80-Year-Old Accidentally Swallows $5K Diamond

(NEWSER) – Miriam Tucker's last colonoscopy yielded quite a treasure: a 1.03-carat round brilliant cut diamond, worth $5,000. But don't go scheduling an appointment with your gastroenterologist in the hopes that you, too, will strike it rich. Tucker, you see, had accidentally swallowed the diamond first. The 80-year-old attended a fashion show fundraiser in Tampa on Saturday, and bought a $20 glass of champagne with a bauble inside. Of the 400 glasses, 399 contained a $10 cubic zirconia, reports the Tampa Tribune. As luck would have it, Tucker's glass held the one real diamond.
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That’s a Laura parties

What a trooper ... Laura Whitmore heads out for another night on the town

 

 

LAURA WHITMORE is fast perfecting the art of turning up to every party going.

The Northern Irish MTV presenter has had a heavy old week, racking up yet another tear-up on Thursday night.
She managed to squeeze in two appearances in London – starting with the launch party for TV channel TLC at Sketch in Mayfair and finishing up with a DJ set at the posh Raffles club in Chelsea.
The night before, Laura had a late one with ONE DIRECTION singer NIALL HORAN.
He left her flat the next morning after partying all night with Laura and their group of mates.
Niall and his Irish presenter pal EOGHAN McDERMOTT had raided Laura’s knicker drawer, taken a picture with her smalls on their heads and stuck it on Twitter.
She has described Niall as like a “little brother” to her – and that is typical little brother behaviour.
RIHANNA needs to watch her back. Her Bizarre Caner Of The Year award is under threat.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/4905366/laura-whitmore-contender-for-caner-of-the-year-award.html#ixzz2Rf0WADHT

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Einstein's Gravity Theory Passes Toughest Test Yet

An extreme pair of superdense stars orbiting each other has put Einstein's general theory of relativity to its toughest test yet, and the crazy-haired physicist still comes out on top.

About 7,000 light-years from Earth, an exceptionally massive neutron star that spins around 25 times a second is orbited by a compact, white dwarf star. The gravity of this system is so intense that it offers an unprecedented testing ground for theories of gravity.

Scientists know general relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, isn't the complete story. While it does very well describing large, massive systems, it's incompatible with quantum mechanics, which governs the physics of the very small. For something extremely small, yet extremely massive — such as a black hole — the two theories contradict each other, and scientists are left without a physical description. [6 Weird Facts About Gravity]

Rare systems like this binary star pair offer a chance to probe the boundary between the two theories, and search for possible openings toward new physics that could reconcile them.

"We thought this system might be extreme enough to show a breakdown in general relativity, but instead, Einstein's predictions held up quite well," Paulo Freire, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, said in a statement.

Extreme pair

Artist's impression of the J0348+0432 system.
CREDIT: European Southern Observatory/J. Antoniadis (MPIfR)

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The white dwarf in the pair represents the remains of an aging star that lost its atmosphere and is gradually cooling down. Its companion, the neutron star, is much more massive and is so dense that the protons and electrons in its atoms have collapsed to form neutrons. Created in a supernova explosion that marked the death of a star, the neutron star contains twice the mass of the sun packed into an area just 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. On the surface of this star, gravity is 300 billion times stronger than on Earth.

The neutron star is what's called a pulsar, because it gives off a beam of light that appears to pulse on and off as it rotates past Earth.

"I was observing the system with ESO's [the European Southern Observatory's] Very Large Telescope, looking for changes in the light emitted from the white dwarf caused by its motion around the pulsar," said John Antoniadis, a Ph.D. student at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and lead author of a paper reporting the find, published in the April 26 issue of the journal Science. "A quick, on-the-spot analysis made me realize that the pulsar was quite a heavyweight. It is twice the mass of the sun, making it the most massive neutron star that we know of and also an excellent laboratory for fundamental physics."

The gravitational field created by the pulsar is so strong that the scientists suspected they might notice deviations from the predictions of general relativity in the motions of the white dwarf around it. General relativity posits that massive objects warp the space and time around them, causing other objects, and even light, to travel along curved paths when they pass nearby.

