People

No More Tea for Two

George Clooney’s Breakup with Girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis: Relationship’s Red Flags The Daily Beast

Any speculation about George Clooney marrying Elisabetta Canalis is over. The reasons aren’t clear although Canalis recently went to far as to say that she was ‘the marrying type’ and that ‘I am a firm believer in marriage … In the future, I will be married.’

The two have been inseparable but they issued a joint statement saying ‘We are not together anymore. It’s difficult and very personal, and we hope everyone can respect our privacy.’

Living

Big Snoozers

Reading new research that 12 men went to sleep faster and surprisingly also went into a much deeper sleep in a hammock, we found a cocoon hammock that’s not your average vintage tied between two trees. The Coccon Hammock is a private getaway for the back yard.

For a mere $19,500 you can snooze the afternoon away — or all night if you’re adventurous. The cocoon also weights over 400 pounds, so you can’t take it camping.

Mathieu Lehanneur’s Once Upon a Dream Bed

In April 2010 French designer Mathiue Lehanneur presented a bed designed for curing insomnia, as part of Milan 2010.

Insomniacs are lulled to sleep, cocooned in a quiet womb of automatically-closing curtains, accompanied by drops in temperature and lighting over a period of 15 minutes. Simultaneously, levels of white noise rise to block out external, unwanted sounds.

‘Once Upon a Dream’ by Mathieu Lehanneur for Veuve ClicquotThe beds are for real and will await guests at Hôtel de Marc at Rheims, where guests of the Veuve Clicquot champagne house are often suffering from jet lag.

More on sleep:

Brain Jumpstarts New Creativity, Using Memories in Sleep AOC FP

Married Women Prefer Sleep, Movies, Books to Sex AOC Health

Optimum Sleep for Longevity in Women May Be Around 6 Hours A Night AOC Health

Sleep Research | Less Than 6 Hrs Increases Inflammation in Body AOC FP

Strong Correlation | Sleep Less Than 6 Hrs & Risk for Diabetes, Heart Disease AOC FP

Living

Riches Await

Mongolia: The New Frontier for Luxury Shopping WSJ Magazine

In a fascinating article in the new WSJ Magazine takes us to a changing Mongolia. This previously nomadic society of Mongolia has awakened to vast wealth with one of the world’s largest gold deposits.

In this image, new construction in Ulan Bator for a luxury hotel and office space sits next to a Tibetan monastery.

July marks the 21st anniversary of Mongolia’s ‘robust democracy’ after more than 200 years of despised Chinese rule followed by 70 years as a satellite of the Soviets.

The proud history of Genghis Khan, who spawned the largest contiguous empire in world history, was banned from public view and speech, if not from memory.

Today, owing to deposits of 80 different minerals, including immense reserves of coal, copper, gold and uranium, as well as ongoing exploration of oil, this sparsely populated country, twice the size of Texas, is undergoing a dizzying transition.

No other nation today so squarely faces the choices that Mongolia must make.