I have to admit that I don't know much about cars, so I'm neither for nor against the electric ones. Are they too expensive to buy, and what about the upkeep? Will a car bought in 2025 hold its worth in e.g. 10 years??? Nobody seems to have a fixed answer for that question, so to me, it looks like an unsafe investment - if that's what one is after.
And what about that anti-pollution argument? After all, electricity doesn't make itself, even though many seem to think so. What LOOKS "clean" may not be what it looks.
I like the idea, but I don't trust the information about the product - which may not be fair to the producers, but that's how it is for many people who don't really know the intricacies of the car industry. Also, I admit that the very idea of someone like Elon Musk getting rich on his TESLA model even though it's reputed to have several flaws doesn't do much for my trust in either him or his car.
Tesla cars may look smart, but ....
I remember reading about the horror of ordinary people when the first cars were launched, and they saw them move without horses. We may laugh at those people, but are they difficult to understand? I don't think so.
No horses, no anything - sheer (demonic) MAGIC!!!!
For fifty years, China was in fact led by a truly remarkable woman, namely Cixi (1835-1908). She was born a noblewoman, who became one of the Xianfeng emperor’s low-ranking concubines. However, after giving birth to the emperor's only son, the Tongzhi emperor (reigned 1861-1875), in 1856 and adopted mother of the Guangxu emperor (reigned 1875-1908) she attained an impressive power together with the Xianfeng’s former senior consort, Ci'an. The two of them orchestrated a coup with Kung Quinwang (Prince Gong), the former emperor’s brother, and the regency was transferred to Cixi and Ci’an. Gong became the prince counsellor until he fell out with Cixi who, of course, resented his urge for power.
Prince Kung
For the first 20 years of her reign, she worked together with Ci'an, but when she died suddenly in 1881 she kept her power for another 27 years.
In 1889 when the young Guangxu emperor formally assumed power Cixi nominally relinquished her control over China to retire. However, after the so-called "100 Days of Reform" by the new emperor she regained power. Upon her death in 1908, death rites were
observed for a year, after which she was laid to rest in the Eastern
Qing tombs northwest of Beijing.
The day before Cixi died, the death of the emperor Guangxu was announced. It was generally believed that he had been poisoned, but that suspicion wasn't substantiated until 2008 when a report was issued by Chinese researchers and police
officials which confirmed that the emperor had been deliberately poisoned
with arsenic. Although the report did not address who may have ordered
his death, and there never has been any hard evidence of
culpability, suspicion long has pointed toward Cixi. One thing is for sure, those were confusing times in China, but even so, the former concubine kept her power ....
Empress Dowager Cixi and women of the American legation. Holding her hand is Sarah Pike Conger, the wife of U.S. Ambassador Edwin H. Conger
Three criminals if ever there were any!I bet they thought they would get away with their crime, and when that didn't happen, that people would understand and maybe even shrug off what they had done. However, nobody, sane of mind, would go with them instead of their victim, little, innocent Brianna Lopez.
Brianna
was a beautiful, little girl when her Mom, Stephanie Lopez, gave birth to her in 2002. However, when she died five months after her birth, she was a sad sight. Her life and death is one of the worst instances of child abuse we know about. Sadly enough, the cruel abuse she was subjected to, and which started when she was born, was her only life experience. Was she an unwanted child; did her Mom want an abortion, but didn't get one?
Anyway, both her Mom, Dad and an uncle abused her in any way possible. Daily she was bitten, raped and beaten by these three sad excuses for human beings.
When her parents brought her to a hospital because she "had fallen down from the high stool for babies, it was too late to do anything for her. She was too injured by being used as a ball by her Dad and uncle. They found it so very funny to see how she fell when she was thrown up to the ceiling in a free fall landing.
The hospital found two fractures of the skull, several fractured ribs and one fractured arm besides 15 wounds after bites all over the body. Also, there were evidence of sex abuse by her Dad and uncle. One of their "games" was to put various objects up in her vagina, which had led to severe damage of her abdomen. The perversities of these two male monsters included endless series of rapes, and it's unfathomable that the mother of the child didn't stop the madness, but no, she only stopped the screams of the baby by putting a sock in her mouth.
Stephanie Lopez was sentenced to 27 years of prison, but was released before that because of her "good behavior". I suppose that's an indication that she is considered "redeemed" in what, even today, is deemed the worst case of child abuse ever.
I must admit that that's something I would NEVER have expected to happen, especially as we day by day see more and more "clowns" perform on television. However, some of the most adept ones are in the habit of calling themselves something else, thus indicating that not they, but we, are the true clowns, namely those who ARE instead of just acting as clowns.
Well, a lot of them are born out of the politics of today, and they are more like "weeping starters" than anything else, but still, we laugh at them because we can't find words for the deep sadness and worry they make us feel. That kind of jokes also often may make us snigger with sheer embarrassment.
