Previously lost Soviet Mars 3 lander discovered by Mars Orbiter

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On May 28, 1971, the former Soviet Union sent a lander to the Red Planet. Called the Mars 3, it followed the ill-fated and crashed Mars 2 to the planet, landing on the surface on December 2 of the same year and achieving the first successful soft landing on Mars in human history. The Mars 3 opened to release its PROP-M rover, transmitted for all of 14.5 secondsâ€"and fell silent. The craft has not been seen or heard from since.

Until now, that is. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter relayed images taken by the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (or HiRISE) that potentially revealed the Soviet craft’s location in 2007. A group of internet-based Russian Curiosity enthusiasts caught wind of what portion of Mars had been photographed and searched for their lost legacy.

Mars 3 is thought to have landed in the area known as Ptolemaeus Crater (or latitude 45 degrees south, longitude 202 degrees east specifically). Vitali Egorov of St. Petersburg, Russia, knew this. Head of the aforementioned Russian Curiosity group, Egorov used crowdsourcing to enable his subscribers to search the 2007 images for evidence of the lander’s resting place. On December 31, 2012, they did. Or at least, they think they did.

Egorov provided modeling of what certain pieces of the craftâ€"hardware such as the parachute, retrorocket, lander and heat shieldâ€"might look like via HiRISE imagery, and then dispersed the information amidst his investigators. Potential candidates were located in the miniscule details of the southern regions and lay in patterns consistent with entry, descent and landing.

Alexander Basilevsky of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry in Moscow advises Egorov and his group. He contacted Alfred McEwen, HiRISE Principal Investigator, asking that the region where the suspected remains of Mars 3 were be revisited. McEwen complied, while Basilevsky and Egorov touched base with Russian engineers for more clarification.

New HiRISE images of the area, tailored to highlight the hardware candidates, were received on March 10 of this year. The supposed parachute is consistent with understood measurements (7.5 meters in diameter; a fully spread parachute would measure 11 meters). The other suspected pieces are a retrorocket candidate (complete with chain-like extension, which would have connected it to the lander), one for the lander itself with its four open petals (from which its rover would emerge), and what could be the heat shield (if given that it is partially buried).

NASA does believe the evidence favors the Mars 3 having finally been found, but it cannot yet say for certain.

“Together, this set of features and their layout on the ground provide a remarkable match to what is expected from the Mars 3 landing, but alternative explanations for the features cannot be ruled out,” said McEwen. “Further analysis of the data and future images to better understand the three-dimensional shapes may help to confirm this interpretation.”

Kim Kardashian, Kris Humphries Face Off In Court

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are scheduled to come face-to-face today for the first time since their split.

The former lovebirds are required to appear at a settlement conference at the downtown L.A. courthouse this AM.  The drill is … try and hash out a resolution to avoid a trial.  

But here’s the deal … Mandatory settlement conferences are routine, but this case has as much a chance of settling as Farrah Abraham has getting admitted to a nunnery.

Sources tell us … Kris is shockingly still demanding $7 mil to go away, even though he says all he wants is an annulment.  We’re told Kim not only is unwilling to give him a penny … she’s now demanding that he pay her attorney’s fees.

This case is destined for trial.

Jay-Z's Obama Lyrics On 'Open Letter' Provoke White House Response

By Sowmya Krishnamurthy

Yesterday, Jay-Z released the new track “Open Letter,” in which he shouts out his friend President Barack Obama, and it’s actually provoked a response from the White House.

Hov fired back at critics who blasted his recent trip to Cuba with wife Beyonce and spoke of a conversation with Obama about getting the POTUS impeached. “Obama said, Chill, you gonna get me impeached/ You don’t need this shit anyway/Chill with me on the beach,’” Hov raps.

The White House is going on the record, denying that Obama spoke to Jay-Z about his Cuba trip. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told White House reporters “the only reason Jay-Z implicated Obama in his new song is because it’s hard to find something that rhymes with treasury,” per TMZ.

TMZ shares that Carney claims Barack had no contact with Jay-Z about the Cuba trip and it was handled by the Treasury Dept.

MTV News reported that Jay and Beyonce had proper papers for their recent Cuban excursion and that the cultural trip was fully licensed by the Treasury, according to an unnamed source familiar with the pair’s itinerary.

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Half-Human, Half Ape Ancestor Walked Pigeon-Toed

Two million years ago in South Africa, part-human and part-ape-like individuals existed — and now we know what they looked like and how they behaved: They had a primitive, pigeon-toed gait, human-like front teeth, ate mostly veggies and spent a lot of time swinging in the trees.

The species, Australopithecus sediba, is a striking example of human evolution, conclude six papers published in the journal Science. Taken together, the papers describe how Au. sediba looked, walked, chewed and moved.

“Sediba shows a strange mix of primitive australopithecine traits and derived Homo traits — face and anterior dentition like Homo, shape of the cranium like Homo, other parts of the face and size of the cranium like an australopithecine, arms like an australopithecine, pelvis and lower limbs like Homo and feet and ankles like an australopithecine,” project leader Lee Berger told Discovery News.

PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors

“It does look like a good ‘transitional’ fossil, doesn’t it?” added Berger, who is a researcher in the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. He named the species, which was found at a site called Malapa, near Johannesburg.

The tooth study found that Au. sediba was closely related to Au. africanus, which lived until about 2.1 million years ago. These species, in turn, shared numerous dental similarities with Homo erectus, an early human species.

“All of the research so far shows that sediba had a mosaic of primitive traits and newer traits that suggest it was a bridge between earlier australopiths and the first humans,” said Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, co-author of one of the studies and a professor of anthropology at Ohio State University.

NEWS: ‘Ardi,’ Oldest Human Ancestor, Unveiled

Prior research determined what Au. sediba ate.

Peter Schmid of the University of Zurich, who also analyzed this species’ remains, shared that the early probable ancestor was not a carnivore.

“Microscopic elements of plants were found in the tartar of the teeth of Au. sediba,” Schmid told Discovery News. “It was largely a vegetarian and shows a rather human-like chewing apparatus.”

In terms of how it walked, Schmid and the other researchers explained that Au. sediba had a small heel resembling that of a chimp. It walked rather awkwardly — with an inward rotation of the knee and hip, with its feet slightly twisted. The scientists conclude that this pigeon-toed way of walking on two limbs might have been an evolutionary compromise between walking upright and tree climbing.

Such a detailed understanding of these movements is possible because remains for a female Au. sediba preserve her heel, ankle, knee, hip and lower back. In contrast, the famous “Lucy” skeleton, representative of the species Au. afarensis, only preserves a hip and ankle.

Yet another new study analyzed Au. sediba’s upper limbs. They were “primitive,” meaning more like those of an ape, suggesting that these individuals still spent some time swinging and climbing in trees.

This again makes Au. sediba a good candidate as a transitional species, because it appears to have spent most of its time on the ground, but it hadn’t entirely left the trees yet.

“The terrestrial adaptation was much more evolved, but there are indications that it had still a large part of climbing in its locomotor spectrum,” Schmid explained.

All in all, the papers make a strong case that early human evolution took place in South Africa following an expected sequential manner, from more ape-like to more human-associated characteristics.

The case isn’t closed yet, however, as still other researchers believe that additional australopithecines, such as Lucy, gave rise to our ancestors. Lucy’s species has only been found in northern Africa so far.

Africa was clearly a hotbed of early human evolution, but further research is needed to pinpoint exactly where our lineage began.

