Willy Vanderperre Captures Caravaggio's Essential Contradictions In 'Ad Arte' For Vogue Italy September 2017

Willy Vanderperre Captures Caravaggio's Essential Contradictions In 'Ad Arte' For Vogue Italy September 2017

Models Mica Arganaraz, Mariacarla Boscono, Kiki Willems, Amandine Renard, Blesnya Minher, Clement Chabernaud, Jonas Gloer, and Paul Hameline are styled by Olivier Rizzo in 'Ad Arte'. Willy Vanderperre captures the entourage for Vogue Italia September 2017./ Hair by Tina Outen; makeup by Lynsey Alexander

The editorial 'Ad Arte' is inspired by the paintings of Caravaggio, an artist who belonged to the shadowland, writes Vogue Italia, in an entire September issue is devoted to Italy. Caravaggio's most famous painting of the 'Medusa', a Gorgon among three sisters with snakes for hair who held the power to turn anyone who looked at them to stone, was actually a male youth and not a female. 

In reality, Caravaggio was "wayward and violent", says David Leavitt. The artist killed more than once and lusted, mostly after boys. Simultaneously, he considered himself a devout Catholic who frequently used Catholic iconography in his paintings. In many respects, this apparent schism in Caravaggio's devout Catholicism continues to play out behind walls of the Vatican. On this day, one of Pope Francis' closest advisers, Cardinal George Pell of Australia, is on a leave of absence to answer multiple charges of sexual assault in Melbourne. 

Caravagglio's 'Medusa' meets the viewer’s gaze with an anguish beyond pity, writes Leavitt for Vogue Italia, as if to say, "You knew all along you could not resist. Now see what I see every day in the mirror." Most of us do turn away from horror, as Leavitt suggests in writing about Carvagglio. In principle, we have defenses against this sort of seeing. 

California Said No More Women Will Bleed To Death In Childbirth. The Results Are Dramatic

California Said No More Women Will Bleed To Death In Childbirth. The Results Are Dramatic

Maternal deaths in America are climbing steadily, making us an outlier against the rest of the developed world. The US is only one of 13 countries with maternal death rate increases since 1990. We stand in the company of North Korea and Zimbabwe. 

Between 2000 and 2014, maternal deaths soared by 27 percent to 24 per 100,000 in America.. That rate is three times the rate of the United Kingdom and about eight times that of Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, writes Vox. 

The reasons for steep rises in maternal deaths in America are several. There have been changes in how maternal deaths are reported. Efforts to correct this under-reporting are a minor reason for the current increase. While it's impossible to prove casuality conclusively, the war against Planned Parenthood has closed many women's health clinics, giving poor and middle class women no access to contraception or maternal care. 

Lily Collins Talks Anorexia In 'Patterns Of Behaviour' By Stas Komarovski For The Edit June 29, 2017

Lily Collins Talks Anorexia In 'Patterns Of Behaviour' By Stas Komarovski For The Edit June 29, 2017

Actor Lily Collins dazzles in richly-colored,  vintage prints styled by Tracy Taylor. Photographer Stas Komarovski captures Lily in 'Patterns Of Behaviour' for The Edit Magazine June 29, 2017./  Hair by Rob Talty; makeup by Fiona Stiles

The 28-year-old daughter of British musician Phil Collins and his second wife American Jill Tavelman reflects on the gravitas of her new film 'To the Bone', directed by Marti Nixon for Netflix. The role required Lily to play a troubled anorexia sufferer in the film, which mirror's Nixon's own struggle with eating disorders. 

That's plenty enough of gravitas; now add Collins' own struggle with anorexia, which she detailed in the memoir 'Unfiltered'. Collins explains that her mother was "a bit in shock" the first time she saw Lily's weight loss. By the end of the nutritionist-supervised weight loss, her mom was sobbing, hit very hard by her daughter's condition. 

Rethinking Federal vs State & Local Governing Thru A Democratic Lens

Rethinking Federal vs State & Local Governing Thru A Democratic Lens

Futurist and urban planner Richard Florida moved his family to Toronto a decade ago. Stunned by Hillary's loss, the theorist pulled back his new book from his publisher to do some serious soul searching.

