Taylor Swift tops People magazine's 2014 best-dressed list

 
Taylor Swift has officially put her stamp on style.

The "Shake It Off" singer strutted her way right to the top of People Magazine's 2014 best-dressed celebrity list on Wednesday.

Swift's accolade, which was given to Kerry Washington by the publication last year, is no surprise. It's been hard not to notice the former country cutie's style transformation.

Over the past year, the 24-year-old superstar has ditched her sparkly, princess-like numbers in favor of sleek, modern gowns from designers like Gucci Premiere and J Mendel. She has also consistently reached for edgier styles like crop tops and thigh-high slits.

Swifty hasn't just nailed her red carpet ensembles; her street style is just as impressive. Since moving to New York City, the design darling has regularly stepped out in ladylike silhouettes and tailored separates that truly highlight her A-list body.

What's more? The gorgeous gal has debuted a short new haircut, which was a stark departure from her former long locks.

Swift is certainly in stylish company on this year's best-dressed list. Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o, singers Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna and actresses Blake Lively, Emma Stone and Emma Watson, were all included as well.

 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/17/taylor-swift-tops-people-magazine-s-2014-best-dressed-list/20963983/?ncid=webmail13

America's Got Talent' Crowns Winner In Shocker Finale

"America's Got Talent" crowned its season 9 champion Wednesday night. And the winner is...

"Mat Franco! Wow! Congratulations!"
"Unfreaking believable!"

Yes, illusionist Mat Franco beat out country singer Emily West to become the first magician ever to walk away with the "America's Got Talent" title. Unfreaking believable, indeed!

And his fans on Twitter couldn't have been happier, saying Mat made America believe in magic again with his big win.

But Mat wasn't the favorite to win heading into the finale.

The audience and judges alike were shocked when 12-year-old singer Quintavious Johnson finished in fifth place. Some fans even booed when the results were announced.

But Mat, a self-taught magician who got his start touring college campuses, did wow all season with his impressive and engaging tricks. He actually started making magic long before "America's Got Talent."

His grandmother told WJAR before the finale Mat started doing tricks when he was just four years old.

"It's unbelievable and I knew he was going to end up somewhere. I didn't know it was this but I knew he was going to end up somewhere. He was that good when he was young."

Along with having the title of the winner of 'AGT,' Mat also scored $1 million in prize money and his own headlining show in Las Vegas. Magical.

 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/18/america-s-got-talent-crowns-winner-in-shocker-finale/20964175/?ncid=webmail4

Tycoon buys 30 Rolls-Royces for Macau hotel

KELVIN CHAN

HONG KONG (AP) - A Hong Kong tycoon has placed the biggest ever order for Rolls-Royce cars, agreeing to buy 30 Phantoms to chauffeur guests at a luxury resort he's building in the global gambling capital of Macau.
Stephen Hung's $20 million purchase surpasses the 14 Phantoms bought by Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel in 2006.
Hung and Rolls-Royce executives signed the deal Tuesday at the company's Goodwood factory in England.
The Extended Wheelbase Phantoms will be used for guests at Hung's "ultra-luxury" Louis XIII hotel, which is scheduled to open in early 2016.
Rolls-Royce said two of the cars will be the most expensive Phantoms ever commissioned, complete with "gold-plated accents" on the outside and interior.
Louis XIII Holdings Ltd. said it will pay the automaker a $2 million deposit, $3 million more by the end of the year and the remaining $15 million when the cars are delivered in the first half of 2016.
The Phantom's base price in Britain is about 450,000 pounds ($734,000) including taxes, a company spokesman said, though prices vary by market and many buyers order custom features that push prices much higher. Customers have been known to spend more than $1 million on bespoke models.
With casino revenues of $45 billion last year, Macau is the world's most lucrative gambling market, outpacing the Las Vegas Strip seven times over. After authorities ended a casino monopoly a decade ago, newly wealthy mainland Chinese high rollers started pouring in to wager at glitzy new resorts built by foreign operators such as Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts.
However, the boom is beginning to fade as Chinese President Xi Jinping's corruption crackdown starts to bite, putting a dampener on lavish spending by officials and other wealthy Chinese. Macau's gambling revenues fell 6 percent in August, the third straight month of annual decline after five years of uninterrupted growth.
Hung, a former investment banker, is known for his flamboyant style and the resort looks to be the flashiest of the wave of expansion projects now under construction in the tiny Chinese territory near Hong Kong.
Named after the French king who started building the famed Palace of Versailles, the resort will boast a 20,000 square foot (1,860 square meter) villa billed as the world's "most extravagant" hotel suite that will reportedly cost $130,000 a night.
Hung has even enlisted a descendent of Louis XIII to help with the hotel's design, based on French Renaissance and Baroque styling.

