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Black bear grabs stuffed bear on the
way out A black bear walked into a New Hampshire house through an open door, ate two pears and a bunch of grapes, took a drink from the family fishbowl and grabbed a stuffed bear on its way out the door. Mary Beth Parkinson said the bear apparently took advantage of the open outside door to get into her kitchen July 27 in Laconia, about 20 miles north of Concord. She thinks the garage door going up scared the bear enough that it fled the house. She said she arrived in time to save the fish. Parkinson said her 6- and 9-year-old boys made sure the doors were locked before they went to bed...
Young vs. Old "Survivor" is going to exploit the generation gap. CBS says the upcoming edition of the CBS reality show "Survivor: Nicaragua" will divide contestants into two tribes, young vs. old, with "old" defined as starting at 40 for the so-called Espada Tribe. The La Flor Tribe will be made up of people 30 and younger. The elders will have the chance to demonstrate that their experience and knowledge can help them best the "youth and vitality" of the younger crew, CBS said. "Survivor: Nicaragua" will debut 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 15, returning to the time slot in which "Survivor" first premiered in summer 2000...
Make it five weeks for Eminem's
"Recovery" Eminem makes it five weeks in a row at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as "Recovery" sells another 187,000 (down just 4%), according to Nielsen SoundScan. Rick Ross' "Teflon Don" arrives in the runner-up spot with 176,000. Ross' last three studio albums all debuted at No. 1, with his last set, 2009's "Deeper Than Rap," arriving with 158,000. A week ago industry observers had initially projected that Ross had a good shot at a No. 1 debut. However, "Recovery" held on strong with a small weekly sales decline. Chalk that up in part to its sale pricing at Target and Best Buy and the continued popularity of its single "Love the Way You Lie." It reigns atop the Digital Songs chart for a fifth straight week (332,000 downloads; down 6%). The Billboard 200's second-highest debut is Sheryl Crow's "100 Miles From Memphis," which starts at No. 3 with 55,000. It's the singer's eighth top 10 album. All of her releases, save for one live set from 1999, have reached the top 10. The singer/songwriter's last effort, "Detours," debuted and peaked at No. 2 with 92,000 in 2008. It was her fourth set to peak at No. 2; she has yet to claim a No. 1 album. The "Kidz Bop Kids" series continues its profitable run on the Billboard 200 as "Kidz Bop 18" bounces in at No. 5 with 43,000. The Jonas Brothers' soundtrack to their Disney Channel TV series "Jonas L.A." surfs in at No. 7 with 32,000. The album is the eighth charting set for the brother trio. The act has so far released four studio sets, its "3D Concert Experience" soundtrack, two live EPs and the new "Jonas L.A." offering. As for the rest of the top 10, Drake's "Thank Me Later" falls one spot to No. 4 (down 6%), Justin Bieber's "My World 2.0" also drops one to No. 6 (down 5%), the "Now 34" compilation climbs four rungs to No. 8 (down less than 1%), Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" rises two slots to No. 9 (down 8%), and Lady Gaga's "The Fame" hops forward three positions to No. 10 (down 9%)...
 
Garage Sale purchase for $45.00, turns
into $200 million Rick Norsigian kept two boxes he bought at a garage sale under his pool table for four years before realizing they may be too valuable to store at home. The Fresno, California, commercial painter learned this week that what was in those boxes he paid $45 dollars for a decade ago could be worth more than $200 million. "When I heard that $200 million, I got a little weak," Norsigian said at a Beverly Hills art gallery. Art, forensic, handwriting and weather experts teamed up to conclude the 65 glass plates in the boxes were photographic negatives created more than 80 years ago by Ansel Adams (pictured), the iconic American photographer whose images of the West inspired the country. Arnold Peter, the lawyer who led the effort to authenticate that the negatives were made by the man known as the father of American photography, said their approach was "to put these negatives on trial." Experts, including a former FBI agent and a U.S. attorney, "came to the conclusion that, based on the evidence which was overwhelming, that no reasonable person would have any doubt that these, in fact, were the long-lost images of Ansel Adams," Arnold said...
May 21, 2011 Marie Exley of Colorado Springs is convinced that Armageddon, the end of the world as written of in the Bible, will come next year. Her conviction is so strong that, though unemployed, she's paid $1,200 to buy advertising space on 10 Springs bus benches through October to get the word out. The ad says, "Save the Date! Return of Christ: May 21, 2011, WeCanKnow.com." "I want to do all I can to get the message out," Exley, 31, said...