Gottfried: Jonathan Winters was mad brilliant

Jonathan Winters, who died Friday at 87, was a beloved comic whirlwind for generations, one whose influence on movie comics from Robin Williams to Jim Carrey to Sacha Baron Cohen is very apparent.

Comedian Jonathan Winters, whose breakneck improvisations inspired Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and many others, has died at age 87. Longtime family friend Joe Petro III says the Ohio native died Thursday evening at his

Hollywood legend Jonathan Winters was working like a champ right up until his death — voicing Papa Smurf for the upcoming "Smurfs 2" movie just last week…

Highlights from the career of the comic Jonathan Winters, who died on Thursday.

(CNN) — Jonathan Winters was not always in his right mind. I don't mean that only in the showbiz sense, but in the mental health sense. Jonathan, who died Thursday, was a nut as a comic, but also manic depressive and was institutionalized at least

FDA advisory panel to reconsider Avandia safety

By Ransdell Pierson

Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:19pm EDT

(Reuters) – A federal health advisory panel in June will reconsider safety data on GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Avandia diabetes drug, although the British drugmaker on Friday said it has not sought permission to make the nearly discontinued drug widely available again in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September 2010 placed severe restrictions on use of the pill, due to heart attacks and deaths linked to the product, saying it should be available only to patients who cannot control their diabetes with any other drug. Glaxo estimates that only about 3,300 people in the United States still take the former blockbuster product.

Glaxo spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne said an item in the upcoming edition of the Federal Register said the FDA advisory panel will meet on June 5-6 to discuss the drug. She speculated the advisory panel will ask for an update from Glaxo on safety information it sought from the drugmaker in 2010.

The panel at the time had asked Glaxo to commission a re-examination of a large study of Avandia, called RECORD, to better assess the drug’s safety. It also asked Glaxo to devise a means of better controlling availability and use of the drug, called a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy plan.

“We haven’t asked for any changes in the drug label or in distribution for Avandia,” Rhyne said. Moreover, she said Glaxo had not requested the planned June meeting of the FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic advisory panel, which will be held jointly with the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory committee.

Rhyne said a group of medical experts from Duke University has re-examined the RECORD study and recently submitted its findings to the FDA. She said it found there was no significant difference in cardiovascular safety between Avandia and two other types of widely used oral drugs – metformin and sulfonylureas.

(Additional reporting by Michele Gershberg in New York; editing by Gary Hill and Matthew Lewis)

Drake trashes Chris Brown, brings up Rihanna

Drake says at one point Rihanna “fell into my lap.”

This combination of 2012 and 2011 file photos shows hip hop stars Chris Brown, left, and Drake.(Photo: Matt Sayles/Chris Pizzello/AP)

It appears that Drake and Chris Brown have not mended fences.

Last June, the two singers got into a heated altercation at a SoHo club, and on Friday, Drake, 26, slammed his RB rival, 23, on East Village Radio’s Keep It Thoro show.

“Don’t ask me (expletive) about that man when I come up there. Leave that man alone. Stop preying on his insecurities,” said Drake. “His insecurities are the fact that I make better music than him. I’m more poppin’ than him.”

He also brought up Brown’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Rihanna, who Drake also briefly dated. “At one point in life, the woman that he loves fell into my lap,” said Drake. “I did what a real (expletive) would do and treated her with respect. She’s not up there talking down on me.”

Ouch.

To take it even further, Drake took the opportunity to trash Brown’s musical skills. “I don’t want to hear that man rap,” Drake said. “Nobody wants to hear me rap against him. I really do this (expletive). Let him put out that, whatever, Project X or whatever he’s working on and I’m going to put out that real (expletive) for the people.”

Following the interview, Brown took to Twitter to send out a short tweet that simply read, “Lol.”

DE Jadeveon Clowney catches TD

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The most watched player at South Carolina got just one play at Saturday’s spring game.

And Jadeveon Clowney scored a touchdown.

[+] Enlarge

Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier had the All-American defensive end run the coach’s annual pass-to-someone-coming-off-the-sideline play. Clowney, wearing sneakers, shorts and no pads, caught the pass from freshman Connor Mitch, but awkwardly slipped as he turned for the end zone. However, the referee “missed” him hitting the ground, and Clowney threw the ball in the stands after the 54-yard touchdown.

Spurrier has always taken a breezy attitude to spring practice and his spring game. There are no real rosters — tight end Jerell Adams briefly led both the Black and the Garnett teams in receiving in the first half. Spurrier boosts scoring by having bonus kicks with just a snapper and holder after each quarter and the defenses can’t blitz and are limited to basic coverages.

“Spring practice is important for the younger guys. I guess one reason I don’t get all fired up for spring practice is I only went through one of them in my three years of them at Florida. I got hurt the other two — nothing serious,” Spurrier said of his days at quarterback with the Gators in the mid-1960s.

The Gamecocks are coming off back-to-back 11-win seasons and Spurrier thinks they have the talent to contend for the Southeastern Conference title again as long as hard work follows.

“I think we do have the chance to have a good team,” Spurrier said. “But it could go anywhere to winning season to big winning season to losing season.”

Plenty of eyes will be on Clowney, who is one of the most hyped defensive player in the country. Clowney sitting out Saturday wasn’t a surprise. Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward said before drills even started that Clowney wouldn’t be scrimmaging much, keeping with Spurrier’s spring practice philosophy of giving most of the work to younger players. Then the junior’s neck got stiff after a hit just before the last week of practice and the coaches decided he didn’t need to do anything else before the fall.

“Spring is really about learning the playbook,” Clowney said.

Plus, Clowney’s brand of havoc doesn’t transfer well when he is going against his own team. He hopes to make a Heisman Trophy push this year, helped by plays like the one hee made on Michigan’s Vincent Smith in the Outback Bowl. Clowney knocked Smith’s helmet, and the ball loose. The picture of the play is on the cover of the Gamecocks’ spring notebook.

“A guy that made the hit that keeps on hitting,” Spurrier said to the crowd as he led the halftime awards ceremony, which included Clowney getting the Ted Hendricks Award as the nation’s best defensive end from Hendricks himself.

Quarterback Connor Shaw also sat out the spring game as he recovers from foot surgery. Shaw, a senior is expected to share snaps with Dylan Thompson, a junior. Thompson played only one of the 12-minute quarters Saturday, going 6-for-10 for 96 yards and an interception with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Shaq Roland.

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ESPN.com’s Chris Low and Edward Aschoff write about all things SEC football in the conference blog.

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Spurrier “told me to expect to play a lot. Whatever that means, it means,” Thompson said. “But I think he has confidence in both myself and Connor that we aren’t going to look at it as a selfish thing. Obviously I know Connor is here, and he knows I am here.”

Elsewhere on offense, the Gamecocks have questions. Spurrier needs receivers to step up to replace Ace Sanders, who left early for the NFL. The Gamecocks also have to replace running back Marcus Lattimore, who also left early after missing half of last season with a knee injury.

Spurrier will likely use sophomores Mike Davis and Brandon Wilds regularly in fall. Davis carried the ball twice, including a 25-yard TD run. Wilds had seven carries for 31 yards.

The tight ends are solid, with Spurrier happy that even fourth string Jeff Homad caught a TD pass. The rest of the offensive line has more questions, leading to the best Spurrier quote of the spring at a practice earlier this month.

“Offensive line has got to learn how to block. They’re pretty good at everything except blocking. Unfortunately, that’s all we ask them to do,” Spurrier said.

