Princess Diana's Sons to Inherit Her Fairy-Tale Wedding Dress

Princess Diana's Sons to Inherit Her Fairy-Tale Wedding Dress - Prince Harry and Prince William will soon receive a very meaningful memory of their mother, Princess Diana. On the occasion of Harry's 30th birthday on Sept. 15, he and his 32-year-old brother William are set to inherit their mother's iconic wedding dress, as detailed in Diana's will.

After Diana's shocking death at the age of 36 in 1997, her stunning bridal gown, along with other personal treasures, were put on display at Althorp, the Spencer family's 500-year-old estate in Northampton, England.

Last year, Diana's younger brother, the Earl Spencer, announced he would close the exhibit in 2014 in anticipation of the gown's departure. Spencer told the Telegraph in 2013 that Diana's will stipulated that her belongings be "looked after" by him until both sons turned 30, when the items would be handed over to his nephews.

Princess Diana and Prince Charles (AP Images)

Along with the wedding attire, the collection includes dresses, family jewelry, letters, and home movies. The memorabilia may go back on display at Kensington Palace, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge live, and where Diana resided until her death.

When 20-year-old Diana Spencer married Prince Charles in 1981, the now-famous wedding dress matched the fairy-tale "wedding of the century." The white confection designed by British dress makers David and Elizabeth Emanuel included a 25-foot train, puffed sleeves, and 10,000 pearls and sequins. It was immediately knocked off and copied for years to come.

"Princess Diana's wedding dress was what dreams were made‎ of at the time," NYC-based fashion stylist Robyn Victoria told Yahoo. "It gave the world a peek into the grandeur and splendor of royalty and it lived up to our imaginations. Everything about it was big and over the top, a theme that took flight in the 80s."

Prince William and Kate Middleton (AP Images)

Similar to Diana's famous wedding design, Kate Middleton's bridal gown, created by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen in 2011, was viewed by millions and spawned immediate copies. Middleton's satin-and-lace gown did go on display at Buckingham Palace following the nuptials, which apparently the Queen found "very creepy" because it was worn by a headless mannequin.

Since then, it's been kept at Kensington Palace. "The Duchess had it cleaned and it's packed away in a safe place," a royal aide told the U.K. Express in 2012. "There are no plans for it to go on tour; that's what she has decided. People have had a look and now she wants it for herself as a treasured memory." ( celebrity.yahoo.com )

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Princess Diana's Wedding Dress Handed Down To William And Harry

Princess Diana's Wedding Dress Handed Down To William And Harry - Princess Diana had a big present in store for her son Prince Harry’s 30th birthday: her wedding dress.

As stipulated in the late princess' will, the iconic gown will officially be inherited by both of Diana's sons -- Prince William gets to share -- on Harry's big day, Sept. 15, TODAY reports.

Then-Lady Diana Spencer wore the stunning ivory silk and taffeta lace gown, designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, during her 1981 nuptials to Prince Charles. The royal couple recited their vows at St. Paul's Cathedral in London in front of hundreds of millions who tuned in to watch on TV.

The Victorian style dress, which was hand-embroidered with over 10,000 tiny mother-of-pearl sequins and pearls, boasted a 25-foot-long train -- the longest in royal history, according to the National Constitution Center.

Needless to say, the dress became an instant legend. It has recently been on a tour around the world and was regularly displayed at her family's estate, Althorp, in Northampton, while in Diana's brother's possession. Women's Day reports there's a hope the princes will put it back on display at Kensington Palace in London, where Diana lived.

Both Prince William and Prince Harry will also inherit other items from the estate of their mother, who died in a car crash in 1997, including personal photos, letters, and jewels. The score and lyrics to Elton John’s adapted version of “Candle in the Wind,” which was performed at her funeral, will also be handed down. ( huffingtonpost.com )

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Prince Harry, New Girlfriend Camilla Thurlow Take Romantic Saint-Tropez Cruise

Prince Harry, New Girlfriend Camilla Thurlow Take Romantic Saint-Tropez Cruise - All at sea! Prince Harry and his new girlfriend Camilla Thurlow took their romance to the open waters this past weekend, embarking on a cruise together, Us Weekly can exclusively reveal.