"And when he had opened the Seventh
Seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an
hour. And I saw the seven angels, which stood before God;
and to them were given seven trumpets" The cast of MTV's "The Jersey Shore" skipped hard-partying at a shore house for one day to go to Wall Street. The cast was at the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday morning (July 27) to ring its opening bell. Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi gave a "thumbs up" to stock brokers before ringing the bell and waving to the crowd. Fellow cast members Paul DelVecchio and Vinny Guadagnino pumped their fists in the air and the rest of the group applauded. The second season of the show will premiere on July 29...
Al Goodman (Ray, Goodman & Brown)
dead at 63 Al Goodman, one-third of Ray, Goodman & Brown as well as the Moments ("Love on a Two Way Street"), has died. He was 63. Part of two of the most underrated soul groups of the past half century, Goodman (pictured center below) provided the "bottom end" on hits such as "Special Lady" and "Take It To the Limit." Ray Goodman and Brown was part of the generation of soul music groups that arose in the late 60s and early 70s, the combination of Harry Ray, Al Goodman and Billy Brown became most notable as perhaps the greatest live performing group of that elite bunch. While many groups of that era had more successful recording careers, few have equaled the stage presence and consistent crowd pleasing shows of RG&B...
ABC chief resigns abruptly ABC announced July 27 that Steve McPherson has submitted his resignation as President, ABC Entertainment Group. McPherson, who has headed the entertainment division since 2004, released this statement: "I want to thank the wonderful team of individuals who have worked with me throughout my time here and wish them nothing but the best." A replacement for McPherson is expected to be announced shortly, though Variety reported that ABC Family President Paul Lee is expected to fill the bill. McPherson oversaw all of ABC's primetime lineup, as well as its sister company ABC Studios. The news about the shakeup in the executive suite comes only days before ABC is set to unveil its fall lineup to the nation's TV critics and reporters at the annual Television Critics Tour in Beverly Hills...
$69.00 for a hot dog Does the world's most expensive hot dog cut the mustard? Frankly, yes, declared a woman who forked over $69 for the winning wiener last Friday (July 23). "It was great. Great flavor," said tourist Trudy Tant, 49, who played a key role in helping a Manhattan restaurant savor another Guinness World Record. Tant, of Rock Hill, S.C., said she was outside Serendipity 3 on E. 60th St. Friday morning, National Hot Dog Day, when owner Stephen Bruce asked her to spend her dough on the pricey frankfurter. The publishing company worker said she relished the opportunity "to do something out of the ordinary." The haute dog, prepared by head chef Joe Calderone, comes with truffle oil, a salted pretzel bed, truffle butter, duck foie gras, Dijon mustard, Vidalia onions and ketchup. Tant paid for the foot-long with Guinness World Records official Kimberly Patrick looking on. The restaurant racked up the priciest dog record right away; there was no previous titleholder, Patrick said. Bruce said he chose to set a hot dog record because the frank is as American as apple pie. The restaurant also holds the record for the most expensive ice-cream sundae, at a rich $1,000, and the largest hot chocolate at 4 gallons.
The Garden of Eden found A strip of land on Africa's southern coast became a last refuge for the band of early humans who survived an ice age that wiped out the species elsewhere, scientists maintain. The land, referred to by researchers as "the garden of Eden," may have been the only part of Africa to remain continuously habitable during the ice age that began about 195,000 years ago. Scientists' excavations showed how a combination of rich vegetation on land and nutrient-laden currents in the sea created a source of food that could sustain early humans through devastating climate changes. "Shortly after Homo sapiens first evolved, the harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species," said Professor Curtis Marean, of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. "Recent finds suggest the small population that gave rise to all humans alive today survived by exploiting a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa." During his study, Prof Marean discovered that the isolated caves around an area known as Pinnacle Point, South Africa, 386 kilometres east of Cape Town, were rich in ancient human artifacts. In a soon to be published paper, Prof Marean and his colleagues argued the caves contain archaeological remains going back at least 164,000 years, and possibly even further back. The remains also showed that, despite the hardships suffered by early humans in other places, the inhabitants of Pinnacle Point were living in a land of plenty...
