World around us: Michael Jackson’s ‘face’ on baby scan

An image captured in a baby scan has been claimed to be the ‘double’ of Michael Jackson.

Parents-to-be Dawn Kelley and William Hickman were looking at the ultrasound scan of their unborn baby when they realised it looked like the late pop singer.

Mr Hickman, 29, a window cleaner, said: “I showed my daughter Ami, who’s six, and she saw it straight away, so I thought ‘well if she can see it too it’s not just me seeing things’.”

Mother-of-six Miss Kelley, 34, went for her 20-week scan at Sunderland Royal as normal last month, but doctors could not see the foetus’s stomach or diaphragm.

A few weeks later she was sent to Grindon Lane Walk in Centre for a closer look.

The more powerful scanner there is normally used to examine internal organs so the images it produces much more detailed.

Mr Hickman said: “We were looking at the pictures again, and I just saw Jacko there.

“None of us are really Michael Jackson fans. I mean I like him, but we’re not crazy about him or anything.”

via World around us: Michael Jackson’s ‘face’ on baby scan.

Free tix to twilight – new moon – review

My friend had two free tickets to the 2nd movie in the “Twilight” series. I saw this movie tonight without having read the books and without seeing the first movie.

It seemed to be a movie about a pretty teen waif girl and some pale people with strange eyes, then it was a movie about a guy who keeps taking his shirt off. Then it was a movie about a guy who cuts his hair and gets a tattoo and takes his shirt off. And then, it was a movie about a group of guys who take their shirts off and turn into werewolves… oh … and there was some kissing and a few fight scenes and ghostlike special effects.

The ending made people gasp in surprise, about where it ended compared to the book, I think.

There were so many teenage girls at this movie in Sacramento that they closed down the men’s restroom to turn it into a woman’s restroom in the theater.

I was moderately entertained by the story but for my own tastes, the Underworld movies are more my speed if I’m looking for vampires fighting werewolves.

Free tix to twilight, originally uploaded by xeno735.

With Playboy sale, an icon bows to changing times

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner changed American pop culture, one centerfold at a time.

With his Playboy Enterprises Inc in talks to be sold for about $300 million, the 83 year-old Hefner will be giving up control over the iconic adult entertainment empire he founded that was instrumental in shaping society’s opinions on nudity, sex and free speech.

With $600, Hefner in 1953 published the first Playboy magazine with a partially nude photo of Marilyn Monroe at its center. The magazine would become not only one of the most successful publications ever, but also a brand that led many Americans to think about sex in a more carefree way.

“Hef” turned Playboy and its bunny head logo into a symbol for a lifestyle he embodied as bachelor extraordinaire, living in a mansion surrounded by wealth and beautiful women.

“This guy was one of the major players in the transformation of American culture in the second half of the 20th century and not just because he had a magazine with naked women in it,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University.

In 1972, Playboy had a worldwide circulation of 7 million, but that has been in decline ever since, as the liberalization of sexual attitudes Hefner promoted became more mainstream — and more competitive.

But even as it grew ever more popular, the magazine created rivals such as Penthouse and Hustler. In the 1980s, adult videos grew into a major business and by the late 1990s, the rise of the Internet and free pornography on the Web became Playboy’s greatest rival for an audience.

REALITY STAR

Hefner remains in the limelight today, showing up at media events with numerous girlfriends by his side. He enjoyed a role in reality television show “The Girls Next Door” on cable network E! and his dating life and break-up with model Holly Madison made him a staple of celebrity magazines.

via With Playboy sale, an icon bows to changing times | U.S. | Reuters.

Unfriend named word of 2009

“Unfriend” has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent.

Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a “friend” on a social networking side such as Facebook.

“It has both currency and potential longevity,” said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford’s U.S. dictionary program, in a statement.

“In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year.”

Other words deemed finalists for 2009 by the dictionary’s publisher, Britain’s Oxford University Press, came from other technological trends, the economy, and political and current affairs.

In technology, there was “hashtag,” which is the hash sign added to a word or phrase that lets Twitter users search for tweets similarly tagged; “intexticated” for when people are distracted by texting while driving, and “sexting,” which is the sending of sexually explicit SMSes and pictures by cellphone.

Finalists from the economy included “freemium,” meaning a business model in which some basic services are provided for free, and “funemployed,” referring to people taking advantage of newly unemployed status to have fun or pursue other interests.

