Malaysia's top court maintains decision to drop a charge against former sex bloggers Alvivi

PUTRAJAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysia's Federal Court has maintained its decision to drop a charge against former sex bloggers Alvivi relating to their Ramadan Facebook prank.

Justice Abdull Hamid Embong allowed the defence's preliminary objection that the Federal Court had no jurisdiction to hear a case that originated from the Sessions Courts.

Alvin Tan Jye Yee, 27, and Vivian Lee May Ling, 26, are on trial in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court over three charges.

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Dare to dream

And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

Dreams like a podcast,

Downloading truth in my ears.They tell me cool stuff.

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Live a more unplugged life. Do your part for energy sustainability

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A Love Poem

A Love Poem 

Did never all these things occur, perhaps, somehow

I never did arise at break of day,

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Paris shooting: Cartoonists worldwide pay tribute to victims of Charlie Hebdo attack

PUBLISHED ON JAN 8, 2015 9:12 AM 

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An Argentine cartoonist drawing at the gates of the French Embassy in Buenos Aires on Jan 7, 2015, during a demonstration against the attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP

BY JALELAH ABU BAKER

Artists around the world are coming up with their own cartoons to pay tribute to the victims of Wednesday's attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The attack in Paris killed 12 people, including four cartoonists.

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古典经典Itzhak Perlman －Meditation from Thais by Jule Massenet

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGd4Rs-O3ws 

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China: Power plant burns banknotes instead of coal

A company in one Chinese city has money to burn, and is using it to make electricity, it's reported.

The power plant in Luoyang, central Henan Province, is burning old and damaged banknotes instead of coal - the first time this has been done in China, the official Xinhua news agency reports. The plant says one tonne of notes can generate more than 600 kWh of electricity, and is better for the environment than burning coal. The country's central bank, the People's Bank of China, has given permission for the notes to be burned, and says it's an efficient way to make electricity. With the province's unused paper money the company "can help generate 1.32 million kWh of electricity annually, which is equal to burning 4,000 tonnes of coal", a member of staff at the bank tells Xinhua. 

Banknotes which are withdrawn from circulation in China after being worn out by handling or other damage are most commonly used to make paper products, according to the Dahe Daily news website. The idea of setting fire to the city's cash has amused Chinese social media users. "Burning money? Luoyang is such a rich city!" says one Weibo user, while another person writes: "I'm willing to go a year without electricity, please give me a pile of cash!" But one user has a craftier suggestion: "Hire me as an employee, I promise I won't take any money."

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August Winds -"Ventos de Agosto" (original title)

Rock-Loving Teen Pours Cola Over Her Body in Teaser for Brazilian Coming-of-Age Drama 'August Winds'

Did the title get your attention? The teaser should too!

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NTUC FairPrice launches Warehouse Club

SINGAPORE — A first membership-only retail warehouse in Singapore that encourages bulk purchases for groceries and household consumables was launched by NTUC FairPrice (FairPrice) this morning (Dec 8). 

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The Green Power Ranger Wants CM Punk in UFC Debut

Who's CM Punk?

CM Punk

Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American mixed martial artist and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he is "the longest-reigning WWE Champion of the modern era", having held the title for 434 days from November 20, 2011 to January 27, 2013. Punk is officially recognized as the sixth-longest reigning WWE Champion of all time.

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An Uber Exec Brought Up The Idea Of Digging Up Dirt On Journalists

Emil Michael, who came to Uber from Klout

Uber executive Emil Michael said that the company could spend a “million dollars” to hire investigators and reporters to dig up dirt on journalists who wrote negative articles about the company, according to a report on Buzzfeed.

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Best of The Voice Kids Global

Here are some of the best performances from the Voice Kids Germany, Holland, Australia and Portugal.

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Love, no matter what

Andrew Solomon's quietly moving TED talk

What is it like to raise a child who's different from you in some fundamental way (like a prodigy, or a differently abled kid, or a criminal)?

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Madonna Posed Nude for Interview Magazine

Madonna on the cover of Interview magazine

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Noel Gallagher - Emotional version of Dont Look Back in Anger - Live (+p...

Best reaction from crowd. We love this song right!

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Let Go Boys Like Girls so amazing

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Tristan and Isolde by Salvador Dali, 1944

 

Tristan and Isolde by Salvador Dali, 1944

The figures of Tristan and Isolde depicted on this canvas were painted by Dalí in 1944 as a backdrop for the ballet Bacchanale, performed to Wagner's music and presented for the first time in 1944 on the stage of the International Theater in New York.