General relativity also predicts that a close binary system such as this one will radiate gravitational energy in the form of ripples in space-time called gravitational waves. This loss of energy would cause the orbital period of the system to change slightly over time. Alternative theories of gravity offer slightly different predictions for the white dwarf's motions.

"Our radio observations were so precise that we have already been able to measure a change in the orbital period of 8 millionths of a second per year — exactly what Einstein's theory predicts," said Paulo Freire, another team member at the Max Planck Institute.

Though the results don't help physicists solve the fundamental gravity quandary, they do confirm that current efforts to detect gravitational waves, based on Einstein's predictions, are on the right track. Several Earth-based tests are underway to look for perturbations in space-time distances caused by passing gravitational waves.

"Our results indicate that the filtering techniques planned for these advanced instruments remain valid," said Ryan Lynch, a physicist at McGill University in Montreal.

The pulsar system was first discovered using the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, and follow-up observations were made at the Apache Point telescope in New Mexico, the Very Large Telescope in Chile, the William Herschel Telescope in Spain, the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and the Effelsberg telescope in Germany.

 SOURCE : http://www.space.com/20826-einstein-gravity-theory-toughest-test.html

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Ben Affleck To Receive Honouray Doctorate From Brown University

Ben Affleck isn't just an award winning director, actor and father of three, he's about to become to become a doctor as well as Brown University is set to award him an doctorate degree during their 245th Commencement on May 26.
E! News confirmed the news that the Argo director will receive an honour in fine arts alongside five others including novelist Junot Díaz later this year from the Ivy league university. The Massachusetts native is not expected to attend the ceremony to collect the award.
The honour comes in the same year that the star's movie Argo won Best Picture at the Academy Awards but saw Affleck snubbed in the Best Director category, failing to make the shortlist.
Though he claimed not to feel any anger towards the Academy for leaving him out, the actor scooped the same award at nearly every other major ceremony including the BAFTAs and Golden Globes.

Ben Affleck shows off his Oscar (WENN)

When picking up the Oscar for Best Picture, the star, who previously won by Screenplay for Good Will Hunting admitted in years where his career took a nose dive he never thought he'd be back collecting a golden statute.
He said: "I had no idea what I was doing. I stood out here. I was just a kid, and I never thought I'd be back here, and I am,
"What I learned was it doesn't matter if you get knocked down in life, what matters is that you've got to get back up."
The news comes a day after Affleck announced he'd be living on $1.50 a day to highlight poverty. He took to Twitter earlier this week to announce his support for the Live Below The Line Campaign.
 He wrote: “1.4 billion people live on less than $1.50/day,” Affleck tweeted. “I’m joining Live #BelowTheLine on behalf of @easterncongo. Will you?”

Ben gets his Oscar comeback

 
  Ben Affleck and George Clooney had long facial hair at the Oscars 2013 (WENN 250113)

SOURCE : http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/112708/Ben-Affleck-To-Receive-Honouray-Doctorate-From-Brown-University

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China's Xinjiang hit by deadly clashes

Clashes in China's restive Xinjiang region have left 21 people dead, including 15 police officers and officials, authorities say.

The violence occurred on Tuesday afternoon in Bachu county, Kashgar prefecture.
The foreign ministry said it had been a planned attack by a "violent terrorist group", but ethnic groups questioned this.
There have been sporadic clashes in Xinjiang in recent years.
The incidents come amid rumbling ethnic tensions between the Muslim Uighur and Han Chinese communities. In 2009 almost 200 people - mostly Han Chinese - were killed after deadly rioting erupted.

It is very difficult to verify reports from Xinjiang, reports the BBC's Celia Hatton.

