Natalie Portman is best known for her roles in Hollywood movies like Star Wars, Cold Mountain and V for Vendetta. What is less known is that she was co-author of a scientific paper on the neuroscience of child development. This is about her research.

benefits:

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Your finger length can predict how you will do on various tests in school. They can also tell if you are likely to be homosexual or straight, if you will likely get certain cancers, be a musician, writer or a scientist, or if you will have an aggresssive or passive personality.The two fingers that are important are the index finger -- the one you use to point to something -- and the ring finger.

Scientists believe that the link is caused by different levels of the hormones testosterone and estrogen in the womb -- and the effect they have on both brain development and finger length. This is nothing new, since scientists have known for many years that elevated levels of testosterone -- or other hormones closely resembling testosterone -- can cause the brains of both males and females to be more "masculine."

Elwood, a Chinese crested chihuahua mix, has been crowned worlds ugliest dog at a US county fair.

The win has delighted owner Karen Quigley, of New Jersey, who thinks Elwood is "the cutest thing that ever lived".

Dark coloured and hairless -- save for a puff of white fur on his head -- Elwood, 2, is often referred to as Yoda or ET because of his resemblance to the sci-fi characters.

The ever-increasing number of free-floating icebergs breaking off Antarctica due to Earth?s warming temperatures are serving as ?hotspots? for life, with seabirds swooping above and complex webs of marine life teeming below, a new study shows.

Global warming is showing its most dramatic effect at Earth?s poles so far, and the rising temperatures are causing Antarctic ice shelves to shrink and split apart into thousands of icebergs that drift out to sea.

Researchers examined two of these icebergs drifting in the Weddell Sea, an arm of the Southern Atlantic Ocean that cuts into Antarctica southeast of South America?s Cape Horn.

They found that the floating icebergs transport material from the continent and release it further out at sea as they melt. This material produces a ?halo effect? of increased biological activity for a radius of more than two miles around the icebergs.

The findings are detailed in the June 22 issue of the journal Science.

Chunks of raw tuna at Tsukiji, the famed fish market in Tokyo. The growing demand for sushi in countries like Russia and China and depleting tuna stocks are raising prices, and causing chefs to try other ingredients.

Your job will be to facilitate discussion among the group.
Since no one knows each other, ask them to go around the
table and introduce themselves. After the introductions are
over, you can facilitate a roundtable discussion.

Ask the people at your table to share the best experience
they?ve had that week or something that made them smile.

You will find that the table of strangers will quickly turn
into a talkative table of good memories and good cheer.
Best of all, you have put everyone at ease in what could
have been a stressful event. Most people are just looking
for someone to talk to, why not be the one to spark some
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You?ll be surprised how much others will appreciate you for
having the courage to get everyone talking.

NEW YORK (AP) - Hank Medress, whose vocals with the doo wop group the Tokens helped propel their irrepressible single "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to the top of the charts and who produced hits with other groups, has died of lung cancer. He was 68.

Medress died Monday at his Manhattan home, relatives said.

He was a teenager at Brooklyns Lincoln High School when he launched his vocal quartet in 1955 with Neil Sedaka, performing as the Linc-Tones. When Sedaka departed for a successful solo career, lead singer Jay Siegel joined brothers Mitch and Phil Margo and Medress to become the Tokens.

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Hey Dude, Wheres My Vacation?

Americans now work more every year, on average, than workers in any other industrialized country (except for a virtual tie with New Zealand). With women working longer hours each year, the average annual work time for a married couple is growing steadily, and family time -- including the crucial bonding experience of vacations -- has suffered. Full-time workers in much of Europe typically take seven to eight weeks of vacation and holidays each year -- thats double the American average for full-time workers.

Overall, the average private sector worker in the United States gets about nine paid vacation days and six paid holidays each year. Low-paid, part-time or small-business workers typically get far fewer, sometimes none. The same holds for paid sick leave: 72 percent of the highest-paid quarter of private sector workers get paid sick days compared to only 21 percent of workers in the lowest-paid quarter.

6,000 Smithsonian Images Available on Flickr

As part of its mission to advocate for posting more government information online, Public.Resource.Org (http://public.resource.org/) is challenging the copyrights asserted on images held and sold by the Smithsonian Institution.

Left: Clark, Gruber & Co., Denver, 20 Dollar Coin, 1860. Tom Mulvaney (Smithsonian Institution). Right: Cone Headed Grasshopper (Acrididae) from the Insect Zoo at the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History. Chip Clark (Smithsonian Institution)

Set lesson plans stir controversy

In the name of student achievement, more teachers must follow stricter rules about what ? and sometimes how ? they teach. In some places, they stay almost literally on the same page.