The tale of this ballet, for which Dalí wrote the libretto, began before the war. At that time that title was Mad Tristan. It was to be performed in Paris with the choreography by Leonide Massine, the scenery by Prince Charvachidze, and costumes on which Coco Chanel wished to use real ermine and genuine precious stones. The war prevented the production in Paris, and later the Marquis Georges de Cuevas decided to stage the spectacle in New York. "As with everything else," Dalí writes in The Secret Life, "my Mad Tristan, which was to have been my most successful theatrical venture, could not be given; so it became Venusberg and finally Bacchanale, which is the definitive version."

The two latest collaborations by Dalí in ballets date from 1961, when he participated with Maurice Bejart in the staging of The Spanish Lady and the Roman Cavalier by Scarlatti and a Ballet de Gala for which he wrote the libretto, designed the scenery and costumes, and demanded a curtain formed by motorcycles backfiring, hanging one from the other, and a real boeuf-ecorche-de-Rembrandt which was to have been replaced at each performance so as to exert over the spectators the paralyzing effect of its freshness.


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Sun Table by Salvador Dali

Sun Table by Salvador Dali, 1936 


Salvador Dalí's greatest intellectual and artistic honesty is probably never to have practiced any sophisticated, gymnastic aesthetics, in order to place the most disparate and most bizarre objects in his pictures. Sun Table is a good example of this. When he painted this composition, Dalí did not know why he put a camel in with all the other elements which belonged to Cadaqués. Today he explains the premonitional character of this image by pointing out the package of Camel cigarettes placed at the feet of the silhouette of the young boy, probably himself, and he told me in 1970 that he had read an article by Martin Gardner which appeared in the magazine Scientific American under the heading "scientific games," in which the author explained that "the image on the cover of a package of cigarettes was full of extraordinary objective hazards - for example, the English word 'choice' written vertically in capital letters on the side of the package, when looked at in a mirror, remains unchanged and perfectly legible."

In order to stress the out-of-context and obsessive character of a camel with all the magical aspects associated with the animal, Dalí wrote later in his book Dix recettes d'immortalite that "seen through an electronic microscope it is possible to demonstrate that a camel is much less precise than a cloud."

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Night and Day Clothes by Salvador Dali

 

Night and Day Clothes by Salvador Dali, 1936

Here is undoubtedly one of the most astonishing of the innumerable illustrations, pen or pencil drawings, gouaches, or watercolors produced by Dalí before World War II for the most glamorous fashion magazines. This one was done during the winter of 1936 while Dalí and Gala were spending a few days at Cortina d'Ampezzo. Dalí thinks he remembers that it was probably destined for Harper's Bazaar or Vogue. For him, the interesting part of this creation stems from the idea that he imagined during winter sports, with snow plainly visible, an outfit that suggests sun baths, since one can easily discover four openings by rolling up a sort of shade in order to expose the body.

Most of the costumes created by Dalí possess an obvious erotic power. Here, we don't know at exactly what moment the outfit becomes skin, covering, coat - indeed even a closet, cupboard, or a window - since this tunic-dress has a front zipper and can at the same time be opened wide by turning the cremone bolt which is pictured on it.    

"The constant tragedy of human life is fashion, and that is why I have always liked to collaborate with Mlle Chanel and Mme Schiaparelli, just to prove that the idea of dressing oneself, the idea of disguising oneself, was only the consequence of the traumatic experience of birth, which is the strongest of all the traumas that a human being can experience, since it is the first. Fashion is also the tragic constant of history; through it you always see war coming while watching its fashion reviews and its parades of mannequins who themselves are veritable exterminating angels."


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Autumn Cannibalism by Salvador Dali

Autumn Cannibalism by Salvador Dali, 1936

As with many artists, Dalí was to depict war and conflict in several of his major works. Autumn Cannibalism was painted in 1936, the year the civil war began in Spain. The painting is an evocative interpretation of the horror and destruction of war, and also comments on the devoring nature of sexual relationships.   

On a chest of drawers placed on a Catalonian beach sit the top halves of two people. They are so entangled that the viewer has to look carefully to see which arm belongs to which figure. One figure holds a fork pointed to the other one's head, while it dips a spoon into the malleable flesh. A languid hand holds a gleaming knife that has sliced into the soft flesh of the other. Their featureless heads merge into each other, their individuality becoming indistinguishable.   

Pieces of meat are draped about the painting, symbolizing death. The meat also alludes to the temporary nature of life and to the bestial nature of human beings. On one head is an apple, which to Dalí represented a struggle between father and son, (the son being the apple, the father William Tell), and beneath the figures is a peeled apple, symbolizing the destruction of the son.

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