In the political and current affairs section, finalists included “birther,” meaning conspiracy theorists challenging President Barack Obama’s U.S. birth certificate, and “choice mom,” a person who chooses to be a single mother.

Novelty words making the shortlist were “deleb,” meaning a dead celebrity, and “tramp stamp,” referring to a tattoo on the lower back, usually on a woman.

via Unfriend named word of 2009 | U.S. | Reuters.

The General, the 9/11 Conspiracy and the Men Who Stare at Goats

Albert “Bert” N. Stubblebine III is a retired Major General in the United States Army. He was the commanding general of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command from 1981 to 1984, when he retired from the Army. He is also known for his interest in parapsychology.

Stubblebine graduated from the United States Military Academy and received a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University.^[1] He spent 32 years in the Army, rising to the rank of Major General. He is credited with redesigning the US Army intelligence architecture during his command of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command from 1981 to 1984. Other U.S. Army commands that he led included the Electronic Research and Development Command (ERADCOM) and the Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM).^[2] He is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.^[3]

He was a supporter of the Stargate Project.

Stubblebine appeared in the 2006 documentary “One Nation Under Siege”^[2] where he states that a Boeing 757 airplane could not have crashed into The Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He features prominently in Jon Ronson’s book The Men Who Stare at Goats^[4], where he is described as firmly believing he can walk through walls.^[5]

The irony is rich:  A general who claims no jet hit the Pentagon because the plane’s wings could not pass through walls without leaving a mark is depicted as a man who believes the opposite, that solid objects can pass through walls.

I  found General Stubblebine’s comments about 9/11 and didn’t make the connection with the movie “the Men Who Stare at Goats” until I read the above Wikipedia bio.

Major General Albert “Bert” N. Stubblebine III, head of all intelligence says: Pentagon NOT hit by a plane WTC 7 brought down by explosives Media in America is controlled…

Video interview 6/28/09:

General Stubblebine: I am Major General Albert Stubblebine. I am retired Army Major-General. In my last assignment — my last command — I was responsible for all of the Army’s strategic intelligence forces around the world. I had responsibility for the Signals Intelligence, Photo Intelligence, Counter Intelligence, Human Intelligence. They all belonged to me, in my last assignment. …

I was supposed to find out what the enemy was doing, before the enemy did it so that we could take action against the enemy. That’s Intelligence, OK, before the fact. So, we always — always — rely not on a single piece of data, before we make a statement, but on multiple and the more pieces of data that you have that correlate, the better you know exactly what is going on. …

So I have had a lot of experience looking at photographs. I have looked at many, many different kinds of photographs, from many, many different platforms on many, many different countries, around the world.

Interviewer: OK. So on September the 11th, in 2001, what hit the Pentagon?

General Stubblebine:  I don’t know exactly what hit it, but I do know, from the photographs that I have analyzed and looked at very, very carefully, it was not an airplane.

Interviewer:  What made you believe that?

General Stubblebine:  Well, for one thing, if you look at the hole that was made in the Pentagon, the nose penetrated far enough so that there should have been wing marks on the walls of the Pentagon. I have been unable to find those wing marks. So where were they? Did this vessel — vehicle, or whatever it was — have wings? Apparently not, because if it had had wings, they would have made marks on the side of the Pentagon.

One person counteracted my theory, and said, “Oh, you’ve got it all wrong. And the reason that it’s wrong is that as the airplane came across, one wing tipped down and hit the ground and broke off.” I said, “Fine, that’s possible, one wing could have broken off.” But if I understand airplanes correctly, most airplanes have two wings. I haven’t met an airplane with only one wing. So where was the mark for the second wing? OK, one broke off — there should have been a mark for the second wing. I could not find that in any of the photographs that I’ve analyzed. Now I’ve been very careful to not say what went in there. Why? Because you don’t have that evidence. …

I did — I’ve never believed that it was an airplane since I’ve looked at the photographs. Up until the time I looked at the photographs, I accepted what was being said. After I looked at it — NO WAY! …

We pride ourselves with the “free press.” I do not believe the “free press” is free any more. It’s very expensive. It’s very expensive. And the press is saying what they have been told to say about this.

