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For almost 50 years, astronomers have puzzled over the youthful appearance of stars known as blue stragglers... They shine brightly, they are older than they appear, and they have, disconcertingly, gained mass at a late stage of life... Now, Mathieu and Wisconsin colleague Aaron Geller, writing Dec. 24 in the journal Nature, show that blue stragglers, in most if not all cases, steal that mass from companion stars and that they sometimes do so by crashing into their neighbors, a scenario once thought far-fetched by astronomers. In the new Nature report, Geller and Mathieu show that the mass-gathering ways of...

The cha-cha-cha is just three small steps in a Latin dance but last night it was one giant step for Tom DeLay. The former House Majority Leader stole the show on “Dancing With the Stars,” the popular cringe-fest D-list celebrity reclamation project on ABC. Touted as the program’s “highest-ranking star,” DeLay partnered with ballroom pro (and two-time winner) Cheryl Burke for a booty-shaking, lip-syncing, winking number set to the tune of “Wild Thing.” And if you wanna know for sure: The whitest man in America can dance. In a mud-brown vest trimmed with sequins and matching sansabelt trousers straight out...

It's considered to be one of the more recent innovations to help the hapless traveller. But the satnav system may not be as modern as we think. According to a new theory, prehistoric man navigated his way across England using a similar system based on stone circles and other markers. The complex network of stones, hill forts and earthworks allowed travellers to trek hundreds of miles with 'pinpoint accuracy' more than 5,000 years ago, amateur historian Tom Brooks says. The grid covered much of southern England and Wales and included landmarks such as Stonehenge and Silbury Hill, claims Mr Brooks,...

A conference like the recent on in Aosta offers plenty of opportunity to listen in on fascinating conversations, one of which had to do with what would happen if we found a brown dwarf closer to the Earth than the Centauri stars. The general consensus was that such a find would be a powerful stimulus to the public imagination and would probably result in renewed interest in getting to and exploring such a place. A boon, in short, for all our interstellar efforts, an awakening to a new set of possibilities.But if there were a brown dwarf that close,...

Astronomers love their sky maps, and this latest is a doozie. It reveals thousands of previously undiscovered knots of cold cosmic dust, each a potential star waiting to be born. The new atlas of dust covers the inner regions of our Milky Way Galaxy, where stars, gas and dust are all packed tightly together, where chaos reigns, where massive stars are born. It's so dusty in there that optical telescopes can't see anything. But cosmic material emits and reflects various forms of radiation besides the visible. The new observations were made in submillimeter-wavelength light, which is between infrared light and...

The stars are not twinkling bright this summer. Hollywood's movie studios, hopeful that marquee-name actors would push their summer box-office receipts to record levels, are finding that the heavyweights aren't winning over audiences like they used to. With all but a couple of big-budget films already opened, the summer of 2009 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for Hollywood's A-list talent.

The tattooist embroiled in a row with a teenage girl who claims he tattooed 56 stars on her face when she only asked for three has said he will help pay for them to be removed. Rouslan Toumaniantz said today that Kimberley Vlaminck 'absolutely' agreed she wanted 56 stars tattooed on the left side of her face. But now the 18-year-old is suing Toumaniantz, claiming she had asked him for only three stars - and had fallen asleep during the procedure, waking up to a nightmare in her Belgian hometown of Courtrai.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, CEOs and celebrity doctors took up U.S. President Barack Obama's campaign for healthcare reform on Monday, saying millions of Americans need help.

Show us what you got Hollywood… In the year the Oscars extolled the virtues of Slumdog Millionaire, there was nothing “slummy” about the charmingly-coffered stars who preened for the cameras in their fabulous designer-wear, accessorized-to-the-millions best at the 81st annual Academy Awards. Anne Hathaway didn’t win her Oscar but she definitely stood out on the red carpet. The actress wore an ivory Armani Privé Spring 2009 gown and Cartier jewelry. Beyonce Knowles dazzled in the dress of her own brand - House of Dereon Couture. No cliche-riddled affair, it was brilliant opiate for the masses

They came. We saw. They conquered us. Hollywood’s beautiful elite dazzled with an extraordinary display of fashion and style at the 2009 SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Awards. Kate Winslet stole the spotlight at yesterday’s SAG Awards wearing an electric blue Narciso Rodriguez body-con gown that emphasized her bountiful cleavage and sensuous figure. She added Chopard jewels to complete the look. Rosario Dawson wore a silk champagne Dolce & Gabbana gown with ruche bodice that spoke of old style glamour.

