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Is This The Best Hairstyle Of 2009?

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It’s an oft-overlooked fact when discussing pop culture: Hairstyles can embody certain time periods just as much music, film or fashion. For example, who isn’t transported to the ‘60s when they spot a mop-top or to the late ‘70s when they bear witness to a sharp-as-hell Mohawk? So what will be the men’s hairstyle that comes to define 2009? Or more precisely, what has been, in your opinion, is the best men’s hairstyle of 2009.

Here are some potential candidates for the top hairstyle of 2009:

• Side part: The throwback hairstyle sported by Don Draper, the side part holds undeniable masculine appeal.
• Short front: Sported by up-and-comers like Chris Pine, the short front lets men be casual, scruffy and stylish at the same time.
• Textured top: The favorites hairstyle of guys like James Franco, the texture top takes inspiration from the side part but keeps men decidedly in the 21st century.

Bombing The Moon

WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA will throw a one-two punch at the big old moon Friday and the whole world will have ringside seats for the lunar dust-up.

NASA will send a used-up spacecraft slamming into the moon's south pole to kick up a massive plume of lunar dirt and then scour it to see if there's any water or ice spraying up. The idea is to confirm the theory that water -- a key resource if people are going to go back to the moon -- is hidden below the barren moonscape.

The crashing spaceship was launched in June along with an orbiter that's now mapping the lunar surface. LCROSS -- short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and pronounced L-Cross -- is on a collision course with the moon, attached to an empty 2.2-ton rocket that helped get the probe off the ground.

Thursday evening, about 10 hours before smashing into the moon, LCROSS and its empty rocket will separate.
Then comes the first part of the lunar assault. At 7:31 a.m. EDT, the larger empty rocket will crash into a permanently dark crater and kick up a 6.2 mile high spray of debris.

Trailing just behind that rocket is the LCROSS satellite itself, beaming back to Earth live pictures of the impact and the debris plume using color cameras. It will scour for ice, fly through the debris cloud and then just four minutes later take the fatal plunge itself, triggering a dust storm one-third the size of the first hit.

"This is going to be pretty cool," LCROSS project manager Dan Andrews told The Associated Press. "We'll be going right down into it. Seeing the moon come up at you is pretty spectacular."

Within an hour, scientists will know whether water was hiding there or not.

The mission is a set-the-stage venture dreamed up by the NASA office that has been working on a $100 billion program to eventually return astronauts to the moon. The return-to-the-moon goal is now being re-examined by NASA and the White House.

These are not crashes for the faint of heart. The two ships will smash into the moon at 5,600 mph, more than seven times the speed of sound. The explosion will have the force of 1.5 tons of TNT and throw 772,000 pounds of lunar dirt out of the crater. It will create a new crater -- inside an old one -- about half the size of an Olympic swimming pool, Andrews said.

But don't feel bad for the moon. It gets crashes this size about four times a month from space rocks. But the difference is this one is planned and at just the right angle and location to provide interesting science for astronomers. The southern polar region is a prime landing possibility. This crater, called Cabeus, is one where astronomers think there is a good chance of hidden ice that would be freed by the crash, describing the dirt there as "fluffy."

The crashes will also be a good show for the folks back home, which was always part of NASA's plan for the probe, Andrews said. The crashes will be broadcast live on NASA's Web site. The Hubble Space Telescope and other larger Earth telescopes will be trained at the moon. Observatories and museums are planning viewing parties in at least three countries.

And amateur astronomy buffs with telescopes who live west of the Mississippi may try to catch a glimpse of it through their own instruments because it will still be dark outside. People who live in areas where it will be daylight won't be able to see it from home telescopes.

"A lot of telescopes will be tuning in," said Terry Mann, president of the Astronomical League, an umbrella group for local amateur astronomy societies. "You might see something you might not ever see again."

Amateurs need at least a 10-inch telescope to look at the crashes and what they see will only be a small part of their overall view in the scope. And they won't see the impact itself, but the spray of debris flying up.

