Charlotte has the most expensive gasoline in the continental United States. North Carolina motorists paid an average of $3.79 a gallon for regular gasoline Tuesday, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday. That’s 31 cents above the national average and higher than any other state except for Alaska and Hawaii.
Republican White House hopeful John McCain has said he is suspending his campaign and returning to Washington to help deal with the economic crisis. The old man can’t multi task apparently, god help him if he’s thrown in to leading two wars, an economy that’s dying on it’s feet, a housing market that’s long since bottomed out and an energy crisis the likes we haven’t seen since Mad Max 2…
You’d better read this today, because it’s possible the world will end tomorrow. Strictly speaking, the probability of doomsday isn’t any higher than it is on any normal Wednesday, but there’s been a fair bit of kerfuffle and hullabaloo over the CERN Large Hadron Collider and whether it will create a black hole that will destroy the entire planet.
A pretty girl who won national fame after singing at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was only miming. Wearing a red dress and pigtails, Lin Miaoke charmed a worldwide audience with a rendition of “Ode to the Motherland”. But the singer was Yang Peiyi, who was not allowed to appear because she is not as “flawless” as nine-year-old Lin. This is the second “fake” story about the opening ceremony after viewers around the world saw a display in which 29 firework “footprints” travelled across Beijing from south to north, but a senior official from the Beijing organising committee confirmed on Tuesday that footage of the display had been produced before the big night.
Broadcaster Skip Caray, who was in his 33rd season of calling Atlanta Braves games, died in his sleep Sunday at his Atlanta home. Caray, the son of former Hall of Fame play-by-play announcer Harry Caray, had several ailments in the last year but had recovered enough to continue calling Braves home games at Turner Field, as recent as 3 days ago. Sad, sad day for baseball…
A wonderfully descriptive account of how 282 TV shows are linked together in a common universe. Everything from I Love Lucy to Heroes, from Gilligan’s Island to The Wire, the entire Law & Order series and even the new X-Files movie… It all takes place inside the mind of Tommy Westphall, an autistic child in 80’s drama series St. Elsewhere.
Batman film The Dark Knight has set a box office record for best opening weekend ever at the US box office, the sequel took $155.3m (£77.7m) surpassing the previous opening weekend record set by Spider-Man 3 last year, which took $151.1m (£75.5m). By comparison, Batman Begins grossed nearly $49 million (£24.5m) in its first weekend back in 2005.
The US brewer Anheuser-Busch has agreed to be taken over by Belgium-based InBev, in a move that will create the world’s largest beer maker. Might we see some real beer coming out of St. Louis for a change?
A teenager was struck and decapitated by the Batman ride at Six Flags Over Georgia. The 17-year-old park visitor was killed after scaling two fences, one of which was six feet tall, around the Batman roller coaster, park spokeswoman Hela Sheth said in a statement. It was unclear how fast the outside-looping coaster was moving when it struck the teen, but according to the park’s Web site, the ride reaches speeds of 50 mph.
Not many surprises in this years NBA Draft. Derrick Rose goes number one, Michael Beasley two and O.J. Mayo three. The draft isn’t as good now there aren’t as many atrocious GMs at work, can we petition to bring back Isiah Thomas and Billy King?
George Carlin, best known for his “Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV” routine, has died of heart failure aged 71. His death came only a few days after he was selected by the Kennedy Center to receive the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for lifetime achievement in comedy.
The US is to tighten visa restrictions to allow it to screen all short-term visitors from Japan and Western Europe. US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said visitors to the US who do not need visas will be required to register with the government online. The security regulation, set to begin next year, will require visitors to register three days before they visit.
Musician Bo Diddley has died at the age of 79. He had suffered a heart attack in August 2007, three months after suffering a stroke which affected his ability to speak.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Trailer. Serving as a prequel to the Cartoon Network show of the same name, it’s set in between Episode II and Episode III. But didn’t they already do this some 4 years ago?
Best-selling author Michael Crichton has died in Los Angeles aged 66 after a “courageous and private battle against cancer”, his family has said. He penned Jurassic Park, as well as books like Congo and Disclosure, all of which were adapted into films. His books have sold more than 150 million copies. He also created the long-running US hospital TV drama ER.