Sunday, October 9, 2011

'The Killing', 'True Grit', Idris Elba win at Crime Thriller Awards

Acclaimed Danish drama series The Killing has dominated this year's Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards.

The murder mystery scooped three trophies at the ceremony, which celebrates achievements in crime literature, TV and film.

The Killing was awarded the 'International TV Dagger', while its stars Sofie Gråbøl and Ann Eleonora Jørgensen grabbed 'Best Actress' and 'Best Supporting Actress' respectively.

In other categories, Jeff Bridges western True Grit won the 'Film Dagger' and BBC detective drama Case Histories received the TV equivalent.

The corporation's success continued as Luther star Idris Elba and Rafe Spall of The Shadow Line took home the 'Best Actor' and 'Best Supporting Actor' honours.

A US remake of The Killing premiered on AMC in April and was renewed for a second season in June.

'Honest' teens hand in £5,000 to police

Two 17-year-old boys in Bath have found and handed in £5,000 ($7,800) to police.

Will Miles and Ryan McClory came upon a briefcase with the sum in £50 notes at a bus station.

The briefcase also included passports and letters from the University of Bath.

Miles told The Bath Chronicle: "We were a bit shocked when we saw all the money in the case. We didn't know exactly how much it was, but we could tell it was a large amount."

The A-Level students gave the briefcase to two police officers and were later told that the owner - who had intended to use the money to pay for his son's university tuition and accommodation fees - had claimed the money back.

McClory added: "I was pleased when I got the phone call saying he had the case back. It is a lot of money to have lost, and so I'm glad that we managed to get it back to him."

The teenagers were praised by local police for their "honesty and integrity". They received no reward for handing in the money.

Status Update: 'Facebook Pals Saved My Life'

A man who woke up paralysed due to a spinal condition has told how his Facebook friends saved his life.

Peter Casaru, 59, posted on the social networking site that he was unable to move his legs.

He said he could not call for an ambulance from his remote cottage in Brecon, South Wales, because the battery in his mobile phone was dead.

Mr Casaru said it took him over an hour to crawl to his laptop where he managed to post a message alerting his contacts to the emergency.

The father-of-one, who lives alone, wrote: "Can someone call 999? Ambulance for me.

"I need one now. I have fractured my back. Stuck to floor. No phone and glasses. Touch typing. Please help me."

Friends as far away as New York and Vancouver replied when they saw his updates and tried to call for help.

But it was his friend Juliet McFarlane, who lives six miles away, who was first to call 999 and two ambulances arrived at his house just 20 minutes later.

Mr Casaru, a photographer, said his doctors told him the spinal spasm he suffered could have killed him if he had not received emergency treatment.

He has had spinal problems since breaking his back in a quad bike accident six years ago.

He said: "That's the luck part of the whole story: that Facebook friends saved me."

The photographer thanked all the friends who had left messages and tried to help, adding: "I'm always joking when I go on Facebook, so I'm just glad they took me seriously."

Thursday, March 18, 2010

ncaa bracket printable

ncaa bracket printable

BRACKET! Here is the official NCAA Bracket Printable. This is the NCAA Bracket Printable released Sunday with the March Madness announcement for the Men’s Division 1 Championship Tournament.

Today catch Florida vs. Bringham Young, Old Dominion vs Notre Dame, Robert Morris vs Villanova, and Murray State vs Vanderbilt.

Later today catch North Texas vs Kansas State, Sam Houston vs State Baylor, Saint Mary’s vs Richmond.

And then at 5 PM EST catch UTEP vs Butler. All games air on CBS.

D-I Basketball Committee Chairman Dan Guerrero recently said the following about the bracket.

“Generally once the seeding and selection and bracketing takes place, the committee members go down and have a very nice dinner. Of course, there I was in my suit dealing with a number of questions. But it’s an honor to represent the committee in this entire process, and I’m glad to be here with the media.

