Kikil News » Lifestyle

Tis the season to .. make top ten lists

pressman — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:44:28 +0000

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Tis the season to be jolly — and to make a list, with the end of decade sparking them galore ranging from the top words of the decade, to the top celebrity, or the stupidest gifts for the person with everything.

Lifestyle

As 2009 ends the first decade of the 21st century, organizations are cranking out lists for the ultimate items or experiences of the decade called the noughties, aughts or even the naughties with websites hungry for bite-sized reads.

“Lists are quick and easy to digest compared to an in-depth article and often people are looking for quick information,” said Nicole Feenstra, a travel editor at Canadian website Canoe.ca.

Media tracking company Global Language Monitor crowned “global warming” as the top word of the decade, followed by 9/11, as in the 2001 attacks on the United States and the last name of U.S. President Barack Obama.

The rise of China was deemed the decade’s most read news story by the firm, but its choice of “twitter″ as top word of 2009 was in dispute, with the New Oxford American Dictionary opting for “unfriend,” referring to the action taken by users of the social networking site Facebook who have tired of a contact.

Language reference publisher Merriam-Webster Inc. said the word of the year was “admonish” after it topped its list of most searched words for three days when the White House announced plans to admonish Republican Joe Wilson for an outburst during a speech by Obama.

Lists of the best albums and best songs were produced by multiple organizations but rapper Jay-Z sorted that out by declaring his album “The Blueprint” the best of the decade.

Eminem was crowned best-selling artist of the decade by sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan while Billboard named Canadian Daniel Powter as the top one-hit wonder of the decade after his song “Bad Day” topped the U.S. charts for five weeks in 2006.

Film lists were quick to divide readers. New Yorker critic Richard Brody ranked Jean-Luc Godard’s “In Praise of Love″ as the top film of the decade but not many agreed with him.

The Hollywood Reporter named “The Adventures of Pluto Nash″ starring Eddie Murphy in 2002 as the top movie flop of the decade and listed “Friends” as the most watched TV show.

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie was named the top celebrity of the decade by Hello! Canada after transforming dramatically over that period from a wild child to U.N. ambassador heavily involved in charity work.

Top 10 gadgets of the decade? ABC News made a list that included Apple’s iPhone, the iPod, the Blackberry, Nintendo’s Wii, GPS devices and e-book readers — and also made a list of the top new health scares led by swine flu.

Best fashion designer of the decade? Paste Magazine gave that award to Marc Jacobs and named Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Everything Is Illuminated″ as the decade’s best debut novel.

As for this decade’s worst looks, website news.com.au listed Crocs footwear, big shoulders, oversized bags, giant sunglasses, Ugg boots and harem pants and leggings — as well as guys who wear white shoes — as sartorial disasters.

Annual seasonal lists were also produced on virtually every topic imaginable with the top 10 stupidest gifts from website www.stupid.com including reindeer food for humans and a belching beer pager to keep track of drinks in the party season.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source From:
reuters

Stress makes for more sleepless in Taiwan: study

pressman — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:39:02 +0000

TAIPEI (Reuters Life!) – More than one in five people in Taiwan suffers from insomnia likely caused by stress due to the economic woes, a figure higher than the global average, researchers said on Wednesday.

Lifestyle

The survey of 4,005 people found that 21.8 percent of the population has chronic trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, said Lee Hsin-chien, psychiatry chairman at government-run Shuang-Ho Hospital in Taipei.

Overseas, averages of 10 to 15 percent of the population reports insomnia, he said, while Taiwan’s rate was about 10 percent in 2000.

Stress due to recession on the export-reliant island earlier this year might have contributed to the increase, Lee said.

Diabetes, hypertension, anxiety and depression may also be driving insomnia as health generally declines in the face of an increasingly Western lifestyle, he added.

Earlier this year, Taiwan was the fourth Asian economy after Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore to enter recession in the face of the global financial crisis and a collapse in demand for the region’s exports.

The state of the economy prompted employers to lay off workers or require unpaid leave.

“We expected the rate to be high but not that high,” Lee said. “A lot of factors come into play. It’s possibly stress, or it could be people′s health quality.”

