Kate Middleton's fashion

Kate Middleton’s latest contribution to fashion: pantyhose. After two straight weeks of pairing knockout designer dresses with '80s-style sheer stockings, the Duchess of Cambridge has proven that everything she touches—really everything—turns to style gold.
The last time Leggs were in fashion, Melanie Griffith was teasing her hair and rambling on about 'Trask'. But after a few months and a North American tour showing off shimmering gams, Kate's bringing back the look for a new generation. 

Egg-crate color is out, and clear, almost fairy-dusted iridescence is in. But the song remains the same: she's got Leggs and she knows how to use them.
 
“Sheer pantyhose look quite elegant,” writes the Boston Globe’s Beth Teitell, after scanning photos of Prince William’s wife in a carousel of dresses over the past two weeks. Teitell welcomes the redux as an antidote to shaving cuts and dry, unevenly fake-tanned knees. 

Already, the trend has caught on in the UK, with a significant spike in nude hosiery sales since Kate's made them part of her dressing routine, according to the Daily Mail.

But skeptics say Kate's hosed-up look has less to do with her own invention and more to do with protocol. It's an unwritten rule that royal ambassadors and guests attend events dressed to make the queen proud: closed-toed shoes, mid-length skirts and pantyhose. Lady Di’s sheer stockings (DKNY’s were her brand of choice) were such a staple of her regal look, they were incorporated into replica Franklin Mint dolls. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a former cutting-edge catwalker, has been spotted at official events in the less-than-edgy hose. Even Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton, a by-proxy royal, has been spotted in the sheer legwear.

On a recent royal visit, Tom Hank’s wife, Rita Wilson complained that she was required to wear hosiery for an event at Buckingham Palace, sparking murmurs of a palace dress code. “Women must wear closed-toed shoes – and get this: stockings! Sheer disbelief – I don’t even own a pair of sheer hose,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.

According to the official royal website, the palace no longer has a dress code, but those hoping to gain admittance to royal events in the UK or abroad,  even members of media covering an event, are expected to “comply with the dress code on formal occasions out of respect for the guests of The Queen, or any other member of the Royal Family.”

For guests of a royal wedding that means evening gowns. For female journalists at any type of palace-sponsored event that means trousers or a skirt suit. And if we’re talking skirt suits, a staple of the '80s business woman and the queen, we’re also implying sheer tights.

In the office, sheer stockings have become dividing line between two generations. The younger, embracing bare legs and self-tanner, over the old guard’s corporate mandate of stockings. But in the business of being a royal, the queen still has an indisputable style influence, even over one of the world’s biggest trendsetters. Now it looks like that influence is spreading internationally.

But don't expect it to overtake the White House. First Lady Michelle Obama, though known on occasion to sport the legwear, is not a fan. "I stopped wearing pantyhose a long time ago, because it was painful and they'd always rip,"  Kate's fellow style icon announced on "The View" in 2008. "Put 'em on, rip 'em..it's inconvenient."

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Comet Death captured on camera

The death of a comet that plunged into the sun was captured on camera this month for the first time in history, scientists say.

The comet met its fiery demise on July 6 when it zoomed in from behind the sun and melted into oblivion as it crashed into the star. It was NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a satellite orbiting Earth that studies the sun, which witnessed the comet's death-blow.

One of the SDO spacecraft's high-definition imagers "actually spotted a sun-grazing comet as it disintegrated over about a 15 minute period (July 6, 2011), something never observed before," SDO officials said. [See the observatory's image of the comet death]

Comets have been spotted near the sun before, but last week's object was the first to be observed in real-time as it disappeared.

"Given the intense heat and radiation, the comet simply evaporated away completely," SDO officials said.

The comet was a type known to astronomers as a sun-grazing comet because its path brought it extremely close to the sun.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a joint NASA-European Space Agency spacecraft, also spotted the comet's demise and recorded a video of the event.

"This is one of the brightest sun-grazers SOHO has recorded, similar to the Christmas comet of 1996," SOHO project scientist Bernhard Fleck said in a statement.

SOHO officials said that, because of the angle of the comet's orbit, it passed across the front half of the sun and appeared to brighten as it struck hotter particles above the solar surface.

Sun-grazing comets are relatively common and are also known as Kreutz comets, after the 19th century astronomer Heinrich Kreutz who first showed they were related.

Astronomers suspect that Kreutz comets all began as a single, giant comet that broke apart several centuries ago. 

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and onFacebook.

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Monkey thing?

