Larger models 'spark fashion row'

A stylist and casting director have left a London Fashion Week show over a decision to use average-sized models, a fashion boss says. Amanda May, managing director for Canadian designer Mark Fast, said there were "creative differences with regards to the casting of those girls". Fast broke fashion convention by putting three size 12 to 14 models on the catwalk on Saturday. "There was a team change and we're glad we stuck to our vision," said Ms May. Ms May said stylist Daniela Agnelli and casting director Natalie Hubbard stepped in at the last minute to help out. 'Beautiful bits' She said the decision to feature three models from the agency 12 + UK was neither politically motivated nor a publicity stunt. "The decision to use the fuller girls is something we have been talking about," she said. ""There's this idea that only thin and slender women are able to wear Mark's dresses and he wanted to combat that. "We wanted women to know they don't have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress - curvier women can look even better in one." She would not divulge exactly what was said on Thursday night before the freelance pair left the team, saying "we don't want to talk about the ugly bits, we want to talk about the beautiful bits". Fast is a 28-year-old knitwear designer known for his figure-hugging mini-dresses. His clothes used to be one size fits all but his spring/summer 2010 collection features garments in different size groups. However, they are not categorised numerically to "challenge traditional notions of fit and idealized body shape". He has also been involved in All Walks Beyond the Catwalk, a photography exhibition featuring models aged 18 to 65, from sizes eight to 16. This is where he met Hayley Morley - one of the models he used in his show. The exhibition opened at Somerset House on Friday, the new central London home of London Fashion Week, which runs until Tuesday 22 September.(my view)-to me.a woman with meat on her are sexy,that means shes healthy and happy....i am glad someone finally did it:) bravo girls.....bravo! show how sexy you are:)today these skinny girls think men think their sexy but o'no plus...your all teaching young girls not to eat properly and portray thin as beauty.........your all sick!

Revolutionary discovery means world may not run out of crude

A team of scientists based at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden have made a "revolutionary" discovery about how hydrocarbon is formed, learning that animal and plant fossils are not necessary to form crude oil. The discovery, the scientists say, means that the world will never run out of crude oil. Currently, theory states that crude oil is formed very slowly - over millions of years - from the remains of dead plants and animals. Buried under rock, over time the pressure and temperature of natural earth processes results in the creation of crude oil. But that theory is now old news, as the scientists, led by Vladimir Kutcherov, say they have proven that fossilized plants and animals are not needed to create hydrocarbons. “Using our research we can even say where oil could be found in Sweden,” Kutcherov told Science Daily. The article, titled Methane-derived hydrocarbons produced under upper mantle conditions, and published in Nature Geoscience, states that "Whether hydrocarbons can also be produced from abiogenic precursor molecules under the high-pressure, high-temperature conditions characteristic of the upper mantle remains an open question. It has been proposed that hydrocarbons generated in the upper mantle could be transported through deep faults to shallower regions in the Earth’s crust, and contribute to petroleum reserves." Kutcherov has said that his next step is to conduct experiments that will help him refine his new method for finding drilling points. The idea of endless oil might be a bane to environmentalists and high-stakes oil production fields, such as Canada's oil sands, but most of the world's population will thrill to the idea that they will not have to give up their beloved automobiles. Not only will it be a much simpler matter to find and extract petroleum fuels, but, as Kutcherov's theories become reality, prices for natural gas and gasoline products should decrease. Kutcherov said the world is reliant on crude oil and natural gas, which makes up 61% of fuels currently used. Kutcherov had recently proven that hydrocarbons can be created out of water, calcium carbonate and iron, and this means that crude oil is a sustainable, renewable resource, according to reports. However, this discovery does not mean that emissions from the combustion of hydrocarbons do not create climate change. Kutcherov is a professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. Last year Science Magazine published an article that said crude oil is created by an abiotic process and not from fossil fuels. These recent discoveries were found by building on a German process referred to as the Fischer-Tropsch type (FTT) genesis. Germany had plenty of coal but very little petroleum, which prompted a serious push by German scientists to find a way to create a substitute fuel. The FTT process was developed and patented in the 1920s, and was subsequently used throughout World War II by Germany and Japan. The process has been the basis for the creation of jet fuel made from water in the United States, as reported by Wired magazine. While Kucherov's experiments have been proven in the laboratory, they have yet to be translated into reality, and there is no word on how long the world might have to wait to take advantage of the new discoveries.

