Ryan Dunn's Porsche - Scorched Heap of Scrap Metal [PICTURES]

Ryan Dunn's wrecked Porsche 911 GT3 is now sitting in a tow yard ... just a few miles from Monday's fatal crash ... and all that's left is a mangled heap of obliterated car parts. 

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World's First Dog With All Bionic Legs: Naki'o Can Play Again With 4 Prosthetic Paws (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post 
First Posted: 06/22/11 04:29 PM ET Updated: 06/23/11 02:12 PM ET



Bionic Dog Prosthetic Paws Video



You might remember Polo, the husky fitted with a prosthetic paw after being hit by a car, or Midnite, the miniature horse who took off running when first fitted with a prosthetic leg, but this red heeler pup takes being a bionic animal to a whole new level.
Naki'o is the world's first dog to be fitted with a complete set of four prosthetic paws, according to incrediblefeatures.com. Naki'o was barely 5 weeks old when he and his brothers and sisters were abandoned by a family fleeing their foreclosed home. Having barely survived the Nebraskan winter, all four of the dog's paws were deformed into rounded stumps after being stuck in an icy puddle.
Incrediblefeatures.com reports that Veterinary technician Christie Tomlinson "organized a fundraiser to pay for Naki’o to have his two back legs fitted with prosthetics."
From the site:
He took to these so enthusiastically, that Orthopets decided to complete the process free of charge. It was the first time they’d fitted an animal with a complete set of new legs.
Now, Naki'o is able to run, jump and play just like other dogs, thanks to the second chance his new set of legs have given him.
WATCH: 

Social Security: Did AARP sell out its seniors?


The powerful lobby for senior citizens stuns Democrats by suggesting a willingness to endorse benefits cuts

Man knocks Justin Bieber to ground outside Macy's


Updated at 03:39 PM today


Get the latest from Eyewitness News
Get the latest from Eyewitness News
Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber was knocked to the ground while greeting fans outside Macy's in Herald Square.

Bieber who was attending an event inside Macy's unveiling his new cologne, decided to go outside of the store to acknowledge the fans that could not come inside to the event.
Witnesses say when Justing Bieber came out the doors an unidentified man jumped a barrier and knocked the teen sensation to the ground.

Bieber was not injured but appeared to be very 'shaken up'.

The man who jumped the barrier was taken away by police.
For more on this breaking story, tune in to Eyewitness News First at 4 p.m.
Hundreds of his devoted fans began lining up as soon as the event was announced on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day Bieber appeared on 'The View'.
(Copyright ©2011 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Book publishing finally has its 'Radiohead moment' -- with Harry Potter

By Olivia Solon



After a week of heavy speculation, JK Rowling has revealed that she is to self-publish the e-books to her mind-bogglingly successful Harry Potter series through her newly-announced proprietary platform, Pottermore.
While self-publishing in itself is not new -- Stephen King has been distributing self-published chapters since 2000 and others, including Amanda Hocking, J.A. Konrath and more recently John Locke have sold millions of copies through the Kindle store -- Rowling is without a doubt the single most significant author to have turned their back on established publishing houses at a time when the industry is in limbo and the tools are available to create meaningful and innovative digital publications untethered from a small stranglehold of publishers whose businesses are built upon the printed page.
The crucial parallel between Radiohead and Rowling is the fact that they both put their faith in the fans rather than any intermediary. For Radiohead, this meant self-releasing their album In Rainbows after the end of their contract with EMI with an honesty-box pricing strategy. For Rowling it means keeping the e-books DRM-free and trusting her fans not to pirate her works rather than assuming that they will. Rowling is instead opting for a digital watermarking system that links the identify of the purchaser to the copy of the ebook. This doesn't prevent people sharing copies on the web, but does try to ensure that any copies will be traceable to a buyer.
Because the books are said to be "available on any platform", there will need to be some sort of arrangement with the likes of Amazon and iBooks -- whether commercial or logistical -- to ensure that readers can enjoy Potter on their Kindles and iPads.
That aside, it is important to emphasise that just as Radiohead self-released their album, so Rowling is selling the Harry Potterseries of e-books without the need for her publishers Bloomsbury and Scholastic. Radiohead reportedly made more money with its pay-what-you-like model before the album was physically released than it had made in total on the previous album (released through EMI) Hail to the Thief.
Likewise, Rowling stands to make significantly more money by selling her e-books directly than if she sold them through her publisher. Authors generally get anywhere between a few and 10 percent of royalties from printed book sales and anywhere between 20 and 40 percent on e-books. If they self publish through the likes of Amazon, they can get as much as 70 percent of revenues (with the remainder going to the e-book store). Selling direct to fans also means that Rowling will benefit from demographic data and contact details traditionally safeguarded by the publisher or retailer. This information will be invaluable for promoting new projects and for building a mini merchandising empire. Might we even see sales to a "live" Harry Potterexperience?