This is all happening during a peak week in a yearlong celebrations commemorating the 400th anniversary of Galileo using a telescope to see Jupiter's moons. On Wednesday evening, the White House planned a star party for middle schoolers and about two dozen telescopes.

In Boulder, Colo., the Fiske Planetarium on Friday will serve free bagels and coffee to early rising moon crash spectators.

The planetarium plans to stream a live video feed from NASA, train its own 24-inch telescope to watch the crash, and let people look for themselves through two research-grade telescopes.

"People like explosions one way or another," said Matt Benjamin, the planetarium's education programs manager. "And a celestial explosion is going to excite them."
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On the Net:
NASA's LCROSS Site

Jailed For Sex Talk

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- A Saudi court on Wednesday convicted a man for publicly talking about sex after he bragged about his exploits on a talk show, sentencing him to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes, his lawyer said.

Talking about sex publicly is a taboo in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia.

Lawyer Sulaiman al-Jumeii said he plans to appeal the court's ruling and is confident the sentence against his client, which includes a ban on travel and talking to the media for five years after his release, will be revoked.

Al-Jumeii maintains that his client, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, was duped by the Lebanese LBC satellite channel which aired the talk show and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded.

"I hope you will not consider the case closed," the lawyer said. "I will continue pursuing the TV channel, even if no one stands by me, until it gets the punishment it deserves."

The program, which aired July 15 on LBC and was seen in Saudi Arabia, scandalized this conservative country where such frank talk is rarely heard in public. Some 200 people filed legal complaints against Abdul Jawad, who works for the national airline.

The program, "Bold Red Line," begins with Abdul-Jawad, dubbed a "sex braggart" and "Casanova" by the media, describing the first time he had sex at 14. He then leads viewers into his bedroom, dominated by red accessories, and then shows off blurred sex toys.

He is later joined by three male friends for a discussion on what turns them on.

Abdul-Jawad's lawyer maintains his client was referring to other people's sexual experiences and the toys were provided by the TV station.

The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad.

The other three men on the show were also convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years imprisonment and 300 lashes each, according to al-Jumeii.

The case itself was also tried before the wrong court, maintains the lawyer, who says it should have been heard by a specialized court at the Information Ministry qualified to issue decisions regarding editing, dubbing and other technical issues related to the case.

In his statement, al-Jumeii said the decision in the case was made "under pressure from public opinion" due to the media frenzy surrounding it.

He also said he will continue pursuing a lawsuit he has filed against LBC.

The kingdom, which is the birthplace of Islam, enforces strict segregation of the sexes. An unrelated couple, for example, can be detained for being alone in the same car or having a cup of coffee in public.

Saudis observe such segregation even at home, where they have separate living rooms for male and female guests.

Pirates Attack Navy Ship

PARIS (AP) -- Somali pirates in two skiffs fired on a French navy vessel early Wednesday after apparently mistaking it for a commercial boat, the French military said. The French ship gave chase and captured five suspected pirates.

No one was wounded by the volleys from the Kalashnikov rifles directed at La Somme, a 3,800-ton refueling ship, French military spokesman Rear Adm. Christophe Prazuck said.

La Somme "was probably taken for a commercial ship by the two small skiffs" about 250 nautical miles (290 statute miles) off Somalia's coast, Prazuck said.

"They understood their mistake too late," he said.

One skiff fled, and La Somme pursued the second one in an hour-long chase.

"There were five suspected pirates on board. No arms, no water, no food," Prazuck said.

France is a key member of the EU's naval mission, Operation Atalanta, fighting Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. It has aggressively tracked and caught suspected pirates and handed over at least 22 to Kenya. An additional 15 suspects were brought to France for prosecution after allegedly seizing boats belonging to French nationals.

President Nicolas Sarkozy called for tougher action against piracy last year after dozens of attacks.