Now, do I have proof of that? No. But I believe that what is being — what certainly the — the stories that were told — all about 9/11 were false. I mean, you take a look at the buildings falling down. They didn’t fall down because airplanes hit them. They fell down because of explosives went off inside. Demolition. Look at Building 7, for God’s sake. It didn’t fall down to its side. It didn’t fall to this direction or that direction; just like the two Towers. …

When you look at the temperatures that you can create with fuel in a gas tank or a fuel tank of an airplane, and then you investigate the amount of heat that would be required to melt — to melt — the superstructure of the buildings that came tumbling down, when you put all of that together, the one thing that shows; It does not match the facts. What is it they do not want the public to know?

I think it is more important to trust your senses than the word of authority figures, but nevertheless, this made me curious about the General.

The real General Stubblebine does not appear to be a crazy grinning fool as he is depicted in the recent movie.   It seems  improbable to me that an actual nut could make it to the rank of Major General.

Army, Air Force and Marine generals and Navy and Coast Guard admirals command thousands of personnel and billions of dollars worth of military equipment. Stars are not conferred lightly, for generals and admirals shoulder awesome responsibilities. … General ranks are Brigadier (1 star), Major General (2 stars), Lieutenant General (3 stars) and General (4 stars).

How does a person become a General anyway?  Some guidelines I found on line cite avoiding controversy, but it seems to me that a General must be willing to make some bold moves too.

Early Christmas: Jim Carrey as Scrooge tops box office (Video: Official Trailer)

Jim Carrey’s Scrooge collected holiday donations from movie fans with his new take on “A Christmas Carol,” which took in $31 million to open as the weekend’s top movie.

The Disney animated version of the Charles Dickens classic knocked the King of Pop out of the No. 1 spot as “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” slipped to second place with $14 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Sony’s “This Is It,” presenting rehearsal performances Jackson shot before his death last June, raised its domestic total to $57.9 million. Worldwide, “This Is It” has taken in $186.5 million.

Featuring Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and also as the three holiday ghosts that show Scrooge the error of his miserly ways, “A Christmas Carol” came in on the low end of Disney’s expectations for opening weekend.

via Christmas comes early: ‘Carol’ tops box office – Movies- msnbc.com.

Official trailer here.

Queen Elizabeth Is Hitler’s Niece Says King Edward’s Daughter?

Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, was also Adolph Hitler’s half-brother (not father as initially reported) according to Emily Elizabeth Catherine Josephine Mary Windsor-Cragg, [illegitimate] daughter of Edward VIII Duke of Windsor.

“Hitler was born in 1889 five years before Edward VIII, when “Georgie” (Victoria’s favorite) was 23, long before his marriage to May Teck. He was brought up and abused as the eldest son in Bavaria, and Kaiser Wilhelm, the idealist, was in touch with him. The Duke of Windsor met his older half-brother for the first time in Germany in 1937; however, I have a document that shows Hitler was an intel agent for the British in the 1920’s, so he probably KNEW Wallis,” she says.

“Edward VIII Duke of Windsor was routed out, scapegoated, bankrupted, exiled and labeled as Not-See because his wife, unbeknownst to him on his wedding day, was an MI-5 agent of his Father, the King George V,” she says.

“Edward VIII [my dad] was never allowed to marry anybody he liked; only ditsie royal women were permitted to him. So, of course, a black intel ops woman was very attractive, if only because he was so isolated from marriageable women,” she continues.

“The whole story is held at Windsor Library in the Royal diary archives near where my father made his home before he was kicked out of England,” she adds.

Kaiser Wilhelm was exiled and Czar Nicholas was slaughtered by the Cocaine addicted bully George V because they knew the secret about Hitler’s parentage, says Lady Windsor-Cragg.

This information about Hitler contradicts the results of an Austrian Parliamentary investigation and other testimony by close Hitler aides that his father was the Baron Rothschild. Hopefully authorities in the UK will act promptly to check the Royal diary archives to confirm Lady Widnsor-Cragg’s assertions before the evidence is hidden.

via Queen Elizabeth Is Hitler’s Niece Says King Edward’s Daughter.

Wierd… in these two photos I found anyway, they could pass for brothers. Any historians out there want to tell us why this could not be true?

Beatle Ringo Starr’s face seen in water droplet on lotus leaf

A team researching water-repellent leaf behaviour at Duke University in North Carolina took the high-speed images, showing water drops bouncing on the surface of a leaf.

James Dacey, a reporter for Physics World, wrote the story up for the magazine’s website – and noticed the Octopus’s-Garden-composing, Thomas-The-Tank-Engine-narrating 1960s icon staring back at him.

