Free Republic

The cause of death of a murdered ex-model from Tennessee was ruled to be a bullet wound to her head, according to the medical examiner. Lisa Renee Davis, 29, died from a single shot from a .22 caliber gun belonging to her killer — an acquaintance named Austin Agee who committed suicide and confessed to the crime in a note that told police where to find the woman's body. -snip-

And you thought the onscreen catfights on America's Next Top Model were good... New York police arrested three people following a massive stampede that erupted during a casting call for the new season of the Tyra Banks-powered reality contest—a melee that involved hundreds of people outside a Central Park hotel. At least six people were injured, two of whom were hospitalized, in a scene that left the surrounding vicinity looking like Fashion Week meets Thunderdome and shut down the auditions. Police said they did not immediately know what triggered the crush of bodies, but according to the New York Daily...

Now, here's a model of biblical proportions. A retired farmer has spent more than 30 years building an enormous scale model of Herod's temple - and it is still not finished [Photos at link]

It might be easier to work up a proper sense of dread at a scary new “climate change model” if the group doing the scaring didn’t use a roulette wheel for illustration. And “The Greenhouse Gamble” graphics only make the Washington Post’s one-sided report on the model more laughable. On the Feb. 23 “Capital Weather Gang” Web site, the Post’s Andrew Freedman reported that MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change revised its predictions about just how hot the Earth will become in this century. Not surprisingly, the MIT group said that if governments don’t institute...

(photo) The 23-year-old Israeli-born model Bar Refaeli was allegedly slated for last year’s cover, but was dropped and replaced by Marisa Miller when Bar couldn’t keep the good news to herself. As Page Six reports: “It’s very secretive, and the magazine likes to keep people guessing.” Boyfriend and overpaid actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been pushing hard to get his squeeze on the cover. But judging from the photos and video, his effort was unnecessary. Obama’s stimulus plan has been criticized for not taking effect fast enough. After the obligatory research the IHTM staff must rigorously and dutifully perform, we can...

A model displays a creation, bearing the image of U.S. President Barack Obama, during Italian fashion house Gattinoni's Rome Fashion Week Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2009 show February 1, 2009.

Bash Compactor: Getting Laid Off Is Still Getting Laid The Fashion Meets Finance Party By Matt Harvey Broke bankers and struggling models mobbed the rooftop of the Empire Hotel last night for the latest installment of Fashion Meets Finance. A tipsy brunette on crutches was trying to put her Burberry coat on so she could leave, but guys wearing suits sans ties kept jostling her as they moved past. Struggling to anchor herself with the crutches she told me her deal. “I was running to work to get there on time when I fell. It’s not funny!” As the tiny...

We may consider her very pretty, but the British hold her in much less regard. Model Agyness Deyn has been voted as the most annoying person of 2008, according to BBC Three’s Most Annoying People of 2008 list. Deyn heads the top of the list and towers over other contenders Peaches Geldof, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former pop singer Kerry Katona.

One of the shabbiest, least satisfying public policy debates in modern California political history is expected to wrap up today in Sacramento with the California Air Resources Board adopting its “Scoping Plan” for the implementation of AB 32. That's the landmark 2006 state law requiring a sharp increase in the use of cleaner but more costly sources of energy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming. It is inevitable that the law will have negative economic consequences, given that California businesses will have higher costs than rival firms in other states and nations without such an edict,...

The earth will warm about 2.4 degrees C (4.3 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels even under extremely conservative greenhouse-gas emission scenarios and under the assumption that efforts to clean up particulate pollution continue to be successful, according to a new analysis by a pair of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. That amount of warming falls within what the world's leading climate change authority recently set as the threshold range of temperature increase that would lead to widespread loss of biodiversity, deglaciation and other adverse consequences in nature. The researchers, writing in the online edition of...

Naomi Campbell last night blamed racism for her outburst on a British Airways jet, claiming she had been called 'a golliwog supermodel'. In an interview with Sky News, Miss Campbell said she was not going to apologise to BA as they were "disgusting." 'I was called a golliwog supermodel, I don’t think that’s really fair do you?' The supermodel did not say exactly who had called her the name only that it was not one of the passengers. When asked who called her the name, she replied: 'Someone on the flight, not the passenger.' She added:'Would you like it if...

