From left, Lemtosh frames, in black and clear plastic, $129 at Sol Moscot Opticians. Tortoise plastic frames (Model No. 294) by Paul Smith, $260 at Myoptics. Lemtosh frames, in black plastic, $129 at Sol Moscot Opticians. Alabama tortoise plastic frames, $250 at Selima Optique.
The Real Good Chair by Blu Dot is made of powder-coated steel (and cannot be left out in the rain), in aqua, black, ivory or red; $99 from (877) 805-1801 or www.vessel.com.
Photo: AMPAS
From celebsnow.net:
An extraordinary rough and polished diamond sautoir necklace designed by L’Wren Scott debuted on the Red Carpet today at the 80th Academy Awards. The spectacular sautoir, worn by Oscar Presenter Nicole Kidman, contains a total of 7645 diamonds including rough, faceted, and polished diamonds, which total nearly 1400 carats.
The sautoir, which was designed by Scott, produced and manufactured by Uni-Design Ltd. in Paris and India uses a wide range of shapes and cuts of diamonds. Each diamond was individually selected by the designer to fit together into an overall design. The intricate design required in excess of 6200 man hours to handcraft. It is a tribute to the visionary direction of the designer that such an astounding quantity of diamonds can be worn so effortlessly.
Best Actress: Julie Christie for her performance as Diana Scott in John Schlesinger's "Darling" (1965)
Photo: Wally Santana/Associated Press
Supporters of the party of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's former prime minister, celebrate the unofficial results for Pakistan's general elections in the street of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
NYTimes:
Pakistanis dealt a crushing defeat to President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections Monday, in what government and opposition politicians said was a firm rejection of his policies since 2001 and those of his close ally, the United States.
NYTimes Editorial:
Protecting a Monumental Sculpture
In the northeastern United States, with all the woods and hills, it is usually pretty hard to see five miles at a stretch. In a place like Utah’s Great Salt Lake — vast in its openness and flatness — five miles is a mere arm’s length away. That is why a Canadian company’s plan to begin oil-drilling from a pair of barges near Rozel Point, on the edge of the lake, has caused so much concern.
Rozel Point is the location of Robert Smithson’s iconic 1970 sculpture called “Spiral Jetty,” a massive earthwork that curves its way out into the lake. It is the most important and familiar of Smithson’s earthworks — a giant swirl of basalt and soil that redefines the landscape it inhabits. In that terrain, drilling within five miles — as the company hopes to do — is not much different from drilling through the heart of Smithson’s earth sculpture.
There is every good reason to call this plan to a halt on aesthetic grounds. But there are other reasons too. This stretch of the lake is also a critical breeding ground for many species of shorebirds.
In 2006, as part of an agreement with conservation groups to protect those breeding grounds, the state withdrew oil and gas leases on more than a hundred thousand acres in this stretch of the lake. Pearl Montana Exploration and Production — the Canadian company in question — holds three leases that date from 2003 and were exempted from the 2006 agreement.
Utah is allowed to cancel the lease if a public trust is threatened. The “Spiral Jetty” is a masterpiece of contemporary sculpture, a public trust that needs to be protected, and so is the habitat of the birds who breed within view of it.
Contact: http://www.pearleandp.com/s/ContactUs.asp
Photo: Lars Klove/NYTimes
Casa Del Bianco, a linen store owned by former Frette employees, now runs a studio favored by designers for its custom-made sheets. To match a headboard, Bunny Williams designed a set of sheets with a garland motif ($1,400). Diane Paparo, another designer, created a pattern called Hydra, for clients with a Zen-like décor ($1,730 a set).
Casa Del Bianco produced both using hand-guided machine embroidery, which works for everything but asymmetrical patterns. Machine embroidery starts at $700 a set, but “you cannot do flowers, leaves or scrolls,” said Fabrizio Biasiolo, an owner. Hand embroidery can replicate anything, he said; it starts at $1,700 a set.
Casa Del Bianco, 866 Lexington Avenue (65th Street), (212) 249-9224.
The New York Times:
Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The lake, located in Nevada and Arizona, has a 50 percent chance of becoming unusable by 2021, the scientists say, if the demand for water remains unchanged and if human-induced climate change follows climate scientists’ moderate forecasts, resulting in a reduction in average river flows.
Demand for Colorado River water already slightly exceeds the average annual supply when high levels of evaporation are taken into account, the researchers, Tim P. Barnett and David W. Pierce, point out. Despite an abundant snowfall in Colorado this year, scientists project that snowpacks and their runoffs will continue to dwindle. If they do, the system for delivering water across the Southwest would become increasingly unstable.
“We were really sort of stunned,” Professor Barnett said in an interview. “We didn’t expect such a big problem basically right on our front doorstep. We thought there’d be more time.” He added, “You think of what the implications are, and it’s pretty scary.”
Martin Lawrence Galleries
NYTimes: A 1981 Andy Warhol was reported stolen in SoHo in 1998. A Brooklyn man recently took it to Christie's auction house to sell it. He says he bought the painting for $180 at a New Jersey flea market, and deserves either to get it back or to be rewarded. “It was very fiery,” he said. “I thought it would bring me luck.”
Photo: Leah L. Jones For The Washington Post
DOJ Pride President Chris Hook says the Justice Department under Mukasey "has a new air of inclusiveness."
Attorney General Reverses Curbs on Gay Groups at Justice
By Darryl Frears: Washington Post
Five years after a gay advocacy group was told that it could no longer use the e-mail, bulletin boards and meeting rooms at the Justice Department, Attorney General Michael B. Mukaseyhas reversed that decision and issued a revised equal-employment-opportunity policy barring discrimination against any group. Mukasey informed leaders of DOJ Pride last week that the department would give it the same rights as all other DOJ employee organizations, said the group's president, Chris Hook. In a statement, Mukasey said the department will "foster an environment in which diversity is valued, understood and sought" and maintain "an environment that's free of discrimination."
DOJ Pride and its 110 members had been barred from holding an annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Month celebration since 2003, when then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told the group that the Bush administration observed an unwritten policy of not sponsoring events without a presidential proclamation, Hook said. The group also was told it could not post notices of general meetings and events on department bulletin boards, he said. The policy continued under Ashcroft's successor, Alberto R. Gonzales, Hook said.
Under the Clinton administration, DOJ Pride had grown accustomed to more freedom, holding its annual pride celebration in the Justice Department's Great Hall. Under the Bush administration, the group was told it would have to pay more than $2,000 to lease the space, including payments for security, Hook said. Pride celebrations were instead held in small conference rooms reserved by employees and group members. Recently, when the group organized "DOJ Pride on Ice," a skating event, it was barred from placing a notice on the bulletin board in the department's headquarters building, Hook said. Other events such as meetings, forums and brown-bag discussions also could not be posted, he said.
As far back as 2001, when conservative groups began to lobby against gay pride events at the Justice Department, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) asked Ashcroft in a Judiciary Committee hearing if he would give DOJ Pride the same access to Justice Department facilities as other employee groups. Ashcroft replied that it was not his intention "to discriminate against any group that appropriately constituted in the Department of Justice." Responding to written questions from Feingold, Ashcroft said he would not change any policies or treat DOJ Pride differently. After Mukasey took over the department late last year, the group wrote to him to complain about its treatment. Hook said Mukasey met with group leaders, signed the new policy that allowed bulletin board postings, and agreed to host the pride celebration in one of the department's main halls. "He has gone out of his way to ensure that the department has a new air of inclusiveness and an open and welcoming environment for all employees," Hook said.
Photo: Tony Cenicola/NYTimes
