Chad Ochocinco makes one young fan's dream come true

By Doug Farrar

Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco(notes), formerly Chad Johnson, may have a slight strain of the diva receiver characteristic, but there's a humanity that has always separated him from the Keyshawns and T.O.s of the world. You get the sense that when he struggles, it's more about finding his way and when he showboats, it's more about entertaining than a driving need to be obnoxious. If anyone doubted the true nature of the man, the video you're about to see, which was shot at the third annual gala fundraiser for the Children Mending Hearts organization in Hollywood, Calif., should take care of that.

Nine-year-old Ruben St. Hilaire, Jr, who lives with this mother in a homeless shelter in New York City, received an autographed jersey from Ochocinco after sending a letter. He then sent a second letter that would have melted the heart of the hardest individual.

Mr. Johnson, you really make me happy. One of my goals in my future life is to be just like you when I grow up. I wonder who was your role model when you were little? I have three role model(s) in my life that's my mom, Mr. President Barack Obama and my favorite football player Mr. Chad Johnson. To me you are the best football player in the NFL. May God bless you and your family happy holidays.

Ruben's dream was to go to a football camp, and that particular prize was donated by Deion Sanders. Presenting the certificate for camp attendance, unbeknownst to Ruben, would be the very same Mr. Ochocinco. Ruben's hero was introduced after the young boy read his letter. Bonus — it was Ruben's birthday! Rich Eisen of the NFL Network set the scene at the podium, and what followed was a pretty great moment.

Gulf Coast beachgoers unfazed by oil spill

Image via Wikipedia

BY STEVE BOUSQUET AND LEE LOGANHerald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
DESTIN -- The shucked oysters and grouper sandwiches were flying out of the kitchen Sunday at Pompano Joe's, an oceanside restaurant popular with Gulf Coast tourists.

The Silver Sands outlet store complex parking lot was jammed. Bars were crowded. Traffic moved at a snail's pace on U.S. 98 -- and few complained.

After weeks of fears of an economic disaster in northwest Florida because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the crowds are back this Memorial Day weekend, which kicks off the summer tourist season in the region known as the Emerald Coast.

``I'm trying to get our economy going,'' said Joan Franklin of Tampa, who wasn't about to let oil spill fears keep her from a trip she looks forward to every year.

``We figured the spill wasn't going to hit. It looks like it's nowhere near here,'' said B.J. Morrison of Hattiesburg, Miss., who waited a half hour to get a table at Pompano Joe's -- where a manager said Saturday's cash receipts broke the single-day record.

``What you're seeing now is a peak of people coming to the beach,'' said Amelia Snellgrove of Pelham, Ga. `They don't want to wait and have the oil come. Everybody I know came to the beach this weekend.''

Destin beachgoers were surprised to get a first-hand welcome from Gov. Charlie Crist, who showed up to personally thank the tourists for coming.

``I'm the governor, and we're happy to have you,'' Crist said to Terry Harris of Birmingham, standing near a bright-red beach tent. He and a group of friends were enjoying their second pitcher of what Alabamians call ``summer beer'' -- a mixture of Crystal Light lemonade, light beer and vodka.

With TV cameras at the ready, Crist signed paperwork freeing more than $2 million for Panhandle tourism boards to spend on ads tailored to keep people coming to northwest Florida. The 45-day commercial blitzes will be paid for with some of BP's $25 million donated to Florida.

That's good, said Carol Dover of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, who estimated that restaurant business across the Gulf Coast is down 30 percent since the spill. A number of places have laid off workers, Dover said.

``It's our job to help,'' Crist said. ``We're all in this together. We don't have a drop of oil on our beaches, and we want to make sure the people across America understand that.''

Crist and his wife, Carole, spent the weekend at the Hilton in nearby Sandestin -- keeping the governor's face on Panhandle TV stations as he tries to gain ground as an independent U.S. Senate candidate.

Farther east, near Port St. Joe, Presnell's Bayside Marina hosts in-shore charter fishing trips. Known as ``flats fishing,'' small groups of people head out to St. Joseph Bay to fish for some of the best scallops around.

The scalloping is better than usual this season, and co-owner Paula Erickson noted that if oil sneaks into the bay, it would devastate both the wildlife and her livelihood.

``We're saying prayers every day that it doesn't come this way,'' she said.

Her son, Capt. Kyle Erickson, said he's down between 30 and 40 fishing charter trips since the spill: I've called them up and many of them say, 'We're not going to come down this year because of the oil.'?

Six Auburn University students were camped on Cape San Blas, a tiny strip of land jutting out from the corner of the Panhandle's Big Bend.

Jacob Wilder, 23, who just graduated with a degree in public relations, said he would have gone to the beach even if there was oil -- he just would have stayed out of the water. His pals were skeptical, reminding him that the oil doesn't smell so good.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/30/1656380/beachgoers-unfazed-by-spill.html#ixzz0pTqhMn6b

'Iron Man' flight simulator

Image by Hamed Saber via Flickr

Posted by John Baichtal
May 27, 2010 12:00 PM


This simulator hoists a person up via a hang glider harness with a fan blowing in his face and some VR goggles on his head. The project website is disappointingly light on detail, but it looks like it might be fun to try. What would really be killer, and I don't get the sense that the project works this way, would be for the crane to alter the person's pitch and yaw while simultaneously adjusting the Google Earth Flight Simulator feed. It looks like the crane is operated manually and the person shifts his weight to tilt the wings and thereby control the Wiimote.

Click on the link below to watch the video.

 http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/iron_man_flight_simulator.html

Hurricane season could be 'active or extremely active'

By the CNN Wire StaffMay 27, 2010 12:48 p.m.