Even with Clowney prowling up front, there are questions on defense. The Gamecocks lost all their starting linebackers. It is much tougher to judge any progress the defense makes in spring because Spurrier keeps a leash on the hitting. Freshman free safety Chaz Elder did have two of the defense’s three interceptions, and freshman strong safety Kyle Fleetwood returned a fumble seven yards for a touchdown.

But Spurrier, who suffered through a 14-7 spring game right after he arrived at South Carolina nine years ago, wants to see plenty of offense in his scrimmages. For what it is worth, the Black beat the Garnet 44-30 this year.

“Coach Spurrier says, if you have all the fans out here like we had today, they want to see points on the board,” said Ward, who just goes along with Spurrier’s show. “Me, as a defensive coordinator, I hate to see points on the board. Hopefully you saw as many points on that board today as you are going to see all season.”

Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press

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Dazzling Northern Lights Anticipated Tonight

A solar flare that occurred around 2 a.m. Thursday morning may create a spectacular display of northern lights Saturday evening. The midlevel flare had a long duration and was directed at Earth. According to AccuWeather.com Astronomer Hunter Outten, who stated that this flare was “impressive”, these are the best conditions for seeing a direct effect on our planet. On the Kp index, the flare has been categorized at 6 to 8. This is a scale for measuring the intensity of a a geomagnetic storm. The 6 to 8 rating means that the effects of the radiation will have a greater reach.

The radiation from such a flare may cause radio wave disturbances to electronics such as cell phones, GPS and radios, causing services to occasionally cut in and out. While traveling slower than was originally anticipated, the flare effects are moving towards Earth at 1000 km per second.

The more directly a flare faces Earth, the higher the effect will be. Graphic by Al Blasko, Accuweather.com

The flare is also expected to cause vibrant northern lights from the Arctic as far south as New York, the Dakotas, Washington and Michigan, with a smaller possibility of it going into Pennsylvania and Iowa, even Kansas. The lights are currently estimated for 8 p.m. EDT Saturday arrival, with a possible deviation of up to seven hours. If the radiation hits much after dark settles on the East Coast the lights may be missed and will instead only be visible for the West.

A view of the northern lights in Elmira, N.Y., from 2011. Photo by David St. Louis

Solar flares create auroras when radiation from the sun reaches Earth and interacts with charged protons in our atmosphere. The effects are greater at the magnetic poles and weaken as they move south from the Arctic or north of the Antarctic. In the northern hemisphere the results are called the aurora borealis, with the aurora australis being its southern counterpart. The result is a spectacular display of light and color for areas with clear enough views.

Conditions updated April 13, 2013 at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Graphic by Al Blasko, Accuweather.com

Viewing conditions will be best in the mid-Atlantic, specifically for parts of Pennsylvania and the Delmarva. Most of the country will have poor to fair views as a result of cloud cover, with areas further south not experiencing the aurora at all. A pocket of fair conditions sits over parts of Oregon into Washington and southern Idaho. A swath of partly cloudy conditions will also spread over a section of the Ohio Valley for parts of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Ohio will experience fair to good viewing conditions. For the rest of the country conditions will be poor.

The northern lights may also be visible for parts of northern Europe, including Scandinavia, most of Russia and the British Isles, and as far south as the northern parts of Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia and Estonia. Unfortunately, many of those areas will be experiencing a good deal of cloud coverage.

Graphic by Al Blasko, Accuweather.com

The southern lights may reach a very small portion of Australia, including Tasmania and the southern coast of Victoria. Most of New Zealand’s South Island is in range for the aurora.

View more on information on AccuWeather.com’s Astronomy Facebook Page.

China says new bird flu cases found in central China

BEIJING |
Sat Apr 13, 2013 10:17pm EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) – Two people in the central Chinese province of Henan have been infected by a new strain of avian influenza, the first cases found in the region and bringing the total number nationwide to 51, Xinhua state news agency said on Sunday.

One of the victims, a 34-year old man in the city of Kaifeng, is now critically ill in hospital, while the other, a 65-year old farmer from Zhoukou, is stable. The two cases do not appear to be connected.

A total of 19 people in close contact with the two victims were under observation but had shown no signs of infection, Xinhua said.

On Saturday, the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a seven year-old child in the capital of Beijing had been infected by the H7N9 bird flu virus, the first case to be reported outside of eastern China, where the new strain emerged last month.

The child’s parents work in the poultry trade.

Investigators are trying to ascertain the source amid fears that it could cause a deadly pandemic similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, which killed about one in 10 of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

But authorities say there is still no indication of human-to-human transmission of the virus, which has already killed 11 people in Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui.

(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Attention, Second-Guessers: Golf Takes Calls (and Texts)

Woods, who had been three strokes off the lead, was assessed a two-stroke penalty Saturday for hitting from the wrong spot on Friday, a violation first flagged by a television viewer. Woods could have been disqualified from the Masters, but officials instead invoked a rarely applied two-year-old rule that spares offending players in exceptional cases.

The catalyst for the rules controversy began with a short and simple text message.

A friend of a Masters rules official saw something on television that looked improper â€" an illegal drop by Woods after his ball plunked into a pond at the 15th hole.

Masters officials would not reveal the identity of the texter, but the claim was brought before the Masters rules committee, which decided there was no violation. Then, about an hour later, Woods inadvertently implicated himself, saying he had taken two steps back before dropping his ball, which was not permitted under the circumstances.

The process for Saturday’s ruling might have been especially delicate because removing Woods from the Masters could have ruined television ratings and deprived the world’s top-ranked player of his best chance in several years to win his 15th major championship. But Masters officials said neither Woods’s popularity nor his pursuit of history was a factor. They had absolved him of wrongdoing on Friday; a day later, they said they could not impose the harsh penalty that goes with signing an incorrect scorecard because their earlier decision diluted his culpability.

Unheard-of in other sports, communication between viewers and tournament officials happens nearly every week on the professional golf tours.

At the Masters, officials said hundreds of viewers contacted the club with suspected rules infractions. Most often, they call the club, whose phone number is easy to find on the Internet.

“There are a lot of people out there that know a lot about the rules, or think they know a lot about the rules,” said Fred Ridley, the Masters chairman for competition committees. “It creates more work for us, but we do look at every one of these.”

The defending Masters champion, Bubba Watson, said Saturday that PGA Tour players were approached about viewer-generated rules investigations with such frequency it was shrugged off in the players’ locker room.

“Our sport is the only one you’d ever allow viewers to do that,” Watson said. “They’re definitely not calling about missed balls and strikes during a baseball game or if someone’s getting away with holding during a football game.”

Asked why it happens in golf, Watson answered, “Maybe it’s because our sport is so slow, people have time to call.”

Television viewers also routinely have more than one phone number to call. Many try contacting the network broadcasting the event. Many go directly to the United States Golf Association because it oversees the rules of golf in this country. And others contact the PGA Tour itself, whose phone number is easily accessed.

“They must have a lot of time on their hands,” Watson said. “Because I don’t know the phone number to call, and I’m playing in the golf tournament.”

At Augusta National Golf Club, which hosts the Masters, any rules infraction phone call coming through the main switchboard is sent to the tournament headquarters office. The details of the call are recorded and documented with the specifics of the suspected violation scrupulously noted and then passed on to the Masters rules committee. Each case is investigated, which can involve interviewing the player or players involved, until the situation is resolved as groundless or worthy of a penalty.

“The players are under a microscope, and people watch their golf closely,” Ridley said. “And when they contact us, we make a determination.”

Two new bills aim to strengthen mental health help

An Indiana lawmaker has introduced two bills aimed at improving mental health coverage for service members.

Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat who had two military mental health bills signed into law in 2011, now proposes improved mental health assessments for service members returning from contingency operations and better notice of what mental health services are available.

The goal, he said, is to reduce suicides by improving access to mental health services and providing notice throughout a military career that mental health services are available and that there is nothing wrong with seeking help.

Both bills were introduced Wednesday.

The Military Suicide Reduction Act, HR 1463, would improve the mental health assessments already provided to troops when they return from deployments on contingency operations. Better screening might help identify people who need counseling, Carson said.

“We are quick to diagnose and treat service members who are injured in combat, with medics rushing to those who are struck by enemy IEDs or gunfire,” he said. “When it comes to the mental health challenges placed on our service members, we abandon them through months of deployment to deal with post traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal thoughts.”

The Military Mental Health Empowerment Act, HR 1464, tries to encourage more people to seek mental health counseling if they need it by providing notice, beginning in the first days of military training, about the availability of help and by attempting to eliminate the perceived stigma associated with seeking help by strengthening privacy policies.

“Seeking help shouldn’t be something our service members have to second guess,” Carson said. “They shouldn’t have to fear drawing unwanted attention to themselves or derailing their careers.”

Sheen Talks to Leno About Lohan's Braceletgate

Charlie Sheen is finally speaking out about those rumors of diva-esque behavior on the part of Lindsay Lohan during her guest shot on Anger Management recently.

When asked by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show Wednesday whether LiLo was repeatedly late to work and caused production delays, as the tabloids reported, the erstwhile Warlock cleared the air.

“Not on day one,” Sheen answered. “Day one was fabulous. She was on time. Hit every mark. Made us look off our game, which we weren’t.”

VIDEO: Lindsay Lohan jokes about rehab to David Letterman

But then came day two, which Charlie admitted didn’t go nearly as smoothly.

“It was as though she had us held hostage because she gave us half the show,” he said. “No, she had an ‘ear ache’”â€" Sheen does some air quotes hereâ€"”and was a little bit…four hours late. No, she was a couple of hours late. She was really not feeling well. We just worked around it.”

After a brief pause, Sheen added with a laugh: “She was late, what can I say!”

NEWS: Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen’s Scary night

As for reports that Lohan left while wearing bracelets from the set (celeb watchers were quick to reference her 2011 pilfering of a $2,500 necklace from a Venice, Calif. jewelry store), the thesp said the troubled starlet had set the record straight herself.

“It’s true but it’s not true. Nothing further your honor,” he quipped, then noted, “She borrowed some stuff and then was told they would take it out of her paycheck, and she said fine and that’s all it was.”

Both Sheen and Lohan are scheduled to attend tonight’s Hollywood premiere of their new flick, Scary Movie 5, though a source tells E! News they’ll walk the red carpet separately.

PHOTOS: Lindsay Lohan on Anger Management

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Ready for Love's Tim Lopez Reveals His "Awkward" Past With Leah—Watch Now!

Ready For Love did less than Take It All did when that latter debuted on December 10, 2012 with a 2.2/5, and less than Stars Earn Stripes' 1.7/5 on August 13, 2012. NBC won the night among Adults 18-49 but CBS took the viewership top spot with 12.834

The rocker confesses to getting nervous while filming in front of a live audience, telling THR: “You never know what the girls are gonna throw at you.”

Executive producer Eva Longoria offers an answer to ABC's.

Awkward alert! NBC's new reality hit Ready for Love, hosted by Giuliana and Bill Rancic, premiered just this week and it already has the Twitterverse buzzing. Why? Because one of the series' bachelors, Plain White T's rocker Tim Lopez, knew one of his

Awkward alert! NBC's new reality hit Ready for Love, hosted by Giuliana and Bill Rancic, premiered just this week and it already has the Twitterverse buzzing. Why? Because one of the series' bachelors, Plain White T's rocker Tim Lopez, knew one of his

Kate Upton and Sean Combs heat up as she leaves pitcher Justin Verlander ...

Call them Diddyup!

Here’s a duo that’ll make your heads spin â€" Kate Upton and Sean “Diddy” Combs are hot and heavy.

PHOTOS: KATE UPTON BRINGING CURVES BACK 

After the 20-year-old Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl said she was single on Valentine’s Day and had broken up with star Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, she was spotted a little over a month later, on March 24, sucking face with Diddy, 43, at club LIV in Miami Beach.

“They were kissing, they weren’t hiding it,” an eyewitness tells Confidenti@l.

AFP / Francois Guillot

Sean “Diddy” Combs is 23 years older than Kate Upton — but age is only a number, right? 

Earlier that night, Diddy, hosting a bash at the club, had tweeted: “Miami … Ain’t no party like a @iamdiddy party … Meet me at Club Liv 2nite #CIROCBOYZ in the building!!!”

The curvy Upton soon joined him in the VIP section and she and the hip-hop mogul stayed together, partying late into the night.

Following their hot hookup in South Beach, the duo met up again in New York, sharing an intimate dinner together at Gemma in the Bowery Hotel on Thursday.

“They were having dinner together,” a source tells us.

Upton, silent on Twitter that day, the next morning tweeted: “Cuddling with my favorite tiger ” an obvious diss to Verlander, because she linked to a picture of her holding an actual tiger cub in a Bazaar magazine shoot.

Diddy, who has been linked to Cameron Diaz and most recently singer Cassie, was spotted with the latter house-hunting in Beverly Hills in January. The relationship has appeared to have since cooled off.

Cassie, whose last album was released in 2006, posed last year in a GQ spread labeled “Diddy’s Girl.” Last summer she frolicked topless on a yacht with the rapper while on vacation in St. Tropez. Diddy publicly acknowledged their relationship last September, tweeting a picture of her and writing, “I’m a very lucky man #knowthat.”

Upton, the object of every straight man’s desire, spent New Year’s Eve with Verlander at the Ritz-Carlton on St. Thomas.

In other sports crushes, Michigan’s Spike Albrecht hoped to get Upton into his own personal Final Four. The freshman backup, who electrified the crowd at the Georgia Dome in Monday night’s NCAA title game, tweeted afterwards:

“@KateUpton hey saw you at the game last night, thanks for coming out!” Hope to see you again

In the game, Albrecht clearly had his eyes on Upton, who was clad in a V-neck T-shirt there.

A rep for Upton says, “They met once a year ago and there’s no further relationship at this point.”

Skip Bolen/AP

Howard Stern, left, won’t vote on the performance of his gastroenterologist, whose ventriloquist act is on ‘American Idol.’ It’ll be up to remaining judges Heidi Klum, Mel B and Howie Mandel.

‘TALENT’ ACT’S A GAS FOR STERN

Howard Stern found himself identifying with a puppet a little too much on Monday.

At a taping of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” at Hammerstein Ballroom, the shock-jock judge got a big jolt when his gastroenterologist auditioned for the nationally televised talent show where Stern is a judge.

“Wait, the guy that sticks his finger up you is a ventriloquist?” fellow judge Howie Mandel said to Stern upon hearing the news.

Mandel then turned to show producers to see if it was fair that Stern be asked to judge a man with whom he has a very personal relationship. Stern recused himself from the voting process. That means his doctor, whose name was withheld, would need two thumbs-up votes from the remaining three judges (Heidi Klum, Mel B and Mandel) to advance in the competition and go to Las Vegas. “AGT” lawyers also weighed in to keep things on the level.

PHOTOS: HEIDI KLUM HANGS UP HER ANGEL WINGS

“It kind of disturbed me when I learned he was a ventriloquist,” Stern admitted. “I have been on this table nude, with my knees up in the air … I have shared incredibly intimate moments … and it’s disturbing to see him on stage.”

