Museum Siam and Bangkok Design Week 2018 are the joint organisers of the workshop, “Heraldry 101: What’s in the Coat of Arms?” being held on Sunday starting at 10 as part of the “Muse Playground”. The workshop will cover coats of arms from Europe as well as history and beliefs and help participants design their own coat of arms. Find out more at Facebook.com/museumsiamfan.

Dancing queen gets “Luxurious”

Christina Aguilar – Thailand’s Queen of Dance – takes the stage of the Napalai Ballroom at Dusit Thani Bangkok tomorrow night for “Luxurious” the second in the “Memories Are Forever” concert series, marking the hotel’s 48th anniversary. Tickets costs from Bt3,000 to Bt5,000 at Thai Ticket Major counters and http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com. Find out more at Facebook: RetrocityOfficial.

Simply no sleeping

The Street Festival is back for its second year from today through Sunday at The Street on Ratchadaphisek Road. Running from 10am until midnight and on the theme “Sleepless Together” concept, the festival features the “Sleepless Installation” exhibition, “Sleepless Activity” – about gardening and home deco, “Sleepless Market”, “Sleepless Play”, “Sleepless Place” and “Sleepless Music” from Yes’sir Day today, Bell Supol tomorrow and Atom on Sunday.

Join the conversation at Facebook: The Street Ratchada and Instagram: The_street_ratchada

Getting creative in Chinanatown

Part of the Thailand Creative Design Centre’s Bangkok Design Week 2018, the Chinanatown Fair in the Soi Nana neighbourhood on Sunday showcases the unique environment of this area. Considered one of the original creative areas, Soi Nana started becoming home to artists and designers more than a decade ago and it is now famous for the many well-recognised bars and restaurants smuggled in between artist and design studios.

Bangkok goes digital

The biggest digital expo in the region, the Asia Digital Expo 2018 continues today and tomorrow at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre and features all kind of digital technologies to transform your business into a digital world. People wanting to attend the seminar on “Job Fest: Jobs in the Digital Industry” should preregister at http://www.AsiaDigitalExpo.com. The fair is open to members of the public from 10 to 7.

The Snow Festival was started in 1950, when high-school students built a few snow statues in Odori Park. It has since developed into a large, commercialised event, featuring spectacular snow and ice sculptures and attracting more than two million visitors from Japan and across the world.

The festival is staged on three sites. The first and main site is Odori Park with its famous large snow sculptures, more than 25 metres wide and 15 metres high. They are lit up daily until 10pm.

The park is also the venue for more than 100 smaller snow statues and hosts several concerts and events. A good view over the park is from the Sapporo TV Tower at the eastern end of the park. Opening hours are extended from 8.30 to 10.30pm during the festival. Admission to the top observatory deck costs 720 yen per adult. A 1,100 yen ticket allows a day visit and a night visit.

The second site is at Susukino, named after Sapporo’s largest entertainment district, which exhibits about 100 ice sculptures. Susukino is located only one subway stop south of Odori Park. The ice sculptures are lit up daily until 11pm.

The last is at Tsu Dome, a familyoriented site with three types of snow slides, snow rafting and more snow sculptures. Inside the dome, there are many food stalls and a stage for events. The dome is open daily from 9am to 5pm.

For more information, visit http://www.JapanGuide.com/e/e5311.html.

WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED for her beauty and style, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit was first voted onto the International Best Dressed List in 1960, an honour that was to be renewed several times over the coming years. In 1965, she was elevated to the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame, a recognition that brought both joy and pride to the people of Thailand.

But what was it about her wardrobe that so caught the eye of the viewer? That and much more was explained last week in the talk “Fit For a Queen: Creating Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s Western Wardrobe”, organised by the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles at the Grand Palace as part of the exhibition of the same name to which nine of the Queen’s evening dresses from the 1960s have recently been added.

The lecture was given by co-curators Melissa Leventon and Alisa Saisavetvaree and was followed by a tour of the exhibition.