(CNN) -- The coming summer and fall could be an "active to extremely active" hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted.

There is a 70 percent chance that three to seven major hurricanes will swirl in the Atlantic in the six months following the start of the hurricane season on June 1, according to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.

"If this outlook holds true, this season could be one of the more active on record," said Jane Lubchenco, the under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, and NOAA's administrator.

The forecast predicts between 14 and 23 storms with top winds of 39 mph or higher, the threshold for tropical storm status.

It predicts eight to 14 of those will become named hurricanes, with winds topping 74 mph or higher, and three to seven of those will become major ones, meaning Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Category 3 storms have sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

Forecasters have said that El Nino conditions will dissipate by summer and that unusually warm tropical Atlantic surface temperatures will persist, leading to favorable conditions for hurricanes to develop and intensify.

A report released in April by Colorado State University's forecasters William Gray and Phil Klotzbach also said that this year's hurricane season could be difficult, but they predicted only 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

Gray and Klotzbach will issue a revised forecast next Wednesday.

A typical season has 11 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes, according to NOAA. The hurricane season ends November 30, although later storms have been known to happen.

Last year's hurricane season was below average, with only nine named tropical storms, three of which were hurricanes. The National Hurricane Center said it was the lowest number of tropical storms for the Atlantic basin since 1997.

Ahmadinejad: Osama Bin Laden Is In D.C.

The Huffington Post

In terms of theories of where Osama Bin Laden might be hiding, points for novelty should be given to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proposed the unconventional notion Wednesday that the Al Qaeda leader was actually camping out in Washington D.C..

During a somewhat testy interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, which also covered the more exigent issues of Iran's nuclear ambitions and the fate of the three American hikers currently being detained there, the Iranian leader was subject to a 2-minute interrogation as to whether Bin Laden was living in Tehran, and if so, how his presence would be received there.

Here's Stephanopoulos' opening salvo, which pretty much set the tone and pattern for what followed:

STEPHANOPOULOS: One final question. There's a new documentary out that says that Osama Bin Laden is living in Tehran. And the subject of the documentary, a man named Alan Parrot, one of the world's foremost falconers living in Iran, says he's spoken to Osama bin Laden several times since 2003. Is Osama bin Laden in Tehran?

AHMADINEJAD: Your question is laughable.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why?

AHMADINEJAD: The U.S. government has invaded Afghanistan in order to arrest Bin Laden. They probably know where Bin Laden is. If they don't know he is, why did they invade? Could we know the intelligence?

Brittany Murphy's husband is found dead at home

Associated Press - May 24, 2010 3:51 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES - The husband of Brittany Murphy was found dead late Sunday at the Los Angeles home he shared with the late actress, police said.


The preliminary cause of British screenwriter Simon Monjack's death is natural causes, police spokesman Sgt. Louie Lozano said. Another spokesman, Sgt. Alex Ortiz, said there were no signs of foul play or any criminal activity.

Murphy died after collapsing in her Hollywood Hills home on Dec. 20.

Firefighters responding to an emergency call from a woman at 9:40 p.m. found the 39-year-old Monjack dead at the Hollywood Hills residence, Lozano said. Ortiz said he didn't know who called. Monjack and Murphy had shared their home with Murphy's mother, Sharon.

Ortiz said that the Los Angeles Coroner's Office was taking over the investigation because criminal activity had been ruled out, and would provide more details later on the death and circumstances surrounding it.

At his wife's funeral in December, a visibly emotional Monjack talked about their relationship and called her his best friend and soul mate. The two married in 2007. He had said that they had been planning a family and contemplating a move to New York.

Monjack is credited as producer and co-writer of the 2001 film "Two Days, Nine Lives" and executive producer of the 2006 "Factory Girl."

Murphy, best known for her major roles in "Clueless," "Girl Interrupted," and "8 Mile" in 2002, died at age 32. The Los Angeles County coroner's office concluded Murphy's death was accidental, but likely preventable.

The coroner's report said that the medications found in her system were consistent with treatment of a cold or respiratory infection. Monjack and Murphy's mother had reported the actress was ill with flulike symptoms in the days before her death.

An autopsy found no evidence that Murphy abused drugs. Investigators had found numerous prescription medications in her home.

5 Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

By Kristyn Kusek Lewis


They’re just like you. But with lots of money.

When you think “millionaire,” what image comes to mind? For many of us, it’s a flashy Wall Street banker type who flies a private jet, collects cars and lives the kind of decadent lifestyle that would make Donald Trump proud.

But many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods, work full-time and shop in discount stores like the rest of us. What motivates them isn’t material possessions but the choices that money can bring: “For the rich, it’s not about getting more stuff. It’s about having the freedom to make almost any decision you want,” says T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Wealth means you can send your child to any school or quit a job you don’t like.

According to the Spectrem Wealth Study, an annual survey of America’s wealthy, there are more people living the good life than ever before—the number of millionaires nearly doubled in the last decade. And the rich are getting richer. To make it onto the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, a mere billionaire no longer makes the cut. This year you needed a net worth of at least $1.3 billion.

istockphoto.com

If more people are getting richer than ever, why shouldn’t you be one of them? Here, five people who have at least a million dollars in liquid assets share the secrets that helped them get there.

PLUS: 13 Things Your Financial Adviser Won't Tell You

1. Set your sights on where you’re going

Twenty years ago, Jeff Harris hardly seemed on the road to wealth. He was a college dropout who struggled to support his wife, DeAnn, and three kids, working as a grocery store clerk and at a junkyard where he melted scrap metal alongside convicts. “At times we were so broke that we washed our clothes in the bathtub because we couldn’t afford the Laundromat.” Now he’s a 49-year-old investment advisor and multimillionaire in York, South Carolina.

