Mike Stone, Minnesota Teen, Asks Porn Stars To Prom Via Twitter

This prom season, Minnesota student Mike Stone is on a mission to bring a special lady to his high school dance: a porn star.
WARNING: SOME CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES

The situation might call to mind scenes from the 2004 movie "The Girl Next Door," in which three teens take porn stars to prom as part of a plan to film a modern sex-ed video.

 But it seems this Minnesota student just wants to stand out on his special day.

In an interview with the Daily Dot, Stone said many of the girls he asked to prom were already going with someone else. So, he took a different route and hopped on Twitter to contact some adult film stars.

After nearly 600 Tweets, at least two porn stars have offered to take Stone up on his offer.
Megan Piper, who never made it to her senior prom, said she'd be willing to attend the dance as long as Stone took care of the travel costs from Los Angeles.

"If you can get me there, then yes :)," she tweeted.

And adult film star Emy Reyes was honored by Stone's proposal and responded by saying, "Awww that's reappear [sic] hun and i would love tooo."

Now, the teen's next mission is to raise about $400 to buy his possible date -- who, as of late Tuesday afternoon, appears to be Megan Piper -- a plane ticket to Minnesota for the big night on May 12.
Piper said she's excited about the possibility of attending the dance with Stone.

"I thought it was really cute, and I thought it would make his night by saying 'yes'," she told The Huffington Post.

The 19-year-old moved from Georgia to Kansas during her senior year of high school and couldn't attend her own prom. She even had a navy dress with a corset top picked out for the occasion.

"It was so cute," she recalled. However, if she does fly to Minnesota, Piper says she's using the opportunity to shop for a new gown.

When asked about the possibility of Emy Reyes attending the dance, Piper said she was open to sharing the spotlight with her friend.

"If she decided she wanted to go, too, that would be really cool," Piper said.

As of a couple of hours ago, Stone, who says he's 18, did not have a PayPal account set up to receive donations, but that might soon change with the amount of exposure he's been getting.

However, the teen's special date might very well be a surprise to his parents and principal, who reportedly have no clue what Stone has been planning, the Daily Dot reports.

As for Piper, the adult film star isn't keeping her boyfriend in the dark about her potential date.

"He knows I love him so he doesn't mind," she said.

Regardless of how Stone's plan pans out, he now joins the ranks of several teens who have taken extraordinary measures to secure a date to prom.

Much like Stone, 18-year-old Kevin McGuire used social media to secure a date with Taylor Swift. And although the songstress won't be able to attend McGuire's prom, she invited him to the Academy of Country Music Awards as her date.

Brady McHale, on the other hand, took advantage of his position as volunteer firefighter and executed his prom proposal atop a ladder truck positioned outside of his high school's windows.
Ashley Shay decided to take a more public route, pitching her prom proposal on a local billboard.

KU Spirit Squad Lifts Car, Saves Man Trapped Underneath

Moments before heading to an NCAA tournament on March 18, members of the University of Kansas spirit squad heard someone cry out for help.

Members from the band and cheer squad then walked to a nearby parking lot where they found a man trapped underneath a car, according to a press release from the university.

 The man was apparently working on the car when the jack fell out of place, partially pinning him underneath the vehicle.

“It took us a second to realize what was going on, so a few of us realized, there is a car on top of a guy,” Alex O'Nelio, a senior squad member, told the University Daily Kansan.

The squad members worked together to lift the vehicle, until the man was able to free himself. The victim was reportedly a bit bloody and disoriented, but otherwise in good condition, according to the release.

Squad coordinator Cat Jarzemkoski said she's proud of how her students handled the situation.

“They just dropped everything. They didn’t panic,” Jarzemkoski told the Lawrence Journal-World.

The unexpected rescue wasn't the only victory of the night. The Jayhawks women's basketball team clinched a 57-49 win against Nebraska, marking the first NCAA Tournament coup against the team since 1999, according to the University Daily Kansan. The team is set to play the University of Delaware on Tuesday, March 20.

Massachusetts Campus Offered For Free By Billionaire Family

NORTHFIELD, Mass. -- A billionaire family from Oklahoma has turned a no-stoplight town in Massachusetts into an essential destination for Christian institutions nationwide with one extraordinary promise.

They've pledged to give away a 217-acre campus there for free.

Free, it turns out, is an appealing price for the campus founded by famed evangelist D.L. Moody and estimated by its owner to be worth $20 million.

