Core blimey! It’s the red and green apple with a split personality

When Ken Morrish picked this apple off a tree in his garden, he thought a prankster had painted half of it red. But after inspecting it closely he realised that the remarkable split colours on the fruit were a natural phenomenon. And the bizarre apple turned Mr Morrish into something of a celebrity in his village with scores of neighbours queuing up to take a photograph of it. Experts say that the odds of finding an apple with such a perfect line between the green and the red are more than 1million to one.

A fruit of two halves: This Golden Delicious apple seems to be having an identity crisis, split perfectly down the middle into red and green. Local horticulture experts are baffled by the specimen

But Mr Morrish, a retired painter and decorator who lives in Colaton Raleigh, near Sidmouth in Devon, has no plans to eat it. Instead, he has stored it in his fridge so villagers can continue to come round and take photos.  ‘It looks as if a green apple and a red apple has been cut in half and stuck together,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s absolutely phenomenal. The 72-year-old pensioner spotted the split-coloured fruit as he picked apples from a Golden Delicious tree in his garden.

One in a million: Ken Morrish could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the freaky fruit.

Horticulturists say the colourings on the apple are probably caused by a random genetic mutation. In such cases, the red side usually tastes sweeter than the green side – because it has seen more sunshine during its growth.

‘The red and green split through the stem is totally perfect – as if I’ve painted it. It’s a genuine one-off and none of us have ever seen an apple like it before.’Mr Morrish, a grandfather-of-two who has grown apples for 45 years, took the fruit to horticultural experts at a nearby college for closer examination. ‘They took pictures of it and said they had never come across anything like it either,’ he added. ‘It’s caused a real stir in the village. People have been coming round to see it and take photos of it. ‘I’m sure a few hundred years ago it would have been seen as a supernatural sign or something. I don’t know if it’s worth a lot of money but I won’t be letting it out of my sight.’

John Breach, chairman of the British Independent Fruit Growers Association, said: ‘I’ve never seen this happen before to a Golden Delicious. It is extremely rare. It is an extreme mutation. ‘There has been the occasional case of this type reported. If there was a whole branch of apples with the same colouring then fruit experts would get even more excited.’

Jim Arbury, fruit superintendent at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, said it was probably the ‘result of a random genetic mutation’. ‘This is known as a chimera where one of the first two cells has developed differently giving rise to one half of the apple being different,’ he said. ‘It is unlikely to be a stable mutation but it is worth checking next year to see if it recurs. There are instances of some striped apples and pears where the mutation remains stable including one striped pear in the collection at Wisley called Pysanka.’

Dailymail

Dust storm in Australia

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia cleared up on Thursday after the worst dust storm in decades which smothered Sydney and cost an estimated tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity.

Residents cleaned grimy cars and windows under clear skies a day after millions of tonnes of dust blew in from the desert Outback, forming an eerie red dawn in Sydney and caking the city in orange powder.

Health experts said the danger from record air pollution had passed but industry groups pointed to heavy economic damage in lost working hours and precious agricultural topsoil.

The dust storm forced the closure of Sydney construction sites and played havoc with air travel, with international flight diversions causing long delays.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is seen on September 23, 2009

Barely visible Sydney Opera House as a dust storm blankets the city on September 23, 2009

Sydney office buildings seen through the haze of a dust storm on September 23, 2009.

more images..

Van der Sar could extend his stay at Manchester United by another year

Edwin van der Sar says he could yet be convinced to stay on at Manchester United for another season. The 38-year-old, who has yet to play this season because of a hand injury, insists he is in good enough shape to continue and will make a decision in December whether this season will be his last. Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson said last year that he did not expect his Dutch No 1 to continue beyond 2010, but may be less than impressed at Ben Foster’s performances start to the campaign.

Top stopper: Van der Sar has excelled at United

Van der Sar said: ‘I’ve said for a few years that it sometimes may be my last season. Six months before my contract with Manchester United ended in December 2006, we extended for one year and so far it has been the same every time. ‘I wait each season to see how where I stand, if everyone is happy and if I can still get motivated. But I know, because I always get older, it is increasingly likely that this will be my last season. ‘In December, it will be clear how it goes. By then, I’ll have clarity. It is a horrible dilemma. On the one hand I do not oversleep, I feel as good as a few years ago.’

