danyl johnson x factor

danyl johnson x factor

After 10 years of kicking around the music business — and being kicked down by it — 27-year-old Danyl Johnson admits he had given up his hopes for stardom. But then students at an arts school in Reading, England, gave their teacher a morale boost.

Drama and dance instructor Johnson now carries the heady title of “the next Susan Boyle” after wowing the judges — including the notoriously hard-to-please Simon Cowell — when he performed in the opening round of a British forebear to “American Idol,” “The X Factor.” Appearing in his first U.S. TV interview, the man with a million-dollar smile and voice to match told TODAY’s Matt Lauer and Ann Curry Thursday he’s still processing his sudden fame — and revealed how his students gave him the push to make one last grab at the brass ring.

“I’ve been singing for about 10 years now, and I didn’t really get much interest,” Johnson said live via satellite from London. “I thought that dream had gone past.

“The kids have been so supportive and they said I should go into the competition. I just thought, ‘OK, I’ll send an application, and if I hear back I will see what happens from there.’ I’m so glad they got me to do it now, I have to say.”

Overnight sensation
Johnson is now a household name in music circles, even though he’s just one show into his reality TV competition run. Performing the Beatles classic “With a Little Help From My Friends,” the teacher showed a veteran’s performing chops and a voice that got Cowell to give him what may have been the first standing ovation in all of his various TV judging duties in England and the U.S.

After his performance, Cowell said, “Danyl, that was single-handedly the best first audition I ever heard.” The estimated 11 million viewers evidently agreed — Johnson became front-page news in the British papers overnight. His performance has also become a viral sensation: Within days, a YouTube clip of his singing had attracted a million viewers.

movies and advertising and sales

movies and advertising and sales

Nearly three years after the device launched and quickly fell behind its two major competitors, Sony is attempting to reposition its Playstation 3 video game console as an all-in-one entertainment device.

The Japanese electronics giant is launching a new advertising campaign for the crucial fall and holiday season that places less emphasis on its video game capabilities and more on its ability to play high-definition Blu-ray DVDs and to download movies from the Internet.

One of the ads, showed to The Times by Sony in advance of airing, touts the PS3 as "the greatest gaming, Blu-ray playing, movie downloading system around." Another features a teenager complaining that his grandmother is using the console to watch Blu-ray movies, preventing him from playing video games.

After years of charging more than its competitors, Sony last week cut the price of the PS3 to $299, putting it in line with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has various models that cost $199 to $299, and the Nintendo Wii, which costs $249.

The device's high price and complex set of features have been cited by many in the industry as key reasons for its slow sales. According to NPD group, consumers in the U.S. have bought just over 8 million PS3s through the end of July, compared with more than 15 million Xbox 360s and over 20 million units of the Nintendo Wii.

That has been a source of particular frustration to Hollywood studios, which have been counting on the PS3 to boost sales of Blu-ray discs, which haven't grown fast enough to make up for an ongoing decline in DVD sales.

"We have been a game company for years and we would never walk away from that, but research confirmed there is a larger proposition under our nose," said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We wanted to reposition as a total entertainment solution. We felt like we can really own entertainment."

The Xbox 360 has a movie download store that's similar to the one on the PlayStation 3 and enables Netflix subscribers to stream movies from the Internet, a feature Sony doesn't have. The PS3 is the only one of the three major consoles, however, to play Blu-ray discs.

Dille said that although Sony will keep marketing the PS3 to avid gamers, with an emphasis on high-profile new titles such as October's Uncharted 2, the new ad campaign will target more "moms and families" than before. Although the Wii has been extremely popular with families, there may still be more potential buyers in that market than among the young men who play video games most.

"It's pretty clear looking at the numbers that the 360 has done a better job at capturing the core gamer audience," said Jesse Divnich, an analyst with Electronic Entertainment Design & Research.

Sony has spent much of the last few years trying to attract gamers, with mixed success, as highly touted titles such as LittleBigPlanet and Killzone 2 have failed to rack up big sales. Although the PS3 arguably offers more features than its competitors, the company hasn't been able to excite consumers about free wireless networking and multimedia downloads.

Dille said that the campaign, Sony's biggest and costliest since the launch of the PS3, is designed around the idea that Americans are now more interested in those capabilities.

Divnich agreed that Sony's chances of success with that message are much better now than before. He noted that although overall video game hardware sales are falling in the recession, some of the hottest-selling gadgets feature multiple digital capabilities.

"A year or two ago, the idea of an all-in-one media hub was kind of a foreign idea among the mass market," Divnich noted. "Today thanks to new technologies like the iPhone, we've warmed up to the idea of products that meet all our multimedia needs."

billy gillispie

billy gillispie

What is it about basketball coaches in the state of Kentucky lately?

Rick Pitino admits to having sex with a woman in a Louisville restaurant, and then goes ballistic at the news media yesterday. John Calipari comes to Lexington as the new UK coach, and promptly learns the NCAA has erased his trip to the Final Four with Memphis from the record book.

And now Calipari's predecessor at UK, Billy Gillispie, has been arrested in Anderson County in Kentucky and charged with DUI. The Lexington Herald-Leader says Gillispie was released from jail this morning. Police told the TV station Gillispie was pulled over in a white 2009 Mercedes with Texas tags on US 127 after someone reported seeing the car driving erratically.

A male passenger also was arrested and charged with alcohol intoxication.

WLEX-TV says Gillispie told police he and his passenger had been golfing.

Police told WTVQ in Kentucky the arrest was at 2:45 a.m.

This is the third time Gillispie has been arrested for DUI. The previous two were in Texas and Oklahoma. The Oklahoma one was reduced to reckless driving and the coach pleaded guilty. In the Texas one, an El Paso prosecutor ultimately decided there wasn't enough evidence to determine Gillispie was drunk.

The Texas case drew a lot of attention, however, because Gillispie had been stopped after driving in the wrong direction on a one-way street. Also, he handed police officers a credit card instead of his license when he was first asked for identification.

Afterward, Gillispie sent more than 1,000 handwritten letters of apology to UTEP season-ticket holders, according to the El Paso Times.

Gillispie left the UK job in March this year, but still is embroiled in a contract dispute with the school.

ted kennedy quotes

ted kennedy quotes

In his words, as in life, he was a politician unafraid to address issues in a direct and occasionally controversial manner.

* "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die" - addressing the Democratic National Convention after pulling out of the presidential race, August 1980.

* "Frankly, I don't mind not being president. I just mind that someone else is" - at Washington Gridiron Club dinner, March 1986.

* "Well, here I don't go again" - on not running for president in 1988.

* "Ulster is becoming Britain's Vietnam" - on The Troubles in Northern Ireland, October 1971

* "My brother need not be idealised or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it" - eulogy for brother Robert Kennedy, June 1968.

* "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately" - during a televised statement after he pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident in regards to the Chappaquiddick incident, July 1969

* "What we have in the United States is not so much a health-care system as a disease-care system" - on health care reform for which he campaigned throughout his life, 1994

* "With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion. With Barack Obama we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay" - endorsing Barack Obama for president, January 2008.

mary jo kopechne

mary jo kopechne

Every person’s life is like a kaleidoscope. Some pick up another’s life, hold it to the light and all the glass chips fall this way or that. And the person sighting through the cylinder puts it down and turns away, saying they’ve seen it all, when in fact, they’ve only seen one facet, one pattern in another’s life. Thus some remember only one thing or two about the life of another long lived.

But there are other ways to see most of a life in depth, that is, to keep turning the kaleidoscope, letting the glass shards open and reveal, shade and hide, depending on the turn of the scope. Adding up all the patterns, keeping the sum of the brilliant and the dark turns: that’s a view in depth of the life of another.

I’d just lay out a few turns of the kaleidoscope of Ted Kennedy’s life here, a lost story:

Some of the glass shards part, and we see in paradoxically jeweled light that Ted Kennedy was born to a brutally ambitious father, Joe Kennedy, and his mother Rose, was a good Catholic girl, demure and subservient to her wealthy, bellowing husband.