Thurlow, 25, joined the redheaded royal, 29, for a vacation on a luxury yacht, which began on Saturday, Aug. 23, in Saint-Tropez, France with a few friends. They are traveling with pal Ben Goldsmith and his model financée Jemima Jones.

Prince Harry, New Girlfriend Camilla Thurlow Take Romantic Saint-Tropez Cruise

"This trip's partly to celebrate Harry's 30th birthday which is just weeks away," a source explains to Us. Prince William's younger brother will celebrate his milestone 30th on Sept. 15. "It's also because he deserves some time off work to relax and recharge his batteries." Harry has been busy organizing the Invictus Games, held Sept. 10 through 14.

After he was first seen kissing Thurlow at a nightclub in July, Harry chose to bring his new love interest along for his time off. "They stayed in touch via text after the first night they kissed," a second source tells Us, about the couple who was spotted locking lips in London.


"It's a sign that he's really smitten with Camilla that he feels comfortable to invite her away with friends he's known for years," the first insider adds to Us.

The group of pals will be traveling in style, as the impressive liner boasts a luxe master suite, six other bedrooms, an on-deck jacuzzi, gym, swimming platform, and helipad.


After he unwinds, the young royal may be considering what's ahead for him in his personal life. A third source tells Us Weekly that Harry "is keen to settle down" and "thinking about what he wants in life." This reflective period follows Harry's split from longtime girlfriend Cressida Bonas this past April.

Now, his goals could include a future with Thurlow, who is a former Miss Edinburgh and works as a projects officer for The Halo Trust, a UK nonprofit which was once a project close to the heart of Harry's late mother, Princess Diana.


Kensington Palace had no comment on the romantic getaway. See more pics of Prince Harry through the years. (usmagazine.com )

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Brazilian Town Run by Women Is Looking for a Few Good (Single) Men

Brazilian Town Run by Women Is Looking for a Few Good (Single) Men -I'm sure many men have dreamed of an island completely populated by exotic women. Of course, fantasy is fantasy, but what if it were reality? In a certain regard, it is — in Noiva do Cordeiro, Brazil.

It's a scenic rural town in the hills outside of Belo Horizante with one big quirk, or perk, depending on whom you talk to. This Brazilian town is inhabited and governed almost entirely by women, its population consisting of more than 600 mostly single women aged 20 to 25. Sons are sent away at 18, and spouses are banned from the town except on weekends.

The women of Noiva do Cordeiro in Brazil are on the look-out for a potential spouse

Now the women have made an appeal to bring more single men to the town. But there's one caveat: Men have to follow their rules. OK, that shouldn't be too hard to do. But the truth is that any incoming men have to follow all the guidelines that the women created, from town planning to farming, religion, and more.

The motivation for the way the town is set up is a direct result of its history: The town was founded in 1891 by Maria Senhorinha de Lima, who had been excommunicated as an adultress after leaving a man she had been forced to marry. Over time, she was joined by other single women and female-headed families, and the insular society came into being. In the 1940s, an evangelical pastor, Anisio Pereira, took one of the town's 16-year-old girls as his wife and founded a church there, imposing strict puritanical rules. When he died in 1995, the town's women determined that they would never again be subject to male domination, and they dismantled Pereira's church.

Resident Nelma Fernandes, 23, said, "The only men we single girls meet are either married or related to us…. We all dream of falling in love and getting married. But we like living here and don't want to have to leave the town to find a husband." If Web traffic is any indication of interested possible suitors, it appears that the town's plea worked: Its website went down because of all the visitors to the site. So, fellas looking for an opportunity like this, pack your bags — Brazilian girls are calling. ( news.yahoo.com  )

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Berlin police release photo of "forest boy"

Berlin police release photo of "forest boy" — Berlin police on Wednesday released photos an English-speaking teenage boy who wandered into the city nine months ago saying he had been living for the last five years in the forest with his father.

Police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf said all attempts to identify the boy since he emerged in the German capital on Sept. 5 have been unsuccessful, and they are now hoping the release of his photo may produce some leads.