Lee led the fourth survey commissioned by the Taiwan Society of Sleep Medicine, which was conducted via telephone in October. He said health professionals in Taiwan were considering a 2010 survey using written questionnaires to determine underlying causes the 2009 results.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings, editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source From:
reuters

Straight from Korean military zone: bottled water

publicist — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:38:25 +0000

SEOUL (Reuters Life!) – South Korea’s newest bottled water comes from a place where the nature has been unspoiled for decades due to razor-wire fences, land-mined fields and more than one million heavily armed soldiers standing guard.

Lifestyle | South Korea

Its name is “DMZ 2km” and is bottled near the no-man’s-land Demilitarized Zone buffer that has divided the Korean peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and is marketed to those who do not think of the area as the Cold War’s last frontier.

“We decided on water from the DMZ because it’s different, and the environment there is untouched, so many people thinks it’s clean,” said Lee Sang-hyo, a spokesman for Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co, which started selling the water three months ago.

A 500ml bottle sells for 600 won (about 50 U.S. cents) and has DMZ on the label, along with a silhouette of a bird.

Login Beverage, the bottler, draws the water from a plant about 2 km south of the South Korean end of the buffer zone from a spring that flows under the DMZ — a 4-km (2.5-mile) wide band that runs about 245 km (150 miles) across the peninsula set up as a part of the ceasefire that ended the Korean War fighting.

Except for the rare secret military patrol or border incursion, the DMZ has been free of human activity since the end of the war, and has become a band of pristine nature.

Environmentalists estimate there are about 2,900 different plant species, about 70 different types of mammals and 320 different types of birds in the DMZ.

There is also one of the world′s largest collection of armaments on either side because the two Koreas are technically still at war.

“Getting the water is not dangerous at all. We worked it all out with the military,” said spokesman Lee.

(Reporting by Christine Kim and Jon Herskovitz, editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source From:
reuters

Audrey Hepburn’s wardrobe sells for double estimate

reporter — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:04:03 +0000

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – A collection of dresses worn by film star Audrey Hepburn fetched 268,000 pounds ($437,800) at auction, more than double the pre-sale estimate, organizers said on Wednesday.

Lifestyle

More than 40 items from her wardrobe, including dresses worn in her films, were auctioned in London in a sale described by organizers as “the like of which will never be seen again.”

The highest price, 60,000 pounds, was paid for a Chantilly lace cocktail gown by Givenchy which Hepburn wore in “How to Steal a Million” in 1966 — against an estimate of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds.

Givenchy was the designer most closely linked with Hepburn, but also up for auction was the ivory satin bridal gown designed by the Fontana Sisters for her planned marriage to James (later Lord) Hanson, which sold for 13,800 pounds. Hepburn later called off the wedding.

Hepburn, who won an Oscar for her first starring role as a runaway princess in “Roman Holiday,” is also known for roles as divergent as cockney Eliza in “My Fair Lady” and a terrorized blind woman in “Wait Until Dark.”

The actress, who personified the svelte, chick, minimal European post-war look, became renowned for her perceived purity, innocence and vulnerability, the fashion auctioneer Kerry Taylor said before the sale.

The collection was sold by Tanja Star-Busmann, a life-long friend of Hepburn’s, and 50 percent of the net sale proceeds will be donated to The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.

Organizers at La Galleria had expected the auction to fetch a total of 100,000 pounds, but in the event it made 268,320.

“Tanja is pleased that all these lovely clothes and accessories that she has treasured for so many years will go to collectors and museums throughout the world,” Taylor said in a statement.

Hepburn’s clothes do not often come up at auction, despite the actress hating waste.

She died in 1993 at the age of 63.

(Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Paul Casciato)

Source From:
reuters

Caviar? Golden cake? The world’s most extravagant meals

journalist — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:02:20 +0000

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) – The finest ingredients and top chefs are key components to the best dining experiences, but it can be the added extras that make meals or venues memorable.

Lifestyle

Forbes.com has compiled a list of 11 of the world’s most extravagant meals (here). Reuters has not endorsed this list:

1. Daniel Boulud’s Caviar – New York City At $205, Daniel’s tasting menu is a relative bargain compared to other high-end Manhattan eateries but care for some Champagne and caviar in the lounge before dinner? Fifty grams of Boulud’s private-label Caspian Sea Golden Ossetra caviar goes for $860.