SETH CHARLIZE GO A LONG WAY BACK

No, we’re not together. Model/actress Charlize Theron and funnyman Seth McFarlane were all smiles walking out of Beverly Hills’ Matsuhisa restaurant Tuesday night. Until they saw the cameras. The pair could’ve taken home Razzies for worst supporting actors as they suddenly started walking far apart and looking like they’d never met. Until recently, MacFarlane had been linked to “Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke.

‘GRACE’ IS A CLOSE CALL

It’s fitting that Glenn Close’s next project is called “The Grace That Keeps This World.” At a party following the premiere of “Disconnect,” the Oscar- and Grammy-nominated, Tony- and Emmy-winning actress could’ve pulled the diva card, but instead served herself and didn’t make a fuss. “Glenn was completely low key,” said our spy. “She even waited on the buffet line for food.” After filling her plate with mini-sliders and crudités, Close ducked into a banquette and chowed down.

BEADLE WILL COLLAR HELP FOR ASPCA

Bark, bark for Beadle! The ASPCA has named NBC’s “The Crossover” host Michelle Beadle as celebrity ambassador. The animal lover (and fun WWE superfan) will help the group with their campaigns and fund-raisers. “As a pet parent and life-long animal lover, I’ve experienced firsthand the incredible impact animals can have on our lives,” Beadle says. “I am so proud to be working with the ASPCA to help support their life-saving work for animals across the country and further their mission to prevent animal cruelty.”

Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS

Lindsay Lohan got together with David Letterman on his show Tuesday.

LILO STILL THE LATEST THING

Best known for her late-night antics, Lindsay Lohan stopped by the Ed Sullivan Theater for a Tuesday taping of “The Late Show With David Letterman.” When Letterman pressed LiLo on her upcoming trip to rehab, she awkwardly said, “We didn’t discuss this in the pre-interview.”

PHOTOS: LINDSAY LOHAN GOES FROM ACTRESS TO MODEL

KIMSANITY!

Kim Kardashian managed to go from disaster to diva in a matter of hours Tuesday. She was spotted earlier in the day in Los Angeles, makeup-free, looking both bumpy and sloppy. But later she had cleaned up well, heading out in a billowy blouse, black pants and red shoes to visit an office complex in West Hollywood.

KRAVIS WRANGLES A LUNCH DEAL

Billionaire investor and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co. co-founder Henry Kravis took a stroll through the lobby of the SLS hotel on Collins Ave. in South Beach on Sunday, appearing to be hunting for a lunch spot. After a quick cruise through the lobby and pool area, Kravis and his impeccably dressed third wife, philanthropist Marie-Josée Kravis, left the hotel without eating. The duo were spotted again Monday, lunching at an outdoor table at the Setai Miami Beach, where Kravis drank bottled water and dined on a hearty-looking lobster with lots of lemons on the side.

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Model Miranda Kerr is getting out of the Angel biz with Victoria’s Secret.

KERR CAN’T KEEP THE SECRET

Miranda Kerr has shed her angel wings. The most popular Victoria’s Secret gal is walking away from the lingerie brand after demanding a “massive” contract and having too many international commitments, a source tells us, adding that there had been rumblings she was planning to leave. Us Weekly first reported that Kerr’s $1 million, three-year contract was not renewed. “She will always be an angel to me,” says VS president Ed Razek. Kerr will still walk the runway in this year’s show.

ROCKEFELLERS’ BIG CATCH

Being a Rockefeller has its perks, but at Monday’s Oceana Inaugural Ball at Christie’s, Susan Cohn Rockefeller says the surname she acquired in 2008 comes with responsibilities, too. “My husband is David [Rockefeller], and it’s his family legacy, and we both live with a lot of humility because there’s so much to be done,” she said, citing overfishing of the oceans as one of her concerns. “The name can open doors, but it’s really the work that you do that counts.”

HARRY BACK FOR MANE EVENT

Prince Harry’s returning to America, but will he keep his pants on this time? This visit he’ll officially be horsing around on May 15 at Connecticut’s Greenwich Polo Club. Harry will lead the Sentebale Land Rover team against Nacho Figueras and Peter Brant’s St. Regis team at the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup. At stake will be blue-blood bragging rights. Grace Torquhil Ian Campbell, the 13th duke of Argyll, is expected to attend the prestigious invite-only event.

KCNA/AFP/Getty Images

Dennis Rodman is back from Pyongyang, where he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, conducted roundball diplomacy last month.

ENVOY RODMAN THIRSTY FOR A ROLE

A day after being fired from “Celebrity Apprentice,” self-appointed U.S. ambassador to North Korea Dennis Rodman took time away from international diplomacy to party at lower East Side club DL. After taping “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” on Monday, Rodman rolled into the tri-level hotspot and immediately hit the bar. He “requested a drink right when he walked in called Three Wise Men,” said our insider. The cocktail is a mix of Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Johnnie Walker whiskies. That ought to make him a lot wiser indeed.

DNA pioneer Francis Crick letter sells for $5.3m at New York auction

11 April 2013
Last updated at 06:50 ET

Crick wrote to his son in 1953 including a sketch of the DNA structure

A letter written by scientist Francis Crick describing his discovery of the double helix shape of DNA has been sold for $5.3m (£3.45m).

An anonymous buyer purchased it at a New York auction on Wednesday.

Crick wrote to his 12-year-old son Michael in March 1953 describing the discovery and including a sketch.

The Nobel Prize medal given to Crick for the breakthrough is expected to fetch between $500,000 (£325,000) and “several million” at auction later.

Professor Crick, who died aged 88 in 2004, helped discover the “secret of life” at Cambridge University in 1953.

‘Stained lab coat’

The letter described Crick and Watson’s “beautiful” discovery

In the seven-page letter Crick told how he and James Watson found the copying mechanism “by which life comes from life”.

It was written more than a month before the pair officially published their work.

The letter began: “My dear Michael, Jim Watson and I have probably made a most important discovery.

“We have built a model for des-oxy-ribose-nucleic-acid (read carefully) called DNA for short.”

He described it as a “beautiful” structure and included a sketch of it, underneath which he wrote: “The model looks much nicer than this.”

The letter concluded: “Read this carefully so that you will understand it. When you come home we will show you the model.

“Lots of love, Daddy.”

The letter was expected to fetch about $1m (£652,000), a spokesman for Christie’s said.

It was a record for a letter sold at auction, he added.

Crick, along with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, was given the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for “discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material”.

The medal will be sold later at Heritage Auctions in New York together with the cheque and diploma Crick received as part of the prize and one of his lab coats, which has “various stains on it”.

His family will donate 20% of the profit to researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Crick received the medal in 1962

The scientist’s granddaughter, Kindra Crick, said the medal had been locked away for most of the time since it was awarded.

She said: “This marks the 60th anniversary of the historic discovery of the structure of DNA and 50 years have passed since Francis Crick was awarded the Nobel Prize.

“Our hope is that, by having it available for display, it can be an inspiration to the next generation of scientists.”

Crick was born in 1916 in Weston Favell near Northampton and educated at Northampton Grammar School. The twice-married scientist died in July 2004 in San Diego.

Rosalind Franklin also played a key role in the discovery of DNA but died in 1958, before the prize was awarded.

Dark Lightning Zaps Airline Passengers

You’ve probably never seen it, but it’s possible you’ve been exposed to it if you’ve ever flown through a thunderstorm. Dark lightning, flashes of gamma rays that occur at altitudes in which commercial aircraft fly, doesn’t produce much light, but it does produce radiation.

