Wassily Kandinsky

9 Things You Didn't Know About The Artist Wassily Kandinsky

Today is the birthday of Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, a man whose abstract art made history in the 20th century and whose name continues to stump English speakers long after his death. The beloved painter and printmaker -- celebrated with a Google Doodle today -- would be blowing the candles out on his 148th year were he still alive today.

In honor of Vah-SEEL-ee Kahn-DIN-skee's big day, we're collecting together some of the more interesting facts from his storied life and career. From his birth in Moscow, back when the Russian Empire was still in existence, to his death in France at the age of 77, here are the 9 things you might not have know about dear Vasya.

Vasily Kandinsky's "Improvisation 28 (second version)." (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

1. Kandinsky began seriously pursuing art when he was 30 years old. Which makes him somewhat of a late bloomer. In fact, he had previously been studying law and economics, but he opted to abandon the fields (and a a professorship in jurisprudence at the University of Dorpat) in favor of studying painting in Germany.

A visitor views a painting by Russian artist Kandinsky which is part of the exhibition presented at the Pompidou Center in Paris Wednesday April 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

2. He was an "average" student. Though his appearance, marked by pince-nez glasses and sharp suits, gave the impression of a formidable teacher, he was mostly an average art student. He studied for two years under Anton Ažbe, then for one year alone, before finally being accepted into the Munich Academy, showing a proclivity toward color theory. He received his diploma in his mid-thirties and enjoyed a few years of mid-level success as a professional artist thereafter.

Conor Jordan, Department Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie's, speaks about Wassily Kandinsky's "Strandszene," painted in 1909, on display May 2, 2014 during a preview of the Impressionist and Modern Art sale at Christie's. (STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

3. He believed art and music went hand in hand. This famous quote sums up his penchant to equate painting with composing music: "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."

"Krass Und Mild (Dramatic and Mild)" by Wassily Kandinsky hangs during a preview of the Impressionist and Modern Art fall sales at Sotheby's in New York, U.S., on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. (Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

4. He gushed over Monet's "Haystacks" just like the rest of us. Monet's lily pads and haystacks have converted more than a few admirers into artists. For Kandinsky, the sight of the Impressionist's harvest landscape was simply revelatory:

"That it was a haystack the catalogue informed me. I could not recognize it. This non-recognition was painful to me. I considered that the painter had no right to paint indistinctly. I dully felt that the object of the painting was missing. And I noticed with surprise and confusion that the picture not only gripped me, but impressed itself ineradicably on my memory. Painting took on a fairy-tale power and splendour."

Wassily Kandinsky's 'Circles in a Circle, 1923' is displayed at the 'Bauhaus Art as Life' exhibition at The Barbican on May 2, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

5. He is credited with being the first artist to create a purely abstract work. It was an untitled watercolor, now in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. According to most historians, by the time he painted Composition VIII in 1923, all representational elements had been removed from his work. Francis Picabia and Piet Mondrian were exploring similar patterns in "pure abstraction" during this period as well.

A visitor passes a painting of Wassily Kandinsky "Komposition VII", 1913, oil on canvas, in the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland, Friday, Oct. 20, 2006. (AP Photo/Keystone, Georgios Kefalas)

6. Kandinsky allegedly had synesthesia. Synesthesia is defined as "the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body." In essence, he would see colors when listening to music, which makes sense -- given he also credits Richard Wagner's “Lohengrin” as a reason for leaving law behind and chasing art.

Two members of Christies staff wait by painting by Wassily Kandinsky entitled 'Schwarze Spitzen" 1937 during a press preview at Christie's auction house in London, Friday, March, 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

7. He didn't just loved painting, he saw it as a form of worship. In Kandinsky's book Concerning the Spiritual In Art(1910), the artist declared that "colour is a power which directly influences the soul." He felt that the use of color was not merely a means of representing objects and forms, but rather a method of reaching a level of spirituality.

"All means [in painting] are sacred when they are dictated by inner necessity," he wrote. "All means are reprehensible when they do not spring from the fountain of inner necessity... The artist must be blind to "recognized" and "unrecognized" form, deaf to the teachings and desires of his time. His open eyes must be directed to his inner life and his ears must be constantly attuned to the voice of inner necessity."

Visitors stand in front of the charcoal drawing "Kandinsky" (1927) by Georg Hartmann during a preview at the exhibition "Bauhaus." (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

8. His art was confiscated by the Nazis before he died. While he was a Bauhaus professor, three of his first "Compositions" were seized by Nazis and put on display in the now infamous "Degenerate Art" exhibition in 1937. They were then destroyed.

The painting "Picture with white border" of Wassily Kandinsky is displayed at the exhibition 'Visions Of Modernity' at the Deutsche Guggenheim on November 14, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Christian Marquardt/Getty Images)

9. His art now sells for millions and millions of dollars. His 1909 painting "Studie fur Improvisation 8" sold for $23 million at Christie's in 2012.