In 1960, Their Majesties Queen Sirikit and the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej made a six-month-long state visit to the United States and 14 European nations that aimed to enhance Thailand’s cultural and political positions on the international map.

Her Majesty determined that she would need fashionable, seasonally appropriate Western clothing for the tour and commissioned leading French couturier Pierre Balmain to design a regal wardrobe using mainly Thai silk.

It proved a wise decision. Balmain’s creations for Her Majesty were met with great admiration and the West fell in love with Her Majesty’s beauty, elegance and stylish attire.

“Her Majesty’s Western wardrobe was not only fashionable but classic, rich but never vulgar. Each outfit looked, in fact, fit for a Queen,” Leventon said. “The renowned Paris couturier was the perfect choice.”

“Their Majesties had both lived in Europe; Switzerland and France. But neither of them had been formally introduced as Thailand’s monarchy. No one in the West knew what the King and the Queen looked like or the style of the modern Thai Queen. Her Majesty grew up wearing Western clothes so she felt comfortable in Western designs but she also wanted her clothes to represent Thai identity. Balmain was the logical choice. In 1959, he was a young and hot designer and I am sure the Queen would not have missed his name in the fashion magazines. In the late 1950s, Balmain visited Thailand where he met Jim Thompson, and the royal lady-in-waiting, Princess Vibhavadi Rangsit. He was then commissioned to design Her Majesty’s fashionable Western wardrobe, producing the entire collection.

“Her Majesty had a wide variety of events to attend from private dinners to formal dinners, the opera, symphony, theatre, cocktail parties and so on. It is quite challenging to be on display all the time as she was and she held up very well under the strain of being continuously under the microscope of the press. One of the compensations, perhaps, was having unbelievably beautiful ball gowns,” Leventon continued.

Balmain understood the intricacy of contemporary European royal dress codes. He was able to function as Her Majesty’s adviser as well as her designer. And even though the government had offered to pay for an experienced European designer and the wardrobe, Their Majesties insisted that they personally absorb all the costs.

The chic, classic daywear, cocktail dresses, evening dresses, outerwear, and hats Balmain designed for Her Majesty were based on his spring and autumn 1960 collections and utilised Thai silk to give them a hint of Siam. The designer in turn commissioned embroiderer Francois Lesage to finish the designs, while the custom footwear came from shoemaker Rene Mancini and the full suite of luggage from Louis Vuitton. Balmain had everything completed and brought to Bangkok six weeks before the start of the tour, for fitting and final adjustment.

“For the tour of the United States in 1960, she mostly wore Thai national dress. The Queen would disembark from the plane wearing a suit, change into a daytime dress for afternoon engagements such as the Red Cross

event in Washington DC then change again into Thai national dresses for the evening. In Europe she more often wore Western style outfits, donning evening dresses for formal occasions,” she says.

One of the designs on display in the exhibition is a silk satin evening dress with beads, braid, paillette and gold metal coil embroidery by the House of Lesage, which was worn by Her Majesty on July 21, 1960 to a state dinner at Lancaster House in London hosted by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Selwyn Lloyd on behalf of the British Government. She wore the same dress on September 28, 1960 to a state dinner hosted by the Italian President at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, Italy.

“Since it was impossible for the Queen to visit Paris in order to be fitted for the clothes, the fabric would be cut and the pieces sent to Lesage to be embroidered,” Laventon explained.

“When they were finished, they would go back to Balmain, and then they would be seamed together and fitted on Her Majesty dress form, which is what most couturiers would use when the client wasn’t able to come for fittings. That’s how Balmain was able to get her full wardrobe to Bangkok so soon before her departure. Every item had been made to her precise measurements so all he needed to do is tweak. The embroidery, all of which was hand-crafted by Lesage, is one of the highlights of the Balmain collection for the Queen.”