Joe Kennedy true to his obsessive nature, kept his wife pregnant for most of sixteen years, she giving birth, not including miscarriages, to nine children in that time. Ted was the youngest born in 1932.

Ted would be eventually groomed and glossed, and also pressed to follow his father’s example… the ill and clearcut way the older Kennedy conducted himself politically and personally: teaching his male children that Kennedys’ get what they want when they want it how they want it for no other reason that they want it… and it is alright to use most any means to get it.

Another father, with different values, might have pressed an entire set of young Kennedy male offspring, to grow far more seated in heart and soul and clearcut ethics, far sooner.

As a young man, Ted, sent to the top school, Harvard, got kicked out for cheating. He was readmitted, but though some might say he cheated because of laziness, it may also be that his lack of studying and rousting about was his finger flapping in the face of his immensely overbearing father… yet Ted may have tried to fake the grade still fearing his old man.

Ted had reason to fear his father. Being the youngest child in the family, Ted was close to his sisters, and was doted on by Rosemary who was 14 years old when he was born. They laughed together and delighted in each other, and yet when Rosemary began displaying too wild a behavior by her father’s lights… showing interest in sex and sensuality… being too wild for her father’s hyper hypocritical tastes– he himself rumored to have many affairs–

Ted at age 9 witnessed his father dispose of his sister Rosemary as though she were a block of cordwood.

Joe Kennedy secretly arranged that his daughter Rosemary, age 22, to be forced bodily from their home, and incarcerated in a mental institution where Joe signed papers that were not his to sign, as his daughter was of legal age…

the papers the pater familias of the Kennedy clan signed were to ok a surgeon to slice into his daughter Rosemary’s brain through her eyelids, performing a lobotomy. This selfsame so-called “surgeon” would later be hounded from the medical profession for his butchery of human beings. But the good doctor at that time (1941), met Joe Kennedy’s needs.

Afterward, Rosemary no longer had sexual being. She also could not speak and could not hold her urine or her bowels for the rest of her life. She suddenly had the IQ of a child under seven. She had previously been, by all accounts, a bright, normal, willful, beautiful young woman, not retarded, not mentally ill. But to cover his egregious sin, Joe Kennedy spread the rumor over and over that Rosemary had always been ‘retareded.’

Women were a dime a dozen in his world, and Rosemary was shut away in diapers and babbling and out of sight, out of mind.

Joe Kennedy allowed no one to defy him without using all power at his disposal to destroy individuals. He was a bully and a boor. What he couldn’t get through power, he took by underhanded force… and then tried to cover his tracks, buying silence, or eliminating talkers.

To Joe, women were seen as Catholic scapulars, or as servants, or as good time girls. He carried and taught to his sons the old madonna/ whore split. A whore was to be used. A madonna was to be perpetually impregnated within marriage.

But a daughter, a woman, threatening his carefully built image, that was another story. For Joe, is was within his purview as a male to utterly harm a girl and leave her as good as dead.

Thus Joe Kennedy set hideous, puerile and murderous examples for his boys. And I believe, imprinted them, as well as intimidated and horrified them, when they were young… and yet evilly offered them riches and position as they became older… if they would just cover for and remain loyal to their corrupt father. He would be their Boston Machiavelli.

Thus he burnished and protected the family image at all costs. Except, in all his slit-eyed plans, all his prancing and smokers and under the table deals, all his pretense and vulgar displays of wealth and power, he never set in place examples of heart for others… Joe’s hope for his boys centered on eliciting in them and from them, chips off the old block, that is, greed and lust for power.

In time, as we witnessed, one of Joe’s sons, Ted, at age 37 would drive off the Dike Bridge late one night. A young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, age 28, one of several “Boiler Room Girls” (girls who worked on Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign the year before) who’d held a party that night, was in Ted’s car. Ted Kennedy made it to shore. Miss Kopechne did not. Ted Kennedy did not report the accident until the next day.

Some say he had a concussion and wasn’t thinking clearly. Others say he was drunk and out of his mind. Others say the unthinkable: that he did not value a human life. That he tried to cover up.

We may not know which one it was, or which two, or all four– or more. What we do know is that the ill trajectory for harming an innocent was laid down in spades in Ted’s young life by an exemplar father who was supposed to instill life-sparing and life-endorsing in his boys …instead of a careless regard for life… especially the lives of women, be they wives, mistresses, girlfriends, daughters, women one found attractive. For some observors and historians, the life’s end of Marilyn Monroe rings a similar bell.

Are the sins of the father the sins of the sons? I dont think we know for sure. It seems that sometimes hell is on earth for some— and I think of Ted Kennedy’s ‘cant face myself in the mirror’ for a long time after Miss Kopechne’s death… but also the prior hellacious loss of Rosemary… and the loss of a dear older brother in war… and also the harrowing of Ted’s soul after his two brothers were murdered. The lessons, the opportunities to become human and humane at last, came one after the other, relentlessly.

… and even more so of how ancient Ted Kennedy suddenly became on the small boat, his face collapsed into iteself, his shoulders gone all ‘old man’… as he grimly sailed out to recover John-John’s body and the bodies of two others of the young from the tragic small plane crash in the ocean at niight… his nephew John, son of Jackie and JFK, who so promised in good looks and youth, in vitality and smarts… to maybe bring back the Kennedy political sheen… now the last charismatic male Kennedy of that generation was dead too. Also, literally, dead in the water. Like Mary Jo.

We who are religious are taught that all will be judged not with fury but with fairness when they die. Whatever was not learned on earth, some say, will be learned in heaven, or in a stopping and resting place on the way there. It’s said too that one receives credit for learning on earth from one’s abject suffering, no matter what crassness or separation from the God of Life and Love, preceded it.

So may it be for Ted Kennedy, having now left this world at age 77. So may rest continue for Mary Jo Kopechne who would be, had she lived, 68 years old this day.

mike barnicle

mike barnicle

“The Kennedy brothers must be having a wondrous reunion.”

- Roy Johnson, a onetime Fortune editor, on Facebook this morning. “And sisters!” added one reader.

What an image–Ted Kennedy and his seven siblings convening in the afterlife. The great Senator, who was 77, was the last of the Kennedy brothers–oldest brother Joe died in a plane crash in WWII, and Teddy became the patriarch after Jack and Bobby were assassinated in the ’60s. Sister Eunice died two weeks ago. Jean Kennedy Smith, former ambassador to Ireland, is now the only one of the nine Kennedy siblings still alive.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, journalist/pundit Mike Barnicle, a friend of the Senator from Massachusetts, said that he once asked Kennedy if, when he sailed his boat Maya in Nantucket Sound, did he ever see his brothers out there. “All the time,” Teddy replied.

Edward Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, died Tuesday night. He was 77 .

he death was announced Wednesday morning in a statement by the Kennedy family.“Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port,” the statement said. “We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.”

Mr. Kennedy had been in precarious health since he suffered a seizure in May 2008 at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass. His doctors determined the cause had been a malignant glioma, a brain tumor that often carries a grim prognosis.

As he underwent cancer treatment, Mr. Kennedy was little seen in Washington, appearing most recently at the White House in April as Mr. Obama signed a national service bill that bears the Kennedy name.

While he had been physically absent from the capital, his presence had been deeply felt as Congress weighed the most sweeping revisions to America’s health care system in decades, an effort Mr. Kennedy called “the cause of my life.”

On July 15, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, which Mr. Kennedy heads, passed health care legislation that he had helped write and that may one day be regarded as the capstone to Mr. Kennedy’s government career.

Mr. Kennedy was the last surviving brother of a generation of Kennedys that dominated American politics in the 1960s and that came to embody glamour, political idealism and untimely death. The Kennedy mystique — some call it the Kennedy myth — has held the imagination of the world for decades and came to rest on the sometimes too-narrow shoulders of the brother known as Teddy.

Mr. Kennedy, who served 46 years as the most well-known Democrat in the Senate, longer than all but two other senators, was the only one of those brothers to die after reaching old age. President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were felled by assassins’ bullets in their 40s. The eldest brother, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., died in 1944 at the age of 29 while on a risky World War II bombing mission.

