litigation that it should pay less in compensation for the life of a gay passenger than for a heterosexual one because he may have had AIDS. By that logic, they should pay less for senior citizens and disabled people, too.
(Source: facts.randomhistory.com)
The more Doctor Who becomes a perennial, the faster it starts to die. You’ve got to shake it up, you’ve got to keep people on edge and wondering when it will come back.
Sherlock is the prime example, as far as that goes. Sherlock almost exists on starving its audience. By the time it came back this year, Sherlock was like a rock star re-entering the building!
So keeping Doctor Who as an event, and never making people feel, ‘Oh, it’s lovely, reliable old Doctor Who - it’ll be on about this time, at that time of year’. Once you start to do that, just slowly, it becomes like any much-loved ornament in your house - ultimately invisible. And I don’t want that to ever be the case.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARVEY MILK.
(May 22, 1930)
“Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that he or she is gay; knows that if their parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, their classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryant’s and John Briggs’ are doing their part on TV.
And that child has several options: staying in the closet, and suicide. And then one day that child might open the paper that says ‘Homosexual elected in San Francisco’ and there are two new options: the option is to go to California, or stay in San Antonio and fight. Two days after I was elected I got a phone call and the voice was quite young. It was from Altoona, Pennsylvania. And the person said ‘Thanks’.
And you’ve got to elect gay people; so that thousands upon thousands like that child know that there is hope for a better world; there is hope for a better tomorrow. Without hope, not only gays, but those who are blacks, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us’s; without hope the us’s give up.
I know that you can’t live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you, and you, and you, and you have got to give them hope.”
Syrian opposition head offers to resign | AP
By Zeina Karam
Syria’s main opposition council is crumbling under the weight of infighting and divisions over issues that cut to the heart of the revolution, including accusations that the movement is becoming as autocratic as the regime it wants to drive out.
The slow disintegration of the Syrian National Council, which has become the international face of the uprising, could complicate Western efforts to bolster the opposition, just as President Bashar Assad’s regime gathers momentum in its crackdown on dissent.
On Thursday, SNC leader Burhan Ghalioun said he was ready to step down once a replacement is found, amid mounting criticism of his leadership.
The decision came just days after he was re-elected for a third, three month term during a council vote held in Rome. The council has said it would rotate the presidency every three months, so Ghalioun’s repeated appointments rankled some who wanted a new face.
“I will not accept under any circumstances to be a divisive candidate, and I am not after any post,” said Ghalioun, an exiled Syrian and professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. “I will resign as soon as a new candidate is picked, either by consensus or new elections.”
Ghalioun, a secular Sunni Muslim academic who has led the council since its formation in September, has been criticized by some opposition figures of being too close to the Muslim Brotherhood and of trying to monopolize power.
Fifteen months into the uprising, Syria’s opposition is still struggling to overcome internal rivalries and power struggles that prevent the movement from gaining the traction it needs to present a credible alternative to Assad. Its international backers have repeatedly appealed for the movement to pull together and work as one unit.
But as the conflict becomes more violent, with rebel fighters and others taking up arms, attempts to operate under a single umbrella have become increasingly difficult.
“Although it (the SNC) was conceptualized as a formation designed to represent society as a whole, it has played a very polarizing role. By mishandling personality issues, it has alienated more prominent opposition figures than necessary,” said Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group think tank.
Photo: Tonemgub2010/Wikimedia Commons
Iran Nuclear Crisis: What’s On The Table At The Baghdad Talks? | Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
By Charles Recknagel
World powers are meeting in Baghdad with Iran this week over the Islamic republic’s controversial nuclear program. Here are five things to know ahead of time.
Who is meeting and why?
The five permanent Security Council members — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — plus Germany (better known as the P5+1) are sitting down with Iran in the Iraqi capital on May 23 to discuss ways out of the Iran nuclear crisis. Western powers accuse Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program under the cover of its nuclear-energy activities. Iran denies the charges.
What’s on the agenda?The most urgent item on the agenda is to convince Iran to give nuclear inspectors access to the Parchin military site near Tehran. Concerns over Iran’s nuclear intentions have increased since the UN nuclear-watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported in November that Iran has carried out past activities “relevant to the development of an explosive nuclear device.”
Western officials suspect Iran built a container at Parchin in 2000 for the probable testing of high explosives and want to know more about experiments there. They also accuse Iran of refusing to let UN inspectors inside Parchin until Tehran can remove incriminating evidence. Iran has dismissed the allegations as “ridiculous.”
Overall, the UN Security Council is demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment and other activities they say could contribute to acquiring bomb-grade nuclear material until it proves its program is peaceful. Tehran says it has the right to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear energy program.FULL ARTICLE (Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty)
Photo: AFP
Judge Turpin: “You’re in a merry mood today, Mr. Todd.” Sweeney Todd: ‘Tis your delight, sir, catching fire From one man to the next Sweeney Todd is great on stage, be it Len Cariou, George Hearn, Michael Cerveris, Kelsey Grammar, or the others. But the movie is great for the same reasons as the stage, plus extra Tim-Burton-y goodness. Then, there’s Pretty Women. For those of us who always wanted to see Severus Snape duet with Captain Jack Sparrow. Or Hans Gruber harmonize with Edward Scissorhands
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