How to Undress a Victorian Lady in Your Next Historical Romance

Deeanne Gist stood in a packed hotel conference room wearing nothing but her underwear.

For most people, giving a presentation in skivvies to 100 professional peers sounds like a bad dream. But Ms Gist was giving a workshop on Victorian clothing at the Romance Writers of America’s annual convention this summer. The romance novelists had gathered in New York to learn how to dress—and undress—heroines in their novels.

It took an hour for Ms Gist to squeeze into a dozen layers that a lady would have worn in the 1860s—stockings, garters, bloomers, chemise, corset, crinoline or hoop skirt, petticoats, a shirtwaist or blouse, skirt, vest and bolero jacket. By the end, workshop attendees were sceptical that seductions ever occurred, with so many sartorial barriers — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The Green Bans That Saved Sydney

Forty years ago a small labourers’ trade union executive made a decision that was to change the face of environmental activism around the world and save Sydney from much of the massive over-development of the 1970s.

In prosaic fashion the executive minutes for 4 June 1971 of the NSW Builders Labourers’ Federation record an unremarkable resolution: Moved Bro. Owens, seconded Bro. T Hogan that R Pringle investigate a report next Tuesday on Kelly (sic) Bush.

Thus the first green ban was born. Brother Pringle came back from his inspection and recommended that the union place a ban on building activity at the Bush. Kelly’s Bush, the last remnant of natural bushland on the Sydney Harbour foreshore was being threatened by a large housing development. The now famous Battlers for Kelly’s Bush, the middle class women of Hunters Hill had asked the Builders Labourers to place a ban on building the development — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Egypt’s Indiana Jones steps down

Egypt’s antiquities minister has been fired after months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Zahi Hawass, known for his trademark Indiana Jones hat, lost his job along with about a dozen other ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle meant to ease pressure from protesters seeking to purge remnants of Mr Mubarak’s regime — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Uniformed Letter Carrier with Child in Mailbag

This city letter carrier posed for a humorous photograph with a young boy in his mailbag. After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples — via Neatorama

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis house sells for $4.5m

Ennis House by Frank Lloyd Wright
Ennis House by Frank Lloyd Wright, originally uploaded by Scott Beale.

A landmark house, designed in the style of a Mayan temple, by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright has been bought for $4.5m (£2.79m).

Ennis House was originally put on the market in 2009 for $15m but the sale price was later lowered. The building needs substantial restoration work.

It was bought by supermarket tycoon Ron Burkle who will continue renovating it, the building’s sellers announced — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The Menace Within

What happened in the basement of the psych building 40 years ago shocked the world. How do the guards, prisoners and researchers in the Stanford Prison Experiment feel about it now?

It began with an ad in the classifieds.

Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. $15 per day for 1-2 weeks. More than 70 people volunteered to take part in the study, to be conducted in a fake prison housed inside Jordan Hall, on Stanford’s Main Quad. The leader of the study was 38-year-old psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. He and his fellow researchers selected 24 applicants and randomly assigned each to be a prisoner or a guard — via redwolf.newsvine.com

No Family Plots, Just Communal Burials In Ancient Settlement

Human remains discovered beneath the floors of mud-brick houses at one of the world’s first permanent settlements, were not biologically related to one another, a finding that paints a new picture of life 9,000 years ago on a marshy plain in central Turkey.

Even children as young as 8 were not buried alongside their parents or other relatives at the site called Çatalhöyük, the researchers found — via redwolf.newsvine.com

NSA Declassifies 200-Year-Old Book

A cryptology instruction book… 202 years old. A photograph of the U.S. Army’s cypher bureau… from 1919. A breakdown of Russian electoral districts… circa 1948. Schematics for a magnetic tape memory system… nearly half a century old.

These are just some of the items that, had you seen them, would have irreparably damaged US national security. These are just a few of the documents, mere citizen, that for decades were far too sensitive for your uninitiated eyes — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Romania 1966

Armed with a militant dedication to see communism progress, Nicolae Ceau?escu outlawed abortion and decreed heavy taxation to anyone who failed to produce children by the age of twenty five.

It was the first of many disastrous policies put into place by the Ceau?escu regime in the hopes of raising up an army of people to live out communist theory under his rule.

Contraception was also banned in 1966 and by the end of the decade the population had risen significantly; Unfortunately, the socioeconomic status for the typical Romanian family, had not. Poverty rose at an alarming rate and women were encouraged to turn their children over to state-run institutions — via redwolf.newsvine.com