New research presented Wednesday at a meeting of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna pinpoints the amount of radiation that dark lightning produces — and how much pilots and passengers might be getting exposed to.

ANALYSIS: Fasten Your Seat Belt: Bumpier Flights With Warming

“The good news is that the doses are not super scary — it could be worse,” said lead research Joseph Dwyer, a physics professor at Florida Institute of Technology. “It’s similar to going to the doctor’s office and getting a CT scan.”

The existence of dark lightning itself was discovered on a NASA spacecraft in 1994. In the electrical fields of a thunderstorm, electrons zoom close to the speed of light, colliding with atoms to emit the gamma rays.

In 2010, Dwyer and colleagues determined that dark lightning occurred at altitudes where airplanes commonly fly. That prompted the current work, which involved a physics-based model that can show exactly how the discharge happens.

The preliminary work showed how much radiation was being emitted, but the size of the space it was produced in was unclear. With the current model, Dwyer’s team was able to pinpoint the exposure dose that someone on an airplane would likely receive.

“This work is very important because it gets you into the zone where you start to understand how often and how likely they are to happen,” said University of California Santa Cruz physics professor David Smith, who has worked with Dwyer but was not involved in the modeling work.

The next step, Smith said, is to start determining how often the flashes occur. Because the bursts are so brief — about 10-100 of microseconds — they are usually undetected, although it’s possible you could see a diffuse, purple light, Dwyer said.

“Unless you have gamma ray detectors on board, no one would think anything of it,” Smith said.

The National Science Foundation is currently working on an armored plane that could fly through thunderstorms, Smith said. If an instrument were placed on board, researchers may begin to get a better idea of the frequency of the flashes. Currently, the bursts are thought to occur much less frequently than the lightning we see, but that could mean anywhere from 1/100th to 1/1000th as often, Smith said.

NEWS: Mystery of Ball Lightning Solved?

“It’s a very rough number,” Smith said. “The other question is, are there somewhat weaker ones that happen more often?”

Until those questions are answered, researchers say there’s no need for pilots to change course, since avoiding thunderstorms is already part of the gig. Depending on future findings, though, frequent flyers may want to watch the weather when they fly.

“It’s kind of cool that it’s been 250 years since Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment, and we’ve realized there’s a different kind of lightning going on that we never knew about,” Dwyer said.

New details emerge in Lone Star College stabbings, suspect's history

CYPRESS, Texas â€" A man accused of stabbing more than a dozen people at a suburban Houston community college chose his victims at random, authorities said Wednesday, going from one floor to another as he used a

There has been a series of stabbings on the campus of Houston's Lone Star College. According to initial reports, five people were stabbed in a campus building. We will bring you updates from a news conference set to take

CNN host and gun control advocate Piers Morgan was schooled on Tuesday night's show by two Lone Star Community College students on the need for concealed carry on college campuses. Jonathan and Jon Paul Clayton,

The rampage that injured more than a dozen people at Houston's Lone Star College puts the school on a long list of violent attacks on American campuses, crimes that have been occurring with

A student blamed for the stabbings at the Lone Star Community College System campus in Cypress was being held without bond on three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Online jail records don't list an attorney for 20-year-old Dylan

Alleged Rape of Girl Who Killed Self...

There's more, here. It's hard, but you should read all of it. To the Justice Minister of Nova Scotia Rehtaeh Parsons thought the worst outcome for her.

Rehtaeh Parsons suicide: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada teen allegedly gang-raped and bullied, dies. Rehtaeh_Parsons_20130410090403_JPG. Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, was hospitalized after she tried to hang herself Thursday. The high school student from

Rehtaeh Parsons suicide: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada teen allegedly gang-raped and bullied, dies. Rehtaeh_Parsons_20130410090403_JPG. Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, was hospitalized after she tried to hang herself Thursday. The high school student from

The mother of a Halifax teenager who killed herself after allegedly being raped and photographed by four boys is making a public plea for people to leave the boys linked to the allegations alone. Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, died on the weekend after trying to

There's more, here. It's hard, but you should read all of it. To the Justice Minister of Nova Scotia Rehtaeh Parsons thought the worst outcome for her.

Ratings: Viewers not 'Ready For Love'

ready for love giuliana bill tim It's The Dating Game on steroids. Millionaire Matchmaker to the nth degree. The Bachelor plus The Voice. Tonight, NBC premiered Ready for Love, the Eva Longoria-produced show set to take reality TV dating to the next level.

Tim Lopez from Plain White T's took his chance on finding love on NBC's new dating show Ready for Love and revealed to “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” he not only found love on the show, he even wrote a song about her!

It was authentic, uplifting, positive and romantic. It was a call from a network whose strategy was to turn the expected cable show trainwreck on its head. Ready For Love had all the elements of what NBC and I felt TV should be about. Remember must-see-TV?

gp3jpg-3d9ea4e5bc6f6638.jpg View full size A photograph taken by Amos E. Voorhies, an example of the turn-of-the-20th-century images collected by Lloyd Smith and featured in "Capturing Oregon's Frontier: An Oregon Experience" special. Amos E.

Back to her usual business after co-chairing January's presidential inauguration, Longoria vows "Ready for Love" works: "We are confident in this format. It will not disappoint in the way other shows have." Follow Zap2it on Twitter and Zap2it on

Turbulence ahead as climate changes

New research linking climate change to turbulence points to bumpier flights and rising costs for airlines

Get ready for more choppy, nerve-fraying transatlantic flights.

New research shows that climate change will cause more turbulence for transatlantic fliers by the middle of this century, and possibly lead to higher costs for airlines and passengers.

According to a paper published in the scientific journal, Nature, climate change will significantly increase turbulence over the North Atlantic, a popular route between North America and Europe.

The report concluded that “journey times may lengthen and fuel consumption and emissions may increase” as a result.

This increase in emissions could then intensify global warming problems, causing a vicious circle for pilots, fliers and the environment.

Currently, turbulence causes about $150 million a year in damages to planes and other expenses, said Paul Williams, one of the report’s authors from the department of meteorology at the University of Reading. There was a high chance overall industry costs would rise as turbulence intensifies, he said.

British Airways, one of the heaviest users of the North Atlantic routes, said it invested heavily in systems to help its pilots detect and avoid turbulence.

“The technology and training to predict, avoid and mitigate turbulence has improved hugely over the past 20 years and we would expect that pattern to continue into the future,” it said in a statement.

Related: Absurd airline fees

The U.K.-based researchers used a climate model from Princeton to analyze the specifics of how turbulence will increase in the winter.

“We were surprised by how robust the results were for the North Atlantic region,” said co-author Manoj Joshi, a lecturer in climate dynamics from the University of East Anglia.

The results showed that the area above the North Atlantic that would experience “significant” turbulence will double, explained Williams. “Significant” turbulence can be classified as turbulence that would prompt the pilot to turn on the seat belt sign, he said.

Joshi said he expects to find similar results when he looks at the North Pacific region, between Japan and the west coast of the United States.

Researchers discover new evidence that dinosaurs were strong swimmers

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An international research team has discovered new evidence that dinosaurs were strong swimmers, capable of paddling long distances. They posit that learning more about dinosaurs can help them track evolution over millions of years.

University of Alberta graduate student Scott Persons says that “from dinosaurs we’ve learned about colour vision in some of today’s animals, and the ancient animals are linked to the evolution of other life we take for granted, like birds and flowering plants.”