“A couple of things I’d like to say before I take questions. As you well know, when we get into this process, we select a field of 65: 31 AQs and 34 of the best at large teams. There’s no question when it’s all said and done there are going to be second guessers and individuals out there that might have some concern relative to the field that was put out. I can assure you with the highest degree of confidence that the members of the committee worked hard all year long monitoring various conferences, watching games, doing the best job they could to put forth a field that we feel will be one of the best in recent memory.

michelle bombshell mcgee pictures

michelle bombshell mcgee pictures

In the wake of the news that Sandra Bullock and her husband Jesse James have split and that Bullock has left the home she shared with James, pictures of the porn star in the middle named Michelle "Bombshell" Mcgee are suddenly a hot search online.

While its no surprise this is the case, the tatoo-laden woman who calls herself "The Socal Bombshell" must hold the record for the most tatoos on a mistress in history. Michelle Mcgee's body is covered from top to bottom with tatoos,and is the polar opposite of Sandra Bullock. Bullock's clean, athletic, untatood body has been featured on the cover of glamour magazines; Michelle Mcgee's body is on her MySpace page.

Michelle "Bombshell" Mcgee comes off as the ultimate bad girl. But even bad girls don't like to be lied to, and that's the reason for McGee's In Touch interview. Jesse James told her he was separated from Sandra Bullock.

McGee's receiving words of support on her MySpace page:

Thank you for the add from your newest friend and fan. Can't stop looking at you. If you ever get to DC / Baltimore, let's do a shoot.

The Official Model of AngryWhiteBoy / AngryWhiteGirl Clothing!!!!! You Rock!!! Make the douche-bag paparazzi work hard to hunt you down and find you!!!!!

www.AngryWhiteBoyInc.com

-JimmyAWB!!!

Ooooh michelle, welcome to the shit show, don't worry about a thing, ill bring over all my trucker hats and big sunglasses to hide u from the paparazzi, or u can just walk behind my big ass when we go out! Loves ya!!

Sandra Bullock-Jesse James Split, Marriage Trouble Rumors Explode

Sandra Bullock-Jesse James Split, Marriage Trouble Rumors Explode

A Sandra Bullock-Jesse James split looked crazy two weeks ago. However, Sandra Bullock-Jesse James split and marriage trouble rumors have exploded, after a new bombshell was revealed. More specifically, it was Michelle Bombshell McGee who was revealed as James' possible mistress on Wednesday. This marriage trouble comes after months of heartwarming stories about the couple, and how grounded it made the future Best Actress winner. Yet just two weeks later, Sandra Bullock-Jesse James split rumors have produced an unlikely twist to this story.

In Touch Weekly first alleged the marriage trouble, as Michelle Bombshell McGee claimed that she had had an affair with Jesse James. While Bullock was filming her Oscar winning role in "The Blind Side" James allegedly carried on an 11-month affair with McGee - including a five-week sexual affair.

According to McGee, she was led to believe that the couple was no longer together. If they weren't then, the Sandra Bullock-Jesse James split rumors are alleging that they are now. Since Bullock did not attend the London premiere of "The Blind Side" speculation is that In Touch Weekly is on to something.

Tabloids are becoming more and more accurate at reporting marriage trouble, like with John Edwards and Tiger Woods. But if Sandra Bullock's marriage is in jeopardy, it puts an ugly asterisk on what was a heartwarming, made-for-Oscar story.

During her big comeback last year, Bullock wasn't shy about discussing how much her marriage helped her. The two have been together for five years and have largely lived outside the Hollywood spotlight until the Oscars. However, she did not thank James in her Oscar speech, and with this new context, there is suspicion that she knew about McGee for a while.

The Sandra Bullock-Jesse James split reports are still just speculation, however. But People Magazine is now alleging that Bullock has moved out, and did so days before the In Touch Weekly interview.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

GQ on Rielle Hunter's complaints: 'She knows what she...was doing.'‎

GQ on Rielle Hunter's complaints: 'She knows what she...was doing.'‎ -

According to Good Morning America, GQ is in disbelief regarding Rielle Hunter’s complaints about her “repulsive” photo shoot in the magazine. Hunter — better known as John Edwards’ mistress — had told Barbara Walters that she thought all but one photo in the magazine spread would be headshots. (The pics that ran featured the videographer in only a shirt, pearls and underwear.) “Rielle is a smart woman,” GQ reporter Lisa DePaulo — who wrote the article on Hunter — told Good Morning America. “She knows what she wore and what she was doing in the photo shoot.”