His meaty article in Politico taps into my own mindset, one that is a total reversal of previous thinking among progressives on the role of the federal govt vs state and city govt. The idea is conservative -- one that puts key decisions about our urban and rural areas more in the hands of state and local govt.

Presently in America, rural Americans in red states are running the country. While it's great that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Democrats' lawsuit about gerrymandering state districts, the decision could go against Dems. The electoral college is stacked against progressives, urban areas and Democrats generally.

The solution? It could only work if we pack up our money, the disproportionate amount of tax dollars blue states send to the federal govt.

Israeli Cabinet Bows To Ultra-Orthodox Demands, Nixing Western Wall Mixed Gender Plan

POLICE ESCORT ANAT HOFFMAN HOLDING A TORAH SCROLL FROM THE WESTERN WALL, ON JULY 12

Israeli Cabinet Bows To Ultra-Orthodox Demands, Nixing Western Wall Mixed Gender Plan

Sunday’s decision to cancel the new Western Wall arrangement has drawn denunciations from liberal Jews in Israel and the United States. It also appeared to threaten Netanyahu’s fragile coalition, with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman — head of a faction that represents secular Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union — vowing to fight back.  

“It actually causes terrible harm to Jewish unity and to the alliance between the State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry,” Israeli media quoted him as saying. 

“It’s a terrible day for women in Israel when the prime minister sacrifices their rights while kowtowing to a handful of religious extremists, who want to enforce their religious customs while intentionally violating the rights of the majority of the Jewish world,” said Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall.  

Faye Cuevas Brings Higher Intelligence To Africa's War On Elephant Poaching

Faye Cuevas Brings Higher Intelligence To Africa's War On Elephant Poaching

Calling herself "the accidental conservationist," (Faye) Cuevas can pinpoint the moment she realized that she wanted to fight poaching.

"The first time that I saw an elephant in the wild was in Amboseli National Park here in Kenya two years ago," she said in Feb. 2016. "It was life-changing."

"At the current rate of elephant decline, my 6-year-old daughter won't have an opportunity to see an elephant in the wild before she's old enough to vote," she said. "Which just is unacceptable to me, because if that is the case then we have nothing to blame that on but human apathy and greed."

"The Kenya Wildlife Service and other many conservation groups are doing fantastic conservation work," Cuevas said. "However, the reality is that there are other challenges — from a cyber perspective, from a global criminal network perspective — that really necessitate security approaches integrated into conservation strategies."

Enter tenBoma -- or '10 homesteads' -- which uses technology to pull together diverse sources of information, from rangers to conservation groups. She analyzes the data to "create value in information in ways that it rises to the level of intelligence."

WSJ's Carol Lee Joins NBC News As National Political Reporter

WSJ's Carol Lee Joins NBC News As National Political Reporter

Eye| Nicolo & Carlotta Oddi Show Alanui's S/S 2018 Collection | GlamTribal Woolly Mammoth Jewelry

Nicolo & Carlotta Oddi Show Alanui's Spring/Summer Collection At Pitti Uomo

Carlotta Oddi cut her design chops as a styling assistant to Anna Dello Russo at Vogue Japan, although her design aesthetic couldn't be more different than Russo's. Oddi describes herself as a true bohemian at heart, describing her own design aesthetic as 'chameleonic/eclectic'. in general, a crossover brew of different world inspirations."

Brother Nicolò Oddi developed the knitwear brand under the name Alanui, which translates to 'large path' in Hawaiian. 

“Alanui has started its journey as a brand with a collection that focuses on a single item, produced in a variety of patterns: a buttonless oversized jacquard cashmere cardigan, edged with a dense fringe and closed with a two-tone belt. That’s it: an adaptable piece with no immediate gender connotation and no season. The colorful jacquards pay homage to the Indian America iconography, but this is just the beginning of a path that can lead in many different directions.

GlamTribal Design Jewelry & Gifts is inspired by the migration of humanity and animals out of Africa. In our pursuit of elephant conservation and news around the perils of elephant conservation in the modern world, we met mammoths, and woolly mammoths in particular. 

Elephants no longer live in the American Southwest or in the south of France, near the caves of Lascaux. They live in Africa, imperiled by the insatiable greed of humans in pursuit of ivory.