In recent months, the western Massachusetts property has drawn a stream of secret and not-so-secret visitors.

Each suitor must commit to offer an education founded on traditional Christian beliefs and prove they have the money to maintain this sprawling, classic New England campus.

"It's spectacular. It's spectacular. That's all I can say," said Tracy Davis, academic dean of California-based Olivet University, as she walked the grounds last Thursday.

Locals are ready to welcome new neighbors. But there's concern about who's moving in, including how a conservative Christian institution will mesh in a town of about 3,000 in this notably liberal state.

"We hope that whatever's here can bring people together and not divide," said Alexander Stewart, chair of a town committee monitoring the sale.

The campus was once home to the Northfield Mount Hermon prep school, which was founded as a girls' school by Moody in 1879.

The rolling property lines the Connecticut River Valley to the east and climbs high enough to offer views into neighboring New Hampshire and Vermont.

But in 2005, Northfield Mount Hermon left to consolidate at another nearby campus, escaping more than $1 million in annual utility costs and the deferred maintenance on a century's worth of august, but aging, stone and brick buildings.

The campus now belongs to the Green family, who own the Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby craft store chain. They bought it for $100,000 in 2009, intending to give it to a new college named for Christian scholar C.S. Lewis.

That venture stalled in December amid fundraising woes. The C.S. Lewis Foundation, which is starting the college, says it hasn't given up on establishing a school at the Northfield campus, but the uncertainty prompted the Greens to begin a search for another owner.

 The market to resell the campus doesn't currently exist, said Hobby Lobby president Steve Green. So the family made the campus and its 43 buildings available to select institutions that can meet their criteria.

 After $5 million in renovations, the campus is now move-in ready, but expensive to keep that way. Green said he'd like to transfer the grounds to the new owners by at least the end of the year.

But he added the priority is finding the right tenant, and spoke of restoring Moody's original intent to create a place to teach and train people to share Biblical truth. That legacy remains part of even the vacant campus.

Busloads of Christians from South Korea, where Moody's ministry had a deep impact, still climb to join hands and pray around Moody's hilltop grave.

"We would love to see the property be used for a great Christian ministry, and if we help somebody to get that started without a lot of heartburn ... and be a light in the area, that would be our primary goal," Green said.

The Greens, through Jerry Pattengale, a college administrator they hired to help find a new owner, originally invited 15 top Christian institutions to take a look, and 11 have visited. About nine others have been allowed to inspect the grounds as news of the offer has spread, and more requests are coming daily, Pattengale said. So far, Olivet, Azusa Pacific University and Liberty University are among the schools whose names have gone public.

Any institution whose interest in the property survives an initial vetting of their plans and finances will be required to provide a detailed proposal, Pattengale said.

Liberty's interest prompted some Northfield Mount Hermon alumni to petition the school's board of trustees to protest any sale to the university, citing what they called the "divisive and hateful" views of its founder, the late Rev.

Jerry Falwell. Residents have also met to discuss concerns about Virginia-based Liberty and the fate of the campus.

But Northfield Mount Hermon has no say over what the Greens decide to do with the property, and Liberty is not likely a top contender, anyway. To make the transaction as simple as possible, the family prefers to give the campus to someone who will take it all, and Liberty has discussed assuming control of only a portion of it.

Green added such protests would matter "very little" to the family if it felt it had found a good suitor who would also be a good neighbor. "You'll never please everybody and we understand that," he said.

Northfield itself is scenic and sleepy, with no traffic lights or even gas stations to slow down a trip to somewhere else.

The campus, right off the main road, has a new shine, but its emptiness gives it the air of an exclusive boarding school on eternal spring break.

Corinne Allen, owner of Rooster's Bistro on Main Street in Northfield, said Hobby Lobby's decision can't come soon enough. She bought her restaurant shortly before Northfield Mount Hermon decided to pull out and is anxious to serve the customer base of students, their families and alumni she thought she was inheriting.

Many are pleased a Christian institution is coming and want to make things work, said Allen.

"I do believe the town loves the campus; nobody wants to see it go to waste," she said. "In the end, the campus is the town, and it always has been."

Youcef Nadarkhani, Imprisoned Pastor, Won't Be Executed, Iran Claims

An official from Iran has refuted claims of plans to execute imprisoned pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who has been imprisoned for almost three years on accusations of apostasy, a crime where one disaffiliates themselves from a religion.