"We have checked his DNA against all missing person reports, sent the data to Interpol so that they could check it internationally, but unfortunately without any success," Neuendorf said.

This photo provided by the Berlin police department shows a teenage boy who wandered into the city almost nine months ago saying he had been living for the last five years in the forest with his father. Police said Wednesday, June 13, 2012, that despite intensive efforts they have been unable to determine who the English-speaking boy who calls himself "Ray" is and are appealing to the public for help. Ray says he was born in 1994 and his mother, Doreen, died in a car accident 12 years ago. He says his father Ryan died last August and he buried him in the woods where they'd been living, then wandered into Berlin and turned up at city hall. (AP Photo/Berlin Police Department)

The boy has told authorities his father called him "Ray" and that he was born June 20, 1994, but claims not to know his last name or where he's from.

He said his mother, Doreen, died in a car accident when he was 12 and after that he and his father, Ryan, took to the forest. He said they wandered using maps and a compass, staying in tents or caves overnight.

He told authorities that after his father died in August, 2011, he buried him in the forest and then walked five days north before ending up in Berlin, and showed up at city hall.

Investigators have been unable to confirm any details about a fatal car accident that matches up with Ray's story, however, and haven't been able to find the body of the father — raising "serious doubts" about the story.

"There are many question marks," Neuendorf said.

He is now being taken care of by youth services, and is going to school. When he first appeared, Ray spoke English and a few words of German, but has picked up more German fast, Neuendorf said.

He has also quickly adapted to city life and technology, using a laptop and his cell phone with no problems.

"Everything gives the impression that he was not far away from civilization for years," Neuendorf said.

Neuendorf said that Ray does not speak English with a particular accent, leading investigators to believe that he is not a native speaker. There are no indications, however, of what his native tongue might be.

Ray is described as being somewhere between 16-20 years old and 180 cm (about 5-foot 11-inches) tall. He has dark blonde hair and blue eyes, and three small scars on his forehead, three small scars on his chin and a small scar on his right arm.

He has a complete set of teeth and no obvious dental work, and his hands, fingernails and teeth appear "well kept."

Police in Berlin have asked anyone with information on him to contact them. ( Associated Press )

Blog : Silence Right | Berlin police release photo of "forest boy"

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Lebanon's women prisoners find freedom behind bars

Lebanon's women prisoners find freedom behind bars -- In an otherwise smart suburb of Beirut is a small prison housing some of the women Lebanese society would rather forget.

Some of the 70 inmates of Baabda Prison are accused or convicted of murdering their husbands, others of drug trafficking.

Many of the women have themselves been victims of circumstance all their lives and are now for the first time discovering they have a voice, according to Zeina Daccache, an actress and drama therapist working with the inmates.

Lebanese actress, comedienne and drama therapist Zeina Daccache working with inmates in Baabda Prison, Beirut.

Several times a week for the past six months, Daccache has spent an afternoon with the women encouraging them to talk about their experiences.

In February or March, the project will culminate in a performance called "Scheherazade in Baabda," named after the fictional Persian Queen and narrator of "One Thousand and One Nights," and based around the women's own stories.

Among the 20 prisoners involved is Fatme, now 26, and awaiting trial for a murder she denies.

In video footage of the project, Fatme said: "I never learned to say no. I was always obedient, saying yes to my very early marriage, saying yes to my parents who forbid me to get divorce. Now I'm learning that I have a voice and it can spell no."

Daccache, who has a weekly political satire show on Lebanese television and also runs a drama therapy center Catharsis, said the project -- funded by the Swiss-based Drosos Foundation -- had empowered the women and for the first time gave them an opportunity to express themselves.

She said: "You would be amazed how many are there for murder and it's mostly for killing their husbands. They were married at 12 or 13 years old to someone they had never met before.

"They were pregnant at 13 and had husbands who beat them or had psychological issues. If they went to their family or to the police for protection, they would just be told it was a domestic issue.

"They ended up protecting themselves with their own hands. They are not saying their crimes were the best solution, but in some ways they had no other choice."