McDonalds, WalMart, Whole Foods and
USPS are out to kill all of us Laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG) have found high levels of the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) on 40 percent of receipts sampled from major U.S. businesses and services, including outlets of McDonald's, CVS, KFC, Whole Foods, WalMart, Safeway and the U.S. Postal Service. Receipts from Target, Starbucks, Bank of America ATMs and other important enterprises were BPA-free or contained only trace amounts. The total amounts of BPA on receipts tested were 250 to 1,000 times greater than other, more widely discussed sources of BPA exposure, including canned foods, baby bottles and infant formula. These data should not be interpreted to suggest that policymakers shift their focus from BPA contamination of food, which is widespread, to receipts. People ingest 100 percent of any BPA that contaminates the food and beverages they consume. The amount of BPA that enters the body after a person handles a receipt is unknown but likely a fraction of the total BPA on the paper. Both types of exposure to this problematic chemical are unnecessary and avoidable. BPA, a plastic hardener and synthetic estrogen linked by researchers to a long list of serious health problems, is used to coat thermal paper used by major retailers, grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations, fast-food restaurants, post offices and automatic teller machines (ATMs). The chemical reacts with dye to form black print on receipts handled by millions of Americans every day...
"Jailbreaking" iPhones gets the big OK
from LOC Owners of Apple Inc.'s iPhone can unlock the device to use applications not authorized by the company, the U.S. Library of Congress said. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington added the practice, described in the ruling as "jailbreaking," to a list of actions that don't violate copyright protections. The decision affecting iPhones and other smartphones was posted July 26 on the agency's website. The library acted as part of a periodic review by its copyright office, called for under a 1998 law, into whether legal uses of technology were being blocked. The ruling was a victory for Apple critics led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based privacy-rights group that petitioned the library. "Now people can go ahead and fix their phones and jailbreak them so they can run all sorts of different applications," Corynne McSherry, the group's senior staff attorney, said in an interview. "They can make full use of the phone they bought without some kind of legal liability hanging over their head." Apple has sold almost 60 million iPhones since its 2007 debut. The company's App Store has more than 225,000 applications available for download. The process for inclusion in the App Store has drawn criticism from some developers whose material was rejected by the company...
Real Estate available in space Hundreds of new planets have been discovered by Nasa's new space probe, sparking new hope of life outside our solar system. Up to 140 of the newly-found planets are similar in size to Earth, scientists have said. The Kepler probe, which constantly monitors more than 150,000 stars for tell-tale signs of planets orbiting them, also may have found five new solar systems, Nasa said. 'While an exhaustive study remains to be done, the implication is that many planetary systems have multiple planets,' William Borucki, the mission's principle investigator said. The data relates to the first six weeks of the probe's four-year mission after it was launched last year. Scientists hope the early discoveries will lead to many more, including multi-planetary systems which give life a better chance to evolve. The Kepler space probe examines distant stars by monitoring the light they give off. The initial findings mean the number of habitable planets in space could run into millions...
Inception remains incredibly
strong Warner Bros. enjoyed a sensational second weekend for its sci-fi thriller Inception which capitalized on amazing buzz to remain the most popular film in North America. Angelina Jolie's new action pic Salt had to settle for second place but the spy thriller still generated a healthy opening. Like last weekend, funny films had the best holds while everything else dropped harder. Declining by a slim 31%, Inception topped the charts once again with an estimated $43.5M rocketing its ten-day tally to a stellar $143.7M. It was the second lowest drop witnessed all year for a wide release in its sophomore frame and put the Leonardo DiCaprio hit on track to break the $250M mark and possibly the $300M barrier as well. Inception has an incredible road ahead of it. Word-of-mouth is amazing, repeat business is solid, competition over the coming weeks is not too fierce, and midweek sales have been enormous. It may even extend its streak to three weeks at number one. The hold was especially impressive given the arrival of another star-driven action thriller in Salt. That Angelina Jolie starrer debuted well in the runner-up spot with an estimated $36.5M from 3,612 locations for a meaty $10,105 average. The Sony espionage thriller about a CIA agent on the run when suspected of being a Russian secret agent played to an adult audience and had cross-gender appeal. Studio research showed that 53% of the crowd was female and 59% was over 25. Reviews were mixed and moviegoers responded to the starpower of the lead and the promise of action and stunts. Unlike Inception, Salt featured very few special effects. Fox bowed its new girl pic Ramona and Beezus in sixth place with a quiet $8M, according to estimates. The G-rated film based on the popular children's books by author Beverly Cleary averaged a mild $2,942 from 2,719 theaters and played mostly to young girls and their moms. The low cost $15M production attracted an audience that was 69% family and 75% female. Reviews were generally upbeat...
