Magnet Repel Sharks!

Since 2001, SharkDefense has been working on a chemical shark repellent. According to Herrmann, he and Stroud were playing around with powerful rare-earth magnets in 2005, when he dropped one next to their shark research tank in Oak Ridge, New Jersey. The lemon and nurse sharks inside instantly darted to the opposite wall.

In testing at the Bimini Biological Research Station shark lab in the Bahamas, Stroud and Herrmann have found that sharks dramatically avoid magnets made from neodymium, iron and boron. The magnets even rouse sharks from tonic immobility, a coma-like state induced by turning them upside down.

A lemon shark is instantly repelled by Ocean Magnetics' unnamed "mystery metal," even when the metal is hidden behind a plastic barrier.

Herrmann says he and Stroud think the magnets overload a shark's ampullae of Lorenzini, small vesicles and pores around the head that form part of a subcutaneous sensory network. What's more, he says a metal with similar electropositive qualities also appears to affect sharks the same way. Hermann preferred to keep the identity of that metal secret for now.

A line of magnets (underneath the black line in the center) keeps a group of juvenile lemon sharks on one side of a test tank.

Divers and swimmers may thrill to the idea of shark safeguards. However, before you rush out to buy neodymium magnets to create your own shark-repelling gear, Herrmann cautions that the magnets appear to have an effective range of only 10 inches. Also, you'd need to align the magnetic poles outward and keep the magnets from clicking together, and once you had the necessary 10 to 20 pounds of magnets all over your body, you'd sink. So, at a cost of about $5 a magnet, you could

A lemon shark with tonic immobility (a comatose state induced by turning it upside-down) is roused by bringing a magnet near its head.

Michael Jackson sued by Arab sheikh in UK court

The son of an Arab monarch took the King of Pop to court Monday, charging that Michael Jackson took $7 million as an advance on an album and an autobiography that he never produced.

Lawyers for Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa say their client paid Jackson expenses as an advance on the book and joint recording project with the sheikh, who is an amateur songwriter. Jackson claims the money was a gift.

Al Khalifa, 33, was due to testify at London's Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday. Jackson's lawyer Robert Englehart said he was seeking permission to have Jackson testify by video link from Los Angeles.

A lawyer for Al Khalifa said the royal first spoke to Jackson, 50, by telephone while the singer was on trial in California following his 2003 arrest on child molestation charges. Attorney Bankim Thanki said that Al Khalifa wanted to work with Jackson on rebuilding his career. Jackson's finances fell apart after his arrest and he was desperately short of cash.

Al Khalifa's first payment, for $35,000, went toward paying the utility bills at Neverland, Jackson's 2,500-acre (1,000 hectare) ranch and miniature amusement park in California, Thanki said. When Jackson was found innocent of the molestation charges in June 2005, Al Khalifa footed $2.2 million in legal bills, the lawyer said.

Al Khalifa said he believed the money would be repaid once Jackson's career recovered from the damaging trial.

"I saw the payment as an investment in Michael's potential," the sheikh said in a statement read out by his lawyer in court. "He said he would pay me back ... through our work together."

Al Khalifa moved Jackson and his entourage to Bahrain almost immediately after the trial, setting up a recording studio for him in Manama, the Gulf state's capital. The sheikh, who is the governor of Bahrain's Southern Province, supplied Jackson with $500,000 in cash to subsidize his lifestyle and splashed out on a $350,000 European vacation for Jackson and his associates in February of 2006, Thanki said.

"The costs even included the expenses of bringing out Mr. Jackson's hairdresser," he said.

The lawyer said Jackson and the sheikh became close friends and at one time both lived in a palace in Abu Dhabi owned by Al Khalifa's father, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bahrain's king. The singer stayed nearly a year in Bahrain as a guest of the son, but the relationship soured when Jackson repudiated a business deal Thanki said they had agreed to.

Jackson's lawyers say the pair never entered a valid agreement and that Al Khalifa's money was given freely.Thanki acknowledged that Al Khalifa gave some gifts to Jackson but said that most of what the singer received was part of a business deal. The gifts, he said, "were essentially personal effects — watches, jewelry."

Thanki said the sheik was wealthy but that paying Jackson's bills had taken a big bite out of his finances."Some of the payments were staggering by any standards," Thanki said, saying the expenditure "should not be regarded as loose change for my client."

As for Jackson, he still appears to be in difficult financial straits.Last week, he was forced to give up the deed on Neverland, which is named for the mythical land of Peter Pan.

The trial is being held in London because the parties had agreed to take any disputes over their deal to an English court, Al Khalifa's representatives said. The trial is due to wrap up by the end of the month.

Milo Ventimiglia as Robin??

Well, Heroes is getting close to tanking unless the third season is any good, and no Dark Knight sequel has been announced, but that can't stop a kid from dreaming, eh? Comics2Film picked up on a chat between Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia and the gossip site Showbiz Spy, in which Peter Petrelli talks about how he'd really like to put on those yellow tights. "I always thought I would make a great Robin. I would love to be Christian Bale's sidekick in Batman. Even when I was younger I never wanted to be Batman".



I'm sure Christian Bale, who has said he would refuse to come to work if Robin were introduced to the series, will be thrilled to hear that. As will Christopher Nolan, who has sworn up and down multiple times that Robin has no place in his vision of Batman's universe. It's all well and good to dream about which superhero or sidekick you'd like to play, but probably best to keep to yourself. Blabbing to a gossip site about how you want to play a role that will never, ever exist just makes you look a little silly.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen SPOILER?!

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Isabel Lucas plays a character named Alice. TFW claims Alice is a Pretender. What is a Pretender? A pretender is a Transformer disguised as a human, in this case disguised as a very sexy human female. On the outside she’s a babe, on the inside she’s a robot which may look something like the hybrid Frenzy design from the first movie.

Here’s where it gets a little kinky. Alice has an arm which turns into an energy weapon, “a long tongue”, and a “scanning tentacle”.

Flat Bulb!

'flat bulb' is designed by korean designer joonhuyn kim. unlike ordinary bulbs its volume
is 1/3 smaller, reducing the cost of packaging and transport. its slim shape allows bulbs
to be easily stacked and prevents breakage as it does not roll. his work was on display
as part of 100% design tokyo.

World's Fastest Rolls Royce

In Joe’s Street Rod Shop is where you might find the fastest Rolls Royce in the world. This Rolls Royce belongs to the Silver Shadow model of 1970, which has now been supersized to carry a whooping 1350 horsepower. Made of full leather, inside you will find a 4-screen TV and a 9.3 liter V8 engine. Experts estimate that it will cost approximately $318,000 to assemble such a car.

Great thing about Recycling!

See some truly awesome bustiers, garters, and underpants from recycled soda cans and hardware! Their creator Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch believes in recycling: When she named them"trashy lingerie" who’d knew that it’s truly made from trash!

Baby with Eight Toes

A baby boy with eight toes on each foot was discharged from a hospital in Leizhou, southeast Guangdong province on November 5, 2008. The baby has five fingers on each hand but doesn't have thumbs. Doctor said this might have something to do with genetics or environment pollution.