There was one big reason Jeff pulled ahead of the pack: He always knew he’d be rich. The reality is that 80 percent of Americans worth at least $5 million grew up in middle-class or lesser households, just like Jeff.

Wanting to be wealthy is a crucial first step. Says Eker, “The biggest obstacle to wealth is fear. People are afraid to think big, but if you think small, you’ll only achieve small things.”
PLUS: 17 Things Your Mother Wants You to Know

It all started for Jeff when he met a stockbroker at a Christmas party. “Talking to him, it felt like discovering fire,” he says. “I started reading books about investing during my breaks at the grocery store, and I began putting $25 a month in a mutual fund.” Next he taught a class at a local community college on investing. His students became his first clients, which led to his investment practice. “There were lots of struggles,” says Jeff, “but what got me through it was believing with all my heart that I would succeed.”

2. Educate yourself

When Steve Maxwell graduated from college, he had an engineering degree and a high-tech job—but he couldn’t balance his checkbook. “I took one finance class in college but dropped it to go on a ski trip,” says the 45-year-old father of three, who lives in Windsor, Colorado. “I actually had to go to my bank and ask them to teach me how to read my statement.”

One of the biggest obstacles to making money is not understanding it: Thousands of us avoid investing because we just don’t get it. But to make money, you must be financially literate. “It bothered me that I didn’t understand this stuff,” says Steve, “so I read books and magazines about money management and investing, and I asked every financial whiz I knew to explain things to me.”

PLUS: 6 Moneymaking Tips

He and his wife started applying the lessons: They made a point to live below their means. They never bought on impulse, always negotiated better deals (on their cars, cable bills, furniture) and stayed in their home long after they could afford a more expensive one. They also put 20 percent of their annual salary into investments.

Within ten years, they were millionaires, and people were coming to Steve for advice. “Someone would say, ‘I need to refinance my house—what should I do?’ A lot of times, I wouldn’t know the answer, but I’d go find it and learn something in the process,” he says.

In 2003, Steve quit his job to become part owner of a company that holds personal finance seminars for employees of corporations like Wal-Mart. He also started going to real estate investment seminars, and it’s paid off: He now owns $30 million worth of investment properties, including apartment complexes, a shopping mall and a quarry.

“I was an engineer who never thought this life was possible, but all it truly takes is a little self-education,” says Steve. “You can do anything once you understand the basics.”

PLUS: 17 French Restaurant Words You Need to Know

3. Passion pays off

In 1995, Jill Blashack Strahan and her husband were barely making ends meet. Like so many of us, Jill was eager to discover her purpose, so she splurged on a session with a life coach. “When I told her my goal was to make $30,000 a year, she said I was setting the bar too low. I needed to focus on my passion, not on the paycheck.”

Jill, who lives with her son in Alexandria, Minnesota, owned a gift basket company and earned just $15,000 a year. She noticed when she let potential buyers taste the food items, the baskets sold like crazy. Jill thought, Why not sell the food directly to customers in a fun setting?

PLUS: 15 Foods You Should Never Buy Again

With $6,000 in savings, a bank loan and a friend’s investment, Jill started packaging gourmet foods in a backyard shed and selling them at taste-testing parties. It wasn’t easy. “I remember sitting outside one day, thinking we were three months behind on our house payment, I had two employees I couldn’t pay, and I ought to get a real job. But then I thought, No, this is your dream. Recommit and get to work.”

She stuck with it, even after her husband died three years later. “I live by the law of abundance, meaning that even when there are challenges in life, I look for the win-win,” she says.

PLUS: 20 Secrets Your Waiter Won't Tell You

The positive attitude worked: Jill’s backyard company, Tastefully Simple, is now a direct-sales business, with $120 million in sales last year. And Jill was named one of the top 25 female business owners in North America by Fast Company magazine.

According to research by Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, over 80 percent of millionaires say they never would have been successful if their vocation wasn’t something they cared about.

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4. Grow your money

Most of us know the never-ending cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. “The fastest way to get out of that pattern is to make extra money for the specific purpose of reinvesting in yourself,” says Loral Langemeier, author of The Millionaire Maker. In other words, earmark some money for the sole purpose of investing it in a place where it will grow dramatically—like a business or real estate.

There are endless ways to make extra money for investing—you just have to be willing to do the work. “Everyone has a marketable skill,” says Langemeier. “When I started out, I had a tutoring business, seeing clients in the morning before work and on my lunch break.”

A little moonlighting cash really can grow into a million. Twenty-five years ago, Rick Sikorski dreamed of owning a personal training business. “I rented a tiny studio where I charged $15 an hour,” he says. When money started trickling in, he squirreled it away instead of spending it, putting it all back into the business. Rick’s 400-square-foot studio is now Fitness Together, a franchise based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with more than 360 locations worldwide. And he’s worth over $40 million.

PLUS: 10 Smart Money Moves to Make Now

When extra money rolls in, it’s easy to think, Now I can buy that new TV. But if you want to get rich, you need to pay yourself first, by putting money where it will work hard for you—whether that’s in your retirement fund, a side business or investments like real estate.

5. No guts, no glory

Last summer, Dave Lindahl footed the bill for 18 relatives at a fancy mansion in the Adirondacks. One night, his dad looked out at the scenery and joked, “I can’t believe we used to call you the black sheep!”

At 29, Dave was broke, living in a small apartment near Boston and wondering what to do after ten years in a local rock band. “I looked around and thought, If I don’t do something, I’ll be stuck here forever.”