Dailymail

House of cards? Too easy! Here’s a hotel made from plastic keys (200,000 in fact)

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with unwanted hotel key cards, then think no more.  Because, providing you’ve somehow amassed 200,000 plastic slips, the solution is simple – use them to build your own guest house. That, at least, is what one hotel chain decided to do.

Holiday Inn’s Key Card Hotel, which opened yesterday in New York, includes a guest bedroom, bathroom and lobby, all fully equipped with life-sized furniture all made out of, yes, well, you get the point.

The 400 sq ft, two-ton construction in Manhattan , which will be in business until September 21, was built by world record-holding ‘card-stacker’ Bryan Berg.

He said: ‘This is my largest card-stacking challenge to date and the only card creation I have ever made at full human scale.’

During the five day event, Mr Berg will build a freestanding 9ft replica of New York’s Empire State Building in the lobby using Holiday Inn playing cards.

It marks the relaunch of the chains 1,200 hotels around the world. Kevin Kowalski, senior vice president of global brand management at Holiday Inn, said: “The Key Card Hotel is a fun and interactive way to showcase the changes happening at our hotels and is the only structure of its kind to ever be created by a hotel brand.” Mr Berg first broke the world record for World’s Tallest House of Freestanding Playing Cards in 1992 at the age of 17, with a tower 14ft 6in. Since then, he has been commissioned to break his own record ten times. His most recent tallest record was a 25ft 9in inch tall tower built at the African-American Museum at Dallas, Texas.

For this record, he tried a new technique involving stacking cards vertically instead of horizontally, which reduced the number of cards needed by nearly half. In 2004, Guinness created a new record category for World’s Largest House of Freestanding Playing Cards to recognize a project Mr Berg built for a replica or Cinderella’s Castle for Walt Disney World in Florida.

Daily Mail 18th September 2009

Eid Mubarak

Two foreign animators from VTV’s “Maakanaa Show” arrested

Haveeru 2009-09-14
Two foreigners, animators for the popular animated comedy talk show “Maakanaa Show” shown on VTV, were arrested by the Police. A Police Media Offical said on Sunday that in addition to the two animators, another foreigner believed to have connections with the two animators had also been arrested, but did not reveal any additional details about the arrest. Haveeru sources say that the two animators are Indians.

Producer of the “Maakanaa Show”, Yaameen Rasheed, said on Sunday that the two Cellmin Animation Studios staff had been arrested at the Jumhooree Maidhan. They had been arrested while they were drawing a picture of the area. He said that the drawing had included parts of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) building. “They are artists,” Yaameen said. “They would head out every day to draw various places. That day they were drawing scenes from around Jumhooree Maidhan, including parts of the MNDF building. From what I know, that was the reason they were arrested initially. They were released from custody after being carefully searched. Police searched their PCs, hard discs, their offices and apartments and released them because nothing incriminating had been found. They were released by Court order.”

Yaameen said that even though they had been released, they were rearrested not even an hour after they had arrived back at their house. “Police came and said that they had arrested a foreigner believed to have ties to Al Qaeda,” Yaameen said. “They said that they wanted to question our animators to see whether they were connected to the person they believed to have connections to Al Qaeda. We have not heard anything from them since then.” Yaameen said that the two non-Muslim animators had been hired randomly on separate occasions. One of them had been hired last year while the other had been onboard the team this year. “I am very confident that they are not connected to Al Qaeda,” Yaameen said. “They are mild-mannered and very helpful. Besides, I hired them from random searches.” Yaameen admitted that without two of the show’s animators it would be very difficult to produce the show on time, but was confident that they would be able to continue with the show.

So you think Twitter’s modern?

