Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower - Holocaust

This is an e-mail chain, I felt it was important for everyone to read:


When I was a kid, Ike was president, I couldn't ever imagine why he was so popular. Maybe this has something to do with it:






General Eisenhower Warned Us
[

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower,found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'

This week, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while the German people looked the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth',it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.?


(In case you can't make this out, These Are Bodies In This Ditch!!!) This was their grave!!!

This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people! Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED',



because it offends some Muslim in the U.S. ???

Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along.?

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE...SOMEONE HAD TO PAY FOR IT !!!!!

Happy Van Damme Friday - Planet Hollywood Mullet!!

40 wild birds play a Gibson Les Paul guitar

Will Gompertz |

This caught my eye. It's funny and oddly compelling.

The film is of an installation by a contemporary French artist called Celeste Boursier-Mougenot. It's very Marcel Duchamp, the French artist who started the conceptual art ball rolling nearly a hundred years ago.

Duchamp pioneered combining everyday materials, philosophical comment and humour, an idea that seeped into places like the 1960s pop group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (they wanted to call themselves the Bonzo Dog Dada band, but worried people wouldn't get it) and Monty Python.

But Duchamp's more radical idea was to introduce chance into the creation of art. In 1913-14 he made 3 Standard Stoppages, a work of art that was the result of the random actions of mechanised contraptions. At the time, he was largely dismissed as a crazy Frenchman, but he inspired an entire avant-garde movement in art as well as the music of John Cage and the choreography of Merce Cunningham. Duchamp was not short of self-confidence, but the idea of adding chance to the creative process was rather humble.

"That's so random" is a common refrain nowadays, referring to a supposedly non-logical thought or event. It was also the clarion cry of the Dadaists, the anti-art, anti-rational early-20th-Century art movement that argued that it was rational thought that led to World War I.

Duchamp was much loved by the Dada movement. I wonder what Dadaists would have made of the internet. It's interesting that, as far as I am aware, no contemporary artist has yet harnessed this extraordinary technology to make a significant artwork. Of course, maybe I'm wrong and am missing something great - do you know of any net-based art works that are worth a look?

Maybe you have made one (an artwork made specifically for the medium, as opposed to a film such as the one above, which uses the net only as a means of dissemination)?

If you, like me, can't find any net-based art of note, why do you think that is? Why, when there's been such a boom in contemporary art around the world, has no artist made the medium of the web his or her canvas? And if someone were to use the net as a medium, as opposed to making an image, or a video, or even an interactive Flash animation, what would the resulting art look, or sound, or feel like?

Duchamp and the Dadaists would have had hours of artistic amusement creating spoof websites, unintelligible Wiki entries and general questioning of the status quo.

Perhaps that is what Celeste Boursier-Mougenot should do next after the installation of his 40 Finches work opens at London's Barbican art gallery on 27 February. Like Duchamp, he seems to understand the creative potential of random acts and non-directed participation. He's already proved in this artwork that while Keith Richards and Eric Clapton might be masters of the Gibson Les Paul, even they cannot play it like 40 wild birds - not a chance.

The Nipple Gamepad T-Shirt

To open the secret entrance to the cave, try left-left-up-left-down-down-right-left then a-y-y-x-b-a and then hold the d-pad down while clicking y-y-b-b. Press start twice, and you will get in. [Flopculture]

Student sells virginity for $45k

From: http://www.abc.net.au/

A cash-strapped New Zealand student who auctioned off her virginity to help pay for university said she had accepted an offer of $NZ45,000 to sleep with a stranger.

The 19-year-old offered her virginity to the highest bidder in an online auction and said there had been more than 1,200 bids.

"I have accepted an offer in excess of $45,000, which is way beyond what I dreamed," the student said on her web page when the auction ended.

"Thank you to the more than 30,000 people who viewed my ad and to the more than 1,200 offers made."

Calling herself "unigirl", the young woman had described herself as attractive, fit and healthy and said she had never been in a sexual relationship.

She did not respond to media requests for an interview but the proprietor of the website, Ross MacKenzie, told the Waikato Times newspaper he had been authorised to confirm the transaction.

The advertisement drew wide reaction in New Zealand, which has some of the world's most liberal laws on prostitution.

A woman is legally entitled to seek payment for sex and Mr MacKenzie said there was no reason for his website not to accept the advertisement.

"Our approach is provided it's not illegal or offensive, we'll run the ad," he said.

Bruce Pilbrow of the organisation Parents Inc told the New Zealand Herald it was "horrifically sad" the woman had to sell herself to meet tuition costs, but sexologist Blair Bishop described it as "just a novel form of sex work".

Catherine Healy, of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, urged the teenager to contact her organisation for "practical information" on the realities of sex work.

- AFP

Duo Pushes Rhode Island to Decriminalize Pot

By JOEL MILLMAN

From: http://online.wsj.com

Reuters

Officer Chad Vanderklok executes a search warrant for marijuana at a Kalamazoo, Mich., home in November.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A retired police officer and the proprietor of an organic eatery make an odd couple when it comes to trying to overturn marijuana laws in this tiny state, but Jack Cole and Josh Miller are giving it their best shot.

Mr. Cole, 71 years old, is a veteran of decades with the New Jersey State Police, almost all with the drug squad. Mr. Miller, 55, runs Local 121, a restaurant favored among "buy local" diners, and also serves in the state Senate, where he leads a special commission to study marijuana prohibitions. The panel began hearings in January to discuss an overhaul of the state's pot laws, starting with decriminalization of small amounts.

As legislators across the U.S. struggle to rescue state budgets hammered by the recession, decriminalization is one idea gaining traction. Advocates say states could cut costs of policing, prosecuting and incarcerating offenders, and even raise money by taxing users.

"Any respect for this issue lies right now in its impact on the budget," said Mr. Miller.

His committee will hear testimony Wednesday from Mr. Cole, the founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, a national lobby seeking an end to the drug war. LEAP's 10,000 members include many former police officers, corrections workers and federal agents of the Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration.

Decriminalization faces resistance from district attorneys and police departments that have grown used to making arrests and building criminal cases in a longstanding war-on-drugs tradition, and often equate decriminalization with being "soft" on crime.

The first steps state legislatures take tend to be narrow: legalizing marijuana use for cancer or glaucoma patients, or allowing municipalities to impose fines on casual smokers.

In California, one of 14 states that allow marijuana use for medical purposes, legislators are weighing a bill to legalize most marijuana sales and create tax and licensing fees for the industry. The measure was approved by the state Assembly's Public Safety Committee last month, but probably won't advance further this session.

New Hampshire is considering a pair of House bills, one to legalize and tax pot sales, and another to decriminalize possession. A medical-marijuana bill passed last year but was vetoed by the governor.

Decriminalization measures have also been introduced in Vermont, Virginia and Washington, while medical-marijuana bills are being considered in Maryland, Delaware and Wisconsin, among other states.

Mr. Miller said that in Rhode Island, which allows medical-marijuana use, decriminalization was the next step. He noted that last month a bill was introduced in the House to make possession of an ounce or less a civil offense punishable by a fine of $100, rather than a criminal offense.

Rhode Island has run budget deficits of just over $200 million in each of the past two years, and is looking at a $400 million deficit in the next fiscal year on a budget of $7 billion. Savings from decriminalization wouldn't be great, Mr. Miller conceded—say, $2 million to $3 million a year by freeing prison beds occupied by pot offenders. Rhode Island spends about $33,000 a year per inmate.

Not everyone agrees with that math. Matthew Dawson, deputy chief of the criminal division of the state attorney general's office, testified before Mr. Miller's panel last month that the state would achieve "zero savings" from decriminalization. He said police and prosecutors employed criminal charges for possession to plea bargain with suspects, and that suspects might otherwise have to be prosecuted for more serious crimes, at greater cost to the state. Others say possession charges help police cajole witnesses into cooperating in criminal inquiries.

Mr. Miller said such arguments may persuade some of his colleagues, but others would look to the decision two years ago in neighboring Massachusetts to decriminalize pot, which raised hopes among some legislators that a similar measure could pass in Rhode Island. "It's not far-off California, but the big state next door," Mr. Miller said.

Mr. Cole traveled to Providence recently to help Mr. Miller craft a strategy. He often wears a badge that reads: "Cops Say Legalize Drugs. Ask Me Why."

In his standard speech, he describes the epiphany he experienced early in his career as an undercover narcotics investigator. "I learned firsthand of the family-destroying consequences of sending drug users [often mothers and fathers] to jail. I can't think of a better policy for creating the next generation of drug addicts than to remove parents from children," he said. "I also realized that when police arrested a robber or rapist they made the community safer for everyone but when I arrested a drug pusher, I simply created a job opening for someone in a long line of people willing to take his place."

Messrs. Cole and Miller agreed the former cop's presentation must appeal to law-and-order politicians. Mr. Cole said the way to win them over was to show that chasing pot smokers keeps police from fighting other crimes.

"Look at the clearance rates for these crimes," he said. In the 1960s, before federal antidrug funds flowed heavily to states, "91% of all murders in this country were solved. Today, it's 61%." He cited similar drops for arson (60% unsolved) robbery (75% unsolved) and rape (60% unsolved).

Mr. Cole said the national addiction rate has remained unchanged for a century at about 1.3% of the population. He concludes that if drugs are legalized, the addiction rate would stay the same, "but we'll be spending a lot less to manage it."

Write to Joel Millman at joel.millman@wsj.com

Farmer loses High Court fight to save hidden castle

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/surrey/8495412.stm

Mr Fidler hoped to take advantage of a legal loophole

A farmer who built a castle hidden behind a stack of straw bales has lost a High Court bid to save it from being demolished.

Robert Fidler, of Salfords, Surrey, built the home - complete with turrets - without planning permission.

He kept it hidden until August 2006 but was ordered to tear it down by Reigate and Banstead Borough Council in 2008.

Mr Fidler appealed on the basis that his house had stood for four years without anyone objecting to it.

After the hearing, Mr Fidler pledged to take his fight to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

He said: "This house will never be knocked down. This is a beautiful house that has been lovingly created. I will do whatever it takes to keep it."

Immunity rule

When Mr Fidler removed the bales he believed the structure would no longer be subject to planning enforcement because of a legal loophole.

But in March 2007 the borough council issued an enforcement notice, which was upheld by a Government planning inspector in May 2008.

The inspector ruled that the removal of the straw bales constituted part of the building works and the four-year immunity rule would not apply.

The High Court was asked to decide whether the removal of the straw bales and tarpaulin was, in the eyes of the law, part of the building operation.

Robert Fidler still claims the castle is not illegal despite the ruling

Deputy High Court judge Sir Thayne Forbes said: "In my view, the inspector's findings of fact make it abundantly clear that the erection/removal of the straw bales was an integral - indeed an essential - fundamentally related part of the building operations that were intended to deceive the local planning authority and to achieve by deception lawful status for a dwelling built in breach of planning control."

The judge said Mr Fidler had used two grain silos to form two turrets at the corners of his house. There was also "a stain-glass lantern feature" over a central hall, or gallery.

The property includes a kitchen, living room, study, shower room and toilet and separate WC.

On the first floor, there are four bedrooms and another room still being fitted as a bathroom.

Appeal planned

On the south side of the house there is a gravelled forecourt, and to the north and north-western corner a new patio and conservatory.

The judge said: "Mr Fidler made it quite clear that the construction of his house was undertaken in a clandestine fashion, using a shield of straw bales around it and tarpaulins or plastic sheeting over the top in order to hide its presence during construction.

The castle has ramparts and a replica cannon

"He stated that he knew he had to deceive the council of its existence until a period of four years from substantial completion and occupation had occurred as they would not grant planning permission for its construction.

"I accept that the act of concealment does not in itself provide a legitimate basis for the council to succeed, as hiding something does not take away lawful rights that may accrue due to the passage of time."

He added: "From his own evidence and submissions it was always his intention to remove the bales once he thought that lawfulness had been secured."

After the hearing Mr Fidler's solicitor, Pritpal Singh Swarn, said an appeal was being considered.

He said: "Mr Fidler is obviously disappointed and will almost certainly want to appeal bearing in mind what he stands to lose, which is the house that he has built.

"The judge appears to have left open the big question - when is a building substantially complete?

"It is necessary for the courts to draw the line as to what constitutes a completed development."

Five Facts About Alice in Wonderland (Slight Spoilers)

Exclusive: Burton and his collaborators spill Wonderland's secrets to RT.

by Rosamund Witcher |
from: http://www.rottentomatoes.com

N/A

Over the past 20 years, director Tim Burton and his chiseled muse Johnny Depp have proved an extremely fruitful pairing. From the gothic beauty of Edward Scissorhands, through the campy farce of Sleepy Hollow to the eye-popping lunacy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, they have given us some of the most memorable movies of recent years. Fans eagerly await their latest collaboration, Alice in Wonderland, in which Depp plays The Mad Hatter opposite newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice. RT goes behind the scenes on the film to discover that Tim Burton dislikes motion capture, Mia Wasikowska hates green screen and that making an animated cat is more difficult than you might think...

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Fact #1: It Won't Be Like Any Other Adaptation You've Ever Seen

Because, frankly, Tim Burton wasn't impressed with them. "All the other versions of Alice I've seen were lacking a narrative dynamic," he tells RT. "They were just a series of absurdist tales with one weird character after another and not too much of a context. So you watch it thinking, 'Oh, that's weird,' and 'Yeah, that's strange,' without ever paying attention to the story plot points."

How is Burton's Alice going to avoid those pitfalls? "We tried to give all of the characters a bit more of a foundation and a more simple, grounded story to work off all the weird stuff," he explains. "I mean, they're obviously all mad. But we have tried to give each of them a particular madness and a bit more depth."

Fact #2: The Effects Were Trial and Error

Or, as Burton likes to call it: "an organic process." In fact, the effects crew actually filmed scenes using expensive Zemeckis-style motion capture technology, before discarding the whole lot. "We suited the Tweedles (Matt Lucas) and the Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover, pictured) for motion capture," explains animation supervisor David Schaub. "The Knave is eight feet tall so we thought that motion capture would be the best method. But Crispin had to be on stilts for eye line purposes, so all of the captured images looked like a guy on stilts. It was clunky." Was it frustrating to have to throw away the footage? "It's Tim's choice," shrugs Schaub. "He knows what's out there and he makes choices based on the films he sees and the techniques used."

There must have been some heated debates with the effects team? "We discussed what we like and don't like about motion capture," admits Burton. "Personally, I think it looks weird."

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Fact #3: You Won't Know What's Real and What Isn't

"We basically have three live-action characters," explains David Schaub. "They are Alice (Wasikowska), The Mad Hatter (Depp) and The White Queen (Anne Hathaway). The Tweedles and the Knave of Hearts are real heads blended onto animated bodies. That creates a special look that you won't have seen before. It's very cool. Meanwhile, Helena Bonham Carter's character (The Red Queen) is an amalgamation of all kinds of different techniques, which we then distorted." One of the most difficult characters to create, though, was The Cheshire Cat. "That was hard because he actually floats," says Schaub. "So we had to think, if a cat could float, how would a cat float? Then he's got this huge grin the whole time, which causes problems because he's got to have emotions. But how do you make him anything other than happy when he's got this permanent smile? It was intense."

As for Wonderland itself, it's almost entirely CGI. "There is one significant prop where Alice steps into Wonderland and goes down some stairs," says Schaub. "That was an amazing piece of architecture. But everything else is a CG environment."

The end result may look incredible, but do spare a thought for poor Mia Wasikowska. "It was three months of green screen," she sighs. "So I had to try and keep the energy up and remember that there will be an animated character in front of me. But it's hard when you're acting opposite nothing but sticky tape and tennis balls."

Fact #4: The Mad Hatter is Truly a Burton/Depp Creation

"It's funny," laughs costume designer Colleen Atwood, who has worked with Tim Burton on seven films over the past 20 years, including Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish and Sweeney Todd. "Tim, Johnny and I had all made sketches of what we thought the Mad Hatter should look like. Then, when we sat down to discuss it, we realised they were all really similar!" One of the most interesting things about the Mad Hatter's costume is that it changes colour according to his mood. "It's like a mood ring," explains Atwood. "I made his suits in different colours, with layers of other colours, and then they enhanced it with CGI. It's going to look really fun."

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Fact #5: Mia Wasikowska is the New Cate Blanchett

"She's just an amazing young woman," Atwood gushes to RT. "Her head is not up in the clouds and she's a really hard worker with a great sense of humour -- something you need on a film as crazy as this. She's definitely channeling Cate Blanchett in the sense that both actresses are extremely talented but very grounded. Plus they're both Australian."

Tim Burton agrees: "Mia has an old soul, but there are elements of her that feel very young and naïve," he explains. "She's perfect to play Alice at this stage of her life because she is at a crossroads, and the film's journey is her finding out who she is and what she wants. Although this is probably the weirdest, most abstract movie that she will ever be in. I mean, it's weird even for me."

With such effusive praise being ladled on her, is Wasikowska feeling the pressure? "A little bit," she laughs, nervously. "I'm excited to see the finished product but, of course, there is a certain amount of anxiety that comes with it. Having said that, I have such faith in Tim and everybody on this film, so I'm not really worried."

Alice in Wonderland is released nationwide on Friday 5 March.

New Griswold's "Vacation" Movie?

Comedy.com has managed to get its greedy little hands on this LEAKED FOOTAGE from a supposedly new "Vacation" film starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo. Check it out before it gets yanked off of YouTube!

Aurora borealis: awesome pictures of the northern lights in Norway taken by Bjorn Jorgensen - Telegraph

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are seen when the solar wind stream hits Earth's magnetic field, sparking bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. These shots were taken by photographer Bjorn Jorgensen who lives in Tromso in northern Norway

A powerful outburst of auroras over the open sea at Eggum on the Lofoten islands in Norway

Picture: Bjorn Jorgensen / National News

CLICK HERE FOR THIS AWESOME GALLERY: Aurora borealis: northern lights in Norway taken by Bjorn Jorgensen - Telegraph

Vampire Squid Turns "Inside Out"

February 3, 2010—The vampire squid can turn itself "inside out" to avoid predators—as seen in a video just released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to emphasize the need to protect deep-sea species from the effects of human activities.

© 2010 National Geographic; source video prepared by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Unedited Transcript

This menacing looking squid is just one of many species “out of sight and out of mind” that could be threatened by human activities far away from the part of the ocean in which they live.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has released this video of the vampire squid to emphasize a report that raises a red flag about the earth’s oceans.

Vampyroteuthis infernalis is a type of living fossil, meaning that it has seen very little change since it first appeared, before dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s Dr. Bruce Robison, who authored the report published in Conservation Biology, narrates the institute’s video:

“Vampyroteuthis has very large eyes, because it lives about a half a mile deep in the ocean, where the light is very dim. We took these pictures from a deep diving robotic submarine. And you can see the reflection of our lights in that beautiful blue eye.”

The vampire squid has 8 long arms, and a long curly strand that serves as a sensory filament.

It has a unique ability to react when it is startled. It can curl its web and arms around the rest of its body—turning sort of ‘inside out.’ This change in appearance may help it avoid being attacked by predators.

These cephalopods --they’re technically not squids-- live in the deep ocean with millions of other species, some of which are little-known and on which little study has been done.

Robison says human activities threaten all of these.

“They are threatened by ocean warming, decreasing oxygen, pollution, overfishing, industrialization and dozens of other changes taking place in the deep. We have a responsibility to learn all we can about these amazing animals and to protect them from the greatest danger to life in the deep: the human species.”

Robison’s focus is on the oceans’ “deep pelagic zones” which extend down from about 330 feet below the surface to just above the deep seafloor—up to six miles below the surface.

While the sea floor has had significant study, he points out little exploration has been done on this water above the deep floor.

This zone is home to species eaten by fish that humans eat, such as tuna and salmon. Many whales, turtles and giant squid also rely on this zone for their food.

Even though all of this is out of sight, any upset in the balance here can ultimately have a devastating effect on what humans have come to expect from the oceans – a place that provides food for millions of people.

Dutch crack down on marijuana tourism

Some of Amsterdam's coffee shops

And what's more, Dutch youth aren't even interested in smoking weed.

By Paul Ames - GlobalPost

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands — In the back street cannabis den, a French-speaking Arab youth with a pierced lower lip and a rhinestone encrusted baseball cap leans across the bar to order his fix of choice.

"Hot chocolate, please," he intones in heavily accentuated English.

"With whipped cream?" asks the fresh-faced young barrista in the 420 Cafe.

"Yes, please.”

A group of teenage English boys, their polite manners contrasting with the hair-raising heavy metal designs on their T-shirts, is also drinking the warm, frothy brew. Above them a large flat screen TV is showing a documentary about Antarctic bird life.

A penguin protects her chicks from a hungry gull as two Spanish girls debate whether to get high on "White Widow," “Blueberry” — brands from the marijuana menu — or to take a slice of the peanut butter and white chocolate weed-laced "space cake."

From inside this cozy, 100-year-old-bar-turned-hash-house it appears the Amsterdam drug scene has mellowed since the Dutch government began to "decriminalize" cannabis in the late 1970s.

"Some specimens of my tribe, and I think I can include myself, are considered to be respectable citizens," said Michael Veling, owner of the 420 Cafe.

“We even have a working relationship with the tax office,” added Veling, a spokesman for the Cannabis Retailers Association which represents many of the more than 700 “coffee shops” that openly serve the drug in the Netherlands.

After 30 years of high times, Amsterdam continues to attract waves of youthful tourists eager to smoke a reefer or two without having to look over their shoulder for the cops. However Dutch attitudes are changing. Successive conservative-led governments have tightened restrictions on cannabis sales, while local youngsters seem increasingly indifferent to the coffee shops’ charms.

A report from European Union’s drug monitoring center made headlines in November when it showed young Dutch people lagged well behind many of their European neighbors when it came to smoking weed.

According to the survey, 11.4 percent of Dutch people aged 15 to 24 had consumed cannabis over the previous year, down from 14.3 percent eight years earlier. The Netherlands was ranked 13th out of 23 nations — way behind countries such as Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic, which register more than double the Dutch rate.

In the 420 Cafe, the only locals in view were a group of 50-something friends of the owner nodding contentedly to the Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix tunes coming from the sound system.

“It’s not as exciting [for Dutch kids] as it is in other countries and we had education together with the tolerant attitude, so our kids know about drugs,” said Veling.

“Our customers are mainly from England and the United States, but because of the economic crisis the percentage of continental Europeans has risen,” he said. “Last summer we saw the first wave of Chinese middle class, that’s a very promising market.”

Veling is perhaps unique among coffee shop owners in that he is also an active member and one-time city councilor with the conservative Christian Democratic Appeal party of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, which has done much to clamp down on the Dutch dope trade in recent years.

Coffee shops have seen the maximum amount they can sell customers reduced from 30 grams to 5 grams. In 2007 a ban on cannabis outlets serving alcohol was enforced, meaning coffee shop owners had to choose between booze or pot — which explains why the strongest drinks at Cafe 420 are coffee, tea and chocolate. Moreover, advertising for cannabis is banned, so while souvenir shops selling T-shirts festooned with marijuana-leaf designs abound, coffee shops are not allowed to use the image.

Many city councils prohibit the opening of new coffee shops and are quick to shut down any that break the rules. A ban on smoking tobacco in all Dutch cafes and bars hit the coffee shops hard when it was introduced in July 2008, since cannabis cigarettes are often mixed with tobacco. Now the rule is widely ignored.

"There are all kinds of ridiculous regulations,” said Fredrick Polak, a veteran campaigner for more liberal drug laws. “It does not work, it is counterproductive … the state has no business interfering with individual grown-up citizens and what they want to put in their bodies."

Polak, a white-haired, 67-year-old psychiatrist who works at Amsterdam’s drug dependency unit, said Dutch authorities have caved into pressure from neighboring nations concerned that so many young people were buying cannabis in the Netherlands to take back home.

French, Belgian and German authorities have been particularly worried about a proliferation of outlets in border cities, so the Dutch government has sought to crack down on “drug tourism.”

The cities of Bergen op Zoom and Rosendaal near the Belgian border closed down six of their eight coffee shops last year after residents complained about rowdy behavior from an estimated 25,000 drug tourists passing through every week.

In the southeastern city of Maastricht, authorities have proposed making coffee shops members-only clubs, effectively banning foreign day-trippers. The country’s largest coffee shop, Checkpoint in the southern border town of Terneuzen, was closed down in 2008 at a time when it was reportedly serving 3,000 customers a day.

Polak complains that criminal elements continue to play a leading role in the cannabis trade due to an anomaly in the laws: While the retailing is tolerated, wholesale trade remains illegal, meaning coffee shop owners often have to get their supplies from criminal networks, which are also involved in illegal exports of the drug and violent turf wars.

“With our system, for people who want to smoke marijuana it’s very pleasant, but on the supply side here there is no control, it’s still completely illegal, so the wrong people make very much money," Polak said.

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Source URL (retrieved on February 4, 2010 16:04 ): http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/netherlands/100202/marijuana-cannabis-amsterdam-coffee-shop

The 5 Most Awesomely Ridiculous Mashups Ever

in Blender Blog by Conrad Doucette

Mashups as a concept came into their own in the '00s. But for every Grey Album, there's a subpar, homemade jam clogging up YouTube.

But some of those amateur creations? Genius. I mean, I may just start listening to mashups exclusively. Listen:

1. "The Trooper Believer," Iron Maiden + The Monkees

Same key, same BPM, same verse lengths... holy crap, Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" and The Monkees' "I'm A Believer" are the same song. It's not just Bruce Dickinson's piercing vocal that perfectly matches the track—the guitar solo that kicks in at 1:35 might as well have been played by Peter Tork (if Tork were English, into leather, and knew the number of the beast). Oh and recall that "I'm A Believer" was written by Neil Diamond, in case you didn't think this was weird enough.

2. "Runnin' With The Beatles," David Lee Roth + The Beatles

David Lee Roth may have come up with the late '70s class of Sunset Strip metal, but one listen to his voice and the timeless entertainer inside Dave was apparent. Hitched to the Beatles' four-wheeled Rubber Soul rocker, Dave's California personality shines through. Here's what David Lee Roth would have sounded like fifteen years earlier.

3. "Sgt. Pepper's Paradise City," Guns n' Roses + The Beatles

Guns n' Roses and the Beatles—mashups don't get more anthemic than this. It's John and Paul singing over the music of Slash, Stradlin, McKagan, and Adler. It may get a bit awkward when the frenzied, sped-up outro kicks in, but by that point you're headbanging anyway, so who cares. You know, the Beatles really could have used more referee whistle.

4. "Come Closer Together," The Beatles + Nine Inch Nails

"Come Together" is one of the most eerie, dark entries in the Beatles' catalog. And just about everything Trent Reznor's done has been spooky. So yeah, let's mash 'em up. This may be the closest the word 'sex' has ever gotten to a Beatles' lyric. FYI: If you're familiar with "Closer," then you already know the audio is NSFW.

5. "We Will Rock And Roll Beverly Hills," Weezer + Joan Jett + Queen

Weezer, Joan Jett, Queen. That's right—three artists are mashed up here. Thanks to the blissful simplicity of all three songs in question, "We Will Rock And Roll Beverly Hills" never gets unwieldy. When you hear these songs put together, you realize that, really, all that's needed for a kickbutt rock song are distorted guitars and lyrics that don't discuss anything more complicated than wanting to rock, all delivered at a head-nodding, grinding pace.

10 Techs Transforming Sports : Discovery News

news.discovery.com — Technologies that are changing the way sports are practiced, played, scored and watched.

Click here for this interesting article: 10 Techs Transforming Sports

Clooney-Batman is worst film ever

From: http://www.thesun.co.uk/

Suits ... Chris O'Donnell and George Clooney

GEORGE CLOONEY's comic book adventure Batman And Robin has been voted the worst movie of all time.

The 1997 film - which cost £90million to make and also starred CHRIS O'DONNELL and UMA THURMAN - was blamed for almost killing off the Caped Crusader franchise.

It was slammed for its camp "Batsuits" - which had nipples - and an "overblown" script.

Empire magazine, which ran the "most disastrous movie" poll, said: "It has become a byword for franchise-killing and bad movie-making."

The film got almost three times as many votes as the next entry - JOHN TRAVOLTA's bizarre sci-fi flick Battlefield Earth.

And Austin Powers funnyman MIKE MYERS' comedy The Love Guru came in third place.

The top 10 bad movies: 1. Batman and Robin; 2. Battlefield Earth; 3. The Love Guru; 4. Raise The Titanic; 5. Epic Movie; 6. Heaven's Gate; 7. Sex Lives Of The Potato Men; 8. The Happening; 9. Highlander II: The Quickening; 10. The Room.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/2834928/Clooney-Batman-is-worst-film-ever.html#ixzz0eVNrBOFQ

Rare ailment makes girl, 13, look like she’s 50

Zara Hartshorn has lipodystrophy, which makes her look old before her time

By Michael Inbar

TODAYshow.com contributor

TODAY

On the inside, Zara Hartshorn is just like any 13-year-old girl — but on the outside she looks middle-aged due to lipodystrophy, a rare condition she inherited from her mother.

For some folks, turning 50 can trigger a midlife crisis. But due to a cruel blow of nature, Zara Hartshorn is forced to deal with it at the tender age of 13.

Though barely a teen, Zara has the appearance of a 50-year-old, something that saps her confidence just when most young people are striving for self-esteem. The Rotherham, England, teen suffers from lipodystrophy, a syndrome that causes the supporting fatty tissue under the skin to crumble even while the skin continues to grow, often at an alarming rate.

The hereditary condition is extremely rare — only about 2,000 people around the world have it — and for Zara, it has devastating social effects.

Zara’s story, profiled on TODAY Monday, revealed a young girl struggling to find a place in the world despite the teasing and taunts of her peers. Because of her condition, Zara resembled a full-grown woman before she turned 10; now, as a teen, she looks older than many of her peers’ parents.

“[They] call me Grandma,” Zara told NBC News.

A family disease
Sadly, lipodystrophy is a family affair for the Hartshorns: Zara’s mother, Tracey, suffers from the same genetic disorder, as do two of Zara’s siblings. But the affects of lipodystrophy are especially pronounced in Zara; at 13, she looks older than her 21-year-old sister Jolene and 16-year-old brother Tommy, though both also have the disease.

Tracey Hartshorn told The Mirror U.K. newspaper that she realized Zara had the disorder when she was barely home from the hospital.

“I’d seen it all before with my other children — the loose skin, the hollow face and the wrinkles around her chin,” Tracey said. “But I’d never seen a case so severe on a baby so young — my heart sank. I felt so guilty, because when she was a baby I knew the pain she would go through later in life, and I knew I had passed the disorder on.”

Even as a toddler, Zara Hartshorn showed the effects of lipodystrophy.

Zara told NBC News she tries to put on a brave front, but in the face of schoolyard taunts, she finds it hard to even get out of bed four days a week. Bus drivers refuse to believe she is 13 and charge her an adult fare; the same happens when she tries to purchase a children’s ticket at a movie theater.

She told the Mirror she does her best to stand up to bullies at school, but fears for her safety.

“If I can run and hide, I answer back, then run away. But most of the time I just have to take it,” she said. “Otherwise, I’m scared they’ll beat me up.”

Zara’s mother also has lipodystrophy, making her appear older than her 40 years.

Fearing the future
Still, Zara has her dreams of what life will be like as an adult. “I want a job; a part-time job in teaching and a part-time job in beauty therapy,” she told NBC.

Mom Tracey, who at 40 also looks older than her years, told NBC her life has been racked with insecurity as a result of her own lipodystrophy. She’s had a string of bad relationships, and her children are the product of several fathers. Zara’s own father plays no part in her life, she said.

It leaves her fearing all the more for Zara’s future.

“I don’t think there’s any way to protect her,” she told NBC. “She’s always going to have somebody somewhere that will be willing to pick fun, ridicule her.”

While there is no cure for lipdystrophy, cosmetic surgery can mitigate some of the effects — but that option is likely too costly for a family that lives on public assistance.

But Zara still hopes that someday she can receive help and live a more normal life. “I feel if I have my face done, it will give me some more confidence,” she said.

URL: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35180427/

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News Corp. in early talks for 'Avatar' sequel

Rupert Murdoch said company is 'pushing' for followup pic

By Georg Szalai

From: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

"Avatar"

NEW YORK -- News Corp. is in very early talks with James Cameron about a possible "Avatar" sequel.

Asked about potential "Avatar" sequels, chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said on his quarterly earnings call Tuesday that the conglomerate is in "very early talks about it." Director James Cameron "has ideas" for a sequel, he said, adding: "We will be pushing for one."

But he cautioned analysts not to "hold your breath for an early one" in a possible reference to Cameron projects often taking a long time to come to fruition.

News Corp. deputy chairman, president and COO Chase Carey interjected that both sides want to make another movie. "We certainly both intend to have one," he said.

The executives said financing of a sequel like of any movies these days would be key as News Corp. likes to lay off risk, especially since Cameron films tend to go over budget. But given the success of "Avatar," financing details could come together.

Management also said 60% or more of the profit from "Avatar" will come in over the next two quarters, adding the firm will continue its theater run as the boxoffice goes well, with a DVD release also planned soon after the theatrical run. A DVD release date hasn't been announced so far.

Pushed further on details about the DVD plans for "Avatar," Murdoch said it will be released during his company's current fiscal year, which ends June 30. But he also highlighted that it won't be a 3D DVD release as that technology isn't developed enough yet. But Carey added there could be a 3D "Avatar" DVD release further "down the road" when the technology is ready.

[Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly quoted Murdoch in the previous as saying to analysts not to "hold your breath for ANOTHER one." A review of his recorded comments reveal he said "early one."]

Confused by the 'Lost' premiere? Never fear! Damon and Carlton explain a few things about the start of Season 6 (SPOILERS AHEAD)

by Jeff Jensen

Warning, SPOILERS ahead. If you haven’t seen the season premiere of Lost yet, you might not want to continue past the jump yet. Lost fans who have now seen the premiere can read ahead for some explanation from Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. (Comments are likely to be full of spoilers also, you’ve been warned again.)

Once upon a time in Germany, a very smart and spiritual man tried to answer a very tricky and troubling question. In a world created by an allegedly benevolent and omnipotent God, why the heck is there suffering and evil? In the world of philosophy, this field of inquiry is called Theodicy, generally defined as an attempt to understand and justify the behavior of God. The genius German dude thought long and hard about this “problem of evil” question and came up with an answer that was unusually heady for the time. He said that despite the existence of evil, this world is actually “the best of all possible worlds,” as if our universe is the least offensive of countless alternatives, or even a pastiche comprised of pieces from the best parts of all. Wild.

Over the next 300 years, physicists, philosophers, and science fiction writers have blown out Gottfried Leibniz’s “possible worlds” concept in many different radical, challenging directions to serve all sorts of scientific and intellectual purposes, their various nuanced permutations producing a slough of different, seemingly synonymous yet not necessarily equal terms. Parallel worlds. Many worlds. Alternate realities. Mirror realities. Modal realities. Pocket universes. Bubble universes. And my favorite, “Island universes,” because it reminds me of a TV show I’m supposedly writing about, one that has referenced perhaps the foremost philosopher in this field, David Lewis.

Today, there are eggheads who believe that these “island universes” or whatnot are real — that they exist somewhere, as real and concrete as “our world,” inhabited by variations of ourselves. Naturally, this assertion has invited intense debate. Where are these worlds? Can we find them? If so, can we access them? Communicate with them? Visit them? Is there one “official world” and all the others of deviations? Did all these worlds pop into being at the same time, or do we continually create new worlds with every choice and non-choice? If so, do the other versions of you that exist across the multiverse of worlds create new worlds with their choices and non-choices, too? And who are these other “yous,” anyway? Are you separate, unique individuals? Do you share consciousness and/or a soul? Are you and your other yous destined to reach similar fates, played out through different events or circumstances? Are you and your other yous unique entities with unique destinies? Yes? No? Who knows? What does any of this Fringe-sounding s— have anything to do with Lost?!?!

Maybe everything. Maybe… nothing! Maybe something somewhere in the middle. What’s definitely for certain is this: If you’ve seen the season premiere of Lost (final SPOILER ALERT now!), you now know the hush-hush new storytelling device for the final season is this whole notion of parallel worlds. We were presented with two of them: one in which Oceanic 815 never crashed; and another that keeps continuity with the past five years of Lost having all the characters trapped in the Dharma Initiative past magically uploaded to the Island present of 2007 where the Jacob-Fake Locke-Ben drama is all going down. I’ll have a lot more to say on this tomorrow AM in my recap. But before then, I bring you news from two guys who you probably MOST want to hear from right now: Lost exec producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. My “Totally Lost” partner Dan Snierson and I sat down with them to talk about the year’s”flash-sideways” storytelling device. Jokes Damon Lindelof: “You [had] all these fundamental mysteries going into season 6. What’s the Monster? What’s the Island? Why is Richard Alpert not able to age? But here’s this new mystery. How dare they! How dare they present us with a new mystery at this late stage in the game!”

Fortunately, here are the producers to offer some assurance of answers and provide some helpful context for season 6.

EW: The whole idea of flash-sideways and the plan to use season 6 to show us a world where Oceanic 815 never crashed — how long has that been in the works? Why did you want to do it?
DAMON LINDELOF: It’s been in play for at least a couple of years. We knew that the ending of the time travel season was going to be an attempt to reboot. And as a result, we [knew] the audience was going to come out of the “do-over moment” thinking we were either going start over or just say it didn’t work and continue on. [We thought] wouldn’t it be great if we did both? That was the origin of the story.
CARLTON CUSE: We thought just doing one [of those options] would inherently not be satisfying. Since the very beginning of the show, characters started crossing through each other’s stories. Part of our desire [in season 6] is to show that there’s still this kind of weave, that these characters still would have impacted each other’s lives even without the event of crashing on the Island. Obviously, the big question of the season is going to be: How do these [two timelines] reconcile? However, for the fans who have not watched the show closely, that’s an intact narrative. You can just watch the flash sideways — they stand alone all by themselves. For the fans who are more deeply embedded in the show, you can watch those flash sideways, compare them to what transpired in the flashbacks and go, “Oh, that’s an interesting difference.”
LINDELOF: Right out of the gate, in the first five minutes of the premiere, you get hit over the head with two things that you’re not expecting. The first is that Desmond is on the plane. The second thing that we do is we drop out of the plane and we go below the water and we see that the Island is submerged. What we’re trying to do there is basically say to you, “God bless the survivors of Oceanic 815, because they’re so self-centered, they thought the only effect [of detonating the bomb] was going to be that their plane never crashes.” But they don’t stop to think, “If we do this in 1977, what else is going to affected by this?” So that their entire lives can be changed radically. In fact, it would appear that they’ve sunken the Island. That’s our way of saying, “Keep your eyes peeled for the differences that you’re not expecting.” Some of these characters were still in Australia, but some weren’t. Shannon’s not there. Boone actually says that he tried to get her back. There are all sorts of other people that we don’t see. Where’s Libby? Where’s Ana Lucia? Where’s Eko? These are all the things that you’re supposed to be thinking about. When our characters posited the “What if?” scenario, they neglected to think about what the other effects of potentially changing time might be and we’re embracing those things.

That said, are you saying definitively that detonating Jughead was the event that created this new timeline? Or is that a mystery which the season 6 story will reveal?
LINDELOF: It’s a mystery. A big one.
CUSE: We did have some concern that it might be confusing kind of going into the season. To clear that up a little bit: The archetypes of the characters are the same and that’s the most significant thing. Kate is still a fugitive. If you were to look at the Comic-Con video, for instance, that now comes into play. There was a different scenario in that story. She basically blew up an apprentice plumber as opposed to killing her biological father/stepfather. Those kind of differences exist, but who the characters fundamentally are is the same. If it becomes too confusing for you, you can just follow the flash sideways for what they are. It’s not as though there’s narrative that hangs on the fact that you need to know that this event was different in that world, in the flashback world versus the sideways world. That’s not critical for being able to process the narrative this season.

Is there a relationship between Island reality and sideways reality? Will they run parallel for the remainder of the season? Will they fuse together? Might one fade away?
LINDELOF: For us, the big risk that we’re taking in the final season of the show is basically this very question. [Lindelof then explains the show has replaced the trademark “whoosh!” sound effect marking the segue between Island present story and flashbacks or flash-forwards, thus calling conspicuous attention to the relationship between the Island world and the Sideways world.] This is the critical mystery of the season, which is, “What is the relationship between these two shows?” And we don’t use the phrase “alternate reality,” because to call one of them an “alternate reality” is to infer that one of them isn’t real, or one of them is real and the other is the alternate to being real.
CUSE: But the questions you’re asking are exactly the right questions. What are we to make of the fact that they’re showing us two different timelines? Are they going to resolve? Are they going to connect? Are they going to co-exist in parallel fashion? Are they going to cross? Do they intersect? Does one prove to be viable and the other one not? I think those are all the kind of speculations that are the right speculations to be having at this point in the season.
LINDELOF: But it is going to require patience. We’ve taught the audience how to be patient thus far, so while they’re getting a lot of mythological answers on the island early in the season, this idea of what is the relationship between the two [worlds] is a little bit more of a slow burn.

Did Jughead really sink the Island? And is it possible that the Sideways characters are now caught in a time loop in which they might have to go back in time and fulfill the obligation to continuity by detonating the bomb?
LINDELOF: These questions will be dealt with on the show. Should you infer that the detonation of Jughead is what sunk the island? Who knows? But there’s the Foot. What do you get when you see that shot? It looks like New Otherton got built. These little clues [might help you] extrapolate when the Island may have sunk. Start to think about it. A couple of episodes down the road, some of the characters might even discuss it. We will say this: season 6 is not about time travel. It’s about the implications, the aftermath, and the causality of trying to change the past. But the idea of continuing to do paradoxical storytelling is not what we’re interested in this year.

There you go. Some food for thought. Dan and I will have more Messrs. Cuse and Lindelof later this week at EW.com and in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on sale Friday. If you’ve made it this far into this post, stay tuned: There’s a monstrously epic recap coming your way tomorrow. Until then, please: Get talking! What did you love? What did you hate? What left you totally baffled? What theories do you have to explain it all? The floor is yours!

Photo Credit: Mario Perez/ABC

NASA’s Next Space Suit & a Look Back at U.S. Space Suits | Decoded Stuff

A brand new space suit to give flexibility and mobility for astronauts! Engineers are developing a new space suit for astronauts returning to the moon within the next decade.

The suit will be equipped with a computer that links directly to earth. With 150 years of life, the suit can protect from harsh environment also.The new design allows the astronauts to work outside of International Space Station (ISS). The design is also suitable for Mars trips.

David Clark Company is designing a new U.S. space suit for missions to the space station, moon, and the Mars.

The space suit designed by David Clark Company, expected to be ready by 2013, is being tested by the program manager of the Constellation space suits project, Donald Tufts.

Click here to see the full article and all of the pics/

NASA’s Next Space Suit & a Look Back at U.S. Space Suits | Decoded Stuff

Madonna is Crazy for Coconut Water

By MERCEDES CARDONA

Madonna is coming soon to your neighborhood bodega: The Material Girl has become a major investor in a company that sells coconut water in supermarkets.

Madonna's manager, Guy Oseary, told The New York Post that the singer invested about $1.5 million in Vita Coco, a New York-based company that sells the beverage in New York and Los Angeles and wants to take its product national. Oseary also told The Post he's convinced other celebrities, including actor Matthew McConaughey and singer Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, to make smaller investments in the company.

Apparently, Madonna liked the juice of green coconuts so much, she's throwing marketing ideas to the Vita Coco management, and is talking about making a follow-up investment, according to The Post.

Coconut water has been gaining trendiness over the last couple of years, moving out of inner-city bodegas, where its main audience had been immigrants from the Caribbean and Latin America, and into the realm of hipster chic. With Madonna's seal of approval, it could go mainstream.

The market could be ripe for growth -- no pun intended. Several companies are already promoting coconut water as both a healthy substitute for sports drinks and a trendy mixer for cocktails. Vita Coco has reportedly turned down overtures from both Pepsico (PEP), which already owns two brands of coconut water in Brazil, and Coca-Cola Co. (KO). A rival coconut water brand, Zico, last year sold a minority stake to Coca-Cola, and another brand, O.N.E., signed a distribution agreement with Pepsi.

Lucky Stars? In High-Profile Investments, Not Always

But keep in mind, celebrity investors are not the same thing as investment celebrities. Madonna is nothing like Warren Buffett.

Any number of celebrities have put their money and fame behind various ventures -- U2 frontman Bono co-founded Elevation Partners, a Silicon Valley tech fund, and Bruce WIllis just signed up as an investor in distiller Belvedere SA -- but a having celebrities attached to your business is no guarantee of success. The company has to live and die by its own product.

Remember Planet Hollywood? The chain of restaurants was supposed to take on the Hard Rock Cafe, and it was a natural fit for movie stars like Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. For a while, it was flying high, and spawned imitators like the Fashion Cafe (models) and the All-Star Cafe (famous jocks). Then it overreached, opened too many restaurants and ended up with a trip to bankruptcy court, followed by a couple of sequels. Star power turned out to be no substitute for prudent management.

The investors apparently learned their lesson -- except perhaps for Arnold, who's trying to bail out California. Willis got a 3.3% stake in Belvedere in exchange for promoting its vodka, and his ex-wife Demi Moore -- another former Planet Hollywood investor -- made a smaller investment in Vita Coco than Madonna. Even stars sometimes have to start small.

kollin leschinsky 5 year old amazing skateboarder

kollin leschinsky 5 year old amazing skateboarder - watch more skate, snow, surf, and moto videos

Super-Hard Diamonds Found in Meteorite

The ultra-hard rocks may not end up on your finger, but they could help scientists learn how to create harder diamonds in the lab.

By Larry O'Hanlon |

It didn't look quite this dramatic, but ultra hard diamonds were discovered in a meteorite that fell over Finland in 1971.
iStockPhoto

Researchers using a diamond paste to polish a slice of meteorite stumbled onto something remarkable: crystals in the rock that are harder than diamonds.

A closer look with an array of instruments revealed two totally new kinds of naturally occurring carbon, which are harder than the diamonds formed inside the Earth.

"The discovery was accidental but we were sure that looking in these meteorites would lead to new findings on the carbon system," said Tristan Ferroir of the Universite de Lyon in France.

Ferroir is the lead author of a report in the new diamond in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The researchers were polishing a slice of the carbon-rich Havero meteorite that fell to Earth in Finland in 1971. When they then studied the polished surface they discovered carbon-loaded spots that were raised well above the rest of the surface –- suggesting that these areas were harder than the diamonds used in the polishing paste.

WATCH VIDEO: Find out why iron meteorites are particularly sensitive to even the slightest bit of moisture - including the touch of a finger.

"That in itself is not surprising," said diamond researcher Changfeng Chen of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. He explained that sometimes during the shock of impact graphite can create jumbled "amorphous" zones that can resist diamonds, at least those coming at them from one direction.

But what apparently happened in the Havero meteorite is that graphite layers were shocked and heated enough to create bonds between the layers -- which is exactly how humans manufacture diamonds, Chen explained.

Ferroir's team took the next step and put the diamond-resistant crystals under the scrutiny of some very rigorous mineralogical analyzing instruments to learn how its atoms are lined up. That allowed them to confirm that they had, indeed, found a new "phase" or polymorph of crystalline carbon as well as a type of diamond that had been predicted to exist decades ago, but had never been found in nature until now.

"The new structure is very interesting," Chen told Discovery News. "It gives us some clues so we can try to make it in the laboratory, and then investigate it."

Among the things that would be interesting to learn, Chen said, is how hard are the new kinds of diamonds. The sample from the meteorite was far too small to test for hardness, except to show that it is certainly harder than regular diamonds.

"The only evidence we have for a higher hardness than diamond is the fact that we polished the rock section with a diamond paste and that our polymorph and polytypes were not polished by this material," said Ferroir. "This why we do think that its hardness is harder than diamond."

However, there is no way at the present to compare them to the artificial ultra-hard diamonds known as lonsdaleite and boron nitride, Ferroir said.

This Projector Costs As Much As A BMW M5

This Projector Costs As Much As A BMW M5

Miley's 9-year-old sister launching a lingerie line for kids

WTF!!!!

Image: Getty

Seems like every time we hear about Noah Cyrus she's doing something totally innapropriate for her age.

Whether it's dressing like a dominatrix for Halloween, skipping around a pole-dancing pole or performing the totally un-PG hits 'Smack That' and 'Tik Tok', we suspect this nine-year-old could easily notch up more scandals than her big sis by the time she hits her teens.

Noah at two Halloween parties last year. The latest news that's got us scratching our heads and wondering, yet again, 'what were her parents thinking?' ...little Noah is set to become a lingerie model.

She'll be teaming up with her pint-sized best friend Emily Grace to launch a children's lingerie collection for 'Ohh! La, La! Couture'.

Left: Pole dancing with her little friends last year. Right: With her best friend Emily Grace. The company's website describes The Emily Grace Collection as having a “trendy, sweet, yet edgy feel, reminiscent of Emily’s true personality. She is collaborating with Ooh! La, La! Couture designers to create versatile styles that can be worn with sweet ballerina slippers, funky sneakers or paired with lace stockings and boots for more of a rock and roll look. Emily’s collection will appeal not just to little girls - the line also has an exclusive Teen Collection available to a size 14."

Here's a clip of this poor Emily Grace kid dressed up in a pair of fishnets and chatting about her underwear line with Miley and Noah...

We weep for the future.

A Most Amusing Nudist Colony Sign

http://cdn.brightkite.com/03/1f/031fff6c6aa8cc766d9085a92ea3b9a7.jpg