The new installation also includes an evening gown of Thai silk, decorated with beads, metallic silver thread, and paillette embroidery by House of Lesage and trimmed with white mink, worn by Her Majesty to the 13th World Adoption International Fund (WAIF) Ball at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on June 16, 1967.

Another is Nuit a Londres, (“A night in London”), a sumptuous gown made of Thai silk and metallic gold brocade (pha yok), which she wore to a state dinner hosted for President Diosdado Pangan Macapagal and the First Lady at the American Philippines Insurance Building in the Philippines on July 13, 1960.

“Nuit a Londres was originally made from Western brocade but Her Majesty wanted something in Thai silk and gold brocade in a completely different colour. She also added the shoulder straps,” the curator notes.

“As far as I am aware, Her Majesty never wore a strapless dress partly, I think, because she often had to wear a corsage. In fact, Queen Elizabeth also never wears strapless. You will see that if you look at royal photographs. This dress works very well with shoulder straps and you wouldn’t know any different if I hadn’t told l you that originally it was strapless. The dress in this lovely shade of midnight blue was also embroidered and was part of the Balmain collection but made of white velvet and silk and sleeveless, But her Majesty didn’t want it sleeveless so he made a version for her in blue silk and blue velvet with long sleeves and I like this version better,” Laventon said.

“Back then, most couturiers would name their designs and Balmain was no exception, naming them after his close friends, his mother and, in a testament of how important she was to him as a client, Her Majesty. They developed a close personal relationship but as far as we know, the gorgeous pink evening gown from 1962-1963 was the only model Her Majesty bought that was named “Sirikit”.

Balmain remained the designer of Her Majesty’s Western wardrobe for 22 years until his death in 1982. Around 1963, he began to make Her Majesty’s Thai national costumes and in the early 1970s developed strategies to transform Thai village silks into the fashionable Western clothes worn by Her Majesty to support and promote her initiatives in crafts revival. The working partnership between the Queen and the couturier has had a lasting impact in the preservation of indigenous Thai silk weaving and the sartorial expression of Thai identity in both national dress and Western fashion.

REGAL DESIGNS

– The Fit For a Queen exhibition is open daily from 9am to 4:30pm in Galleries 1-2 of the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, Grand Palace.

– The ticket booth closes at 3.30. Stay tuned for upcoming activities at Facebook.com/qsmtthailand and on Instagram at @queensirikitmuseumoftextiles.

Alice & Olivia by Stacey Bendet has just released a new jumper with the message “Big Love” and a sweater and cute red hear bag that promise “All you need is love”. Going somewhere smart? Then don a Beck gown with its rosy print, a sweeping low back, a-line cut and floor-grazing train to look great from every angle.

Furla in the bag

Furla spring and summer 2018 is all about Venice. At the crossroads of style and culture, shapes and colours, all of which characterize the soul of Italy’s Lagoon City, the collection highlights prints that conjure images of Venice’s mosaic floors and brocades of tapestries, re-imagining and digitally reworking them into flower and fruit motifs. The Serenissima prints define Furla’s iconic lines on on leather, nylon and fabric, adding class to the Furla Metropolis and the Furla Stacy bucket tote.

Camper is seeing double

Camper celebrates the 30th anniversary of iconic Twins with a spring-summer collection called “Don’t insist. We don’t sell them separately” that pays tribute to three decades of unique individuality. Since its beginning in 1988, Camper has challenged the idea that shoes must be identical, designing a pair where the right shoe was different from the left. Since then, Twins have been revisited each season with new styles, treatments, and materials. This season multidisciplinary artist Filip Custic provides the visuals with a series of surreal images that capture the dreamlike mood. The collection is now available in stores and online at Camper.com.

Luscious locks for the perfect

Never has there been a more “selfie” ready moment for your hair than now. British hairdresser, Mark Hill, introduces his new product range giving girls salon quality professional at an affordable price. Made with expertly formulated ingredients and up-to-the-minute technology, the new styling collection “Styling Heat Protection Spray” protects against heat damage and adds a natural hold. “Extreme Root Lift” is a non-sticky heat activated spray that instantly boost thickness and volume while “Freeze Hold Hairspray” helps to keep your hair in style all day long.