Foreign journalists are allowed to travel to the region but frequently face intimidation and harassment when attempting to verify news of ethnic rioting or organised violence against government authorities.
'Terrorism' Hou Hanmin, director of the Xinjiang government's propaganda department, said Tuesday's clashes began as officials described as community workers searched homes for weapons.
She told the BBC's Chinese service that three of the workers were killed as they were investigating reports of suspicious individuals at the home of a local resident.
Unarmed police then arrived to investigate the workers' earlier reports and were attacked, said Ms Hou. Three "thugs" died and nine police officers were cornered in a house which was then set on fire, she said, calling the incident a "planned terrorist attack" on innocent victims.
There was no information on the identity of the assailants. Ten of the officials and police killed were ethnic Uighurs, the local authorities said.
Eight people were arrested.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said initial police investigations showed it had been "a premeditated attack carried out by a violent terrorist group".
She said the security situation in Xinjiang was "good in general, but a small cluster of terrorist forces are still doing their very best to upset and sabotage Xinjiang's stability and development".
"I believe their plan goes against the will of the people and is doomed to fail," she told a news conference.
But Dilxat Raxit, a spokesperson for the World Uighur Congress, an umbrella organisation of Uighur groups, told the BBC the incident was caused by the killing of a young Uighur by Chinese "armed personnel" as a result of a government clean-up campaign.

Uighurs make up about 45% of the region's population, but say an influx of Han Chinese residents has marginalised their traditional culture.

Beijing authorities often blame violent incidents in Xinjiang on Uighur extremists seeking autonomy for the region. Uighur activists, meanwhile, accuse Beijing of over-exaggerating the threat to justify heavy-handed rule.
In March, 20 people were jailed on terrorism and separatism charges in the region. Last August courts jailed another 20 people on similar charges in Xinjiang.

SOURCE : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22276042

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Lions Fighting

Lions Fighting photos

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Women Mistaken for Chris Dorner (and Shot at by LAPD) Will Get $4.2 Million

Margie Carranza, 47, and her 71-year-old mother, Emma Hernandez, had more than 100 rounds of bullets pumped into their blue pickup truck on the morning of February 7 because seven LAPD officers thought they were Christopher Dorner—despite the fact that their truck was a completely different model and color than the one cops were instructed to look for. That's why they're getting four times the already and still controversial ransom total for Christopher Dorner and walking away with $4.2 million of their own. "The deal is relatively a very simple, very clean deal. It's a win-win for both parties," L.A. city attorney Carmen Trutanich told NBC Los Angeles, confirming the settlement amount, which Carranza and Hernandez can split any way they want. "It closes this chapter in Los Angeles and LAPD history on all issues," Trutanich added.
That chapter was embarrassing. In the hunt for Dorner, the ex-cop whose vengeance and escape from much of a state's law enforcement powers led him to kill four people, police had told Southern California residents to be on the lookout for a charcoal Nissan Titan pickup truck. Carranza and Emma, who were delivering newspapers early in the Torrance that Thursday—in their blue Toyota Tacoma—were shot at with at least 100 rounds of ammo, USA Today's Michael Winter reports. It was an embarrassing vehicular mixup in a wild chase, but these two women were also (clearly) not an African American male. And 100 bullets? The 71-year-old Hernandez was shot twice in the back, while Carranza was injured by broken glass, NBC LA reports.
The two women also weren't the only ones mistakenly shot at by police. Torrance police fired upon a black pickup truck driven by a man named David Perdue later that morning. His undisclosed settlement was reached this weekend, reports Long Beach's Press Telegram, which also notes that Trutanich, the city attorney, said that if Perdue's case went to trial, Los Angeles could have been facing damages of up to $15 million.
Still unresolved is that approximately $1 million reward for actually finding Dorner, not being mistaken for him. And there remain those competing calls for the ransom money offered up by officials from multiple cities in Souther California: "Two claims have been made: one by a couple who were held hostage by Dorner, the other by a man whose pickup Dorner stole at gunpoint," USA Today reported. But recently, according to The Los Angeles Times, major donors have been dropping out, claiming that since Dorner died, no one was entitled to the money—which, well, that's a bit problematic since there's really not much incentive for anyone to give important tips if there's a cost-cutting incentive working against them ... and, well, it's not exactly a good sign for the LAPD to come across as duplicitous for offering more money for violent mistakes than for finding the violent man half a state was looking for. Because, you know, the duplicity of the LAPD is what made Chris Dorner so upset in the first place.

SOURCE : http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/04/women-mistaken-chris-dorner-and-shot-lapd-will-get-42-million/64513/

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