Masdar, the first Carbon-free City by Foster

BBC News.

Abu Dhabi has started to build what it says is the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste car-free city.

Masdar City will cost $22bn (£11.3bn), take eight years to build and be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses.

The city will be mostly powered by solar energy and residents will move in travel pods running on magnetic tracks.

Daniel the Conqueror Bond star Craig is lined up to play King William in a big-budget Hollywood epic

Daily Express Weekend – November 9, 2008 – By Henry Fitzherbert and York Membery.

AS James Bond, Daniel Craig has conquered cinemas around the world.

But now he is being lined up to star as one of history’s real action heroes – William the Conqueror.

Hollywood is to make a big-budget movie about the Conqueror, despite admitting that most Americans have never heard of him.

President-elect’s profile resembles King Henry’s

The Statesman Journal – November 9, 2008 – By Narasingha Sil.

Barack Obama’s historic triumph in the recent election compels a global historical comparison.

In 1485, following his victory at the Battle of Bosworth, an obscure Welshman with tenuous connection to the English royalty Henry Tudor, ascended the English throne in the midst of political and social chaos, financial bankruptcy and military disaster in European wars.

Princely sums stolen

Herald Sun – November 7, 2008 – By Melissa Iaria.

A MELBOURNE man who posed as a rich Arabian prince to con investors out of more than $7 million to fund a luxury lifestyle has pleaded guilty to more than 120 charges.

Francophobic? Moi?

Friday, The Ticket – November 7, 2008.

The “French Woody Allen”, actor-director Agnès Jaoui tells Lara Marlowe about her new film which tackles sexism, racism and middle-class malaise in her native France.

IF THERE were a French Woody Allen, it would be Agnès Jaoui. Jaoui, 44, has been writing screenplays and acting, often with her partner Jean-Pierre Bacri, for the past 22 years. She has directed the couple’s last three films, including Let’s Talk About the Rain ( Parlez-moi de la Pluie), which is released in Dublin today.

Dress like royalty when you’re feeling blue

The Herald – October 31, 10, 2008 – By Elizabeth Mc Meekin.

While black might be having a bit of a moment and red has long been branded the colour of seduction, royal blue has an altogether more refined feel about it.

Perhaps it’s in the name, or just the regal nature of this splendid colour, but royal blue is looking more tempting by the day.

Worn alone, or as part of a co-ordinated outfit, this colour has a genuinely modern look to it, in spite of its traditional roots.

Awards and Exhibitions in arts/architecture

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam) : link

The Noguschi Museum (link)

In 1940, Steuben Glass originally introduced Isamu Noguchi’s The Cat, an edition of five crystal plates.  Based upon the same 1940 Noguchi drawing for Steuben, The Cat has been re-released in 2005 in a new limited edition of twenty-five.

ISAMU NOGUCHI'S THE CAT BY STEUBEN GLASS

Environment & Co.

My Baby Tree or a new style of ‘trendy’ earrings ?

Plant a Virtual Tree Online and It Comes to Life in the Jungles of Borneo.