The refutation came after human rights investigator Ahmed Shaheed delivered a report to the U.N., which, in addition to citing Iran's "striking pattern of violations of fundamental human rights guaranteed under international law" and the country's "maltreatment of prisoners, dissidents, minorities and women," called for the release of Nadarkhani, FOX News reports.

Iran called Shaheed's 36-page report, which first circulated last week, "false," "fabricated," "biased" and manipulated by "certain Western countries and their cronies on the council," The New York Times reports.

Iran's insistence that Nadarkhani will not be executed is only the latest development in an ongoing legal nightmare, during which a litany of additional accusations, including rape and extortion, have been made against the Christian pastor by the Iranian government.

In September of last year, the Iranian Supreme Court upheld Naderkhani's initial conviction of apostasy after he allegedly refused to recant his Christian faith.

Then, in February, the American Center for Law and Justice received reports that Nadarkhani had been sentenced to death for the 2010 charges -- a ruling the White House quickly condemned in a statement.

"This action is yet another shocking breach of Iran’s international obligations, its own constitution, and stated religious values," the White House statement read.

 "The United States stands in solidarity with Pastor Nadarkhani, his family, and all those who seek to practice their religion without fear of persecution -- a fundamental and universal human right."

Leonard Leo, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, told the Religion News Service last year that Iran's court proceedings can't be trusted.

"The court continues to demand that he recant his faith or otherwise be executed," Leo told RNS. "The most recent court proceedings are not only a sham, but are contrary to Iranian law and international human rights standards."

Despite the reported execution ruling last fall, Iranian envoy Mohammad Javad Larijani told the Human Rights Council that such punishment is not permitted in Iran.

“In the last 33 years after [the Islamic] revolution, no single person has been put to death or executed or pursued for changing his religion from Islam,” he told the council, according to FOX News.

“Hundreds of people are changing from other religions to Islam. Why we should be so sensitive about a few people to change their religion from Islam?”

British Government Says Christians Don't Have Right To Wear Cross Or Crucifix At Work

Two British women are headed to court to argue for the right to wear Christian crosses at their workplaces, but a group of Christian ministers is reportedly set to back employers' rights to ban the regalia.

At the heart of the issue is whether or not the crosses are a "requirement" of the Christian faith.

According to a document leaked to the Telegraph that allegedly contains their arguments, the ministers are set to tell the court that crosses are not required by religious doctrine, thus supporting the government's case that employers cannot be forced to allow such symbols.

Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin were both told by their employers to cover or remove the Christian symbol hanging around their necks. When they refused, they each faced consequences.

Eweida, a British Airways employee, was placed on unpaid leave in 2006 when she refused to remove the symbol, according to CNS News. She argued that coworkers of other affiliations were allowed to showcase symbols of their faiths.

Eweida took the airline before a British employment tribunal alleging religious discrimination but lost the case.
The company eventually changed its uniform policy and rehired Eweida, but did not compensate her for the suspension period.

In Chaplin's case, the longtime nurse was reprimanded for refusing to cover up a cross around her neck, RT reports. She was subsequently assigned to desk work instead of her usual rounds.

Now, it will be up to the European Court of Human Rights to decide if wearing a cross or crucifix is a right under Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Article 9, "Freedom of thought, conscience and religion," states the following:

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

2. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Lawyers for the women allegedly plan to argue that right to wear a cross is covered under Article 9 as a "manifestation" of religious expression, CNS News reports.

But the British Foreign Office has already prepared the following statement, which was published in the Telegraph:

In neither case is there any suggestion that the wearing of a visible cross or crucifix was a generally [recognized] form of [practicing] the Christian faith, still less one that is regarded (including by the applicants themselves) as a requirement of the faith.

The case has been criticized by Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who was unhappy officials were "meddling" in the matter.

Sentamu expressed his feelings on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, the Telegraph reports.

"My view is that this is not the business of government, actually," he said. "I think that is a matter really for people and that we should allow it.The government should not raise the bar so high that in the end they are now being unjust."

Andrew Brown, a blogger for the Guardian, questions what exactly qualifies as a "requirement" of the faith:

Does Christianity demand that its adherents wear a cross? The courts here have decided that it doesn't, but I'm not sure the question is well framed. You might as well ask "does Christianity demand that you go to church on Sundays?" or "does it demand pacifism?" There are just too many Christianitiesfor such a question to make sense.

Rare Movie Posters Found In An Attic Expected To Fetch $250,000 (PHOTOS)

PHILADELPHIA — A rowdy band of bloodsuckers, gunslingers, wily wise guys, jaded private eyes, hardboiled reporters and good girls gone bad, stuck in an attic together for 80 years, is going its separate ways.