Persons and his colleagues studied strange claw marks discovered on a river bottom in China that is thought to have once been a route frequented by dinosaurs.

In close proximity to fossilized footprints of several Cretaceous era animals researchers located a series of claw marks that they think suggest a coordinated, left-right, left-right progression.

According to Persons, the claw marks were made by the tips of a two-legged dinosaur’s feet as it swam in the river with only its tippy toes scraping the bottom. The claw marks stretch a distance of approximately 15 meters which the researchers contend is proof that dinosaurs were able to swim with coordinated leg movements. These tracks were made by the meat-eating theropod dinosaur.

Fossilized evidence suggests that more than 100 million years ago the river in China experienced dry and wet cycles. According to Persons, the “dinosaur super-highway” has given researchers plenty of foot prints of theropods and four-legged sauropods to study.

According to a University of Alberta news article written by Brian Murphy, Persons and his colleagues plan to continue examining dinosaurs’ ability to swim with the ultimate goal that the analysis will offer information about animals. Persons says that paleontology has already yielded a few connections between life on Earth 65 million years ago and today.

“Want to know why our pet dogs or livestock have limited colour vision? It’s because early mammals sacrificed cones for rods in their eyes so they could see better in the dark and better avoid dinosaurs,” notes Persons in the news article.

The study’s findings were described in detail in the journal Chinese Science Bulletin.

Metta World Peace says he'll play Tuesday

Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace is hoping to come back sooner rather than later.(Photo: Mark J. Terrill AP)

EL SEGUNDO – Kobe Bryant has a nickname for Metta World Peace that was more than fitting on Monday afternoon, when the Lakers small forward made the stunning announcement that he would play in Tuesday night’s game against New Orleans just 12 days after having surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

“I call him Logan now – he’s Wolverine,” Bryant said of the popular X-Men character.

Metta World Beast is more like it.

“I’m not very surprised,” Bryant also said. “He takes care of himself. He eats all the right stuff. Still, it’s extremely impressive.”

If it were up to World Peace, who was expected to miss at least six weeks, he said he would have played three games ago when the Lakers defeated Dallas on April 2. This wasn’t a case of World Peace going rogue with his own recovery plan, either, as Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni put the odds of World Peace playing against the Hornets at “90, 80 (percent).” After going through an extensive pregame shooting routine before the Lakers’ game against the Clippers on Sunday, World Peace took part in all of Monday’s practice and put in extra work afterward.

“Tomorrow morning he’ll go through some more tests, and if he passes he’ll play,” D’Antoni said.

The Lakers need all the help they can get, of course, as they trail the Utah Jazz by 1/2 a game for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference and, with five games left, are on the verge of missing the postseason for the first time since 2005. The Jazz, who have four games left, hold the tiebreaker between the two teams because they won two of three meetings with the Lakers this season.

Lip-smacking link between monkeys, humans

The lip-smacking vocalizations gelada monkeys make are surprisingly similar to human speech, a new study finds.

Many nonhuman primates demonstrate lip-smacking behavior, but geladas are the only ones known to make undulating sounds, known as “wobbles,” at the same time. (The wobbling sounds a little like a human hum would sound if the volume were being turned on and off rapidly.) The findings show that lip-smacking could have been an important step in the evolution of human speech, researchers say.

‘It shows that this evolutionary pathway is at least plausible.’

- Thore Bergman of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

“Our finding provides support for the lip-smacking origins of speech because it shows that this evolutionary pathway is at least plausible,” Thore Bergman of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and author of the study published Monday, April 8, in the journal Current Biology, said in a statement. “It demonstrates that nonhuman primates can vocalize while lip-smacking to produce speechlike sounds.”

Lip-smacking â€" rapidly opening and closing the mouth and lips â€" shares some of the features of human speech, such as rapid fluctuations in pitch and volume. [See Video of Gelada Lip-Smacking]

Bergman first noticed the similarity while studying geladas in the remote mountains of Ethiopia. He would often hear vocalizations that sounded like human voices, but the vocalizations were actually coming from the geladas, he said. He had never come across other primates who made these sounds. But then he read a study on macaques from 2012 revealing how facial movements during lip-smacking were very speechlike, hinting that lip-smacking might be an initial step toward human speech.

To investigate this scenario himself, Bergman analyzed recordings of the geladas’ wobbles. He found that the rhythm of these wobbles closely resembled that of human speech. Specifically, the wobble resulted from a male making a “moan” (something geladas produce by vocalizing while inhaling and exhaling) and lip-smacking. The lip-smacking movements corresponded to the mouth movements made during human speech.

An example of a call involving complex facial movements is the “girney” vocalization in macaques. These are thought to be produced by lip movements and teeth chattering, but evidence suggests the movements and sound don’t occur at the same time. By contrast, the gelada lip-smacking and vocalizing seem to happen concurrently.

The findings suggest lip-smacking represents a possible pathway in the evolution of speech, though not the only one, Bergman said. In addition, lip-smacking may also serve a purely social function, just like human conversations.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

'Teen Mom' star Farrah Abraham reportedly filmed sex tape with James Deen

Adult film star James Deenâ€"yes, the one who starred in “The Canyons” with Lindsay Lohanâ€"is claiming to have filmed a sex tape with former “Teen Mom” star Farrah Abrahams.

“We definitely shot a scene, and in my opinion it was very amazingly awesome,” Deen said, according to The Sun.

“I thought she was very nice and super sexy. I had never heard of her before as I don’t follow pop culture, but it is nice to see that her fame has not gone to her head.”

But Farrah, who was approached by TMZ and questioned about alleged tape, said no such film exists.

On Monday she tweeted: “I have the best relationship with my parents even on a shocking day like today. yes I’m a great daughter amazing mother #Happy”

Still, a photo recently surfaced of the former MTV star holding hands with Deen, at least proving the two have been spending some time together.

Deen, 27, was quick to dismiss rumors that he and the single mom were an item.

“Not dating at all,” he said, according to The Sun. “I don’t know where that picture was taken. Holding hands was to build chemistry and help make her more comfortable.”

And though Abraham is adamant she never filmed a sex tape the wild behavior wouldn’t be completely out of character for the starlet.

Last months, photos surfaced of Abraham partying in lingerie and kissing another woman.

And since her run on MTV’s “Teen Mom” ended in 2012, Abraham has seemingly been desperate to try and hold on to her star status.

In Aug. 2012, she released a song and a music video, which featured her and her daughter, Sophia. She also penned the book “My Teenage Dream Ended,” and created her own pasta sauce with her picture on the label. Abraham has also tried her hand at modeling since “Teen Mom” wrapped, posing in sexy bikini shoots.

Abraham first entered the spotlight in 2009 when she appeared on MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” and gave birth to her daughter on the documentary series. She then returned to the network for the spinoff series “Teen Mom,” which ran for four seasons.

Reps for Farrah did not immediately return FOX 411′s request for comment. 

New NASA Planet Hunter TESS Searches Entire Sky, Puts Kepler To Shame

We’ve already spotted more than 800 exoplanets beyond our solar system, and more than a hundred of these were identified by NASA’s Kepler mission in the four years since its launch â€" and that’s just what Kepler has come across by very intently gazing at one small patch of the sky. Now, NASA has its sights set on even more worlds, green-lighting the new Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a spacecraft set to launch in 2017.

This is a serious upgrade to NASA’s ability to track down exoplanets, as TESS, the result of a 3-year contest and a $200 million grant at MIT, won’t be limited to the narrow patch of sky that Kepler has been watching. It will get a look at the whole picture.