In the last two years, woolly mammoths have emerged as a strong design influence for GlamTribal, unifying collections like Alanui's American Southwest, native people's inspiration with tribal heritages in Africa. We regularly use their bone beads and our featherweight decoupage wooden beads with woolly mammoth imagery in our jewelry designs. 

When we began our woolly mammoth journey, the tie supported concerns about elephant extinction and also the religious disputes around creationism and human evolution. I've spoken with customers at high-quality artisan shows who told me that it was impossible that the woolly mammoth bones were 10,000-100,000 years old because God made the world much more recently. 

I do not have the patience for these conversations and generally end them quickly. A recent discovery near a highway in San Diego -- the bones and teeth of a mastodon dated at 130,000 years -- is rewriting our scientific understanding of when humans first reached North America. 

We delight, however, in the emergence of the woolly mammoth -- and mammoths generally -- as a unifying element in linking our human evolution heritage globally, leaving no doubt that GlamTribal's woolly mammoth jewelry looks simply fabulous with the gorgeous, over-sized sweaters from Alanui's spring/summer 2018 collection. 

FREE Shipping in US, Canada

GlamTribal Design Woolly Mammoth Necklace and Pendant + Earrings Sets

Cameron Russell's 'Model Mafia' Roars In Fashion Industry #2 Only To Oil In Polluting Mother Earth

Cameron Russell's 'Model Mafia' Roars In Fashion Industry #2 Only To Oil In Polluting Mother Earth

Top model Cameron Russell is one of the strongest voices in the fashion industry, and her 'Model Mafia' roared in May 2017, boarding a bus ride to Washington DC, to participate in the People's Climate March. The message on Russell's website is clear:

Models are uniquely poised to become fantastic activists because they are some of the few women who have very direct access to media. Especially on the issue of climate change, our voices are important and powerful. Fashion is one of the dirtiest industries in the world, but it's also one of the biggest and most influential, that's why if we can change how our industry works we have the potential to make an enormous difference and lead the way to a sustainable future. 

Fashion is the second largest industrial polluter, second only to oil, writes the 'Model Mafia', in Glamour magazine's coverage of 

 their busride from New York to DC. Who is better than models -- increasingly true global citizens coming to the industry from all over the world -- to address climate change from an intersectional perspective? 

Related: Recent Articles About Sustainability in the Fashion Industry:

Earth Day 2017: The Fashion Industry's Effect On the Environment, And the Brands That Are Taking Charge W Magazine

Fashion in new bid to be truly sustainable The Guardian

5 New Solutions For The Fashion Industry's Sustainability Problem Fast Company

Members of the Model Mafia weigh in on climate change:Cameron Russell's 'Model Mafia' Roars In Fashion Industry #2 Only To Oil In Polluting Mother Earth

Seattle Storm Women's Basketball Steps Up For Planned Parenthood In New Relationship

Seattle Storm Women's Basketball Steps Up For Planned Parenthood In New Relationship

The ownership group of the Storm, Force 10, is planning a “Stand With Planned Parenthood” rally on July 18 in KeyArena’s West Plaza, along with continuing efforts to aid fund-raising for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands. Five dollars from the sale of each ticket for the game that day between the Storm and the Chicago Sky will be donated to the chapter. The Storm, one of the few professional teams owned by women, will also host a fund-raising auction.

There will be blowback, of course, but Seattle is a progressive city and even 50% of Trump voters polled and interviewed after the inauguration said that they did not want Planned Parenthood to be defunded.

Edward Enninful Names Venetia Scott Fashion Director Of British Vogue

Incoming Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue Edward Enninful announced Wednesday that Venetia Scott will become Fashion Director of British Vogue as of July 10th.  Conde Nast writes:

Venetia began her career at British Vogue as assistant to Grace Coddington, before cementing her status as a stylist working with magazines including British Vogue,Vogue Italia, AnOther Magazine, Self Service, The Face, Arena, i-D and Nova, where she was appointed Fashion Director. In 1997, Venetia began consulting for Marc Jacobs, becoming Creative Director in 2001, responsible for directing the Marc by Marc Jacobs line and associated accessories from launch. A move into photography began in 2005, with commissions from British Vogue, American Vogue, Vogue Paris, W, Self Service, AnOther Magazine, Dazed & Confused, POP, i-D, Document Journal, and Purple.

Venetia Scott will replace Lucinda Chambers, who is leaving the magazine after 36 years with the magazine, lastly as Fashion Director. 