Today On The Web: October 7, 2009

Making news on the World Wide Web today…

Ten Things To Do To Have Sex With Women (Divine Caroline)

Fat Guy Screams About Chicken In Wal-Mart McDonalds (CollegeHumor)

Hungry Inventors Create Breakfast Machine (Asylum)

25 Hot Girls Wearing Naughty T-Shirts  (Manofest)

Just Can’t Get Enough Of Cheryl Tweedy (Epic Carnival)

I Like The Look Of Ice Hockey Crew Girls (DJ Mick)

Melrose Place Actress Stephanie Jacobsen (ScreenJunkies)

Your Secret Girlfriend Shows Up Tomorrow (The Bachelor Guy)

Got a hot tip on a breaking story? Let us know.

iPhone-As-Drinking Buddy

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- You're walking down the street, looking for a good place to eat. You hold up your cell phone and use it like the viewfinder on a camera, so the screen shows what's in front of you. But it also shows things you couldn't see before: Brightly colored markers indicating nearby restaurants and bars.

Turn a corner, and the markers reflect the new scene. Click a marker for a restaurant, and you can see customer reviews and price information. Decide you'd rather be sightseeing? The indicators are easily changed to give information about the buildings you're passing.

This computer-enhanced view of the world is not just available to cyborgs in science-fiction movies. Increasingly it can be found on cell phones, for free or on the cheap, through programs that provide "augmented reality."

These applications take advantage of the phones' GPS and compass features and access to high-speed wireless networks to mash up super-local Web content with the world that surrounds you.

That means you can see available apartments on the block you're moseying down. You can view photos other people have taken at the park you're passing, or find the nearest bus stop or hotel room -- all by just holding your phone up and peering at its screen.

The possibilities for melding the virtual and actual worlds have just started to become apparent. The first phones with Google's Android operating system, which enables augmented reality, have come out in the past year. The iPhone became augmented-reality-friendly with the compass that debuted in June on the iPhone 3GS. Apple also recently joined Google in making it possible for software developers to overlay images on the phone's camera view.

As cell phones get even smarter and GPS and wireless networks improve, we may soon be spending more time in a virtually enhanced world, using information gathered from the Internet to inform everything from eating to playing video games.

For a year, Yelp, a Web site with business reviews written by customers, had an iPhone app that used the device's GPS and wireless Internet connectivity to deliver local search results. But when the iPhone got a compass, bloggers wondered whether Yelp would go further and make its app overlay information onto a real-time view of the world. After noticing the speculation, Yelp quietly created such an app this summer, spokesman Vince Sollitto said.

The augmented-reality program, known as Monocle, was built for Yelp by an industrious intern and originally hidden in Yelp's app. (It was activated if you shook the iPhone three times.) Monocle is now a formal feature that combines the iPhone's camera view with tiny tags indicating the names, distances and user ratings of proximate bars, restaurants and more. Poke a floating tag on the screen with your finger and up pops detailed information about the business.

Among the other augmented reality programs that recently have hit Apple's App Store is Robotvision, a 99-cent program built by Portland, Ore.-based developer Tim Sears.

If you hold your phone parallel to the ground, Robotvision displays a map of your surroundings. Hold the phone up, however, and it goes into augmented-reality mode, highlighting places like coffee shops and bars. Robotvision also can search for other kinds of businesses with Microsoft's Bing search engine. You can view pictures that people took nearby and posted to Flickr with a "geotag" of the shot's physical location. Or you can see Twitter postings composed in the area.

Next Sears plans to update the application with local content from Wikipedia.

Developers and industry watchers are optimistic, though, that in the next few years we might see everything from augmented reality video games to museum guide services that recognize paintings and can pull up videos showing the artist at work.

"Things are pretty cool right now," Sears says, "but they're definitely going to get better."

Limbaugh To Buy St. Louis Rams?

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The lowly Rams have someone who loves them.

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday he is teaming up with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts in a bid to buy the Rams, owners of the NFL's longest losing streak at 14 and just 5-31 since 2007.

In a statement, Limbaugh declined to discuss details, citing a confidentiality agreement with Goldman Sachs, the investment firm hired by the family of former Rams owner Georgia Frontiere to review assets of her estate, including the NFL team.

