Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Gadhafi son's U.S. stint stirs anger

The Libyan leader's youngest son abruptly left his L.A. internship to lead brutal attacks.

Until uprising, Gadhafi’s son was on U.S. internship

When unrest exploded in Libya last month, Khamis Gadhafi--the youngest son of the country's embattled leader Muammar Gadhafi--wasn't around. He was on an internship program in the United States.
Khamis, who runs Libya's special forces, quickly returned to his home country, where he has led a military unit that has brutally suppressed rebel forces.
The internship, which lasted a month, was sponsored by AECOM, a Los Angeles-based global engineering and design company that has been working with the Libyan regime to modernize the country's infrastructure. Khadis made stops in San Francisco, Colorado, Houston, Washington, and New York City, meeting with high-tech companies (including Google, Apple, and Intel), universities, and defense contractors like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. While in the Big Apple, Khamis even took in the Broadway show "Mamma Mia."

Two encrypted codes found at a murder scene may hold the key to a 1999 cold case.

FBI asks public for help breaking encrypted notes tied to 1999 murder

In what seems like a throwback to the still-unsolved Zodiac killings that terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s, the FBI has sent out a public appeal for amateur sleuths to help solve a key cryptographic clue in a 1999 murder case.
On June 30, 1999, police officers in St. Louis, Missouri found the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick, who'd been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues investigators recovered from the scene were two encrypted notes stuffed into the victim's pockets.
"Despite extensive work by our Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick's murderer has yet to face justice," the FBI said in a press release today. CRRU chief Dan Olson added, "We are really good at what we do, but we could use some help with this one ... Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea."
The FBI has reached out to the public with code breaking brain teasers in the past--but they were games, not actual cases. This is the chance for want-to-be FBI sleuths to break their brains on code that is part of a current investigation. The notes are after the jump.

Channel your favorite CSI character, folks. Here are the notes:

Baltimore's Jake Fox gets an earful after breaking a code that most fans never knew existed.

Call the baseball cops: Jake Fox violates year’s first unwritten rule

Last season may have been the Year of the Unwritten Rule in baseball, but 2011 is getting off to an awfully early start.
And Jake Fox(notes) is accused of being this year's first big violater, not only by the opposing team, but by his own manager as well.
According to Jeff Zrebiec of the Sun papers, the Baltimore Orioles catcher ruffled the feathers of the Detroit Tigers and O's manager Buck Showalter during the eighth inning of Monday's spring training game in Sarasota. His big offense? Swinging at a 3-0 pitch with no outs and runners on second and third.
That doesn't sound that egregious — especially since there were runners in scoring position and the at-bat ended in a bases-loading walk anyway — so what was the beef?
Apparently, the O's were winning 13-3 at the time and there was a minor league pitcher on the mound, so Fox's bat should have been on his shoulder. Or so some would have you believe.

Chris Hemsworth got an unpleasant surprise after bulking up for his upcoming role.

Chris Hemsworth Bulked Up Too Much for His 'Thor' Costume

Chris Hemsworth as Thor Marvel Studios/Paramount Here's a problem most people will never have to deal with: being too buff to play a god.
Chris Hemsworth did, though, as he prepared to play the title character in Thor, the next movie adaptation of a Marvel comic book character. The 27-year-old Australian actor had to get into serious shape to play the hero inspired by Norse mythology. But went a little too far.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Hemsworth revealed that he bulked up so much to prepare for the role that he couldn't fit into his costume. When he tried on Thor's armor for a final camera test right before shooting was to begin, it was way too tight.
Hemsworth said that while wearing the restrictive, long-sleeved costume, "[My] hands started going numb... And I started getting pins and needles and you'd touch the skin and the blood wouldn't return to the area so quick." Apparently, in the three months between being measured for the costume and the final test, his added muscle made the suit so tight it cut off circulation.

See movie photos from 'Thor' >>

Thor (Hemsworth) in less formal attire Marvel/Paramount After that, Hemsworth said that the costume was altered along with his exercise plan. He said director Kenneth Branagh told him, "Let's try to pull it back just a little bit, otherwise it's too blocky." Hemsworth subsequently changed his diet and his workout routine, focusing more on cardio exercises instead of weight training.

