Mongolian Death Worm. A JOB where you get to chase monsters around the world is the stuff of boys’ dreams.
But that is exactly what author and director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ), Richard Freeman has done for the past 11 years.

And next week he is in South Shields to give a talk on his latest discovery. Mongolian Death Worm

The former zookeeper has a simple two-word explanation as to where his love of strange fauna came from. “Doctor Who”, he says. …Click here to read more

American Idol Voting. Tonight Anoop dog sang Eternal “Angel of Mine.” It was not his best song choice, nor was it his best performance. He still doesn’t seem to be as good as Danny Gokey

I believe that American Idol voting will get him through to the next round based on his nickname alone, Anoop Dogg. You can never underestimate the power of a good nickname when it comes to American Idol voting.

The judges all agree that Anoop has that x factor. A likability that not all of the contestants possess. My favorite judges comment came from Kara. “Nail it the way it needs to be nailed.” You know it’s coming. That’s what she said. …Click here to read more

Elle MacPherson was previously married to photographer Gilles Bensimon and engaged to French financier Arpad Busson, who fathered her two sons; Arpad Flynn Busson and Aurelius Cy Andre Busson.

In late October last year, she was forced to deny rumors claiming she dated convicted drugs trafficker Brian Burgess. She even threatened to take legal action against any media outlet that reported the false story.

As for Damian Aspinall, he is known as the son of casino operator and zoo owner John Aspinall. His fortune is believed to be worth 40 million pound sterling. He was previously in a six-year relationship with British TV presenter Donna Air, with whom he shares a five-year-old daug …Click here to read more

rhinoceros times, 100 Years OF QUEER THEATRE with Eastenders and Theatre Rhinoceros. It’s time to celebrate ourselves, and two Bay Area Theatre Companies are collaborating to do just that. Eastenders Repertory Company, based in the East Bay, is working with Theatre Rhinoceros to present 100 Years of Queer Theatre.

The line up is astonishing with plays from the beginning of the last century (the 20th, right?) moving right through to the beginning of our millennium: Series A (1900-1959) Series B (1960-1979) & Series C (1980-2000).

The festival presents a gamut of queer representation on stage, but what truly unites all eight of the selected works is that they tell the story of being different, and depict the journey of forging new rules to live by. I posed several of the same questions to the directors and (living) playwrights involved and received some wonderful answers from them.

SUSAN EVANS
Susan Evans, Artistic Director of Eastenders is directing two of the pieces, The Dove by Djuna Barnes (author of the lesbian cult classic novel Nightwood and early 20th century modernist), and Terminating … or Ambivalence by Tony Kushner. Susan answered for both.

(Bay Times) What has been the most challenging aspect in directing these pieces? …Click here to read more

Monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that might lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury. Remarkably, the monkeys regained use of paralyzed muscles by learning to control the activity of just a single brain cell.

The result is “an important step forward,” said Dawn Taylor of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who studies the concept of using brain signals to overcome paralysis. She wasn’t involved in the new work.

The device monitored the activity of a brain cell and used that as a cue to stimulate wrist muscles electrically. Researchers found it could even use brain cells that normally had nothing to do with wrist movement, said study co-author Chet Moritz.

So a large untapped pool of brain cells may be available for letting paralyzed people do things like grasping a coffee cup or brushing teeth, Moritz said. But he stressed the approach is years, if not decades, away from use in people.

Moritz and his colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle report the results in a paper published online Wednesday by the journal Nature. …Click here to read more