On Sunday morning we woke up to the heartbreaking news of Amy Winehouse’s early death. Whatever your opinion of her as a star, there is no denying this is incredibly saddening and a grave reminder of how swiftly substance abuse can take a young life.
Winehouse Found Dead in London Flat The Metropolitan Police released a statement saying, “Police were called by a London Ambulance Service to an address in Camden Square NWI shortly before 16.05hours today, Saturday 23 July, following reports of a woman found deceased. On arrival officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene. Enquiries continue into the circumstances of the death. At this early stage it is being treated as unexplained.” As the day went on, it was revealed that, despite friends and family insisting her days with hard drugs were over, the Grammy Award winner had been battling with alcohol addiction and had been suffering seizures. Less than one month ago her comeback tour of Europe was quickly cut short after it became clear she was not in any condition to perform.
The Morbid “27 Club” When Kurt Cobain died, his mother described her son’s sad passing as, “joining that stupid club.” What she was referring to, of course, was the interesting trend of rock stars meeting their death at age 27. This “27 club” includes the hugely talented but sadly drug addled and depressed musicians Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and, now, Amy Winehouse.
Family and Friends React Winehouse’s family—father Mitch, mother Janis and brother Alex—have released a statement saying, “Our family has been left bereft by the loss of Amy, a wonderful daughter, sister, niece. She leaves a gaping hole in our lives. We are coming together to remember her and we would appreciate some privacy and space at this terrible time.” Celebrities and friends have been paying tribute to Winehouse via Twitter and Facebook, with Mark Ronson, who worked on album Back in Black with the star saying, “she was my musical soulmate and like a sister to me. This is one of the saddest days of my life.” M.I.A posted an unfinished song called, ‘27’ with the words ‘RIP Amy’ on her Twitter page. Lady Gaga tweeted, “Amy changed pop music forever. I remember knowing there was hope, and feeling not alone because of her. She lived jazz, she lived the blues.” Courtney Love and Kelly Clarkson were just some of the many more stars to pay tribute to Amy Winehouse. Russell Brand, who has also famously battled drug addiction, posted a lengthy piece on his website saying, “We have lost a beautiful and talented woman to this disease. Not all addicts have Amy’s incredible talent. Or Kurt’s, or Jimi’s, or Janis’, some people just get the affliction. All we can do is adapt the way we view this condition, not as a crime or romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill.”
We are saddened to hear of such a young life lost and hope only that this death leads others to get help before it’s too late.
Melissa George is a pretty Aussie face, and we can all attest to that. However, she sometimes makes wrong decisions when it comes to fashion and style, and one of them is this silk lingerie-inspired dress.
There’s nothing really wrong with the dress, except that it was worn in the wrong occasion. It was the red carpet premiere of “Crazy, Stupid Love,” and not a mere evening dinner. Melissa could have glammed up a bit, or at least fixed her hair, so that she would look better in front of the cameras. In this outfit, she looked like she just woke up and went straight to the fete.
But the ability to reinvent and come up with new uses for a product also obviously demonstrates sustainability, since users’ needs change all the time. Israeli designer Hadar Gorelik’s modular toaster does just that, and is sustainable by virtue of the fact that it takes the user’s present and future needs into account and avoids the possibility of becoming obsolete.
The inspiration for the toaster design came from a scenario many of us are familiar with: a big family breakfast and only one toaster. The existent solutions – to either make a bunch of toast before and serve it cold or continually make toast throughout breakfast – were not appealing to Gorelik and so she decided to come up with a solution.
Gorelik’s idea is fairly simple:
“Each member of the family has their own toaster, this way the toaster is as big as your family. While connected to one another, the toasters can work together and can work separately.”
The concept of the modular toaster is not stagnant, however, and is the individual toasters are not intended to be stuck together forever. Gorelik states that “this toaster grows and changes with your family. When a child moves out, he can take his toaster to his new apartment and start there a new toaster family of his own.”