Under the picture, captioned “The Starkey Effect: Ringo keeps psychedelia alive”, Mr Dacey says: “Bizarrely, everybody’s favourite mop-topped Liverpudlian seems to reveal himself in the high-speed photo images of water-droplets being ejected from the leaf surface.”

Starr’s features and mop-top haircut can indeed be seen in the images, even though they distort as the droplet bounces.

Mr Dacey told the Telegraph that this is the first time he has seen the image of a Beatle in a physics experiment.

There is some argument over whether the image is actually of George Harrison, rather than Ringo. Harrison is quoted as saying “Life is like a raindrop on a lotus leaf”, when talking about his battle with throat cancer.

via Beatle Ringo Starr’s face seen in water droplet on lotus leaf – Telegraph.

Definitely one of the more interesting cases of pareidolia.  The point to take home here is that priming causes people to see things. This is used to great effect in criminal trials by lawyers who understand how the mind works. I see a white helicopter image trapped in the water droplets.  Water, just add meaning.

Newspaper circulation drop accelerates

Circulation at newspapers shrank at an accelerated pace in the past six months, driven in part by stiff price increases imposed by publishers scrambling to offset rapidly eroding advertising sales.

Average daily circulation at 379 U.S. newspapers plunged 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month stretch last year, according to figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

It’s the largest drop recorded so far during the past decade’s steady decline in paid readership — a span that has coincided with an explosion of online news sources that don’t charge readers for access. Many newspapers also have been reducing delivery to far-flung locales and increasing prices to get more money out of their remaining sales.

The latest decline outstripped a 7.1 percent decrease in the October 2008-March 2009 period and a 4.6 percent decline in last year’s April-September window.

As both publications indicated earlier in the month, The Wall Street Journal surpassed USA Today as the top-selling newspaper in the United States. The Journal’s average Monday-Friday circulation edged up 0.6 percent to 2.02 million — making it the only daily newspaper in the top 25 to see an increase.

USA Today suffered the worst erosion in its 27-year history, dropping more than 17 percent to 1.90 million. The newspaper, owned by Gannett Co., has blamed reductions in travel for much of the circulation shortfall, because many of its single-copy sales come in airports and hotels.

The New York Times stayed in third place at 927,851, down 7.3 percent from the same period of 2008. Its Sunday edition remained the top weekend seller at 1.4 million, a decrease of 2.6 percent.

Sunday circulation at all the newspapers covered in the ABC survey fell 7.5 percent in the latest six-month span.

The circulation numbers are just the latest sign of distress in the shrinking newspaper industry.

via Newspaper circulation drop accelerates April-Sept – Yahoo! News.

Advertisers are turning to blogs instead because that’s where the readers are going. I’ll probably hit 2 million viewers faster than I hit 2 million.

La Toya Jackson in contact with Michael and flipping you disbelievers the bird

La Toya Jackson is proving that she’s the most gifted person on this planet. Not only is she a crime-solving genius and the entertainer of all entertainers (next to MJ and Rebbie, of course), but she’s also a ghost whisperer. In an interview with The Mirror, La Toya confessed that is Michael is speaking to her from beyond the grave. I always knew La Toya’s wig was the portal to the afterworld.

La Toya said, “When I go to his house I say, ‘Hello, Michael. How are you? If you’re here, please, please let me know’. And the lights start blinking. I can feel him. I can smell his Tom Ford cologne and I’ve felt him brush past me. It’s the most wonderful feeling and the biggest smile comes over my face. I tell him I love him so much and ask him to show me he’s here again. The lights blink again. I know he’s there, answering me and knowing he’s watching me is a huge comfort.

I never believed that people could speak, hear and communicate in that sense. But I’ve witnessed it several times now and I want to investigate it further. I am certainly open-minded to speaking to a medium. No other members of the family have experienced it. Just me.”

via Det. La Toya Is The Sylvia Browne Of The Jackson Family | Dlisted.

Related:

Katherine Jackson’s battle for control of her pop star son’s estate is about to take a “new direction” based on “new evidence” uncovered by the family, a Jackson family lawyer said.The revelation came from attorney Londell McMillan, who also corrected a report that he was one of the lawyers Katherine Jackson replaced Thursday.

McMillan pointed to questions about the authenticity of the signature on Michael Jackson’s will as reported this week by celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.

Randy Jackson said his brother could not have signed the will — which was dated July 7, 2002, in Los Angeles — because he was in New York that day, according to the TMZ report.