Daccache said several other inmates were in jail for drug trafficking and their young children were left on the streets.

"If the woman and her husband are both in prison, there is no protection for their children if they don't have families who take them," she said.

Other inmates who are serving shorter sentences for adultery have joined the project for a limited period but will be released before the final production.

Daccache said: "For many of them, the real crime was that they were born a woman. There's this underlying patriarchy to everything in this country."

The play will be performed in the prison in front of invited guests, including government ministers, prison authorities and the women's families.

Daccache said: "They are in prison, but many of have said they feel free for the first time because it's the first time they can talk about anything they want.

"The play is giving them the space to do things they have never done before and to convey a message.

"It's a message to protect women's rights and to protect women from domestic violence."

Another of the inmates is Maryam, 40, who was married by her family at the age of 15 to a cousin and had three children. She is accused of murdering her husband.

Maryam is taking part in a flamenco dance for the production. In film footage she said: "For the first time I learn how to move this body of mine, as if I was imprisoned in a body that didn't belong to me."

Four years ago, Daccache began a similar project with male inmates in Lebanon's largest prison Roumeih. A documentary film she made about the work, called "12 Angry Lebanese," won several international awards.

This is the first time she has worked in a women's prison.

Daccache is filming the work in Baabda for a similar documentary about the women involved.

She said the women were initially reluctant to show their faces on camera, but eventually realized it was an opportunity to tell their stories.

"At first they wore disguises to cover their faces when we were filming, but eventually decided to take them off," said Daccache.

"People tell me they can't believe the women agreed to be filmed because of the stigma, but they had been hidden away all their lives and didn't want to be suppressed anymore."

One of the inmates, Nisrine, a 28-year-old woman serving a three-year jail term for fraud, said in film footage: "I was so worried about appearing in front of the camera, then after thought if I hide my face I'd be only contributing to hiding myself, my voice, the women and human being within me.

"I'm taking off my mask and showing (myself) as I wish to."

Respected American drama therapist Amand Volkas joined Daccache to run workshops with her in January.

He said: "In Lebanese society, she is a visionary. She is able to use her prominence as an actress to have a very powerful impact." ( cnn.com )

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April Fools’ Day: The history of the holiday

April Fools’ Day: The history of the holiday - Consider yourself warned. Sunday is April Fools' Day, a day when you are encouraged to pull pranks on loved ones, co-workers, casual acquaintances, and even that one guy at the bus stop. It's an odd tradition, but how did it get started? What's the history of April Fools' Day, anyway?

Nobody is completely sure about the origin of this, the silliest of holidays. However the urban legend experts at Snopes.com say that most experts give credit to Pope Gregory XIII, who, in the 1500s, gave the world the Gregorian calendar.

In 1562, the Gregorian calendar moved the first day of the year from April 1 to January 1. Word did eventually get around, but some people were a bit slow to hear the news. These folks continued celebrating the new year on April 1, unaware that they were now three months behind the times. These "April fools" were tricked by those in the know. The tradition eventually made its way to the USA.

And it's still going strong. Over the past week, Web searches on "april fools day jokes" and "april fools day pranks" have more than doubled, and related lookups for "easy april fools day pranks" and "april fools day jokes for work" also spiked. Bottom line: Keep your guard up, especially if somebody offers you a word search puzzle. Lookups for "impossible april fools day word searches" are up 200%.

But really, there is no way to be certain you'll escape trickery. Because on April 1, even corporations are out to trick you. In 1998, Burger King tricked its customers by releasing "the left-handed Whopper." In 1957, the BBC reported Swiss farmers were harvesting spaghetti from trees. And in 1996, Taco Bell took out ads in major newspapers announcing that the company had purchased the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. Shudder. ( The Sideshow )

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Is April Fools' Day Dying?

Is April Fools' Day Dying? - No joke: Researchers say we are moving away from personal, real-world pranks and into a world of media-driven jokes and Internet tomfoolery. Does this spell the end of April Fools' Day as we know it?

Though pranksters and joke-lovers in many countries now gleefully prepare to dupe friends and loved ones on April Fool's Day, no one knows exactly when or why, or even where, this tradition began.

