I signed up just so I could post this story with my headline. His comment about the desh is classic: "A visit to a hospital for a bump to the head turned into a big pain in the posterior for a Brooklyn construction worker.Brian Persaud ended up in handcuffs and under arrestwhen he loudly protested that doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell didn't need to give him a rectal exam after a piece of wood clocked him on the forehead."... The revelation about the rectal exam set off Persaud, who smacked a doctor during a struggle and yelled, "Where I came from, you don't put anything in someone's a------!"

:: via nydailynews.com

A story about the darkest material on earth, that is neither related to Lord Voldemort nor Darth Vader. ( I know, bad joke.) Kerala born Dr. Pulickel Ajayan and his team at Rice University, Houston have created the darkest material on earth. "A substance so black it absorbs more than 99.9% of light". Dr.Ajayan is also a Guinness record holder for creating the world's smallest nanotube brushes with bristles. (via wikipedia)

:: via indiatimes.com

With his nerdy looks and humble background, he seems like any Average Joe in the Midlands. But flash forward a decade and the boy in these photos turns out to be Britney Spears' new boyfriend, Adnan Ghalib.For several years, Ghalib has been one of the many photographers who earns a wage simply by following Britney Spears's every move. Originally from Afghanistan, he moved with his family to London in 1977 as a five-year-old refugee and then to Birmingham. He later settled in California, where he managed a strip bar before branching out as a paparazzo.

:: via dailymail.co.uk

"BHOPAL -- Some say Balthazar de Bourbon is first in line to the defunct throne, but the Indian lawyer would be happy just to be recognized by his European 'cousins.' If France ever decides to call off its revolution and go back to having a king, the line to the throne could begin at the doorstep of a genial, plump Indian man with a name as outsized and incongruous as the massive fleur-de-lis over his porch."

:: via latimes.com

This is the only reason why I use facebook. Two brothers from the Indian city of Calcutta say that they have brought new life to Scrabble, the traditional English spelling game.The Facebook add-on has proved hugely popular on the social network site and regularly racks up more than 500,000 daily users. Lawyers for toy makers Hasbro and Mattel say Scrabulous infringes their copyright on the board-based word game.

:: via bbc.co.uk

Pakistani pop singer Ali Haider says he has rejected an offer to play the lead role in a Bollywood film called Osama after receiving threatening calls. The film is about a Kashmir boy, Osama, who travels to Afghanistan and ends up at the World Trade Centre in New York at the time of the 2001 attacks. Some in Pakistan wrongly believe he was to have played the role of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, Haider said.

:: via bbc.co.uk

On a hot summer day in 1989, Sudhir Venkatesh, a callow sociology student with a ponytail and tie-dyed T-shirt, walked into one of Chicago’s toughest housing projects, clipboard in hand, ready to ask residents about their lives. Sample question: “How does it feel to be black and poor?” Suggested answers: “very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good.” Actual answers: unprintable.

:: via nytimes.com

Just three minutes later, Kulbir Dhaliwal — one of the victims eventually attacked by the tiger — calls 911. He complains that police are not responding, and that zoo officials won't even help get a towel for his brother Paul, who has already been mauled. Dhaliwal's voice could be heard: "I need some towels. Get them out here soon!" When the dispatcher asks Dhaliwal about the yelling in the background, he responds, "I'm talking to the ... the manager ... he ... he's a stupid ass — don't want to give me any towels. Give me some towels, man! What the hell is wrong with these people?" The 911 operator explains that the paramedics are taking precautions. Dhaliwal responds, "But what don't you understand? My brother is going to die out here!" At 5:23 p.m., the call is cut off, and Dhaliwal is mauled by Tatiana four minutes later.

:: via abcnews.go.com

More than 28 civilians were killed and dozens wounded when a roadside bomb blew up a crowded bus in southern Sri Lanka, as a six-year ceasefire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels ran out. After the blast, gunmen shot passengers as they tried to flee, according to witnesses. "Everyone that got out through the doors, they shot and killed," Sampath, a 25-year-old passenger, told Associated Press. "I jumped from the window and just escaped." The attack, on a bus regularly used by schoolchildren, occurred in the remote town of Buttala about 150 miles south-east of Colombo. "I was on my way to take my one and a half month old baby to the doctor. I heard a loud noise and I thought it was a bomb, so I went under the seat of the bus with my baby and we heard firing for about five minutes," housewife TM Lalani, 27, told Reuters from Buttala hospital.

:: via guardian.co.uk

Perhaps it had to be someone like Michael Nazir-Ali, the first Asian bishop in the Church of England, who would break with convention and finally point out the elephant in the room. His comments last week about the growing stranglehold of Muslim extremists in some communities revived debate about the future of multiculturalism and provoked a flurry of condemnation. Members of all three political parties immediately clamoured to dismiss him. “I don’t recognise the description that he’s talked about – no-go areas and people feeling intimidated,” said Hazel Blears, the communities secretary. A quick call to her Labour colleague John Reid, the former home secretary, would almost certainly have helped her to identify at least one of those places. Just over a year ago Reid was heckled by the Muslim extremist Abu Izzadeen in Leytonstone, east London, during a speech on extremism, appropriately. “How dare you come to a Muslim area,” Izzadeen screamed.

:: via timesonline.co.uk