Dangerous breach feared at nuclear plant

A suspected leak in the reactor core could unleash uncontrolled quantities of radiation.

Breach suspected at troubled Japanese power plant

TOKYO – Two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami triggered a crisis at a nuclear plant, the government said Friday there is a suspected breach at a reactor — another setback that would mean radioactive contamination at the facility is more serious than once thought.

Japanese leaders defended their decision not to evacuate people from a wider area around the plant, insisting they are safe if they stay indoors. But officials also said residents may want to voluntarily move to areas with better facilities, since supplies in the tsunami-devastated region are running short.
The escalation in the nuclear plant crisis came as the death toll from the quake and tsunami passed the grim milestone of 10,000 on Friday. Across the battered northeast coast, hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed still have no power, no hot meals and, in many cases, no showers for 14 days.
The uncertain nuclear situation again halted work at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, where authorities have been scrambling to stop the overheated facility from leaking dangerous radiation. Low levels of radiation have been seeping out since the March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling system, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants. The most likely consequence would be contamination of the groundwater.

Seattle hopes to lure fans to the stadium with a mixture of stuff that past crowds left behind.

Get your free compost! Mariners plan to give away garbage

If you think about it, most ballpark giveaways aren't very eco-friendly. Cheap caps, thin T-shirt and flimsy seat cushions are inevitably thrust to the back of a closet and then they find a landfill a few years later. Not exactly a good use of resources.
The Seattle Mariners are trying to change that process this year, however, with an unusual series of "compost night" giveaways that will end up helping the environment.

Are you ready for opening day? Not until you follow Big League Stew on Twitter and Facebook!

Yes, instead of getting the usual Ichiro(notes) bobblehead for their desks at work, Mariners fans will head home with bags of soil matter and fertilizer that will hopefully grow their gardens at home (and not, say, end up on the field as a form of protest during another 100-loss season by the Mariners).
Even better, the compost will be made up of garbage that fans left behind during previous games at Safeco Field.
From The Seattle Times:

Not just any compost, mind you, but small bags of compost made from food waste, packaging material, drink cups, utensils and other stuff discarded during past Mariners games and transformed into a garden-friendly mix by Cedar Grove Composting.

Think of it as taking a little bit of the ballpark home, said Scott Jenkins, Mariners vice president for ballpark operations.
"We've had a culture of consumption," said Jenkins. "We need to have a culture of conservation."

Maybe that culture is changing now. In 2008, the Washington Nationals opened the first green stadium in the United States. Three years later, the Seattle Mariners and other Pacific Northwest franchises are working with the Green Sports Alliance so they can take their own steps toward preserving earth's natural resources.
In addition to salvaging all that tonnage of ballpark material for later use, the GSA views this promotion as an opportunity to bring awareness to sports fans who may not understand the importance of, or participate in the act of recycling. They also hope the knowledge they gather from this project will provide other franchises and venues with enough information and inspiration to make similar changes.

An awkward moment at the White House prompts flashbacks to another classic presidential mix-up.

They’re just like us: Even presidents get locked out

President Obama returned to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night expecting to face tough questions on Libya, Japan's earthquake recovery and other major international crises. But a more personal issue stood in the way: he appeared to be locked out of the White House.

Another wave of pro-democratic protests hits a country with a long history of oppression.

Unrest in Syria: What you need to know

The uprising in Libya, which provoked military intervention by the United States and its allies to avert a brutal government crackdown, has dominated this week's headlines. But meanwhile, there's new unrest in yet another Middle Eastern nation--one with perhaps greater strategic implications for the United States
Could the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad be set to go the way of the dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia, which were toppled last month by massive popular protests? And what would that mean for the U.S.?

Elizabeth Taylor's humorous final request

In a private ceremony, the screen legend is laid to rest in her own, unique way.

UPDATED: Elizabeth Taylor Laid To Rest Near Michael Jackson At Forest Lawn Cemetary In Glendale

Dame Elizabeth Taylor has been laid to rest.

The Oscar winner, Hollywood legend and AIDS activist's funeral took place on Thursday afternoon at Forest Lawn Memorial Parks & Mortuaries in Glendale, Calif.