He started a landscape company, buying his equipment on credit. When business literally froze over that winter, a banker friend asked if he’d like to renovate a foreclosed home. “I’m a terrible carpenter, but I needed the money, so I went to some free seminars at Home Depot and figured it out as I went,” he says.

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After a few more renovations, it occurred to him: Why not buy the homes and sell them for profit? He took a risk and bought his first property. Using the proceeds, he bought another, and another. Twelve years later, he owns apartment buildings, worth $143 million, in eight states.

The Biggest Secret? Stop spending.

Every millionaire we spoke to has one thing in common: Not a single one spends needlessly. Real estate investor Dave Lindahl drives a Ford Explorer and says his middle-class neighbors would be shocked to learn how much he’s worth. Fitness mogul Rick Sikorski can’t fathom why anyone would buy bottled water. Steve Maxwell, the finance teacher, looked at a $1.5 million home but decided to buy one for half the price because “a house with double the cost wouldn’t give me double the enjoyment.”

Movie News - Shrek's Underwhelming Box Office Weekend

TVGuide

Shrek was a little less green at the box office this weekend: Although Shrek Forever After took the top spot, its opening weekend numbers were well below previous installments.

The DreamWorks animated sequel, which was released in 3D at more than half of its 4,359 locations, earned $71.3 million in the U.S. and Canada. The audience was well below previous Shrek films, including Shrek the Third, which opened at $121.6 million in May 2007.

Marvel's Iron Man 2 came in second with $26.6 million while Robin Hood came in third with $18.7 million, bringing its North American total to $66.1 million.

Saturday Night Live spin-off, MacGruber took in a meager $4.1 million during it's opening weekend, landing in sixth position.

Round out the top 10: Letters to Juliet (No. 4, $9.1 million); Just Wright (No. 5, $4.2 million); Date Night (No. 7, $2.8 million); A Nightmare on Elm Street (No. 8, $2.3 million); How to Train Your Dragon (No. 9, $1.9 million); and Kites (No. 10, $1.0 million).

Profile: Christopher 'Dudus' Coke

Posted 15 Minutes Ago by DannyGallagher

To his supporters, Jamaican Christopher Coke is a public-spirited businessman. But many officials describe him as a drug lord whose activities span the Caribbean, North America and the UK.

The US justice department has him on its "world's most dangerous" list. Jamaica's former National Security Minister, Peter Philips, recently described him as probably the most powerful man in Jamaica.

The US sought his extradition last August to New York, where he is accused of organising deals in Marijuana and crack cocaine and funnelling the profits and weapons back to Jamaica.

Mr Coke, 40, would face life in prison if found guilty.

The request has greatly strained US-Jamaican relations.

The US authorities have been frustrated at the apparent foot-dragging by Jamaica's government.

The extradition of Mr Coke threatens to further destabilise a country already rife with drugs-related violence.

Jamaican police believe Mr Coke's alleged gang, the Shower Posse, has amassed a vast arsenal in his Kingston home turf, the tough district of Tivoli Gardens.

Bloody history

Tivoli Gardens, in the west of the city, has been represented since 2005 by Prime Minister Bruce Golding. It is also a traditional stronghold of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

In an interview, Tom Tavares-Finson - his lawyer until recently, and a senator - said his client was a legitimate businessman, not a hardened gang leader.

Speaking to the Jamaica Observer in December, Mr Tavares-Finson said: "Nobody has heard of him being involved in any criminal activity."

Mr Coke has many supporters in his west Kingston stronghold He described Mr Coke as "just an ordinary Jamaican going about his everyday business… trying to improve the lot of his children, his family and his community, with a recognition that he has an influence, and he takes his influence very seriously, and that influence is what is propelling the transformation of western Kingston."

Mr Tavares-Finson said people were turning his client into "a mythical character". He added: "That is not his doing. Left to his own devices, he would not be on the front page of any newspaper."

According to Jamaican media, Mr Coke is more like a "godfather" to Kingston residents - a benefactor providing the means for food and schooling.

Loyal residents have been taking to the streets in their hundreds to voice their support for the man they call the "president", "general", "shortman", or most commonly "Dudus".

"Jesus died for us so we will die for Dudus," read one placard.

The Shower Posse

Mr Coke's life has been racked by violence. Two of his brothers and a sister have been shot dead.

His father, Lester Coke, was a leader of the Shower Posse. He died in 1992 in a mysterious fire in his prison cell, while awaiting extradition to the US on drugs and murder charges.

The group is blamed for more than 1,000 murders in Jamaica and America during the 1980s.

It derives its name from "showering" communities with bullets, according to Michael Chettleburgh, a Toronto crime consultant.

"Don't let the name mislead you. This is not a gang that is based out of Jamaica. The Jamaican Shower Posse is everywhere. There is no head office for this gang," Mr Chettleburgh told Canadian media recently.

Home Ec: Remove Silly Putty, Gum, and Other Sticky Stains

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

by Mrs. FIXIT, Posted May 19th 2010 9:30AM

Tricks for getting the most ooey, gooey messes out of your hair (and your carpets, and your clothes...)

We've all been in some sticky situations -- literally. Silly putty, gum, dried glue and sticker residue can be some of the most persistent types of stains. They just want to, well, stick. Here, how to treat them.

SILLY PUTTY
Silly Putty isn't so silly when it's matted into your carpet. To remove it, spray liberally with a lubricating oil like WD-40, let it sit for a minute and then remove as much as possible with a metal spoon. The spoon must be sturdy enough to scrape the mess out of the carpet without damaging the fibers. Once all of the putty is gone, clean the area with warm soapy water and cloths to remove any traces of the oil and putty -- use a white cloth to prevent dye from rubbing off into your carpet.