The tale, set in the forests of northwestern India, had all the ingredients of a perfect Bollywood love story: emotion, celebration, star-crossed lovers and a nail-biting climax.

The only difference was that the lovers were monkeys, taking part in India's first simian wedding -- with the whole unfolding drama a classic clash between age-old village belief and the demands of modern life sceptical of that way of thought.

Hindu belief includes worship of animals as avatars of the gods. Monkeys have an especially significant role in Hindu mythology where they are worshipped as avatars of Hanuman, the mighty ape that aided Rama in his fight against evil.

So when plans for the wedding of "Raju" and "Chinki" were laid in the small village of Talwas, deep in the forests of Rajasthan, villagers responded with excitement.

Raju, the "groom," was famous in Banetha village, about 55 km from Talwas, attracting crowds whenever he went outside. He was known for eating, sleeping and smoking cigarettes with his owner, Ramesh Saini, who treated him like a son.

"I want to enjoy the feelings of a son's marriage through Raju's wedding," said Rajesh, a 38-year-old married but childless auto rickshaw driver who nursed Raju back to health after finding him unconscious three years ago.

So he was overjoyed two months ago when he met Chinki's caretaker, a priest in a nearby village, who proposed that the two monkeys be married.

"We will welcome the bride in our house in Banetha after the wedding with all rituals," said an excited Ramesh while offering tea to Raju at a roadside tea shop.

Hundreds of invitation cards were sent out to nearby villages for the wedding, planned according to traditional Hindu customs that include seven rounds of the sacred fire as the wedding vows are recited by a priest. A huge pre-wedding feast was planned, along with a procession with Raju on a horse.

"It's an open invitation to all the villagers. I am expecting more than 2000 people for the feast," Ramesh said as he stood with Raju near a huge cooking pot to supervise.

But no good love story is complete without a little hiccup.

As news of the marriage spread, the state forest department officials stepped into action. Since monkeys are protected in India as government property, no one can pet them, train them or -- as in this case -- marry them, even to a fellow monkey.

"It's illegal to marry a monkey. Anyone found doing that or attending the marriage ceremony will be arrested," said forest range officer Bhavar Singh Kaviya.

Tensions rose in both villages after officials issued their final warning. The monkeys and their owners went into hiding.

On the day of the planned wedding, more than 200 guards poured into Talwas, where they confronted hundreds of people from nearby villages who had arrived to see the rare spectacle.

"I have come all the way just to watch God's marriage and now the police are telling me to go back and stay away from the temple," said Prem Jain, an angry 72-year-old villager, after arguing with a policeman.

"They told me the monkeys have been captured. They can't capture God!"

But then came the news -- the monkey couple had been secretly married off in a ceremony somewhere deep in the forest. The villagers erupted in joy and began celebrating.

Forestry officials immediately set out to look for the pair and finally found Chinki tied to a tree. She sported the vermillion mark worn by married Hindu women on their foreheads.

The officials couldn't resist congratulating Chinki and posed for pictures with her.

"She is like my daughter and I am doing the duties of a good father," said a smiling Kaviya, carrying the monkey to a jeep.

Both monkeys were captured and officials said they hoped to release them soon in nearby forests, but Ramesh was confident of their eventual return.

"I know my son Raju, with his wife Chinki, will come back home," said an emotional Ramesh, mingling with the crowd to avoid being caught. "I will have a big reception for them."

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Wives don't do this, eh... Generally!

A US woman drugged her estranged husband, tied him to a bed and cut off his penis, police in California say.

The woman then threw the penis into the waste disposal and told police who attended the incident in Garden Grove, near Los Angeles: "He deserved it."

Catherine Kieu Becker, 48, has been charged with poisoning and assault with a deadly weapon.

The 51-year-old victim, who has not been named, is in a serious condition following surgery.

Lt Jeff Nightengale, of Garden Grove police, said the two are going through a divorce.

He said the woman had drugged the man's dinner on Monday night.

"He believed something was wrong with his food," he said.

"The victim went to lie down and he woke up tied to the bed with his wife tugging his clothes off.

"The female cut off his penis with a knife... tossed the penis in the garbage disposal and turned the disposal to the 'on' position.

"The suspect called 911 and told responding officers that he 'deserved it'."

He added: "Officers arrived and located a male victim tied to the bed and bleeding from his groin area."

Ms Becker was arrested on suspicion of aggravated mayhem, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, administering a drug with intent to commit a felony, poisoning and spousal abuse.

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