Why you don't leave food in a car in
bear country A bear got into an empty car, honked the horn and then sent it rolling 125 feet into a thicket, with the bear still inside, a Colorado family said. Seventeen-year-old Ben Story said he and his family were asleep in their Larkspur home, 30 miles south of Denver, when the bear managed to open the unlocked door of his 2008 Toyota Corolla early Friday (July 23) and climbed inside. A peanut butter sandwich left on the back seat is probably what attracted the bear, Story said. It's not unusual for bears to open unlocked doors to cars and houses in search of food, said Tyler Baskfield, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "It happens all the time," he said. "They're very smart." Once inside, the bear must have knocked the shifter on the automatic transmission into neutral, sending the car rolling backward down the inclined driveway and into the thicket, Story said. The door probably slammed shut when the car jolted to a stop, he said, trapping the bear inside. Neighbors had called 911, and deputies freed the bear by opening the door with a rope from a distance. It then ran into the woods. Story said he'll need a new car because the bear trashed the interior while apparently trying to find a way out. The bear also left what Story called "a present" on the driver's seat. "A nice pile, actually," added his dad, Ralph. "Something to remember." Baskfield said such incidents are worrisome because they endanger the bear as well as the public. Wildlife managers trap and kill problem bears that learn to scavenge for human food and garbage. "Food was left in the car. It's troubling for us," he said...
Vitaminwater is bad for you in so many
ways A federal judge ruled last week that Vitaminwater will not, as its labels promise, keep you "healthy as a horse." Nor will it bring about a "healthy state of physical or mental being". Instead, Vitaminwater is really just a sugary snack food; non-carbonated fruit coke disguised as a sports drink. Because it's composed mostly of sugar and not vitamin-laden water, judge John Gleeson held that Vitaminwater's absurd marketing claims were likely to mislead consumers. Coke tried to explain away claims like "vitamins plus water = all you need" as "only puffery." The judge disagreed. The ruling rejected Coca Cola's motion to dismiss a class action suit brought by the scrappy do-gooders at the Center for Science in the Interest. The case should now be clear for trial, although it could settle if Coke is willing to change Vitaminwater's name to something less misleading...
That Blu-ray player you just bought,
is now obsolete Sony just revealed the new laser they're developing alongside Tohoku University. Regardless of the future of physical media, the specs are astounding to consider. The blue-violet laser fires ultra fast bursts of very thin beams of light. The wavelength measures 405 nanometers, pulsing for durations of 3 picoseconds. (A nanometer, as most of you know, is one billionth of a meter. And a picosecond is one-trillionth of a second.) The light output will be over 100x that of similar lasers. Such a laser could read a next generation media with 20x the capacity of Blu-ray, meaning you could fit up to 50 movies on a single disc. Many have already pointed out, that's enough storage to fit an entire season of a TV show...
The last thing you will ever see Astronomers at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona noted recently that a sunspot had grown so large it could be seen without using a solar telescope. Known as Sunspot 1089, spaceweather.com reported that scientists "spotted it" as the sun set over Kitt Peak. This isn't the first time a sunspot could be seen with the naked eye. In 2004 NASA noted a sunspot 20 times the size of Earth. At the time NASA said, "the implications of this spot have scientists on the edge of their seats, if the active region generates Coronal Mass Ejections, massive explosions with a potential force of a billion megaton bombs, it will be a fairly direct hit to Earth and its satellites and power grids." NASA also noted a large number of solar events occurred in the fall of 2003 when about 17 major flares erupted on the Sun. Experts were quick to note that while the sunspot is big enough to see under the right conditions, you shouldn't really look directly at the Sun as it can cause eye damage...
Living inside a black hole We could be living inside a black hole. This head-spinning idea is one cosmologist's conclusion based on a modification of Einstein's equations of general relativity that changes our picture of what happens at the core of a black hole. In an analysis of the motion of particles entering a black hole, published in March, Nikodem Poplawski of Indiana University in Bloomington showed that inside each black hole there could exist another universe. "Maybe the huge black holes at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies are bridges to different universes," Poplawski says. If that is correct, and it's a big "if", there is nothing to rule out our universe itself being inside a black hole. In Einstein's general relativity (GR), the insides of black holes are "singularities," regions where the density of matter reaches infinity. Whether the singularity is an actual point of infinite density or just a mathematical inadequacy of general relativity is unclear, as the equations of GR break down inside black holes. Either way, the modified version of Einstein's equations used by Poplawski does away with the singularity altogether. Sadly, there is no point in us looking for other universes inside black holes. As you approach a black hole, the increasing gravitational field makes time tick slower and slower. So, for an external observer, any new universe inside would form only after an infinite amount of time had elapsed...