PLAY IT NOW: A Look Back: Elizabeth Taylor & Michael Jackson's Unlikely Friendship

"Elizabeth Taylor was laid to rest this afternoon at a small private funeral service attended by family and close friends in The Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn-Glendale. The service was scheduled to begin at 2 PM but at Miss Taylor's request started late. Miss Taylor had left instructions that it was to begin at least 15 minutes later than publicly scheduled, with the announcement, 'She even wanted to be late for her own funeral,'" a statement from the late actress' rep to Access Hollywood read.

In a shocking turn, a former front-runner must sing for his life while the judges debate his fate.

Top 11 'Idol' Results: Most. Dramatic. Elimination. Episode. Ever.

You know how writers like me tend to lapse into hyperbole, and use that hackneyed old phrase "Best ______ Ever"? Well, believe it this time. This ain't hyperbole here. Thursday's "American Idol" top 11 results show was in fact The. Most. Dramatic. Ever.

EVER!

The show started out innocently enough, with a Motown-soundtracked birthday celebration for 63-years-young judge Steven Tyler (who doesn't look a day over fabulous), complete with a cake the size of J.Lo's dressing room and a surprise "Happy Birthday" serenade by Motown legend Stevie Wonder. Good times, good times. But I couldn't quite enjoy the spectacle, because at the back of my mind was Ryan Seacrest's ominous announcement from the top of the show: "Tonight's result might shock you." And with this being one of the highest-staked elimination episodes of the season--the one that determined which contestants get to go on the Idols Live Tour this summer--that didn't sound like cause for celebration at all. What a party pooper that Seacrest is.

Then Ryan, evil man that he is, nearly gave me my biggest "Idol" scare since that horrible night Adam Lambert was in the bottom two, when he told two of my favorites, Paul McDonald and James Durbin, that they were "not safe." But this was, thankfully, just an elaborate setup for a gag starring one of wrestling fan James's idols, Hulk Hogan, who crashed the stage to tell the boys that they'd actually made the top 10. Not cool, Ryan. I got my revenge when Hulk body-slammed Ryan into the crowd after that, but I didn't think that was punishment enough for such cruel fakery.

Baylor's Melissa Jones was running down the court recently when something scary happened.

The Blind Leading: Baylor Player Fights Through Freak Injury

Fear was not in the falling. That felt normal, just a typical tumble in a typical basketball game. Nor did Baylor forward Melissa Jones worry much about the crash of a player on top of her, or the thumping of her head upon the floor. These things happened all the time. She stood up afterward and ran down the court. No, panic wouldn’t come for several more minutes when the vision in her right eye clouded, then slowly faded away..
Until there was only darkness.
That’s when she knew something was very, very wrong.
This was just two weeks ago, at a game at Oklahoma, right before the end of the regular season. As a senior she was already facing the final month of her college career. And standing there that night on the court in Norman, she was filled with a flood of dread.

Was she going blind?
Was this something more?
What about basketball? What about her career?
Then nothing seemed normal anymore.
It would take more than a day before doctors told her this was the result of swelling around the optic nerve. And once she learned that this was not serious, that it would indeed go away and that someday the vision would return, she did what any basketball player would do with the last postseason of her career coming fast.

The cleanest cities in America

These places scored best for factors like air and water quality in a ranking of the biggest metro areas.

America's Cleanest Cities, 2011

Texas is widely known as a mecca for all things related to fossil fuels, but here's a surprise: It's also home to the cleanest town in the country. That's right. The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) ranks tops in our list of the America's Cleanest Cities.

The Cleanest Cities list is a healthy offshoot of the Most Toxic Cities list we released last month. In that ignominious ranking Philadelphia comes out on top, followed by New York City and its surrounding suburbs, and four California metros.

In Pictures: America's Cleanest Cities

So many readers told us they wanted to know which cities fared the best in terms of low toxicity that we decided to put together a ranking of America's 10 Cleanest (as in environmentally healthy) Cities.

What got the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission MSA on the list? A lack of Superfund sites, respectable air quality and a meager amount of toxic substances generated and disposed of by local facilities.