CHEWING GUM
Whether you've stepped in it, dropped it, or otherwise made a mess with it, chewing gum is a pain to get out (as most moms know!). Next time you're faced with a gummy mess, grab some baby oil and saturate the gum. Leave it on for a minute and then wipe it away with a paper towel. If you need to remove the oil, wipe with white vinegar. If you don't have any baby oil in the house try some lubricating spray like WD-40. Apply it directly to the gum, wait five minutes, then wipe the gum and all of the sticky residue away with a paper towel.

PRICE STICKERS
I will never understand why a store would put the price stickers on the glass of a picture frames rather than the back. Most of the time, price stickers leave behind a tacky residue when you peel them off -- and it's particularly hard to remove sticker residue from glass. Try this: Put a piece of tape over the tag, run your fingernail over it a few times, then peel the tape and the price tag off with ease! If there is any leftover sticker goo on the glass rub it off with a little waterless hand cleaner! (Editor's note: You can also try citrus-scented Goo Gone -- it works wonders!)

GLUE
So the kids decided to do crafts on the carpet again? Never fear. You can dissolve dried glue (white glue or glue sticks) with white vinegar. Warm the vinegar for thirty seconds in the microwave, then dip a white cloth with it. Lay the cloth over the glue and leave it there for five minutes. Once the glue has softened, you can remove it from the carpet with a spoon, and then follow it up with some soapy water. *Tip: If you have a colored carpet, test vinegar in a hidden spot to make sure it won't discolor the fibers.

TREE SAP AND TAR
Tree sap and tar can be removed from your skin and floors with some petroleum jelly. Grab the Vaseline and spread it over the stained area, let it sit for a few minutes and simply wipe the sap away! Remember, the petroleum jelly will make the a surface slick so follow up by washing with a little soapy water to break up the jelly. Then dry the surface well

American boy, 13, breaks Everest record

Image via Wikipedia

By the CNN Wire StaffMay 22, 2010 8:06 p.m. EDT

CNN -- A 13-year-old American became the youngest climber to ever summit Mount Everest on Saturday.

Jordan Romero's journey was tracked through GPS coordinates on his blog, logging his team's ascent up Everest, which is 29,028 feet (8,847 meters) above sea level.

"Their dreams have now come true," a statement on Jordan's blog said. "Everyone sounded unbelievably happy."

Before Saturday, the youngest climber to scale Everest was 16-year-old Temba Tsheri of Nepal.

"I know you would like to hear from the boy himself, but he is currently flat on his belly knocked out," a member of Jordan's climbing team said in a message posted Saturday on his blog. "The effort he put out this last more like 48 hours is -- you're not going to believe the story when you see it and read about it."

Romero left for the peak from the Chinese side of the mountain after Nepal denied him permission on age grounds, according to nepalnews.com.

Before starting out, Romero, of Big Bear, California, said he wanted to climb Everest to inspire more young people to get outdoors.

"Obese children are the future of America, the way things are going," he said on April 9 in Kathmandu. "I am hoping to change that by doing what I do: climbing and motivational speaking."

With a smile, he added: "I am doing this a little for myself, too, to do something big."

Jordan now has climbed six of the seven highest peaks on seven continents, known as the Seven Summits.

"This is not an isolated vacation," said Paul Romero, Jordan's father, before the two embarked up Everest in Nepal. "This is a lifestyle."

Romero's family started tackling the Seven Summits in summer 2005. He was just 9 when they climbed 19,341 feet (5,895 meters) to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

There is a debate about whether the tallest mountain in Oceania is Kosciuszko in mainland Australia or Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, so Romero and his family climbed both.

The only peak left for him to climb after Everest is the Vinson Massif in Antarctica, which is 16,067 feet (4,897 meters). A trip there is planned for December.

Lil' Romeo's underwhelming USC career comes to an end

Image via Wikipedia

By Jeff Eisenberg

In a decision sure to disappoint opposing hecklers far more than USC basketball fans, Percy Miller is packing up his trademark aviator shades and oversized jewelry and leaving the Trojans program.

Miller, best known as rapper Lil' Romeo, will not return for his junior season, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. The 5-foot-11 point guard logged a mere 19 minutes in two years at USC, appearing in just three games last season in part due to a sprained left shoulder.

That Miller was even recruited to USC at all is one of the more bizarre decisions of former coach Tim Floyd's scandal-tainted tenure at the school.

Most believe Miller received a scholarship offer to USC only because his relationship with childhood friend DeMar Derozan helped the Trojans land the future NBA lottery pick. Floyd has always refuted this, but why else would he have recruited an injury-prone 160-pound guard who averaged 8.6 points a game as a senior for Beverly Hills High School.

"It's very rare to give a scholarship to someone who may never play," All-Star Sports recruiting director Bob Gibbons told the Wall Street Journal at the time.

If you want to add a little humor to your Friday workday, take a look at how Floyd described Percy Miller in a press release when the rapper turned point guard signed with the Trojans 2 1/2 years ago.

"He is a very unselfish point guard who plays exceptionally hard," Floyd said. "You can't have enough guys on your team who you think are reliable and dependable and have a tremendous upside. He is going to be playing on one of the better high schools in the area and it is always been important to us to have point guards coming in that know how to win."

That "tremendous upside," as Floyd so amusingly put it, not surprisingly didn't translate into tremendous production on the court.

Let's wish Miller further success, whether at another college or in the entertainment industry. And let's hope USC can find a way to put his scholarship to better use in the future.

