My all-time favorite image from my favorite SG. No x-rated nudity, but very sensual and inviting.
Hard to believe what a beautiful woman this pretty girl blossomed into. To be sure, Kali is a gawky, geeky Canadian - but she's also stunning.

I am, grudgingly, a great admirer of Talleyrand. An arch-chameleon who managed to survive and thrive under; wait for it; the Ancien Regime of Louis XVI as Bishop of Autun, the French Revolution as a Jacobin, the Directoire, the Consulate and then the French Empire of Napoleon as his chief minister, the restored Louis XVIII and Charles X... which brings us to 1830 when the French had had quite enough of the absolutist Charles X and were, once again, as is their wont, rioting in the streets of Paris.

Talleyrand, probably the world's first political technocrat, was watching the skirmishes at the barricades from the windows of the Tuileries surrounded by a host of secretaries and acolytes. He was by now the Grand Old man of French politics. At one point he was heard to mutter: "Ah, good, we are winning" at which one intrepid attendant asked him: "Monseigneur, who is winning?" "I'll tell you tomorrow," replied Talleyrand with a half smile.

Call me to the one among your moments
that stands before you ineluctably:
intimate as a dog's imploring glance
but, again, forever, turned away

when you think you are holding it at last.
What seems so far from you is most your own.
We are already free and were dismissed
where we thought we soon would be at home.

Anxious, we keep longing for a foothold -
we, at times too young for what is old
and too old for what has never been;

doing justice only where we praise,
because we are the branch, the iron blade,
and sweet danger, ripening from within.

- Rainer Marie Rilke

(if I could ever put it into words, these be them)


And completely off-topic:

The new SG Seduction App for iPhone is utter rubbish. Good idea, but executed like a bad YouTube video. I've heard that it was easy to shag an SG, but this is beyond the pale.

Rio de Janeiro host of the 2016 Olympics

Nearly 50,000 people cheered in celebration when Rio de Janeiro was announced as host of the 2016 Olympics, jumping and shouting in a Carnival-like party on Copacabana beach.

A huge roar was heard at the famed beach the moment International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said the words "Rio de Janeiro" to announce the winner in Copenhagen on Friday.


So after 2016, Africa will be the only continent that has never hosted the Games. Maybe South Africa in 2020?