Like Radiohead, Rowling is not only selling the book without the help of her publisher, she is also initially bypassing the major ecommerce sites at this stage -- exclusively selling the e-books through Pottermore.com -- so she technically stands to make 100 percent of the sales. So far her team have remained tight-lipped about the pricing of the e-books, but have insisted that they will be "competitive". So fingers crossed until they go on sale in October.
By publishing on her own website, Rowling told us at a press conference: "We can guarantee that people everywhere are getting the same experience at the same time. That was extremely appealing to me. I am lucky to have the resources to do it myself and I think this is a fantastic and unique experience that I could afford to take my time over to make this come alive. There was really no way to do it for the fans or me than just do it myself. Not every author could do this, but it's right for Harry Potter. It is so much fun to have direct content with my fans. It was an extension of the existing jkrowling.com."
Interestingly, Rowling is maintaining Scholastic and Bloomsbury as partners, suggesting that she isn't completely abandoning the institutions that built her career. Let's not forget that it's at least partially down to their marketing and distribution prowess that she managed to sell more than 400 million copies of her books as of 2008 -- likely to be significantly more by now.
It is not clear what the continued partnership entails, but what is clear is that Rowling had no obligation to give them anything. She owns the rights to the e-books and has the publishing stature to have easily gone it alone. Of course, it's important to note that the increased interest in the Harry Potterbrand will have a halo effect on sales of the printed books from which her former publishers will benefit. They're likely to piggyback on the hype by releasing special editions of the seven books.
The most exciting thing about the news is that this might be the kick up the arse that the publishing industry needs to stop it from dragging its feet into the digital world (with the exception of academic publishing which has fully embraced it to become an extremely valuable industry).
Publishers need to radically rethink their remuneration structures in order to ensure that their cash cows don't all follow Rowling's suit. To this day, publishing remains a B2B business -- publishers sell to retailers and not readers.
But the rise of consumer empowerment in a digital world means that this will have to change. The web is a powerful disintermediator and has democratised businesses within music, film, gaming and retail, time and time again. There's no reason to think that publishing could be exempt from this rule.
They can also learn from Rowling's understanding that the web is not just a place to replicate the printed page, but allows for a spell-binding level of interactivity which could reinvigorate people's (and especially children's) passion for reading.

DANGER: Don't have sex with a time-travelling sea monkey

By Duncan Geere

Evolutionary ecologists have discovered that having sex with a male sea monkey from the future can be hazardous to a female sea monkey's health.
Nicolas Rode from the Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology took advantage of sea monkeys' ability to weather droughts by remaining in their eggs for years before hatching once the water returns. He gathered eggs from layers of dirt formed in 1985, 1996 and 2007, and then reared them in their lab -- having females mate with males from their own time, as well as from other years.
The conclusion was disturbing. The further away in time the male sea monkey was from, the sooner his female sexual partner died. A male from 22 years away (about 160 generations) cut short the life of his baby-mother on average by 12 percent.
The reason is that male sea monkeys, like the males of many animal species, compete violently over who gets to mate with a particular female. The males evolve all kinds of weaponry to achieve this, from scoops to get rid of sperm from other males to the injection of "anti-aphrodisiacs" to stop the ladies having any desire to mate further.
That's not good news for the females. From an evolutionary perspective, the health of a single female is completely unimportant to a male, so long as they live long enough to birth another generation of offspring. As a result, some of the weaponry developed by the males can be downright toxic.
But the females fight back, evolving antidotes to the males' weaponry, which then force the males to evolve countermeasures, which in turn makes the females evolve more antidotes, culminating in an escalating arms race of sexual conflict, at least in theory.
Unfortunately the data from Rode's experiment wasn't clear-cut enough to determine whether that conflict does indeed escalate indefinitely or whether -- as some evolutionary ecologists suggest -- different sexual weaponry goes in and out of fashion over time, like an evolutionary merry-go-round.
Interestingly, too, is that the time-shifting didn't have any measurable impact on the sea monkeys' overall reproductive success -- the females dying early produced eggs at a faster rate to make up for it.
But either way, be warned: sex with time travellers appears to be far more dangerous than anyone had previously realised.

Story
Written by Duncan Geere
Edited by Nate Lanxon
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / CC-licensed: Hans Hillewaert

Harry Potter adventures will continue ONLINE


By Thair Shaikh, CNN

June 23, 2011 -- Updated 1743 GMT (0143 HKT)





Click to play
J.K. Rowling unveils Pottermore



London (CNN) -- Harry Potter's final literary chapter may have come to an end, but millions of fans can now continue following the boy wizard's adventures online with the launch Thursday of an interactive e-book series.
The website -- Pottermore.com -- promises storylines that will be brought to life with "sumptuous newly-commissioned illustrations."
An additional 18,000 new words about the novels' characters, places and objects are on the site, with more to come according to JK Rowling, author of the Potter series.
Rowling, who reiterated that she had no intentions of writing another Potter novel, said: "It is the same story with a few crucial additions, the most important one is you. Pottermore will be built in part by you.
"When I finished writing the last Harry book, well I haven't cried that much since my mother died. I never cry over a man, but this was more like an ex-boyfriend."
The seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published in 2007.
Rowling's site will be the exclusive sales channel for the Potter e-books, bypassing traditional e-book stores like Amazon's Kindle store, Barnes and Noble's Nook store and Apple's iBookstore.
British publisher Bloomsbury, which maintains the books' printing rights in the U.K., said it will participate in the sale of e-books from Pottermore and will receive a share of the revenues.
"It was right for me and Harry to go at it ourselves," Rowling said about the deal.
The author also said she was inspired by the hundreds of letters she received every week from fans around the world and wanted to "give something back."
The Potter series has sold over 400 million copies worldwide according to Bloomsbury.
Pottermore, run in partnership with Sony, will also have an online shop where people can purchase the Potter e-books.
The first book to get the online treatment is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone. The storyline of the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, will go live on the site in early 2012.
Pottermore will go live on 31 July, Harry Potter's birthday. Fans can submit their email addresses Thursday and the first million people to complete their registration will gain early entry into the website.
The site will open to all users in October and will initially be available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.
The final movie in the franchise, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," is released in mid-July.
CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.