Car bomb in central Iraq kills 22

WikipediaA car bomb has exploded at a market in Iraq's northern Diyala province, killing at least 22 people and wounding another 53, police said.

The blast took place in the mainly Shia town of Khalis, about 80km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, at about 1630 GMT.

Earlier this month, a spate of attacks across Iraq killed over 100 people.

The situation in the country remains tense after elections in March, with no bloc having yet assembled a majority to form a government.

It is the deadliest attack since a double bombing on 14 May, which killed 25 people and wounded 120.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad said a car containing explosives was set off in a busy market in front of a coffee shop where crowds were enjoying the cool evening.

Our correspondent says the attack is believed to have been carried out by Sunni militants in an effort to provoke sectarian reaction against Sunnis.

Violence has fallen considerably since three years ago at the height of the insurgency, but the recent attacks have sparked fears that militants are regrouping.

Rap music mogul Suge Knight arrested

By Gabriel Falcon, AC360 WriterMay 20, 2010 2:50 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of pointing a gun at a man, authorities in California said.


Knight, 45, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon involving a firearm and with driving under a suspended license, Los Angeles police told CNN.

According to investigators, an unidentified man reported that Knight aimed a weapon at him late Wednesday evening.

Knight, who founded Death Row Records, was later found driving a Cadillac Escalade in the city of Gardena, in the greater Los Angeles area, police said. He was arrested without incident just after midnight, authorities said.

Knight was booked at the Los Angeles Police Department Metropolitan Jail and was being held in lieu of $60,000 bail, authorities said. The investigation continues, Los Angeles Police spokeswoman April Harding said.

Knight has had previous run-ins with the law. He served several years in prison for violating parole on assault and weapons convictions.

Knight was with Tupac Shakur when the rapper was shot to death in Las Vegas in 1996. The slaying has not been solved.

2 police fatally shot in West Memphis, Arkansas

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(CNN) -- Two police officers were fatally shot and another two were wounded Thursday in two separate shootings allegedly by the same suspects in West Memphis, Arkansas, police said.


The suspects, who were using an assault weapon, were themselves fatally shot.

The incident began around 11:40 a.m. (12:40 p.m. ET), when police made a traffic stop on a white minivan traveling eastbound on I-40 at Airport Road, said Inspector Bert Shelton, who is assigned to city hall for the West Memphis Police Department.

The occupant or occupants of the van shot two police officers and sped off, he said. One of the victims died at the scene; the other was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died, Shelton said. One of the two fatalities was the son of the city's chief of police, he added.

A short time later and about a mile away, in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, two deputies searching for the suspects came across a white minivan and were shot and wounded as they approached the vehicle, Shelton said.

"The suspects were using an assault rifle," he said.

The suspects themselves were then fatally shot by other responding officers, he said.

KFC to keep selling meaty Double Down

LOUISVILLE (AP) — Meat lovers, relax. But chickens, beware.


KFC said Wednesday that Americans are gobbling down so many Double Down sandwiches that the fast-food chain will offer the bunless, meaty sandwich longer than it had planned

EARLIER: Meat meets meat in KFC's no-bun sandwich

Originally the sandwich — bacon and cheese surrounded by chicken filets — was to have been available through Sunday.

But KFC said that the sandwich will be available now for as long as customer demand remains high.

The Double Down came onto the market on April 12 and was supposed to have lasted about six weeks. But it tapped into Americans' fascination with quirky food and became a viral-marketing sensation. People posted videos of themselves eating the sandwich on sites like YouTube, and celebrities like Stephen Colbert gobbled it up.

KFC said it has been one of its most successful sandwich launches ever. Later this month, KFC expects to sell its 10 millionth Double Down.

Some have questioned the sandwiches' nutritional value. The original version has 540 calories and 32 grams of fat, and 1,380 milligrams of salt. A grilled version cuts calories to 460 and fat to 23 grams, but sodium rises to 1,430 milligrams. By comparison, the Big Mac from McDonald's has 540 calories, 29 grams of fat and 1,040 grams of sodium.

The American Heart Association says people should aim to eat less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day.

KFC's corporate parent is Yum Brands (YUM).

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Megan Fox dropped from 'Transformers 3': report

FOXNEWS.COM

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Actress Megan Fox has been dropped from the third installment of “Transformers,” according to a report from Access Hollywood.
A source who works at Paramount, the studio that produces the film, said Fox’s character would not be revived in “Transformers 3,” as producers want to take Shia LaBeouf’s character Sam Witwicky in a different direction, Access said.

Director Michael Bay apparently signed off on the decision; months after Fox compared his approach to work on set to that of “Hitler” and “Napoleon.”

“He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is,” she continued. “So he’s a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he’s not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he’s so awkward, so hopelessly awkward.”

Members of the cast and crew labeled Fox as “classless” and “unfriendly” in an open latter on Bay’s personal site.

Production on the third installment has already begun, Access reported

Drug Cops Targeting Tacoma Medical Marijuana Dispensary Allegedly Handcuff Teen and Take Money from 9-Year-Old

By Nina Shapiro, Monday, May. 17 2010 @ 1:50PMComments (35) Categories: Law & Courts

In the wake of a series of raids last week targeting a Tacoma medical marijuana dispensary, a Kitsap County mother is claiming that drug cops mistreated her son, took money from her daughter, and trashed her house.


Christine Casey, patient coordinator of North End Club 420, tells the Weekly that detectives from the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team (WestNet) who came to her house in Olalla (west of Vashon Island) handcuffed her 14-year-old son for two hours and put a gun to his head. They also told the kid to say goodbye to his dad, Guy Casey, because the dispensary owner was going to prison.