A giddy spurt of practical joking seems to have coincided with the coming of spring since the time of the Ancient Romans and Celts, who celebrated a festival of mischief-making. The first mentions of an All Fool's Day (as it was formerly called) came in Europe in the Middle Ages.

The importance of this day of prank-pulling freedom is no laughing matter. It's integral to American culture, a day of funny is important to society, and also helps humans bond. Researchers say our take on comedy is changing, though. And that may mean fewer pranks in the future.

"The usual pranks that we would see 50 years ago are much less common," Gary Alan Fine, a sociologist at Northwestern University in Illinois, told LiveScience. "I think we are seeing the decline of interpersonal pranks."

Pranking or bullying?

"At one time, prankstering played a bigger role in American society. Some of the prankstering was also very harmful," Joseph Boskin, a professor emeritus of history at Boston University, told LiveScience.

This type of harmful prank-playing was usually directed toward marginalized sections of society. "Pranks have played a very big role in this situation, so I'm glad that the prankster part of it has declined, but the poking fun at life in general goes on," Boskin said.

The big problem is knowing where to draw the line between playful pranks and meanness on the verge of bullying, Fine said.

"Practical jokes of a certain sort shade into bullying, they shade into meanness and we are very concerned as a society about meanness," Fine said. "Finding out what that point is, is difficult for a society."

Equality and social control

Because of our conscientiousness and desire to ensure equality, Americans may have drawn that line too far along the spectrum, hedging out playful pranking. And traditional pranking may be left out in the cold, Fine said.

Sometimes, a funny prank pulled in one group would be seen in another group of people as inappropriate.

"Treating every incident as unique in itself on one level makes things easier, but then it means that someone who did X [a given prank] would be treated differently than someone else who did X [the same prank in a different group]. In society, that's not fair," Fine said. "How do you find that balance in that society where there needs to be rules that apply to everyone?"

This focus on equality may mean fewer interpersonal pranks are being played on April Fools' Day. "That's not a bad thing…the world's not a worse place without practical jokes. Without pranks, it might even be a slightly better place," Fine said. "On the other hand, the downside is we put all of these institutional controls on people, and that may not be such a wonderful thing."

Corporate pranking

While personal pranks may be on their way out the door, the spirit of April Fool's' Day is still alive in corporate hoaxes, Alex Boese, curator of the website Museum of Hoaxes, told LiveScience. When asked if April Fools' Day is dying, he said:

"I think it's just the opposite. It's more prevalent and stronger than ever, because it's been so strongly embraced by advertisers and corporations."

"It’s a great marketing opportunity for them," Boese said. "They come up with … these elaborate April Fools' Day jokes because these jokes turn viral, and they get quite a bit of free marketing out of them." ( LiveScience.com )

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April Fools' Is Good for the Soul

April Fools' Is Good for the Soul - Go ahead, let loose this Sunday, April 1. Scientists say it's not only OK, but such humor plays an important role in American culture and society, and also helps humans bond with each other.

Do you have any April Fools' pranks in store?

LiveScience spoke with various scientists to get their take on the upcoming joke-filled holiday (whose history is pretty murky) and possible benefits for prank partakers.

"It’s a way to vent built up energy and tension," said Alex Boese, curator of his website called Museum of Hoaxes. "You give people one day to misbehave and then the important part being that at the end of a certain time they have to return to normal behavior," he said. "It’s a ritual of enforcing the social norm of good behavior, because they have to accept the social norms again at the end of the day."

This little release once in awhile is incredibly important to society, Joseph Boskin, a professor emeritus of history at Boston University, told LiveScience: "I would suggest that this would be a much more violent society if not for all this humor. Humor ameliorates the tensions that exist in society," he said. "I think its central to American culture."

Pulling pranks on your siblings is also important for bonding. Being able to joke and poke fun with others helps to build social relationships, and laughter itself is stress relieving and can be good for your health.

"Humor of course breaks the ice," said Edith Turner, an anthropologist at the University of Virginia. "One has a sense that laughter itself is a welcoming in, a recognition …it conveys what cannot be put into words."