Limbaugh also declined to discuss other partners that might be involved in the bid, but said he and Checketts would operate the team.

"Dave Checketts and I have made a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process," Limbaugh said.
Forbes magazine has estimated the Rams franchise has a value of $929 million.

The sale has raised concerns in St. Louis, which lost the Cardinals franchise after the 1987 season when Bill Bidwill moved the team to Arizona.

The NFL passed over St. Louis for the smaller Jacksonville, Fla., market when it awarded an expansion team in 1993.

Two years later, civic leaders convinced Frontiere, a St. Louis native, to move the team from Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest market, back to her hometown.

Los Angeles is still without a team, and a loophole in the Rams' lease allows them to move as early as 2014 if the Edward Jones Dome is not deemed among the top quarter of all NFL stadiums. Though just 14 years old, the dome is fast becoming one of the league's older venues, and getting it into the top quarter seems unlikely.

Checketts became the youngest person ever to run an NBA team at age 28 when he became president and general manager of the Utah Jazz in 1984. He later ran the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden.

Our Fried Butter Dream Comes True: This Week In Food

There's a place that we to go in our dreams sometimes. It's hard to describe. It's kind of a rodeo, but with food, and you don't get trampled by horses, and there are hot women there. Sometimes Willie Nelson is there, too. It depends on the day. Anyway, it kind of freaked us out when we saw photos from the State Fair of Texas, because it was eerily similar to our dream place.

Always fried, never baked

The State Fair of Texas is going on until October 18 in Dallas, and the only thing you really need to know is that it calls itself the Fried Food Capital Of Texas. Every year, vendors show up to the fair with their fried food recipes, ready to compete for the annual "best taste" or "most creative" fried food awards. For the vendors, this means lots of time and money spent on perfecting their heat-to-oil ratio. For you, it means lots of opportunities to sample hot, crispy batter crusts and gooey, melty stuff trapped inside the fried goodness. Are you not convinced that this is, indeed, a place where your dreams are real? Behold the fried food winners of years past:

And the winners were...

2006 Most Creative: Fried Coca-Cola
2007 Most Creative: Deep-Fried Latte
2007 Best Taste: Texas Fried Cookie Dough
2008 Most Creative: Fried Banana Split

And perhaps our favorite entry in recent history, the 2008 Best Taste Award winner, chicken-fried bacon.

Clearly, the bar continues to be set higher at the State Fair of Texas' fried food contest. Consider this year's winner of the Most Creative Award: Deep-fried butter. We hear from a good authority that it's delicious.

If you're not within driving distance of Dallas, you can live vicariously by checking out the State Fair of Texas' website, BigTex.com. We tried to get that URL for our personal blog and found out it was taken; it's nice to know that it went to a good cause.

Today On The Web: October 6, 2009

Making news on the World Wide Web today…


Today’s Big Thing: Hot Grid Girls At The Track (Speed TV)

Arrested Development Movie To Film In Spring 2010? (Moviefone)

Top TV Clips From October 5th (Television.AOL)

Google Gmail Soap Bar (Walyou)

Spiritual Women Have The Most Sex (Asylum)

Adam And Eve In The Friend Zone (College Humor)

Definition Of Beach Hottie (Holytaco)

Jessica Biel May Soon be a Single Woman (Anything Hollywood)


Got a hot tip on a breaking story? Let us know.

America's Best Mustache

ST. LOUIS (AP) --Two baseball players and hero pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger are among 18 finalists for the American Mustache Institute's top honors.

The tongue-in-cheek St. Louis-based institute announced the finalists Monday for the "Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year."

The winner will be selected through an online vote and announced at the "'Stache Bash" on Oct. 30. Proceeds from the event benefit Challenger Baseball, a baseball league for those with disabilities.

Sullenberger, who sports a neatly groomed white mustache, gained fame after safely landing a disabled US Airways jetliner in New York's Hudson River in January.

St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Brendan Ryan and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Clay Zavada are the two ballplayers among the finalists.