Reality Show Star Nicole Richie Gives Birth

On Wednesday, Nichole Richie and Joel Madden welcomed a baby boy into the world, named Sparrow James Midnight Madden. The baby was born weighing 7 pounds and 14 ounces. The couple also have a daughter named Harlow who will be 2 years old in January. Richie has starred in the television show "The Simple Life" and is the daughter of singer Lionel Richie. Joel Madden is in the band Good Charlotte.

Actor Vin Diesel Has New Baby Girl

The actor Vin Diesel and his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez, has welcomed a baby into the world on April 2^nd in Los Angeles. The baby’s name hasn’t been released yet. Vin Diesel has starred in the movies, “The Fast and the Furious,” “Boiler Room,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “The Pacifier,” and “The Chronicles of Riddick.”

Actor Gary Dourdan Arrested For Drug Possession

The actor Gary Dourdan, who is on the show “CSI” and was the show “A Different World,” was arrested on Monday for possession of narcotics and other dangerous drugs. He was found asleep in his car by the Palm Springs Police Department after a police officer saw his car parked on the wrong side of the street with the interior light on at 5:12 a.m. Dourdan seemed disoriented and under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He was arrested after police found suspected cocaine, heroin, Ecstacy, miscellaneous prescription drugs, and paraphernalia in his car. He was released on $5,000 bail later that morning. A court date was not immediately scheduled. He has played the crime scene investigator Warrick Brown on the show “CSI” since 2000.

The First Underwater Car

Rinspeed, a Swiss company, has built the world’s first functional underwater car. The car is electric-powered and can travel up to 77mph on land, 3mph on the surface of water, and 1.8 mph at 30 feet underwater.

Poor Haitians Having to Eat Dirt

Due to rising food prices, many poor people in Haiti can’t afford food and have to resort to eating mud and dirt. A traditional Haitian remedy for curing hunger pains involves making cookies from dried yellow dirt from Haiti’s central plateau. For a long time the mud has been used by pregnant women and children as an antacid and a source of calcium.

Food prices around the entire world have increased due to higher oil prices and oil is needed for fertilizer, irrigation, and transportation. The increase in demand for biofuels is also affecting the food markets. The Caribbean islands depend heavily on imported goods and food prices have risen 40 percent in some areas.

The 2007 hurricane season caused floods and crop damage so bad that the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency had to declare states of emergency in Haiti and other Caribbean countries. Leaders in the Caribbean held an emergency summit in December to talk about reducing food taxes and making large regional farms to decrease the dependence on imported goods.

The cost of the dirt isn’t free. The dirt to make 100 cookies costs $5. About 80 percent of the Haitian population lives on less than $2 per day. Merchants would bring the dirt by truck from a central town to the food market. Women would buy the dirt and then process it into mud cookies. They would have to strain out the rocks and clumps from the dirt on a sheet and stir in shortening and salt to make the cookies. The cookies would be left out in the sun to dry. Some people sell the cookies in the market or on the street to make money.

It is not safe to eat the mud cookies because dirt can have deadly parasites or toxins. The cookies can also cause malnutrition. A positive thing about the cookies though is that they can strengthen the immunity of fetuses in pregnant women.

The World’s Largest TV

Panasonic has just unveiled the world’s largest television. The television is a 150-inch high definition plasma TV that has an 8.81 million pixel image resolution. The screen is as big as nine 50-inch televisions. It is not yet released how much the TV will cost. Panasonic also plans to bring videos from YouTube directly to its line of Internet-enabled high-definition plasma televisions.

China Putting Limits on Internet Video

China is putting restrictions on the broadcasting of Internet videos by only allowing citizens to use sites that are ran by state-controlled companies. They are also requiring that providers report questionable content to the government. The regulations will start to take effect on January 31^st and were approved by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry.

Under the new policy, Websites that provide videos or allow people to upload videos have to get government permits and applicants have to be state-owned or state-controlled companies. The policy will also ban providers form broadcasting video that has national secrets, hurts the reputation of China, disturbs social stability, or has pornography. Video providers will be required to delete and report this kind of content.

The permits will have to be renewed every three years and video providers that commit major violations might be banned from providing online videos for five years. It is not clear if the popular Website YouTube will be affected since they are available in China and runs a Chinese-language Website. It also isn’t known if any of YouTube’s computer servers are located in China.

Fight World Hunger For Free Online

Free Rice is a website that fights world hunger by asking you vocabulary questions. For each question that you get correct the site donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. The rice is paid for by advertisers and other supporters. The more questions you answer the more is donated to poor and hungry people.

Visit This Link: http://www.freerice.com/

New York Restaurant Offers Dessert Costing $25,000

A New York restaurant, called Serendipity 3, is offering the most expensive dessert in the world. The dessert is called the Frrrozen Haute Chocolate. It is a frozen and slushy mix of cocoas from 14 countries, milk, and 5 grams of 24-carat gold with whip cream on top and shavings from a La Madeline au Truffle. It is served in a goblet with a band of gold and decorated with 1 carat of diamonds. It is also served with a golden spoon that you can take home with you.

Actor Mekhi Phifer and Wife Have Baby Boy

On October 30^th, Mekhi Phifer and his wife, Oni Souratha, delivered their first child together into the world. The baby is a 5 pound 2 ounce boy named Mekhi Thira Phifer. This is Oni’s first child and Mekhi has an older son named Omikaye from his previous marriage to actress Malinda Williams.

Man Travels Across the Whole Planet in 13 Years

Read the story of the 40 year old man who spent the last 13 years of his life traveling across the entire planet. Click Here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299861,00.html

Resort Charges $14,500 for Dessert

In Colombo, Sri Lanka, a resort is charging $14,500 for the world’s most expensive dessert. It is called “The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence” and it is a gold leaf Italian cassata flavored with Irish cream. It is served with a mango and pomegranate compote and champagne sabayon enlighten. It is also decorated with a chocolate carving of a fisherman that is clinging to a stilt and an 80 carat aquamarine stone.

The dessert has to be specially ordered and even though the resort has gotten many calls about it, nobody has paid money to buy it.

Google’s Mission to the Moon

Google is offering $30 million dollars to the first private company that can land a robotic rover on the moon and beam back a gigabyte of images and video to Earth. Google has partnered with the X Prize Foundation for this contest and it is open to companies around the world.
Whoever fills the requirements of the contest by the end of 2012 gets $20 million dollars. The winner must be able to have a successful landing and have high-definition video and still cameras. The rover must also be able to trek at least 1,312 feet on the moon and send self-portraits, panoramic views, and near-real time video back to Earth that will be streamed on Google’s website. The participants must create a secure launch vehicle for the probe by building it themselves or contracting with a private rocket company.
If there is no winner, the prize will drop to $15 million dollars until the contest ends in 2014. There is a $5 million dollar second-place prize and a $5 million dollar bonus to the teams that go beyond the minimum requirements.

Couple Tries to Name Baby "At" Symbol

It is reported in Beijing that a Chinese couple want to use the "At" symbol as a name for their child. The father of the child says the whole world uses it to write e-mails and when translated into Chinese it means “love him.”

It is not reported whether the "At" name was accepted or rejected by the police, who are the arbiters of names because they issue identity cards.

Written Chinese uses characters instead of an alphabet and that makes it difficult to develop new words for new things and ideas.