The goal is to provide students with the same academic experiences, regardless of their teacher or school.

But Bellevue Superintendent Mike Riley asserts that the lack of a consistent curriculum is "at the heart of whats wrong with education in America."

Not only should Bellevue have a common curriculum, he says, but there should be a national curriculum as well.

Concerns raised

"It would be a tragic error ... to tell teachers that on Day 80 of the school year, there is only one way to teach Huckleberry Finn, the circumference of a circle, or to play an instrument," he says. "My members are telling me this is not in the best interests of student learning."

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DIY anti-satellite system

Satellite tracking software freely available on the Internet and some textbook physics could be used by any organization that can get hold of an intermediate range rocket to mount an unsophisticated attack on military or civilian satellites. Such an attack would require modest engineering capability and only a limited budget. That is according to researchers writing in Inderscience Publishers International Journal of Critical Infrastructures.

A terrorist organization or rogue state could threaten essential satellite systems, according to Adrian Gheorghe of Old Dominion University Norfolk, in Virginia, USA and Dan Vamanu of "Horia Hulubei" National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, in Bucharest, Romania. Military satellites, global positioning systems, weather satellites and even satellite TV systems could all become victims of such an attack.

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Scientists are challenging a longstanding theory of how HIV slowly depletes the bodys capacity to fight infection.

HIV attacks human immune cells, called T helper cells. Loss of these cells is gradual, often taking many years.

It was thought infected cells produced more HIV particles and this caused the body to activate more T cells, which in turn were infected and died.

But Imperial College London modelling suggests if that was true, cells would die out in months, not years.

The imperial team used a mathematical model of the processes by which T cells are produced and eliminated.

Goowy

For several years, observers have speculated that the Internet will become, in essence, a vast operating system, with applications built on top of it. To a great extent, thats the premise underlying Goowy. Create an account, and you can start building your own desktop, with applications for e-mail, contacts, instant messaging, file management, and more. You can also add prebuilt widgets, called "minis," to your desktop, for news, stocks, weather, and other tidbits of information.

Dont expect the site to replace your desktop at this point: Goowy lacks full-blown applications and doesnt access your hard drive. Still, its a glimpse into what may be the future of the Internet.

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Thousands of people who take prescription medicines for everyday conditions are gaining large amounts of weight as an unexpected side effect, scientists have warned.

Researchers, who found that some patients were putting on up to 22lbs in a year, say that the drugs may even be contributing to the nations rocketing obesity epidemic.

All of the patients they studied, on medication for conditions as diverse as diabetes, epilepsy, depression, high blood pressure and schizophrenia, showed evidence of weight increase.

"Given the common and long-term use of many of these drugs," said the researchers, "it is likely that they play a significant contributory role in the increasing prevalence of obesity."

"Non-compliance is reported as an issue with many of the drugs included in this review, and the weight gain associated with them may contribute to this."

BALTIMORE ? With small, perky ears and big, round eyes, the Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot may look like your average teddy bear, but standing 6-feet tall and weighing 380 pounds, this bear isn?t built to be cuddled.

Engineers at College Park-based Vecna Technologies Inc. have developed the human-shaped robot, known as the BEAR, to carry wounded soldiers from dangerous battlefields with forklift-like arms.

The robot has the face of a teddy bear to comfort soldiers who might fear the otherwise ?grotesque-looking? machine, Theobald said.

?Let?s send an object out there that we don?t have to write home to its wife or family if it gets shot,? Theobald said. ?If the BEAR takes a few rounds or gets shot at, who cares? It?s just a piece of technology.?

Though the BEAR is pricy, Gilbert said, ?If one of these robots saves one soldier?s life, I?d consider the project well worth it, and I think the American people would, too.?

The grim reality of Iraq rarely appears in the American press. A photo gallery reveals the wars horrible human toll.

Most web pages are made up of HTML files linked to separate image files. Heres a way to embed an image directly into an HTML file.

Lightning kills man beneath cloudless sky

Most lightning will come from the base of a thunderstorm, inside that rain-shaft area, Dixon explained. ``But occasionally, what we call a bolt from the blue comes out of a thunderstorm still several miles away.

The fair-weather bolts pack a bigger, deadlier punch and form differently.

Most lightning bolts carry a negative charge, but bolts from the blue have a positive charge, carry as much as 10 times the current, are hotter and last longer.

Dixon said protecting yourself from such unexpected lightning is difficult.

Welcoming Christian Exodus to state in name of freedom

A recent letter writer was concerned with the goals of Christian Exodus. The goal of Christian Exodus is, quite simply, to gain political power in a small, predominately Christian state, and use that political power to force the federal government to once again follow the letter of the law of the U.S. Constitution, something it has not done in a very, very long time.

While the power of one state may or may not change the national government, it can drastically improve the quality of life for that state?s inhabitants. We may actually have the opportunity to be truly free for the first time in a long time.

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Chocolatier was founded in 1999 by Fritz Knipschildt, who got his culinary education as a chef in Denmark. He is also selected as a part of ?40 under 40? in Fairfield Country. Fritz climes that all of his chocolate is artisan and made by hand, also he says, that his chocolate is a memorable one of a kind taste. Is it true? You can order and judge yourself. �

Nearly and almost

As long as there have been criminals, there have been governments thinking up novel ways to execute ?em. We don?t know which of the following gruesome methods the Founding Fathers had in mind with that whole ban on "cruel and unusual punishment," but we know they had plenty to choose from.

Method: Crushing by Elephant
Deadly Debut: India, 4,000 years ago. (It?s probably older, but recorded history doesn?t go back that far.)

Method: Crucifixion
Deadly Debut: Nobody knows for sure. Somewhere in the Middle East, probably in the 7th century B.C.E.

Method: The Brazen Bull
Deadly Debut: Siciliy, during the tryannical reign of Phalaris (570 - 554 B.C.E.)

Method: Ling Chi
Deadly Debut: China, around the beginning of the Song Dynasty (10th century C.E.)

Method: Cave of Roses
Deadly Debut: Sweden, during the Middle Ages (circa the 13th century C.E.)

Method: Keelhauling
Deadly Debut: Holland, 1560 (when it became part of Dutch naval laws, though it was probably used earlier)

In Liaoning in the northeast, a leading corn-producing area, Xinhua said that close to 90 reservoirs had dried up and 25,000 wells could no longer supply adequate water supplies.

State media reported last week that Liaoning was suffering its worst drought in 30 years as a result of high temperatures and little rain and that some 1.4 million hectares of crops had been damaged.

Will water slake a thirst for profits?

For investors who wish their capital could be tackling important global problems while generating handsome returns, water looks quite refreshing.

Thats because experts say the stage is set for water-related goods and services to experience strong demand in coming years. In the United States, aging systems for delivering drinking water will require $250 billion to maintain and upgrade over the next 30 years, according to the American Water Works Association, a water utility association in Denver. Worldwide, more than 1.1 billion people lack safe drinking water, according to the United Nations, and needs are sure to increase with a global population on course to reach 8 billion by 2025.

EVIDENCE FOR CREATION

1. The Fossil Record...Evolutionists have constructed the Geologic Column in order to illustrate the supposed progression of "primitive" life forms to "more complex" systems we observe today. Yet, "since only a small percentage of the earths surface obeys even a portion of the geologic column the claim of their having taken place to form a continuum of rock/life/time over the earth is therefore a fantastic and imaginative contrivance.¹" "[T]he lack of transitional series cannot be explained as being due to the scarcity of material. The deficiencies are real, they will never be filled."² This supposed column is actually saturated with "polystrate fossils" (fossils extending from one geologic layer to another) that tie all the layers to one time-frame. "[T]o the unprejudiced, the fossil record of plants is in favor of special creation." ³

Rice took issue with the idea that the Middle East was more "stable" before the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and unleashed the brutal insurgency in Iraq.

"What stability? The stability in which Saddam Hussein put 300,000 people in mass graves -- that was stability? The stability in which Syrian forces were embedded in Lebanon -- that was stability?" she asked.

"The stability in which Yasser Arafat turned down an opportunity for the Palestinian people to have their own state -- that was stability?" she added, alluding to the failure of U.S.-brokered peace talks between the late Palestinian leader and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak in 2000.

HELEN, Ga., June 23 (AP) ? When a 300-pound black bear raided a family?s campsite, the father saved his sons from harm by throwing a log at it, killing it with a single blow.

The father, Chris Everhart, and his three sons were camping in the Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia on June 16 when the bear took the family?s cooler and was heading back to the woods with it.

When the youngest son, 6-year-old Logan, hurled a shovel at it, the bear dropped the cooler and started toward the boy, Mr. Everhart said. A former Marine, he grabbed the closest thing he could find ? a log from their stash of firewood.

?It happened to hit the bear in the head,? Mr. Everhart said. ?I thought it just knocked it out but it actually ended up killing the bear.?

Mr. Everhart was given a ticket for failing to secure his campsite, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

By Barton Gellman and Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, June 24, 2007; Page A01

Just past the Oval Office, in the private dining room overlooking the South Lawn, Vice President Cheney joined President Bush at a round parquet table they shared once a week. Cheney brought a four-page text, written in strict secrecy by his lawyer. He carried it back out with him after lunch.

Cheneys proposal had become a military order from the commander in chief. Foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States were stripped of access to any court -- civilian or military, domestic or foreign. They could be confined indefinitely without charges and would be tried, if at all, in closed "military commissions."

Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power

Shortly after the first accused terrorists reached the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002, a delegation from CIA headquarters arrived in the Situation Room. The agency presented a delicate problem to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, a man with next to no experience on the subject. Vice President Cheneys lawyer, who had a great deal of experience, sat nearby. The meeting marked "the first time that the issue of interrogations comes up" among top-ranking White House officials, recalled John C. Yoo, who represented the Justice Department. "The CIA guys said, Were going to have some real difficulties getting actionable intelligence from detainees" if interrogators confined themselves to humane techniques allowed by the Geneva Conventions.

They found it decreased the odds of developing a cold by 58% and the duration of colds by a day-and-a-half.

The results in The Lancet Infectious Diseases conflict with other studies that show no beneficial effect.

Researchers, led by Dr Craig Coleman from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, combined the results of 14 different studies on Echinaceas anti-cold properties.

In one of the 14 studies the researchers reviewed, echinacea was taken alongside vitamin C. This combination reduced cold incidence by 86%.

When echinacea was used alone it reduced cold incidence by 65%.

The researchers report said: "With over 200 viruses capable of causing the common cold, echinacea could have modest effect against rhinovirus but marked effects against other viruses."

The specs sound like theyre from the latest ad for LCD televisions: 16.7 million colours, Chromacore technology, digital control.

Over the past week, the CN Tower has been testing its new $2.5 million lighting system after dusk. Ribbons of colour have spilled down the 553-metre-tall structure, ebbing and flowing like water.

Because the computer-controlled system is so flexible, virtually any look is possible. So, depending on when one happens to glance up, the tower can appear as refined as a clean sculpture ? or as garish as a midway.

The CN Tower news release stresses that the system is efficient ? using 10 per cent less energy than the most recent setup, and consuming about 60 per cent less power than was needed to fully light the tower in the 1990s. In other words, David Suzuki wont be knocking on the porch to change the light bulbs.

Words Invented by Shakespeare

Today while browsing the ever so beautiful interwebs, I came across something interesting about Shakespeare. Turns out that our second favourite William (after the one and only William Gates of course) invented over 1700 of the words we use commonly use, by simply turning nouns into verbs, adjectives into verbs, and so forth..

Here is a very small list of words he invented:

1. Accused
2. Addiction
3. Advertising
4. Amazement
5. Arouse
6. Assassination
7. Bandit
8. Bedroom
9. Beached
10. Blanket
11. Bump
12. Cater
13. Champion
14. Countless
15. Epileptic
16. Fixture
17. Flawed
18. Generous
19. Hint
20. Lonely
21. Mimic
22. Negotiate
23. Obscene
24. Premeditated
25. Rant
26. Summit
27. Torture
28. Varied
29. Worthless
30. Zany

EAST LANSING, Mich., June 25 (UPI) -- Two U.S. professors are leading an international effort to find ways of purifying the worlds waters using membrane-based technologies.

"Membrane-based technologies selectively remove things such as chemicals and particles from water," said Voice, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. "They are analogous to filters, except they remove things that are smaller and separate on the basis of chemistry and size. Our project is looking at developing new types of membranes and membrane systems that perform better in water treatment applications."

Membranes can produce ultra-pure water, removing nearly all impurities.

"They are used in some places to turn sea water into fresh water," Voice said. "The challenge is to do this cost effectively, and we seek to do this by improving their performance."

Turn a C battery into a D with quarters

You need a D battery but all youve got laying around are C cells. Since C and D batteries are both 1.5 volts (they differ only in size and energy storage), you can build a makeshift D to C "adaptor" with a few regular, conductive, George Washington quarters. Just insert them into your gizmo as pictured and youre good to go. Photo by L. Marie.

The Nebra disc is emblazoned with symbols of the Sun, Moon and stars and said by some to be 3,600 years old.

They instead argue that the disc was used for shamanistic rituals.

The Nebra disc is considered one of the most sensational - and controversial - discoveries in archaeology in the past 10 years.

Dutch seek to rein in vice

"They are chopping away at the edges so that people dont notice," Gomperts said, "resetting the norm of what is accepted practice."

All those promises of a future with jetpacks getting you from here to there have finally come true. Before you start planning your trip to Miami, the amazing JetPack will only give you a 3 min thrill ride. That 3 min ride does not come cheap at $250,000 but it does include free training. Before you start to cry, a new and improved version is already in the works and should get you about 19 minutes of flight time for a reduced price of $200,000. To see the Jetpack in action, check out the video after the jump.

Rise of man theory ?out by 400,000 years?

Our earliest ancestors gave up hunter-gathering and took to a settled life up to 400,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to controversial research.

The accepted timescale of Man?s evolution is being challenged by a German archaeologist who claims to have found evidence that Homo erectus ? mankind?s early ancestor, who migrated from Africa to Asia and Europe ? began living in settled communities long before the accepted time of 10,000 years ago.

The point at which settlement actually took place is the first critical stage in humanity?s cultural development.

Helmut Ziegert, of the Institute of Archaeology at Hamburg University, says that the evidence can be found at excavated sites in North and East Africa, in the remains of stone huts and tools created by upright man for fishing and butchery.

Creationists who bang the pulpit about the Universe being young tend to use old, outdated, and long-debunked arguments.

This was theoretical? until now. It?s been observed.

Inmates of an Indian prison are reportedly refusing to apply for bail because the food is so good.

Parappana Agrahara prison in Bangalore is crowded with 4,700 inmates, more than twice its capacity.

Criminals are refusing to apply for bail to get out while juvenile offenders are lying about their age to get in, reports the Bangalore Mirror.

The paper says the reason is healthy food being served by ISKCON, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a Hindu evangelist organisation.

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LONDON, June 24 (UPI) -- Chimpanzees possess the ability for interspecific altruism, researchers in Germany have found.

Altruism -- helping another with no expectation of personal reward -- was once thought to be a uniquely human trait, The Times of London reported. However, in recent experiments, chimpanzees repeatedly helped humans who appeared to be struggling to reach a stick within the animals enclosure.

The chimps, which were interacting with humans who had not given them food, spontaneously helped the humans by reaching across and helping them get the stick.

Anthropologists cite altruism as a key to developing civilized and complex societies. Although altruism has been observed in many species, this recent experiment is special because it shows ability for one species to be altruistic with another species, the Times said.

LONDON, June 24 (UPI) -- A scientific study of British students eating habits has found eating ham and cheese for breakfast can significantly improve cognitive functioning.

The study headed up by psychology professor David Benton of Wales Swansea University found the traditional German breakfast can aid in cognitive functions like memory and attention levels, The Sunday Times of London said.

"It is all down to the glucose release of the breakfast into the bloodstream. The slower the release, the better the pupils performed," Benton said of his studys findings.

Bentons group monitored the eating habits and cognitive performance of 6- and 7-year-olds to determine the effect of a well-balanced breakfast.

Bentons group also found meals with slow-releasing glucose levels helped children stay physically fit and curbed obesity by limiting ones appetite.

Am I a member of the ?radical left? because I want our country out of a war that we should have never started? Am I a member of the ?radical left? because I believe in universal health care? Does being pro-choice make me a member of the ?radical left?? How about wanting real and concrete answers on why all of those Federal Attorneys got fired? I guess being a little pissed off about the Patriot Act, The Insurrection Act, The Military Commissions Act of 2006 that strips away Habeas Corpus, and the end run around the FISA Court with electronic eavesdropping on American Citizens, makes me a far left wacko too?

Decline for Military in Black Recruits

WASHINGTON ? The number of blacks joining the military has plunged by more than one-third since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began. Other job prospects are soaring and relatives of potential recruits increasingly are discouraging them from joining the armed services.

According to data obtained by The Associated Press, the decline covers all four military services for active duty recruits. The drop is even more dramatic when National Guard and Reserve recruiting is included.

The findings reflect the growing unpopularity of the wars, particularly among family members and other adults who exert influence over high school and college students considering the military as a place to serve their country, further their education or build a career.

Marine Commandant Gen. James T. Conway agreed that the bloodshed in Iraq _ where more than 3,540 U.S. troops have died _ is the biggest deterrent for prospective recruits.

Police arent saying why Christopher Vaughn allegedly shot his wife, Kimberly, and three kids in the familys red SUV on June 14.

To the psychopathic minds of such killers, wives and children "are less than people. Theyre something to get rid of," Philpin said.

It takes an extreme psychopath to kill his own children. But such killers dont really love their kids. They just play the role of the loving father.

"As long as the child is useful, you parade them around," Brown said. "When theyre in the way, you kill them."

Often, family killers dont have criminal records. "But they have a record of psychopathic behavior," Brown said.

They are manipulators. Theyre narcissistic, filled with grandiose thoughts. And theyre pathologic liars who blame everyone but themselves for their problems.

But theyre usually not insane, said Dr. Louis Kraus, a forensic psychiatrist at Rush University Medical Center. Unlike insane killers, they know right from wrong.

This week, hundreds of thousands of young people will graduate from secondary schools across Central Asia. A flurry of activity frequently accompanies the end of the school year, as girls in their late teens make the choice between continuing school or starting a family. Not all of them are rushing off to prepare for university or trade schools in the fall.

The destinies of some young girls are sealed -- they are getting married as soon as secondary school is finished.

A majority of the regions marriages are arranged by parents. Dating is uncommon in the villages of Central Asia; the idea of unmarried couples living together is virtually unheard of.

One of them was a 5-foot giant with a long sharp beak.

The beak of the large penguin - Icadyptes salasi - "looks remarkably spearlike," she said. But the researchers dont know its exact feeding style.

This special whiskey is infused with a real farm raised Cobra snake, black scorpion, ginseng roots and herbal seed pods. The whiskey is steeped for several months, which then imparts a unique flavour into the whiskey, it is quite an acquired taste. The story is that this is used in SE Asia as a very strong Aphrodisiac; and it also has many medical uses, such as the treatment of back and muscle pain. Every bottle is unique in its own way so therefore the item purchased may differ slightly in looks but not size.

10. Demi Moore

She has reportedly spent more than half a million dollars for procedures that include liposuction, breast augmentation, brow lift, multiple collagen injections and cosmetic knee surgery. It?s really a miracle she still looks as good as she does now.

9. Sharon Osbourne

This foul-mouthed mom has admitted to getting a lot of cosmetic work done over the years, and has been reported to have renounced plastic surgery. Good for her.

8. Cher

She?s like what, 90 years old? Yet she looks a lot younger, thanks to the breast enlargement, nose jobs, cheek implants, tummy tuck, butt-lift, face-lift, and liposuction procedures she is said to have undergone in the past few decades.

7. Tom Jones

Over a 40-year period, this singer has had a nose job, a scalp reduction procedure, fat removed from his chin, blepharoplasty and a facelift. And he apparently wants more, according to reports.

6. Pamela Anderson

5. Bruce Jenner

4. Joan Rivers

3. David Gest

2. Michael Jackson

1. Jocelyn Wildenstein

"We are currently developing techniques that will create pressures of up to five million atmospheres, much higher than the pressure at the centre of the earth, to find the holy grail of high-pressure physics the metallic phase of hydrogen. Metallic hydrogen would be unlike any other metal ever seen. It is predicted to have a number of unusual properties, including being a superconductor at room temperature," said Professor McMahon.

Do you have your own web page? (1 point)

Have you made a web page for someone else? (2 points)

Do you IM your friends? (1 point)

Do you text your friends? (2 points)

Do you watch videos on YouTube? (1 point)

Do you remix video files from the Internet? �(2 points)

Have you paid for and downloaded music from the Internet? (1 point)

Do you know where to download free (illegal) music from the Internet? (2 points)

Do you blog for professional reasons? �(1 point)

Do you blog as a way to keep an online diary? (2 points)

Have you visited MySpace at least five times? (1 point)

Do you communicate with friends on Facebook? (2 points)

Do you use email to communicate with your parents? (1 point)

Did you text to communicate with your parents? (2 points)

Do you take photos with your phone? (1 point)

Do you share your photos from your phone with your friends? (2 points)

0-1 point - Baby Boomer

2-6 �points - Generation Jones

6- 12 points - Generation X

12 or over - Generation Y

Dueling dogs.
The skull of a newly discovered ancient wolf has a shorter snout, broader skull, and bigger teeth than modern North American wolves.

"In San Francisco, for the price of one 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of bottled water, local residents can purchase 1,000 gallons of tap water," according to the mayors order.

Newsom estimates San Francisco could save $500,000 a year under his directive, which also addresses environmental concerns over the amount of oil used to make and transport plastic water bottles.

"All of this waste and pollution is generated by a product that by objective standards is often inferior to the quality of San Franciscos pristine tap water," according to the order.

100 Blogs We Love

Here are our favorite stops in the blogosphere, covering everything from high tech to low comedy and all manner of pursuits in between.

CALCUTTA, India ? Dozens of crocodiles bred in captivity in eastern India have been enlisted to protect their endangered counterparts in the wild and are being released in forests to scare away poachers, authorities said on Monday.

Illegal fishing in mangrove forests and habitat destruction in the states of Orissa and West Bengal had led to a steep fall in crocodile numbers, from several thousand a century ago to less than 100 in the early 1970s, they said.

But the same reptiles were breeding rapidly in captivity. Orissas Bhitarkanika sanctuary has more than 1,400 crocodiles now.

"The swelling number of released crocodiles in the wild is working as a deterrent and keeping people away from the mangrove as villagers are more cautious before venturing into the forests," said Rathin Banerjee, a senior wildlife official.

Wildlife sanctuaries in the region are threatened by poachers and villagers foraging for wood and forest produce.