And as the detectives looked for cash to prove that the dispensary was illegally profiting from pot sales, Casey says, they confiscated $80 that her 9-year-old daughter had received from her family for a straight-A report card. Where did they find it?

In the girl's Mickey Mouse wallet, according to Casey. She also claims that the cops dumped out all her silverware, busted a hole in the wall, and broke appliances. She alleges, too, that the cops finger-wrote "I sell pot" in the dust covering the family's Hummer (which the cops then seized).

WestNet did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

The federally-funded, multi-jurisdictional task force came to Casey's home because Guy Casey, her ex-husband, still lives on the property in a guest house. A 48-year-old with arthritic knees, according to Christine Casey, he also grows pot there, both for himself and for another medical marijuana patient.

Casey says her daughter had already gone to school when the detectives arrived, around 8:30 a.m. on May 11. But her son had missed the bus and had just gone to the guest house to tell his dad when he ran into the detectives. According to Casey, the cops said they handcuffed the boy because "they just wanted to keep him safe" as they questioned Guy Casey and several friends who were visiting.

​According to court documents filed with the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office (see pdf), WestNet found $3,000 and 76 pot plants at the home (about half of which were small seedlings, Casey says). State law allows medical marijuana patients to keep only 15 plants on hand unless they can prove medical need for more. The task force also found 200 baggies of packaged marijuana at the dispensary itself.

The court documents say the raids followed an undercover operation in which a police operative repeatedly bought marijuana at the dispensary without producing a doctor's recommendation, as state law requires before someone can legally use marijuana. The documents also say that the dispensary was charging double the street value for the pot.

Casey and Michael Allison, who also works at the dispensary, insist they never sell pot without seeing a doctor's note and say they assume the confidential operative showed a fake recommendation. They also deny overcharging.

Even if that is true, the two men who run the business--Guy Casey and Michael Schaef--could face legal consequences. State law outlaws the sale of marijuana, whatever the price.

How We'll Prevent Costly Mistakes at the Pump

Posted: May. 11 2010 by Michael Zak

Be honest: How many times have you driven away from the pump and realized you have no idea whether or not you put the gas cap on because you weren't really thinking about it? Filling up is one of our most mindless activities: Gas cap off, card in, card out, select grade, fill tank, gas cap on, drive off. These days, many of us could do it in our sleep. But as new and improved types of fuel make their way into mainstream society, that careless activity can result in a simple and costly mistake: Putting the wrong kind of fuel in your car.


It may seem ridiculous, but it only takes one slip-up to put you in a world of financial hurt. People do damage putting diesel in gasoline cars and vice-versa all the time. In Europe, where diesels and gasoline cars have about a 50/50 split of the market, the problem is commonplace (a study showed roughly $30 million is wasted in the UK alone each year in fuel and repair costs). Even if you realized this mistake and didn't start the car with the wrong fuel – which, if you did, would seriously damage the engine – you would still have to pay to rectify the error. And that's with only a few fuel choices available today.

If other fuels like E85, bio-diesel, natural gas, hydrogen, electricity, etc., start appearing more frequently at the fueling station, how can we ensure that people don't ruin their cars or do other damage by selecting the wrong "pump"?

Different Nozzles for Different Fuels

Today, the issue at the pump is generally a gasoline and diesel mix-up, one that has a simple fix: different sized or shaped nozzles for gasoline and diesel. If the nozzle doesn't fit into your tank, you have the wrong type of fuel in your hand. Problem averted.

This solution is already in place at many pumps, where the diesel nozzles are larger than those for gasoline. But it's only part of the solution; you can still easily pump gasoline into a diesel vehicle (which, by the way, does more damage than the other way around).

Turning the fueling experience into a life-sized game of toddler blocks might not be a bad idea. My idea is to create small protrusions on the end of the pump -- like keys into a lock -- that would allow the nozzles to fit only into tanks specially designed for them.

Settling for the solution of different sized nozzles works for the time being and could certainly prevent some people from ruining their engines with diesel or gasoline, but it seems to be more of a short-term solution considering the implications of adding new types of fuel.

It's safe to assume that as hydrogen and electric cars become more prevalent, present-day gas stations will want to evolve to accommodate these new fueling needs. Doing so would lead to more types of fuels at the same location. This could prove to be a disastrous recipe. Think about it: Do you really want to be filling up your tank with gasoline while the guy next to you is charging his with a high-voltage electric current? We're not scientists, but we're pretty sure gas + rogue spark = disaster.

Smart Fueling Stations

Instead of trusting people to use the correct type of fuel (remember, we don't actually think about what we're doing when filling up), why not implement something to do that for us? Jan Chipcase, a user experience researcher at Frog Design and one of our favorite bloggers, recently tipped us off to a patent he has pending with Nakade Shogo. The fuel cell filling system automatically checks for the fuel required, does its thing, then bills the user automatically.

More examples can be found using microchips in cars and readers on fuel pumps. After all, our cars keep getting smarter, so why shouldn't our fueling stations keep up?

With all of the electronics that go into cars these days, installing a chip specific to the type of fuel your car runs on could be simple, easy and cheap. The chip could then be read by a sensor installed on the pump at a service station, which would in turn allow the flow of the correct type fuel for each car.

Pulling into a fueling station would reveal that you're driving a diesel vehicle, preventing you from an errant swill of E85. You would pay, fill and leave. There would be no room for mistakes (save for the time you pull up in your diesel truck and want to fill a spare can of gasoline for your lawn mower).