The "all-knowing" and "all-seeing"
Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is putting electronic identification tags on men's clothing like jeans starting Aug. 1 as the world's largest retailer tries to gain more control of its inventory. But the move is raising eyebrows among privacy experts. The individual garments, which also includes underwear and socks, will have removable smart tags that can be read from a distance by Wal-Mart workers with scanners. In seconds, the worker will be able to know what sizes are missing and will also be able tell what it has on hand in the stock room. Such instant knowledge will allow store clerks to have the right sizes on hand when shoppers need them. The tags work by reflecting a weak radio signal to identify the product. They have long spurred privacy fears as well as visions of stores being able to scan an entire shopping cart of items at one time. Wal-Mart's goal is to eventually expand the tags to other types of merchandise but company officials say it's too early to give estimates on how long that will take. "This is a first piece of a very large and very frightening tracking system," said Katherine Albrecht, director of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering. Albrecht worries that Wal-Mart and others would be able to track movements of customers who in some border states like Michigan and Washington are carrying new driver's licenses that contain RFID tags to make it easier for them to cross borders. Albrecht fears that retailers could scan data from such licenses and their purchases and combine that data with other personal information. She also says that even though the smart tags can be removed from clothing, they can't be turned off and can be tracked even after you throw them in the garbage, for example. Wal-Mart officials said they are aware of privacy concerns but insist they are taking a "thoughtful and methodical approach." ...
Pristine crater discovered Scientists say a meteoric impact crater found in the remote Egyptian desert may be the best-preserved ever found on Earth. The Kamil crater is pristine, unlike most Earth impact sites that are partially or severely eroded, and maintains much of its structure, including the rays of ejected material thrown from the crater when the space rock hit, SPACE.com reported July 22. "This crater is really a kind of beauty because it's so well preserved that it will tell us a lot about small-scale meteorite impacts on the Earth's crust," Luigi Folco, meteorite curator at the Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide in Siena, Italy, said. "It's so nice. It's so neat. There is something extraordinary about it." Craters this well preserved are usually only seen on the moon or Mars, where there are fewer environmental and atmospheric processes to erode and eventually destroy them, he said. The 148-foot-wide crater was first spotted in Google Earth satellite photos by Italian researchers. Scientists think it was caused by the impact of an iron meteorite about 4.3 feet in diameter traveling at 7,920 mph...
We're gonna need a bigger Rolodex To the list of dwindling worldwide resources add Internet addresses. According to experts, the nearly 4.5 billion current addresses aren't enough, only six percent of available addresses are left, and the Internet will run out of addresses by sometime late next year. Three main factors are behind the upcoming shortage. One is the explosion in web access from multiple devices for each user, primarily in developed countries. Each of those smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktops and other devices that access the web require a different IP, or Internet protocol, address. And the demand for device addresses is increasing rapidly, with TVs, game consoles, even automobiles offering web-browsing capability. A second factor is a rapidly growing user base in developing countries, such as Brazil, India or China. Many of users there access the web through mobile devices, which means the device-per-user ratio in those countries is also likely to increase rapidly. And, third, the Internet is becoming the communications network for non-user-based equipment, such as smart electricity grids, sensors, RFIDs and smart houses. But all is not lost. The current Net uses Internet protocol version four (IPv4), which dates back to 1980 and a time when 4.5 billion addresses seemed like a lot. A newer technology, IPv6, utilizes 128-bit addresses, instead of IPv4's 32-bit, and IPv6 proponents say the new technology could offer, if needed, a vast number of addresses that should keep humanity happy until the sun burns out. Some experts say IPv6 could provide four billion addresses for each person on Earth. But Dave Evans, Cisco's chief technologist for its Internet business solutions group, has said the actual number is closer to "50 thousand trillion trillion addresses per person." ...
Life In A Day If Ridley Scott gets his way, today (July 24) may be one of the most documented in history. The famed action filmmaker has initiated a project called Life In A Day, in cooperation with YouTube and the Sundance Institute: It is described as "a global experiment to create a user-generated feature film," and "the largest crowd-sourced film ever made." Contributors are asked to document some aspect of their own actual lives on camera, showing "what it was like to be alive on July 24, 2010." The most compelling footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film produced by Scott and directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald, to be aired at Sundance in 2011. So if you're not busy surfing, Facebooking, tanning, sailing, reading, snoozing, or any of the other dozens of Saturday activities, get out there with your camera and make history, your way. But remember, the bar is high: Scott is the man who brought us Blade Runner, which could be described as Harrison Ford having a really bad Life in a Day...
