The Sea Shadow of U.S. Navy

Sea Shadow is an experimental stealth ship built by Lockheed for the United States Navy to determine how a low radar profile might be achieved and to test high stability hull configurations which have been used in oceanographic ships.
Call it a funeral at sea for the U.S. Navy's Sea Shadow. The stealth ship, which served as an inspiration for the supervillain's supervessel in the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies," is set to be dismantled and recycled.

The Navy had hoped that a private buyer would come forward and take the spy ship off its hands. Alas, there were no takers, so the bizarre black Sea Shadow is heading for the scrap heap.
News of the ship's inglorious end (which is probably coming soon) inspired waves of Web searches on Yahoo!. Over the past 24 hours, online lookups for "spy ship 007" and "james bond spy boat" sailed to big gains.

The ship, which resembles a stealth fighter airplane, cost the U.S. Navy $195 million to build and operate, according the U.K.'s Daily Mail. The ship was "never intended for missions, just testing."

If you're thinking the Sea Shadow would look pretty cool in your own backyard, here are a couple of things to consider. According to Fox News, it's about 160 feet long and 70 feet wide. And it hasn't exactly been getting regular oil changes either. A Lockheed Martin spokesman told Fox that the company "hasn't had anything to do with the ship for at least four to five years"--suggesting that the new owner could well be in for some heavy maintenance work.

But all is not lost.  Navy spokesman Chris Johnson told Fox that there could still be a last-second taker for the Sea Shadow. If that happens, it would be an escape worthy of 007 himself.

21-year-old Californain wins Miss USA crown

Alyssa Campanella, Miss California, is crowned as the 2011 Miss USA by Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih, Sunday, June 19, 2011, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 21-year-old auburn-haired California model won the Miss USA crown Sunday night and will represent the nation in this year's Miss Universe pageant.

Alyssa Campanella of Los Angeles topped a field of 51 beauty queens to take the title at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. She strutted across the stage in a blue bikini with white polka dots and a dark turquoise Sherri Hill evening gown with beading on its top.

She also answered a question about legalizing marijuana by saying she didn't think it should be fully legalized as a solution to help ailing economies.

Campanella told reporters in a news conference after the pageant that the win validated her decision to quickly move to Los Angeles from New Jersey after losing an apartment.

"The downs happen for a reason," she said. "The path that I'm on now is the path that's been meant to be."

Campanella, a former Miss Teen USA runner-up from 2007, when she represented New Jersey, said she has been competing in pageants since she was 15 because of her mom.

"I was going through a tough time in high school and she thought it'd be a great way for me to meet other girls throughout the state," she said. "It's Mom's fault."

Originally from Manalapan, N.J., Campanella began modeling at age 16, graduated from high school a year early and received a scholarship to the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, according to her personal website.

Campanella, a history buff who says in her Twitter bio that she was "born in the wrong time period," said she thought the marijuana question posed to her from "Real Housewives of New Jersey" housewife Caroline Manzo was fair, given that she represents California.

"Well, I understand why that question would be asked, especially with today's economy, but I also understand that medical marijuana is very important to help those who need it medically," she said during the pageant.

"I'm not sure if it should be legalized, if it would really affect, with the drug war," she said. "I mean, it's abused today, unfortunately, so that's the only reason why I would kind of be a little bit against it, but medically it's OK."

Marijuana has been legal for medical use in California for about 15 years.

Miss Tennessee Ashley Durham was the first runner-up, while contestants from Alabama and Texas placed third and fourth.

Campanella, a natural blonde, said she dyed her hair six years ago for a part in a play, for a "fiery" character with whom she found she had traits in common.

"It's really brought out the true Alyssa Campanella, I feel, and that's why I really enjoy being a redhead," she said.

Campanella replaces Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih. The 25-year-old from Michigan teared up as she walked across the stage for a final goodbye.

The pageant had three competitions: swimsuit, evening gown and interview question.

The contestants were whittled to 16 after the show's opening number, in which the beauty queens introduced themselves one-by-one. The top 16 were picked by preliminary judges through competitions and interviews during the week before the telecast. Celebrity judges picked the top eight after the swimsuit competition and the top four after the evening gown portion.

Durham appeared to stumble as she answered a question from celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito about whether the First Amendment should protect burning religious books, as it protects burning the flag.

"I know that some people view it as a freedom of speech, however, burning the American flag is not patriotic at all," Durham said. "No American citizen should do that, and you should also respect other religions. I'm a Christian and a faithful person. I would personally not appreciate someone burning the Bible, and that's just a line you do not cross."

Miss Kentucky Kia Ben-et Hampton won Miss Congeniality USA, while Miss Arizona Brittany Dawn Brannon won Miss Photogenic USA.

The Miss Universe pageant is scheduled for Sept. 12 from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Last year's winner was Mexico's Jimena Navarrete.



Source : yahoo

BEAUTY PAGEANT OF Miss USA 2011

Miss USA 2011, the 60th anniversary of the Miss USA pageant, will be held at the Theatre for the Performing Arts in Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 19, 2011. Miss USA 2010, Rima Fakih of Michigan will crown her successor at the end of this event. Miss USA 2011 will represent the United States at the Miss Universe 2011 pageant in São Paulo, Brazil on September 12, 2011. For the first time ever, one of the sixteen semifinalists will be selected exclusively by fans via online voting and SMS messaging. The competition formats are changed to Top 16, Top 8 and Top 4.
Miss USA contestants were asked difficult questions in video interviews taped ahead of the pageant, several news sites reported on Friday, June 17, 2011.
According to reports, the contestants were asked whether they believe evolution should be taught in schools and if they would pose for nude photographs, as seen on the videos embedded below.
Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, which also runs Miss USA, was quoted saying that these “topics are very relevant and in the news.”

Keith Lewis, executive state pageant director for California, New Hampshire and New York reportedly said that the contestants were “scared to death.”

“The girls are concerned that there is a right or wrong answer. Polarising questions often create a situation where you suffer… if you agree, and if you do not.” Lewis reportedly told Fox News.

“The pageant officials are intimidating contestants into answering questions a certain way that are deemed ‘politically correct’ while discriminating against their own belief and opinions. The Miss USA Organization is choosing topics that are not only controversial, but intimidating,” Angie Meyer, former Miss USA publicist reportedly said.

Christian Post reporter Stephanie Samuel said that these questions together with a new online voting system “have some worried that this year’s Miss USA pageant queens may feel pressured to compromise their beliefs in order to win the crown.”

Miss USA Pageant finals will be held at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 19, 2011, 9pm ET.

Most Unhealthy Meals Served by Fast Food Chains

From California, to the New York island; from the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters, this land is filled with fatties, lard butts and people large enough to have their own gravitational fields. Yes, America is the land of the "large and in charge," and one of the main reasons for it is our love of fast food.

Though it's tempting to put all of the blame for America's obesity crisis on the fast-food industry -- and experts say they're at least partly at fault -- it's important to view it in context. The industry came of age during the 1950s, as suburban communities saw their populations skyrocket and social mores began changing as women began to increasingly work outside the home. Some of the savviest entrepreneurs in American corporate history sprang into action.

McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD - News) started the trend in 1955 when businessman Ray Kroc wondered how the McDonald Brothers sold so many burgers at their Southern California burger joint. He opened his first McDonald's Drive-In in Des Plaines, Ill. There are now more than 32,000 restaurants that are home to the Golden Arches. Col. Harlan Sanders began franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952. Five years later, Sanders began selling chicken in the signature buckets, and today there are more than 15,000 KFC outlets. James McLamore and David Edgerton founded Burger King in 1954, when, as the company's website notes, "flame-broiled beef begins fulfilling its destiny." There are more than 12,500 Burger Kings today. Glen W. Bell Jr. opened the first Taco Bell in 1962 with an investment of $4,000 and eventually sold the chain to PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP - News) in 1978. At that time, there were 868 Taco Bells. Today, there are nearly 6,000. At the tender age of 17, Fred DeLuca co-founded Subway Restaurants in 1965. They have 32,800 locations today.
Fast-forward to the beginning of the of the 21st century, and many of the same trends that helped create the modern fast food industry are still helping fuel its growth. Many children, especially racial minorities, live in single-parent households -- a whopping 65 percent of non-Hispanic black children and 37 percent of Hispanic children as of 2007, according to Kids Count. Mothers are working outside the home at much higher rates than years past. Women comprised 46.8 percent of the total U.S. labor force in 2009 and are projected to account for 46.9 percent of the labor force in 2018, accounting for 51.2 percent of the increase in total labor force growth during the same period. Add to this mix high unemployment rates caused by the uncertainty of the worldwide economy, and the allure of fast, cheap food becomes hard to resist.

And therein lies the problem.

Obesity rates are a public health crisis. They have tripled among children since 1980. In 2009, only Colorado and the District of Columbia had a prevalence of obesity less than 20 percent, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. People who are obese are vulnerable to everything from diabetes to heart disease, resulting in some $147 billion in direct medical costs annually.

Determining how much fast food is at fault for the poor state of the health of many Americans "is impossible to quantify, but is definitely a factor," says Christina Munsell, research assistant at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University, in an interview. The increase in obesity "definitely would correlate with eating quicker meals that are easier to obtain."

In order to create the rankings, 24/7 Wall St. examined the menus of the top 10 restaurant brands in the quick service category by sales as determined by QSR, an industry publication, looking for items that were the highest in calories, carbohydrates, sodium and saturated fat. We then ranked them against the nutritional guidelines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A couple of important caveats to consider: Not all food sold at fast food restaurants is unhealthy. The industry aggressively promotes healthier choices on their menus. Subway, for one, makes a special point of doing this, even though its footlong subs are not healthy choices. Moreover, experts point out that some items sold at sit-down restaurants are actually much more unhealthy than many fast food items. Fast food, though, has gained ground during the economic slowdown, while casual and fine dining chains have suffered. McDonald's alone earned $24.58 billion in revenue in 2010. Yum Brands! Inc. (NYSE: YUM - News), parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, made $11.42 billion.

Methodology: We derived the rankings by taking the average nutritional ratings of menu items compared with USDA recommendations. Carbohydrates, saturated fat, and sodium were given the most weight. Calories and protein were also considered.

1. Pizza Hut Triple Meat Italiano

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 1280 (49%)
• Saturated Fat: 23g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 123 (38%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 3,070mg (133%)

Pizza -- plain with cheese and sauce -- is not particularly unhealthy. This gastronomical overkill featuring "all-natural pepperoni, all-natural Italian sausage and baked ham" is terrible. Pizza Hut offers plenty of healthier choices.

2. Subway 12" Italian B.M.T

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 900 (35%)
• Saturated Fat: 16g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 94 (27%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 3,000 mg (130%)

It's easy to see why Subway does not list this sandwich under its "low fat footlongs" on its website. It has a whopping 3,000 mg of salt, 130% of the recommended allotment in a daily diet. "The problem with Subway is the portion size," Munsell says, adding that the problem with this sandwich is the salty luncheon meats. Subway is getting the message about salt. As an April USA Today article noted, "Beginning today, sodium content in Subway's 'Fresh Fit' sandwich line in the U.S. will be cut 28% vs. 2009, when Subway first began to cut salt. And sodium in its overall sandwich line will be cut by 15%, compared with the same period."

3. KFC Chicken Pot Pie

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 790 (30%)
• Saturated Fat: 37g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 66 (20%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,970mg (86%)

Salty and high in calories, there is little positive that can be said about the KFC Chicken Pot Pie. A Yum! Brands spokesman had this to say: "It's all about providing our consumers with choices, and each of our brands has introduced products that are lower in calories and fat, such as KFC's Kentucky Grilled Chicken, Pizza Hut's Thin 'N Crispy Pizzas and salads and Taco Bell's Drive Thru Diet Menu with seven items less than 9 grams of fat."

In other words, diners have a choice whether they eat something with almost a full day's allotment of sodium in one sitting.

4. Sonic SuperSONIC Bacon Double Cheeseburger with Mayo

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 1,370 (53%)
• Saturated Fat: 36g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 55 (17%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,610mg (70%)

The name alone should make a diner want to grab a fistful of Lipitor. Those brave enough to chow down on this 1,370-calorie monstrosity probably shouldn't eat much for the rest of the day. Once a regional operator in the South and Midwest, Sonic (Nasdaq: SONC - News) now operates in over 3,500 locations.

5. McDonald's Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 800 (31%)
• Saturated Fat: 18g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 66 (18%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 2,020mg (88%)

The Angus Chipotle is big and has bacon, two red flags for any dieter. "It's problematic," says Munsell, adding that the Golden Arches have borne the brunt of negative publicity about fast food. That's unfair. "We did find that McDonald's did have more healthy options" than other chains, she adds. Indeed, it ended its Super Size promotion a few years ago, no doubt spurred by the publicity surrounding the movie "Super Size Me."

6. Taco Bell XXL Grilled Stuft Beef Burrito

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 880 (34%)
• Saturated Fat: 3g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 94 (26%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 2,130mg (93%)

Taco Bell has mastered the art of blending meats and cheese in ever-creative caloric combinations. The XXL Grilled Stuft Beef Burrito is a monument to gluttony. Taco Bell calls it its "biggest burrito yet." It has "a blend of three cheeses -- cheddar, pepper jack and mozzarella -- flavorful seasoned rice, hearty beans, reduced-fat sour cream, chunky guacamole, avocado ranch and fiesta salsa, wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla." Taco Bell's sales have been hurt by the publicity surrounding the quality of its beef.

7. Wendy's Triple

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 1,030 (40%)
• Saturated Fat: 28g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 43 (18%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,800mg (78%)

Anyone eating this monstrosity might not realize that the USDA recommends that people eat a portion of meat roughly the size of deck of cards. This Wendy's monster burger clocks in at a whopping 423 grams. Wendy's (NYSE: WEN - News) has struggled for years against larger rivals. It unloaded its underperforming Arby's chain earlier this week to private-equity group Roark Capital Group. Wendy's did not respond to a request for comment.

8. Subway Footlong Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 750 (28%)
• Saturated Fat: 2.5g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 117 (41%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,810 mg (79%)

Subway unhealthy? In some cases, the answer is "yes." While this sandwich is low in calories and fat, it is high in salt. The portions of Subway's footlong sandwiches are too large, Munsell notes. Subway did not respond to a request for comment.

9. Burger King Triple Whopper with Cheese

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 1,180 (44%)
• Saturated Fat: 30g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 52 (16%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,330mg (58%)

The Triple Whopper makes the Quarter Pounder with Cheese seem like health food. At 1,180 calories, it packs more than twice the punch of the McDonald's burger, which has 535 calories. In a statement to 24/7 Wall St., the company referred to the Triple Whopper as an "indulgent option for our guests." Burger King says it encourages customers to eat healthy choices that provide 650 calories or less -- approximately one-third of a 2,000-calorie diet.
10. Wendy's Baconator Double

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 930 (36%)
• Saturated Fat: 25g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 41 (13%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,840mg (80%)
Who says you can never have too much bacon? Anyone with sense, that's who. Rudd's Munsell noted with amusement how fast food chains "combine every type of meat on one sandwich." The Baconator was relentlessly hyped for a while. A Wendy's spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.



Source: yahoo

The great Jurassic Park 4 experiment

Dinosaur jr ... so the newest Jurassic Park can either have a T rex mauling Vince Vaughn or a velociraptor mauling Vince Vaughn. Your choice. Photo: Rex Features

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, let's get the obvious out of the way. Jurassic Park IV will be terrible. All the signs are there. Michael Crichton is dead. Stan Winston is dead. The last time Steven Spielberg waited this long to revive one of his franchises, he ended up blowing Harrison Ford across the sky in a fridge. The portents are not good. In an ideal world Jurassic Park would be extinct, once and for all.

But that obviously isn't going to happen. Every couple of years, a sliver of information will emerge to suggest that Jurassic Park IV is still inexplicably a going concern for some people. And that's precisely the case now. According to reports, Steven Spielberg has been holding meetings with scriptwriter Mark Protosevich – of Thor and I Am Legend fame – to brainstorm ideas for a brand new Jurassic Park trilogy.

Whether these meetings result in anything tangible or not, it's clear that Jurassic Park IV will happen at some point. But it's early days, so this is the perfect opportunity for us to step in and dictate terms to Spielberg and Protosevich. If you've ever been the parent of a teenager on the verge of becoming sexually active, you'll know this position well; they're about to do something you have no power to stop, and the best you can do is try to steer them away from anything too dangerous or regrettable. Thus, for the benefit of Steven Spielberg and Mark Protosevich, we're going to crowdsource the best possible Jurassic Park IV plot.

To do this, we'll need to break the film down into its constituent parts. First: which characters from the previous instalments should return? Ideally we'd get Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum back, but perhaps you have other ideas. Perhaps you liked Julianne Moore's character in The Lost World (Jurassic Park II) or William H Macy's in Jurassic Park III. What about Vince Vaughn? He had a small part in the second film; perhaps he can come back as a wisecracking schlub, or Father Christmas's brother or something.

Next, the dinosaurs. Which ones would you like to see in Jurassic Park IV? A greatest hits package of velociraptors, T rexes and those little ones with the flaring necks who spit goo at fat people? A new dinosaur, such as a rajasaurus or a horned carnotaurus? What about a sea dinosaur – a dakosaurus, for instance?

We'll need a gimmick too. To recap, the gimmick of Jurassic Park was that there were dinosaurs, the gimmick of Jurassic Park II was that one of them had made it to the mainland and the gimmick of Jurassic Park III was that some of them could fly. There was briefly talk that Jurassic Park IV would feature dinosaurs that could operate guns, but that sadly seems to have fallen by the wayside. So what else could we use? Talking dinosaurs? Robot dinosaurs? Dinosaurs bred to fight the mega sharks and giant octopuses that The Asylum keeps inventing?

Finally – and perhaps most importantly – there needs to be a scene where the dinosaurs are temporarily defeated by a child with a specific skill, be it an encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaurs (Jurassic Park) or Olympic-level gymnastic ability (Jurassic Park II). How can we insert something like this into Jurassic Park IV? Personally I'm keen on seeing a kid nail a raptor in the eye with a yo-yo, but I'm equally open to the prospect of a child confounding a T rex by beating it at badminton. Any other ideas?

Remember, this is the perfect opportunity to make a suggestion. The film is in no way fully formed yet, so your opinions hold more power than they ever will. Together, we can make Jurassic Park IV into the aquatic Vince Vaughn badminton movie we've always dreamed of.

X-Men First Class an awsome Movie

X-Men: First Class is a 2011 American superhero film directed by Matthew Vaughn. Based on the characters appearing in Marvel Comics, it is a prequel to the X-Men film series. X-Men: First Class was released June 1, 2011 in the UK and on June 3 in the US.
The film is set primarily in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and focuses on the relationship between Professor X and Magneto and the origin of their groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The film stars James McAvoy as Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Other cast members include Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Zoë Kravitz, Nicholas Hoult and Lucas Till. The film was mostly shot in England and parts of the United States.

Linkin Park an American supreme rock band

Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries. Its following studio album, Meteora, continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200 album chart in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth greatest band of the music video era and the third best of the new millennium behind Oasis and Coldplay.


Band members

Current members

    Chester Bennington – vocals (since 1999)
    Mike Shinoda – vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboard, production (since 1996)
    Rob Bourdon – drums (since 1996)
    Brad Delson – lead guitar, backing vocals (since 1996)
    David "Phoenix" Farrell – bass guitar, backing vocals (1996–1998, 1999, since 2001)
    Joe Hahn – turntables, keyboard, samples, backing vocals (since 1996)

Former members

    Mark Wakefield - vocals (1996–1998)













Both Hybrid Theory and Meteora combine the alternative metal, nu metal, and rap rock sound with influences and elements from hip-hop, alternative rock, and electronica, utilizing programming and synthesizers. William Ruhlmann from Allmusic regarded it as "a Johnny-come-lately to an already overdone musical style," whereas Rolling Stone described their song "Breaking the Habit" as "risky, beautiful art". Linkin Park has cited Hed PE as one of their biggest influences

Bill Gates a chieftain of IT world

Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft cofounder who has recently been focusing most of his efforts on philanthropy, joined several world leaders to pledge billions for vaccines for children in poor countries.

"This is absolutely human generosity at its finest," Gates told reporters Monday at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization conference in London.

"For the first time in history, children in developing countries will receive the same vaccines against diarrhea and pneumonia as children in rich countries," Gates, who founded the alliance, said, according to Reuters.

Gates and several international donors pledged $4.3 billion to buy vaccines to protect children in poor countries against potentially fatal maladies like pneumonia and diarrhea.

British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged $1.3 billion and said despite his nation's budget cuts, this cause is a no-brainer.

"Frankly, the idea of children dying from pneumonia and diarrhea should be absolutely unthinkable in 2011," Cameron said from the conference. "But for many parents in the developing world it is a devastating reality."

The global alliance has already vaccinated 288 million children in 19 countries and hopes to immunize 243 million more by 2015. It wants to broaden its reach in coming years by going to 26 additional countries.

"Today is an important moment in our collective commitment to protecting children in developing countries from disease," Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said. "But every 20 seconds, a child still dies of a vaccine-preventable disease. There's more work to be done."

A royal fashion of Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton: A very royal style icon in pictures

Kate Middleton: A very royal style icon in pictures

Kate Middleton: A very royal style icon in pictures

There is no doubt about it - Kate Middleton is a new fashion icon. She appears in public with nary a hair out of place or a fashion faux pas happening. Of course, it helps that she's incredibly pretty and very thin, but still - lots of actresses show up to red carpets in less-than-stellar ensembles.

Since returning from the honeymoon, Kate has been spied out in public in the brown Reiss dress (above, left), which she wore to meet President and First Lady Obama on their trip to the United Kingdom.

Kate has also been seen in a sparkly frock (above, middle), a Jenny Packham creation decorated with Swarovski crystals. She donned this dress for the 10th Annual Absolute Return for Kids Gala Dinner at Kensington Palace. Simply smashing.

Finally, for the annual Trooping of the Colour Parade, Kate donned a white double-breasted jacket and black straw and feather hat (above, right). The Trooping of the Colour, which historians believe dates back to the reign of King Charles II in the 1600s, is used each June to celebrate the official birthday of the reigning Monarch, regardless of when the monarch's actual birthday falls. The birthday tradition began in 1748.

So with the 2011 Trooping of the Colour, Queen Elizabeth II officially celebrates her 85th birthday. But let's talk about the important thing - which Kate Middleton look do you like best? Vote below.

Rice can really save a wet cell phone

Did you just drop your cellphone in water? Or maybe you'd like to know what to do if that happens! This week on Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News' Becky Worley shows us first aid techniques for rescuing a drowned smartphone.

To test them out, Becky took a BlackBerry, a Droid, and an iPhone, and dropped all three into room temperature water for 60 seconds. Then she went through the following steps:

Step 1: Do NOT turn on the phone

Why do water and smartphones not mix? Because the water shorts out your smartphone's electrical circuits. So whatever you do, don't turn it on to check to see if it still works.

Step 2: Pull out the battery and SIM card

You want to remove anything removeable: Pull out the battery, the SIM card and the memory card, if your phone has one. As long as that battery's in there it's providing power to your phone, and that's what you need to stop immediately.

Some phones, like the iPhone, don't have a removable battery. Unfortunately, you'll just have to skip this step and hope for the best if you dunk one of them.

Step 3: Freshwater rinse

Did you drop your phone in salt water? The salt can corrode your device. So after you pull out the battery and SIM card, immerse your phone in fresh water to rinse out the salt.

Step 4: Dry your phone using compressed air

If you have a compressed air can handy -- the kind that's used to clean computers or keyboards -- run it full-blast all over your phone, with the back cover taken off if you can. A vacuum cleaner also works, even though it's pulling the air in the other direction. As long as it's blowing cool air over those circuits to dry them out, it's all good.

Don't stick your phone in the oven, even on low. The heat can warp your phone's circuits, and melt its internal components. You shouldn't use a blow dryer either, unless it has a heatless setting. A fan might help, but a microwave is out of the question.

Step 5: Cover your phone with uncooked rice

The premise of our experiment was to test if putting a wet phone into a sealed container of rice would actually dry it out, and bring it back form the dead. See, the idea behind the rice is that the dry grains will absorb moisture. So get a sealable plastic container, and fill it with enough rice to cover your smartphone. (A plastic zipper bag will work too, in a pinch.) Then bury your phone in the rice, along with its battery and other parts. You'll want to wait at least 24 hours for the rice to do its job -- Becky waited for 48 hours, in her test.

What would work better than rice? Silica gel, the stuff in those packets that keep new clothes or shoes dry. But most of us don't have a shoebox full of the stuff laying around, so rice will probably have to do. It may get pieces of rice into the crevices and cavities in your smartphone, but this is an emergency, and time is of the essence.

Should you use white or brown rice? It doesn't matter, so long as it's hard and dry and uncooked. You can even use rice from boxed meals like Rice-a-Roni. Just don't add in the seasoning packet, unless you want your phone to smell like mixed vegetables.








Step 6: Turn your phone back on

After you've waited at least 24 hours, it's time for the moment of truth. Reassemble your phone, charge it and try to power it on.

The results of our experiment weren't encouraging: the BlackBerry that Becky tested did restart, with no seeming long-term damage. But the iPhone and the Droid were dead. After two days in the rice and a full battery charge, neither phone came back to life.

One in three may be slim odds. But since water damage isn't covered by most warranties, it can't hurt to try.




source : yahoo

Disastrous sales figures for Lady Gaga

 Lady Gaga's Born This Way set another record this week, but not one that Gaga's team will be happy about. Sales of the album dropped off by 84% from its sizzling (but discount-inflated) opening week. That's the the steepest drop-off in sales, expressed in a percentage basis, of any of the 17 albums that sold 1 million units in a week in Nielsen SoundScan history.
Gaga's album sold 174,000 copies this week, down from 1,108,000 last week, when sales were goosed by a two-day, 99-cent sale at Amazon.

The old record for the steepest drop-off following a million-unit week was held by *NSYNC's 2001 album Celebrity. Sales dropped by 76% in the week following its 1,880,000 debut. Two recent albums were tied for second place in the steepest drop-off column. Sales of Lil Wayne's 2008 hit Tha Carter III and Taylor Swift's 2010 smash Speak Now both dropped off by 69% in the week following their debuts of 1,006,000 and 1,047,000, respectively.

   A big drop-off was to be expected. But the fact that Gaga's drop-off was steeper than any of the other follow-ups to albums that had a million-unit week is troublesome. It seems obvious that the opening week tally for Born This Way was generated not only by hard-core fans, but also by casual fans who just didn't want to pass up such a deal. Last week's near giveaway worked in the short term (by giving Gaga the biggest one-week sales total since 2005), but it may have also served to devalue albums in general and Gaga's brand in particular.

 Born This Way may not even log a third week at #1. Adele's 21, which is currently 53K copies behind Born This Way, could easily return to the top spot next week.










You may be wondering why *NSYNC's album experienced such a sharp drop-off in its second week. Celebrity was released 16 months after the boy band reached its peak with No Strings Attached. In the world of boy bands, 16 months is a lifetime.

If you want to know which three albums experienced the mildest drop-offs in the weeks following their million-plus weeks, here you go. Sales of 50 Cent's 2005 album The Massacre slipped by just 32% in the week following its 1,141,000 debut. Sales of Eminem's 2002 album The Eminem Show dropped by 39% in the week following its 1,322,000 debut. Sales of Garth Brooks' 1998 double-disk set Double Live slipped by 40% in the week following its 1,085,000 debut.
Born This Way fell off even more sharply in the digital realm. The album sold 38K digital copies this week, a 94% drop from its record-setting opening week total of 662K. Born This Way isn't even #1 on this week's Digital Albums chart. That honor goes instead to Death Cab for Cutie's Codes And Keys, which sold 59K digital copies (57% of its total).
Born This Way holds at #1 in the U.K. for the second week, but it drops from #1 to #7 in Japan. Gaga's previous full-length, The Fame, logged seven weeks at #1 in the U.K., but didn't reach #1 in Japan.

Adele's 21 rebounds from #3 to #2 on The Billboard 200. The album has ranked in the top three for each of its first 15 weeks. This is the best showing by any album since Alicia Keys' As I Am ranked in the top three for each of its first 15 weeks in 2007-2008. Both albums were powered by songs that had long runs at #1 on the Hot 100. Keys' "No One" logged five weeks on top. I expect Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" to hold the top spot for a fifth week when the chart is released later today.
21 tops the 2 million mark in sales this week. It's the first album to sell 2 million copies in 2011. This is later in the year than we saw the first 2 million-seller of 2010 (Lady Antebellum's Need You Now hit the 2 million mark in the week ending May 9), but it's ahead of the pace for 2009 (Michael Jackson's Number Ones reached the 2 million mark in the week ending Oct. 25.)
Eddie Vedder's Ukulele Songs debuts at #4. It's Vedder's first solo studio album. He reached #11 with the 2007 soundtrack to Into The Wild. All nine of Vedder's studio albums with Pearl Jam have made the top 10. The band's best-seller is its first album, Ten, which has sold 9,869,000 copies.

Vedder enters Top Music Videos at #1 with Water On The Road: Eddie Vedder Live. The video sold 11K
copies, which allowed it to unseat AC/DC's Live At River Plate, which had topped the chart the last three weeks. Pearl Jam reached #1 on Top Music Videos with Touring Band 2000 (for five weeks in 2001) and Immagine In Cornice/Picture 1 (for one week in 2007).

Lil Wayne's "How To Love" vaults from #52 to #5 in its second week (its first full week) on Hot Digital Songs. The song entered the Hot 100 last week at #69. How high will it climb this week? Check back later today when we post Chart Watch: Songs.







Source: yahoo

Titanic II

Titanic II is a 2010 direct-to-DVD disaster film written, directed by, and starring Shane Van Dyke and distributed by The Asylum.The film is not a sequel to the 1997 film by James Cameron, although movie website Dread Central has suggested the film may be a mockbuster of it. It was released Direct-to-TV in Australia on August 7, 2010. It premiered on SyFy on Sky Digital in the UK and Ireland on August 9 to a harshly negative critical reaction. It was released on August 24 in the United States.
In April 2012, 100 years after the sinking of the RMS Titanic, a new, similar-looking luxury cruise liner named the SS Titanic II is christened. She then embarks on her maiden voyage using the same route the Titanic took 100 years before in reverse direction (United States to United Kingdom).

During the Atlantic crossing, the effects of Global Warming cause the Helheim glacier in Greenland to collapse, creating a tsunami that sends an iceberg crashing into the Titanic II. The entire starboard side of the ship is crushed and immense pressure is put on the liner's turbines. As people struggle against the rising waters and run for the submarine-shaped lifeboats, the turbines eventually explode, causing an immense fire inside the listing and sinking vessel.

The Wii,game,world

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006.As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others.
The console was conceived in 2001, as the Nintendo GameCube was first seeing release. According to an interview with Nintendo's game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the concept involved focusing on a new form of player interaction. "The consensus was that power isn't everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction.
Almost six years ago at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo unveiled what would eventually become known as the Wii. But the Japanese gaming giant didn't show off the new console's distinctive motion-sensing capabilities until later that year at the Tokyo Game Show. Nintendo won't be such a tease at this year's E3.
After two years of shrinking Wii sales, the gamemaker will fully raise the curtain on the Wii's successor at the gaming industry's annual convention in downtown Los Angeles this week. Nintendo Co. has remained silent about just what the doodad will do, but gamers are anticipating features like high-definition graphics and touchscreen controllers.
"What's interesting about it is that it's a platform that seems much more oriented to the core gamer, in terms of its capabilities and specifications," said Ken Levine, the Irrational Games creative director who will tear into E3 with "Bioshock Infinite," an airy in-the-clouds follow-up to the stylish undersea saga "Bioshock," published by 2K Games.
The most explosive battle for hype will involve Electronic Arts vs. Activision, who will simultaneously use E3 as a theater for their military shoot-'em-up franchises. Activision Blizzard Inc. aims to continue to dominate with the globe-trotting "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," while Electronic Arts Inc. hopes to capture interest with "Battlefield 3."