Gay people in Holland have been shocked by a public attack on a gay man in Amsterdam. Model Mike Du Pree was taking part in a fashion show to promote tolerance towards gay people when a gang of ten Muslim youths dragged him from the catwalk and beat him. A right wing Dutch MP has called for the youths to be deported. Mr Du Pree's nose was broken in the attack, which was motivated by homophobia. The fashion event was held on a public holiday marking the birth of Holland's late Queen Julianna. Newspaper Gay Krant reports that a bystander...

A model of 14 was banned from the catwalk in Australia yesterday amid continuing controversy over the sexualisation of young girls in the fashion industry. A photo-shoot of Monika Jagaciak by Australian Vogue was also called off after the editor said she had not realised the Polish teenager's age. Organisers of Australian Fashion week in Sydney banned all under-16s from the catwalk after furious public debate over the use of youngsters in an industry already under fire over anorexia and drug use. It follows a similar decision ahead of London Fashion Week last September and brings the Australian event into...

TAMPA — It was Dec. 23, and a Temple Terrace police officer had just pulled Rebecca Reyes over for broken taillights, and all the Playboy model wanted to do was hide her boyfriend's Christmas present before he spotted it. One problem: She got out of her truck and ignored officers' orders to get back in. Then she mouthed off when one of them took hold of her arm. She ended up bruised and facing a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest without violence.

A teenager today admitted beating and stabbing a 17-year-old model to death in broad daylight. Marc King-Bromley attacked Danielle Johnson behind garages in Bounds Green, north London, on May 28 last year. The hair and beauty student, who studied at Waltham Forest College, died on June 8 in the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. The youngster had been mugged on numerous occasions before her death and had a BB gun held to her head by a fellow student. Her mother, Jan Johnson, claims she went to see police 20 times but was told there was no point in prosecuting the...

Model of Easter Island Collapse Might Reveal Message for Today By Lisa ZygaGraphs based on the researchers’ model, showing the population (top) and resources (bottom). The decline of resources coincides with a sharp population increase, followed by a sharp decrease. Image credit: M. Bologna and J. C. Flores. When a thriving civilization suddenly collapses, it’s often a mystery – and an ominous one, at that. For Easter Island circa 1000-1400 AD, experts believe it was a case of humans overexploiting their natural resources – mostly, the palm tree. But exactly where did the culturally rich Rapanui society go too far?...

In interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli model Bar Refaeli slams Israel, announces move to Los Angeles, says has no regrets regarding dodging army service It all started a while back, when top model Bar Refaeli said she had no intention of bringing more of her famous friends to Israel, and announced she was entertaining the idea of relocating to Los Angeles. snip Well, now it’s final. In an interview for a special holiday magazine in Yedioth Ahronoth, Refaeli declared that she was moving to the city of angels. snip In her interview, the Israeli model said she was not against...

The man with the German SupermodelTuesday, September 25, 2007   This scale model of World War II German battleship Admiral Graf Spee is 9m (30ft) long and weighs 320kg (700lb). It took creator William Terra six years to build and cost £5,000. Made from wood strips and fibreglass, the Spee can reach speeds of 15mph, thanks to its 11.2Kw engine. It also plays music by German composer Richard Wagner through an in-built stereo, said former fire officer Mr Terra, 65, from Maine, US.

The South Carolina beauty queen who suffered a geographic meltdown over "U.S. Americans" during last month's Miss Teen USA pageant can now have the last laugh, with the chance to make up to $25,000 a day as a model for Donald Trump. Lauren Caitlin Upton, 18, of Lexington, S.C., reportedly flew to New York City today to begin employment for Trump Model Management. "My lifelong dream has been to travel the world and pursue my modeling career," Upton told WIS-TV. "Randomly, [my mistake] has offered me that opportunity." The station says she'll live in the Trump Apartments in Manhattan, with...

The bull market in stocks continues, but to hear various exponents of the bearish persuasion talk, you'd think the party was ending right now. At least that's the impression I get reading some of their weekly rants on various Internet sites. A reader recently directed me to a web site that features the commentary of the distinguished Dr. John Hussman, who runs the Hussman series of mutual funds. Hussman publishes a weekly commentary on various market-related issues on his web site. In a recent commentary published on the Hussman Funds web site he asked the question, "How Much Do Interest...