Kandsinky, (1866-1944), Studie für improvisation 8, painted in 1909 in Murnau, oil on cardboard laid down on canvas, 38 5/8 x 27 ½ in. (98 x 70 cm.)

Who Won The Voice

The Voice Season 7 wraps tonight, after some star-making performances by finalists Matt McAndrew, Chris Jamison, Craig Wayne Boyd, and Damien. Though we’ll know for certain who will be crowned winner before the 11 o'clock news starts tonight, the iTunes charts already show some potentially revealing results!Matt McAndrew’s original song, “Wasted Love” dominated the chart last night and again today. Close behind him was Craig Wayne Boyd’s original, “My Baby’s Got a Smile on Her Face” in the No. 2 spot and Chris Jamison at No. 3 with his raunchy soul tune, “Velvet”. Damien trailed at No. 8 with his original song, “Soldier”.

If it was based solely on who grabbed the top spot on the chart, that’d be one thing, but all downloads count, and any song that sneaks into the Top 10 gets a 10x multiplier. This is significant since Chris managed to grab the No. 5 spot with his duet with Adam Levine on Robin Thicke’s “Lost Without U” (and for good reason — it was pretty amazing).

Matt also had two Top 10 songs, but the second, his duet on “Lost Stars”, barely squeaked in at No. 10. If Chris’s downloads at the No. 3 and No. 5 spots surpass Matt’s bookended top singles, it could be quite a sleeper! One thing’s for certain, though — things are looking mighty good for Adam!

However, let’s not forget that Blake’s fans vote in droves, or that Craig nabbed the second spot on the chart. It’s not over for these country crooners. The only safe bet, as we await the airing of tonight’s episode, is that Damien will most likely be going home with a new single and a fourth-place finish.

Who do you think will win The Voice? Come back here later tonight to find out who came out on top!

A solid sales lift for Cyber Monday, according to early data

Online sales were strong on Cyber Monday and throughout the Thanksgiving weekend, an encouraging sign for retailers that invested heavily this year in enhancing their e-commerce offerings.

IBM reports that Cyber Monday sales were up 8.5 percent over last year, while sales for the period from Thanksgiving through Monday were up 12.6 percent.

The uptick came even as retailers had offered both in-store and digital deals earlier in November, creating incentives for shoppers to snap up Christmas gifts long before these traditional promotional events arrived.

The findings make clear just how rapidly consumers’ use of smartphones is changing the shopping experience. Mobile sales on Cyber Monday were 27.6 percent higher than last year, while mobile devices for the first time accounted for more than half of online traffic on Thanksgiving.

But the data also reveals that smartphones still primarily remain a tool for browsing, not buying. Smartphones accounted for 28.5 percent of total online traffic on Cyber Monday, and yet represented only 9.1 percent of total online sales.

Tablets, it seems, are used differently. They accounted for 12.5 percent of all online traffic, and yet they represented 12.9 percent of online sales. So tablet shoppers are closing the deal much more frequently than smartphone shoppers.

And although a desktop PC may not be the trendiest way to browse the Web, these devices still accounted for the lion’s share of online shopping on Monday. Desktop PCs account for the majority of online traffic and 78 percent of online sales. Consumers’ average order value was also highest on desktop.

IBM analyzed the differences between shoppers who used Apple’s iOS operating system and those who used Google’s Android. The company found that iOS users averaged $114.79 per order, compared with $96.84 for Android users. Users of Apple’s iOS also accounted for a larger share of online traffic and sales on Cyber Monday than Android users.

Adobe issued a separate analysis of Cyber Monday shopping that found that overall sales hit $2.65 billion, a 16 percent increase over last year. The technology company says that large retailers had the healthiest bumps in sales: The top 25 retailers in the United States saw 25 percent year-over-year online sales growth on Monday, while smaller retailers had growth of only 5 percent.

As has been the case in previous years, shopping peaked between 9 and 10 p.m., according to Adobe’s analysis of 400 million visits to 4,500 retail Web sites.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, said that it recorded its biggest day of orders ever on Cyber Monday, though the company did not disclose how many orders its received.  Its Web site, Walmart.com, drew 1.5 billion pageviews between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, a five-day period in which the retailer was continuously offering fresh rounds of deals and promotions.

In a sign of how the lines between digital and in-person shopping are blurring, Wal-Mart reported that it saw a 70 percent increase on Cyber Monday in online orders that were picked up in stores.

Xbox Live Hackers Are Planning A Huge Attack Christmas

Last night Xbox Live was taken down by hackers. The group responsible for the outage, Lizard Squad, says that this is just a test run for a larger attack. 

The Xbox Live problems affected anyone playing online on either Xbox One or Xbox 360. Whenever players tried to log in, they were shown error code 80151909. This service outage only lasted a little while but Lizard Squad says that Xbox gamers won't be so lucky next time.