Powder me Shisedo

Shisedo introduces its new “Future Solution LX: Total Radiance Foundation E” and Total Radiance Loose Powder E”, silky-smooth powders infused with Japanese botanical ingredients to set makeup for a sheer luminous finish and lasting wear. Both comes with an ultra-soft powder puff made in Japan that uses long fibres to hold the powder for the perfect application to all skin types.

Le Guin became best known for her “Earthsea” series, which she began in the late 1960s, in which an apprentice sorcerer fights against the powers of evil, decades before Harry Potter did the same.

As well as novels she also wrote children’s books, short stories, poetry and essays.

“The family of Ursula K. Le Guin is deeply saddened to announce her peaceful death yesterday afternoon,” read a short statement on her verified Twitter account.

Best-selling American crime writer Stephen King mourned her as “one of the greats,” in his own tribute on Twitter.

“Not just a science fiction writer; a literary icon. Godspeed into the galaxy,” he wrote.

Educated at Radcliffe College, Massachusetts, and New York’s Columbia University, Le Guin was a Fulbright Fellow in 1953 and an expert in anthropology. Her father Alfred Louis Kroeber was an ethnologist known for his work on Native Americans.

She published her first novel, “Rocannon’s World,” in 1966. But she first found success with the publication in 1969 of “The Left Hand of Darkness,” which won a string of prizes and became a great science fiction classic.

The novel, the beginning of the Hainish Cycle which contains six other titles, broke with the sclerotic patterns of science fiction’s golden age.

The planet on which “The Left Hand of Darkness” is based is little different from the Earth, except for its glacial climate, but the beings who populate it are radically different: they have only one sex and assume in turn masculine and feminine roles.

In the book she posed questions on sexual identity, and questions what social rules, culture and inner life such a world could exude.

“I tend to avoid fiction about dysfunctional urban middle-class people written in the present tense. This makes it hard to find a new novel, sometimes,” she once said.

In her stories of galactic societies, Le Guin — who said she was influenced by anarchist and Taoist thinking — sought to prove there is no total and permanent solution, either in theology, politics or human science past or future.

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next,” Le Guin said.

She was born on October 21, 1929 in Berkeley, California and later settled in Portland, Oregon in the northwestern United States.

She married historian Charles Le Guin, and the couple had three children.

“The Beach of Love Songs” is the theme for this year’s programme, which is again filled with exciting cultural and musical activities in a relaxing, picturesque and romantic setting.

“The event showcases Krabi’s appeal as a destination that offers nature and beaches, culture and unique local ways of life,” says Yupa Panrod of the Tourism Authority.

“These, of course, are some of the key elements of our new communication concept, ‘Open to the New Shades’, which encourages visitors to experience ‘Amazing Thailand’ in new and different ways.”

The Krabi Naga Fest will feature well-known pop-jazz musicians, street shows, yoga classes, local products on sale, a run-walk to the summit of nearby Mount Ngon Nak (Dragon Crest Mountain) and a beach cleanup.

Fresh seafood and other delicious cuisine four and five-star hotels and resorts will be available every day.

Admission is free. Learn more at (075) 622 163, tatkrai@tat.or.th, call centre 1672, or http://www.TourismThailand.org/thaifest.

The report by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is based on more than 800 peer-reviewed scientific studies on the health effects of electronic cigarettes.

It was compiled at the request of the US Congress, amid a growing international debate over whether e-cigarettes are safe or harmful.

E-cigarettes, which have gained popularity in the last decade, are handheld devices that heat up a nicotine-containing liquid so users can inhale the vapors.

They contain “fewer numbers and lower levels of toxic substances than conventional cigarettes,” said the report.

But they are also addictive.