Nearly three dozen movie theater posters from the Golden Age of Hollywood found in a Pennsylvania attic are expected to fetch $250,000 at auction in Texas this month. They were stuck together with wallpaper glue when they were purchased for around $30,000 at a country auction last fall in Berwick, near Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The buyer, who chose to remain anonymous, consigned them to Heritage Auctions in Dallas, where the stack of 33 Depression-era posters was painstakingly steamed and gingerly separated over the course of several weeks.

"As we started to peel them apart, it was one of the greatest treasure troves from a beautiful period of poster printing," said Grey Smith of Heritage Auctions, where the posters go on the block March 23.
The separated posters underwent minor touch-ups and were backed with linen at a restoration house, he said.

"A number of them were in very, very nice shape. ... The colors had not seen the light of day in 80 years," Smith said. They were glued, one atop the other, apparently as each new release came to town. The find most likely came from one of the three big movie houses in Berwick during that era, Smith said.
From what the auction buyer was able to ascertain, the valuable stack of Hollywood history was inside a home whose contents were being liquidated as part of an estate sale, he said.

The trove includes extraordinarily rare original posters from the 1931 films "The Public Enemy," "Cimarron," "The Front Page" and "Little Caesar." Some are versions never before seen, while others are among only one or two other known copies. All measure roughly 27 by 41 inches, known in movie parlance as a one-sheet.

James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Barbara Stanwyck are among the matinee idols gracing several posters but Bela Lugosi, bug-eyed and menacing in the 1931 ad for horror classic "Dracula," counts as the star of the auction with a starting bid of $200,000.

An identical poster owned by actor Nicholas Cage sold at auction in 2009 for $310,000.

The films in the posters date from 1930 and 1931, a uniquely permissive time for filmmaking that came after the adoption of sound but before the enforcement of stringent moral guidelines popularly known as the Hays Code.

 Movies from the "pre-Code" era of roughly 1929 to 1934 include sex, violence and social commentary that vanished as the Hays Code censored everything from religious criticism to "suggestive postures."

The Humphrey Bogart-John Huston version of "The Maltese Falcon," for example, was a remake of the 1931 original, which was later deemed lewd under the Hays Code for nudity and sexual references and banned from re-release. A poster for the earlier "Falcon," featuring smooching leads Bebe Daniels and
Ricardo Cortez, is also part of the sale and the auctioneers say it's the only one known to exist.

"They were purely a product to be disposed of. ... They're not something anyone would have thought to save," Smith said in explaining the scarcity of movie ephemera of the era. Berwick had three large movie houses in the early 1930s and the posters likely came from one of them, he said.

For collectors, a find like the Berwick posters is "like a dream come true," said Bob King, editor of Classic Images, an Iowa-based periodical devoted to pre-1960s film and television.

"When (a discovery like) this happens, it's a big deal because you never know when or if it'll happen again," he said. "Are they ever going to find another one like this? Maybe not."

Indiana Tornado: Stephanie Decker Loses Legs Saving Kids From Tornado

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana woman who saved her two children by binding them together with a blanket and shielding them with her body as a tornado ripped apart their house lost parts of both her legs, which were crushed by the falling debris, her husband says.

Stephanie Decker, a 36-year-old sleep specialist, lost one leg above the knee and the other above the ankle, her husband said Monday. She was in serious but stable condition at a Kentucky hospital. The couple's 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter survived Friday's storm unscathed.

"I told her, `They're here because of you,'" Joe Decker said by telephone from the University of Louisville Hospital. "I let her know that nothing else matters. I said, `You're going to be here for your kids, and you get to see them grow up.'"

Decker, 42, was at Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg, where he teaches algebra, when the tornado hit. With storms expected, the school had been locked down, and he was debating whether to try to race home.

 Decker exchanged a series of texts with his wife, urging her to get herself and their children into the basement of their sprawling, three-story brick and stone home in Marysville, Ind.

"Then she sent me a text saying the whole house was shaking, and I texted her back and asked her if everything was OK," he said. "I asked her about six or seven times and got no response. That kind of freaked me out."

He said his wife told him later that she was in their walk-out basement, which had French doors leading outside and a wall of windows, when she saw the tornado approaching, moving across the family's 15-acre plot. Stephanie Decker had already tied a blanket around both children and to herself, and she threw herself on top of the children.