Mr. Kennedy spent much of last year in treatment and recuperation, broken by occasional public appearances and a dramatic return to the Capitol last summer to cast a decisive vote on a Medicare bill.

He electrified the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August with an unscheduled appearance and a speech that had delegates on their feet. Many were in tears.

His gait was halting, but his voice was strong. “My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here, and nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight,” Mr. Kennedy said. “I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States.”

Senator Kennedy was at or near the center of much of American history in the latter part of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st. For much of his adult life, he veered from victory to catastrophe, winning every Senate election he entered but failing in his only try for the presidency; living through the sudden deaths of his brothers and three of his nephews; being responsible for the drowning death on Chappaquiddick Island of a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, a former aide to his brother Robert. One of the nephews, John F. Kennedy Jr., who the family hoped would one day seek political office and keep the Kennedy tradition alive, died in a plane crash in 1999 at age 38.

Mr. Kennedy himself was almost killed, in 1964, in a plane crash, which left him with permanent back and neck problems.

He was a Rabelaisian figure in the Senate and in life, instantly recognizable by his shock of white hair, his florid, oversize face, his booming Boston brogue, his powerful but pained stride. He was a celebrity, sometimes a self-parody, a hearty friend, an implacable foe, a man of large faith and large flaws, a melancholy character who persevered, drank deeply and sang loudly. He was a Kennedy.

Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, one of the institution’s most devoted students, said of his longtime colleague, “Ted Kennedy would have been a leader, an outstanding senator, at any period in the nation’s history.”

Mr. Byrd is one of only two senators to have served longer in the chamber than Mr. Kennedy; the other was Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. In May 2008, on learning of Mr. Kennedy’s diagnosis of a lethal brain tumor, Mr. Byrd wept openly on the floor of the Senate.

Born to one of the wealthiest American families, Mr. Kennedy spoke for the downtrodden in his public life while living the heedless private life of a playboy and a rake for many of his years. Dismissed early in his career as a lightweight and an unworthy successor to his revered brothers, he grew in stature over time by sheer longevity and by hewing to liberal principles while often crossing the partisan aisle to enact legislation. A man of unbridled appetites at times, he nevertheless brought a discipline to his public work that resulted in an impressive catalog of legislative achievement across a broad landscape of social policy.

Mr. Kennedy left his mark on legislation concerning civil rights, health care, education, voting rights and labor. He was chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at his death. But he was more than a legislator. He was a living legend whose presence insured a crowd and whose hovering figure haunted many a president.

academic earth

academic earth

The University of Nevada, Reno is known for the quality of its journalism school and the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, according to the 2010 edition of "The Insider's Guide to the Colleges."

However, the guide, compiled by the staff of the Yale Daily News, faults UNR for a "too limited student population" in which 82 percent come from Nevada high schools.

While some students complain it's as if they're going to a bigger version of their high schools, one freshman said being with old high school friends made the transition easier, the guide states.

Overall, the guide's 36th edition paints a favorable picture of the Reno campus.

"With its renown specialized academic programs, a unique student population, a lively social scene, and a beautiful campus, UNR gives students the opportunity to receive a first-rate education at a great value."

The guide was published before Nevada's Board of Regents voted to approve a 10 percent increase in tuition this fall for all of the state's seven higher education institutions, with another 10 percent increase scheduled in fall 2010. But tuition at Nevada's public colleges and universities traditionally has been low in comparison with other institutions in the Western region.

The guide also points out that although UNR is a "dry" campus and fraternities and sororities are not allowed to serve alcohol, "students agree that it is 'definitely possible' to find alcohol at parties."

Students who are 21 or older and those who have fake IDs "can look forward to wild nights of drinking, dancing and gambling in downtown Reno," the guide said.

The 952-page book devotes slightly more than three pages to UNR, but does not include the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Of UNR, it concludes that the state's "generous Millennium Scholarship continues to draw many in-state students, but more and more out-of-state students are discovering UNR's educational benefits."

Earlier this month, both UNR and UNLV made Forbes' list of America's 500 best private and public colleges for 2009. UNR placed 406th and UNLV placed 486.

The Forbes' ranking is based on 25 percent student satisfaction with course instruction, 25 percent on indicators of postgraduation employment and 20 percent on estimated loan debt. It also is based 17 percent on the likelihood of graduation within four years and 13 percent on student and faculty academic and research awards.

name voyager

name voyager

Launched from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 20, 1977, Voyager 2, as the name suggests, was the second of two identical deep-space probes originally dispatched by NASA to gather data on Jupiter and Saturn. Their primary mission completed, Voyager 2 continued on to make observations of Uranus and Neptune, while Voyager 1 hightailed it toward the edge of the solar system. Voyager 2’s flyby of Triton was the spacecraft’s last contact with a major heavenly body before heading off in the direction of Voyager 1 and interstellar space.

Triton was certainly worth a look-see.

Neptune’s largest moon, discovered in 1846 by British astronomer William Lassell, was named for the Greek god Triton, the son of Poseidon (Neptune to the Romans). Its diameter of 1,677 miles makes it roughly half the size of our own moon, unremarkable enough. But Triton is the only large satellite in the solar system with a retrograde orbit, that is, orbiting in the opposite direction of its planet’s rotation. It is also the coldest known object in the solar system, with a mean surface temperature of minus 391 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 235 Celsius). Unlike Earth’s moon, Triton has an atmosphere, albeit a very thin one, composed mainly of nitrogen and methane.

Voyager 2 returned a series of crisp photos of Triton’s surface, including closeups of ice formations, impact craters and other general surface characteristics. It also photographed a plume of frozen material in the process of being ejected at the surface, which is believed to be either liquid nitrogen or methane. Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to have visited Triton. (Voyager 1, launched on a shorter trajectory, took a different route than its sister and bypassed Triton entirely.)

As Voyager 2 passed beyond Neptune and Triton, the mission’s planetary exploration phase officially ended.

If that had been the end of it, the twin Voyagers mission would have been an unqualified success. Although designed and built to complete an exploration of only Jupiter and Saturn, both Voyager 1 and 2 proved far more durable. So NASA extended the original mission include to the outer two planets. But more was, and is, yet to come. Thirty-two years after launch both craft are sailing through the heliosphere at 38,000 mph, still returning data to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory through the Deep Space Network.

NASA expects to continue receiving data from both probes until at least 2025, nearly a half-century after their launch.

baby name wizard

baby name wizard

If you think making a name for yourself is hard, try making one for someone else.

Once a mere reflection of the times, baby names are now considered shorthand for everything from the parents’ values to the likelihood of future child-therapy bills. Choosing a title that’s at once unique but not precious, stylish but not trendy, meaningful but not obscure, is seen by many expectant moms and dads as the first test of their prowess as parents.

It’s not quite a prenatal exam, but it feels like one.

“It used to be that a very large percentage of parents wanted a good, solid, ordinary name for their child,” says Laura Wattenberg, a noted name researcher. “But today, parents treat ordinary as a dirty word.”

The appeal of unusual baby names drew international attention last week, when news broke that a New Zealand judge had ordered a nine-year-old girl be made a ward of the court long enough to change her name: Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

A 2007 California State University study of turnover rates in baby names found fashions change because of a small minority of innovators amidst a majority of copycats. Tweaking the spelling of conventional names has become a predominant trend in Canada because it allows parents to choose an in-vogue moniker that still seems unique. Madison, for example, can become Madisson, Madisyn, Madisynne, or Madison.

“We all want our kids to be distinctive, and that’s created a kind of arms race because we might want to be different from one another but our tastes are very much the same,” says Wattenberg.

While parents have always suffered some degree of prenatal naming anxiety, the digital age has upped the ante exponentially.

