Here is a wonderful amazing book to put on your reading list: "The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind" by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. This young man built and electric windmill by simply studying pictures in a textbook - amazing!
As characterized by Dave Callanan: "Discarded motor parts, PVC pipe,
and an old bicycle wheel may be junk to most people, but in the
inspired hands of William Kamkwamba, they are instruments of
opportunity. Growing up amid famine and poverty in rural Malawi, wind
was one of the few abundant resources available, and the inventive
fourteen-year-old saw its energy as a way to power his dreams. "With a
windmill, we'd finally release ourselves from the troubles of darkness
and hunger," he realized. "A windmill meant more than just power, it
was freedom." Despite the biting jeers of village skeptics, young
William devoted himself to borrowed textbooks and salvage yards in
pursuit of a device that could produce an "electric wind." The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
is an inspiring story of an indomitable will that refused to bend to
doubt or circumstance. When the world seemed to be against him, William
Kamkwamba set out to change it."
I was also incredibly inspired and charmed by Mr. Kamkwamba on a recent appearance on "The Daily Show" - definitely worth watching.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| William Kamkwamba | ||||
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Today would have been Marie Antoinette's 254th birthday. Here is a interesting piece about her (and her fashion legacy) from the New York Time's wonderful blog, The Moment:
Marie-Antoinette, the pioneer of shabby chic, would be celebrating her 254th birthday today.
Caroline Weber is the author of “Queen of Fashion: What Marie-Antoinette Wore to the Revolution.”
In Paris last month, Karl Lagerfeld presented his latest Chanel
ready-to-wear collection in a massive, specially constructed barn,
complete with hay-strewn floors and wooden eaves wound with floral
garlands. To some viewers, the haute hoedown may have registered as a
celebration of natural materials like hemp, raffia, and linen, all
lynchpins of the designer’s looks for Spring 2010. Others in the
audience may have focused on the show’s revival of that classic French
erotic arrangement, the ménage à trois, as models Lara Stone and Freja
Beha Erichsen frolicked lustily in the hay with Lagerfeld’s male muse
of the moment, Baptiste Giabiconi. Neither of these interpretations,
though, rules out the most plausible theory of all: that the spectacle
was really an early birthday party for Marie-Antoinette — the queen of
rusticated, risqué fashions, born today in 1755.
An Austrian archduchess by birth and a French queen by marriage,
Marie-Antoinette was an improbable pioneer of shabby chic. At
Versailles — the court she moved to when she wed the future King Louis
XVI at age 14 — etiquette demanded that its sovereigns’ very appearance
evoke their transcendental power. To this end, the Bourbons dressed
with such jaw-dropping elegance and ostentation that awestruck
commoners could only conclude, to modify a phrase from today’s
celebrity rags: “Royals — they’re not just like us!” Having grown up
with no such strict codes governing her clothing choices,
Marie-Antoinette was neither trained nor inclined to treat these
choices as matters of state. Yet that’s exactly what her slightest
fashion gaffes became. During her earliest days in France, for example,
she refused to don the special, fainting-spell-inducing corset that
only the highest-ranked princesses were entitled (read: required) to
wear. Flying as it did in the face of Gallic tradition, this decision
strained Franco-Austrian diplomatic relations almost to the breaking
point. As the Viennese ambassador to Versailles reported in alarm: “Her
Majesty’s refusal of the corset [has set] all of France complaining.”
Yet to Marie-Antoinette, homesick for the relative casualness and comfort of Austrian life, provoking her subjects’ ire was a small price to pay for sartorial freedom. This she achieved by establishing, at a neoclassical villa called the Petit Trianon, a private, faux-bucolic retreat where she and her visitors gamboled about in costumes that were, to contemporary eyes, almost shocking in their informality. Working with her favorite stylist, Rose Bertin, the queen devised a daily uniform that consisted, for women, of a plain, unstructured white muslin or linen chemise gown, accessorized with such homespun touches as a simple ribbon or a saucy little apron tied around the waist, and a silk posy or a straw hat perched jauntily on loose, unpowdered hair. Absent from this pretty, peasant-girl look was every component of traditional court apparel: vast hoopskirts, constrictive corset, and sweeping train; heavy, ornately embroidered silks, bejeweled and bespangled with an inch of their lives; masses of gems piled on to gild an already-twenty-four-karat fleur-de-lys. By jettisoning such cumbersome, tradition-bound garb in favor of a new style that emphasized cleanness of line, enhanced freedom of movement, and valued humble textiles and trimmings over rare, costly ones, the queen revolutionized 18th-century dress — and paved the way for the later innovations of such figures as, well, Coco Chanel.
