4-year-old genius invited to join MENSA

Anala Beevers is just four years old, but she already knows the location and capital of every US state. She learned the alphabet at four months of age, then at eighteen months learned numbers in Spanish. The precociously intelligent youngster claims she's smarter than her parents, and both mom and dad agree.
Her genius has not gone unnoticed, and has led to an invitation to join MENSA, an international organization for the 'super-smart.' MENSA, which is mostly populated by adults, usually claims members with intelligence in the top 2% of the populace. Anala, who can also identify planets and dinosaurs, is in the top 1%.
"She keeps us on our toes," says her father Landon, who would like to see her get her own reality TV show. When asked what she wants to do when she grows up, Anala says she'd like to be a nurse.

Eike Batista, Formerly World's 8th Richest Man, Loses $33 Billion In Just 16 Months

You think losing a $10 bill is bad? Trying losing $33 billion, and with it your ranking among the world's richest men.
That’s what’s happened to Brazilian oil tycoon Eike Batista, who last year was quite literally on top of the world. Life was good, he was eighth richest man on the planet, and once he even vowed to overtake Mexico’s Carlos Slim as the planet's richest man.
It didn't last, and Batista has since watched his $34 billion net worth plummet some $33 billion over 16 months or so, according to Bloomberg. The big problem? His oil conglomerate, OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, lost 90 percent of its value over the last year, leaving Batista with a relatively paltry $200 million when including debts he owes to investors.
Batista, known for his charismatic persona and opulent lifestyle, simply may have been overly optimistic at a time when his country was experiencing strong economic growth. (Brazil’s economy has since fallen on harder times.) Sergio Lazzarini, of the INSPER Business school in Sao Paulo, told BBC News that Batista's business model “was exaggerated in every sense.”
Batista’s optimism nevertheless appears undiminished, even in the face of debts to OGX investors such as General Electric, IBM and Abu Dhabi’s state investment fund Mubadala, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“I will honor all of my obligations,” Batista wrote in a Valor Economico newspaper op-ed last week where he admitted regretting taking his companies public. “I won’t leave a single penny unpaid for each one of my debts.”
At such a vast sum, Batista’s losses stand as the greatest decline in personal net worth since March 2012, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index.
Other billionaires who've had hard landings in recent years include Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, who lost $17 billion in 2010, as well as Sean Quinn, once known as Ireland’s richest man, who declared bankruptcy in 2011 after being worth $6 billion just 3 years earlier, according to Forbes.

Is Khloe Kardashian Trying to Trick Her Fans?

Khloe Kardashian and her husband Lamar Odom have been surrounded by a pretty upsetting scandal for the past few weeks.

A woman is claiming that she had a year-long affair with the nba star and when Khloe found out, she reportedly kicked Lamar out of their marital home.

According to the reports, Khloe is now desperate to avoid divorce and is "begging him to come back."

Since the scandal exploded, the reality star has been posting various pics of her hubby, which makes it look like they're together and it's business as usual.

What we find unusual, however, is that at least one of the pics that was posted and made to look like a new photo is actually over a year old.

Khloe recently tweeted this photo of the back of Lamar's head as he sits and watches TV. "I think someone is watching us #Henry," she wrote (referring to the giraffe). In the old version of the same photo, which she had posted 594 days prior, she included the caption, "Henry is watching the fight with us :)"
 


 Same photo, different captions... 594 days apart. Something doesn't add up.

This actually isn't the first time Khloe has fooled fans with an old photo. Just two weeks after sister Kim Kardashian gave birth, Khloe posted a pic on Facebook that showed her dog sleeping on the couch next to Kim with the caption "I love my lil baby so much..."

Media outlets were immediately buzzing with reports that Khloe had posted the first pic of Kim when, in fact, it was an old photo that she had Instagrammed months before.

These could just be misguided "Throwback Thursday" photos, but since the Kards are all so social-media savvy and always label their #tbt photos as such, we can't help but wonder if she is trying to do her own spin control, especially considering that the couple hasn't been photographed together in almost two months.

In fact, the only photos we've seen of them together have been--you guessed it--on Khloe's Instagram page, where she posted an old photo from their wedding night and another undated pic of her husband kissing her on the cheek.

Do you think she's posting old photos to try to throw people off?