Over 100 niche baby-name websites offer everything from popularity graphs to searchable databases, opinion polls and historical birth certificate data; For about $50, online consultants will do name research on parents’ behalf. At sites such as Celebrity Baby Blog, parents can obsess over the choices pop icons are making, which this year have included Ignatius (Cate Blanchett), Knox (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), Clementine (Ethan Hawke), Sunday (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban) and Callum Lyon (Kyle MacLachlan).

“Parents type a first and last name into Google and feel panicked when it’s taken, or when the domain name is taken,” says Wattenberg, founder of babynamewizard.com.

“When Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt named their daughter Vivienne, I had multiple people writing to me who had that name, or a similar name, chosen and felt like it had been ruined.”

Factor in the cultural din of academics whose research warns of the damage a “bad” name can do to a child, and it’s no wonder parents are stressed before changing their first diaper.

For Jody Szabo, a 29-year-old mother of two from Calgary, the pressure of finding the right names for her sons was “overwhelming.”

“It was difficult, time-consuming and stressful,” she recalls. “There’s nothing worse than being nine months pregnant, due any day, and having no clue what you’re going to call this child.”

After poring over online name databases, combing through thousands of possible monikers in baby books, and launching an epic battle against her husband’s preferred choice of Argus - a name plucked from a Greek myth about a 100-eyed giant - Szabo happily settled on Jeremy for her first-born and Austin for her second.

For her part, 37-year-old Karen Markovics is suffering “namer’s remorse.” Five years after giving birth to Nicole Josephine, the North Carolina mom is considering legally changing the girl’s name to Josephine Marie; she has informally been calling her Josie since she was a year old.

“A lot of people were really cruel when it came out that we wanted to change her name,” says Markovics. Other parents have accused her of being superficial and “a flake” for wanting a mulligan on the birth certificate.

“I just wanted a name that when I yelled it on the playground, I didn’t get 12 kids running.”

Misty Verlik Kelleher, 26, blames a combination of information overload and having too many cooks in the kitchen for her own prenatal naming anxiety.

“These days, it doesn’t seem like any name, no matter how ridiculous, is off the table,” she says, citing actor Jason Lee’s son Pilot Inspecktor as an example.

After taking great pains to create a shortlist of names with her partner, it seemed everyone the Edmonton native knew wanted to weigh in on the couple’s choices.

“Let me tell you, no one was shy in the least,” says Kelleher. “All I heard for months was, ‘I don’t like Brandon, that reminds me of this jerk I went to high school with …’, and on and on it went.”

Kelleher ended up naming her son Valentin (val-in-teen), after her father.

“While I know he’ll definitely be made fun of in school, he’ll still have it easy compared to the kids whose parents named them after some kind of beverage, stereo equipment or someone else’s occupation.”

If current trends persist, however, the kids who stand out won’t be the ones with the exotic names but rather the ones called Ann, Joan, Todd or Ralph, all of which barely register in the most recent Canadian name listings.

Fifty years ago, 40 per cent of boys and 26 per cent of girls had Top 20 names. In 2005, the Top 20 accounted for just 19 per cent of boys’ names and about 14 per cent of girls’ names, according to Harper-Collins’ Best Baby Names for Canadians.

As ludicrous as some contemporary names sound, a leading branding expert says memorable monikers - and especially those with three syllables, such as Moon Zappa, daughter of Frank - can prove valuable later in life.

“People tend to favour the familiar; and unusual names, ironically, are more familiar to people because they only need to hear them once, or perhaps twice, to remember them,” says Harry Beckwith, author of You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself.

Ultimately, the branding advice he gives to businesses - to choose a name with backstory and meaning - applies equally to parents.

“Precious, contrived, meticulously-searched-for names always will eventually reveal their artifice, and artifice loses to authenticity every single time.”

caster semenya photos

caster semenya photos

Caster Semenya is causing quite a stir on the internet lately. After winning the 800m at 2009 World Championships in Athletics, it was revealed that the International Association of Athletics Federations had demanded a gender verification test to confirm she is a woman. Semenya also won the 800 m and 1500 m at the 2009 African Junior Championships with times of 1:56.72 and 4:08.01 respectively. The 800 m time was the fastest was the fastest in 2009 when it was set.

I guess they have reasons to question it. What do you think based on this video and her photos?

nate quick death

nate quick death

It's not enough that "BIG NATE" is a well-crafted comic. No, now Lincoln Peirce has to tantalize us with comics that hold the promise of being far, far better than some of what's now on the page.

What's this now -- an ax-wielding character who goes by the moniker Doctor Cesspool? At last, this could be just the strip to thrill, chill and cross-pollinate with "Lio." Warm up the Mac and color us intrigued.

So intrigued, in fact, that here at Comic Riffs, we're quick to take "Big Nate" up on his suggestion. What better way to weigh in on the blood-curdling "Doctor Cesspool" than to conduct an actual comics poll. To wit: If you could add ONE comic to The Post's, would it be "Doctor Cesspool" -- sight unseen -- or one of these other medical cartoon characters? You're invited to vote below.

megan wants a millionaire ryan

megan wants a millionaire ryan

This cannot be stressed enough: reality shows really need to step it up in the background check/psychological profile department when casting their shows.

Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a 32-year-old finalist on the VH1 show "Megan Wants a Millionaire," is a person of interest in the murder of a woman who was found dead and stuffed into a suitcase over the weekend, according to TMZ.

Jenkins reported Jasmine Fiore, a swimsuit model who also had worked for Playboy and Hawaiian Tropic, missing on Saturday night. Police had already found her body ... in a suitcase ... in a dumpster ... in Orange County, Calif. that morning.

Authorities have since been trying to contact Jenkins but have been unable to locate him. They suspect that he's headed for Canada, where he's originally from.

According to Jenkins profile on the VH1 site, he's an investment banker with these enlightened views about women and relationships:

• Says he has left many amazing women in his life primarily because he wanted more women.
• States the only time he cheated on his ex was when he wanted to break up with her.
• Claims that he molds "player girls" into "princesses."

Megan Hauserman, the professional reality show star of "Megan Wants a Millionaire," was annoying on "Beauty and the Geek" and downright obnoxious on "Rock of Love with Bret Michaels," but even she deserves better than this guy.

UPDATE: TMZ is now reporting that according to Hauserman, Jenkins went to Las Vegas right after being booted from "Megan Wants a Millionaire" when it was taped earlier this year, met Fiore at a strip club and married her two days later.

eric dane tape video

eric dane tape video

Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart in nude video with former beauty queen; "Not a sex tape," says Dane's lawyer... Michael Jackson to be buried on 51st birthday, says Papa Joe... Judge approves deal for sale of Jackson merchandise... Steve Harvey joins "Good Morning America" for family, relationship segments... Shania Twain next up for "Idol" guest-judging slot... Robin Wright Penn says she won't reconcile with Sean Penn... Mark Wahlberg treated for smoke inhalation on set of new movie... Tyra Banks to reveal her "real" hair... "Real Housewives of Atlanta's" Nene Leakes admits to stripper past... John Cleese reaches $19 million divorce settlement with third wife.

Pix: Ryan Seacrest snapped filming E! stand-up on a booster box.

Rumor Mill: Paula Abdul negotiating a return to "Idol"... Colin Farrell spooked by obsessed fan... Robert Downey Jr. to play vampire Lestat?... Did Tony Romo dump Jessica Simpson because of booze?... Gwyneth Paltrow shunned Scarlett Johannson on "Iron Man 2" set.

Not News: Jessica Simpson not headed to "Idol," says rep... Brad Pitt not joining the cast of "Sherlock Holmes."

Say What?
"I still slip into different styles very easily. I can be a little bit hip-hop in sweatpants and sneakers and a baseball hat. Or I can put on a head wrap and get kind of bohemian with glasses and a caftan. I can dress conservative '60s glamour, or I can go supermodern chic ... I love all different kinds of things. I'm open. I think that's what makes it exciting to people. They don't know what I'm going to do next. Honestly, I don't know half the time." -- Jennifer Lopez, on keeping us guessing, in the September issue of InStyle.

hurricane bill update

hurricane bill update

Hurricane Bill, upgraded to a Category 4 storm, tore across the Atlantic Wednesday with raging winds nearing 135 mph, threatening a possible strike near Bermuda in a few days, meteorologists reported.