Cars that are the most fun to drive

"Fun to drive" is a subjective measure—an elusive quality that can mean different things to different people. From our experience, a car can have a very powerful engine and accelerate quickly, but without handling agility, it's not much fun. For us, fun is a combination of factors such as handling response,

Nearly 20% of Florida homes are vacant

It's not always easy to feel sorry for sunny Florida. But it just got hit with another blow.

On Thursday, the Census Bureau revealed that 18% -- or 1.6 million -- of the Sunshine State's homes are sitting vacant. That's a rise of more than 63% over the past 10 years.

Having this amount of oversupply on the market will keep home prices depressed and slow any recovery.

During the housing boom, Florida was among the hottest real estate markets in the nation. Homes were snapped up by the state's growing population as well as hordes of investors confident that prices would continue to soar.

"You'd drive through downtown Miami and see 30 or 40 cranes sticking up in the air," said Michael Larson, a housing market analyst for Weiss Research.

John Travolta in Qantas airlines inflight safety video (ABC)

Qantas Airlines employees attack the actor's "corny" role in a new in-flight safety video.

John Travolta Under Fire for 'Cheesy' Quantas

Airline Video

John Travolta is angering employees at Australia's Qantas Airlines, where he works as a Goodwill Ambassador.

The actor appears in a three-minute safety video that airs before every flight take off, and employees have taken to online forums to call it "cringe worthy," "corny" and "tacky," according to the Australia Daily Telegraph.

Europe has nothing on America's storybook homes like this $11 million, 61-acre spread.

American Castles for Sale

If you think castles only exist in Europe, think again. Surprisingly, there are many castles in the U.S. and some are even for sale.

While these castles can weather storms, are they recession proof? Unfortunately, they are struggling to find buyers just like most other high-end homes and, according to Erin Diaz of Beaches & Backroads Realty, people are missing the boat. "I think we forget that people were on the ocean a century ago, hand-building these castles with these incredible details. These structures can withstand salt water, hurricanes and Mother Nature much better than other wooden structures. And there's a misconception that castles are dark and dingy, but these properties are gorgeous and they're mostly re-done."

Although modern-day castles are still being built, suburbia-style, we chose the 10 below due to their age and historic significance. These are not fortified with moats, or men dumping boiling oil from above, but they were all built around the start of the 20th century by those who were captured by the grandeur of dramatic fortress-like structures so prevalent centuries ago.

Here are five American castles for sale:

Searles Hopkins Castle is selling for $11 million in Great Barrington, MA.
Photo: Zillow

Searles Hopkins Castle
389 Main St, Great Barrington, MA 01230
For Sale - $11 million

Now, that’s a castle! Known as the Searles Hopkins Castle, this 1888 French Chateau-style stone castle was commissioned in 1889 by Mary Hopkins, who was the widow of Mark Hopkins, founder of the Central Pacific Railroad. Several years after her husband’s death, she continued to build the castle, hiring designer Edward Searles who was 22 years her junior. As the castle’s name implies, the pair eventually married. Castle highlights include a Louis XIV drawing room with details in gold leaf and original painted ceiling, acoustically engineered music room with 42-ft dome ceiling, and large stone terraces overlooking a dramatic cross-shaped reflecting pond and gardens. The property consists of 61 acres with over a thousand feet of frontage on the Housatonic River. Located in the Berkshire Mountains, Great Barrington real estate is considered accessible and desirable to urbanites in New York City and Boston since it’s only two and a half hours away from each city.

File photo of an F-15 E Strike Eagle fighter jet (AP)

Two Air Force crew members are rescued after ejecting from their doomed F-15 Strike Eagle.

US jet crashes in Libya, both crew are safe

BERLIN – A U.S. fighter jet crashed in Libya after an apparent equipment malfunction but both crewmembers were able to eject and are back safely in American hands, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The plane crashed Monday at 2130 GMT (5:30 p.m. EDT), said Vince Crawley, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command.

A spokesman for the Libyan opposition, Mohammed Ali, said the U.S. plane crashed about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city.

A Marine Corps Osprey search and rescue aircraft retrieved the pilot, while the second crew member, a weapon's officer, was recovered by rebel forces and is now in American hands, another U.S. official said in Washington. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

Rare fluke gives rise to 'supermoon'

A mix of illusion and reality this weekend will create the biggest full moon in 18 years.