Another African virus crosses oceans with humans and mosquitoes

An African virus, carried by mosquitoes, is spreading to the west. The virus, called Chikungunya, does not have a vaccine and there is no treatment for it. A health expert expressed fears over the recent spread of the disease to France, Italy, India and a French Island called Reunion, saying that the U.S. and Europe are threatened by the bug. Carried by mosquitoes, the virus began to spread outside of Africa about four years ago. Speaking at a meeting about airplanes and air travel, Dr. James Diaz said "We're very worried." Diaz is from the Louisiana University Health Sciences Center. "Unlike West Nile virus, where nine out of 10 people are going to be totally asymptomatic, or may have a mild headache or a stiff neck, if you get Chikungunya you're going to be sick. The disease can be fatal. It's a serious disease. There is no vaccine." According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the virus was found in a Tanzanian victim in 1952 and has been identified as the source of "numerous human epidemics in many areas of Africa, Asia and most recently in limited areas of Europe." The CDC states that the virus is rarely fatal. The disease, if contracted, is not a pleasant experience. Victims often experience severe joint pain, and other symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, and a rash. The symptoms are reported to last for weeks, but some people say the joint pain can persist for months, even years, after recovery. Carried by the Asian Tiger mosquito, which lives all around the world, scientists fear the virus will now make its way to the West. The disease is spread by human-mosquito-human contact. Air travel is seen as the means for dissemination of the disease around the world. The World Health Organization says that in an 11-month period between 2005-2006, 1,722 cases were diagnosed on Reunion Island by doctors. A model created to show how the virus might spread showed that 110,000 people might have been infected by the virus during that one year period. The disease can spread rapidly, and the CDC report on Reunion Island cases said that in a one week period, 326 cases were reported. The WHO also says that the disease is rarely fatal. Research by Sandro Cinti, Chikungunya Fever An Emerging Infection, published in January 2009 demonstrates that the virus is a source of concern because of its quick spread and because it is a cause of death. According to Diaz, malaria is still the most common cause of infectious death

The Douche Bag Known As Obama chose wrong day to abandon missile defence shield in Europe

President Obama's announcement on September 17 that the US is shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Central Europe is likely to raise painful historical memories in Poland. The Obama White House cancelled ballistic missile defense plans for Europe on a date with important historical significance for the people of Poland. Under the terms of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland 70 years ago, on Sept. 17, 1939, while western and central parts of Poland were being overrun by German armies. Russia fought hard to keep American missiles away from its borders, and President Obama's decision is seen as a concession to Moscow in return for Russian support in curbing Iran's nuclear program. The Poles, always fearful of the Kremlin's imperial reach, are more likely to see it as a betrayal of their country, a faithful NATO ally of the U.S., just as Poland, whose soldiers fought alongside Americans against Nazi Germany, was betrayed by America at the end of World War II. The Stratfor global intelligence website reported that a U.S. concession to Moscow on BMD would be one of the first major steps in a Russian-U.S. deal — one which could see Iran’s greatest foreign backer flip sides. But President Obama's "flip" on the Bush Administration's BMD deal with Poland reminds the Poles of another popular and progressive US president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who made a deal with Stalin in Yalta to get Moscow's military support against Japan. Poland and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe paid for FDR's deal at Yalta with decades of Soviet domination. These may be completely different times and different political stakes, but the Obama Administration has already demonstrated its lack of historical sensitivity and public diplomacy strategy when it refused Poland's invitation to send a high level representative to the official observances in Gdansk of the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. Prime Minister Putin was there and even made sort of an apology for the Hitler-Stalin Pact while trying to deny Stalin's responsibility for helping Hitler to start World War II. The Poles are proud and they think in historical terms. While listening to Putin's dubious historical analysis delivered in Gdansk, they were reminded of being snubbed by their American ally. The latest decision on missile defense may turn out to be a new public diplomacy disaster for President Obama. Poland, one of America's staunchest allies in the war on terror, saw the presence of US missiles as a protection of its security and sovereignty against a possible threat from Russia. Former Polish President and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa along with former Czech President Vaclav Havel and dozens of other prominent Central European political leaders and intellectuals sent an open letter to President Obama warning him of Russia's continued threat to the region. The letter was not well received by the Obama Administration. As for historical lessons, FDR's deal with Stalin did not get much for the US. It allowed the Soviet Union to occupy Central and Eastern Europe and brought about the Cold War. America paid for Yalta with wars in Korea and Vietnam and in billions of dollars in defense spending. President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top administration officials have been silent in recent months as Russian leaders and the Kremlin controlled media launched a campaign to rehabilitate Stalin's aggressive and genocidal policies. The Poles, on the other hand, reacted to Moscow's rewriting of Soviet history with great alarm. People in the Obama White House may think there are no historical lessons to be drawn from their decision to scrap the missile defense system in Poland and Czech Republic, but any experienced public diplomacy expert would have told them that Central Europeans still remember World War II, Yalta, and the Cold War. At the very least, President Obama could have waited a day or two so that his missile defense announcement would not have been made on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland.