What Is Alopecia?

Agony Aunt.Org

Ocular migraine

Saturday 5 September 2009

The Omron HBF-512S Full Body Sensor Monitor and Scale

I never thought that there would be two very weird products at Hot Gossip in two consecutive days, but I guess life is sometimes very surprising and I can live with this in my mind. This a device called Omron Full Body Sensor Composition Monitor and Scale, and it’s basically a machine which helps you understand your body composition, and to reach your best shape. Sounds good, right? I’ve seen some reports in the past few months which said that obesity is a huge problem in the US.

The Omron HBF-512S Full Body Sensor Monitor and Scale delivers a very accurate full-body sensing technology by monitoring your weight, body fat, and visceral fat amongst others. The device will also monitor the skeletal muscle in order to keep weight off, and it allow you to lose weight
in a healthy way.

The Omron Full Body Sensor Composition Monitor and Scale provides measurements for people nearly all heights, and all adult ages, has a four person profile, a 90 Days memory, cool on/off button, and it works on AA batteries. The device measures 15″ x 12.8″ x 3.3″


Michael Jacksons Funeral Pictures






The Jackson clan and friends came together once more last night at Forest Lawn cemetery to pay their respects.

Jackson’s family, including his mother Katherine and father Joe, his siblings, and his three children Prince Michael, Paris, and Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket, were driven to the memorial park in a fleet of Rolls Royce limousines – arriving over an hour late for the planned 7pm (local time) start.
The star’s close friends including Macaulay Culkin and his girlfriend Mila Kunis, actor Chris Tucker, and Elizabeth Taylor attended the outdoor ceremony, which saw around 200 guests seated on white chairs on the lawns outside the crypt and signing a book of condolence for the fallen King of Pop.
Taylor was left devastated by her close friend’s death and refused to attend his public memorial service because she didn’t want to be part of the “whoopla,” but agreed to attend the private ceremony on Thursday.
Jackson’s ex-wife Presley also turned out to honor her late former husband.
Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight were both reportedly ask to sing at the tribute, ahead of Jackson’s $30,000 (£20,000) gold casket being lowered into a concrete burial pit close to stars including Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and his idol Walt Disney.
Security was tight at the service, with police setting up a wide perimeter around the park to stop fans getting anywhere near the private ceremony. Helicopters with thermal imaging devices also circled overhead to detect any unwanted intruders.
Two fans reportedly attempted to gatecrash the event in the hours leading up to the service, but they were swiftly apprehended by security guards and then removed by police, according to Sky News.
The family reportedly planned to hold a private celebration following the service at an Italian restaurant in Pasadena, California.



The Chi Machine Craze

The Chi Machine is a personal home revitalizing machine that helps the body execute the figure of 8 exercise. Chi Machine was based on the motion of goldfish. It stimulates an exclusive body response through gentle “figure 8″ oscillations with the human body. Try to look at the image and video below showing how the Chi Machine works and what benefits it can give its users.


view chi machines


The Chi Machine stimulates an exclusive body response through gentle “figure 8″ oscillations with the body helping to:

• Counteract the effects of stress by rapidly inducing a deep sate of relaxation
• The gentle wave-like movement of the spine relaxes the muscles of the Back improving flexibility and movement while relieving pain.
• Promote blood cell production, blood circulation and tissue oxygenation.
• Relax muscles locally
• Relieve vertebra joint pressure
• Promote a sense of well being
• Enhance lymphatic drainage
• Improve immune system function
• Massage abdominal organs to aid in digestion
• Stimulate the flow of “Chi” energy throughout the body
• Temporarily relieves minor muscle aches, pain and tension caused by fatigue or overexertion
• Temporarily increases local blood circulation

There are already a variety of Chi Machine Brands that are offered online. Below is one of the top rated.


Gamer - the movie ..get it here

Simple as I can make it: Gamer is the love child of Gladiator and The Running Man if it were on an intervenous stream of Mountain Dew laced with LSD. That much is obvious if you know that it's written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, demented masterminds of the Crank movies.

Gamer posits a world dominated by technology developed by one Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) that allows people to control other human beings. He uses this to create two games - first comes "Society", a Second Life-esque simulation where subscribers take full control of real-life avatars and guide them around the city, doing whatever they may please. On the smash success of "Society" comes "Slayers", where gamers take control of actual death-row inmates and pit them against each other in a deathmatch that the public at large can watch live on weekly Pay Per View.

The concept alone gives writer/directors Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor a chance to lay down some criticisms of a society drunk on sex and violence. Obviously, not all of it is new. No one will be surprised to find that millions have a "Society" account and most of them use it to get freaky, and that "Slayers" is an international phenomenon where people from Los Angeles to Bombay cheer on the violent deaths of dozens each week. Where it gets interesting is in its depiction of the games: Neveldine and Taylor have a vast understanding of how people play first person shooters. Beyond actual first person shooter techniques like crouch jumping being used, juvenile player behaviors such as "tea bagging" (repeatedly crouching over a player's corpse to emulate a lewd act) are also accurately depicted. What makes this more than good research is that real people are doing this. What we're seeing here is the perverse and immature members of our society controlling the desperate and aware. It's extremely imaginative, surprisingly creepy, and incredibly damning.

It's one of the few things that Gamer gets right.

"Slayers" is the focus of the movie; our protagonist is Kable, AKA John Tillman (Gerard Butler). Kable is the face of "Slayers"; we start the movie in the middle of his 27th match, a record nobody else has been able to lay claim to, and the public loves him for it. They're waiting with bated breath to see if Kable can survive his 30th match, at which point he'll be set free. All Kable wants to do is keep his head down and hope his player can get him through it so he can see his wife and daughter again.

However, it seems that Kable may know something that could bring down Ken Castle's empire; Castle will do everything in his power to make sure he goes down, while a faction who calls themselves "Humanz" want to set him free so he can return the favor for humanity.

It's a relatively simple plot backed up by some great action, but it's compromised by additional threads left unexplored (mostly represented by John Leguizamo's character), overdirection that left me confused (the climax seems to show the deaths of some characters, only for some of them to turn up alive and well), and some questionable character motivation. It's a tragic cut-down of the movie's potential; what could've been a classic action satire on the level of Robocop is instead a confounding failure. A noble failure, given the great ideas laid out, but a failure nonetheless.


Unexplained phenomenon

The fact the Guardian's Bad Science column has now surpassed 300 articles may indicate that the public's interest in debunking myths is nearly as voracious as their appetite for the paranormal and unexplained - the subject of a special edition Google logo today.

The image used is of an ascending UFO - familiar to us all from the X-files and Doctor Who, and soon as the subject of the new film District 9, a science fiction thriller in which ugly aliens invade South Africa and are herded into a slum.

But statistics released by the National Archives this August would suggest the silver screen is not the only place we are seeing UFOs. Sightings are not as rare a sighting as you might expect, with over 800 reports being detailed between 1993 and 1996.

This August's publication is the fourth batch of data released by the National Archives on this topic. It also details crop circles and shows reports relating to different areas of Britain - with explanations of what may have caused lights. Simon Rogers helpfully extracted 50 of the most interesting ones to look at in his datablog.

The explanations given for each incident indicate that the MoD do not spend a great deal entertaining the thought of extraterrestrial life. But Alokh Jha met astrobiologist Dr Lewis Dartnell from University College London to speculate about what form life might take elsewhere in the Solar System and beyond.

In the Guardian's science weekly podcast, Dr Dartnell says: "Astrobiology is going out there and being proactive, and searching and exploring the solar system - building probes to go to Mars for example to test the sands that we scoop up. One of the first things we need to think about is what is life in the first place? We're looking for molecules like DNA and proteins."

Meanwhile NASA this week has released new images of the surface of Mars, taken from its reconnaisance orbiter - one step closer, perhaps, to finding out if life on other planets is really fact, or just science fiction.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

DNA 11 Art

I was just reading a Forbes article about “Eight Million-Dollar Businesses You’ve Never Heard Of”. I thought it was pretty interesting, as it shows that there’s a niche for just about anything, including pet relocation and Fiero parts.

One of the coolest businesses on the list — and the one I’d be most likely to buy something from — is DNA 11 Art. This is a company that turns your own DNA into framed artwork by turning a submitted sample (just a simple cheek swab, which the company destroys after completing the product) into an image that looks like the one above.

The DNA portraits are pretty expensive ($225), but they’re unique and look pretty sweet! I’d love to have one of these for my living room wall, so I’m adding this to my Wish List right now!

Leprechaun 3 - watch it here

Whitney Houston Sings On Good Morning America

Whitney Houston has “140 million albums sold, more awards than any other female performer in history,” boasted Good Morning America today, touting her “first television performance in seven years” (watch it on their Website). The singer bounded out with a lot of energy and yelled “love you!” during first line of “Million Dollar Bill,” but she danced rather than sang the first chorus, confirming yesterday’s reports that her first major television appearance promoting her new I Look to You left the diva breathless. Houston filmed the short set in New York’s Central Park yesterday afternoon.

Read Rolling Stone’s review of I Look to You.

“I love you New York,” she announced at end of the song. “I love you Good Morning America."

ABC News anchor Charles Gibson announced that he will retire at the end of the year, and Diane Sawyer will become the anchor of ABC's 'World News

In a major and uxexpected move, ABC News anchor Charles Gibson announced that he will retire at the end of the year, and Diane Sawyer will become the anchor of ABC's 'World News.'

The 66-year-old Gibson said in an email to ABC News staffers Wednesday that he had planned to retire as early as 2007, but that unexpected events in the news division resulted in him staying on. Longtime anchor Peter Jennings died in 2005, and then his replacement, Bob Woodruff, was seriously injured in Iraq in January of 2006.

Gibson, a former Congressional correspondent and co-host of 'Good Morning America,' has been a steadying influence on the flagship broadcast for ABC News."

CM’s chopper has landed, search on for its location

HYDERABAD - Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister K.Rosiah on Wednesday confirmed that the state government helicopter carrying Chief Minister Y.S. Rajshekhar Reddy has landed in a forest area in Chitoor District, and efforts are on to locate it.

Addressing a news conference in the state capital, Rosiah said: “All state and central forces are on alert. At the moment, we are still tracing the location of the missing chopper, which has landed in the forests in the Chitoor-Nellore area. We are finding a way to reach the place.”

Rosiah said the state government has alerted the Union Home Ministry about the missing chopper. He said search choppers, including two Indian Air Force Chetak helicopters have been roped in for the search operations. He said that after 9.35 a.m., contact had been lost with the chopper carrying the chief minister.

Rosiah said that the Prime Minister’s office as well as the offices of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Defence Minister A.K. Antony are being kept posted about the latest developments.

He also issued an appeal to the public to contribute to the search effort.

Rosiah’s briefing came as Andhra Pradesh Police continues their search for the missing chopper of the chief minister.

According to police sources, a civilian copter, air force helicopters and the army has been pushed in to the search operation.

Panic was created around Wednesday noon as Reddy was reported untraceable for nearly four hours.

Reddy was on his way to Chitoor, by chopper which initial reports said had made an emergency landing near Kurnool due to inclement weather.

The chopper took off at 8.45 a.m. for Chitoor and was scheduled to arrive here at 10.45 a.m, sources said.

The chopper was said to have landed in the middle a of thick forest, said to be affected by Maoist activities.

The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) confirmed receiving a message of the emergency landing of the chopper, but nothing thereafter.

Till now, no one has confirmed the movements of Reddy.

The Union Home Ministry is monitoring the search operations, as Kurnool is a Naxal affected area.

Air Traffic Control (ATC) sources said the chopper went off the radar due to heavy rains.

The CMO maintains there is no need to worry as the area has no mobile connectivity. (ANI)

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Tropical Storm Erika latest info

MIAMI — A swirl of bad weather developed into Tropical Storm Erika Tuesday just east of the Caribbean basin near the northern Leeward Islands, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Island governments across the region issued storm watches in preparation for the arrival of Erika, which at 2100 GMT was moving west-northwest at a steady nine miles (15 kilometers) per hour, the Miami-based NHC said.

Maximum sustained winds were almost 50 miles per hour (85 kilometers per hour), and "some slow strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days," the center said.

A tropical storm has winds of up to 105 mph (165 kph) before it is classified as hurricane force.

On its current route Erika was expected to remain northeast of the Leeward Islands.

Tropical storm watches were issued for the Netherlands Antilles, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla as well as the islands of St. Martin and St. Barthelemy.

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on November 30.

So far, 2009 has seen one of the calmest starts to the hurricane season in a decade, which researchers have attributed to the development of an El Nino effect in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Jimena in the east-central Pacific weakened to a Catergory Three storm as it bore down on Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

Free Flu Shots Offered By Drugstore Chains

CVS and Walgreens, the nation's two largest drugstore chains, will soon offer millions of dollars of free seasonal flu shots to unemployed and uninsured people.

CVS Caremark Corp. will offer 100,000 free shots valued at about $3 million to job seekers, the Rhode Island-based company said yesterday in a statement. Walgreen Co., based in Illinois, will distribute $1 million in shots to the uninsured through its 7,000 U.S. stores and clinics.

Job seekers are among the least likely to get flu shots, with 34 percent of them receiving shots last year, compared with 49 percent of the overall population, according to a CVS study.

Seasonal flu shots don't protect against the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. Vaccines for that virus will be distributed this fall by the U.S. government.

CVS and Walgreens will make seasonal flu shots available to all consumers starting today. Walgreen will charge $24.99 for injections and $29.99 for a nasal spray version, according to a statement.

Drugstores and store pharmacy departments are beginning their flu shots several weeks early this year. They say they expect greater demand for the vaccine because of news about the swine flu strain. According to a Walgreen survey, 50 percent of consumers plan to get shots this year, up from 43 percent in 2008."

Dalene Kurtis Claims Violence Against Boyfriend

Playboy Playmate of the Year 2002 Dalene Kurtis thought taking a romantic vacation to Hawaii with her boyfriend, which many couples do was a great idea.

That is, until he allegedly used her as a punching bag and then threatened to kill her. In light of what happened to Jasmine Fiore, this is even more chilling.

Kurtis was granted a temporary restraining order earlier this month against an ex she claims pushed, punched and choked her during a recent trip to Hawaii.

The Playboy bunny claims the ex said he was 'gonna kill [her],' 'slit [her] throat' and that she's a 'f**king whore.' Basically, he went Chris Brown on her.

Dalene then claims four days later he choked her until she couldn't breathe, stomped on her stomach, punched her, broke her finger, and spit in her face.

That's when she (finally) called the cops and had him arrested."

Alpine zip codes most expensive down to rappers

A host of Hip-Hop superstars have helped a community in Alpine, New Jersey earn the title of “most expensive zip code” by Forbes magazine.

A new list published today by the popular magazine revealed that the Alpine zip code of 07620 is the priciest place to live in the United States, with the average home selling for around $4.14 million dollars.

A number of notable Hip-Hop acts have helped inflate the value of the real estate in the area, by purchasing expensive mansions in Alpine, which was formed in 1904.

Entrepreneurs and artists like Sean “Diddy” Combs, Lil Kim, Fabolous, Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, LL Cool J, Andre Harrell, Fabolous and Damon Dash have called Alpine home at one time or another.

The neighborhood, which is about 10 miles from Manhattan, edged out zip codes like Atherton, California, which was the second most expensive place to live in the nation with an average cost for a home at about $3.85 million."

The Duggar family's famous brood #19

The Duggar family's famous brood is about to get just a little larger. The family went on the 'Today Show' to announce that they are expecting their 19th child. Mrs. Duggar is almost three months pregnant. The family adheres to the religious belief that you shouldn't use birth control, instead letting God determine how many children you have."

Monday 31 August 2009

Porn Star Who Goes by the Name Leah Lust

Tiffany Shepherd Used to Be a Teacher; She's Now a Porn Star Who Goes by the Name Leah Lust
According to Page 2 Live, Tiffany Shepherd, who was fired last year from her teaching job at Port St. Lucie High School in Florida after she was caught moonlighting as a bikini mate on Smokin' Em charters fishing tours (pictures of a bikini-clad Shepherd
Leah Lust: From Teacher to Porn Star
at work as a bikini mate were plastered all over the Net), has become a porn star. She goes by the Leah Lust and is usually cast as a teacher type (naturally) or, as Page 2 Live puts it, a "wife-next-door."

"I'm not particularly proud of it. To be honest, I hate it," said Shepherd (aka Leah Lust) to Page 2 Live. "I'm an educated woman, but I never though it would come to this. No one gets brought up thinking they'll be a floozy."

Tiffany Shepherd (aka Leah Lust) claims that since she was fired last year from her job as a biology teacher at Port St. Lucie High, she has been unable to find work - even a job that pays minimum wage. She says that she had sent out 2,500 resumes to no avail. In a desperate attempt to earn a decent living, Tiffany Shepherd/Leah Lust, who is divorced and lost custody of two of her three children, has turned to porn.

"I need money for the appellate court and raise my three kids," says Tiffany Shepherd/Leah Lust. "I've tried everything, every avenue. Last year, I refused $10,000 to strip, then I had to pick between paying rent and buying Christmas presents."

Interestingly, it is Gil Coombes, the owner of the the Fort Pierce fishing charter where Tiffany Shepherd/Leah Lust used to work as a bikini mate, who got her into the porn industry. He and his wife own a porn webcam studio called KLC productions and Tiffany Shepherd/Leah Lust has reportedly appeared in some porn clips produced by KLC.

Tiffany Shepherd/Leah Lust will not confirm how much she is making as a porn star, but she did tell Page 2 Live that some porn actresses make up to $5,000 a scene.

But that figure may be inflated. According to the Los Angeles Times, the porn industry is not doing so well. Simply put, there is too much competition from all the free X-rated content available on the Internet.

Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 Leaks

Well, you have to give the guy points for effort, if nothing else. Right?

According to hundreds of blogs, Internet forums, Twitter accounts and so on, Jay-Z’s highly anticipated eleventh studio album, The Blueprint 3, leaked earlier today. Looking to make its release a BIG event, the NYC rapper had scheduled the album’s release date for Sept. 11, exactly eight years after both 9/11 and the release of the original Blueprint record. In an effort to avoid the inevitable early leak (nice try!), he had planned to hand deliver the album, himself, to the necessary record distributors. But alas. It leaked all the same. Lots of tears I’m sure.

As to the actual album, it features 15 tracks and just about as many guest spots – apparently Hova likes company in his old age. It also features the production work of Kanye West, No I.D. and Timbaland (plus one-offs by Swizz Beatz, The Neptunes, The Inkredibles & Al Shux). Overall, it sounds pretty good. But yeah, nothing on the original. What’s your take though?

(Note: While you won’t find the leaked album here, you could, if you wanted, try Googling “megaupload” or “rapidshare” + “blueprint 3″ and you’ll … oh nevermind.)

Devin Britton, the Ultimate Underdog

It was a wild weekend for the 18-year-old wild card Devin Britton, who learned shortly after noon Thursday that he would face Roger Federer, who is seeking his sixth consecutive United States Open title, in the first round Monday afternoon.

Britton, who received a wild card from the U.S.T.A. for winning the N.C.A.A. men’s title in May, has spent the past few days doing interviews with ESPN and the Tennis Channel, high-fiving Ana Ivanovic in an Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day mixed doubles match, trading jokes with the comedian Will Ferrell and practicing with Rafael Nadal.

A narrow ray of the tennis spotlight fell on Britton, a 6-foot-4 native of Jackson, Miss., when as an unseeded freshman at Mississippi, he became the youngest man to win the collegiate title. But the attention he has received in the past few days has him blinking with disbelief.

“It’s been crazy, I’ve never done this many interviews in my entire life,” said Britton, who as an unseeded qualifier reached the final of last year’s United States Open junior championships. “I’m definitely not used to it and I’m trying to adapt. But it’s really fun and I’m enjoying the attention.”

Britton signed a professional contract this summer at Wimbledon, where he reached the semifinals of the junior championships in singles and the quarterfinals in doubles. He has played only one main-draw ATP Tour match, last month in Indianapolis, losing in the first round to another American, Rajeev Ram. His four ATP points are dwarfed by Federer’s 12,040, and even his new management team at Octagon is just hoping for a good showing Monday at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“Hopefully it won’t happen too fast and he can engage and be competitive, enjoy the showcase, and then get ready for Round 2,” deadpanned Tom Ross, a senior vice president at Octagon. He quickly added: “Just kidding, a little joke. I wouldn’t want to offend the big guy.”

Britton may have one secret weapon: he serves and volleys, a style Federer and the other top players rarely encounter.

“Plan A is to serve and volley, maybe not on second serves, but on first serves,” said Britton, who added that he had received a lot of what he called “sarcastic” tactical advice.

“I’m going to need to serve really well, obviously. I’ll serve and volley to the backhand, but if I go
down quick I may change it up a little bit, try to mix it up, staying back and coming in.

“I’ve been asking guys for tactics, but nobody can come up with much except, ‘Hit it high and heavy to his backhand and hit a lot of winners.’ The coaches I’ve been working with at the U.S.T.A. have been telling me to play my game and go for my shots.”

There was not much strategic advice Nadal could offer Britton during their 90-minute practice session Saturday. Nadal has a 13-7 record against Federer while playing a style drastically different from Britton’s.

“He didn’t give me any pointers,” Britton said of their conversation. He then indulged in a little sarcasm of his own, adding, “I’ll just play like Nadal and hopefully, it’ll work out.”

Disney To Buy Marvel Enterprises For $4 Billion

The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) said Monday it agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc. (MVL), the creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men and thousands of other characters, for about $4 billion in the company's largest acquisition since it bought Pixar Animation Studios in 2006.

The deal opens a new chapter in Disney's long history, adding a slew of new, globally recognized movie characters - such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor - to its deep bench of classic and contemporary icons. It also adds countless lesser-known storylines and characters that Disney hopes to introduce to the world.

The deal marks the first big media deal since companies began hoarding cash last fall during the global financial crisis. Aside from the economic downturn, Disney's move amounts to a rare display of confidence in an industry that's muddling though a daunting transition to digital media amid growing doubts about its traditional business models.

Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said during a conference call Monday that Marvel was an attractive target for Disney despite the challenges facing the media industry, such as the decline of DVD sales, that has hurt profitability at major film studios.

"They're not bulletproof. They are not immune from the changes that we're seeing, but they have established a footing that we think is more solid than what you typically see in the nonbranded non-character driven movie," said Iger.

Disney shares were down 3.9% at $25.80 while Marvel shares jumped 25% to $ 48.32. Shares of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA) were up 5% to $33.25 on the prospect of more acquisitions in media and entertainment.

"This is another sign that confidence is returning to the marketplace," said Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce.

The Disney-Marvel marriage fits with the strategy du jour for major media conglomerates such as Disney and Time Warner Inc. (TWX) of driving revenue from popular content over time across the globe and multiple technology and entertainment platforms.

Disney has a unique array of businesses to execute the strategy with its global sales and distribution infrastructure, its theme parks, its video game and merchandising businesses and its cable and broadcast TV networks. For its part, Marvel is a particularly attractive target for the company given its appeal to younger male audiences, while Disney has shown outsized strength with females through properties like Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers.

The Ataris Pallidipennis Stal Bug In Miami!

The Ataris Pallidipennis Stal is a bug (more formally, a form of beetle) which is native to South Africa.

The reason it's in the news today is because one of them was found in a shipment of flowers from South Africa at customs in Miami. Now the idea that there's a bug or a beetle in a shipment of flowers shouldn't cause all that much excitement: however, we do have to be very careful indeed about introduced species.

That«'s what the problem is about Ataris Pallidipennis Stal, not that there's one in the country: but how many others might be coming in by the same route. And if there are others, and they manage to establish themselves, what might happen next?

Most introduced species manage to go nowhere of course. They get eaten by the first predator that likes the look of them, die from the change in climate, whatever. But those few that manage to establish themselves can cause huge problems. Rabbits are not native to Australia, they were deliberately introduced. But as they have no natural predator there they multiplied, well, like rabbits, and have stripped large areas of the country of vegetation. Cane toads are causing similar problems (they were introduced to eat an insect which was itself causing problems).

Cats arriving in New Zealand (along with rats) have virtually wiped out ground nesting birds like the Kakapo and some offshore islands have been deliberately stripped of both cats and rats to give the birds a chance. Zebra mussels are causing problems at power station water inlets and everyone should have heard the horror stories about Japanese bindweed by now.

The point isn't that one single Ataris Pallidipennis Stalhas been found it's that we are pretty sure that we only ever find a minute portion of these stowaways: so how many more of them are there out there and what sort of problems might they cause?

BREAKING: Susan Haskell Wins Outstanding Lead Actress

One Life to Live's Susan Haskell won the Outstanding Lead Actress Daytime Emmy on Sunday, in what could be one of the most competitive categories of the year.

Haskell returned to One Life to Live and found herself in the midst of the controversial "Rapemance" storyline. It's culmination–which featured an amnesiac Marty Saybrooke pulling a gun on Todd Manning (Trevor St. John)–was the submission that won her the award. Her performance beat out The Young and the Restless' Jeanne Cooper in dual roles, Debbie Morgan's Angie reuniting with Jesse (Darnell Williams) on All My Children, Maura West's scenes opposite of Michael Park on As the World Turns and Susan Flannery's Stephanie Forrester at Eric Forrester's hospital bedside on The Bold and the Beautiful.

Haskell's Outstanding Lead Actress win is the first in the category from One Life to Live since Erika Slezak. She joins the ranks of notable One Life to Live actresses who have won the award, including: Judith Light, Robin Strasser, Erika Slezak and Hillary B. Smith.

Haskell won a Outstanding Supporting Actress Daytime Emmy in 1994.

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS

Debbi Morgan - All My Children
Maura West - As the World Turns
Susan Flannery - The Bold and the Beautiful
Susan Haskell - One Life to Live*
Jeanne Cooper - The Young and the Restless

Emotions run high at 2009 Daytime Emmy Awards

Emotions were in overdrive during Sunday night's broadcast of the 2009 Daytime Emmy Awards.

The incredible night saw the women of The View finally bring home a trophy after years of failed attempts; Rachael Ray won her second consecutive award in the entertainment talk show category; Tyra Banks emerged victorious for the second time, winning in the informative talk show category; and The Bold and the Beautiful won its first award for best drama.

Patriots Tedy Bruschi to announce retirement

1New England Patriots LB Tedy Bruschi will announce his retirement tomorrow, according to an unconfirmed report from NBC.

Supporting the rumor, The New England Patriots have called a press conference “for an important player announcement” Monday morning.

A 13-year veteran of the NFL, Bruschi has played his entire career with the Patriots, winning three Super Bowl rings and playing on five of the six Patriots teams to reach the Super Bowl.


Bruschi is the only player in NFL history to return four consecutive interceptions for touchdowns and his career total of four picks returned for scores ranks second in Patriots history. He is tied for fourth in NFL history among linebackers, and Bruschi is the only Patriots linebacker to return multiple interceptions for scores in a single season (2002 and 2003)."

Sunday 30 August 2009

Todd Duffee vs Tim Hague UFC 102 Video


MMA Videos | Todd Duffee vs Tim Hague UFC 102 Video

UFC 102 results from last night and post-fight discussion

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) just put a ribbon on its first-ever trip to Portland, Ore., tonight (Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009) from the Rose Garden Arena.

The UFC 102 main event between “legendary” participants Randy “The Natural” Couture and Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira was billed as a “battle for the ages.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself — what an epic battle!

Couture, 46-years-young, survived an early knockdown and submission scare to throw leather with his Brazilian counterpart for basically three straight minutes. It was a thrilling exchange.

And it was more of the same to start the second, but Couture short-circuited the action with a takedown, followed up by ground and pound.

Nogueira, however, switched things up fast with a quick reversal into full mount. From that point on it appeared that “Big Nog” began to takeover … much to the chagrin of Couture’s hometown crowd.

In the third round, Nogueira scored an early knockdown and appeared to be on his way toward victory by dominating “The Natural” with strikes. The referee in charge of the action had to be itching to stop the bout.

But then then “Captain America” pulled another trick out of his timeless playbook and reversed Nogueira, giving everyone hope that he would once again claim victory from the clutches of defeat.

Not this time.

Nogueira went on to win a unanimous decision; however, it was one hell of an exciting fight. It certainly made the case once again for five-round non-title fights. One for the ages, indeed.

Two more rounds would have made this an instant classic … if it isn’t already.

Keith Jardine and Thiago Silva hooked ‘em up in a 205-pound slugfest that bother fighters promised would not last long.

They kept that promise.

“The Dean of Mean” came out swinging, landing a heavy leg kick in the opening seconds of the first frame. He appeared to be the aggressor and set a powerful pace.

But Silva stayed calm and waiting for an opening. He found it with a left hook as he retreated, which put Jardine on his butt. Silva followed it up with a serious of strikes from the top that eventually had Jardine twitching on the canvas.

It was a mirror image of the knockout loss to another Silva, Wanderlei.

Jardine awoke from his early slumber shortly thereafter; however, not before Silva had claimed brutal victory — trademark throat slash and all.

Silva is on his way back toward re-establishing himself as a top contender in the division. Meanwhile, Jardine has to somehow figure out a way to win … and keep winning.

Heavy-handed Chris Leben returned from a nine-month suspension to take on world-class collegiate wrestling sensation Jake Rosholt in a middleweight affair. “The Crippler” expressed his disdain for “lay and pray” fighter, preferring instead to keep things upright and bang it out.

So it came as quite a surprise when Leben scored the first takedown of the night.

The trend did not continue for the rest of the fight — it was up and down up all the way to the third round. Rosholt — who has demonstrated terrible stand up in the past — was able to hold his own in all facets of the game, including submission defense, until that time.

Losing on the unofficial MMAmania scorecard, he needed to a strong performance in the final frame to register his first win inside the Octagon. And he did just that, locking-in a surprising arm triangle choke that put Leben to sleep … literally.

Leben wanted to tap, but appeared to have second thoughts midway through his journey out and instead took a nap. It was typical Leben and atypical Rosholt.

Solid fight with a nice twist.

In a middleweight match up that had potential number one contender implications on the line, Nate Marquardt left little room for controversy when he flattened undefeated Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist Demian Maia with a fight-ending punch square on button just 22 seconds into the first round.

It was clear before the fight even started that Marquardt wanted to keep the fight standing and Maia didn’t. He made sure it never got that far.

Marquardt — who already has a loss on his record to reigning champion Anderson Silva on his record — certainly made a statement tonight that he’s on his way back for another bite at the Brazilian apple.

However, with Dan Henderson waiting in the wings, he’ll either have to fight another eliminator match against him or keep busy while “Hollywood” gets a crack at Silva first.

We’ll see soon enough.

In the meantime, Maia might want to think about testing the waters at welterweight — he’s a small 185-pound fighter. If tonight is any indication, perhaps too small.

Krzysztof “Kimura” Soszynski stepped up on short notice to take a very dangerous fight against former heavyweight Brandon Vera in a light heavyweight attraction in the opening fight of the main card.

He was riding high on a six-fight win streak. It all came to an end tonight.

“The Truth” — a Muay Thai and kickboxing specialist — kept the action just where he wanted it (standing) for most of the bout. In fact, despite Soszynski’s intermittent efforts, it was Vera who registered the only real takedown during the 15-minute bout.

Vera kept his distance and, for the most part, picked Soszynski apart, switching stances and avoiding the looping punches of the “Polish Experiment.” He appeared to be the superior fighter and the judges agreed, awarding him with a unanimous decision win.

Perhaps it was just too much too soon for Soszynski — it was his third fight in five months. Or, he was simply outclassed by a much more talented Vera. Regardless, Vera continues his rise up the 205-pound ladder and Soszynski heads back to the drawing board.

Only time will tell how long he stays there.

That’s enough from us — now it’s your turn to discuss “Couture vs. Nogueira” in the comments section below. Sound off, Maniacs. Let’s hear what you have to say.