Forecasters predicted the hurricane could get even stronger.

"The wind sheer is light and the waters are warm," said Todd Kimberlain, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center.

"Those are two essential ingredients not just for the formation, but also the maintenance, of hurricanes."

Early Wednesday, Bill was centered about 460 miles east of the Leeward Islands and was expected to pass them later in the day or by early Thursday.

The most significant threat could be to Bermuda, which the storm could hit in three or four days, Kimberlain said.

It also could move directly between Bermuda and the eastern coast of the U.S. without making landfall.

Either way, people near the coast can expect wave swells and rip currents in the next few days, Kimberlain said.

Meanwhile, Ana, the first named storm of the Atlantic season, was downgraded to a tropical depression and dissipated before reaching Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

mark mcgrath

mark mcgrath

In the late ’90s and early ’00s Cali party rockers Sugar Ray owned summer barbecues with a string of easy, breezy radio hits like “Fly,’’ “Every Morning,’’ and “When It’s Over.’’ The hits dried up in 2003, the quintet took an extended break to hang with their families, and frontman Mark McGrath took a job hosting the TV gossip and entertainment news show “Extra.’’ The band returned to the scene last week with a typically sunny album, “Music for Cougars,’’ which includes a tune written by Rivers Cuomo of Weezer. We caught up with McGrath by phone from the Hollywood Hills.

SUGAR RAY With Fastball at the Paradise tonight

at 7:30. Tickets are $27.50 at 877-598-8689

or www.livenation.com.

Q. What are you most glad that you will never have to do or say again since you no longer work for “Extra’’?

A. I didn’t have a bad time at “Extra.’’ I hated doing red carpets. Because I don’t mind talking to anybody, but when you have to have an agenda, like say Britney Spears is in the news and it’s a hot topic and then you see Al Pacino coming down the red carpet and they want you to ask him about Britney Spears. It just makes your insides twist and tangle, and I wasn’t good enough to do it, and I refused to do it.

Q. You’ve got the original lineup intact, and no one went off on any crazy benders. Why do you think Sugar Ray was able to keep it together?

A. What that speaks to is we started organically. We were five friends in Newport Beach, California, and all we wanted to do was hear our Marshalls loud on ten. We played a lot of keg parties; we played Judas Priest, Blondie, and Run-DMC songs. Now it’s 21 years later, it’s still the same guys, and except for playing covers we’re playing Sugar Ray songs. So we started for the right reason. The friendships still exist, and that’s the biggest reward of the band.

Q. You’ve been fairly candid over the years about where you thought Sugar Ray fell in the grand scheme of things. Where does that come from?

A. We knew we came in the back door and kind of fell into success. Like I say I’m not the best singer in the world, we’re not the best band in the world, but you can’t deny we can craft a pop song. I’m not a braggart - I never will be - but the people have spoken. When you have two number one songs and a number three and a number seven, you’re doing something right, and I’ll always be honored to be a part of that songwriting.

mindy mccready

mindy mccready

The plot thickens in the McSteamy nude video scandal – just the way we like it.

Now dethroned Miss United States Teen Kari Ann Peniche (stripped of her crown for baring all in Playboy) claims that her "Celebrity Rehab" roommate, country singer Mindy McCready, swiped her hard drive, which housed the compromising footage of her, Eric Dane and his wife Rebecca Gayheart lounging about naked and apparently stoned.

Peniche tells TMZ that the strung-out trio shot the footage more than two years ago in her Studio City apartment, and that there was absolutely no sex involved.

But after getting into an argument with McCready over money, Peniche believes the singer took her hard drive when she moved out.

Peniche, 25, filed a stolen property report with the LAPD, fearing the salacious content on her hard drive would fall into the wrong hands.

It appears that information was more sensitive than the police expected!

In the scandalous video posted on Gawker.com, the threesome lounge about naked and pass the camera around while discussing what their pornographic names would be.

Gayheart picks "Nina" as her handle, while Peniche opts for "Fifi."

The ever-raucous Dane, accustomed to raising pulses on "Grey's Anatomy" as Dr. Mark Sloane, toys with "Peter," "Cocaine Manner," "Tristan Daily," and famous bull riding champ "Tuff Hedeman."

Last month, the threesome and McCready reportedly hammered out a deal with their reps as to who got what on the hard drive.

Dane, 36, won full rights to the video, but it was leaked on the Web yesterday, anyway.

Now Dane and Gayheart, 38, are threatening to sue anyone who exploits the video.

Attorney Marty Singer, representing the couple, said the tape "is simply a private, consensual moment involving a married couple, shot several years ago, which was never intended to be seen by the public."

He added, "Although the participants are nude, the tape is not a 'sex tape.'"

Singer also said Peniche told him she's innocent of the leak.

"I have no idea," she told him. "I have nothing to do with it."

janelle wang

janelle wang

Today Chef Giada De Laurentiis; author Liz Vaccariello ("Flat Belly Diet"); Mark McGrath. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA

Good Morning America Christina Applegate; Renée Zellweger. (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day L.A. Michelle Branch; Stefan Richter ("Top Chef"). (N) 7 a.m. KTTV

Rachael Ray Mary J. Blige. 9 a.m. KCBS

Live With Regis and Kelly Guest co-host Janelle Wang; James Spader ("Shorts"). (N) 9 a.m. KABC

The View A day of hot topics; author Sharlene Azam; Caroline Manzo, Dina Manzo and Jacqueline Laurita; blogger Michael Rogers and director Kirby Dick. 10 a.m. KABC

The Morning Show With Mike & Juliet Jeff Foxworthy; animal expert Jack Hanna; model Beth Stern. 11 a.m. KTTV

The Bonnie Hunt Show Cloris Leachman talks about her autobiography, "Cloris"; Johnny Galecki ("The Big Bang Theory"); musician Dennis DeYoung. noon KNBC

The Tyra Banks Show Some of the surprises of the past season. 1 p.m. KTTV

The Martha Stewart Show Chef Takashi Yagihashi prepares two noodle recipes; author KF Seetoh prepares laksa; chef Chris Chung shows the art of hand-pulled noodles. 2 p.m. KNBC

Oprah Winfrey Dr. Oz discusses why America's children are fat; tips on how to make healthier choices. 3 p.m. KABC

The Tyra Banks Show Guests tell their unsuspecting friends and family that they are secretly jealous of them. 3 p.m. KTTV

Dr. Phil Guests who turn ordinary life events into huge spectacles. 4 p.m. KCBS

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Leslie Mann ("17 Again"); Rashida Jones ("Parks and Recreation"); the Pussycat Dolls perform. 4 p.m. KNBC

Larry King Live (N) 6 and 9 p.m. CNN, midnight CNN

Tavis Smiley Smokey Robinson. (N) 7 and 11 p.m. KCET

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Christopher McDougall. (N) 11 p.m. Comedy Central

Charlie Rose Zhou Wenzhong, China's ambassador to the U.S. (N) 11:30 p.m. KCET

The Colbert Report Christopher Caldwell. (N) 11:30 p.m. Comedy Central

Late Show With David Letterman Donald Trump; Diane Kruger; Billy Currington performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS

The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien Sacha Baron Cohen as fashion reporter Bruno; Stephen Moyer; Zumanity. 11:35 p.m. KNBC

Jimmy Kimmel Live Ashton Kutcher; the Script performs. 12:06 a.m. KABC

The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson Kevin Bacon; Michael Irvin. 12:37 a.m. KCBS

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon John Krasinski; Stephen Moyer; video game creator Kudo Tsinoda; Manchester Orchestra performs. 12:37 a.m. KNBC

Last Call With Carson Daly Oscar Nuñez; motocross rider Chad Reed; Cold War Kids perform. 1:36 a.m. KNBC

karen sypher pics

karen sypher pics

New Delhi, Aug 13, 2009: Karen Sypher pics are being frantically searched on the internet. For the last two days she is again attracting a number of people.