 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/17/tycoon-buys-30-rolls-royces-for-macau-hotel/20963505/?ncid=webmail23

A Letter From Prince George

The first royal baby has some things to say about the arrival of his sibling

Dear Mum and Dad,
Uncle Harry was telling me that it’s really hard to be the younger sibling of the future king and that I should be really nice to the new baby. Don’t worry. The baby and I will get along just fine. I’ve even come up with a sweet nickname for the new baby. I’m going to call it Not George. Though if others prefer to refer to it as The Other One, that’s OK with me.
Truthfully, I’m more worried about how you guys are going to handle parenting the both of us than I am about me. Up until now, I’ve graciously let you spend all your time and attention on me. I’ve even let you shuttle me around the world so I can help charm some normal people and increase your Q-rating. But the reality is, once Not George arrives you’re going to miss me.
So I’ve come up with a bunch of super helpful ways I can help you out once that baby arrives.
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First, I’m going to stop sleeping through the night.
You’re welcome.
I won’t do it now. I’ll wait until later, like maybe the day Not George is born. Because chances are that baby is going to want a little bit of your attention, which you’ll prefer to give to me. And you’ll say things like, “There’s just not enough time in the day.” What you’ll really mean is, “George is my favorite.”
That’s why I’m going to do you and Dad a solid by extending our day well into the night. If I wake up for a good three to four hours in the middle of the night, we’ll have plenty of uninterrupted hours to do some of our favorite things like draw in permanent ink on the palace walls, mash Goldfish crackers into some antiques and dip Great Grandma’s hand in water while she’s sleeping.

Photograph by Rex / Rex USA

Squeee! That game is my favorite.

I am here to make you and Dad’s life easy once Not George arrives.

Mummy, I also thought I’d cling to your leg and cry a lot when you try to leave the palace. And if you want I can throw a few really big tantrums so you have to miss a charity event or public appearance. That way you won’t have to put on real clothes and do your hair. It could be just you and me all day, every day. Who needs Sir Elton John when you can hang out in sweats with the future king?
Speaking of which, I’m going to fire the nanny.
She’s just a barrier between you and me being together all the time. And since she’s actually pretty nice, I want to give her ample notice so she can find another job. So for now, I’ll start slow by throwing a sippy cup or two her way. In a few weeks, I’ll give her finger a little nibble. I can’t be held responsible if I draw blood. I may be royalty, but my gross motor skills are totally average.
Once she gets back from the hospital, I’ll start screaming every time I see her. Then just as Not George comes home from the hospital, I’ll drop her cell phone in the toilet. That way when you tell her you no longer need her services because you want to spend all your time with me, she’ll be prepared. She may even be relieved, though I am pretty cute even when I’m crying.
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The most important thing for you to know is that I’m on your team. I am here to make you and Dad’s life easy once Not George arrives. You’ll be exhausted and feel like you have no time for yourself. But don’t worry, I’ll be up all night screaming and yelling so I can make sure you have plenty of time for me.
XO,
Your firstborn (and best one), George.
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Shark kills man in Australia despite rescue bid

SYDNEY (AP) - A man was killed in a shark attack Tuesday at the popular tourist destination of Byron Bay on Australia's east coast despite a beachgoer's brave rescue attempt, police said.
The beachgoer, Mark Hickey, swam 15-20 meters (50-65 feet) from the shore of Clarkes Beach to retrieve the man, who had sustained severe wounds to his right leg, Police Inspector Bobbie Cullen said.
The victim, a local man in his 50s whose name has not been released, received medical treatment on the beach but did not survive, Cullen said.
"A gentleman who was on the beach went out and located the gentleman and pulled him in," Cullen told reporters. "Absolutely it is (an extraordinary act of bravery) and we can only thank him for his efforts."
Hickey, a lawyer on vacation at Byron Bay, told Ten Network television news that he saw the shark and its bloodied victim and swam out to try to attempt a rescue as the shark attacked again.
"I went out there and, I don't know, I just thought I've got to get this guy in and that's what I tried to do," Hickey said.
He said he dragged the victim onto the beach and attempted to resuscitate him for 20 minutes, but the man had apparently bled to death in the water. Ten reported that the shark had bitten through the victim's wetsuit on his upper right thigh, tearing off much of his leg.
The leg wounds were being examined to identify the size and species of the shark.
Cullen said the crew of a rescue helicopter spotted what appeared to be a great white shark in the area after the suspected attack, but had lost sight of it. She said all Byron Bay beaches would be closed for 24 hours due to the potential danger.
Byron Bay is a renowned surfing location near Cape Byron, the most easterly point of the Australian mainland, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Sydney.
The death is the first fatal attack in Australia since April 3, when a 63-year-old woman was taken by a 3-to-4-meter (10-to-13-foot) shark near the village of Tathra, 340 kilometers (210 miles) south of Sydney.
Although sharks are common off Australia's coasts, the country has averaged fewer than two fatal attacks per year in recent decades. But fatal attacks are becoming more common. Two men were killed in shark attacks off the east and west coasts in the space of a week in November last year. They were the only fatalities in 2013.

