The Top Ten Sexy Ray Harryhausen Monsters

The author contemplates his task.
This was a hard list to make! But a necessary one. So much competition! The anatomical perfection of the skeleton army from THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD… the muscular sheen of Minoton from SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER… not to mention the dazzling intellect and warm personal manner of the Grand Lunar in FIRST MEN IN THE MOON. Finally, the only characters who could be definitely excluded from the running were the giant squirrel in THE THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER and Bubo the aluminium owl.

10) It, from IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA.
Tentacles… tentacles are sexy, right?

9) Cyclops from THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD
Maybe the one guy I’d go queer for. Spectacular upper body definition. As for the lower body… well, it’s a look, I suppose. Just imagine he’s wearing cowboy chaps.

8) Serpent Woman from THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD
Slinky. I love a woman with vertebrae instead of femurs. Picture the possibilities! Even if her face does put one in mind of Corporal Klinger from TV’s M*A*S*H. That’s why veils were invented.

7) Talos from JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
The Greeks have a word for it,  and the word is “ah-woo-wa-woo-wa-wowa!”

6) Homonicus from THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD
There’s a clue in the name.

5) Figurehead from THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD
A woman with perpetually hard nipples. Because they’re made of wood. Splinters aside, that still seems more organic than silicone.

4) Kali from THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD
Six arms to hold you! Body of Jacqueline Bisset! Legs of Janeane Garofalo! Arms of Jacqueline Bisset AND Janeane Garofalo!

3) Troglodyte from SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER
Kinda cute, if you like Iggy Pop.

2) Medusa from CLASH OF THE TITANS
Maybe CLASH OF THE TITANS was Ray’s male menopause movie? We get an unconvincing body double nude scene for Judy Bowker, Theseus’s mom breast-feeding him, and then this. All this nudity was a new thing for Harryhausen movies, and seems sort of unsuited to the kid audience… Still, Medusa may be lethal and reptilian, but damn she’s pert.

1) Mighty Joe Young from MIGHTY JOE YOUNG
Ah, ya big ape! Who among is can resist the might and musk of the giant gorilla? And since his “gorillahood” is pretty tiny, proportionate to the rest of his physique, you can be confident he won’t be too “boku”. At the end of the day, it’s his winning personality that counts.
Honorary mention: Kate Calendar’s skeleton from FIRST MEN IN THE MOON. Full-frontal x-ray nudity! Who wouldn’t want to jump on those bones?
You’ll note that I avoid speculating on which of the stop-motion figurines would make the best sex-toy (the Kraken, obviously — just add batteries and he’s a reptilian rampant rabbit), and I refuse to suggest titles for porno versions (JASON AND THE ORGYNAUTS, 20 MILLION MALES TO EARTH, IT CAME BENEATH THE SEA, that’s the kind of thing you just won’t find here). Still, I feel I’ve plumbed some kind of new low here. Tomorrow I attempt to claw back some kind of respect and innocence as I write up the incredible evening we had in London at the celebration of Mr. H’s 90th birthday

Why so cold in eastern U.S.? Winter's 'wild card' in play

Enlarge	By Mario Tama, Getty Images
People walk through the snow in Manhattan's East Village Monday in New York City.

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By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

Teeth-chattering, bitterly cold winds have swept across the eastern half of the USA this month, sending December temperatures to near-record cold levels all the way from Minneapolis to Miami.

Blame it mainly on the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and its close cousin, the Arctic Oscillation (AO). These large-scale climate patterns in the atmosphere over the Arctic and north Atlantic Ocean strongly affect winter weather.

The swings in atmospheric pressure between the polar regions and the mid-latitudes (areas that are populated) "cause a redistribution in temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere," says meteorologist Michelle L'Heureux of the Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md.

L'Heureux says December's NAO has been in what scientists call its "negative" or "cold" phase, causing Arctic air to surge farther south into the central and eastern USA.

The cold air can also invade northern and western Europe, as it has this month, causing travel troubles in the U.K., Germany and France. Meanwhile, Greenland and much of eastern and northern Canada are experiencing a relatively mild month.

The NAO was in a record negative phase last winter, which supplied the cold air that contributed to the colossal snowfalls in the Mid-Atlantic states, L'Heureux says. "The NAO this winter — so far — is not approaching those record values yet."