Karen Sypher is in the news for accusing college basketball coach Rick Pitino of assault, rape, and for offering her money to have an abortion.

Pitino claims the sex with Sypher was consensual and has countered that Karen is guilty of extortion.

Sypher asked for money in return for silence, Pitino obviously wasn’t having any of it since the matter is now all over the news. Pitino’s wife has remained silent on the issue, and his employer, the University of Louisville, is standing behind him.

Rick Pitino is a leading basketball coach. Since 2001 he has been the head coach at the University of Louisville. He has also served as head coach at Boston University, Providence College and the University of Kentucky, leading that program to the NCAA championship in 1996. He has coached on the professional level for the NBA's New York Knicks and Boston Celtics with mixed results.

Pitino holds the distinction of being the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to the Final Four. In addition, Pitino has achieved a measure of success as an author and a motivational speaker.

Pitino, an Italian American is considered by many to be one of the first coaches to promote fully taking advantage of the 3-point shot, first adopted by the NCAA in 1987. By exploiting the 3-point shot, his teams at Kentucky in the early 1990s were known as Pitino's Bombinos, as a significant portion of the offensive points came from the 3-point shot. Even now, Pitino's teams are known for the 3-point threat and all of his teams rank towards the top in 3-point attempts per season.

Many of Pitino's players and assistant coaches have gone on to become successful collegiate coaches. In total, 21 former Pitino players and coaches have become Division I head coaches, including Florida's Billy Donovan, Minnesota's Tubby Smith, Arizona State's Herb Sendek, and Cincinnati's Mick Cronin.

Pitino started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii in 1974, and became a full-time assistant in 1975. He was then the first assistant hired by Jim Boeheim in 1976 as Boeheim began his tenure at Syracuse University.

Pitino went back to the NBA in 1997, but returned to college—and his adopted home state—on March 21, 2001 to coach the University of Louisville following the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum. In the 2005 season, Pitino led Louisville to their first Final Four in 19 years, and became the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools to the Final Four. Immediately following their Final Four run, several players graduated or entered the 2005 NBA Draft, leaving the 2005–06 team very inexperienced. The inexperience caused the Cardinals to limp into the Big East Tournament seeded 12th, and miss the NCAA tournament. They did rebound and made it to the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), where they were defeated by eventual champions University of South Carolina.

In the meantime there is news that Pinto told police about having sex with Karen Cunagin Syphera on Aug. 1, 2003, while he was drunk at a Louisville restaurant and later on he also paid $3,000 to Syphera as an abortion expense. Reportedly after required investigation and interviews with Sypher police found problem about her credibility. According to police she failed to disclose about the other persons who was always present in the restaurant, secondly Pitino was in California when Sypher claimed he sexually assaulted her a second time.

mendoza line

mendoza line

At least some form of disappointment comes with every baseball season. (Well, maybe not the 1985 Tigers or the 1998 Yankees, but you get the idea.) In fantasy baseball, the disappointment comes when players we think will be solid contributors have subpar seasons. With news that Seattle's Erik Bedard will undergo surgery on his shoulder and miss the remainder of this year, we take a look at some of this season's most disappointing players.

Erik Bedard, Mariners. After only starting 15-games in an injury-shortened 2008 season, there were high hopes for the lefty returning to the power pitcher he was with the Orioles. But after an excellent start (5-3, 2.82 ERA, 1.19 WHIP), another injury-plagued season came to an unhappy ending ... after just 15 starts.

Chris Young, Diamondbacks. Keeper league owners have been waiting for a couple years now for the fleet-footed outfielder to flash the skills he showed as a rookie in 2007 when he hit 32 homers and stole 27 bases. Young reached a new low this week when he lost his starting job (hitting .194 may have been one reason) and was demoted to the minors.

Garrett Atkins, Rockies. In 2006-07, Atkins averaged 27 homers, 115 RBI and hit .315. But that was before the dreaded humidor started leveling the playing field in the Mile High City. His performance dropped off slightly last season, but he still managed 21 homers and 99 RBI. But nothing could prepare his fantasy owners for this year's slimmed-down .222 average, seven homers and 35 RBI. Talk going on an Atkins diet ...

Chris Davis, Rangers. After wowing fantasy owners with a .285 average, 17 homers and 55 RBI in a half-season with Texas, big things were expected from the 23-year-old slugger. Problem was, he just couldn't make contact. Davis was on pace to set a single-season strikeout record when he was sent to the minors early last month with his average hovering around the Mendoza Line. Things are looking up though. At Class AAA Oklahoma City, he's hitting .321 with a .542 slugging percentage. Even more important, he's cut his strikeout rate in half (42% in the majors vs. 21% in the minors).

pga championship

pga championship

Chaska, MN (Sports Network) - World No. 3 Paul Casey withdrew from the PGA Championship Thursday morning before teeing off. Casey has been suffering from a strained intercostal muscle in his ribs.

The Englishman was originally injured just before the British Open. He battled through the pain to tie for 47th at Turnberry, but tried to play last week for the first time since.

Things did not go well in Akron for the 10-time winner on the European Tour. Casey withdrew from the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last week and delayed his decision on competing in the season's final major until Thursday morning.

Casey, who earned his first PGA Tour win earlier this year at the Houston Open, was replaced in the field by Tim Petrovic, who has four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this season.

Casey was the third player to withdraw from the championship, joining Robert Karlsson (eye) and Trevor Immelman (wrist) on the sidelines.

mary jane clark

mary jane clark

Author Mary Jane Clark dropped by "Good Morning America" to give us a sneak peek at her new book "Dying for Mercy."

At Pentimento, a renovated estate in wealthy Tuxedo Park, N.Y., the host of a gala is found dead in an apparent suicide. Attending the event is Eliza Blake, co-host of the morning TV show KEY to America, who's determined to get to the bottom of the crime.

She and her colleagues, producer Annabelle Murphy, cameraman B.J. D'Elia and psychiatrist Margo Gonzalez realize that Pentimento holds the key. The mansion is full of clues hidden in its fireplaces, fountains and frescoes that all lead to the killer's victims. As Eliza keeps digging, it seems that no resident in the tony town is safe.

Read an excerpt of "Dying for Mercy" below, and head to the "GMA" Library for more good reads.

best buy 9.99 tv

best buy 9.99 tv

You can get a latest Samsung LN52A650A1F 52” high-definition LCD TV for only $9.99 at Best Buy, although it usually costs $1,800, Unbelievable ? But these type of mistakes are quit normal and usually appeared in Best Buy site, which sometimes makes me and others feel that it might be one of their unique marketing policy.

However, to make it sure that I am not a mental just have a look the the website for yourself where you can buy the Samsung LN52A650 52″ 1080p HDTV for 10$ at Best Buy.

Interestingly to safeguard itself Best Buy has a clear policy when such errors occur and the guys in charge can “revoke” offers and to “correct” any errors. But when they will payback your money that you have already deposited through credit card , that nobody knows.

karen sypher photos

karen sypher photos

New Delhi, Aug 12, 2009: Karen Sypher photos and Rick Pitino. Rick Pitino is facing heat for a chance sex he had with a woman six years ago. He may be ruing the unfortunate time when he was tempted to have sex with a woman named Karen Cunagin Syphera.

The ignominy continues even six years after that sexual dalliance of Rick Pitino. First the woman accused him of forcibly raping her and then he said the woman was trying to extort one million dollar.

Rick Pitino a leading basketball coach. Since 2001 he has been the head coach at the University of Louisville. He has also served as head coach at Boston University, Providence College and the University of Kentucky, leading that program to the NCAA championship in 1996. He has coached on the professional level for the NBA's New York Knicks and Boston Celtics with mixed results.

Pitino holds the distinction of being the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to the Final Four. In addition, Pitino has achieved a measure of success as an author and a motivational speaker.

Pitino, an Italian American is considered by many to be one of the first coaches to promote fully taking advantage of the 3-point shot, first adopted by the NCAA in 1987. By exploiting the 3-point shot, his teams at Kentucky in the early 1990s were known as Pitino's Bombinos, as a significant portion of the offensive points came from the 3-point shot. Even now, Pitino's teams are known for the 3-point threat and all of his teams rank towards the top in 3-point attempts per season.