From Egg to Chick

Charles Barnes, 24, had 67 marijuana plants in the trunk of his car when he was pulled over on U.S. 70 last week, police said.

"Dude, I totally thought weed was legalized in New Mexico," Barnes told police.

MySpace is about teenage rebellion; ugliness and defiantly folded arms. Facebook is much more popular among those of college age and older - its more grown up, and looking at it isnt like pouring acid into your eyeballs.

So its timely that Danah Boyd, one of the most incisive researchers looking at societies on the web, has come up with a paper on the class structures of Facebook and MySpace. In essence, she says good middle class kids use Facebook, while the working classes use MySpace. In many respects it is one of those things that puts what you already know into context, but its a worthwhile read.

But aside from all of the boggle-eyed social butterflies who spend hours each day updating their profile and the hand-rubbing money men (including those who enjoy stating the obvious) the real interest for me lies in who uses it, and why.

Germany has barred the makers of a movie about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler from filming at German military sites because its star Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, the Defence Ministry said on Monday.

Cruise, also one of the films producers, is a member of the Church of Scientology which the German government does not recognise as a church. Berlin says it masquerades as a religion to make money, a charge Scientology leaders reject.

Modified Mushrooms May Yield Human Drugs

Science Daily ? Mushrooms might serve as biofactories for the production of various beneficial human drugs, according to plant pathologists who have inserted new genes into mushrooms.

"There has always been a recognized potential of the mushroom as being a choice platform for the mass production of commercially valuable proteins," said Charles Peter Romaine, who holds the John B. Swayne Chair in spawn science and professor of plant pathology at Penn State. "Mushrooms could make the ideal vehicle for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals to treat a broad array of human illnesses. But nobody has been able to come up with a feasible way of doing that."

Law-enforcement officers raided the wrong house and forced a 77-year-old La Plata County woman on oxygen to the ground last week in search of methamphetamine.

The raid occurred about 11 a.m. June 8, as Virginia Herrick was settling in to watch "The Price is Right." She heard a rustling outside her mobile home in Durango West I and looked out to see several men with gas masks and bulletproof vests, she said.

But before reaching the door, La Plata County Sheriffs deputies shouted "search warrant, search warrant" and barged in with guns drawn, she said. They ordered Herrick to the ground and began searching the home.

"They didnt give me a chance to ask for a search warrant or see a search warrant or anything," she said in a phone interview Thursday. "Im not about to argue with those big old guys, especially when theyve got guns and those big old sledgehammers."

Deputies intended to raid 82 Hidden Lane - the house next door.

Fatboy Headdemock Hammock

n 2000, talented Finnish designer Jukka Set�l� introduced the newest--and possibly the largest--of Sacco?s spawn: the Fatboy. Soon the Fatboy, like an autumn salmon, returned to its home and multiplied, so that Set�l�?s company now offers four models of beanbag furniture and one hammock. What truly sets these pieces apart from other similar products (more than just their size) is their versatility. Whatever your fitness magazines may tell you, we say it?s always good to have a Fatboy around the house.

Details

A study of pollen captured in spider webs of southern and central Yunnan, China, shows that the sticky webs do a darned good job at capturing and hanging onto pollen grains from local plants. The method may be useful in plant surveys worldwide.

"The [type] of pollen and spores identified from the spider webs can reflect the vegetation of the sampling site," confirms Cheng-Sen Li of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Museum of Natural History.

The pollen sampling technique comes as a surprise to at least one spider expert, who had only heard of one other pollen-spider connection.

Its the birthday of the novelist and essayist George Orwell, (books by this author) born Eric Arthur Blair in Bengal, India (1903). He came from a middle class family, but managed to win a scholarship to a distinguished boarding school, where most of his classmates were upper class kids. He did not fit in at all. He said, "In a world where the prime necessities were money, titled relatives, athleticism, tailor-made clothes, neatly brushed hair, a charming smile, I was no good."

Vocabulary: Are we losing our lexicon?

The last days of long words! The sunset of syntactical surplusage!

You dont need a vocabulary to see the point: A home, a city or a society where people appreciate and share their vocabularies, where they take public pleasure in using language, is a place with a future where the lights are on.

"My advice to people is to get pleasure out of explaining things clearly. You have to give up things you love. But then you can have a really great connection with people."

"I dont think there is any goal in having a vocabulary," Thomas Delworth says from his perch toward the end of his rich spoken and written life. "I think it is its own reward. I cant give you a cost-effectiveness breakdown. You simply have a somewhat larger grasp of this vast empire you might command."

Giant Penguins Once Roamed Peru Desert, Fossils Show

Penguins about the size of humans roamed South America some 35 million years ago, and they didnt need ice to survive.