GQ’s footage seems to support that: On the morning show, the magazine released a video of the photo shoot that showed the photographer asking Hunter, “You want to take a look at this?” following a shot.

Dissed by the Rock Hall of Fame: A list of must-have inductees

Dissed by the Rock Hall of Fame: A list of must-have inductees


Last night some solid (Iggy and the Stooges) and not so solid (Genesis!?!) acts were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In what has become a yearly debate about which bands and performers make for worthy inductees, we offer our own list of top 10 acts totally neglected by Rock's legitimacy council. (As if rockers ever needed a mainstream stamp of approval, but that's another conversation.)

Keep in mind that Rock Hall rules state that an inductee is eligible for inclusion 25 years after the release of his/her/their first album (hence the lack of Public Enemy, Guns 'N' Roses and the Beastie Boys so far), and that inductees can fall into one of four categories: performers, non-performers, early influences and sidemen.

Our alphabetically arranged list of must-have inductees (honestly, we can't believe these acts didn't make it long ago) follows:

-- Bad Brains -- This D.C.-based fusion of punk and reggae virtually changed the tenor of the '80s underground music scene, influencing a whole generation of hardcore devotees and mainstream bands like Fishbone and Living Colour.

-- Duran Duran -- For some reason, no one ever mentions the Fab Five on their Rock Hall of Fame snub lists. But think of the band that most exemplified the MTV era during the 1980s, and what are the first two words out of your mouth? Duran, followed by another Duran. Not only did these guys pretty much pioneer the music video revolution, they also -- scoff if you will -- were and are legitimate musicians who have worked with and/or influenced everyone from the Killers to Justin Timberlake. Get over your "Union of the Snake" snobbery, Rock Hall of Fame, and induct these well-dressed British boys, or we'll have to both light our torch and wave it.

-- Go-Gos -- How is it possible that this all-girl outfit, a mainstay of the early '80s pop charts and MTV, isn't already included? Come on, "We Got the Beat," "Our Lips Are Sealed," "Vacation" -- these are anthems.


Tiger Woods to make comeback at Master

Tiger Woods to make comeback at Master

Tiger Woods will make his comeback next month at the Masters, the opening major championship of the season.

The world No 1, who has not played since it emerged in November that he had conducted a series of extra-marital affairs, said he was ready to end his self-imposed exile but had work to do on his private life.

The American, 34, has spent much of his time out in therapy - said to be for a sex addiction - while also attempting to repair the damage to his six-year marriage to Elin Nordegren, with whom he has two young children.

Announcing his comeback via a statement, Woods said: "The Masters is where I won my first major, and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I'm ready to start my season at Augusta.

"The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and Augusta is where I need to be, even though it's been a while since I last played.

"I have undergone almost two months of in-patient therapy and I am continuing my treatment. Although I'm returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life."

Woods has a superb record at the Masters, which takes place between April 8-11 at Augusta National in Georgia. He won his first tournament there in 1997 and has claimed the title on three subsequent occassions, most recently in 2005.

However, rumours at the weekend suggesting that he was about to make his announcement prompted a mixed response from players and officials. Steve Stricker, the world No 2, said: "I don't know if Augusta would like that to happen, you know? To turn it into 'Tiger's comeback tournament' instead of the Masters tournament."

However, Tim Finchem, the American Tour commissioner, insisted Woods would be welcomed on his return. "I'm as excited as everybody else to see him back," he said. "Everybody's done looking back at the circumstances that resulted in him stepping away from the game."

