"The Voice" Performances

Here is just a little review on performances during season 1 of NBC's new hit show "The Voice".

1. Memorable Performances:

• Javier Colon: "Fix You"
• Javier Colon and Stevie Nicks: "Landslide"
• Javier Colon and Adam Levine: "Man In the Mirror"
• Vicci Martinez: "Jolene" and "Rolling In the Deep".
• Vicci Martinez and Cee-Lo Green: "Love Is A Battlefield"
• Team Blake and Blake Shelton: "This Love"
• Beverly McLellan: "The Thrill Is Gone"
• "Creep"
• "Since U Been Gone"
• "F**kin' Perfect"
• Dia Frampton: "Heartless" and "Losing My Religion"
• Jared Blake: "Use Somebody" and "Not Ready To Make Nice"
• Nakia: "Forget You", "Sex On Fire" and "Whataya Want From Me"

   2. Performances We Would Like To Have Seen:

• "Rock Steady": Beverly McLellan and Bryan Adams.
• "Kiss On the Neck": Vicci Martinez and David Cook

"Death Dance" Stars Found—May Help Prove Einstein Right; Exotic pair may allow scientists to "probe for extreme gravity."

Two orbiting white dwarfs radiate gravitational waves, as seen in an artist's conception.

Illustration courtesy Tod Strohmayer/CXC/NASA and Dana Berry/CXC

Andrew Fazekas

for National Geographic News

Published July 19, 2011

A pair of aging stars discovered 3,000 light-years away is locked in a "dance" of death—a union that will end in their collision and a possiblesupernova, astronomers say.

The binary star system consists of two white dwarfs—the burnt-out cores of sunlike stars. The white dwarfs are gradually spiraling toward each other at breakneck speeds of 370 miles (595 kilometers) a second, and they're destined to merge in 900,000 years.

But astronomers hope that, before the collision, the spinning stars will help scientists test Einstein's general theory of relativity and even reveal the origins of an entire class of supernovae. (Related: "Einstein's Gravity Confirmed on a Cosmic Scale.")

"What is so incredible is that this exotic pair of Earth- and Neptune-sized stars are orbiting each other at only a third of our Earth-moon distance, circling each other every 12 minutes," said study leader Warren Brown, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"And because there is no interaction—or star matter streaming between them—we may have a unique stellar laboratory here to look for effects of general relativity and probe for extreme gravity."

But the newfound star pair is unique in that they don't swap matter as they spin, providing a "clean clock" to measure the effects of gravitational waves, Brown said.

"There are lots of stellar pairs in the universe, but all are interacting and exchanging matter with one another because they are so close together."

That "complicates their interpretation, because you typically don't see either star, except for the light coming from the matter that is going back and forth between the stars."

With a noninteracting pair, astronomers can precisely measure the change in the orbital period of the stars as they spiral toward each other.

Astrophysicist Gijs Nelemans, of Radboud University in the Netherlands, added that the new white dwarf system is probably a strong gravitational wave source, one that may soon be detectable by a gravity-wave space satellite called LISA, which could be launched around 2020.

"The most exciting aspect is that the change in the orbital period as it emits gravitational waves can actually be measured," said Nelemans, who was not involved in the new research.

"That means we will not only indirectly test general relativity, but also directly measure the predicted gravitational waves, which has never been done before," he said.

"Such a mission would truly open a new way to study the universe."

Newfound Pair May Illuminate Star Evolution, Death

The discovery also could help astronomers understand star evolution and death. It's long been speculated, for instance, that white dwarf collisions may produce Type Ia supernovae, which are thought to be caused when matter from a companion star is dumped onto a white dwarf, increasing the dwarf's mass beyond a set physical limit and igniting a thermonuclear explosion.

When the two newfound stars merge, according to current models, the result may be one supermassive white dwarf or an unusually faint stellar blast called an underluminous supernova. 

Ring of star debris

"If this is the progenitor of these rare subclass of supernova, we expect to be finding these exotic pairs at the same frequency as the supernova. We'll have to wait and see what our survey comes up with," study leader Brown explained.

Initial measurements were made in March, but now the binary system has moved almost directly behind the sun from our perspective on Earth, making the pair currently invisible to telescopes.

As a result, Brown and his team will have to wait until fall to measure the expected shortening of the orbital period.

"Stars merging in less than a million years is really a blink of an eye in cosmic time scales," Brown said. "Just the fact that we found something like this—and it exists—is interesting for astronomers."

- National Geographic

Rob Blagojevich is 17 times GUILTY.

Photo credit: Metro News

Olivia Wilde still "a bit wobbly" from divorce.

Despite being linked to a number of Hollywood bachelors, Olivia Wilde says she’s happy spending some time alone after her divorce from Italian prince Tao Ruspoli. 

In fact, she’s having a tough time moving on from her life of living with royalty.  