The amount of nicotine they deliver can vary, but experienced adult e-cigarette users tend to get “a comparable level of nicotine as conventional cigarettes” — leading to “symptoms of dependence” in those who use them.

Reviewed evidence suggests that e-cigarettes are “likely to be far less harmful than tobacco products,” said David Eaton, chair of the committee that wrote the report.

“In some circumstances, such as their use by non-smoking adolescents and young adults, their adverse effects clearly warrant concern,” said Eaton, dean of the graduate school of the University of Washington, Seattle.

Young people are more likely than adults to use e-cigarettes, and the report found “substantial evidence” that vaping increases the risk of smoking conventional cigarettes.

But when adult smokers use e-cigarettes to quit smoking, “they offer an opportunity to reduce smoking-related illness,” said Eaton.

The report found “conclusive evidence” that substituting e-cigarettes for conventional cigarettes “reduces users’ exposure to many toxicants and carcinogens present in conventional cigarettes.”

Switching from regular cigarettes to e-cigarettes also “results in reduced short-term adverse health outcomes in several organ systems.”

But their long term effects remain unknown.

The report found “no available evidence whether or not e-cigarette use” is associated with cancer in people. Animal studies however suggest that long-term e-cigarette use “could increase the risk of cancer.”

Researchers also declined to categorize e-cigarettes as a positive or negative influence on public health.

“More and better research on e-cigarettes’ short- and long-term effects on health and on their relationship to conventional smoking is needed to answer that question with clarity,” said the report.

Eugenie, who is eighth in line to the throne, will marry her nightclub manager boyfriend Jack Brooksbank in late 2018, the palace said.

Eugenie, 27, is the younger daughter of Queen Elizabeth II’s second son Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and his ex-wife Sarah.

“The Duke and Duchess of York are delighted to announce the engagement of Princess Eugenie to Mr Jack Brooksbank,” Buckingham Palace said.

“Her Royal Highness and Mr Brooksbank became engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month.

“The wedding will take place in the autumn of 2018 at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, with further details to be announced in due course.”

The church in the grounds of Windsor Castle, west of London, is where Eugenie’s first cousin Harry is set to marry US actress Meghan Markle on May 19.

Eugenie and her fiance began dating around seven years ago after they met while skiing in the Swiss resort of Verbier. Socialite Brooksbank is the manager of posh central London nightspot Mahiki, known for its celebrity and upper class clientele.

Andrew and Sarah married in 1986 but divorced 10 years later. Their daughters are Princesses Beatrice, 29, and Eugenie.

At the age of 12, Eugenie had back surgery to correct scoliosis and has two titanium rods in her back. She is now patron of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, which carried out the operation.

She went to Newcastle University and graduated with a degree in English literature, art history and politics.

Eugenie rarely carries out public duties on behalf of Queen Elizabeth and works for the Hauser and Wirth art gallery in London as an associate director. She is also the patron of several charities.

Brooksbank’s parents Nicola and George said in a brief statement: “We could not be more delighted with the news of the engagement.

“We are completely over the moon and are very excited for them both.”

The more than 60 tiny fragments of parchment bearing encrypted Hebrew writing had previously been thought to come from a variety of different scrolls, a Haifa University spokesman told AFP on Sunday.

But Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov of the university’s Bible studies department found the pieces all fit together after they started examining them just under a year ago, Ilan Yavelberg said.

“They put it all together and said it was actually one scroll,” he said.

A Haifa University statement said that Ratson and Ben-Dov were now working on deciphering the last remaining scroll.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD.

Numbering around 900, they were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in the Qumran caves above the Dead Sea.

The parchment and papyrus scrolls contain Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic writing, and include several of the earliest-known texts from the Bible, including the oldest surviving copy of the Ten Commandments.

Many experts believe the manuscripts of the Dead Sea were written by the Essenes, a dissident Jewish sect that had retreated into the Judaean desert around Qumran and its caves.