For the love of God, why? Following in the footsteps of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber will make his acting debut in the season premiere of CSI on Sept. 23, CBS has announced. The multi-platinum singer will play Jason McCann, a troubled teen who is faced with a tough decision involving his only brother. It kicks off a story arc that will conclude later in the season. The CSI producers released this statement: "Every 20 years, a phenomenon like Justin Bieber graces our world. We'd like to believe that the phenomenon of CSI has had the same impact on popular culture. The opportunity to bring them together in the premiere is a great treat for our audience and all of its new viewers. This will be true event television. We're looking forward to Justin's dramatic star turn, not only in the premiere, but in a continuing seasonal arc." Before Bieber, Swift made an appearance on the long-running procedural in March 2009. She played a country singer named Haley Jones whose family owned a seedy Las Vegas motel. It was her first primetime acting gig...
Timberhenge Stonehenge, the mysterious circle of mammoth stone pillars in the middle of the English countryside, now has a slightly smaller twin. Scientists have discovered a second henge formation that once existed nearby made from huge timbers. And there could be many more henge-type circles yet to be found in the vicinity, says archeologist Vince Gaffney of the University of Birmingham, which is leading an expedition of the site along with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Austria. "We didn't expect to find another henge. There's always been some presumption that the stones existed in splendid isolation," Professor Gaffney says. On July 16, just two weeks into their four-year project, Gaffney's team discovered 'Timberhenge,' a 25-meter (82-foot) diameter, circular series of holes that were once filled with 24 huge wooden poles. It sits about 900 meters away from Stonehenge in southern England. 'Henge' refers to a circular ditch with an external bank from the Neolithic period. The new Timberhenge appears built on the same orientation as Stonehenge, with entrances to the northeast and southwest. Archaeologists say it was a worshipping site and burial ground, but Gaffney says the precise role of the structures remains unclear: Was it for commoners or tribal leaders, worshippers or religious leaders? The radar-imaging project will provide a map of the area's structures and a clearer idea of its size and functions...
The school that canceled a lesbian
student's prom, just paid for her college A rural school district that canceled its prom rather than allow a lesbian student to attend with her girlfriend has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit the ACLU filed on her behalf. The district also agreed to follow a non-discrimination policy as part of the settlement, though it argues such a policy was already in place. Constance McMillen, 18, said the victory came at the price of her being shunned in her small hometown of Fulton. The flap started in March when McMillen challenged the Itawamba County School District's rules banning prom dates of the same gender and allowing only male students to wear tuxedos. The district responded by canceling its prom, prompting the ACLU to file suit claiming the teen's rights had been violated and demanding the prom be reinstated. U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson refused to make school officials hold the prom, but he said in a March 23 ruling that the district had violated McMillen's rights. The district later announced parents would sponsor another prom chaperoned by school officials. But ACLU lawyers claimed the event was a "sham prom" attended by only about 10 students, while most of McMillen's classmates partied at a private event elsewhere, a claim the school denied. McMillen's suit also says she's been harassed for her stand against the school's policy...
CBS to have their own "view" CBS will take a new view of daytime after the end of "As the World Turns." When the soap opera concludes its 54-year run in September, it will be replaced by an hour-long daily talk show with six celebrity co-hosts, all women, an echo of ABC's popular "The View" series. CBS announced July 21 that the hosts of the as-yet untitled daytime show include Sharon Osbourne; Sara Gilbert of TV's "Roseanne" fame; Holly Robinson Peete from "Celebrity Apprentice;" Broadway actress Marissa Jaret Winokur; Leah Remini of "The King of Queens;" and Julie Chen, who hosts CBS' "Big Brother" and "The Early Show." Gilbert developed the program, which will be the network's only daytime talk show, and is its executive producer. It's set for a fall debut, but a specific date was not announced. The show will take a moms' view of entertainment and news stories. The hosts all have children, ranging in age from infants to adults. Chen will give up her "Early Show" co-anchor role but will continue to appear on the morning program, CBS News said. Chen, who is married to CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, will remain as "Big Brother" host. The decision to air the series was made by CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler, CBS spokesman Chris Ender said. The pilot stood out as a "show with a familiar form but with big personalities and a distinct point of view coming through the lens of moms," Ender said. "It broadens our slate of daytime shows, and we think it has the potential to stand out and make some noise." ...