When the NAO and AO are in their "positive" or "warm" phase, the USA and northern Europe see milder winters.

Vikings recorded these effects nearly a thousand years ago, according to James Hurrell of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. They noticed severe winters tended to strike Greenland in tandem with mild winters in Denmark, and vice versa — a classic NAO effect, he says.

The NAO and AO can overwhelm the effects of the more well-known El Niño/La Niña climate patterns, which are changes in temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean that affect weather worldwide. However, El Niño and La Niña are what climatologists primarily rely upon to make their seasonal forecasts.

"The NAO/AO are this winter's — and every winter's — wild card," L'Heureux says. "We know that because they are not predictable past two weeks. They can become quite strong and wreak havoc on the seasonal forecasts."

A slight break from the cold blast should be on the way for the eastern USA this week, according to the Climate Prediction Center, as the NAO and AO have shifted more toward their "positive" or "warm" phase in recent days.

US pilot 'probed over YouTube videos of airport lapses'

San Francisco International Airport has a strict screening regime for passengers

US officials are investigating a pilot who released videos allegedly revealing security lapses at San Francisco's airport, the pilot's lawyer says.

Lawyer Don Werno said the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was checking whether his client had revealed sensitive information.
The videos on YouTube allegedly showed ground crew members swiping security cards and then entering the airport's secure areas without any screening.
The TSA said it had "taken action".
'Confident' Mr Werno said the 50-year-old pilot, who has not been identified, remained employed with a major airline, but had been withdrawn from a programme that trained flight crew to help prevent hijackings. The pilot's federally issued firearm had been confiscated, he said.
The lawyer said that the pilot, in videos posted in November and December, had wanted to highlight what he felt were security gaps for ground crews - including luggage handlers and caterers - at San Francisco International Airport.
He added that the tapes hardly contained any sensitive information as they could have been shot by any passenger aboard a taxiing plane.
The TSA said in a statement that it was "confident in the tools the airport has implemented and reminds passengers there are security measures in place that are both seen and unseen".
It added that it "responded and took action in this situation because the pilot in question was an FFDO" (federal flight deck officer).
"FFDOs must be able to maintain sensitive security information as a condition of the FFDO programme," it said, without providing further details.
The videos have now been removed from YouTube.

Playboy's Hugh Hefner to marry Playmate Crystal Harris

Hefner admits affairs with many Playmates over the years but vowed fidelity to Harris in April

Hugh Hefner, the 84-year-old founder of Playboy magazine, has announced that he is to be married for the third time.

In a message to his Twitter followers on Christmas Day, Hefner said he had given his 24-year-old girlfriend, model Crystal Harris, a ring.
"Yes, the ring I gave Crystal is an engagement ring," he clarified in a later tweet.
Hefner set up Playboy magazine in 1953, and Harris featured in it as Playmate of the Month in December 2009.
The soft-porn magnate and libertarian has been married twice before - to Mildred Williams in 1949, and Kimberley Conrad in 1989.
Over the decades he has admitted affairs with dozens of Playmates.
But last April Hefner and Harris reportedly "became exclusive".
"When I gave Crystal the ring, she burst into tears," Hefner told Twitter followers.
"This is the happiest Christmas weekend in memory."
For her part, Harris told Twitter followers simply: "The most memorable Christmas ever.

Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables

By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

Hunter, gatherer, vegetarian masterchef?

Neanderthals cooked and ate plants and vegetables, a new study of Neanderthal remains reveals.

Researchers in the US have found grains of cooked plant material in their teeth.
The study is the first to confirm that the Neanderthal diet was not confined to meat and was more sophisticated than previously thought.
The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The popular image of Neanderthals as great meat eaters is one that has up until now been backed by some circumstantial evidence. Chemical analysis of their bones suggested they ate little or no vegetables.
This perceived reliance on meat had been put forward by some as one of the reasons these humans become extinct as large animals such as mammoths declined due to an Ice Age.
But a new analysis of Neanderthal remains from across the world has found direct evidence that contradicts the chemical studies. Researchers found fossilised grains of vegetable material in their teeth and some of it was cooked.
Although pollen grains have been found before on Neanderthal sites and some in hearths, it is only now there is clear evidence that plant food was actually eaten by these people.