Interestingly, the April phenomenon of individuals pulling pranks on each other seems to be diminishing in the face of a corporate take on the holiday, where companies and news organizations release fake stories trying to trick consumers, say some researchers. While this kind of corporate joking is great, gentle personal pranking is important, too.

"Pranking in person, in workplaces and schools, and some children do it to their families, has been a part of April Fools' Day for hundreds of years," Boese said. "That kind of pranking is gentle fun and it's kind of the same thing as teasing people. It serves as a way to bond people together."

Gary Alan Fine, a sociologist at Northwestern University in Illinois, agrees. "Teasing is connected with, I guess, a sense of trust," he told LiveScience. "We can play these games with each other and we trust each other sufficiently that we won't get angry, that we will be friends afterword, despite this momentary uncomfortableness. Pranks are an example of that." [Top 5 Benefits of Play]

Pranks and hoaxes, specifically, play an important role in development, Boese suggests, because they play off of our gullibility: "As we grow from children to adults we have to learn not to be gullible. Children are by nature gullible because they have to accept what adults tell them."

"It's the process that going from childhood to adulthood where we have to learn that not everything people say is true," Boese said. "That element plays to a very deep part of our psyche. [April Fools' Day] is a constant reminder to us of the passage from childhood to adulthood."

So, remind your friends this year that they were once kids, and relieve some stress by slipping a whoopee cushion under their bum. ( LiveScience.com )

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New Einstein Documents Look at Science and Love

New Einstein Documents Look at Science and Love - Hebrew University is expanding and digitizing a catalog of Albert Einstein's documents that now contains more than 80,000 of the scientist's writings and private correspondence from over the years.

Some of the 2,000 documents that have been scanned total about 7,000 pages and are now published on the updated site - alberteinstein.info - for the public to see. They include one of the original manuscripts for his famous formula E=mc², a postcard to his mother in her final days and a letter from his mistress 21 years his junior in which she addresses him as "Highly-regarded Professor!"

The update doubles the number of cataloged Einstein documents from 40,000 to 80,000.

"The renewed site is another expression of the Hebrew University's intent to share with the entire cultural world this vast intellectual property which has been deposited into its hand by Einstein himself," Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, the academic head of the Einstein archive, said in a statement.

When he died in 1955, Einstein left all his writings and the rights to his image to the university.

"Dear Mother, Today some happy news," he writes to his sick mom Pauline in a letter September 1919. "The British expeditions have definitely verified the deflection of light by the sun. Maja [Einstein's sister] writes me, to my dismay, that you're not only in a lot of pain but that you have gloomy thoughts as well. How much I would like to keep you company again so that you aren't left to such nasty musing…"

The twice-married Einstein has several affairs and is known to have believed that "Marriage is the unsuccessful attempt to make something lasting out of an incident."

During his second marriage to first cousin Elsa Lowenthal, he fell in love with Betty Neumann in 1923. Fifteen years later, she would write him in Princeton, N.J., from Austria asking for help immigrating to the United States as life got tougher for Jews in Europe before World War II.

"I lost my brother," she explains to Einstein who would help her get to the U.S.

The archives curator tell ABC News there are many more letters from Neumann that, along with thousands of other pages, will be scanned and published online during the course of the year. ( ABC News )

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Wonder Women, Highly Metallic

Wonder Women, Highly Metallic - Bringing Back Leather and Spikes - IT takes sinew and plenty of smarts to make a female action hero, and if you are among the new breed of wonder women dispatching baddies at the multiplex these days, it takes an industrial-strength wardrobe to die for.

Trish Summerville, who designed the costumes for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” has the formula down pat, peppering a rash of recent interviews with a list of rebel-girl essentials: a biker jacket, a long hooded overcoat, holey cardigans and shredded tees — the components, as it happens, of a micro-collection Ms. Summerville whipped up in December as homage to that movie’s central character.