The Edwardians were tweeting 100 years ago – using postcards instead of computers

Fans of Twitter and Facebook may believe they are pioneers in the world of social networking. But 100 years before micro-blogging and status updates, Edwardian Britain was using the humble postcard for just the same purpose. A new study has revealed how the picture postcard, containing an image on one side and space for writing on the other, became an instant hit after it was introduced in 1902. Researchers have calculated that almost six billion postcards – an average of 200 per person – were posted in Britain over a nine-year period from 1901 and 1910. Since post was delivered up to 10 times a day in major cities, the medium allowed users to write and respond quickly and cheaply. Some postcards even used language resembling today’s text message slang, provoking the same concerns about declining standards of English that text forms arouse today. [read more..]

Google Fast Flip

Google 9/14/2009

Google launched Google Fast Flip, a Google Labs experiment that’s designed to help you flip through news online as fast as you would if you were holding a print magazine or paper.

Fast Flip is essentially just a funky way to flip through articles from three dozen Google partners including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Fast Company. Partners share in advertising revenue generated through the labs experiment.

With Fast Flip you can flip through snapshots of the day’s popular news, drill into specific sections and topics, or narrow stories by publisher source. Once you select a story, you can view the article in its totality and use the arrows to flip to the previous or next story.

Fast Flip comes with additional features like the ability to share stories via email, story liking, dynamic content based on your viewing experience, and mobile-friendly versions.

According to Google’s post on the launch, the point is to replicate the magazine or print reading experience and make browsing stories faster. The company writes:

“Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting.”

On first look, Fast Flip feels like a bit flop. While certainly unique, it’s likely to appeal to a very small segment of online news consumers. Sure, the online news reading experience could be improved, but Fast Flip is more of a tangential approach than it is a step in a revolutionary direction.

Michael Jackson tribute concert On June 2010

Organizers have announced that the Michael Jackson tribute concert scheduled to take place on Sept. 26 in Vienna has been canceled, Reuters reports. Instead, the event will take place in London in June 2010, to mark the first anniversary of Jackson’s death. On Tuesday, Jackson’s brother Jermaine and organizer Georg Kindel said at a news conference in Vienna that the tribute’s roster included Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Akon, and Natalie Cole. The very next day, however, they backtracked and cited various conflicts with those stars’ schedules.

Injury blow for Robinho

Manchester City star Robinho could be sidelined for up to a month with a stress fracture just above his ankle.
The club confirmed the injury blow following Saturday impressive 4-2 win over Premier League rivals Arsenal. The Brazilian, City’s record signing, suffered his injury on international duty.
The 25-year-old picked up the injury while playing in Brazil’s 3-1 victory over Argentina in a World Cup qualifying game a week ago and it was confirmed after scans on Friday.
City boss Mark Hughes indicated this week that he did not think there was any extensive damage to Robinho, and at one stage he was given a chance of facing Arsenal.
The Brazilian was sent for a scan to check for damage to his inflamed ankle, which produced the unwelcome result, ruling Robinho out for three to four weeks.

source ESPN soccernet

Apple iPod nano (5th Generation)

markably, the latest iPod nano looks almost identical to its predecessor, but this player packs so much more into its small frame: A video camera, an FM tuner (a first for iPods!), a pedometer for joggers, and a larger screen. Priced at $149 for 8GB and at $179 for 16GB ($20 less than last year’s 16GB player), this nano is more affordable, and it’s more capable than similarly priced players, so it’s our latest Editors’ Choice.

With a new polished and colorful paint job (you can choose from nine hues), the new nano is one good-looking device. At 3.6 by 1.5 by 0.2 inches (HWD) and a mere 1.3 ounces, it’s truly identical in size to the previous (4th-generation) nano. The screen, however, is significantly larger—2.2 inches as opposed to 2 (it may not sound like a lot, but on such a tiny player, that 0.2 inch makes a big difference), and its 376-by-240-pixel resolution is a bit higher too—the display on 4th-gen nano is 320-by-240.

Ellen DeGeneres Replaces Paula Abdul as the Fourth American Idol Judge

By Stefanie Lee 09/09/09 5:29 PM

The talk show host joins Simon, Randy, and Kara in 2010 for the ninth season of Idol.

Ellen DeGeneres will be the fourth judge on the ninth season of American Idol, premiering in January 2010, FOX reported in a press release. She’ll be a permanent fixture on the panel with Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Kara DioGuardi after the auditions, which will feature guest judges like Victoria Beckham and Neil Patrick Harris.