"She said she felt the whole house start to go, and then she felt like it moved them about before it kind of wedged her in there, but she was able to keep the kids from moving away," Decker said.

When the tornado passed, Stephanie Decker called to the children. Reese, 5, answered immediately, but Dominic, 8, hesitated before saying he was OK. Decker said his son told him he couldn't hear his mother because of the roar of the storm.

Dominic, however, soon ran across the street to seek help from neighbors, who had taken refuge in a storm cellar, Decker said. One neighbor, realizing the severity of Stephanie's injuries, ran for help and found a deputy sheriff traveling on a four-wheeler about a quarter of a mile away. The deputy applied tourniquets to Stephanie Decker's legs to halt her blood loss.

She has been scheduled to undergo surgery on her legs again Thursday, hospital spokeswoman Holly Hinson said.
"The house is gone. It's pretty amazing that she's alive," Hinson said.

With trees blocking the road after the storm, Decker said he ran part of the way home before two men gave him a ride. He found his house gone and his children with a family friend. His wife had been taken to a hospital 10 miles away, and the men drove him there, allowing him to see Stephanie briefly before she was airlifted to the Louisville hospital.

"I was afraid I might never see her again," Decker said.

Yajira Quezada, 11-Year-Old, Handcuffed For Being Rude (VIDEO)

When Yajira Quezada copped an attitude, police put her in cuffs.

An Adams County, Colo. Sheriff's Office incident report obtained by KUSA says the Shaw Heights Middle School 11-year-old was handcuffed and taken to a holding facility because she was, "argumentative and extremely rude" to an assistant principal.

"Why would they handcuff me?" Quezada asked KUSA. "I'm not the type of girl to get arrested."
The Sheriff's office said it was just following normal procedure.
The story is reminiscent of Newscore's report on an Indiana middle school girl who was literally handcuffed over spilled milk.

And just last week, a parent in North Carolina claimed her autistic son was restrained via handcuffs at a New Hanover County school, according to WECT.

North Carolina Special Forces Soldier Dad Dies Trying To Save Kids From Burning Home

HOPE MILLS, N.C. — A decorated Green Beret leapt from the second-story of his burning home early Tuesday, wrapped himself in a blanket and ran back inside in an attempt to save his two young daughters.

Firefighters recovered the body of Chief Warrant Officer Edward Cantrell on the second floor of his North Carolina home, not far from the remains of 6-year-old Isabella and 4-year-old Natalia.

"He never made it back out," said Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County sheriff's office.
Cantrell's wife and the girl's mother, Louise, also jumped from the second floor. She was treated and released from a Fayetteville hospital for smoke inhalation. The family dog, a Rottweiler named Sasha, also survived the fire.

Cantrell was a special forces paratrooper who served six tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friends and relatives gathered to recover what they could from burned-out house in Hope Mills, a small community about a 20-minute drive from the gates of Fort Bragg.

The house, which featured a broad front porch with tall columns, was built in 1920. Tanna said the old home's timbers were likely very dry, causing a fast-moving blaze. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

A sign at the end of the driveway blocked with yellow police tape says "The Cantrells Est. Feb. 7, 2004." Bouquets of flowers and two teddy bears had been placed nearby.

Firefighters from Cotton Volunteer Fire Department, which is less than two miles away, were on the scene within four minutes of receiving the dispatch call. Assistant Chief Kevin Dove said the house was already engulfed in flames.

"They perished before our arrival," said Dove, a veteran firefighter. "It was horrible."

Cantrell, 36, was a member of the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg. He held the rank of chief warrant officer 2, which authorized Cantrell to lead half of his 12-member Green Beret team if it was split up, said Lt. Col. April Olsen, a spokeswoman for Army Special Forces Command.

Records show Cantrell joined the Army in 1994, listing a home address in Plant City, Fla. He had one combat deployment to Iraq and five to Afghanistan, returning from the last mission in August, Olsen said.

His record included four Bronze Stars and one Purple Heart, awarded for wounds suffered in a war zone, Olsen said.

"There are no words to express the sorrow felt in our close-knit community when a family suffers such a tragedy," the command said on its Facebook page.

Family members declined interview requests, as did a soldier who served with Cantrell.

Isabella attended nearby Ed V. Baldwin Elementary School. Principal Todd Yardis said the girl's teacher and a grief counselor broke the news of what happened to her classmates shortly after they arrived in the morning.

Yardis said both Cantrell parents had been very active at the school, with Edward Cantrell sometimes stopping by in his Army uniform. He recounted how excited the young girl was when her father returned home from his most recent tour of duty.