2. The French Laundry – Napa Valley

Even the wiliest concierges have trouble scoring reservations at Chef Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry. Each day Keller and his staff create two nine-course $240 menus – a chef’s “tasting” menu and a “vegetable” menu – promising not to repeat a single ingredient on either menu.

3. $1,000 Sultan’s Golden Cake – Istanbul Upon request the pastry chef at hotel the Ciragan Palace Kempinski will prepare a “golden cake” that has been flavored with fruits marinated for years in Jamaican rum, vanilla beans from French Polynesia and French wheat. But what makes this the ultimate bakery bling is the dusting of 24-karat edible gold.

4. White Truffle Dinner at Les Amis – Singapore For special clients, Les Amis, the elegant French restaurant in Singapore, can arrange a top-to-bottom white truffle menu that starts at $800 per person, not including wine.

5. $5,000 Fleur Burger – Las Vegas

Created by Fleur de Lys chef Hubert Keller, the man behind Burger Bar in the Mandalay Bay hotel, this burger contains kobe beef, truffles and foie gras. The real cost comes with the concoction’s accompaniment — a bottle of 1995 Chateau Petrus from Bordeaux.

6. Nino’s Bellissima Pizza – New York There’s nothing special about the sauce or the crust. This pizza earns its $1,000 price tag with its toppings. Nino’s in New York loads down this pie with caviar and fresh Maine lobster. There’s also some salmon roe and a little wasabi.

7. Dinner In The Sky “People were getting bored with just going to the same old restaurants,” says David Ghysels, the Belgian entrepreneur who created this movable restaurant suspended by a crane. If you’ve got the cash, Ghysels will bring his portable dining room anywhere he’s got clearance. Bringing a star chef and his suspended restaurant to a U.S. locale could cost between $50,000 and $100,000.

8. Picnic on Macaroni Beach, Mustique Island Barbecued chicken, mango and avocado salad, couscous with vegetables and rum punch sounds like standard picnic fare. Unless, of course, your picnic is on Macaroni Beach, on the exclusive Mustique island in the West Indies. The private island is open only to guests who own or rent some of its stunning villas, all of which come with their own kitchen staff.

9. Chef’s Table at L’Espadon – Paris This restaurant, complete with a climbing lilac tree in the middle of the opulent dining room, serves up dishes like roast rib of milk-fed veal in a hay-infused stock and filet de boeuf Rossini with “cappuccino-style” mashed potatoes (with truffles and cocoa). Occasionally, Executive Chef Michel Roth invites guests to dine at the chef’s table, offering a ringside seat to the choreography of the Ritz’s mythical kitchens.

10. Private Dinner at Chef Louis Pous For diners who aren′t into traveling, Little Palm Island resort chef Louis Pous has started making house calls. For $10,000 (for up to 10 people) plus travel costs, the chef and his staff of two will fly anywhere in the United States to prepare a private meal. The package, which must be reserved 30 days in advance, does not include wines, china or stemware.

11. Dinner at Three on the Bund – Shanghai

This small domed dining room capping Three on the Bund, Shanghai’s upmarket shopping and dining complex, is so intimate it can only squeeze in two diners and a butler. While taking in the panoramic views of Shanghai, you can feast on food from any of the restaurants in the complex including Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Jean Georges, Laris or Whampoa Club, for about $500 for two.

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Source From:
reuters

Pope tells artists beauty can be a path to God

publicist — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:13:59 +0000

By Daniel Flynn

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict met artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday and urged them to inject spirituality into their work, saying contemporary beauty was often “illusory and deceitful.”

The Pope told the gathering of hundreds of painters, sculptors, architects, poets and directors, held beneath the vaulted ceiling of the chapel painted by Michelangelo, that he wanted to “renew the Church’s friendship with the world of art.”

“Beauty … can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate Mystery, toward God,” Benedict said.

The Vatican said it invited some 500 artists to the event, regardless of religious, political or stylistic allegiances.

More than 250 accepted, mostly from Italy, including singer Andrea Bocelli and award-winning film composer Ennio Morricone.

Amongst the other guests were Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid, whose Maxxi modern art museum has just opened in Rome, and F. Murray Abraham, the American actor who won an Oscar for his role as Salieri in the Mozart film, Amadeus, in 1985.