Agnes Gund Launches $100 Million Art For Justice Fund: A Movement To End Mass Incarceration

Agnes Gund Launches $100 Million Art For Justice Fund: A Movement To End Mass Incarceration

The new Art for Justice Fund — to be announced Monday at the Museum of Modern Art, where Ms. Gund is president emerita — will start with $100 million of the proceeds from the Lichtenstein (which was sold to the collector Steven A. Cohen through Acquavella Gallery).

Ms. Gund, together with the Ford Foundation as administrator of the fund, hopes that other collectors will also support the Art for Justice Fund, with a collective goal of raising another $100 million over the next five years. 

Chris Colls Snaps Gwyneth Paltrow For The Edit June 1, 2017

Chris Colls Snaps Gwyneth Paltrow For The Edit June 1, 2017

Actor Gwyneth Paltrow covered the June 1, 2017 issue of The Edit, lensed by Chris Colls. Tracy Taylor styled the Goop founder in Chloe, Madewell, Mara Hoffman and more.  Refinery 29 checked out Paltrow's $500-$1,500 GOOP Summit in LA over the weekend. 

Claire McCaskill Uses Facts To Slam Senate Republicans' Authoritarian Healthcare Process

Claire McCaskill Uses Facts To Slam Senate Republicans' Authoritarian Healthcare Process

While America was glued to the former FBI Director James Comey hearings on Thursday, HHS Secretary Tom Price testified about a bill to repeal and replace the ACA (Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare) before the Senate healthcare panel. 

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) asked the committee’s chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), whether the panel would hold any hearings on the GOP’s proposal, catching Hatch by surprise. After conferring with an aide about how to respond, Hatch answered McCaskill, saying that he didn't know if there would be hearings on the still-secret legislation, being drafted by a committee of only white men. Suggesting that Democrats should have no quarrel with the process, the chair said that Democrats had been invited to "give your ideas" about the topic of healthcare reform. 

McCaskill was livid:

Biden-Backed, Ex Goldman Banker Democrat Phil Murphy Headed To November New Jersey Governor Win

Biden-Backed, Ex Goldman Banker Democrat Phil Murphy Headed To November New Jersey Governor Win

Vice President Joe Biden called the upcoming NJ governor's race “the single most important” election of the next three years.

Biden-backed Phil Murphy won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, delivering a Hillary Clinton populist message grounded in his career as a Goldman Sachs banker. Bernie Sanders did not endorse Murphy, although his son did campaign for the candidate.

As Sanders progressives rip into NJ Sen. Corey Booker's ethical credentials in any future presidential race -- having accepted money from big pharma companies in his state -- the Murphy win shows that at a state level, the Sanders wing of the Democratic party is not running the show in New Jersey.

The Murphy primary win -- and expected future win as NJ governor -- also demonstrates that Democrats can run on a platform that shares 95% of Sanders' priorities -- as the 2016 Presidential campaign platform did -- without throwing every person with ties to wealth and big business out of the party as the Sanders camp is demanding.

Michael Bloomberg Leads 'We Are Still In' US Coalition Supporting Paris Agreement, As Trump Bows Out

In the days since Trump's depressing remarks, the tech community has rallied, joined by its leaders, including billionaire philanthropist and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

"In the absence of leadership from Washington, states, cities, colleges and universities and businesses representing a sizeable percentage of the U.S. economy will pursue ambitious climate goals, working together to take forceful action and to ensure that the U.S. remains a global leader in reducing emissions," the coalition, which now consists of more than 1,000 cities, counties, states, universities and businesses, said in a statement released Monday. 

Going by the name "We Are Still In," the coalition called itself "the broadest cross section of the American economy yet assembled in pursuit of climate action." It includes states like New York and California, joined by more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies. 

"In the absence of a supportive federal coordinating role, [city, state, business, and civil society] actors will more closely coordinate their own decarbonization actions. Collectively, they will redouble their efforts to ensure that the U.S. achieves the carbon emissions reductions it pledged under the Paris Agreement," Bloomberg wrote in a letter to the United Nations secretary-general. 

Bloomberg added: "We do not intend to slow down."

The philanthropist has promised to contribute the $15 million the United Nations climate change secretariat now stands to lose from Washington. 