Ten Things You Need to Know Today: July 25, 2013

our daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
1. U.S. SURVEILLANCE SURVIVES CLOSE VOTE
The House voted 217-205 to reject a bid to halt the NSA program that collects millions of Americans' phone and Internet records.
2. HIGH-SPEED TRAIN DERAILS IN SPAIN
At least 77 people were killed and 140 injured when the train jumped the tracks after a curve in the country's worst rail accident in decades.
3. OBAMA TAKES ECONOMIC MESSAGE TO FLORIDA
The president will speak at a Jacksonville port to turn Americans' attention away from gridlock in Congress and onto the economy.
4. POPE AIMS TO INSPIRE YOUTH
Francis is meeting with over 1 million young Roman Catholics in Rio and visiting a slum, after pleading this week that the faithful shun materialism.
5. WEINER ASKS VOTERS TO STICK WITH HIM
A new poll is due out today on the New York City mayor's race, taken after the candidate's admission he continued sexting after resigning from Congress.
6. WHERE THE MAIL WON'T BE DELIVERED
Congress approved a plan to stop delivering mail door-to-door by 2022, instead of moving to curbside delivery and cluster boxes.
7. NEW WELL CONSIDERED AT BURNING RIG
Officials hope the relief well will stop gas from spewing from the out-of-control rig off the Louisiana coast.
8. FAMOUS FIRST DAUGHTER TAPPED FOR DIPLOMATIC POST
Obama named Caroline Kennedy U.S. ambassador to Japan.
9. A NAME FOR A PRINCE
The royal baby, now known as George Alexander Louis, has a name that has been held by six previous kings.
10. WHY FORMER PRESIDENT SHAVED HIS HEAD
George H.W. Bush, 89, showed his support for the sick child of one of his Secret Service agents.

Google introduces Chromecast, a $35 HDMI streaming solution for televisions

The 2-inch device runs "a simplified version of Chrome OS" and requires separate USB power. You connect it to your local WiFi network and it finds similarly connected devices that it can work with. It can be ordered right now on Google Play and will apparently ship in one to two days. Of note, the device seems US-only for now, as our UK colleagues are showing a "not available in your country" prompt. Early buyers get three months of free Netflix with the purchase. Additionally, it's also heading to retail (read: Best Buy) on July 28th. Google ended its presentation with a quick word that Chromecast functionality will eventually come embedded in various other devices, and that it's working on getting other countries access "as quickly as possible." No specs were given during the presentation, but its Google Play page lists the device as HDMI-CEC compatible, and it uses 2.4GHz 801.11 b/g/n WiFi. Given the separate USB power required, the $35 nets you a Chromecast device, an HDMI extended, a USB power cable and a separate power adapter.
Apps that work with the device include a "Cast" button that allows users to push video to their televisions and control various aspects remotely (volume, play, pause, etc.). "Once Chromecast is plugged in, you just go to YouTube on your smartphone," Google reps said. "You'll see the cast button in your UI and you press it -- Chromecast will pull the info you requested from the cloud and play it on your TV." Meanwhile, an on-stage demonstration showed YouTube video being pushed "via the cloud," thus enabling other apps to be used while a video is being viewed on a television screen. Netflix was up next, and it has similar remote control functionality. Google Play movies and television (expectedly) also work with Chromecast, and Google delightedly demonstrated it with Vin Diesel vehicle Fast Five. Finally, Google demoed full Google Chrome projected on a TV and controlled remotely with a "standard $500 Windows 8 laptop." The feature is "still in early days," but a promise has already been made: that users will be able to easily project content to televisions via their web browser.
Update: We've added Chromecast's first commercial (which demonstrates much of the device's functionality) above, and a source link with Google's formal announcement.
Update 2: Aside from the Google Play store and Best Buy, you can also buy the Chromecast from Amazon. Thankfully, that three-month gratis Netflix would still be applicable if you buy it from the online giant.

He waves! Our first Royal wave.

First Thoughts On Meeting A Prince
Preliminary thoughts upon “meeting” the Royal Baby for the first time:
He waves! Our first Royal wave.
Kate didn't fall down the steps while holding her son. I held my breath just in case. After all, she was wearing heels.
Kate made absolutely no attempt to appear like anything other than a woman who has just given birth. Okay, her hair looked better than most new mothers, but

Sgt. Sean Murphy, Cop Who Leaked Bombing Suspect Photos, Disciplined

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — A state police photographer who released photos of the bloodied Boston Marathon bombing suspect during his capture was placed on restricted duty Tuesday.
Sgt. Sean Murphy said he leaked the photos of what he called "the face of terror" to Boston magazine last week to counter a glamorized image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
Three of Murphy's 14 photos show a battered and blood-streaked Tsarnaev emerging from a boat in a backyard, the red dot of a sniper's laser sight trained on his head.
Murphy wasn't authorized to release the photos. He already served a one-day, unpaid suspension and has received another five-day unpaid suspension. Following a status hearing at state police headquarters Tuesday, Murphy was placed on desk duty, where he won't have contact with the public, until an internal investigation is complete.
Col. Timothy Alben, the commander of the state police, said more discipline is conceivable, but he ruled out the possibility that Murphy would be fired.
"I don't see Sgt. Murphy being terminated for this particular set of circumstances," he said.
After the hearing, Murphy declined to comment, except to say, "Life is good."
Murphy's 19-year-old son, Connor Murphy, said he couldn't be more proud of his father, praising him as a man of integrity and noting his father never tried to hide what he had done.
"If I could be one quarter of a man that he is now, I'll be more than happy with my life," he said.