Step away from that tuna can.

Its “dolphin safe” label produces warm feelings, but don’t mistake it for “turtle safe” or “ocean safe.” And it’s certainly not “tuna safe.” Accidental entanglements of sharks, sea turtles, juvenile tuna and other marine creatures take their own ecological toll — prompting the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s well-regarded Seafood Watch consumer guide to take an unusual step: It recently began telling consumers to avoid all canned tuna, except for the minority labeled “troll caught” or “pole-and-line” caught. That describes precious few cans, typically from small brands selling for around $2.50 to $6.50.

Yes, the canned tuna in U.S. supermarkets is dolphin safe. So is the tuna of more than 90% of the world’s tuna canners — a big eco-marketing accomplishment. The marketing and labels are effective for selling tuna, but extremely misleading if you think the label means environmentally safe, as you’ll see in the list farther below.
Here’s what prompted the aquarium’s move: There’s no way you can tell by looking at a can of Bumble Bee, Starkist, Chicken of the Sea or generic tuna how the fish inside was caught or other particulars that can reveal your lunchpail’s ocean impact. One study found that for every 1,000 tons of yellowfin tuna caught through one particular dolphin-safe technique, “fishermen caught nearly 111,000 other individual fish, including sharks, rays, marlins and sea turtles — several varieties of which are endangered.” Continue Reading »

Entering the ongoing debate between faith and science, renowned British scientist Stephen Hawking claims that modern physics has now proved that God played no role in the creation of the universe.

In a new book — “The Grand Design,” co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow — the theoretical physicist sets out to demolish Sir Isaac Newton’s claim that an “intelligent and powerful Being” must have shaped the universe, which he believed could not have emerged from chaos. Hawking and Mlodinow rule out the possibility of divine intervention, saying that new theories have made the idea of a supernatural creator redundant.

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,” the pair write, in an extract published in today’s London Times. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.” Continue Reading »

Don’t you hate when you’re going about your day and, suddenly, you realize that your $50,000 earring fell out of your ear at work? It’s the worst! So you can imagine how Miami Dolphins defensive end Kendall Langford must have felt on Tuesday when he realized that his 2.5 carat diamond earring had fallen out of his ear during practice.

The incident was tragic enough that the team halted practice and, according to SI.com, at least nine players were “crawling across the field” searching for Langford’s earring. These players went above and beyond the call of duty, according to the “Bro Code.” Nowhere in the 150 articles of brodom does it say that one needs to crawl across a football field in search of another bros earring. Though if I were writing “Sex and the City 3″ I might write this scene into the movie. Continue Reading »

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) is in talks with media companies regarding a new online subscription service that would let viewers watch TV shows and movies over the Internet.

Amazon has spoken to companies including NBC Universal, Time Warner (TWX) and News Corp., (NWS) The Wall Street Journal reported without naming its sources. Amazon wants to begin by streaming older TV shows and movies.

The move would be a challenge to Netflix Inc (NFLX), which is working to corner the market in online TV and movie watching.

The new Amazon service would be available on a Web browser, or through devices like Blu-ray players and the Xbox 360 videogame console. Amazon hopes to launch the new service in time for the holiday season.

Even Dr. Oz isn’t immune to cancer scares.

Yup, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who talks — and walks — the importance of a healthy lifestyle, went in for a routine colonoscopy after his 50th birthday in June and his doctor found an adenomatous polyp, or precancerous growth, inside his intestine.

“This was a shakeup for me,” Oz tells People. “I have done everything right. I don’t have any family history, and yet I’m high risk now.”

He says that if the polyp hadn’t been detected, it could have likely become colon cancer.

“There’s a lot of tension,” he says. “It’s frustrating. Why did this happen to me? It forces you to question the assumptions you make about life.”

He adds that the test probably “saved my life.” Oz will discuss his health scare on The Dr. Oz Show‘s Sept. 7 season premiere.

LAS VEGAS – Smoke wafting from a Cadillac Escalade on the Las Vegas Strip ignited Paris Hilton’s latest legal troubles late Friday, when a motorcycle officer who suspected the smell was marijuana stopped the vehicle and police say a bag of cocaine fell out of the 29-year-old socialite’s purse.

It’s the second time this year Hilton has been arrested on drug possession allegations, although authorities in South Africa dropped marijuana charges earlier this summer. In 2007, Hilton pleaded no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving and was sentenced to 45 days in jail.

This time, the hotel heiress was with her boyfriend, Las Vegas nightclub mogul Cy Waits, who manages a club inside the Wynn Las Vegas and was driving the black SUV that the officer stopped nearby at 11:22 p.m. Friday.

The officer “followed the vapor trail and the odor of marijuana to the Escalade,” police Sgt. John Sheahan said.

As other police arrived and a crowd gathered on the busy neon-lit Strip, Hilton asked to go into the Wynn resort for privacy, Sheahan said.

“Miss Hilton pulled out a tube of lip balm,” Sheahan said. “At the same time … a bindle of cocaine in a plastic bag came out of her purse” in plain view of police in the room.

Police Officer Marcus Martin characterized the cocaine as a “small amount,” or a package of the size usually associated with personal use. Police would not specify the weight of the cocaine or whether any marijuana was confiscated.

Hilton was arrested on suspicion of felony cocaine possession. If convicted of the low-grade felony, she would get probation, but any violation of that probation would be punishable by up to one to four years in Nevada state prison.

Waits, 34, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Misdemeanors are punishable by up to a year in county jail. Police said he owned the 2009 Cadillac.