U.S. top court to weigh UPS pregnancy discrimination claim

(Reuters) - Delving into the sensitive subject of women's rights in the workplace, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider on Wednesday whether employers must provide accommodations for pregnant workers who may have a hard time doing their usual job duties.

The case concerns whether package delivery company UPS Inc treated part-time truck driver Peggy Young unfairly in 2006 by denying her request for temporary changes in her work duties. With women making up almost half the U.S. workforce, the court's ruling in the case could have broad ramifications.

Young, who worked at a facility in Maryland, had acted on a midwife's advice that she not be required to lift packages weighing more than 20 pounds (9 kg) while pregnant.

She sued when UPS denied her request. UPS said it was not required to accommodate her under either the Pregnancy Discrimination Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act. UPS at the time did offer some accommodations to people who were not pregnant but had similar physical limitations.

Both a federal district court judge and an appeals court ruled in favor of UPS.

Young's lawyers say the pregnancy law is clear. "When two sets of employees experience similar restrictions on their ability to work - one because of pregnancy and the other because of some other condition - the employer must not give any lesser accommodation to the pregnant workers," they wrote in court papers.

UPS is backed by business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The company announced in October that, starting in January, it will change its policy so pregnant women can be accommodated, a change made in part because nine states now require employers to provide the type of modification Young wanted.

Separately, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in July issued new enforcement guidance saying that employers must offer accommodations to pregnant women in the same way they do for any other worker who has the same physical limitations.

The case has united groups that support legalized abortion and those opposed to it. A friend-of-the-court brief filed by 23 anti-abortion groups noted that the pregnancy law "protects the unborn child as well as the working mother."

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are set for Wednesday. A ruling is due by the end of June.

The case is Young v. UPS, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-1226.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

Kourtney Kardashian nude

Kourtney Kardashian posed nude for the latest issue of DuJour magazine and opened up about why she feels her best during pregnancy.

The 35-year-old reality star, who confirmed she is expecting her third child with Scott Disick in a June episode of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," appears in DuJour in a series of stunning photos shot by Brian Bowen Smith wearing only a necklace, a thin cover-up and nothing at all.

"To me, nudity is not something to be ashamed of," Kardashian said. "I’m not embarrassed of my body. I’m at my best when I’m pregnant. It’s such an amazing feeling, the transformation that your body goes through. There’s something about that that’s so empowering and beautiful and I just really embrace it."

The editorial showcases the shape of her body while pregnant and she hopes people see the images as art.

"It’s what a woman’s body is made to do, so I hope it’s maybe seen as something that’s artistic," she told DuJour. "This was something that initially I did for myself just to capture the moment in my life, but these photos are beautiful and I’m happy to share them. And I like how raw they are. It’s my body: I’m not trying to impress anybody or be something that I’m not. But in general, I don’t really care that much about what people think. It doesn’t rule my world. I did this because I wanted to and it made me happy."

Mediterranean diet for heart health

The heart-healthy Mediterranean is a healthy eating plan based on typical foods and recipes of Mediterranean-style cooking. Here's how to adopt the Mediterranean diet.By Mayo Clinic Staff

If you're looking for a heart-healthy eating plan, the Mediterranean diet might be right for you. The Mediterranean diet incorporates the basics of healthy eating — plus a splash of flavorful olive oil and perhaps even a glass of red wine — among other components characterizing the traditional cooking style of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

Most healthy diets include fruits, vegetables, fish and whole grains, and limit unhealthy fats. While these parts of a healthy diet remain tried-and-true, subtle variations or differences in proportions of certain foods may make a difference in your risk of heart disease.

Benefits of the Mediterranean diet

Research has shown that the traditional Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of heart disease. In fact, an analysis of more than 1.5 million healthy adults demonstrated that following a Mediterranean diet was associated with a reduced risk of death from heart disease and cancer, as well as a reduced incidence of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends the Mediterranean diet as an eating plan that can help promote health and prevent disease. And the Mediterranean diet is one your whole family can follow for good health.

Key components of the Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet emphasizes:

• Eating primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts
• Replacing butter with healthy fats, such as olive oil
• Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods
• Limiting red meat to no more than a few times a month
• Eating fish and poultry at least twice a week
• Drinking red wine in moderation (optional)

The diet also recognizes the importance of being physically active, and enjoying meals with family and friends.

Focus on fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains

The Mediterranean diet traditionally includes fruits, vegetables and grains. For example, residents of Greece average six or more servings a day of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables.

Grains in the Mediterranean region are typically whole grain and usually contain very few unhealthy trans fats, and bread is an important part of the diet. However, throughout the Mediterranean region, bread is eaten plain or dipped in olive oil — not eaten with butter or margarine, which contains saturated or trans fats.

Nuts are another part of a healthy Mediterranean diet. Nuts are high in fat, but most of the fat is healthy. Because nuts are high in calories, they should not be eaten in large amounts — generally no more than a handful a day. For the best nutrition, avoid candied or honey-roasted and heavily salted nuts.