Lady Gaga and Charlies Angels

Maria Shriver Images

Maria Owings Shriver (born November 6, 1955) is an American journalist and author of six best-selling books. She has received a Peabody Award, and was co-anchor for NBC's Emmy-winning coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics. As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award for developing a "television show with a conscience". She was formerly First Lady of California as the wife of actor and then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is a member of the Kennedy family (John F. Kennedy was her uncle on her mother's side).

Aarti Chhabria Images

Aarti Chhabria ( born 21 November 1982) is an Indian actress and a former model, who appears in Bollywood, Telugu and Kannada movies.

Chabaria was born in Mumbai. She comes from a Sindhi family. Her family has no connections with Bollywood or any other Indian movie industry. Her father is a dentist Dr. Ashok Chabria, and her mother Sunita Chabria is a designer for beaded curtains and pelmets. She has a younger brother named Abhishek.

Temple Church, London

The Temple Church in London is a historic and beautiful church, located between the River Thames in the South and Fleet Street in the North. Its location shows how prestigious the Order of the Nights Templar had become.

This Temple was a centre of economic and political activity. The Church was built by the Knights Templar, the order of crusading monks which was founded in order to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem in the 12th century.

They were one of the two most powerful military-religious order of medieval Europe. Only the Kinghts Hospitaller rivalled them. The Templars's story commenced with the First Crusade. They received their name after the king of Jerusalem gave them headquarters on the Temple Mount, which was built 1000 years ago by Herod the Great.

The Church consists of two parts, the Round and the Chancel. The Round Church was consecrated in 1185 by Heraclius the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who was in London at the time. It was designed to recall the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which was built in the 4th century by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine.

The London Temple was the Templars' headquarters in Great Britain. In the beginning the Templars were liked and respected. St. Bernard of Clairvaux became their patron and they gained many privileges from popes and much support from kings.

After the Order was abolished in 1307 by the Pope, King Edward II took control of the London Temple and eventually handed it over to the Order of St. John, i.e. the Knights Hospitaller, who had worked with the Templars. (Its important to state that the Knights Hospitaller redefined themselves in the 19th century by becoming providers of emergency medical care. The Order of St. John continues to this day to offer first aid and nursing, in peace and war, not only in Britain but all around the world).

During King Henry VIII's reign the Temple was confiscated and again belonged to the Crown. A priest was provided who received the title "Master of the Temple".

In 1941 the church was badly damaged by incendiary bombs. The roof of the round church burned first and the wind soon spread the fire to the nave and the choir. The organ was also destroyed. Due to these catastrophic events the restoration process took a long time. However now the church is still a historical and religious site one needs to visit when in London.

BRAIN INITIATIVE - WEEK #15

The Initiative is really spreading worldwide!! I can not be more thrilled to know the increasing numbers of people who are sharing and posting the fact each week and are e-mailing to 5 new people each week!

Isn't wonderful to know how many people are coming together to contribute to creating the understanding of early brain development? Our children are benefiting from all of these simple efforts!!

Every child that... receives more loving interactions, has playtime increased everyday, is read to, lives with more routine and predictability, is provided with more nutritious foods, and has the chance to spend time outdoors... THANKS YOU!

Following is the Week #15 BRAIN insight to share:

BRAIN

Brains Require All Investing Now

A BRAIN Insight to share ~ Week #15

Research demonstrates that play and interactive experiences in nature have a very positive impact on healthy brain development and learning.

Let's make this common knowledge!
To share this brain fact just cut and paste or use the the share button!

You can simply post the insight on social network sites
You can also include the fact in organizational literature or newsletters, add to your signature on your e-mail, post on a bulletin board and implement it into what you do each week.
Additionally each week, e-mail the BRAIN Insight to 5 people you know. Encourage each person to share it with 5 people they know. If each person shares with 5 people each week... we will finally have EVERYONE knowing this incredibly important information!

Enjoy contributing to make this common knowledge!!

Spreading Brain Development Even Further .... Click here to send the name of a program, agency, school, organization or business that will benefit from a brain development packet. I will draw a name and donate a brain development activity packet

for the age of your choice, in the name of the person making the recommendation each week!!

The WINNER for WEEK #14:

Aldrich Memorial Nursery School of Rochester, MN

A brain development packet for the age of their choice will be donated in the name of : Lorene Fleming

Congratulations!!

Have you sent in your nomination?

There are many terrific programs and agencies already nominated from all over the world! I invite you to nominate programs, schools, organizations, or agencies that would benefit from a donated brain activity packet in either English or Spanish.

THANK YOU to all that are participating the initiative already! Tell everyone you know about the difference we can make!

Dragon Tattoo fever

Okay, I'll admit it....my real excitement for the upcoming Hollywood version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movie doesn't have a whole lot to do with my love for the Stieg Larsson book trilogy. I've only finished the first one so far and thought it was an okay read, aside from the fact that I'm really not a fan of graphic sexual violence. The real reasons I'm so excited for the movie are: A) I have a huge and not-so-secret crush on the handsome actor Daniel Craig; B) I really, really, really want to hear how well a bunch of American and Brit actors pull off fake Swedish accents in English; and C) A good portion of the movie was filmed within a half hour drive of where I live, not only in Stockholm but on our neighboring island of Ingarö.

Last fall I spent an afternoon stalking the set of the movie in Stockholm and even though I don't think I managed to catch Mr. Hottie Craig (unless that's him in the second photo), it was still fun to watch them turning this huge rain machine on and off during filming:

Here's the trailer for the movie...not due to come out until December, but by then I'll most likely be ready to find a babysitter and hit the movie theater for a couple of hours:

In other random Dragon Tattoo trivia, the original Swedish title is Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, or Men Who Hate Women. The original title is much more true to the plot, since the tattooed heroine isn't necessarily the main focus of the story, but my hunch is that in order to earn more money they changed the English title to make it sound titillating and dangerous instead of like a book from the self-help section....