69 Year Old Dambusters Flights

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As a lone RAF wartime aircraft circled a blue sky in the Peak District this morning, the landscape looked a picturesque scene of tranquility and calm.

But sixty-nine years ago today, the view from the ground looked very different as the brave Dam Busters crew took to the air, practicing for a stealth mission to destroy Germany's dams during World War Two.

Today a flying company offered war enthusiasts the chance to follow the identical flight path over the Howden, Derwent and Ladybower dams in a original Tiger Moth biplane - the aircraft the elite Lancaster squadron would have learnt to fly in.
 The aircrew from 617 Squadron headed to the Derwent Valley to train in extreme low-level flying in bombers in preparation to destroy dams in Germany’s Ruhr Valley using top-secret ‘bouncing bombs’.

The Derwent Dam and it’s surrounding hills resembled that of some of the German dams so formed a perfect training ground for the elite Lancaster squadron.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142346/Following-slipstream-giants-Pilot-offers-low-level-Dambusters-flights-69-years-reservoir-brave-crews-trained.html#ixzz1uVpFVg4p

The psychedelic kaleidoscope patterns of Gothic Cathedrals

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At first glance, the amazing symmetry of these images makes them look like the hypnotic, psychedelic patterns seen through a kaleidoscope.

But they are in fact amazing examples of European cathedral ceilings, designed and crafted with the utmost precision as places where the earthly can meet the divine.

The Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages are among the world's greatest architectural achievements, symbols of the intense religious devotion of the era.

With many taking decades, or even centuries, to build and decorate, they represent some of the finest tangible achievements of the Christian faith and are major landmarks in the geography and history of the cities in which they stand.

Many are featured among the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, in which they sit aside wonders like the pyramids of Egypt and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

For centuries, the remarkable geometry of the sites have amazed tourists and religious devotees alike, with the architects and who built them codifying their sense of spiritual wonder in stone.

York Minster, the seat of the Archbishop of York and the second largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe, took more than 200 years to complete.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142553/The-amazing-kaleidoscopic-world-Gothic-cathedral-ceilings.html#ixzz1uVkwvLOc

The History of Keys

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From Ancient Wooden Rods to the Hotel Keycard

To understand the history of the key, you must understand the evolution of the lock. One of the most sophisticated locks used in the ancient world was found in 1842 at Khorsabad—in what’s now Iraq—at the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II, who ruled just before 700 B.C. As the reproduction at left shows, the door opener would use a large, pronged wooden key to lift a series of movable pin tumblers into a position that allowed the wooden bolt to slide open. Although the key shown here looks unfamiliar—more like a rake or a comb than what we’re used to—the locking mechanism is stunningly similar to the ones we use today, most of which also rely on sliding tumblers into place. Although this relatively secure mechanism soon spread from Assyria to Egypt and across the ancient world, it eventually fell out of favor in the West, and wasn’t revived until the 1800s.


In Ancient Rome, having keys—or anything worth locking up—was uncommon. So the key was as much a status symbol as a security device. Affluent Romans often kept their valuables in secure boxes within their households, and wore the keys as rings on their fingers. The practice had two benefits: It kept the key handy at all times, while signaling that the wearer was wealthy and important enough to have money and jewelry worth securing.


During the next 1,500 years or so in Europe, the ornamentation of keys evolved, but the locking mechanism didn’t change much. In the medieval period, keys were more commonly made of iron than bronze, but they retained both their practical and symbolic purposes: securing valuables and showing that you were important enough to have valuables to secure. One way to convey your significance in this period? By carrying a really big key.

Read on at the link.

Intimate Rock Portraits

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Photographing the legend's of rock n' roll's golden era of the late 1960's and early 1970's, Tom Gundelfinger O'Neal had unrivalled access to some of the icons of popular music.
 Showcasing a selection of his striking work at the National Press Club in Washington this month, O'Neal's portraits of Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, B.B King and Janis Joplin hark back to an era when rock music was still considered counter-culture.
 Witness to Hendrix's famous guitar burning at the legendary Monterey music festival of 1967 and the Rolling Stones notoriously debauched 1972 tour of North America, O'Neal also managed to capture more reflective artists such as Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2136758/Tom-ONeal-Photographers-amazing-intimate-portraits-popular-musics-golden-era.html#ixzz1tT4KFByu

vintage burlesque

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This collection of vintage posters proves that the titillating art form of burlesque has been popular for decades.

The Library of Congress in the US has opened its archive of around 2,100 posters illustrating live entertainment from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century.

And the series shows that people have always embraced the weird, wonderful and wacky – and saucy.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2136620/Meet-original-Dita-Von-Teese-Saucy-vintage-burlesque-posters-display.html#ixzz1tT1D4wDI

Ryan & Farrah

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"She’s married. Her name is Majors. Her husband is Lee Majors, who starred in The Six Million Dollar Man. It is the autumn of 1979 and Lee is in Toronto for a movie. I’m there visiting my daughter, Tatum, who’s shooting a film with Richard Burton. She is 15.