The latest deciphered scroll contains references to the 364-day calendar used by the sect, as opposed to the lunar calendar used in Jewish religious practice today.

It also refers to annual wine and olive harvest festivals no longer observed in Judaism.

WITH THE world’s population ageing fast and in many countries too few youngsters to fill their shoes, the focus on child development has moved from simply teaching them the basics – reading, writing and maths. Today, greater emphasis is being placed on technology and computer skills as well on what are known as executive functions, EF for short, best described as working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control.

Preparing kids for a successful future starts, the experts say, in early childhood and indeed international research bears this out, with consensus reached that the development of children’s potential is based on the understanding of the brain’s nature and how it works.

Dow Thailand, which has been operating in the Kingdom for more than 50 years, supported the 2017 EF Symposium “Thai Children’s Brain: The Foundation of Thailand’s Future” and took the opportunity to showcase its project “Dow- EF Development for Successful Youth & Rayong Happiness”.

The project was initiated in 2016 by Dow Thailand Group and 19 agencies from Rayong Province including community leaders, teachers, village health volunteers, health promoting hospital officers, public health officers, and nurseries. Its objective is to enhance youth care with Executive Functions (EF) during early childhood and has been designed to complement the Thai government’s infrastructure support to prepare the country for Thailand 4.0.

Several parties have turned their attention to the development of children’s cognitive thinking through EF in recent years. EF is located in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It governs the thinking process and behaviour of children aged 0-six years to adolescents. These skills are crucial for not only intelligence enhancement but also morale-boosting. EF helps encourage children to express their confidence, initiate ideas, act upon them, ask questions and search for the answers in an appropriate manner. In short, it forms a foundation for positive disciplines.

“Dow Thailand Group recognises the importance of EF for children’s development and aims to achieve it through integrated and sustainable collaboration between among the Ban Chang Strategic Development Team, RLG Group (Rakluke), community leaders, teachers, and volunteers including “Change Agents”,” explains Poranee Kongamornpinyo, the Group’s public affairs director.

“The team has been working to expand and track progress continuously and drive the project to success through individual expertise, contribution, knowledge and technique-sharing within the collaborative network.”

A human brain is categorised by function into three main parts. EF is a mental process in the frontal part that controls cognitive, analysing, inhibiting, and emotional skills. This part of the brain is best developed from birth to 6 years old. It is a set of skills that governs IQ and EQ and is classified into three groups, namely Basic Skills, Self-Regulation Skills, and Practice Skills. These skills enable children to learn, solve problems, socialise, and lead a happy and successful life.

Research conducted by the National Statistical Office of Thailand has shown that the number of cross-generation families in which father, mother, children, and senior relatives are living together has increased by 35.9 per cent. This suggests that all family members play a role and contribute to the process of children’s upbringing.

“EF development in children is directly related to neuroscience and high-level brain processing especially in the frontal part of the brain. It needs to be well developed as it constructively contributes to one’s life,” says Assistant Professor Dr Vorasit Siripornpanich.

The prime period for EF development is between the ages of three and six years old until pre-adult. This indicates that the earlier we develop these skills in children, the better we can enhance their learning process, enabling them to have life immunity.”

On Thai Children’s Day earlier this month, Dow volunteers joined with Change Agents to organise EF activities for parents and children in Ban Chang district. These included the “EF music activity” where each child was responsible for one musical instrument while the instructors assigned a sign for the instrument for the children to play when prompted, which helped with the children’s ability to focus on a specific task.

All the activities were designed to enhance emotional, social, and psychological development in the youngsters, giving them the opportunity to practice self-assessment, problem-solving and decision-making skills, as well as creativity. Most importantly, the children were able to share quality time with their parents and friends to help improve their social skills.

The “DOW – EF Development for Successful Youth & Rayong Happiness” project has now expanded to 65 schools and 11 public health institutions in Rayong and has 240 Change Agents helping drive the project through 60 activities. A total of 60,000 people have benefited from this project.