US President Barack Obama told the Indonesian television network RCTI that it is important for him to postpone his trip to Indonesia to focus on the health care debate. Obama spent part of his childhood in the Southeast Asian country. (March 19)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Halloween: Barmbrack
Photo: Halloween Barmbrack - buttered and ready to be devoured.
The Barmbrack, a type of yeasted bread with added sultanas and raisins, usually sold in flattened rounds, it is often served toasted with butter along with a cup of tea in the afternoon. The Halloween Barmbrack, the center of an Irish Halloween custom, traditionally contained various objects such as a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin, and a ring. Each of these meant something related to fortune or to the person whose slice had it. If a person received the slice containing the pea, that person would not marry that year. The stick (to beat one's wife with) meant an unhappy or troublesome marriage. The a piece of cloth is an indication of bad luck or poverty, and the coin, as anyone can tell, indicated that person would get a fortune or become rich, and the ring indicated wedding in the same year.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Vernal Falls, Yosemite
Vernal Falls, originally uploaded by voodooden.The Vernal Fall, a waterfall on the Merced River just downstream of Nevada Fall in Yosemite National Park, California, has an official height of 317 feet (97 meter), but the United States Geographical Survey has measured it at approximately 240 feet (73 meter).
The Vernal Fall runs all through the year, though by the end of summer the volume of water is reduced there by splitting into multiple strands rather than a single body of falling water.
The falling water produces mist that forms rainbows. Hikers can start at the Happy Isles trail head in Yosemite Valley, one of the shortest (1.3 miles/ 2.1 km). The trail is mostly shaded and inclined upwards until reaching the base of the waterfall where the mist sprays onto the hikers, and can totally drench them.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Christina Hendricks, the buxom American actress
American actress Christina Hendricks, 35, is known for her role as Joan Holloway in the AMC cable television series Mad Men, for which she was nominated for the 2008 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (Mad Men, 2007) along with Bryan Batt, Anne Dudek, Michael Gladis, Jon Hamm, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Robert Morse, Elisabeth Moss, Maggie Siff, John Slattery, Rich Sommer and Aaron Staton. And Hendricks won for the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for Mad Men (2008).
The role of Joan Holloway performed by Hendricks is, perhaps, the best performance by her so far, as she also won the 2009 Best Actress - Drama Series award for Mad Men at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, and she was nominated for the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Mad Men.
On the award-winning AMC series Mad Men, Hendricks' character is that of an office manager of an advertising agency, where she was providing mentoring to a group of women who were supposed to deal with the callousness of professional advertising executives.
Hendricks, known for her distinctive acting and sometimes bawdy humor, has made a number of guest television appearances, starting as a regular in the series Beggars and Choosers. Since then she has appeared in the series The Big Time and The Court, had recurring roles in ER and Firefly. Also she had guest appearances in episodes of Angel, Miss Match, Tru Calling, Presidio Med, Without a Trace, and Las Vegas. She has starred opposite Kip Pardue in South of Pico, followed by the award-winning indie film La Cucina, and in four episodes of the NBC TV show Life in the recurring role of Olivia.
She also performed in music videos for The Ghost Inside by Broken Bells, and Everclear's One Hit Wonder. As per reports, she is set to appear in a new action thriller, Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, alongside Carey Mulligan and Ryan Gosling.
She is also known for her red hair but Hendricks is a natural blonde, who began coloring her hair red at the age of ten. In July 2010, Hendricks' hourglass figure was highlighted as a positive influence for women by UK Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, who said "Christina Hendricks is absolutely fabulous... We need more of these role models. There is such a sensation when there is a curvy role model. It shouldn't be so unusual."
Noted for her buxom, voluptuous figure, Hendricks commented in September 2010 that the media is too much focused on women's bodies and not their actual talents, adding, "I was working my butt off on the show (Mad Men) and then all anyone was talking about was my body."
No wonder Hendricks was named ‘the sexiest woman in the world’ in 2010 in a poll of female readers taken by Esquire magazine.
Nickie Minaj - Suck A Free Mix Tape
American rapper and singer-songwriter Nickie Minaj has started her career as an artist with mixtapes. In 2008 she won the Female Artist of the Year award at the Underground Music Awards. Minaj released Beam Me Up Scotty, another mixtape, in April 2009 which received positive coverage on both BET and MTV.
On April 13, 2010 Minaj released her first single Massive Attack, the song featuring Sean Garrett, who produced the song along with Alex Da Kid, with a cameo appearance by model Amber Rose. The single was not successful, and excluded from her debut album.
Later Minaj released ‘Your Love’ as the first official single from her debut album, which went on to become Minaj's most successful single so far, peaking at 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, 7 on the Hot R&B/ Hip-Hop Songs chart, as well as topping the Rap Songs chart, thereby becoming the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002.
On her Twitter page, Minaj tweeted that her debut album, Pink Friday will be released on November 23, 2010.
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