Celebrities that lean to the right The usual suspects..most will not surprise anyone... Action star Chuck Norris is a Republican. He has donated more than $32,000 to Republican candidates and organizations since 1988. Norris once filled in for Sean Hannity as a co-host on the Fox News Channel debate program "Hannity & Colmes." "The View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck is a vocal Republican and served as the official emcee at a luncheon for Cindy McCain just hours before John McCain's 2008 Republican Convention speech. Actor Kelsey Grammer is a member of the Republican Party. In 2008, he endorsed Rudy Giuliani for president; but, once Giuliani had pulled out of the race, Grammer then campaigned for John McCain. Singer Jessica Simpson is a vocal supporter of President George W. Bush. In 2007, actor Bruce Willis declared he maintains some Republican ideologies but is currently an independent. He has endorsed every Republican presidential candidate except Bob Dole in 1996. Actor Mel Gibson has been widely perceived as a conservative Republican, even though he has never identified himself as such. Many of Gibson's positions are in accordance with traditional Catholicism. He released a statement in March 2005 condemning the euthanasia of Terri Schiavo, and has criticized embryonic stem cell research. Bodybuilder, actor, businessman and Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California in 2003. Actor Ben Stein was a speechwriter and lawyer for President Richard Nixon, and later for President Gerald Ford. Author Tom Clancy has generally been regarded as a political conservative, and has donated more than $256,000 to Republican Party political candidates. Some of his books bear dedications to Republican political figures, most notably Ronald Reagan. Actress Angie Harmon is a Republican. She and her husband delivered a speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention. She supports John McCain for President. Actor Jon Voight appeared in a video available on YouTube from the Republican National Convention admonishing people to support the American troops. In 2000, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention. Since 2001, actor Stephen Baldwin has become an outspoken Christian conservative, with a Christian ministry and book to his name. Wheel Of Fortune host Pat Sajak was a major donor to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and often posts political commentary on his official website. According to public records, Sajak has donated over $17,000 to Republican candidates. Late actor Dennis Hopper donated $2,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004 and an equal amount in 2005. Actor Robert Duvall was personally invited to Republican President George W. Bush's inauguration in 2001. According to MSNBC, Duvall will be narrating most of the videos for the 2008 Republican Convention. Actor, filmmaker Clint Eastwood has been registered as a Republican since 1951 and supported Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, he describes himself as a libertarian. Actor Tom Selleck is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association. He has endorsed Sen. John McCain for President. Boxing promoter Don King promoted George W. Bush during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, which included attendance at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. King is now supporting John McCain. Academy-award nominated actor James Woods is a Republican, and he was a vocal supporter of U.S. President George W. Bush and former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani. Stand-up comedian Dennis Miller supported Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008. After Giuliani's departure from the race, he then expressed his support for John McCain. Actor Rick Schroder is a Republican who supported George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. He spoke at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
     
Former baseball manager Ralph Houk
dead at 90 Ralph Houk, who managed the powerhouse Yankees teams of the early 1960s to two World Series championships, died July 21. He was 90. Red Sox spokesman Dick Bresciani said Houk's grandson, Scott Slaboden, told the team Houk died at his home in Winter Haven, Fla. Houk spent parts of eight seasons as a backup catcher for the New York Yankees, appearing in just 91 games. "People forget that before he was a manager, he was a war hero and he was a catcher for a lot of years," Tigers radio analyst Jim Price said. "He was a great guy, I knew him very well, and everyone that played for him loved him." He made his mark as a manager, managing 3,157 games and winning 1,619 over 20 seasons with the Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Red Sox. His best seasons as a manager were his first three. He took over the New Yankees in 1961 and behind Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris the team won 109 game and a World Series championship. The Yankees repeated as champions in 1962 and won the AL pennant in 1963, but were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Houk moved into the front office after that series, becoming Yankees general manager in 1964 and '65. He returned to managing the Yankees in 1966 and held the job until 1973, but he only had four more winning seasons and never finished better than second place. He moved on to the Tigers in 1974 and was their manager until 1978, but the team's only winning season under Houk came in his last season. He managed the Red Sox from 1981-84 and retired with a winning percentage of .514 overall...
Most massive star ever discovered A huge ball of brightly burning gas drifting through a neighboring galaxy may be the heaviest star ever discovered, hundreds of times more massive than the sun, scientists said July 21 after working out its weight for the first time. Those behind the find say the star, called R136a1, may once have weighed as much as 320 solar masses. Astrophysicist Paul Crowther said the obese star, twice as heavy as any previously discovered, has already slimmed down considerably over its lifetime. In fact, it's burning itself off with such intensity that it shines at nearly 10 million times the luminosity of the sun. "Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age," said Crowther, an astrophysicist at the University of Sheffield in northern England. "R136a1 is already middle-aged and has undergone an intense weight loss program." Crowther said the giant was identified at the center of a star cluster in the Tarantula Nebula, a sprawling cloud of gas and dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy about 165,000 light-years away from our own Milky Way. The star was the most massive of several giants identified by Crowther and his team in an article in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society...