Hilton and Waits were booked into the Clark County jail, where Sheahan said Hilton was kept handcuffed on a booking room bench, fingerprinted, photographed and released without bail about 2:45 a.m. Saturday.

Waits’ lawyer, Richard Schonfeld, said Waits posted $2,000 bail Saturday. Waits was released Saturday afternoon.

Sheahan said Hilton was not taken to a cell and received no special treatment on a busy Friday night and Saturday morning at the jail. He said release without bail was common in such cases.

Hilton, a prolific tweeter, didn’t mention the arrest on her Twitter site, although less than an hour after she was released her account was updated with a posting that said the actress was in bed watching the television show “Family Guy.”

It was unclear if the tweets came from her, were posted by time-release or were sent by someone else.

Hilton’s attorney, David Chesnoff, told The Associated Press on Saturday morning that he was still gathering facts about the arrest.

“This matter will be dealt with in the courts not in the media and I encourage people not to rush to judgment until all of the facts have been dealt with in a court of law,” Chesnoff said later in a statement. “There will be no interviews and no more comments at this time.”

Schonfeld said he was “troubled by the circumstances” leading to the arrest, but declined to specify his concerns.

“As the case proceeds, a lot of facts are going to come to light that will ultimately lead to exoneration,” Schonfeld said.

Court dates for Hilton and Waits were not immediately available. Clark County District Attorney David Roger declined to comment Saturday about the case.

A spokeswoman for Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Waits and his twin brother, Jesse, are managing partners of the Tryst Nightclub inside Wynn Las Vegas, Drai’s after hours club at Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon, and XS The Nightclub at Wynn’s Encore resort. A spokeswoman for Harrah’s resorts declined immediate comment.

Earlier this week, Hilton was in the news when a 31-year-old man allegedly tried to break into her Los Angeles home.

Authorities have said that someone carrying two big knives banged on Hilton’s window Tuesday. She posted a photo of the arrest on Twitter and described it as “scary.” Nathan Lee Parada faces a felony burglary charge.

Hilton was arrested this summer after the Brazil-Netherlands World Cup match in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on suspicion of possession of marijuana. The case was then dropped at a midnight court hearing.

Hilton pleaded no contest in 2007 to alcohol-related reckless driving and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. After spending about 23 days in jail, Hilton told CNN host Larry King that the experience caused her to re-evaluate the role partying played in her life. She said she wanted “to help raise money for kids and for breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.”

While most famous for her tabloid exploits and reality TV series “The Simple Life,” Hilton has appeared in the films “Bottoms Up,” “The Hottie & the Nottie” and “House of Wax.”

The PlayStation Move. It’s funny to think just 15 months have passed since Sony first unveiled its motion controller, and now we’re mere weeks away from hitting the retail market. To be sure, it’s not like the company didn’t have waggle on the mind already — patents dating as far back as 2005 reveal as much, and of course the incredible success of Nintendo’s Wii proved there’s a market for more physically exerting gameplay. And it’s not just PlayStation; Microsoft’s got its controller-free Kinect motion camera system coming this November. So, in the year where all major game consoles now ask you to get off the couch and earn arm muscle, how does Move fare? Read on for more! Continue Reading »

After the overt teasing, leaking, and then more leaking, Microsoft’s finally ready to spit out the details on its Arc Touch Mouse, which at the end of the day is really just… a mouse. As we’ve seen, the peripheral has an incredibly unique design — the flat device arches its back to click into a mountain shape, which actually ends up powering the little rodent up. So, where does the whole “touch” factor come into play? Well, very similarly to the Mad Catz Eclipse mouse, the Arc Touch has a capacitive touch strip with sensor pads between the mouse buttons that can be used for scrolling and customizable shortcuts. We’ve got you covered with some hands-on impressions and video after the break, but that’s about all you’ll be getting for a while since the press release below says the $69.95 mouse won’t hit the market until December. Yep, December! That’s a bit odd to us, but they’ll be taking pre-orders today so hit the break to finally see this thing push the cursor around. Continue Reading »

We just got a chance to mess around with ViewSonic’s upcoming ViewPad 7 (one of possibly four tablets they plan to release this year), and while it is indeed a plastic rebadge me-too Android tablet, we mean that in the best sense. Let’s take these one by one:

• Plastic: It looks and feels enough like metal / glass that we won’t fault ViewSonic for the cost savings here.
• Rebadge: ViewSonic has an exclusive on this design for its particular markets (Europe), while the OlivePad is doing its version over in India.
• Me-too: This might be the biggest knock, since ViewSonic is dropping the ViewPad into a world that’s going to be up to its knees in 7-inch Android tablets in a few month’s time.

ViewSonic wins points for an above average build quality, better than crappy LCD (it’s not great, but we’ve seen a lot worse, and the capacitive response is just fine), passable processor (a 600MHz Snapdragon won’t win any bake-offs, but it also makes Android 2.2 completely usable in our opinion), and better-than-Augen Google blessing. Check out our video hands-on after the break. Continue Reading »

Reality star and octo-parent Jon Gosselin threatened to report ex-wife Kate to Child Protective Services if she didn’t pay him a huge chunk of money, RadarOnline.com reports.

The proof comes in handwritten documents leaked by Jon’s post-Kate gal-pal Hailey Glassman. Radar calls it “the ugliest chapter in a brutal divorce.”

Glassman says: “We were in bed and Jon called Kate on speaker phone. He wrote down what he wanted to say to her and then he read from his notes. He told her, ‘You either give me money, or I’m going to call CPS [Child Protective Services].’” Part of the plan came from Jon and Kate’s daughter Maddy hurting her arm; Jon threatened to tells authorities Kate harmed the 9-year-old. Continue Reading »