Some families not only are clownish, but genuine clowns: They may make a living that way for generations, especially if they become politicians, e.g. in a country which is set up to be "free" without really being anything like that.
Some clowns are said to make a difference, doing their best to entertain sick children. However, I'm not sure, I would have liked a visit like this one when I was a child.
Naaahhh, in my opinion clowns are less funny than scary, even when not being politicians out to rob their fellow citizens.
Alma Schindler
(1879-1964) was stunning, no doubt about it. She even was called the "most beautiful girl in Wienna". Being such a great beauty she was adored by many men throughout her life. Strangely enough, she, the confirmed anti-semite, who was impressed by Hitler and "his beautiful eyes", had a habit of falling in love with Jews.
Alma, 19 years old
Not only was she beautiful, but she also was talented and made a certain impact in the world of art, music and literature with works of her own.
Her father was a renown landscape painter, Emil Jakob Schindler, and her mother, Anna Sofie, was an opera singer for a few years. When her father died in 1892 her Mom married the painter Carl Moll which means that Alma grew up in an artistic social setting, thus being able to seep in art at an early age. She herself started out as a composer at the young age of 9.
Alma in her early 20ies
When she was 22 years old she met the 19 years older Jewish opera curator, composer and conductor
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), who fell madly in love with her. Before their wedding, Mahler had her sign some sort of contract that she was to stop composing and devote herself to his art as a (great: Yup, he was great!) composer. At that time she had made c. 100 compositions of her own, but nonetheless she accepted his somewhat weird demand.
Gustav Mahler
They had two daughters, but the first one died in infancy. However, the second one, Anna Justine, grew up and became a renown sculptor. True to her anti-semitic feelings her Mom seems to often have called her some derogatory names like e.g. "crossbreed" or "mongrel" because she, having a Jewish father, was a semi-Jew.
Alma and Gustav Mahler
Well, the marriage of Alma and Gustav did meet with several problems, one of them being her way of flirting with her numerous admirers and lovers. One of these was the architect Walter Gropius whom she married in 1915, four years after Mahler died in 1911. Before their wedding, this new husband had denounced her when he learned that she had had sex with her then husband, Mahler, after their - in his eyes - romantic love affair had started. Something like that was against his notions of true love, and it's obvious that Alma must have been much more down to earth than he was, especially when it comes to sex.
Oskar Kokoschka
Another man whom she made an ever-lasting impression on was the painter Oskar
Kokoschka. He was so besotted that when their love affair ended in 1914 he had an "Alma-doll" made, presumably as a substitute for her as a sexual partner. Now, more than 100 years later, there are sex-dolls of all kinds, also over celebrities, for those who want that, but I doubt there were many back then. However, his commission to make this specific doll was so very descriptive that one may suspect that the woman who was to make it, Hermione Moos, was offended by his detailed and very explicit demands. Anyway, the doll she made most certainly wasn't her best and most impressive work, as it looks rather "clumsy" and not at all mirrors the beautiful Alma.
The Alma-Doll, sitting position
Kokoschka obviously had very set ideas of what he wanted: "Yesterday I sent a life-size drawing of my beloved and I ask you to copy
this most carefully and to transform it into reality. Pay special
attention to the dimensions of the head and neck, to the ribcage, the
rump and the limbs. And take to heart the contours of body, e.g., the
line of the neck to the back, the curve of the belly. Please permit my
sense of touch to take pleasure in those places where layers of fat or
muscle suddenly give way to a sinewy covering of skin. For the first
layer (inside) please use fine, curly horsehair; you must buy an old
sofa or something similar; have the horsehair disinfected. Then, over
that, a layer of pouches stuffed with down, cottonwool for the seat and
breasts. The point of all this for me is an experience which I must be
able to embrace!"
The Alma-doll in a reclining position
It's my opinion that the besotted Kokoschka went too far in a weird sexual exploitation of the woman who had left him to marry her former, but for some time, estranged lover, Walter Gropius. In this marriage she had her third daughter, called Manon (1916-1935). Something which didn't stop her having many love affairs, and in 1920 she left Gropius for the author Franz Werfel (1890-1945), whom she married nine years later.
Franz Werfel- crazy about Alma!!!
Both
Gustav Mahler and many other famous musicians have dedicated their works to Alma. Her personality, charisma and beauty as well as her many love affairs also had a special impact on a modern musician, namely Tom Lehrer. He, who was a more or less venomous singer and entertainer, did his best to give his salty opinion on her sex life: https://youtu.be/QL6KgbrGSKQ?feature=shared
Yes, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929-1994) was a lovely child, and as she grew up she became an elegant and much admired First Lady, but only for two years: 1961-1963. No matter what, she stayed famous as "Jackie Kennedy", and later as Mrs. Onassis. Somehow, other first ladies after her have had to endure being compared to her as a set model for what a "First Lady" should be. Her marriage to president John F. Kennedy seemed very appropriate for people of her social standing, but it was never alleged to be a passionate "Romeo And Juliet"-marriage as he was reputed to have had many love affairs.
