Michael Jackson Murdered?

According to the celebrity gossip website, which broke the news of Jackson’s death last month, law enforcement sources have said that they are focusing their investigation on Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray.

Sources have said that there is “plenty of powerful evidence” that Murray administered the anaesthesia Propofol to Jackson, which may have been the primary cause of the pop star’s death. He also reportedly administered the drug Diprivan to Jackson, and was with him when he died.

The exact cause of Jackson’s death is expected to be announced later this week after toxicology tests are completed.

Meanwhile, TMZ also reported that the LAPD has had “multiple conversations” with the LA County District Attorney’s office on the matter, but a case has not been formally put forth.

-via nme

Lotto winner gives money to beggar

Rosemary Obiakor, 46, of Lagos, won more than three million naira (£13,500) in the National Sports Lottery, reports the Daily Metro.

When asked what she planned to do with the money after she was presented with her cheque in a ceremony on local TV, Mrs Obiakor said she’d give it to a “lucky beggar”.

“I have heard a lot of stories about how people win the lottery, and they get broke in the short run and come across a lot of misfortune. I am scared, and so I’ll give it to a lucky beggar on the street,” she told TV reporters.

She collected her cheque, cashed the money and gave the money to a female beggar who was sitting by the street side with her two-year old baby.

When Mrs Obiakor and a team of lottery executives handed the beggar a bag full of banknotes, she screamed with delight, and hugged them all.

She thanked her benefactor profusely and promised to start a food retail business immediately.

Before she went away with her money, the new ‘millionaire’ gave handfuls of money to other beggars on the street.

via Ananova – Lotto winner gives money to beggar.

Crocodile lays eggs without mating

The country’s only captive white crocodile, which had become famous for shunning mating habits, has laid eggs and that too without mating.

Living in isolation and detached from males, the 33-year-old Gori laid about 30 eggs in the captivity of a pen in the crocodile research farm of Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary here.

The eggs however lacked fertility contents and potency for procreation, officials said, adding that besides Gori another captive female crocodile also laid ‘infertile’ eggs last week.

“Laying of eggs by isolated reptiles is a rare occurrence. The eggs have been preserved for research work,” the officials said.

Gori, acclaimed as the country’s lone captive white crocodile, is famous for its typical behavioural instinct.

In isolation since its birth in the sanctuary in 1975, the animal had avoided mating despite several attempts by forest officials. It had even attacked a male crocodile that had been released into the pen for mating.

The enigmatic Gori has been keeping bad health since the past few years.

via Crocodile lays eggs without mating.

University professor describes encounter with sphere-shaped UFO in Missouri

A university law professor riding his motorcycle near Camdenton, Missouri, watched a sphere-shaped object “the size of a small house” floating 150 feet off of the ground, according to witness testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database.

The witness first saw the object on the south side of the street over a commercial building. He said he became “transfixed” by the object and could not take his eyes off of it.

“I kept wanting to pull my bike over to take a picture,” the witness stated, “but was too amazed at the object that I didn’t for some reason.”

He described the object as reddish in color with a glow. The object then passed over him and hovered on the north side of the street.

The witness finally found a suitable place to pull off, and attempted to take a photo of the object – but it was gone. He said there were no obstructions or trees it could have been hiding behind.

Camdenton is in Camden County, population 2,770.

via University professor describes encounter with sphere-shaped UFO in Missouri.

Bride’s bouquet crashes plane in Italy

A romantic wedding in the Tuscan countryside ended with injuries after an attempt to launch the bride’s bouquet from a plane brought down the tiny aircraft. Italian police say two people were hurt in the crash of the ultralight plane after the bridal bouquet they launched got caught in the aircraft’s rear rotor.

The flowers blocked the engine, bringing the plane down by a youth hostel.

Police in the nearby town of Piombino said Tuesday the pilot was lightly injured in Saturday’s crash, while the passenger who threw the bouquet had several broken bones.

The bride and groom were not aboard the plane.

via Bride’s bouquet crashes plane in Italy – Yahoo! News.

Disorderly genius: How chaos drives the brain

HAVE you ever experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from nowhere, with no clue as to why you had that particular idea at that particular time? You may think that such fleeting thoughts, however random they seem, must be the product of predictable and rational processes. After all, the brain cannot be random, can it? Surely it processes information using ordered, logical operations, like a powerful computer?

Actually, no. In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise.

Neuroscientists have long suspected as much. Only recently, however, have they come up with proof that brains work this way. Now they are trying to work out why. Some believe that near-chaotic states may be crucial to memory, and could explain why some people are smarter than others.

In technical terms, systems on the edge of chaos are said to be in a state of “self-organised criticality”. These systems are right on the boundary between stable, orderly behaviour – such as a swinging pendulum – and the unpredictable world of chaos, as exemplified by turbulence.

The quintessential example of self-organised criticality is a growing sand pile. As grains build up, the pile grows in a predictable way until, suddenly and without warning, it hits a critical point and collapses. These “sand avalanches” occur spontaneously and are almost impossible to predict, so the system is said to be both critical and self-organising. Earthquakes, avalanches and wildfires are also thought to behave like this, with periods of stability followed by catastrophic periods of instability that rearrange the system into a new, temporarily stable state.

via Disorderly genius: How chaos drives the brain – life – 29 June 2009 – New Scientist.

‘Gigantic’ orange sphere hovers over Missouri man, causes missing time

A Missouri man who works in law enforcement encountered a “gigantic” orange/yellow sphere that was hovering between 200 and 300 feet off of the ground about six blocks from his location, according to witness testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database.

The man said he was “mesmerized” by the object and could not move. As the object came closer, he said he could see that it had structure, that it “looked like a dark silvery color under the brightly glowing light,” and that there was a “weird static electricity feeling in the air.”

After the object moved directly overhead and away from him about two blocks, he said it then shot up at a 45-degree angle and “was gone in a second.”

Back at home, he noticed the time was 2:12 a.m. – and realized he was “not outside that long.”

via ‘Gigantic’ orange sphere hovers over Missouri man, causes missing time.