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We have found pollen grains in Neanderthal sites before but you never know whether they were eating the plant or sleeping on them or what”

End Quote Professor Alison Brooks George Washington University

Professor Alison Brooks, from George Washington University, told BBC News: "We have found pollen grains in Neanderthal sites before but you never know whether they were eating the plant or sleeping on them or what.

"But here we have a case where a little bit of the plant is in the mouth so we know that the Neanderthals were consuming the food."
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One question raised by the study is why the chemical studies on Neanderthal bones have been wide of the mark. According to Professor Brooks, the tests were measuring proteins levels, which the researchers assumed came from meat.
"We've tended to assume that if you have a very high value for protein in the diet that must come from meat. But... it's possible that some of the protein in their diet was coming from plants," she said.
This study is the latest to suggest that, far from being brutish savages, Neanderthals were more like us than we previously thought.

Strike over massive Bolivia fuel price rises begins

Soldiers and military vehicles provided alternative means of transport for some

Transport workers in Bolivia have begun an indefinite strike, called in protest at an increase of more than 70% in the price of fuel.

Commuters struggled to reach the main cities, and army lorries were used to help people get to work.
The Bolivian government withdrew its heavy subsidies for petrol and diesel on Sunday, saying it was not prepared to keep fuel prices artificially low.
It said much of Bolivia's oil was being smuggled out of the country.
But the drivers' confederation, which groups together bus and lorry operators, said the price rise would have a negative impact that would be widely felt.
"This won't just affect the transport sector, this will affect everyone because all prices will rise," said spokesman Franklin Duran.
The country's vice-president said that it no longer made economic sense to subsidise an industry whose profits were flowing out of Bolivia.
"The subsidy of hydrocarbon products, which has gone up from $80m in 2005, to $380m in 2010 [...] instead of going to the exterior - instead of being an open vein of Bolivians that nourishes foreign interests - [...] should stay in the country to benefit Bolivians," said Alvaro Garcia Linera.
Fuel prices in the impoverished South American country, which had been frozen for almost a decade, will now rise by 73% for low-octane petrol and 83% for diesel.
The government has said it will compensate for the fuel price rise by increasing public sector wages and freezing utility bills.
But the sudden embracing of free market principles will be a tough test of support for the country's left-wing President Evo Morales, correspondents say.

Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport protest over ice chaos

Passengers at Domodedovo faced both power cuts and cancellations

Exasperated air passengers stranded after freezing rain disrupted flights have staged protests inside at least one Moscow airport, media reports say.

The passengers occupied baggage inspection areas at Sheremetyevo, northwest of the Russian capital.
The rain, which immediately became ice on the ground, led to cancellations of 200 flights and caused power failures which shut a second airport for hours.
More than 400,000 people in the Moscow area were left without electricity.
The outage was caused by tree branches touching power lines loaded down with ice.
Bad weather also turned many streets in the city into ice rinks, with power supplies to trams and trolley buses damaged and huge traffic jams forming.
Interfax news agency said 1,350 people were taken to hospital in the Moscow area with ice-related injuries, while 27 were injured by falling trees weighed down by ice.
Food shortages Passengers on a flight from Sheremetyevo to Bangkok who had been waiting to depart for more than 24 hours staged their protest in hand luggage inspection areas in the duty free zone, after being told of further delays to their flight, Ria news agency reported.
Some banged on baskets used for personal effects, demanding attention from airport officials and representatives of the Aeroflot airline.
There were also reports of food shortages at the airport.
"What annoys people most of all is that no-one is explaining anything to them," one passenger told the agency.
The city's other main airport, Domodedovo, remained shut for more than 10 hours on Sunday, after the power supply was cut off, officials said.
Unconfirmed reports there said a group of passengers stormed the passport control zone demanding information about their flights.
Officials said the situation was returning to normal at both airports but local media said there were still power problems at Domodedovo.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu to do "everything you can and mobilise all units to ease the situation in the airports and transport".

Airports reopen after monster blizzard in north-east US

Many flights are still experiencing severe delays, US officials say

Airports have reopened in the north-eastern US after blizzards caused some 7,000 flights to be cancelled over the busy post-Christmas travel period.