“The trauma of the whole thing has been humbling, and for the first time, I’m a little bit wobbly,” Wilde tells Marie Claire. 

“But I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person.”

- Metro News

2nd arrest for controversial Iranian blogger and actress. (Click here)

Don't fret, love: Emma Watson is going back to Brown. (Click here)

After a year abroad back in jolly ol' England, Ms Watson will be returning to Brown University.

News of The World Scandal rocks the world and brings England to its knees in shock. (Updated Jul. 23rd)

"The News International phone hacking scandal is an ongoing controversy involving the News of the World, a now-defunct British tabloid newspaper published by News International — a subsidiary of News Corporation — and the allegations that individuals working for the newspaper engaged in phone hacking. There are related allegations that the newspaper had obtained information in further illicit ways including making payments to police officers; that it exercised improper influence on politicians and the police; and that other British newspapers were involved in similar activities.

While it originally appeared that the News of the World had only hacked the phones of celebrities, politicians and members of the British Royal Family, revelations in July 2011 that victims included murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7/7 London bombings generated widespread public outrage and revulsion. Advertiser boycotts^[1] contributed to the closure of the News of the World, which published its final edition on 10 July 2011 after 168 years of publication.

On 6 July 2011, British prime minister David Cameron declared that a public inquiry would convene to investigate the affair, once police inquiries had been completed. On 13 July, Cameron named Lord Justice Leveson as chairman of the inquiry, with a remit to look into the specific claims about phone hacking and police bribery by the News of the World, while a separate inquiry would consider the culture and ethics of the British media. He also said the Press Complaints Commission would be replaced "entirely".

The affair has resulted in several high-profile resignations and arrests. Staff who quit News Corporation in the wake of the scandal have included Les Hinton, a subsidiary chief executive, News International's legal manager Tom Crone, and its chief executive Rebekah Brooks. The Metropolitan Police Service's commissioner and Britain's most senior police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson, also resigned his post. Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, the paper's former executive editor Neil Wallis, and Brooks were all arrested. Rupert Murdoch and his son James were summonsed to give evidence in Parliament.

The scandal eventually garnered attention in the United States, where News Corporation is headquartered and operates a multitude of media outlets. On 14 July the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched its own investigation into News Corporation, focusing on claims that its newspapers had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and accessed voicemails of victims of the 9/11 attacks. On 15 July, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice had also opened an investigation into the company. - Wikipedia.

"Summoned by lawmakers to answer for a phone hacking and bribery scandal at one of his tabloids, Rupert Murdoch said he was humbled and ashamed Tuesday but accepted no responsibility for wrongdoing as a widening investigation threatened to ensnare Britain's prime minister." - Metro News.

"Rupert Murdoch has never before appeared in front of a parliamentary committee — his son gave evidence in 2009 — and both Murdochs tried to avoid it this time around. They initially declined to come and answer questions about lawbreaking at their now-closed tabloid News of the World, only agreeing once legislators dispatched a sergeant-at-arms with a summons. [...]

Shareholders also appeared satisfied. News Corp. shares, which as of Tuesday morning had fallen by 17 per cent since the scandal broke, were trading 5.25 per cent higher at $15.75 by early afternoon in New York.

The members of the committee, among them firm foes of Murdoch's media dominance like Watson, appeared impressed". - Metro News.

See the original articles: here, here,and here.

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Some say the Murdoch family is now in crisis (click here to see the full article).

See the cell phone "pinging" technique here.

Will we see Geoffrey Rush one day play Murdoch in a movie about this scandal?...

Florida teen bludgeons parents to death, and then has a party. (Click here for more).

17-year-old Tyler Hadley.

"As police tell it, Hadley posted word on Facebook around 1:15 p.m. Saturday that he would be hosting a party at his house that night. Sometime afterward, the parents were attacked outside their bedroom, where their bodies were brought and covered with varied household items, and the door was locked.

The party went on as planned, with as many as 60 guests having such a raucous time that police were called with a noise complaint. They arrived at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, but the party was already breaking up.

Then, tipped off that a murder may have taken place, they returned to the home at about 4:24 a.m. Hadley was seen pacing inside a front bay window, police said, and when he finally answered the door he appeared nervous.

Inside the master bedroom, they found the bodies."

"Hadley is being charged as an adult in his parents' killings. While he currently is charged with second-degree murder, Bakkedahl said it's all but certain a grand jury will indict him on more serious charges.

He will not face the death penalty if convicted because of his age."

- Metro News.

Touching KFC Ad

A really moving and technically spectacular publicity.

But I still won't eat KFC, though.

Controversial 16-yr-old bride and 51-yr-old husband in an interview (Click here).

Bollywood comes to Canada.

Photo credit: Ottawa Metro 2011

A true American hero in the interview part. (Click here)