DeGeneres, who has danced with President Barack Obama (back when he was campaigning) and sang with Josh Groban, will more than fill the gap left behind by Paula Abdul‘s exit. Though DeGeneres is not a professional musician, her endless knowledge of the industry and experience as a performer will be huge assets to the panel. Plus, with a personality as big as hers, she’ll probably give Simon a run for his money —  and maybe even a taste of his own medicine.

MONOPOLY CITY STREETS; You versus the world in the biggest live game of MONOPOLY in history!

Origin Monopoly City Streets 2009,9

Starting today, you’ll be able to play MONOPOLY as it’s never been played before: The whole world will be up for sale. Anyone, anywhere will be able to own real streets and build their own online city.

The launch clock is ticking, and we still need some new mega structures – and that’s where you come in.

We’ve enlisted Google’s help to find three new MONOPOLY game pieces. You have the chance to have YOUR building design (and bearing YOUR name) included in the biggest game of MONOPOLY of all time.

Use Google SketchUp to design a 3D building, then upload your dream structure to the Google 3D Warehouse to enter it into the competition. You’ll need to be at least 13 years old to participate, and you’ll need to agree to these Terms and Conditions.

The deadline to submit is Sunday, September 27, 2009 at midnight, EST.

If global MONOPOLY fame and fortune isn’t enough, you also have a chance to win a Google SketchUp Pro 7 license (US $495 value). Two runners-up will also have their models used in the online game of MONOPOLY City Streets.

Here’s how it works:

1. Download Google SketchUp for free. SketchUp is available for both Windows and Macintosh computers.

2. Learn to build 3D models with SketchUp by watching video tutorials and related YouTube videos. Download and work through a few examples using these self-paced tutorials: Introduction to SketchUp, Starting a Drawing Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

3. From SketchUp, choose “Share Model” and upload your 3D building to the Google 3D Warehouse (you must have a Google account to sign in).

4. In the upload window, add the tag “monopolycompetition09” and make sure that you’ve checked “Allow 3D Warehouse users to contact me about this model” so we can contact you if you win!

5. Within 48 hours, your model/entry will appear in the Competition Collection in the Google 3D Warehouse.

Technical Guidelines:

· Buildings can be any size and any shape
· Buildings must not have photo-textures; they must be painted with solid colors
· The file size limit is 2 MB
· The file format should be .SKP

A few quick tips:

1. Keep it simple. Or not. Our judges will be looking at ALL designs – simple and complex.

2. Go crazy. Remember, the MONOPOLY world is a brilliantly fun place. Make your building the same! Go wild and have oodles of fun doing it.

3. Upload as many designs as you want. The more you submit, the greater the chance of your design winning!

4. For some inspiration check out some sample creations already in the Google 3D Warehouse Competition Collection.

Key dates to remember:

Sunday 27 September 2009 midnight EST – Competition closes

Wednesday 30 September 2009 midnight EST – Our jury will select 3 building designs from the top rated designs and notify the winners. We will also need to verify eligibility requirements at this stage

Tuesday 6 October 2009 midnight EST – Winners will be announced

October 2009 – The winners’ buildings become part of a global game of MONOPOLY

Enjoy!

Why 09/09/09 Is So Special?

Have special plans this 09/09/09?

Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way.

In Florida, at least one county clerk’s office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn’t been lost on the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. Focus Features is releasing their new film “9,” an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.

Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we’ll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it.

Though technically there’s nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09.

For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated – while others might see the date as an ominous warning.

Math magic

Modern numerologists – who operate outside the realm of real science – believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists.

Though usually discredited as bogus, numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times.

“Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers,” wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.

As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.

Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9×3=27, and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9×62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)…

Loving 9

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number eight during last year’s Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eight sounds like wealth).

Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing’s Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky – second only to four, which sounds like death.

Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven’t already eliminated them altogether.

source http://news.yahoo.com

Vote Maldives!

Do you want Maldives to be labeled as a natural world wonder? yeah..VOTE!