She is Lisbeth Salander, the agile hacker played by Rooney Mara in the American film adaptation of the Stieg Larsson thriller, her red-lined eyes, freakish piercings and body ink suggesting a hybrid of alien and street thug. A sullen portrait in gray-black, she is also the latest pop phenomenon driving a resurgence of leather and spikes, shredded jeans and scruffy combat boots.

Call it the Lisbeth Salander effect: for Givenchy couture, Riccardo Tisci used models with multiple piercings, much like the goth hacker created by Stieg Larsson.

The Salander style, a subversive mélange of goth, punk, classic rock and fetish-wear, has a spate of off-screen counterparts. They include the battle-ready black-on-black uniforms adopted by fashion insiders like the Elle editor Kate Lanphear; and the outlier get-ups of the rap rave group Die Antwoord, whose waxy pallor, gaunt frames and choppy hair call to mind extraterrestrials.

It is reflected to some degree in the wardrobes of Ms. Mara’s celluloid sisters, thorny antiheroines like the jeans-and-leather-clad Mallory of “Haywire,” a martial-arts champion who zips around Dublin on a motorbike; and Katniss Everdeen, the teenage warrior of “The Hunger Games,” a post-apocalypse adventure scheduled to arrive in theaters this spring.

But it took Ms. Mara to revive a style that has been eclipsed on the runways of late by Kate Middleton clones, and to infuse it with perverse allure. Ms. Mara’s image, an extension of her razor-chic film character, has been all but inescapable, splashed on the covers of W and Vogue, glaring from movie posters and materializing at red-carpet events.

Hers is “the most dynamic character to jump off the screen in some time,” said Rocky Rakovic, a counterculture pundit and the editor of Inked magazine. Chalk it up, Mr. Rakovic said, to Salander’s maverick ferocity.

Like Noomi Rapace, who played Salander in the Swedish-language version of the film, Ms. Mara lends the part an ambiguous sexuality. Leslie Simon, the author of “Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and Other Misfits Are Taking Over the World,” noted that Salander’s tomboy regalia had long been the standard in Hollywood, where a conviction persists that a female vigilante “can’t be girly to do what stereotypically is a guy’s job.” Still, poured into shapely goth-tinctured gowns with labels like Nina Ricci and Prabal Gurung for her red carpet star turns this year, Ms. Mara tempered her screen persona with a lissome femininity.

Her saturnine look in the movie mirrors that in several collections on the fall runways. Louis Vuitton and the Alexanders, McQueen and Wang, were among an influential handful of fashion houses offering exalted variations on urban-industrial chic. A more untamed style was resurrected for spring at the Givenchy couture presentation. There the designer, Riccardo Tisci, adorned his models with multiple piercings and an armor of crocodile skin.

Mainstream merchants are offering their own doom-y interpretations, the most accessible among them Ms. Summerville’s 30-piece collection for H & M; AllSaints goatskin biker jackets; shredded jeans from J Brand and from Trash and Vaudeville; and, at Hot Topic, spiked chain necklaces and lace-up boots.

Salander’s fierce, otherworldly mien is echoed in the menacing cuffs, rings and earrings of Pamela Love and Eddie Borgo, the spiked metal hair combs of Maison Michel and Jennifer Behr, whose spiny dinosaur headbands were a hit at the Fendi show in Milan last year. Even a line of nail polish from StrangeBeautiful, offered in 10 shades of black, is a slick extension of the trend.

Tattoo artists are cashing in. “What Salander has done is inspire women to go under the needle with their own message in mind,” said Mr. Rakovic of Inked.

So are high-end hair salons. “Girls have been coming into my downtown salon asking for more severe cuts,” Sally Hershberger said. “I have been doing a lot of blunt micro bangs and chopping bobs.” The look, she added, “says, ‘Don’t mess with me.’ It’s sexy in a strong new way.”

But prowess in an information age is as often equated with technological smarts. “Today the female action hero is likely to be a master of hacking,” said Jeremy Gutsche, the editor of Trendhunter, an online publication. She is a type, Mr. Gutsche said, that resonates particularly with women in their teens and early 20s.

She exerts a spooky fascination on general audiences, too, partly because hacking is still taboo. “Few people understand what it is,” said Ms. Simon, the “Geek Girls” author, “and no one really knows its face.”