I knew by the way she was kissing me that she had made up her mind...

Lee is a companionable big guy, worth at least five-and-a-half million. We fly home together, the limo drops us off and there’s this beautiful girl waiting for him. She’s delightful, full of childlike warmth. She’s vibrant and wholesome – refreshing in this town. I’ve just met Farrah, the woman who will become the love of my life.
I had gone to their home for dinner that first night, and the next night, too. That second night they start to talk about their relationship. He’s a man of few words, a monosyllabic cowboy type. Farrah is more open, and she has no compunction talking about their problems.

She says when they were staying in Nevada, he was in a successful Western series with Barbara Stanwyck and Linda Evans called The Big Valley. (This was before Farrah’s fame through the hit television Charlie’s Angels and the poster that had made her the fantasy of every teenage boy in America.)

Their son Redmond O'Neal at home

We first kiss at a party thrown by Swifty Lazar, the talent agent. Gregory Peck is there; Anne and Kirk Douglas; Burt Lancaster and other stars of that era. She arrives at Lazar’s fabulous home in jeans, boots and a snakeskin jacket. She sparkles. Kirk Douglas tries to get her attention by broadening his smile until we can see his molars."

Ryan O’Neal 2012. Both Of Us, by Ryan O’Neal, is published by The Robson Press
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2136607/To-hell-Charlies-Angel-Ryan-ONeals-breathtaking-honesty-tumultuous-life-Farrah-Fawcett.html#ixzz1tSxZUoI0

Paparazzo Ron Galella's Long Awaited Collection

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Legendary paparazzi photographer Ron Galella is releasing a book featuring hundreds of iconic images of celebrities such as Jackie O, Michael Jackson, Andy Warhol and Brigette Bardot.
He was dubbed the 'paparazzo extraordinaire' by Newsweek - a name that has become the title of his new book, released this month.

Whether it was snapping Michael Jackson and Brooke Shields at the Shrine Auditorium in 1984, Jackie O without her sunglasses on, or Brigitte Bardot in a bikini in St-Tropez, the now 81-year-old was the pioneer of high-stakes, stake-out paparazzi photography, which ultimately lead to the former First Lady filing a restraining order against him.

Paparazzo Extraordinaire, published by German publisher Hatje Cantz, features images of Frank Sinatra, Micheal Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigette Bardot, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, John Travolta and Andy Warhol



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2135634/King-Paparazzi-Ron-Galella-restraining-order-Jackie-O-releases-book-iconic-celebrity-images.html#ixzz1tCTqYJG4

Victoria's Secret 1979

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With their Seventies perms, overly blushed cheekbones and deep tans, the models in this 1979 Victoria's Secret catalogue are virtually unrecognisable from today's glossy Angels.


The unearthed Victoria's Secret catalogue shows young ladies lounging in bed wearing marabou slippers and relatively demure knee-length slips. Flaunting body shapes more akin to those of 'real' women, they can be seen reading books together, and chatting in front of still life paintings in chintzy, dated sets.


The old catalogue shows how a woman might actually look wearing the garments advertised, rather than depicting a mostly unattainable beauty ideal for women, as seen in the catalogues today.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2135009/Marabou-slippers-mahogany-tans-knee-length-slips-What-Victoria-s-Secret-models-looked-like-1979.html#ixzz1t5NmawED

Foot Binding in China

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For almost a millennium, the practice of foot binding was prevalent across Chinese society, starting with the wealthier classes but over the years spreading down through urban and then poorer rural communities. Now the ancient, some say barbaric, practice is almost gone.


Isolated from the country's key cultural and administrative hubs, the area around Liuyi, a village of about 2,000 people in southern China's Yunnan province, was one of the last places in the country to end the tradition.

The feet of girls as young as 5 would be broken and bound tightly with cotton strips, forcing their four smallest toes to gradually fold under the soles to create a so-called 3-inch golden lotus, once idealized as the epitome of beauty.


The process would take many years and would lead to a lifetime of labored movement, as well as a regular need to rebind the feet.

The practice fell out of favor at the turn of the 20th century, viewed as an antiquated and shameful part of imperialist Chinese culture, and was officially banned soon after. But in rural areas, the feet of some young girls were still being bound into the early 1950s. In Liuyi, the practice didn't stop until around 1957.

1950s Mens' Magazines

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The June 1959 issue of Girl Watcher magazine appears to be a typical Fifties pinup publication.


But closer examination reveals it to be a highly sexualized attempt at parodying the satirical Mad Magazine.
The articles go on to advise: 'How to start a Girl collection,' and 'More ambitious Girl Watchers find it intriguing to bring home a specimen or two.'


Published in the same decade as Don Sauers' famous The Girl Watcher's Guide, a book instructing men on 'mastering the once-over,' the magazine's original intent was for comical effect.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2134463/Stalking-girl-Creepy-tips-collect-pretty-girls-unearthed-humorous-mens-magazine-1950s.html#ixzz1t4AFjVir

Was Albert Einstein the world's worst husband?