Services have now resumed into and out of New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
But officials warn it could take days to clear the flight backlog for tens of thousands of stranded passengers.
Analysts say the storm and its aftermath could cost the airlines up to $100m (£64m). The blizzards also disrupted rail and road traffic.
The conditions were blamed for a car crash in Maine in which a 59-year-old man died, and for stranding two buses carrying some 50 passengers on a New Jersey motorway.
National rail operator Amtrak - which earlier shut its New York-Boston route - announced a limited resumption of services.
The US National Weather Service says the monster snow storm is the result of a low pressure system which originated off North Carolina.
However, forecasters are now expecting milder weather for the rest of the week, which could help in speeding up the clearing of snow.
'Jigsaw puzzle'

Many passengers had to camp out on floors in terminals

Three airports serving New York - JFK, La Guardia and Newark Liberty International Airport - and also Boston's Logan and Philadelphia International reopened on Monday evening.
They had been closed since early morning, forcing thousands of passengers to camp out on floors in terminals.
Overall, nearly 7,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday and Monday.
Although the worst weather is thought to have passed, many flights are still experiencing severe delays because of strong winds and what remains of the snow.
And airline officials warn that it could take days to rebook passengers whose flights were delayed or cancelled.
"Any airline scheduler will tell you it's like playing with a jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces keep changing shape," American Airlines spokesman Ed Martell was quoted as telling the Associated Press.
"In some cases we can't give them a new seat because we don't know."
Sales hit Six US states - Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia - earlier all declared emergencies.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick warned that the storm was "expected to produce widespread heavy snowfall, periods of zero visibility, high winds, power outages, coastal flooding, and beach erosion", AFP reported.
Power had already reportedly been cut to tens of thousands of homes in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The New York area received up to 51cm (20in) of snow over the last two days.
A subway train was trapped for seven hours before passengers were rescued.
The southern states of Georgia and South Carolina had their first white Christmas in more than a century.
But Washington DC escaped the blizzard, with only a dusting of snow.
The storm moved to Canada's Atlantic coast early on Monday. Around 27,000 homes in Nova Scotia and 11,000 consumers in the New Brunswick area were reportedly left without power.
The timing of the snowstorm meant disruption for many thousands travelling after Christmas reunions and hampered the start of the shopping sales season and the return to work for many commuter

AU names Kenya's Raila Odinga as Ivory Coast mediator

On Monday, supporters of Alassane Ouattara took over the Ivory Coast's embassy in Paris

The African Union has asked Kenyan PM Raila Odinga to lead its efforts to resolve Ivory Coast's political crisis.

The AU said Mr Odinga had been asked to "follow through the crisis", a month after the country's disputed polls.
The Union and other international bodies say incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo is not the legitimate winner.
A delegation of heads of state - from Benin, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde - from the West African body Ecowas is heading to the country for talks.
The regional group has warned Mr Gbagbo of possible military intervention if he does not hand over to Alassane Ouattara, who has been recognised internationally as the victor.
Mr Gbagbo's Interior Minister Emile Guirieoulou told a news conference that his government would "welcome the three heads of states as brothers and friends, and listen to the message they have to convey".
On Monday, supporters of Mr Ouattara briefly took over the Ivory Coast embassy in Paris.
Some 20 protesters spent six hours in the building calling for Mr Gbagbo to step aside, before leaving peacefully, French television reported.
The move came after France, the former colonial power, recognised Mr Ouattara's proposed envoy as the country's ambassador.
Mr Ouattara's victory in 28 November polls was overturned by the Constitutional Council, a body headed by a Gbagbo ally, citing claims that results were rigged in the north.
'Brothers and friends' Correspondents say the AU's appointment is another setback for Mr Gbagbo, as Mr Odinga has been hawkish on the crisis, and was the first African leader to call for military action.

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Mr Odinga has said he planned to talk to Mr Gbagbo, but would wait for the outcome of the Ecowas talks before deciding his next move.

"[Mr Gbagbo] has of course portrayed himself as a democrat all his life, that's why he lived very many years in France in exile," Mr Odinga told the BBC. "So I think I'm going to try to impress upon him that the time has come for him to lead by example."
"This, I think, is something that needs to be said and to tell him also that he risks becoming an international pariah if he tries to continue to cling to power. Going by the current trends he will have no friends left any more anyway."
Mr Odinga was named Kenya's prime minister in 2008 in a coalition government after weeks of political unrest.
However he dismissed the possibility of power-sharing between Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ouattara, saying that the election commission, not the constitutional court, was the only legitimate authority to determine the winner.