Woods last played on November 15, winning the Australian Masters in Melbourne, his 92nd title victory.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

tim tebow superbowl ad

tim tebow superbowl ad
Tim Tebow is in Mobile this week at the Senior Bowl. He's trying to prove he can be an NFL quarterback.
There's one thing the former Florida star doesn't have to prove. He has a strong belief system, and he's not afraid to stand up and speak out for what he believes.
His belief system will be on display during the Super Bowl in an ad that's starting to generate as much debate as his NFL prospects. You can read about the growing controversy in detail here.
In short, the ad features Tebow and his mom, and it's sponsored by the advocacy group Focus on the Family.
What's the ad about? Sounds like it's in the eye of the beholder.
Focus on the Family says the ad is pro-family because it focuses on Tebow's mother's decision, against the advice of doctors, to have a child despite some potential health risks.
That child is Tim Tebow.
Other advocacy groups, led by the Women's Media Center, are asking CBS to pull the ad because they say the ad's message is anti-abortion.

melinda duckett

melinda duckett Talk show host Nancy Grace doesn't want her deposition in a central Florida wrongful death lawsuit videotaped.
Her attorney wants a federal judge to prohibit videotaping of Grace during a deposition Thursday or prohibit the release of the deposition if it is videotaped. Her attorneys say it's necessary to protect Grace from embarrassment. She's a host on HLN, formerly CNN Headline News.
Grace is being sued by Melinda Duckett's family. They blame her for inflicting emotional distress on the 21-year-old Florida mother during an appearance on her talk show.
Duckett was on Grace's show in 2006 after her son Trenton disappeared. Grace grilled the woman, accusing her of hiding something. Duckett shot and killed herself the day the taped interview was scheduled to air.

flagellated

flagellated The late Pope John Paul flagellated himself regularly to emulate Christ's suffering and signed a secret document saying that would resign instead of ruling for life if he became incurably ill, a new book shows.

The book, called "Why a Saint? was written by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican official in charge of the process that could lead to Roman Catholic sainthood for John Paul. It includes some previously unpublished documents.
John Paul, who died in 2005, was sick and suffering in several periods of his papacy. He was shot and nearly killed in 1981, he underwent several operations, including one for cancer, and suffered from Parkinson's disease for more than decade.
The book, which was published Tuesday, reveals that even when he was not ill, he inflicted pain on himself, known in Christianity as mortification, so as to feel closer to God.
"In Krakow as in the Vatican, Karol Wojtyla flagellated himself," Oder writes in the book, citing testimony from people in the late pope's close entourage while he was bishop in his native Poland and after he was elected pope in 1978.
"In his closet, among his vestments, there was hung on a clothes hanger a particular kind of belt for pants, which he used as a whip," Oder writes.
When he was bishop in Poland, he often slept on the bare floor so he could practice self-denial and asceticism, Oder writes.
Many saints of the Church, including St. Francis of Assisi, St Catherine of Siena and St. Ignatius of Loyola, practiced flagellation and asceticism as part of their spiritual life.
The book also confirmed that as his health failed, John Paul prepared a document for aides stating that he would step down instead of ruling for life if he became incurably ill or permanently impaired from carrying out his duties as pope.
He signed the document on February 15, 1989, eight years after the failed assassination attempt. The existence of the document had been the subject of many rumors and reports over the years but it has been published for the first time in full in the book.
John Paul wrote that he would resign "in the case of infirmity which is presumed incurable, long-lasting and which impedes me from sufficiently carrying out the functions of my apostolic ministry."
In the end, the pope decided to stay on until his death, saying it was for the good of the Church. Had he stepped down, he would have been the first Roman Catholic pontiff to do so willingly since 1294.
John Paul moved closer to sainthood last month when Pope Benedict approved a decree recognizing that his predecessor had lived the Christian faith heroically.
It was one of the key steps in the procedure by which the Church recognizes its saints.
The next step will be the recognition of a miracle attributed to John Paul. It involves a French nun who was inexplicably cured of Parkinson's disease after praying to him.
After the Vatican recognizes the event as a miracle, the late pope can be beatified, the last step before sainthood.

flagellated

flagellated The late Pope John Paul flagellated himself regularly to emulate Christ's suffering and signed a secret document saying that would resign instead of ruling for life if he became incurably ill, a new book shows.