In some versions of the perfect future, you wouldn't even have to fill your car yourself. Implementing technology similar to that of the robotic gas station in New Jersey could eliminate spills and the risks that go along with filling next to another, more careless customer. Imagine all the white gloves you'd save.

The question becomes: Do we trust ourselves or our computers to keep things safe at the pump? Knowing how little we pay attention at the pump, we'll defer to the silicon.

'Today' Show Exposes Dirty Underwear at Marshalls, Walmart; Others Clean Up Their Act

by Beth Cooney Fitzpatrick (Subscribe to Beth Cooney Fitzpatrick's posts), Posted May 17th 2010 at 1:40PM

After outing several major retailers for their filthy practice of putting soiled undies back on the shelves, NBC's "Today" show recently returned to the stores in its ongoing "Secret Filth Exposed" series.



The good news? The investigative team found that each store that had been caught re-selling returned, deliberately soiled garments has since cleaned up its act.

The too-gross-for-words news? A whole new group of retailers -- including Walmart and Marshalls -- was caught returning questionable intimates to the sales floor.

The "Today" show's Jeff Rossen first reported on this dirty little retail secret in March, when secret shoppers were sent to J.Crew, Saks Fifth Avenue, Gap, Victoria's Secret, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Macy's.

The news team removed price tags and hygienic strips from panties, stained them with baby oil, and marked tags with two black dots for identification purposes. All of the stores accepted the soiled returns, and the show's investigators found the merchandise back on the shelves at Gap, Victoria's Secret, Macy's, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale's. A Victoria's Secret whistle-blower told Rossen it was common practice to put returned panties back on sale. Fortunately, the stained undergarments were not found at J.Crew or Saks.

A microbiologist who has worked with "Today" explained that soiled undergarments can harbor bacteria and viruses for several weeks, with the most imminent danger coming from "fecal material."

The offending retailers all put out strong statements condemning what "Today" found and vowed to reeducate their sales teams, adding that what happened was not store practice. Some noted that they have generous return policies, and while customers may have legitimate reasons for returning worn garments, they should never have been put out for sale.

To see if they were true to their word, "Today" went back to the retailers, this time at an upscale suburban New York mall instead of New Jersey, where the original returns and purchases took place. Some stores outright refused the returns, pointing out that the panties had been worn. Nordstrom did accept the underwear, but "Today" watched a clerk seal it in a plastic bag and never saw it back on the shelves.

Still, "Today" found other retailers engaging in the highly questionable practice. They did the black dot/baby oil test on swimwear and underwear from Walmart, JCPenney, Target, and Marshalls. Target and JCPenney accepted the returns, but investigators did not find the merchandise on the racks. Unfortunately, the garments were back on the sales floor at Marshalls and Walmart.

Again, the newly identified retailers condemned what "Today" found and insisted it was not in keeping with their policies on undergarments or swimwear. They, too, vowed to prohibit the practice and stress the matter with employees.

"Today" show host Matt Lauer summed it up by saying this is a cautionary tale for shoppers: "The lesson here is if you buy, wash before you wear."

Here at StyleList, we will be packing hand sanitizer the next time we stock up at one of those semiannual intimates sales.

Meanwhile, in other disgusting news, read about the "Good Morning America" report on how new clothes can make you sick.

Filed under: News, Shopping

Tags: Bloomingdales, dirty underwear, Gap, hygiene, JCPenney, JCrew, Jeff Rossen, Macys, Marshalls, Matt Lauer, Nordstrom, retailers, Saks Fifth Avenue, Target, today show, underwear, Victorias Secret, Walmart

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What It's Really Like to Work for the 10 Best Companies to Work for

ArticlePosted May 11th 2010 1:00PM

By Jenny Peters

Whether you're currently unemployed or just considering a company or career change, wouldn't it be nice to snag a job at one of Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For?" We think so, especially at the very best, the Top Ten. So we set out to ask the people who work there just what puts those ten companies at the top of the heap; not surprisingly, common themes of excellent benefits, terrific training, open channels of communication and even free lunch were some of the commonalities among these diverse workplaces.

1. SAS

One of the world's leading business data software suppliers, SAS has been consistently in the top ten for 13 years.

-- Find out what it's like to work at SAS.

2. Edward Jones

St. Louis-based investment firm Edward Jones maintained its high ranking by weathering the financial recession without layoffs or cutting benefits to its far-flung staff.

-- Find out what it's like to work at Edward Jones.

3. Wegmans

Grocery chain Wegmans is loyal to its employees, having never had a single layoff in the company's almost 100-year history.

-- Find out what it's like to work at Wegmans.

4. Google

The world's biggest search engine company is currently hiring, with plenty of perks for its new (and old) employees.

-- Find out what it's like to work at Google.

5. Nugget Market

Northern California's Nugget Market is famous for continually showing their employees just how much they are appreciated.

-- Find out what it's like to work at Nugget Market.

6. DreamWorks Animation

Making animated movies should be fun, so bosses Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg make sure that DreamWorks is a place where creativity can soar.

-- Find out what it's like to work at DreamWorks.

7. NetApp

Network storage is the name of NetApp's game, and the company makes sure to play fair with all its employees.

-- Find out what it's like to work at NetApp.

8. Boston Consulting Group

Highly qualified business consultants can make top dollar at this integrity-driven firm based in Beantown.

-- Find out what it's like to work at Boston Consulting Group.

9. Qualcomm

San Diego's largest employer keeps employees happy with a strong commitment to their health and wellness, both at work and beyond.

-- Find out what it's like to work at Qualcomm.

10. Camden Property Trust

Apartment-building development, construction and management is the main business of Camden, a Houston-based company that provides homes and jobs across 13 states.