Assignment 8

Summary:
1. Anna Nicole Smith died Thursday at a South Florida hospital after being discovered unconscious in her hotel room. The reality TV star, Playboy Playmate and former Guess model was 39.
--CNN.com
Anna Nicole Smith has shocked the public for the last time, with the news of her untimely death. After 39 years, and a torrent of controversy and personal tragedy, she met her end on the 6th floor of the Hard Rock Hotel in Seminole, Florida. She was found apparently collapsed, and after her body guard administered CPR, she was pronounced dead at 2:59 PM. Leave it to Anna Nicole to upstage her own life.

2.Until two years ago, the Roman Catholic diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., ran audits of its parishes only when they changed pastors. It was a risky, even foolhardy policy when you consider that a parish like St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, in Delray Beach, hadn't changed pastors in 40 years.
--Time mag, February
We often have a special contempt for public figures that ought to garner our respect, or at least our attention. People like politicians have been known to lie and celebrities earn too much money. But Priests? It just goes to show that even the guys with “fire insurance” can get burned. That is, if they embezzle funds from the offertory.

3.Britney Spears appeared in a tattoo parlor in the San Fernando Valley with her head shaved completely bald. Video on KABC-TV showed the newly shorn Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sits Friday night for a new tattoo -- a pair of red and pink lips.
--CNN.com
As if Britney needed anymore attention brought to the increasing negative speculation of her divorce and the public's decreasing empathy toward her, she decided to add insult to injury by subtracting her full head of hair. She apparently went to an LA salon and asked if she could shave her own head. I wonder if they tipped her? And yes, there are photos.

Feature:
1. Just how silly is Google? Its search interface offers translations into Klingon, Elmer Fudd-speak, Pig Latin — even the lingo of the Muppets' Swedish Chef. On past April Fools' days the site has pitched Google Gulp, a drink to make searchers smarter, pigeon rank, a system whereby pecking order would determine search results, and Google Romance, a satirical site boasting a sizzling "soulmate search."
--Time Mag, Feb
On February 14, surprised web browsers that visited their favorite search engine found what appeared to be a spelling error in the site's own name. The Google graphic, which is constantly being redesigned to represent the holidays and other sorts of artistic renderings of the six letters, seemed to read “Googe.”

2. Jim Carrey is maybe two years from becoming a punch line. But he's cool with that. "Everyone gets to be the big joke for a year. That's this business," he says. "Last year it was Tom Cruise. I could be the next Kathie Lee Gifford. But you have to say to yourself, 'Wait a minute, dude, that's not you.'"
--Time Mag, February
Jim Carrey's new thriller film “23” is causing the actor and his fans to rethink his funny guy attitude. As he has shown, Carrey has worn many comedic hats, but will not stop until a few more dramatic ones are on his rack.

3. Rachel's first breathless call was to her grandparents. "Guess what, I have my own cell phone," exclaimed the cutting-edge fourth-grader through her shiny, tricked-out handset. The perplexed, interstate scowls at other end of the line were easy to envision. "Why do you need that?" retorted her disapproving elders virtually in unison. My nine-year-old didn't have an immediate answer, but instinctively and ineffably, she knew she had arrived.
--Time Mag, February
Considering the success of the cellphone among soccer moms as well as tweens and young adults, cellphone marketers have begun designing products to attract the “SpongeBob” generation. So they have designed just the service: Kajeet, which is a pay-as-you-go cellphone service aimed for children and their parentals. "We think kids are smart," said Kajeet's cofounder and CEO Daniel Neal. "Our entire philosophy springs from this one core idea. We want our kids to be agile with technology and we want to help them respond with confidence to what's happening in their world."