A new recession is doubtful, but shortages and a bumpy stock market seem likely.

You can find many of these cosmetics at the drugstore for as little as $2.

EUR/USD Mar. 15 – Drifting to Lower Range

EUR/USD drifts into lower range as discussions in Europe continue and the fear of a meltdown in Japan’s nuclear reactors continues. Will we see a breakout after the US rate decision? Here’s a quick update on technicals, fundamentals and community trends.

EUR/USD Technicals

Trespasser calls 911 to report himself

A homeowner gets a surprising reply when she tells an intruder that

Stars flaunt latest fashion trend

Amanda Seyfried and Paris Hilton pair fashionably

The world's richest billionaires

This 25th year of tracking global wealth was one to remember. The 2011 Billionaires List breaks two records: total number of listees (1,210) and combined wealth ($4.5 trillion). This horde surpasses the gross domestic product of Germany, one of only six nations to have fewer billionaires this year. BRICs led the way: Brazil, Russia, India and China produced 108 of the 214 new names. These four nations are home to one in four members, up from one in 10 five years ago. Before this year only the U.S. had ever produced more than 100 billionaires. China now has 115 and Russia 101.

Atop the heap is Mexico's Carlos Slim Helú, who added $20.5 billion to his fortune, more than any other billionaire. The telecom mogul, who gets 62% of his fortune from America Movil (NYSE: AMX - News), is now worth $74 billion and has pulled far ahead of his two closest rivals. Bill Gates, No. 2, and Warren Buffett, No. 3, both added a more modest $3 billion to their piles and are now worth $56 billion and $50 billion, respectively. Gates, who now gets 70% of his fortune from investments outside of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News), has actually been investing in the Mexican stock market and has holdings in Mexican Coke bottler Femsa and Grupo Televisa (NYSE: TV - News).

Real Erin Brockovich caught in 'eerie' fight

HINKLEY, Calif. – At the end of "Erin Brockovich," a housewife sick from toxic chromium weeps with joy as she's handed her portion of a historic $333 million settlement between residents of this small desert town and the utility that poisoned their drinking water.

In real life, that woman is Roberta Walker. She still lives in Hinkley, using her share to buy a new home in what she thought would be a safe four-mile distance from the toxic plume of chromium.

Alice in Chains rocker dead at 44

Former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr, who played on the band's first two influential albums and was one of the last people to see singer Layne Staley alive, has been found dead in a Salt Lake City, Utah home, TMZ reports. Starr, who was 44, was arrested earlier this month in Salt Lake City and found to be in possession of six Xanax pills and six Opana painkillers. According to a police report, Starr asked an officer if he'd heard of Alice in Chains, and said he was in Utah with a friend to put together a new band. "It's a terrible shock and tragedy," the rocker's father told the website today.

Starr played on the Seattle band's 1990 album Facelift and cowrote "It Ain't Like That" and "Confusion." He also performed on 1992's Sap EP and Dirt LP, which featured the band's breakout tracks "Down in a Hole," "Rooster," and "Would?" which also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Singles (the band also briefly performed onstage in the movie, too). Starr exited the band in 1993 and later admitted he'd been booted because his drug problem was out of control.

Odd home remedies that really work

Olives for Motion Sickness

Nobody is naysaying the wonders of modern medicine—what would we do without a medication like penicillin to treat infections? But, as it turns out, everyday items have secret curing powers, too. Already popped two aspirin but can’t get rid of the headache? A pencil could do the trick. Below, get medical explanations behind a few bizarre—albeit brilliant—MacGyver-esque home remedies.

Eliminating $1 Bills Could Save Billions

Washington has come down with a case of fiscal fever as the Obama administration proposes everything from spending freezes on domestic programs to selling off unused government property to bring the budget back in line. Now, one study argues that the government can save billions of dollars simply by making a change to the currency itself.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a formal proposal to the Treasury and Federal Reserve noting that if it eliminated the $1 bill and replaced it with the $1 coin, the country could save roughly $5.5 billion during the next 30 years. The reason, according to the agency's report, is that dollar bills have a shorter lifespan than dollar coins because they wear much faster, which in turn requires the government to spend more to print new bills.

Pages