Tag Archives: find

Austrian find dates bras back to 15th century


1 of 4. A brassiere from the late Middle Ages is pictured at the University of Innsbruck, archaeology department July 24, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Michaela Rehle

VIENNA | Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:59am EDT

VIENNA (Reuters) – Four mediaeval bras have been found in a collection of textiles excavated from an Austrian castle, confounding conventional wisdom that bras did not exist before the 19th century.

The linen garments were found in the remains of Lengberg Castle in eastern Tyrol. They resemble modern bras in that they have two distinct cups, and have decorative needle lace that would not have been visible when worn under a dress.

The bras were among 2,700 textile fragments found during archaeological investigations of the castle by a team from the University of Innsbruck, which began in 2008.

Carbon dating has now confirmed that the garments date back to the 15th century, the researchers said.

Varying accounts exist of who invented the modern bra, but Sigmund Lindauer, who came from a German family of corset makers, patented an elastic version in 1913 and began mass producing the garments.

The metal shortages of World War Two helped hasten the demise of the corset.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Reuters: Oddly Enough

Kozlowski’s $6,000 shower curtain to find new home


NEW YORK | Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:44am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dennis Kozlowski’s infamous $ 6,000 shower curtain will soon have a new home.

The custom gold-and-burgundy curtain, which helped turn Kozlowski into a poster boy for corporate greed, has been held in storage by prosecutors since before his conviction in 2005.

On Thursday, a New York judge ruled it should be released to Tyco International Ltd, the firm Kozlowski, as chief executive, looted of more than $ 100 million.

The shower curtain, which featured prominently at his criminal trials, hung in a maid’s bathroom at 950 Fifth Avenue in New York, an apartment Tyco bought for Kozlowski for $ 16.8 million in 2001.

Other items from the apartment included: a $ 15,000 umbrella stand, a $ 1,650 enamel and sterling silver notebook, a $ 17,100 “traveling toilette” box, a $ 2,200 gilt metal waste basket, and a $ 445 pin cushion.

Tyco is now getting all six items.

“At trial, the evidence established that said property had been paid with Tyco International Ltd. funds,” Assistant District Attorney Connie Fernandez said in court papers this week. “Tyco International Ltd. has requested that said property be released to them.”

New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus issued the order releasing the items on Thursday.

“We’re complying with the DA’s request to take it,” said Paul Fitzhenry, a spokesman for Tyco. “The matter is still under litigation.”

Fitzhenry said he did not know what Tyco would do with the shower curtain and other furnishings.

“It’s not my taste,” said Herman Weisberg, the detective who seized the curtain and is now managing director of private investigator Sage Intelligence Group LLC. “But I bet some hedge fund guy would like to hang it as his trophy.”

Gary Zimet, who sells rare documents and other historic memorabilia on his website Moments In Time (momentsintime.com), said the drapery probably wasn’t worth much on the market.

“Very, very little,” he said. “If he paid $ 6,000, it probably wholesales for $ 500. “This is designer crap for people who have more money than brains.”

The curtain came from Seldom Scene Interiors of Nantucket, Massachusetts, which sent Kozlowski an invoice in January 2002.

At a Parole Board hearing in April, Kozlowski, who is serving 8 1/3 to 25 years, told the commissioners he had rationalized his thefts.

“I had a strong sense of entitlement at that time,” Kozlowski said, according to a transcript. “I was living in a CEO-type bubble.”

Kozlowski was denied parole. He was moved to a facility in Manhattan in January as part of a work-release program.

Stephen Kaufman, an attorney for Kozlowski, declined to comment.

The case is People v Kozlowski, indictment number 5259/2002, New York State Supreme Court, New York County.

(Reporting By Karen Freifeld; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)



Reuters: Oddly Enough

Indiana refinery workers find dead monkeys in crate


HOUSTON | Thu Jun 7, 2012 2:23pm EDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Indiana refinery workers got a surprise when they opened a crate of valves from India and found the remains of two small monkeys, which had been there for at least a year.

“Sadly in this age of global transport of goods and materials, sometimes wildlife finds its way into overseas shipments,” BP Plc spokesman Scott Dean said on Thursday. “We believe this is just a sad case of the animals becoming trapped in a large shipping container.”

Workers at BP’s 405,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery found the remains on Wednesday in a large crate of valves, Dean said.

The 5-foot (1.5-meter) by 10-foot (3-meter) wooden crate, containing valves for a $ 4.4-billion upgrade of the refinery currently underway, was shipped from India and arrived at a Louisiana warehouse in June 2011, he said.

The crate was at the Louisiana warehouse until being shipped to the Whiting refinery a few weeks ago, he said.

“The animals were removed for safe disposal per U.S. Center for Disease Control guidance,” Dean said. “There was never any threat to workers or the wider community.”

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)



Reuters: Oddly Enough

Suda51 Hopes to Find Fans in a New Genre With Lollipop Chainsaw


The plight hovering over the crazy, over-the-top antics of any Suda51 title has been the developer’s inability to find a reasonably large audience willing to support his creations wholeheartedly. With last June’s EA-backed Shadows of the Damned, the shooter crowd proved less-than-keen about going to Hell to save the hero’s girlfriend, even if critics claimed it may be the best game the studio ever produced (1UP didn’t, admittedly). Realistically, EA never expected the title to do Call of Duty numbers, but it’s never a good sign when such a hyped-up game sells only 24,000 copies upon its release.

WB Interactive is clearly hoping to cash in on pop culture’s renewed interest in zombies with the release Lollipop Chainsaw this June. The title falls almost a year to the day after 2011′s Shadows of the Damned; and, for better or worse, WB Interactive seems to be taking the same approach in marketing Lollipop as EA did with Shadows last year.

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Port Surveillance News: CPSC Investigators Find, Stop Nearly 650,000 Unsafe Products at the Start of Fiscal Year 2012


Investigators with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) prevented more than half a million violative and hazardous imported products from reaching the hands of consumers in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012.
US Consumer Product Safety Commission – Recent Recalls and Product Safety News