Thats the result of a new study by North Carolina State University paleontologist Julia Clarke and her colleagues. (See a picture gallery of the giant penguin finds.)

The study, which appears in this weeks issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, unveils two new species of giant penguins from fossils unearthed in Perus Atacama Desert.

Todays penguins are cold-adapted and therefore at grave risk from global warming, she said, but the new fossils suggest that hasnt always been true.

The new study describes two new species of penguins from fossils, including the first complete skull from an ancient giant penguin.

That species, which the authors say lived in Peru about 36 million years ago, is the third largest penguin known and stood about 4.5 feet (1.5 meters) tall.

Bobby Cutts and Myisha Ferrell appeared in court today at 3pm

As I watched the hearing of Cutts and Ferrell and this is what came out of this hearing:

The sister and mother were in the court room on front from about 15 feet from Bobby Cutts as he appeared for his arraignment. Preliminary hearing set for July 2nd at 1:00p.m. with Cutts bond set at $5million. At the preliminary hearing it will then be determined if they have enough evidence to back up charges to hold Cutts and if so does it warrants the $5million bond.

Myisha Ferrell?s preliminary hearing was also set for July 2nd at 2:00pm and her bond was set at $500 thousand. Her attorney asked that Ferrell not be approached by any law enforcement without an attorney present.

At this point the charges are at the State level and not Federal. They still continue to say the case is still under investigation.

Supreme Court nixes suit over faith-based plan

The 5-4 high court decision bars taxpayers from challenging initiative

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that ordinary taxpayers cannot challenge a White House initiative that helps religious charities get a share of federal money.

The 5-4 decision blocks a lawsuit by a group of atheists and agnostics against eight Bush administration officials including the head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

The taxpayers group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc., objected to government conferences in which administration officials encourage religious charities to apply for federal grants.

If you poured all the world?s water on the United States and could contain it, you?d create a lake 90 miles deep.

How much water is that? Roughly 326 million cubic miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Some 72 percent of Earth is covered in water, but 97 percent of that is salty and no good for drinking. So, some facts about the freshwater:

There is much more freshwater stored in the ground than there is in liquid form on the surface, according to the USGS.

Chris Benoit, family found dead

World Wrestling Entertainment is deeply saddened to report that today Chris Benoit and his family were found dead in their home. There are no further details at this time, other than the Benoit family residence is currently being investigated by local authorities.

Tonight?s Raw on USA Network will serve as a tribute to Chris Benoit and his family. WWE extends its sincerest thoughts and prayers to the Benoit family?s relatives and loved ones in this time of tragedy.

How to concatenate PDFs without pain

In my work I recently had a situation where I needed to concatenate several PDF files into one big PDF file.� That turns out to be a much harder problem than it sounds, and the Web isnt as helpful in solving it as should be the case.� Heres a summary of what Ive discovered on the subject, so that someone else who wants to append PDF files on a real computer wont have to go through what I went through.� This page covers only software that will run under Linux and similar FLOSS environments.

Mexican Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said on Monday in Mexico City that 284 high-ranking officers would be forced to undergo a "trust test."

WASHINGTON - Researchers studying Neanderthal DNA say it should be possible to construct a complete genome of the ancient hominid despite the degradation of the DNA over time.

There is also hope for reconstructing the genome of the mammoth and cave bear, according to a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Debate has raged for years about whether there is any relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans. Some researchers believe that Neanderthals were simply replaced by early modern humans, while others argue the two groups may have interbred.

Sequencing the genome of Neanderthals, who lived in Europe until about 30,000 years ago, could shed some light on that question.

In studies of Neanderthals, cave bear and mammoth, a majority of the DNA recovered was that of microorganisms that colonized the tissues after death, the researchers said.

The potentially fatal superbug MRSA, which is spread by touch, typically thrives in health care settings where people have open wounds.

A judge ruled Monday that no pair of pants is worth $54 million, rejecting a lawsuit that took a dry cleaners promise of "Satisfaction Guaranteed" to its most litigious extreme.

Roy L. Pearson became a worldwide symbol of legal abuse by seeking jackpot justice from a simple complaint -- that a neighborhood dry cleaners lost the pants from a new suit and tried to give him a pair that were not his.

"A reasonable consumer would not interpret Satisfaction Guaranteed to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customers unreasonable demands," the judge wrote.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

This is Dale Carnegies summary of his book, from 1948

Table of Contents

1. Fundamental facts you should know about worry
2. Basic techniques in analyzing worry
3. How to break the worry habit before it breaks you
4. Seven ways to cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and happiness
5. The perfect way to conquer worry
6. How to keep from worrying about criticism
7. Six ways to prevent fatigue and worry and keep your energy and spirits high