The first stars to light the early universe may have been powered by dark matter, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Michagan, Ann Arbor call these very first stars "Dark Stars," and propose that dark matter heating provided the energy for these stars instead of fusion. The researchers propose that with a high concentration of dark matter in the early Universe, the theoretical particles called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles(WIMPs), collected inside the first stars and annihilated themselves to produce a heat source to power the stars. "We studied the behavior of WIMPs in the first stars,"...

NGC 2264 lies about 2600 light-years from Earth in the obscure constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn, not far from the more familiar figure of Orion, the Hunter. The image shows a region of space about 30 light-years across.

BAR HARBOR, Maine - On a clear night, the Milky Way cuts across the sky and down to the horizon like a celestial lightning bolt, a giant, luminescent spear shrouded in a graceful veil of back-lighted stardust. The sight has always been up there. But today, few Americans can see it, especially not in brightly lighted cities like Boston. On the densely populated East Coast, Mount Desert Island is one of the last inhabited places where the naked eye can still clearly observe the heavenly wonders that have inspired religion, mythology, science, and culture. To preserve that natural spectacle -...

High overhead around the 8 p.m. local standard time is a bright configuration of stars that people unfamiliar with the sky often mistake for the Big Dipper. Big it is, but — at least in an official sense — a dipper it is not. This large figure is not usually described as a dipper in most stargazing guides; The Autumn Dipper, in fact, looks like a much larger and brighter version of the Little Dipper.

Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars Scientists have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, in a paper published on 15 June 2008. The finding suggests that parts of the raw materials to make the first molecules of DNA and RNA may have come from the stars. The scientists, from Europe and the USA, say that their research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, provides evidence that life's raw materials came from...

ST. LOUIS — Quark stars, exotic objects that have yet to be directly observed, are part of a new theory to explain some of the brightest stellar explosions recorded in the universe. Super-luminous supernovae, which produce more than 100 times more light energy than normal supernovae and occur in about one out of every 1,000 supernovae explosions, have long baffled astrophysicists. The problem has been finding a source for all of that extra energy. University of Calgary astrophysicists Denis Leahy and Rachid Ouyed think they have a possible source — the explosive conversion of a neutron star into a quark...

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2008 – New campaign stars authorized for wear on the Afghanistan and Iraq campaign medals represent tangible recognition and honor for the sacrifices and contributions servicemembers have made in support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, a senior defense official said today. The Defense Department announced the campaign stars yesterday to recognize participation in specific campaigns in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Servicemembers who quality for the Afghanistan Campaign Medal or Iraq Campaign Medal may now display a bronze campaign star on their medals for each designated campaign phase in which they participated. In keeping with military tradition,...

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait, March 11, 2008 – For more than four hours last night, Camp Buehring, in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert, became a hard-rocking outdoor amphitheater. Before the music began, about 5,000 servicemembers heard a message of support and appreciation from President Bush. Both Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace, commander of U.S. Army Central and Combined Forces Land Component Command, and his deputy, Maj. Gen. Dennis E. Hardy, visited with the performers and thanked them for their support. Then, before comedian Carlos Mencia got the troops laughing, he gave them some words of thanks. “You guys work...

The first stars to appear in the Universe may have been powered by dark matter, according to US scientists. Normal stars are powered by nuclear fusion reactions, where hydrogen atoms meld to form heavier helium. But when the Universe was still young, there would have been abundant dark matter, made of particles called Wimps: Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. These would have fused together and obliterated each other long before nuclear fusion had the chance to start. As a result, the first stars would have looked quite different from the ones we see today, and they may have changed the course...

You would think that a star anywhere from 400 to 200,000 times wider than the Sun would be fairly easy to detect. But not if it’s a ‘dark star,’ the name for a new, theoretical entity about to make its appearance in Physical Review Letters. Astrophysicist Paolo Gondolo (University of Utah) makes the case that dark matter would have affected the temperature and density of the gases that formed the first stars. Dark stars would mostly contain normal matter — hydrogen and helium — but they would have been much larger than the Sun, glowing largely in the infrared. Hypothetical...