Many of Pitino's players and assistant coaches have gone on to become successful collegiate coaches. In total, 21 former Pitino players and coaches have become Division I head coaches, including Florida's Billy Donovan, Minnesota's Tubby Smith, Arizona State's Herb Sendek, and Cincinnati's Mick Cronin.

Pitino started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii in 1974, and became a full-time assistant in 1975. He was then the first assistant hired by Jim Boeheim in 1976 as Boeheim began his tenure at Syracuse University.

Pitino went back to the NBA in 1997, but returned to college—and his adopted home state—on March 21, 2001 to coach the University of Louisville following the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum. In the 2005 season, Pitino led Louisville to their first Final Four in 19 years, and became the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools to the Final Four. Immediately following their Final Four run, several players graduated or entered the 2005 NBA Draft, leaving the 2005–06 team very inexperienced. The inexperience caused the Cardinals to limp into the Big East Tournament seeded 12th, and miss the NCAA tournament. They did rebound and made it to the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), where they were defeated by eventual champions University of South Carolina.

In the meantime there is news that Pinto told police about having sex with Karen Cunagin Syphera on Aug. 1, 2003, while he was drunk at a Louisville restaurant and later on he also paid $3,000 to Syphera as an abortion expense. Reportedly after required investigation and interviews with Sypher police found problem about her credibility. According to police she failed to disclose about the other persons who was always present in the restaurant, secondly Pitino was in California when Sypher claimed he sexually assaulted her a second time.

kate gosselin today show

kate gosselin today show

It’s no secret that she’s been through the relationship ringer lately, and earlier today (August 10) Kate Gosselin was spotted at the “Today” show.

Giving her first interview since her separation from her husband Jon, the “Jon and Kate Plus 8” mommy looked a bit downcast as she explained how hard things have been for her family.

Speaking of her husband’s multiple flings since their split, Kate said, “I was shocked, but those things… to be very honest, that’s his life and they don’t affect me directly at this point.”

She continued, “It is hurtful. It’s very hurtful. To be very honest, the most hurtful part is when his decisions directly affect our children. That’s the hardest part for me.”

Ms. Gosselin also revealed her dismay that things didn’t work out. “You know, I go back very often to our vow renewal in Hawaii. I think very often of it, and in that moment, I meant those vows. And there was no option for us other than to be together. And so much has changed.”

josh hamilton pics

josh hamilton pics

Josh Hamilton, the troubled and talented 28-year-old center fielder for the Texas Rangers, became a truly extraordinary figure in the world of baseball Saturday, and his team hadn't yet begun its key game against the Los Angeles Angels. Hamilton did the unthinkable: He admitted he was that most common of creatures, a human being.

Hamilton is a recovering addict, both of alcohol and a host of drugs, crack cocaine among them. Before the spiral, he was the first pick overall in the 1999 draft, but addictions derailed him from the game for more than three years until 2007, when he finally found his way to the big leagues. He said he had been clean since 2005. He said he was now a man of God. His wife, children, organization and support group sustained him. He had become an inspiration for recovering addicts about what was possible even when things appeared to be their worst.

But in January, at least for one night, Hamilton veered off to the raunchy side of the tracks. At a bar in Arizona, he got drunk. His wife not around that night, Hamilton had the kind of "Girls Gone Wild" moment available to ballplayers on a nightly basis if they're so inclined. He was photographed several times, but in one of the photos, he's shirtless and heavily tattooed, his baseball cap backward, smiling with three young women, two posing as if to lick his left biceps, the third with her hand over the fly of his pants, her tongue out, too. Deadspin.com published the photos Saturday. Hamilton held a news conference the same day, and acknowledged his binge as well as the incriminating, provocative photos. "I'm embarrassed about it. For the Rangers, I'm embarrassed about it, for my wife, my kids," Hamilton said before Saturday's Rangers-Angels game. "It's one of those things that just reinforces about alcohol." Three thousand miles to the east, at Yankee Stadium, David Ortiz, the Boston Red Sox slugger and anti-performance-enhancing-drug crusader, spoke at length for the first time since vowing to find out more information about how he could have tested positive during the league's 2003 nonpunitive drug testing survey. I did not attend the Ortiz news conference in New York on Saturday. We'd already been through all of that -- too many times to count. I wanted to step back, watch it with different eyes, to hear what he had to say. "I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter -- legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter -- but I never buy steroids or use steroids," Ortiz said during the news conference, which began about 3½ hours before the Red Sox lost a third straight game to the New York Yankees, 5-0. "I never thought that buying supplements and vitamins, it was going to hurt anybody's feelings." There are few people, if any, that fans want to see succeed more than David Ortiz. He is a good man. He has been what the public says it wants from its superstars. He is the lovable, flamboyant Big Papi, yet is committed to the game, a loyal teammate. He is outspoken yet aware of his good fortune, and the luxuries it provides. He is not disdainful of the environment -- baseball fans willing to spend their disposable income watching him, the public yearning to soak up his talent, which in turn necessitates overabundant press coverage. This is the mixture that creates his fame, and instead of acting as though he is busting rocks on a chain gang -- like Josh Beckett -- Ortiz loves it. Like Johnny Damon, he epitomizes what the player-public relationship should be. Maybe Ortiz and Hamilton each endured their conscience-clearing moment Saturday. Ortiz may have told the truth throughout his entire press conference. But because his explanations were identical to so many of the empty explanations that have defined a dishonest decade, it was Hamilton who sounded human, like a person who messed up -- as we all do -- while Ortiz sounded like the rank and file of the steroid era, like a cop maintaining the code of the blue wall.

"Honestly, I hate that this happened," Hamilton said. "But it is what it is. You deal with it. I realized that, obviously, I'm not perfect, in this ongoing struggle, battle, that is very real. A lot of people don't understand how real it is. "I don't feel like I'm a hypocrite. I feel like I'm human. I got away from the one thing that keeps me straightened out and going in the right direction." No one wants to sound shrill, unable to navigate the complicated realities by clinging to simple moralities, or even worse, the hollow talking points that restrict discussion. There has never been real and honest conversation about performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, so in a way, Hamilton had the easier task. Alcohol -- like the sexual opportunities it can lead to -- is a dangerous, often lethal vice that is generally acceptable in society. Hamilton made a mistake -- and we've all been there doing something we shouldn't have done -- faced it humbly and with less shading, and on Saturday appeared the more sympathetic for it. Performance-enhancing substances, meanwhile, are quite different. It is much easier to consternate about the sanctity of the record books than to examine the often irresistible factors that lead players to use PEDs. Miguel Tejada, he of the sixth-grade education and no prospects in the Dominican Republic beyond debilitating farm or factory work, made a choice to augment his talent, a choice in many ways no different than any other choices people make to escape poverty. The same is true for most players who used whatever substances they believed would help them do their jobs, indeed to even have their jobs. In terms of discussion, the ethical issues of PED use have always trumped the practical ones, largely because of the refusal on the part of the baseball industry to peel away its considerable layers of denial. To date, only two active players -- Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez -- have admitted they used the real stuff, the good, hard-core stuff, the kind of drugs that build muscle and help you hit home runs. No misunderstandings, no tainted supplements, no question marks. The rest of the baseball world, even though it is clear the culture of PED use was/is rampant, still hides behind the wall. Next to Ortiz was Michael Weiner, Donald Fehr's successor. Weiner did his job well and professionally. He rightly emphasized that the entire legal system is being compromised by leaks -- who could ever trust secret grand jury testimony or the consequences of a government subpoena again? -- but continued the union's tradition of refusing to admit the depths of player use. Management -- which refused to acknowledge the depth of front-office knowledge -- has behaved no better. He also played the bad cop for Ortiz, stating that the nine days it took Ortiz to speak publicly were at the behest of the union. "If David had his way," Weiner said, "he would have come forward publicly much sooner."