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Well the man can't be everything! ... right?

Despite his innumerable professional successes, Einstein found it impossible to sustain a successful personal life.


In his book, Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson describes how Albert Einstein found maintaining a harmonious love life a battle he would never win.

In fact, so pragmatic was Einstein's approach to love, that when he found his 11 year marriage to fellow scientist Mileva Maric was floundering, he issued a list of outrageous rules that he believed would allow the two to remain together for the sake of the children.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2133922/Was-Einstein-worlds-worst-husband-Wife-ordered-room-tidy-serve-meals-day--expect-NO-affection--stop-talking-demands-it.html#ixzz1svfzarDG

Holocaust Remembrance

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FULLY COMPASSIONATE God on high:


To our six million brothers and sisters
murdered because they were Jews,
grant clear and certain rest with You
in the lofty heights of the sacred and pure
whose brightness shines like the very glow of heaven.

Source of mercy:

Forever enfold them in the embrace of Your wings;
secure their souls in eternity.

Adonai: they are Yours.

They will rest in peace.

Amen.

Playtime Free of Safety Inspectors

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These photos are hilarious! Children at play on playgrounds unfettered by rules or rails. See more hilarity at the LINK.

American Bandstand

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 Dick Clark, the always youthful television host and tireless entrepreneur who helped bring rock 'n' roll into the mainstream on "American Bandstand," and later produced and hosted a vast range of programming from game shows to the year-end countdown from Times Square on "New Year's Rockin' Eve," has died. He was 82.

His life in pictures: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dick-clark-dies-at-82-slideshow/

Titianic Love Story

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Ida Straus, one of the wealthiest and possibly one of the oldest women on board, was not among the survivors on the RMS Carpathia when it pulled into New York's Pier 54 carrying 705 survivors of the Titanic disaster. Neither was her husband Isidor, owner of Macy's department store and a former U.S. congressman. Not until the following day did eyewitnesses describe the "most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion" shown by the couple in the chaos of that hellish night, a love and devotion that led to both their deaths.

Isidor, witnesses said, was offered a seat in lifeboat number four but insisted that women—and younger men—be saved before him. And Ida refused to leave without him. "I will not be separated from my husband," she said. "As we have lived so will we die together."

D Day Doggie

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Bing


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He was one of the first dogs to be dropped behind enemy lines with British paratroopers.



From the moment the two-year-old Alsatian-collie cross put his paws on Normandy soil (albeit after a tangle with a tree) he was ready for action.


Anywhere there was trouble, even after he was wounded by mortar fire, he was there to sniff it out.


More...'All hell broke loose': Duke of Edinburgh gives first account of his role in 1941 naval battle that sunk Italian cruisers


Pictured: The last Dambuster meets modern day airmen from squadron he helped immortalised 69 years ago

And when something didn't seem quite right, he would freeze and point towards the danger with his nose.


During rest breaks, he kept watch over sleeping British troops; on the move, he pioneered the advance through potential danger zones.


His fearless excursions through perilous terrain and behind enemy lines were credited with saving hundreds of servicemen from ambush, later earning him the PDSA's Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131034/Bing-World-War-Two-parachuting-dog.html#ixzz1sMOfpmT4

Vintage Kitty

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We can't get enough of comedy cats and photos have emerged which show that even in the 1870s humans loved nothing more than snapping their four-legged friends in all sorts of bizarre poses.

Ninety Years Ago Taking a Risk Was Part of the Fun

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1935: Wicksteed's slide was made to a new design out of steel and wood, with a curve at the end to slow children down


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With their rickety ladders leading to a steep descent with little or nothing to hold on to, the wooden slides of 1922 would have today’s health and safety zealots scrambling for their clipboards.


But the children, in their school ties, caps and shorts, seem perfectly happy to ride down the polished wooden planks.

These scenes were captured shortly after Britain’s first slide was constructed – and is a world away from the far smaller metal slide with side rails found in the same playground today.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2130923/Historians-discover-worlds-childrens-slide-built-90-years-ago-plank-wood.html#ixzz1sM9hNHBP

MM

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I would scarcely think it possible that we have not seen them all -- but every month or so we are regaled with new photographs of Marilyn Monroe ... here are two when you Click my topic for your LINK.

Titanic Headlines

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On Tuesday, April 16, 1912 - the day after the Titanic met its tragic fate - the Daily Mail told the nation: 'She sank at 2.20 in the afternoon (7.20 in the afternoon). No lives were lost.'


These, of course, were the days before rolling news and mobile communications. Details remained hazy long after the world's largest ship went down, the scale of the disaster was not yet known and newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic struggled to relieve readers of agonising suspense.

One article spoke of how 'bewildering reports published in New York of wireless messages received concerning the collision have befogged even the scanty details obtainable'.

By the next morning, however, the great loss suffered had become all too clear.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2129197/Daily-Mail-archives-reveal-Britain-learned-Titanic-disaster.html#ixzz1s2PekKiM