But in a land where even a missing corset spelled scandal, Marie-Antoinette was woefully ahead of her time. In 1783, a portrait (above) showing her in her signature white gown and straw hat sparked a backlash that would only end on the guillotine ten years later. Critics raged against her for having posed “in the gown and apron of a country wench,” “[in] a chamber-maid’s dust-cloth,” and “in her underwear.” Inspired by the latter charge, underground pornographers began spinning yarns about the sordid antics the queen’s free-and-easy outfits enabled. So the chemise dress, which looks so modest by today’s standards, came to signify brazen promiscuity. It also came to mean anti-Frenchness, as other commentators, noting that muslin and linen were foreign imports, accused the queen of willfully destroying the nation’s silk industry. The down-home hat was also seen as a heinous affront to local custom: only a barbaric Austrian, it was said, would “cover herself with straw” when she could have — and should have — worn a crown.
So the reviled queen lost the battle, and eventually her head. But in the world of fashion, she most definitely won the war. Lagerfeld’s proto-Trianon collection — with its easy white dresses, filmy aprons, cloth flower accessories, and straw, straw everywhere — reminds us just how fresh and modern Marie-Antoinette’s “revolution in linen” (as one commentator dubbed it) was in its time, and how relevant it still is in ours. Had she somehow managed to defy revolutionary furor on the one hand and mortality on the other, the rebel queen would have turned 254 today. Her style legacy, though, remains forever young.Today marks the release of Mirelle Guiliano's newest book: Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense and Sensibility.
Ms. Guiliano is the author of the best-selling "French Women Don't Get Fat" which was an amusing read full of sensible tips on how to enjoy food without overdoing it (which is a particularly American pastime). I look forward to picking up a copy of this book, as Ms. Guiliano has an impressive business background, rising to the top of the Veuve Clicquot company. I went to see her speak several years ago when "French Women Don't Get Fat" launched and she was entirely gracious, charming, and down-to-earth. I anticipate that this book will be very helpful to women in the workforce, as she too balanced a family and a busy successful business. Here is a blurb about the book from Ms. Guiliano's personal website:
When Mireille Guiliano became a senior executive and spokesperson for Veuve Clicquot, she took the Champagne to the top of the luxury market, using her distinctive French woman's philosophy and style. Now she uses those same talents and savoir faire to help readers pop their own corks and get the mostout of life. Drawing on her experiences at the front lines and highest echelons of the business world, she gives women (and a few men, peut-être) the practical advice they need to make the most of work without skimping on all the other good things in life.
With lively lessons, stories, and helpful hints, Mireille teaches every reader how to identify her own passions and talents, improve her communication skills, balance work and life, cope with everyday stress, turn herself into a winning brand, and so much more. From acing a job interview or performance review to hosting a simple but elegant dinner party, Mireille tells it like it is as she shares her secrets for achieving happiness and success at any stage in business and life.
Stylish, witty, and wise, Mireille segues easily from the small details to the big picture, never losing sight of what is most important: feeling good, facing challenges, getting ahead, and maximizing pleasure at every opportunity.
Monies raised will go toward The City of Joy, a safe house and leadership community under construction in Bukavu, DRC. A joint effort between V-Day (the global movement to stop violence against women and girls) and UNICEF, the City of Joy has been designed to make the women living there feel secure, calm, and empowered. To foster a feeling of community, the grounds will mimic the setting of a typical Congolese village, including a cluster of structures where women will live and sleep, an orchard, an area for livestock, and many places to gather. Residents will be referred by hospitals and NGOs throughout the region, allowing for a diverse group of 100 women survivors to be served for periods of 4-6 months. Women will have access to programming in group therapy, storytelling, dance, theater, self-defense, sexuality education (covering HIV/AIDS and family planning), gardening, public speaking, leadership and advocacy, human rights, ecology, and horticulture. When women transition out of the City of Joy, V-Day will provide them with support as they return to serve and lead their communities.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. All of us likely has someone in our lives who has been touched by breast cancer. I lost a beautiful aunt to breast cancer when I was 11, which started my history with the disease. Happily with advances in detection and treatment, the prognosis for women with breast cancer is much better than it used to be. Indeed, one of my best friends just had a mastectomy but because of the kind of breast cancer she had, the surgery, and the detection, does not have to even undergo chemo or radiation. What a blessing.
For more information about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, please visit here. And everyone should take wonderful care of their breasts, including making sure you feel your boobies, and researching treatment and prevention options from progressive practioners like Dr. Christiane Northrup.
Today is the second day of autumn - yay. Love the crisper weather, the clothes, the changing of the leaves. Here is a perfect quote that sums up my feelings:
"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
— Albert Camus