EXCLUSIVE Celebs and VIPs snub plea to share private planes and cut CO2 emissions. Just 78 out of 3,500 rich & famous agree to stop flying solo to red carpet. By Susie Boniface 02/12/2007 VIPs have snubbed a plea to go green - by refusing to share their luxury private jets. Thousands of the rich and famous were invited to pool their planes in an effort to cut carbon emissions. But so far just 78 out of 3,500 who either own or regularly use private planes have signed up. Prince Charles, climate campaigner Al Gore, Simon Cowell, Madonna and Kate...

Getting Away with Murder? I was noticing this in the Phil Spector case, often stars seem to get away with murder. While it is impossible to know what really happened it is quite likely that some of these people were at least tangentially involved in the death of a spouse, significant other or someone else. Here are some I can think of: OJ Simpson William Shatner Robert Wagner Robert Blake

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2007 – Top military officials and five servicemember heroes hobnobbed with an army of celebrities here last night during the USO World Gala. Comedian Jeffrey Ross, left, presents the USO's Coast Guardsman of the Year award to Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel J. Walsh during the 66th annual USO World Gala in Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2007. Defense Dept. photo by John J. Kruzel  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Hundreds of guests were on hand at the National Building Museum for the exclusive, black-tie awards ceremony and celebration. The annual party is hosted...

Hollywood star Bill Murray has spoken out about the events that led to him leaving a blood sample at a Stockholm police station last month. While speaking to the press at the Venice Film Festival, Murray was asked by a Swedish journalist to explain just what he was doing driving around Stockholm city centre in a golf cart. "A friend of mine, Jesper Parnevik, invited me to play in a pro-am golf tournament in Stockholm. I was driven to a party celebrating the event in a golf cart," Murray said. "After the party, the people that drove in the golf...

June 7, 2007 — The two heaviest stars ever have been discovered in the southern Milky Way galaxy. The double super heavyweights are actually in orbit around each other, and both break the record — 83 times the sun’s mass — for the most massive stars found to date. The heavier of the two weighs in at a whopping 114 "solar masses," while its little brother is 84 solar masses. The discovery was presented June 7 at the meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. The two big bruiser stars, which...

HONOLULU — Astronomers have discovered 28 new planets outside of our solar system, increasing to 236 the number of known exoplanets, revealing that planets can exist around a broad spectrum of stellar types, from tiny, dim stars to giants.An artist's concept of the Neptune-sized planet GJ436b (right) orbiting the M-class dwarf star Gliese 436 at a distance of 3 million miles.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A dazzlingly detailed image released by NASA scientists on Tuesday shows the chaotic conditions in which stars are born and die -- in this case in a huge nebula in another neighborhood of our Milky Way galaxy. The image, made from a series of 48 shots taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in spring and summer of 2005, depicts star birth in a new level of detail. It provides a view spanning a distance of 50 light years across of the Carina Nebula. A nebula is an immense cloud of hot interstellar gas and dust. This...

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2007 – Stars for Stripes knows troops deployed to remote locations don’t have the luxury of heading out to their favorite venue to take in a concert, so it takes the concerts to them. From left: Army Command Sgt. Maj. William M. Johnson, Jim McMahon, Kevin Butler, Army Col. Jeffrey Bannister, Karri Turner and Dave Price pose for a photo in Iraq. The civilian celebrities entertained servicemembers during a Stars for Stripes tour in December 2006. Bannister is commander of the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, and Johnson is his senior enlisted...

If symmetry is a sign of splendor, then the newly discovered Red Square nebula is one of the most beautiful objects in the universe. Seen in the infrared, the nebula resembles a giant, glowing red box in the sky, with a bright white inner core. A dying star called MWC 922 is located at the system’s center and spewing its innards from opposite poles into space. (A nebula is an interstellar cloud of gas, dust and plasma where stars can both emerge and die.) “This spectacular event is the death of a star,” said study team member James Lloyd of...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2007 – Army Spc. Timothy Lott gripped his walking cane as he prepared to meet some of his lifelong heroes. Marine Officer Candidate Justin Gerhardt poses between World Wrestling Entertainment legends Ron Simmons (left) and Jimmy "The Mouth of the South" Hart before WWE's Monday Night Raw event at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., March 12. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “I’ve been a wrestling fan for 27 years,” he said at the Verizon Center’s posh Coach’s Club here yesterday evening. Lott was one of about 40 injured veterans Walter Reed Army...