The color of depression The world really does look gray to depressed people, at least on a subconscious level, new research suggests. Researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany had previously shown that people with depression have difficulty detecting black-and-white contrast differences. But the scientists had used a somewhat subjective measure, psychophysical tests, and others had suggested perhaps depressed individuals had a harder time holding their attention and that explained the results. The new study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, relies on an objective measure of the retina, suggesting depressed people may see the world in a different way from the non-depressed. "These data highlight the profound ways that depression alters one's experience of the world," said Dr. John Krystal, editor of the journal. "The poet William Cowper said that 'variety's the very spice of life,' yet when people are depressed, they are less able to perceive contrasts in the visual world. This loss would seem to make the world a less pleasurable place." While the researchers aren't sure exactly why depressed people might sort of "see the world as gray," they have a strong hypothesis. Here's how they figure it works: Contrast vision relies on so-called amacrine cells within the retina, which horizontally connect the retina's neurons called ganglion cells with each other. These cells rely on dopamine, a substance known to be important for drive and attention &endash; when lacking, two main symptoms of depression. "We think the retina is some sort of outpost marker of the integrity of the dopaminergic system in the whole brain," van Elst said. So the dopamine is linked with both the vision and the depression...
Busted The rapper Ice-T was arrested in Manhattan early Tuesday (July 20) for driving with a suspended license, police said. The hip-hop pioneer, who stars in "Law & Order: SVU," was pulled over at the corner of W. 40th St. and 11th Ave. at 9 a.m. for not wearing a seatbelt, police said. When cops stopped Ice-T, whose real name is Tracy Morrow, they learned that his license was suspended, police said. Ice-T, 42, was taken to the 10th Precinct in Chelsea and charged, police said. Ice-T's biggest hit was the incendiary 1992 song "Cop Killer," which glamorized murdering police officers. He joined the Law & Order cast, in which he plays a NYPD detective, in 2000...
Kindle e-books outselling
hardcovers Kindle e-books are now outselling hardcover books for the first time, Amazon reported. For every 100 hardcovers it sold in the spring, Amazon sold 143 Kindle titles; the figure didn't include free books or samples. Sales accelerated over the period, Amazon said: its rate in June increased to 180 e-books for every 100 hardcover texts. The company didn't mention paperback sales, which for now are still higher. It added that Kindle device sales were "growing," but it didn't say by how much. Amazon has often been vague with hardware sales and will only ever say it has sold "millions" of Kindles since launching in late 2007. Amazon's timing for the milestone came the same quarter as when Apple launched the iPad and may have been spurred on by the availability of a universal iPad and iPhone app that gave many new buyers a Kindle reader. The iOS app is also technically superior to Amazon's own reader, as it supports audio and video along with color and touch, and may have lured those who were either new to e-reading or who wanted an upgrade from its grayscale rival. Amazon didn't track which devices were being used to read, but studies of users have suggested iPad owners are buying in place of other e-readers...
Fred Carter, Jr. dead at 76 Fred Carter Jr., the Nashville session musician who played on songs like Marty Robbins' "El Paso," Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" and Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay," died Saturday (July 17). He was 76. Early in his career, Carter worked with Roy Orbison, Ronnie Hawkins, Dale Hawkins and Conway Twitty (prior to Twitty's career in country music). In the 1960s and 1970s, he was an in-demand studio musician, most often on guitar, and encouraged artists like Joan Baez, Neil Young and The Band to record in Nashville. Carter is the father of country artist Deana Carter, whose 2007 album, The Chain, was a tribute to the songs that originally featured her father's contributions...
Original Big Star bassist dead at
59 Original Big Star bass player Andy Hummel has lost his battle with cancer July 19, at the age of 59. The news is a blow to Big Star fans who mourned the passing of singer Alex Chilton in March this year. Hummel, Chilton, Chris Bell and Jody Stephens formed Big Star in 1971 but Hummel left after the first album '#1 Record'. Bell died in a car accident in 1978. Stephens is now the only living founding member. Hummel was diagnosed with cancer but never made news of his illness. Big Star were to reform for SXSW in Austin this year but lead singer Alex Chilton died just days before their showcase. Hummel, Stephens and Ken Stringfellow and special guests included Mike Mills of REM, Sondre Lerche, John Doe, Curt Kirkwood, M. Ward, Chuck Prophet, Evan Dando, Susan Cowsill and Watson Sisters performed a show in Alex's honour at Antone's nightclub during SXSW. Hummel appeared on stage for 'Way Out West' and 'September Gurls' at the SXSW show. On Twitter, Ken Stringfellows posted "Another sad loss for Big Star fans as Andy Hummel passes away after long illness"...
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