The Pope told them that in a world lacking in hope, with increasing signs of aggression and despair, there was an ever greater need for a return to spirituality in art.

“Too often … the beauty thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful … it imprisons man within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy,” he said.

Against the backdrop of Michelangelo’s vast fresco of the Last Judgment, which adorns the chapel’s altar wall, Benedict lamented that the once-close cooperation between the Church and the artistic community had weakened.

“Faith takes nothing away from your genius or art,” he said. “On the contrary, it exalts them and nourishes them.”

Saturday’s event marked both the 10th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s ‘Letter to Artists’ in 1999 in which he spoke of the Church’s “need for art,” and the 45th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s original meeting with artists in 1964.

After a number of spats between the Vatican and artists in recent years, including a controversy surrounding writer Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, the latest overture to the artistic world is being driven by the Vatican’s new culture commissar, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi.

In a sign of efforts at reconciliation, the Vatican has said it will participate in the 2011 Venice Biennale, one of the world’s major art festivals held every two years.

(Edited by Crispian Balmer)

Source From:
reuters

Actress Audrey Hepburn’s wardrobe up for auction

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:42:08 +0000

By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Audrey Hepburn once declared her look was “attainable” and an upcoming auction of some of the fashionable film star’s wardrobe will make that possible.

Some 35 dresses, gowns, separates and other items will be sold at a London auction on December 8 at the largest sale of clothing that belonged to the actress, who won an Oscar for her first starring role as a runaway princess in “Roman Holiday,

Hepburn, who is also known for roles as divergent as cockney Eliza in “My Fair Lady” and a terrorized blind woman in “Wait Until Dark,” had “a purity and an innocence and a vulnerability that made her especially attractive,” said Kerry Taylor, the fashion auctioneer who is offering the collection.

“She personified that svelte, chic, minimal, European look of the post-war period,” Taylor said at an exhibition of the items. “And she was a firm believer that less is more.”

Among the highlights is a haute couture cloque silk dress by Givenchy, the designer with whom Hepburn was most closely linked, which she wore to promote “Paris when it Sizzles.”

“It was a terrible film, but the clothes were marvelous,” Taylor said.

The dress is estimated to sell for $17,000 to $25,000, but could fetch far more. Hepburn’s clothes are not often available at auction. Recently offered designs sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The sale stemmed from a June phone call to Taylor by Hepburn’s lifelong friend, Tanja Star-Busmann, to whom the actress gave much of her clothing over the years before her death in 1993 at age 63.

The actress always “hated waste,” Taylor noted.

She said 50 percent of the proceeds from the sale held in conjunction with Sotheby’s will be donated to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund and UNICEF, for which she worked during her final years.

Another highlight is a black cocktail dress estimated at about $30,000.

Worn by Hepburn in the glossy 1966 caper “How to Steal a Million,” the Givenchy Chantilly lace number will afford the buyer a primer in how to look like a million — or at least a bit like Hepburn.

(Editing by Michelle Nichols)

Source From:
reuters

Albanian town plans statue of Bush

journalist — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:06:57 +0000

TIRANA (Reuters) – The small Albanian town of Fushe-Kruje plans to erect a statue of former U.S. President George W. Bush to commemorate his June 2007 visit, when he was feted as a hero in an outpouring of love for America.

Mayor Ismet Mavriqi said seven Albanian sculptors had entered the competition for the statue he plans to unveil in Bush Square in the town center on June 10, 2010, the third anniversary of Bush′s visit.

“If had the final say, I would very much like a three-meter statue, probably in bronze, that captures his trademark way of walking with energy,” Mavriqi told Reuters on the phone.

The municipality has already finished the blueprints for rebuilding the square where the statue will stand, he added.

A cafe in Fushe-Kruje and a street in the capital Tirana are already named after Bush.

When Bush visited Fushe-Kruje, he dived into a throng of waiting Albanians and enjoyed a rock-star reception — a stark contrast with the noisy protests that dogged him elsewhere on that European trip.

The bakery and the cafe where Bush stopped to talk with the owners and a barber, a shepherd and a tailor whose businesses were funded by U.S. micro-loans, have become landmarks visited by Albanians, ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and foreigners.

Albanians have a special affection for the United States, which they credit not only with ending their Cold War isolation but also with leading NATO in 1999 to rescue the Kosovo Albanians from ethnic cleansing by Serbia.

Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia last year, set up a giant statue of former U.S. president Bill Clinton to thank him for his role in NATO’s 1999 air war.

Bush, on the first U.S. presidential visit to post-communist Albania, backed independence for Kosovo and urged Kosovo Albanians to be patient. The United States was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Source From:
reuters

Montreux unveils 2010 poster by Brazil’s Britto

pressman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:41:48 +0000

ZURICH (Reuters Life!) – Brazilian Romero Britto has created the 2010 edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival’s poster, adding to a long list of striking images by famous artists that have made the posters desirable objects among collectors.

Painted in strong and fresh colors, the poster for the 44th Montreux Jazz Festival represents a boy playing guitar and his dog sat on a drum. It follows last year’s offering by French illustrator Tomi Ungerer, featuring a dark-suited pianist with a keyboard face.

It is the second time Britto, known for his powerful colors and the cheerful vitality of his art, has designed a poster for the festival, which each year asks a prominent artist to create a fresh image for its trademark advertisement.

The 44th Montreux Jazz Festival takes place on July 2-17, 2010 and will hope to build on the success of the 2009 festival, which featured such diverse stars from the worlds of pop, rock and the blues as Lily Allen, Prince and B.B. King, alongside jazz stalwarts like Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Jamie Cullum.

Born in modest surroundings to a large family in Recife in the northeast of Brazil, Britto is renowned for his paintings and sculptures that combine elements of cubism, pop art and graffiti, making him one of the world’s most prominent neo-pop artists.

Britto, who currently lives in Miami, also created the festival’s poster in 1999.

Other artists who have done the Montreux poster include Julian Opie, best known for the cover art on Britpop band Blur’s best of album, French sculptor and painter Niki de Saint Phalle and a dual effort from pop and graffiti artists Andy Warhol and Keith Haring in 1986.

(Reporting by Jason Rhodes, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source From:
reuters

Briton to induce epileptic seizure as performance

publicist — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:35:44 +0000

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – An epilepsy sufferer has courted controversy in Britain by creating a public performance in which she will attempt to bring on a seizure and allow the audience to film it on their mobile phones.

Rita Marcalo, who suffers around two seizures a year even on medication, has stopped taking treatment ahead of next month’s production of “Involuntary Dances,” which she claims is to raise awareness of epilepsy, the Telegraph newspaper reported.

But Marcalo, who directs a dance theater company, is facing criticism for putting herself at risk and for the voyeuristic nature of the 24-hour event which is being funded by a 13,889-pound ($22,910) government arts grant.

People will be invited to film her at Bradford Playhouse in northern England’s West Yorkshire region, where she will use strobe lighting, fasting and raise her body temperature in an attempt to bring about a seizure.

“One of the reasons I am doing this is because epilepsy is an invisible disability,” Marcalo told the newspaper. “As an artist I am very interested in this idea of doing something in my art that is the opposite of what I do in my life. In my own life it is private but in art I make it public.”

She said that anyone could see epileptic seizures on Google or YouTube that have been filmed on mobile phones without the consent of the person having the seizure.

“Part of me doing this is to address the voyeurism. I am saying, I am choosing to let you do this,” she said.

Epilepsy organizations have expressed concern about a patient attempting to bring on a seizure for the entertainment of others.

“I am concerned about the potential danger of a patient stopping their medication to induce a seizure,” Epilepsy Action Chief Executive Philip Lee said.

“It is also concerning that the performance could influence others to do something similar.”

The audience, restricted to over-18s, will be provided with sleeping bags and breakfast. They will be awakened by a siren the moment that Marcalo suffers a seizure, which they are permitted to record on their mobile phones.

“I think it will shock people. I think it’s her right to express herself and if people find it distasteful they do not have to see it,” Bradford Playhouse Director Eleanor Barrett said.

National Society for Epilepsy neuropsychologist Sallie Baxendale said it was unlikely that someone would be able to induce a seizure at will even when off medication because they were so unpredictable.

“If a seizure happens in front of an audience it is likely to make them feel very uncomfortable,” she said.

“Will this help reduce the stigma which still surrounds the condition? I doubt it.”

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Patricia Reaney)

Source From:
reuters