Just more than 200 Silver Stars have been awarded for Operation Iraqi Freedom since it began in 2003, and three of them now belong to Soldiers from one Fort Campbell platoon.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2006 -- Thanks to a partnership with Hollywood Video and Game Craze rental stores in five states, “Tunes 4 the Troops” anticipates sending troops 5,000 DVDs this holiday season. Kaylee Radzyminski of Cleveland, Tenn., attaches “Tunes 4 the Troops” stickers on CDs she sent to servicemembers overseas. Kaylee started the organization in the fall of 2005 with the goal of sending the troops 500,000 CDs, DVDs, and audio books by the 2008 holiday season. Courtesy photo  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. For $1, customers at 26 Hollywood Video stores and 18 Game Craze stores in...

Stars who could lead Constitution Party in '08 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jane Chastain -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 Recently, I was taken to task by Howard Phillips, the founder of the U.S. Taxpayer Party – now the Constitution Party – for an error I made in a column titled "What's Wrong with the Two Party System?" In that column, I lamented the fact that, in the last election, I "threw away" two votes by voting for the American Independent because there was no way I could justify voting for either major-party candidate. (The American Independent Party is an affiliate of the Constitution Party...

Scientists have finally demystified the incredible workings of a 2,000-year-old astronomical calculator built by ancient Greeks. A new analysis of the Antikythera Mechanism [image], a clock-like machine consisting of more than 30 precise, hand-cut bronze gears, show it to be more advanced than previously thought—so much so that nothing comparable was built for another thousand years. "This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind," said study leader Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University in the UK. "The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right…In terms of historical and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as...

11/3/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- Country music stars Vince Gill, Toby Keith, LeeAnn Womack and George Strait share their favorite holiday memories and traditions in a "Red, White and Air Force Blue Christmas" radio special, slated for release this month. Produced and marketed by the Air Force Recruiting Service's Strategic Communications Division, the one-hour show features in-depth interviews with each of the stars along with songs from their holiday albums. The program will be sent to American Forces Radio and Television Service affiliates and more than 3,300 country radio stations, according to Jimmy Spacek, AFRS broadcasting manager. The show,...

September 14, 2006 - An international research team led by Prof. Michael Kramer of the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, UK, has used three years of observations of the “double pulsar”, a unique pair of natural stellar clocks which they discovered in 2003, to prove that Einstein’s theory of general relativity–the theory of gravity that displaced Newton’s–is correct to within a staggering 0.05%. Their results are published on the14th September in the journal Science and are based on measurements of an effect called the Shapiro Delay. The double pulsar system, PSR J0737-3039A and B, is 2000 light-years away in...

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek bank robber armed with ninja throwing stars finally ran out of moves on Tuesday when police arrested him after an Athens bank robbery. Petros Onen, 49, had held up 11 small suburban bank branches making away with 50,000 euros ($63,590) in recent months, threatening to throw his razor-sharp, palm-size stars -- made famous by the Japanese ninja warriors -- at cashiers, police said. His luck ran out when undercover policemen at the last bank he robbed followed him home and arrested him with his loot, his throwing stars, a fake gun and a list of...

My Mom told me and I heard that actor from Gone with the Wind. Lesley Howard ..(Ashley), was shot down in his plane in World War 2 on a mission and killed. What ever happened to Sean Flynn , son of Errol FLynn in Vietnam, I believe he was a reporter and just disappearred there. He was reporting on what our vets were doing. Maybe he knew too much?

See for example this thread first. Pam Anderson marries kid rock It's enough to send me into shock Will they soon let it slip There's a video clip? What class! What style! ...and what schlock

Scouts played large part in Fossum's lifehttp://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=14170&Section=Local http://tinyurl.com/ru9qt July 12, 2006 Marc B. Geller Monitor Staff Writer McALLEN — One of the biggest influences in Mike Fossum’s life growing up in the Rio Grande Valley was his experience in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. Beverly Alleyn, who like Fossum’s mother is a nurse, was his Cub Scout pack leader. And her husband, Mickey, led the Webelos program that Mike needed to complete with other Cub Scouts to transition into Boy Scouts. The Alleyns’ son, Rob, now a McAllen physician, was one of Mike’s classmates and rose with Mike through the...

TORONTO (CP) - It could take half a century or more for someone infected with prions - the cause of mad cow-like diseases - to start showing symptoms, say researchers, who drew that conclusion after studying a similar illness among Papua New Guinean people who once feasted on their dead. Their findings suggest that the number of human cases of variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (vCJD) could end up being much larger than originally suspected, say the researchers, whose study is published in Friday's edition of The Lancet. With 160 cases, the United Kingdom has the highest number of recorded cases in...