According to NASA’s announcement:

“TESS will use an array of telescopes to perform an all-sky survey to discover transiting exoplanets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, in orbit around the nearest and brightest stars in the sky. Its goal is to identify terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars.”

Not only will this new spacecraft cover more than 400 times the amount of sky than any previous mission, it’s specifically tuned to stay on the look-out for rocky, Earth-sized worlds. George Ricker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and TESS’s lead scientist, said, “The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest main-sequence stars hosting transiting exoplanets, which will forever be the most favorable targets for detailed investigations.”

Ricker’s words might translate â€" particularly to impressionable sci-fi fans â€" as a familiar sentiment: Once we burn through the last of Earth’s resources, humanity is going to need to find a new home somewhere in the habitable zones beyond the Solar System where water can exist. If they get started soon, TESS and its successors could show us where to look for likely candidates. Getting to any of those planets, of course, is another matter, but hey, one thing at a time.

TESS is seen as the first of a new generation of dedicated exoplanet hunters. We’ve still got four more years before it launches, though, and Kepler isn’t finished yet. Despite its smaller field of vision, the observatory has already spotted 2,740 potential worlds and a promising prevalence rocky planets in the Milky Way since its launch in 2009. So we say thanks for your service and keep up the good work Kepler…but be ready to go gracefully when the new kid gets called up in a few seasons.

(MIT via Discovery News, image courtesy of TESS)

Relevant to your interests

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• Planet Hunter spots some potentially habitable worlds we certainly can’t reach yet
• When Kepler discovered 41 more exoplanets

Halle Berry opens up about 'big surprise' pregnancy

Halle Berry has opened up about becoming a mother for the second time.

“I feel fantastic,” Berry, 46, told CNN’s Alina Cho. “This has been the biggest surprise of my life to tell you the truth.”

RELATED: HALLE BERRY PREGNANT WITH SECOND CHILD

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Michael Kors

Berry already has a 5-year-old daughter with her ex-boyfriend, Canadian model Gabriel Aubry.

Already mom to daughter Nahla, 5, with ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, Berry and fiancé Olivier Martinez, 47, are expecting their first child together.

“I thought I was kind of past the point where this could be a reality for me,” she added. “So it’s been a big surprise and the most wonderful.”

PHOTOS: CELEBRITY BABY BUMPS

Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

Halle Berry says she feels ‘fantastic,’ about having a child with fiance Olivier Martinez.

The actress showed off her tiny baby bump in a low-cut black dress as she posed next to designer Michael Kors at a star-studded dinner at NYC’s Four Seasons restaurant, where Berry was being honored for her work with the United Nations World Food Programme.

Rumors have already swirled that Berry is having a boy, but the Oscar-winning actress denied those reports, saying she doesn’t know yet.

Berry has been engaged to Martinez since early 2012. The couple, who first met on the 2010 set of “Dark Tide,” got engaged amidst Berry’s tumultuous custody battle with Aubry, 37.

RELATED: HALLE BERRY RESTRAINS OLIVIER MARTINEZ IN AIRPORT ALTERCATION

Martinez previously dated singer Kylie Minogue, actress Mira Sorvino and was rumored to have dated model-actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

Carnitine chemical, not fat, may explain link between red meat and heart disease

The link between red meat and heart disease risk is nothing new, but a new study shows the reason behind the risk may not be what doctors have long thought.

Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic have discovered it’s not the saturated fats or cholesterol from a fatty steak that’s triggering heart problems, but a chemical process involving gut bacteria and a compound found in meat called carnitine that may be to blame.

“Carnitine metabolism suggests a new way to help explain why a diet rich in red meat promotes atherosclerosis,” study author Dr. Stanley Hazen, section head of preventive cardiology and rehabilitation in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a written statement.

• Study: Red meat raises risk of dying, risk higher with processed meats
• Mediterranean diet may be better for your heart than cutting down on fat
• Energy drinks may increase blood pressure, change heart’s rhythm

Atherosclerosis is a disease of the arteries where plaque builds up, preventing oxygen-rich blood from flowing to organs and other parts of the body. This could lead to heart attacks, strokes and death.

Hazen and his team were looking to build on previous research linking frequent red meat consumption to increased rates of heart disease. Several of the studies suggested that the fatty composition of meat alone accounted for only a portion of the risk increase, according to Hazen, with meat’s salt content, genetic risk factors or something about cooking itself possibly accounting for the remaining risk.

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12 simple ways to prevent a heart attack

According to the researchers, an earlier study found that a compound called trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) may promote the growth of artery-clogging plaques. TMAO is formed when bacteria from our digestive tract breaks down a compound found in meat known as carnitine. Diets high in meat promote the growth of a gut bacteria that breaks down carnitine, the researchers explained, which leads to more TMAO, which in turn leads to atherosclerosis. The study authors set out to learn more about how this process affects heart risks, by comparing the carnitine and TMAO levels found among meat-eaters, vegans and vegetarians.

They evaluated 2,595 patients undergoing heart exams, and found increasing carnitine levels increased risks for stroke, heart attacks and other cardiac events in subjects with high levels of TMAO. Vegans and vegetarians had significantly lower baseline levels of TMAO than meat-eating omnivores, the researchers found. Vegetarians and vegans given carnitine did not show major increases in TMAO levels, however, when compare with meat-eaters who consumed the same amount of carnitine, which suggests vegetarians may possess different gut bacteria.

One vegan even agreed to eat a 200-gram sirloin steak to see how carnitine and TMAO levels would be affected, Nature News reported.

“The bacteria living in our digestive tracts are dictated by our long-term dietary patterns,” said Hazen. “A diet high in carnitine actually shifts our gut microbe composition to those that like carnitine, making meat eaters even more susceptible to forming TMAO and its artery-clogging effects. Meanwhile, vegans and vegetarians have a significantly reduced capacity to synthesize TMAO from carnitine, which may explain the cardiovascular health benefits of these diets.”

The researchers also looked at the effects of a diet heavy in carnitine by testing normal mice and mice with suppressed levels of gut bacteria, and concluded that TMAO prevents the breakdown of cholesterol, thereby raising risk for atherosclerosis.

Hazen noted that besides being found in red meats, carnitine is also added to dietary supplements to boost weight loss, and is commonly found in another item linked to heart risks — energy drinks.

“We need to examine the safety of chronically consuming carnitine supplements as we’ve shown that, under some conditions, it can foster the growth of bacteria that produce TMAO and potentially clog arteries,” he said.

The study was published April 7 in Nature Medicine.

“It’s really a beautiful combination of mouse studies and human studies to tell a story I find quite plausible,” Dr. Daniel J. Rader, a heart disease researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, told The New York Times.

Dr. Harlan Krumholtz, professor of medicine and epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Medicine, wrote for Forbes that the study may be potentially groundbreaking, but the findings to be repeated before doctors start measuring people’s gut bacteria to determine their disease risk from eating meat.

“This study needs to be replicated by others and we need to determine how such knowledge may be translated into action that might actually help people,” he wrote “The study starts with the presumption that red meat causes heart disease, but the medical literature is actually has a lot of conflicting information,” Krumholtz, who was not involved in the research, also added.

One expert not involved in the research said people may still be able to eat meat occasionally without risk.

“There’s no need to change our dietary recommendations from this,” Catherine Collins, a dietitian at the U.K. nonprofit Science Media Centre, told Business Insider. “A Mediterranean style diet with modest meat, fish, dairy and alcohol intake, coupled with more pulses, vegetables fruits, whole grains and mono-unsaturated fats, remains the nutritional blueprint for a healthy and healthful life.”