"Bella was a very happy, loving girl," Yardis said. "She was one of those students who would run up and hug you around the leg when you passed her class in the hall."

Yardis said Cantrell was a hero for trying to save his girls. The father had recently spoken about retiring from the service, rather than returning overseas and being separated from his family again.

"He talked about wanting to get out of the military and opening his own business," Yardis said. "He wanted to open a tattoo parlor."

Cindy Jacobs, who works at an assisted living home next door, said Louise Cantrell ran to the facility during the fire to get the staff to call 911. Jacobs said she knew the family, especially the mother, who would often stop to make small talk as she drove by. The two girls were often in the car or outside playing.

"She was with those girls all the time," said Jacobs, the executive director of the ARC of Hope Mills. "It's so sad. I can't imagine what she's going through."

Jacobs said she learned Edward Cantrell was in the military when investigators visited to ask about him as part of the procedure for getting a top secret security clearance.

"We knew he was Special Forces," Jacobs said. "He was just a heck of a guy. Very, very friendly."

The girls were energetic children, said Jacobs, who has an active-duty son in the Navy and whose husband
 is a civilian employee at Fort Bragg. "They were just adorable little girls," she said.

298-Million-Year-Old Forest Found In Northern China (PHOTOS)

A fossilized, 298-million-year-old forest has been found under a coal mine near Wuda, in northern China.

Like the Roman city of Pompeii, the 10,763-square-foot (1,000-square-meter) peat forest was preserved by ash spewed out by the eruption of an ancient volcano.

The remarkable find--to be described in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences--gives a "snapshot" of the climate and ecology at the time of the eruption.

 It was the result of a collaboration between University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist Hermann Pfefferkorn and Jun Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yi Zhang of Shenyang Normal University and Zhuo Feng of Yunnan University.

"It's marvelously preserved," Pfefferkorn said of the forest in a written statement released by Penn. "We can stand there and find a branch with the leaves attached, and then we find the next branch and the next branch and the next branch. And then we find the stump from the same tree.

That's really exciting."

Those sentiments were echoed by Robert Gastaldo, a paleobiologist at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
“This is a wonderful study,” Gastaldo told Nature.

“Many of these plant groups we knew from other places, but we had no idea that they actually grew together.”

Check out artist Ren Yugao's paintings of the ancient forest. The scientists worked with Yugao to accurately capture how the sites looked at that time. 

 

Van Gogh's Starry Night modded into beautiful interactive light and sound show (video)

This is one of those little projects you wish you could just play with the second you've seen it. Greek Artist Petros Vrellis coded an interactive light and sound show into Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night -- that you can control with your fingers.

With a swipe of a single digit (or hand) you can pull the particles of the artists paint daubs to redirect the swirling mass of night sky in any direction, making music as you do so. After the break we've got video that you really, really should watch -- and afterward start begging the creator to get this onto people's iPads as soon as he can manage it.

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William Utermohlen's Self-Portraits Of His Decline From Alzheimer's Disease

For over twelve years, William Utermohlen's mind slowly unraveled. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1995, and "from that moment on, he began to try to understand it by painting himself," said his wife, Patricia, to The New York Times.

Utermohlen's self-portraits reveal his decline from Alzheimer's disease, but they also show an artist rediscovering color. In one piece from 1996, his face is painted vibrant yellow, and his shoulders are outlined in a streak of orange. But by 1999, Ultermohlen's flattened perspectives are taken to extremes, and the face is difficult to discern; by 2000, only black and white shapes remain. The slideshow below ultimately reveals a heartbreaking investigation into the inner workings of an artist under duress, as he worked to regain his clarity of mind.

Utermohlen was born in 1933, and developed an early interest in painting. As a college student, he studied Fine Art in Philadelphia and then went to Oxford in the late 50s, attending the Ruskin School of Art. He moved to London, and lived there until his death in 2007. A year later, "Portraits from the Mind: The Works of William Utermohlen, 1955-2000" ran at the Chicago Cultural Center. After the success in Chicago, Utermohlen's later works were shown in Utah at the inaugural Art and Brain Symposium. A documentary about his life and art is even in the works, titled, "Telling It Like It Is."

Currently, Utermohlen's art work is on view in a group show simply titled, "Trauma" at GV Art in London (until February 18). If you're interested in more information about the artist, contact the Galerie Beckel
Odille Boicos in Paris.