#MoreThanMeat: Sisters Call for Boycott of Carl's Jr.

Do you think burger chain's ads objectify women?

Mack Gelber Sep 8th 2014 7:54AM

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Alamy

You may or may not have a Carl's Jr. restaurant in your state, but you're probably familiar with their racy advertisements, which make headlines every couple of years for their depiction of bikini-clad women, for all intents and purposes, making out with cheeseburgers. But if you haven't seen them before, they look like this:

Getty Images

Sexy woman! Sexy meat! It doesn't take a psychiatrist to figure out the subtext here. Now, though, two Utah sisters are taking the burger chain to task for its portrayal of female subjects.

Lexie and Lindsey Kite founded Beauty Redefined, a non-profit organization dedicated to "rethinking our ideas of 'beautiful' and 'healthy' that we've likely learned from for-profit media that thrives off female insecurity." Speaking on CNBC's Closing Bell, the sisters described their campaign, which calls for the boycott of Carl's Jr.

"We definitely target media that ... treats girls and women as a compilation of body parts, as something to be used and consumed and then discarded," Lindsey told CNBS. "That's definitely what Carl's Jr. does with women in their advertisements."

The sisters, both of whom hold PhDs in media studies and body image, are raising awareness on Twitter using the hashtags #CutTheCarls and #MoreThanMeat:

Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, pregnant with second child, Clarence House confirms

The beloved Kate Middleton and Prince William are expecting their second child.

The announcement came early Monday morning around 5:30 a.m. EST from the royal household's official Twitter account @ClarenceHouse.
Read the official statement below, which confirms that Kate, who is reportedly not 12 weeks pregnant, is again suffering from acute morning sickness as she did during her first pregnancy with Prince George, who she gave birth to just over a year ago:

Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting their second child.

The Queen and members of both families are delighted with the news.

As with her first pregnancy, The Duchess is suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Her Royal Highness will no longer accompany The Duke of Cambridge on their planned engagement in Oxford today. The Duchess of Cambridge is being treated by doctors at Kensington Palace.

ABC News royal contributor Victoria Murphy, who is in Oxford covering the royal event that Middleton was not able to attend today due to morning sickness, told ABC that 'the Palace would likely not have released news of Kate's pregnancy for another five to six weeks had she been healthy enough to attend public events.'
'It's not something that they would have wanted to do,' Murphy said. 'They had to announce it today because she was due to attend here today and she couldn't be here and they knew that there would be huge questions and speculation about why she wasn't here.'

The Press Association also explains the royal hierarchy as it will stand with the introduction of baby number two:

The new royal baby will be born fourth in line to the throne.
As a sibling to Prince George, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's second child will not be expected to be crowned sovereign.
But second-born royal children - often dubbed the "spare to heir" - have on occasion ended up as monarch.
The country's last king, George VI, was not meant to accede to the throne and only did so when his older brother Edward VIII abdicated over his love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936.
Once he or she arrives, Prince Harry will shift down the line of succession to fifth in line to the throne, while the Duke of York will move to sixth place and princesses Beatrice and Eugenie to seventh and eighth.
The baby will be a prince or princess thanks to the Queen, who stepped in ahead of Prince George's birth to ensure all William's children would become HRHs with fitting titles.
If the baby is a girl, it will be the first time a great granddaughter of a still-serving sovereign has been born in direct succession on the male line since 1897, when George VI's sister Princess Mary was born.

British PM David Cameron released a statement of congratulations Monday: "Many congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I'm delighted by the happy news that they're expecting another baby."

 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/08/official-spokesperson-for-duke-and-duchess-of-cambridge-announce/20958675/?ncid=webmail11