The book, called "Why a Saint? was written by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican official in charge of the process that could lead to Roman Catholic sainthood for John Paul. It includes some previously unpublished documents.
John Paul, who died in 2005, was sick and suffering in several periods of his papacy. He was shot and nearly killed in 1981, he underwent several operations, including one for cancer, and suffered from Parkinson's disease for more than decade.
The book, which was published Tuesday, reveals that even when he was not ill, he inflicted pain on himself, known in Christianity as mortification, so as to feel closer to God.
"In Krakow as in the Vatican, Karol Wojtyla flagellated himself," Oder writes in the book, citing testimony from people in the late pope's close entourage while he was bishop in his native Poland and after he was elected pope in 1978.
"In his closet, among his vestments, there was hung on a clothes hanger a particular kind of belt for pants, which he used as a whip," Oder writes.
When he was bishop in Poland, he often slept on the bare floor so he could practice self-denial and asceticism, Oder writes.
Many saints of the Church, including St. Francis of Assisi, St Catherine of Siena and St. Ignatius of Loyola, practiced flagellation and asceticism as part of their spiritual life.
The book also confirmed that as his health failed, John Paul prepared a document for aides stating that he would step down instead of ruling for life if he became incurably ill or permanently impaired from carrying out his duties as pope.
He signed the document on February 15, 1989, eight years after the failed assassination attempt. The existence of the document had been the subject of many rumors and reports over the years but it has been published for the first time in full in the book.
John Paul wrote that he would resign "in the case of infirmity which is presumed incurable, long-lasting and which impedes me from sufficiently carrying out the functions of my apostolic ministry."
In the end, the pope decided to stay on until his death, saying it was for the good of the Church. Had he stepped down, he would have been the first Roman Catholic pontiff to do so willingly since 1294.
John Paul moved closer to sainthood last month when Pope Benedict approved a decree recognizing that his predecessor had lived the Christian faith heroically.
It was one of the key steps in the procedure by which the Church recognizes its saints.
The next step will be the recognition of a miracle attributed to John Paul. It involves a French nun who was inexplicably cured of Parkinson's disease after praying to him.
After the Vatican recognizes the event as a miracle, the late pope can be beatified, the last step before sainthood.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Tiger Woods' wife to divorce him

Tiger Woods' wife to divorce him

Elin Nordegren, the wife of pro-golfer Tiger Woods, is reportedly set to divorce him, according to various U.S. media.

In its upcoming issue, People magazine cites a source who confirmed the former Swedish model and nanny will split from the billionaire athlete after reports surfaced that he had extramarital affairs with at least 14 women.

"She's made up her mind; there's nothing to think about," People's source says in the article, which comes out Friday. "He's never going to change."

Several media reported this week that Nordegren has been seen recently without her wedding ring.

ABC News reported on its website that a source said, "Divorce is 100 per cent on … She's not rushing to divorce, however. She's going to take her sweet time. She wants all the dirty laundry to be out on the table before she signs anything."

However, NBC said the breakup is imminent.

"She and Tiger are living separately now, but she'll be making this split very open and official right after Christmas," NBC said, citing a source.

"Elin is not going to be one of these 'stand by her man' women ...This is beyond embarrassing, and she has a daughter and son she has to think about, who will know about this one day. Forgiveness isn't exactly around the corner."

Married in 2004, the couple have a two-year-old daughter, Sam, and a 10-month-old son, Charlie.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Tiger and wife headed for permanent split

Tiger and wife headed for permanent split

Pro golfer Tiger Woods and his wife Elin Nordegren are headed for an imminent split that will likely be permanent, according to sources who are familiar with the couple’s situation.

Recent photos taken of Elin without her wedding and engagement rings were meant to be a public message that the breakup is coming sooner rather than later.