A studied anonymity, conveyed by choppy hair, unbranded clothing and an aura of solemnity, is the outward expression of an enduring archetype that owes a debt to the cyborg Molly Millions of “Neuromancer,” whose surgically inset silver lenses, black glove-leather jeans and double-edged blades projecting from her fingers are impressed on the minds of William Gibson fans.

There is also a dash of Cayce Pollard, the brand-averse cool hunter of Mr. Gibson’s novel “Pattern Recognition,” a paragon of understatement in boys’ Fruit of the Loom T-shirts, black 501 jeans, her clothes scraped free of logos, her hair, as Mr. Gibson described it, “poking up like a toilet brush.”

That mode of dress “is all of a piece with the way these characters live,” said Diane Leach, who writes for PopMatters, an online magazine. Salander’s skinny pants, she said, put her in mind of the rocker Joan Jett, who, despite her diminutive stature, “projects this large persona.”

Salander, a tiny figure, too, seems just as towering, her outsize image an outgrowth of her moral absolutism.

“Corruption offends her,” Ms. Leach observed, “and the desire to set things right is what motivates her.”

She’s taking names and delivering payback. And, Ms. Leach said, “she’s not about to do that in a pair of Miu Miu shoes.” ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - Wonder Women, Highly Metallic

Is That a Dragon Baby, for Real?

Is That a Dragon Baby, for Real? - Newborns Jamie Kao, Tristan Chen and Louise Tan clinched bragging rights for being the first three Dragon babies born this year.

Or did they?

Well, not according to the Wan Nian Li or Ten Thousand Years Calendar.

This calendar is an invaluable reference book used by masters, practitioners and students of fengshui, bazi (four pillars of destiny), Chinese zi wei dou shu Astrology (Purple Star), yi jing (I Ching) and Date Selection specialists.

Note - A one minute X-ray will answer the question instantly. lf there is - NO X-ray taken, we have a coverup. In all likelihood, an X-ray analysis

has already been done... -ed

The commonly held belief is that babies born on or after the first day of the Chinese New Year — which fell on Jan 23 this year — take after the zodiac animal of that new year.

But social worker Au Hoi Ting, in a letter to The Sunday Times, sought to shed more light on when a Dragon baby is actually a Dragon baby.

Au, 29, said: “The Wan Nian Li says that the new year begins at the start of spring. This year, it falls on Feb. 4.”

“A baby’s horoscope is defined by the day of the Spring Festival, and not by Chinese New Year. So babies born on or after Feb. 4 are Dragons. Those born before Feb. 4 are still Rabbits.”

Geomancers The Sunday Times spoke to agreed.

John Lok said the Chinese calendar is actually a combination of lunar and solar calendars, based on the 12 seasonal festivals. “The start of the new Chinese zodiac for the year is based on the spring festival,” he said.

Another geomancer, Adelina Pang, said: “In the study of fengshui, bazi and astrology, we use the solar calendar. The first day, or li chun, varies each year. This year, the Dragon Year starts only on Feb. 4 at 1824 hours.”

When interviewed, most Singaporeans born on Chinese New Year took the information in their stride.

Housewife Mary Tan, 29, born on the second day of Chinese New Year, had always thought she was born in the Year of the Dog.

As revised, she should be a Rooster. “Now that explains why I am an early riser,” the former teacher said, laughing.

Also making light of his revised status was relationship manager Gerard Francis, 39.

“I was born on Chinese New Year’s Day and my mother said I was a Tiger. She too is a Tiger and I’ve been told there can’t be two tigers on one mountain, yet we get on well. Now this explains why,” said the newly revealed Ox.

Vincent Chen, 37, whose son Tristan was one of the first Dragon babies born this year, is not about to split “hares.” He said he is not fretting over whether his son is a little Rabbit or Dragon.

“My wish is that he is happy and healthy,” he said.

Chen then quipped: “So, does that mean the sponsors will take back the cash gift of $8,888?” ( thejakartaglobe.com )

READ MORE - Is That a Dragon Baby, for Real?