Lynelle Cameron, president of the Autodesk Foundation, expressed optimism that business leaders appear to be moving off the sidelines on climate change. 

"In Trump's first few months in office, he has done more to catalyze and motivate the private sector than Hurricane Katrina or Sandy, or the work of talented environmental organizations put together," Cameron wrote in an op-ed for CNBC. "Trump's latest decision will activate the private sector like we've never seen before."

Two prominent business leaders, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Disney chairman Bob Iger, resigned from the White House business advisory council last week to protest the president's decision. 

Wild Elephant Matriarchs Slept Just Two Hours A Day Or Less In 35-Day Study

Wild Elephant Matriarchs Slept Just Two Hours A Day Or Less In 35-Day Study

Two elephant matriarchs have shocked scientists worldwide with their sleeping patterns. The two supermoms in Botswana's Chobe National Park qualify as insomniacs, sleeping about two hours a day and not in an interrupted slumber.

One would expect the elephants to be exhausted after traveling nearly 19 miles in 10 hours without rest. Not so for these high-stamina creatures who also stayed up for a record 46 straight hours, based on the small study conducted by the UCLA Center for Sleep Research and the nonprofit research group Elephants Without Borders. 

"The elephants were studied for continuous 35 day periods [from a distance]," Jerry Siegel, director of the Center for Sleep Research, told NBC News. "Elephants move with their herd and move very frequently, so animals sleeping a lot would be left behind."

GLAMTRIBAL shares three new enameled pendants with earrings sets for our expanding jewelry collection. 10% of all revenues support The Kibera School for Girls in Nairobi, Kenya and elephant conservation. FREE Shipping in North America. 

Shop ALL our new Necklaces w/Earrings Sets.

Doutzen Kroes Is Lensed By Vincent van de Wijngaard For Porter Magazine #21 Summer 2017

Doutzen Kroes Is Lensed By Vincent van de Wijngaard For Porter Magazine #21 Summer 2017

Supermodel Doutzen Kroes is styled by Julia von Boehm in 'Fragile World', lensed by Vincent van de Wijngaard for Porter Magazine #21. / Hair by Tomohiro Ohashi; makeup by Lotten Holmqvist

The elephant is hopefully sleeping, but given Doutzen's work on behalf of African elephants, she could be dead. Elephants sleep at night and generally standing up. And they only sleep for two hours in the wild. The image (further down) has no real provocation as presented. 

More African imagery from Porter Magazine #21. Doutzen Kroes & Imaan Hammam Are 'Born To Be Wild' For Porter Magazine #21

 Imaan Hammam Is An 'African Queen' Lensed By Vincent van de Wijngaard For Porter Magazine #21

Doutzen Kroes & Imaan Hammam Are 'Born To Be Wild' For Porter Magazine #21

Doutzen Kroes & Imaan Hammam Are 'Born To Be Wild' For Porter Magazine #21

Top models Doutzen Kroes and Imaan Hammam come together in the third set-in-Africa editorial 'Born To Be Wild' for Porter Magazine's #21 Summer 2017 Summer Escape issue. Vincent van de Wijngaard captures the beauty of the African landscape, wildlife and the Maasai people, with styling by Julia von Boehm. / Hair by Tomohiro Ohashi; makeup by Lotten Holmqvist

Joe & Mika Join Harvard Institute of Politics As Visiting Fellows Summer/Fall 2017

Joe & Mika Join Harvard Institute of Politics As Visiting Fellows Summer/Fall 2017

MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough wore matching blue and white checked shirts on this morning's broadcast, carrying their engaged togetherness to a new level. The duo is clearly positioning themselves as the kind of bridge that America needs between a Conservative Republican (Scarborough) and Progressive Democrat (Brzezinski). It's not a bad idea because depending on just how intensely the Sanders camp holds the Democratic party in check, an alliance between the giant American middle is possible between educated liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans. 

Harvard Kennedy's School's Institute of Politics (IOP) has announced that the 'Morning Joe' duo will serve as Visiting Fellows this summer and fall. 

“For several years, ‘Morning Joe’ has been at the forefront of covering millennials in politics, and at Harvard they will engage directly with the young people who will reconnect America and serve as future political leaders,” said Congressman Bill Delahunt, Interim Director of the Institute of Politics.