“She knew what she was doing when she stepped out and pumped gas without her wedding rings,” said one source. “There are plenty of people who would have filled the tank for her so she wouldn’t even have to be photographed. She chose not to go down that road. Moreover, she chose to make it clear those rings were not on her. No hands shoved in pockets, no hiding. Remember, she’s still one half of a couple that has had, up until recently, a most-crafted image. She knows what she’s doing.”

She won’t be one half of that couple for long, according to another source.

“She and Tiger are living separately now, but she’ll be making this split very open and official right after Christmas,” said that source.

Another source said that Tiger has a long road ahead if he wants forgiveness. “Elin is not going to be one of these ‘stand by her man’ women,” the source said. “She’s a strong woman, this is beyond embarrassing, and she has a daughter and son she has to think about, who will know about this one day. Tiger’s got a long way to go to make things right, and have the kind of family he was fond of talking about. He’s going to have to play by Elin’s rules now. Forgiveness isn’t exactly around the corner.”

Kate Gosselin is lonely
Even though Kate Gosselin is surrounded by her eight children, she still feels lonely, according to her close friend Jamie Ayers.

“At night, when the kids are in bed, that’s a lonely time for her,” Ayers told Life & Style. “That’s when she calls and we chat. It gets lonely when you’re the only adult.”

Ayers said that Gosselin tries to keep busy, but without the demands of “Jon & Kate Plus Eight,” it takes a lot to fill the days and keep busy. “Mostly, she gets up at the crack of dawn, works out and makes breakfast,” Ayers said. “She runs errands while the kids are at school, and she does a lot of baking during the holidays.”

Speaking of the holidays: Jon and Kate are expected to spend Christmas together, with the kids.

Another woman emerges in Woods scandal

Another woman emerges in Woods scandal


The Tiger Woods case might be closed in the opinion of the Florida Highway Patrol, but not according to some of the women who reportedly have had relationships with the pro golfer.

A Los Angeles-based cocktail waitress, Jaimee Grubbs, told Us Weekly that she had a 31-month fling with the married Woods. Grubbs said she has more than 300 text messages that prove this, and provided Us with a voicemail Woods reportedly left Grubbs on Nov. 24 in which Woods says that his wife suspects he is having an affair.

“I need you to do me a huge favor,” a voice reported to be that of Woods’ said. “Can you please take your name off your phone? My wife went through my phone and may be calling you. So if you can, please take your name off that.”

But Grubbs is not the last of the rumored mistresses. Another woman is expected to be named shortly. This one, an employee of the Bank nightclub in Las Vegas, has been in a relationship with Woods only “a couple months,” according to a source who knew of the alleged relationship.

A representative for the Bank nightclub had no comment on the matter, and the woman in question did not respond to messages.

What Happens in Vegas..

If Woods has strayed beyond the bounds of his five-year marriage, not just once, but with several women, then why hasn’t it come out before now?

According to a source who is a fixture on the Vegas nightlife scene, and has seen Woods on multiple occasions, “It’s one of those hush-hush things — no one talks about Tiger’s s— in Vegas. He goes there a bunch of times a year, and he loves his life there. But he’s got some s— in Vegas.”

Why speak out now?
In the case of Grubbs, all signs point to a payday as a motivating factor. Some rumors put her Us magazine compensation in the ballpark of $100,000 (Us Weekly’s comment: “As a policy, we do not comment on obtaining stories or photo transactions.”)

But some sources at media outlets who are reportedly negotiating with other women involved in this story say those numbers aren’t enough to get them to talk.

“A lot of these women make a really, really good living,” said one reporter at a weekly magazine. “They’re going to lose their jobs if they talk, so it better be a lot of money at stake. They know if they say what went on, they’ll have to sit this one out, so to speak, until they find a new job. So the stakes are high.”

SNL Takes On Tiger Woods Scandal (VIDEO)

SNL Takes On Tiger Woods Scandal (VIDEO)

Tiger Woods and his marital problems proved a tempting target for "Saturday Night Live."