But Weiner also signaled, quite expectedly, that on the issue of performance enhancers, nothing has changed. Ortiz said he never used steroids, and the public has the right to believe him or not, but then he said he did not know what substances he took, and offered no insight on what may have triggered a positive test.

The reason for the charade, naturally, is both the level of the public breach when it comes to steroids and, for the elite player, the ultimate consequence of likely being barred from the Hall of Fame. But, it is a charade. If you took Weiner at his word, the entire steroids era has merely been a misunderstanding, naive but well-meaning guys mixing the wrong powders in their protein shakes.

The common talk is for everyone to "move on," but truth and reconciliation cannot occur when the particulars -- management and players -- don't want to admit the truth.

deadly doctors

deadly doctors

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. — Mary Primis had already taught several high-intensity fitness classes that day, putting dozens of students through their sweaty paces while barely breaking one herself.

As she kicked off the last class of the evening at a health club in the Pittsburgh suburbs — Latin impact dance aerobics — the 26-year-old Primis shared some big, happy news with the health-conscious women lined up in front of her: She was 10 weeks' pregnant with her first child.

It was 8 p.m. Tuesday, prime time for working out. The aerobics room at LA Fitness was packed with about 20 women. Among Primis' students that night were Heidi Overmier, a hardworking single mom; Betsy Gannon, an X-ray technician who loved walking her dog; and Jody Billingsley, who sold medical supplies and traveled to Tampa, Fla., this year to watch her beloved Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl.

A few minutes into the routine, a man in black workout clothes entered the room. None of the women paid any attention to him. It wasn't unusual for people to come in and out.

Then the man turned out the lights. He retrieved several guns from a duffel bag. Calmly, he opened fire on the class, spraying dozens of shots. Twelve women were hit.

As screams filled the darkened room, Primis lay in a pool of her own blood, wondering if she and her baby were going to make it. Nearby, two of the women were dead and a third mortally wounded.

The killer, 48-year-old loner George Sodini, didn't know his victims, but he knew their gender, and it was no accident that he chose this place and this time to commit murder. He was a failure with women, always had been. He wanted revenge; he'd make them pay attention.

His victims had been brought together Tuesday night by a passion for physical fitness. They were strong women, all of them. But they were no match for the gunman, who'd been plotting this rampage for at least a year.

They had a zest for living. His mantra, expressed in a Web diary: "Death Lives!"

___

Mary Primis taught as many as six fitness classes a day at the region's health clubs. She loved helping people get fit, and she was good at it. Even her husband of more than six years — a former personal trainer in great shape — benefited from her workouts.

"She's intense. Great workouts, focused," said Alex Primis, 29, a salesman.

She'd been in and out of their house in Moon Township all day Tuesday, teaching from morning till night. Alex himself took part in her 6:20 p.m. step class at another club.

"See you at home," he told her when it was over.

Tuesday began normally enough for Overmier, 46, a sales manager at an amusement park. Knowing that a colleague was stressed about work, she left a bagel on his desk before he got in. Jeff Filicko preferred doughnuts, but he appreciated the gesture.

"It's always bagels. She always tried to eat healthy," recalled Filicko, the park's public relations manager.

Later on, Overmier attended an employee picnic, then a social event hosted by a Pittsburgh tourism group. After stopping briefly at her Carnegie home, she drove to LA Fitness.

"She took care of herself," said her sister, Connie Maneck. "If you look at the pictures, she doesn't look 46. She looks 30. I think it was her energy, so positive about everything."

Jody Billingsley's job as a sales rep for a medical technology firm often had her on the road and into hospitals' operating rooms, where she helped doctors install high-tech pain-management devices. She worked long hours.

But Billingsley, 37, also knew how to have fun, cultivating a wide circle of friends. Her annual neighborhood Christmas party was a hit.

Physical fitness was another passion. A former college basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, she often ran or biked the hills around her Mount Lebanon home. She joined LA Fitness, a sprawling new club that had opened a few months earlier on the site of a former JCPenney.

After work Tuesday, Billingsley stopped at home briefly. As she pulled out of her driveway — on her way to the gym — she flashed a smile to neighbors Diane and John Williams.

"A big wave to everyone in the neighborhood when she would drive in and drive out," said next-door neighbor Jim Christner. "I'd never once seen her with a bad attitude."

___

George Sodini, on the other hand, had a very bad attitude.

The computer analyst from Scott Township was desperately lonely, and he couldn't understand why women weren't attracted to him. He wrote in his diary that he hadn't had a girlfriend since 1984, hadn't had sex since 1990.

"Who knows why," he wrote. "I am not ugly or too weird."

Trying to woo young women, he made a promotional video of sorts that he posted on YouTube, giving prospective girlfriends a tour of the two-bedroom brick ranch he bought in 1996 for $79,000.

On the video, he predicts women "will really be impressed" by his matching living room furniture. The camera settles on a pile of books on the coffee table, including one titled "How to Date Young Women: For Men over 35."

"RDS says I have 15 more years to be successful at this," Sodini says in another YouTube video, a reference to R. Don Steele, the book's 69-year-old author, who dispenses dating advice in books, videos and live seminars and says men should quit being so nice to women.

"My objective is to be real and to learn to be emotional and to be able to emotionally connect with people," Sodini says. "I'm gonna post this and see what comes back."

Evidently, nothing did. As social success continued to elude him, his frustration grew. He began fantasizing about killing women at least a year ago — and formulated a plan. An "exit plan," he called it.

He searched the Internet for information about serial killers, mass murderers and guns. He also researched laws regarding corruption of minors and the age of consent, according to WPXI-TV.

On Monday and Tuesday, Sodini took off from his job as a systems analyst at a Pittsburgh law firm — where he'd worked since 1999 — "to practice my routine and make sure it is well polished," he wrote in his diary. "I need to work out every detail, there is only one shot. ... Total effort is needed." He went to LA Fitness twice on Tuesday before returning again just before sundown for the last time.

A half-hour before the shooting, he called his mother, sounding distraught. Police say he did not disclose his plans to her.

___

There were four guns in the duffel bag. The killer retrieved three of them.

Sodini stood between Primis and the door. With nowhere to run, she hit the floor. But she couldn't escape the bullets. The first slammed into her left shoulder as she crouched down. The second, about 30 seconds later, went into her upper back. He continued firing, shattering mirrors and plugging the walls with bullets from two 9 mm handguns.

As blood pooled around her, Primis kept still and held her breath, hoping that if the shooter approached, he would think she was dead. She lay like that for what seemed to her an eternity — but in reality was no more than a few minutes — frantic for both herself and the new life growing inside her.

And then it was over.

Sodini shot himself in the head with a .45-caliber pistol. Two women, who had fled the class, ran back in to tend to Primis, who asked one of them to call her husband.

At Allegheny General Hospital, doctors were amazed that the bullet that had slammed into her back didn't kill her, saying its trajectory should have carried it to her lungs and heart. Instead, her shoulder blade acted as a shield, deflecting the round into her ribs and lower back.

The couple got more good news when a sonogram showed that the baby, due early next year, was fine.

"She could've, almost should've, died from it. It's a miracle she's alive, and the fact the baby seems OK too is twice (a miracle)," Alex said.

The first night at the hospital, though, was rough. Primis barely slept; every time she closed her eyes, she flashed back to those awful minutes in the aerobics room.

By Friday, she was up and walking, taking the first painful steps of what is expected to be a long road to recovery.

At a candlelight vigil held in Pittsburgh two days after the shooting, people expressed anger and sadness over the massacre. And another emotion, too: disgust.

Erin Maloney, 49, of Bellevue, called Sodini "some sick SOB who couldn't get a girl. But he had a decent job, he owned his own home. He didn't have it so bad." Brooklynite Vincent Cosenza, 46, in Pittsburgh for a stamp convention, said the gunman "probably got rejected a lot. But that's part of life. You gotta deal with it."

Funerals for Overmier and Gannon were Saturday. Billingsley will be laid to rest Wednesday.