No matter what, married they were on September 12, 1953, and she was a very lovely bride. Presumably, she was the first wife of the young politician, known as JFK, but that part of the marriage may not be true: According to rumors, legends, and some persistent people who knew JFK and his family well, there had been another Mrs. Kennedy before her, namely the Floridian socialite, Durie Kerr Malcolm Bersbach Desloge Kennedy Shevlin Appleton (1916-2008).
Durie
Jackie Kennedy was lovely and also impressive in all her elegance, but I think that this, not quite as pretty face, signals something much more vivacious and adventurous that the famous First Lady was lacking. In my opinion, Durie looks like someone who might be a handful - which she was. When JFK presumably married her in 1947 he became her third husband, and she was his first wife. The Kennedy biographer, Jerry Oppenheimer, found that the marriage was a drunken escapade of the two young people, but it's a somewhat mysterious affair, also because Durie refused to talk about it.
The legend goes that the ambitions of JFK's father had always been to see one of his sons as the president of the USA. That being the case he found the marriage to Durie an "ambition killer" because he didn't think she, being divorced twice, would fit the image of a "first lady". It seems that he - or, as some say, one of the friends of JFK - had all the records of this not-so-appropriate marriage destroyed, but that rumor has given vent to new mysteries: Was JFK divorced from Durie when he married Jackie, or was he in reality a bigamist, thus turning Durie into the first and ONLY legal Mrs. JFK? The wedding to Durie may have been for a lark, but that doesn't turn it into a joke if there are legitimate records of it. As it is, now it lingers as a mix of rumors, slander, mystery, and some kind of a bad joke.
That said, nothing much has been done to investigate what happened to Jackie's fiancee - and yes, she was engaged to get married before she became the bride of JFK ....
Who was he? I was surprised to see his biography in some old notes, but then there have been - or are - so many rapists and serial killers out there that it's quite impossible to keep track of all of them and their many victims. Also, strangely enough, some of them, although being totally demonic weirdos, get forgotten by the public because they don't have the superficial charm and "aura" of e.g. a Ted Bundy. A fact that speaks volumes about us, the non-criminals, who are also a special kind of "consumer" of all the grizzlies of murder and all kinds of violence: A lot of people - me too when I'm out to seek information about the intricacies of society - buy books, magazines and watch documentaries about these criminals "for fun" and entertainment.
As to the Englishman Jimmy Savile he is even more special than the American "charmer", Bundy, because he too had charisma, and although not as good-looking as him, he got a career out of it as a beloved media personality. What's more strange is that not only was he admired and sought out by powerful people like e.g. Margareth Thatcher, but he was also knighted.
Famous, beloved, knighted and ALIVE without any threats of the conviction and execution Bundy had to endure: Savile was never caught although the numbers of his victims are estimated to be c. 450-589 - some say 1000! How was that possible? Well, he was a famous and beloved television personality and with that kind of "shield" he seems to have been protected against suspicions until a year after his death in 2011. At that time rumors about his many sexual transgressions were heard, and in October 2012 a formal inverstigation was started. One of the conclusions was that over 50 years Savile had assaulted victims aged between 5 and 75 in NHS hospitals, some were paralyzed, others were dead. The gender of his victims wasn't important to him, he didn't discriminate, but targeted males and females alike, as well as adults and children. His key to these victims was his job at BBC as well as his charitable work for The National Health Service.
For several years there had been rumors that the bachelor Savile was into "little girls". In an interview he said that he actually didn't like children, and that the girls gathering around him did so because he "knew the pop-stars they admired". However, the rumors persisted, and some even were broadcasted in newspaper articles in "The Sun". Still, he was never prosecuted. Many may have seen him as an innocent man being harrassed by some "bad people of the press".
However, after his death an ITV-documentary, "Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile", was made public. Thus it was made known that the rumors were true, and that the popular "cozy-uncle" in reality was a sexual predator of people of all ages, both sexes, dead or alive.
Jimmy Savile's ornate black granite headstone only
stood for 19 days. Following awareness of his abusive past, it was removed, during the night
of 9–10 October 2012, at his family's request "out of respect" to public
opinion and others buried in and visiting the cemetery. A cafee which were named after him had its name changed, and The University of Bedfordshire stripped him of the honorary degree it had awarded him. Many others who had loved him enough to name something after him chose to have it renamed. What he had had of fame and renown before his death turned totally "sour" when he died.