In both a skit and multiple "Weekend Update" jokes this weekend, NBC's comedy institution took on the golfer, who has admitted to letting his family down with "transgressions" that came to light following a strange Thanksgiving weekend incident outside his Florida home.

In one skit, actor Jason Sudeikis portrayed Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Situation Room" reporting on a news conference that Woods (played by Kenan Thompson) and his wife (played by host Blake Lively) were holding outside his home. After Woods admitted to "multiple" transgressions, his wife looked surprised and the screen quickly shifted back to Blitzer.

"Breaking news," Blitzer said. "Tiger Woods is back in the hospital. "Apparently just hours after a press conference where he confessed to multiple transgressions, Woods had an accident in his home where he fell down a flight of stairs then inadvertently threw himself through a plate glass window."



Woods returned for a later news conference, his wife brandishing a golf club next to him, where he said, "Wow, I've been really clumsy this week."

He had more such "accidents," then returns to read a prepared statement with the words "help me" and "I'm scared" written on the back of the papers for the audience to see.

In "Weekend Update," anchor Seth Meyers peppered Woods with one-liners.

"Last Friday Tiger Woods hit a tree and a bunch of ladies fell out," he said.

Meyers noted that Woods and his wife were in negotiations over their prenuptial agreement, and "what's really weird is he presented her with one of those huge, oversized checks."

Woods' sponsors are sticking with him, Meyers said, "a gesture that only means one thing -- women don't watch golf."

Tiger Woods' sex scandal?

Tiger Woods' sex scandal?

Tiger Woods' mysterious car crash outside his Orlando-area home has left him with facial lacerations, a public-relations nightmare, and an alleged sex scandal. Woods' has repeatedly declined to speak to the Florida Highway Police and his only public statement (on his website) includes an apology for an unspecified "situation." Amid tabloid reports that Woods is having an affair with New York cosmopolite Rachel Uchitel (who's hired celebrity lawyer Gloria Alfred), commentators are split: Is Woods' persistent silence making a bad situation worse? (Watch a CBS report about Tiger Woods' legal issues in this case)

Tiger’s silence will hurt more than the truth: "We all know how this will play out: It’s going to get much uglier," says George Diaz in the Chicago Tribune. Our thirst for "every gory, gossipy detail" will trump Tiger’s "look but don’t touch" game. And if he doesn’t fill the void with, at the very least, a real "mea culpa," the sex scandal and Rachel Uchitel will become the only story out there.
"Silence only feeds innuendo machine"

Woods' story is fishy, but he has every right to silence:
Why avoid the police for three days and blog that you are "not perfect" and "will certainly make sure this doesn't happen again," asks Michael Rosenberg in the Detroit Free Press, if you've done nothing worse than back (soberly) into a fire hydrant? Still, this oblique, "heavy" apology is "all that Woods owes the public." Anything else is between him and his family. He’s never claimed to be anything but the world’s best golfer, so let’s judge him by that.
"If it's not about golf, Tiger Woods owes us no explanation"

If Woods doesn't clear this up, he risks losing his endorsements: "[Woods] is making it look like he has something to hide," said public relations expert Peggy Rose, as quoted in the Boston Herald. "If he made a mistake, admit it and move on. How he reacts now will determine his future image." As a face synonymous with Nike and Gillette, Woods could take a "huge hit to the wallet" if he doesn't break his silence soon.
"Experts to Tiger Woods: Come clean"

Tiger Woods doesn’t care what you think: Unlike Arnold Palmer, Tiger "has never yearned to be loved by the public," says John Paul Newport in The Wall Street Journal. "He just wants to be respected as a man and left in peace to play golf at the supernatural level." And that’s why this is a problem for him. Until Tiger puts this behind him, the sex scandal rumors and innuendo will get inside his head, and his golf game. He can’t afford that.
"The Tiger Woods crash: Why people even care"

Thursday, August 27, 2009

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.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

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.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Edward Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies

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.

Monday, August 24, 2009

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.”

Thursday, August 20, 2009

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.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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.