Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner yesterday donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to save the famed vista of the Hollywood sign from being spoiled by development.
Mr Hefner's key role in reaching the group's fund-raising goal was announced by Los Angeles city officials, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land in the Hollywood Hills. The land trust needed to collect a total of $12.5 million by this Friday under a deal with a group of Chicago investors who bought the 1,555-metre ridge, called Cahuenga Peak, from the estate of billionaire Howard Hughes in 2002.
The trust will now purchase the 56-hectare adjacent parcel and turn it over to the city to be incorporated into the surrounding Griffith Park, preventing any construction that would mar the postcard-perfect view of the Hollywood sign nearby. (Reuters)
World's largest telescope
The world's largest telescope will be built in Chile's northern desert at a cost over $1 billion, the European Southern Observatory said yesterday, and will set its sights on discovering other worlds like our own.
The 42-metre European Extremely Large Telescope will watch the skies for exoplanets, or planets around stars, as well as seek to unravel the mystery of dark matter and dark energy.
The telescope will be built at 3,060 metres above sea level on a mountain in Chile's northern, mine rich Atacama desert, which is favoured for major telescopes because of low levels of water vapour and clear night skies. The telescope is set to enter operations in 2018. (Reuters)
Regurgitator is 'Talent' hopeful
Britain's Got Talent hopeful Stevie Starr once stuffed a poisonous frog in his mouth when a barman found his act hard to swallow.
Mr Starr, known as The Regurgitator, left judges agog when he placed coins and a billiard ball in his mouth for his audition before bringing them back up.
Asked what the strangest thing he had ever put in his mouth was, Mr Starr said: "A poisonous frog in a bar in New Jersey." (PA)
Lost in celebration
A millionaire lottery winner has told how he failed to buy his wife a birthday present despite landing a £4.4 million win.
Robert and Susan McIntosh, from Aberdeenshire, scooped the Lotto jackpot with a lucky dip ticket in the draw. But instead of receiving a spectacular gift for her 47th birthday a week later, Mrs McIntosh got nothing because her husband was caught up in the excitement of the win. (PA)
Clamp down on football and films
Muslim clerics in a northeastern Kenyan town said they would close down all public video halls showing football matches and films because they distract youngsters.
The decision in Mandera is set to cause an outcry with the 2010 World Cup finals just under six weeks away.
"The youth are spending a lot of their time watching pornographic movies instead of concentrating on their studies," Khalifa Mohammed, secretary of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, said.
The popular video halls show films and live football action, mainly the English and European leagues, which attract a huge following in this soccer-mad east African country. (AFP)
Laughter is the best medicine
Curling up with laughter has similar effects on the body as pumping iron in the gym, a study has shown.
Sessions of mirthful laughter - dubbed "Laughercise" by researchers - enhance mood, reduce stress hormones, boost the immune system and lower blood pressure and levels of "bad" cholesterol, researchers found.
In the latest study, Californian physician Lee Berk suggests some of the effects of laughter mirror those of repetitive exercise. (PA)
Wrong number leads to arrest
A woman was arrested after calling the police emergency number in Connecticut to ask for a lift home.
Quandria Bailey, 28, called 911 six times to request a ride from a nightclub back to her home.
She was charged with six counts of misuse of the 911 system and released on $1,000 bail. (PA)