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Members of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 2 were recognized for their bravery and dedication while supporting the global war on terrorism during a ceremony at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va., May 26. Rear Adm. Donald Bullard, commander, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, presented 14 members of EODMU 2 with Bronze Stars with Combat Distinguishing Device and presented the Silver Star to Senior Chief Aviation Ordnanceman (EOD) William A. Bastable. During Operation Enduring Freedom, although wounded, the Joint Task Force lead navigator refused to abandon his team after the group came under enemy fire, June...

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. (May 4, 2006) -- Lieutenant Colonels Jay A. Van Der Werff and Thomas R. McCarthy received Bronze Stars at an award ceremony April 24. Both gentlemen were awarded for their efforts during a six-month Iraq deployment. “I feel I just did my job,” said Van Der Werff, Marine Aircraft Group-26 executive officer. “The Marines that worked for me, both officers and enlisted, did a great job while we were in Iraq. This is a reflection on the work that they did as well.” During the deployment, Van Der Werff served as an operations...

It's been a quiet week in St. Paul, Minnesota, our hometown. The mayor turned on his police lights to halt a fleeing citizen after a fender-bender. The Senate Tax Committee is turning everything to mush. Bodies so naked they don't even have skin are on display at the Science Museum of Minnesota. We welcome the world-class actors who will be cruising down Wabasha Street this evening for the opening of the movie version of "A Prairie Home Companion." This is a pretty big deal for St. Paul — not like the high school wrestling tournament, but pretty big all the...

Hollywood is missing in action when it comes to fighting for America in recent conflicts, not the least being the war against terrorism. We hereby challenge readers to name one modern American celebrity, apart from the late football star Pat Tillman, who served or fought for his or her country in the past 15 years. "Even Hollywood ... sent its best to wars prior to Vietnam," University of Dayton professor Larry Schweikart reminds us in his new book, "America's Victories," writing that professional actors were as "thoroughly represented" in the fighting military during World War II as any other group....

LOS ANGELES - Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn protest the war. Leonardo DiCaprio has taken on global warming and Mike Farrell stands vigil against the death penalty. But when it comes to immigration reform a controversy in Hollywood's own backyard stars have largely been unseen and unheard. Fear of career damage, confusion over a complex issue abruptly supercharged by waves of nationwide protests, and historic detachment from Latino realities are among the explanations offered by industry insiders and observers. Not that the movement has needed famous standard bearers it has been notable for its bottom-up genesis that has...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A particle accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories has heated a swarm of charged particles to a record 2 billion degrees Kelvin, a temperature beyond that of a star's interior. Scientists working with Sandia's Z machine said the feat also revealed a new phenomenon that could eventually make future nuclear fusion power plants smaller and cheaper to operate than if the plants relied on previously known physics. "At first, we were disbelieving," said Chris Deeney, head of the project. "We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result and not an 'Oops'!" Sandia's...

Here's a speech we would like to hear from an Academy Award winner: I thank you for this wonderful award. Receiving an Academy Award gives the recipient an almost unique opportunity to speak to hundreds of millions people around the world, so I would like take this once-in-a-lifetime moment to say this:

CELEBRITIES who have it all, fame, glamour and riches, will stagger to their limousines after tomorrow's Oscars under the weight of tens of thousands of dollars of free swag. Whether they win or lose at the 78th annual Academy Awards the stars won't exactly be going home empty handed. Each of the 120-odd nominees and the galaxy of Oscar presenters are rewarded for the time, nerves and red-carpet exposure to pesky paparazzi with a "swag bag" of luxurious loot that was last year worth more than $US100,000. That figure dwarfs the entire production budgets of most of this year's best...

Oscar nominees Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal and Frances McDormand are among those expected to step out of green vehicles and onto the red carpet at the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday. In all, 25 VIPs are participating in the fourth annual "Red Carpet, Green Cars" event sponsored by Toyota Motor Corp. and the environmental organization Global Green USA. McDormand, Phoenix, Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Aniston and George Clooney are all expected to arrive at the Oscars in Toyota or Lexus hybrids, including the Toyota Prius, Lexus RX crossover and a hybrid version of the Toyota Camry, which goes on sale in May. Event...