The University of Minnesota tight end was standing on the Metrodome field, looking up into the stands before a Twins game. He was going to sing the national anthem. Thousands of people had their attention riveted on him. Utecht, now with the Bengals, had sung to crowds before, but nothing like this. The 27-year-old Utecht becomes a professional artist-and-athlete this week with the release of his first album. The album, titled “Ben Utecht,” is the first produced under the Stylos record label started by Christian music mainstay Sandi Patty, a five-time Grammy Award winner. Utecht wrote or collaborated on... Less

The Tony Award broadcast usually amounts to a night of boring Broadway boosterism which most Americans happily ignore to watch basketball, but last night viewers actually got a few seconds of drama to go with all the backslapping, as Poison lead singer Bret Michaels got into an exciting accident with a piece of scenery. The "Rock of Love" star was on hand to perform a song with the cast of hair band jukebox musical Rock of Ages ; but as you can see from the last few seconds of this video clip, that bit of cross-promotional synergy nearly cost him his life. Michaels was "slightly injured," and his publicist told... Less

This record breaking sale was enabled by a court order by the Austrian government to return the painting to the Artist's rightful heir. The entire dispute lasted over a year and was necessary to return the painting that was looted by the Nazis during World War II. Created during the Rose Period, Garcon a la Pipe showcases Picasso's exceptional use of cheerful orange and pink palatte. The oil on canvas painting, measuring 100 × 81.3 cm (slightly over 39 × 32 inches), displays a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand. The record price auction at the time on May 4, 2004 in Sotheby's was a bit of a surprise to the... Less

Facebook will simplify the way in which it offers privacy options to its users, as it gets ready to give its members for the first time the option to make the content they post on their profiles available to anyone on the Internet. Consequently, Facebook will consolidate into one page all of its privacy settings and make the options more uniform, focused on five access levels: Everyone, which will eventually mean sharing with anyone, on or off Facebook; Friends and Networks, which means sharing with all friends on your list and with anyone on the same work or school network; Friends of Friends, which includes... Less

President Obama used it to get elected. Dell will recruit new hires with it. Microsoft's new operating system borrows from it. No question, Facebook has friends in high places. Can CEO Mark Zuckerberg make those connections pay off? (Fortune Magazine) -- Facebook held no appeal for Peter Lichtenstein. The New Paltz, N.Y., resident had checked out so-called social networking sites before, and he wasn't impressed. ("MySpace," he recalls, "was ridiculous.") A chiropractor and acupuncturist, Lichtenstein was already a member of a few professional web-based user groups. The last thing he needed was... Less

Nytimes.com — What is it about Florida that inspires pet owners to set their captives free? On a Florida island, forgotten rabbits, the spawn of Easter gifts from as far back as 2002, run wild in a field of two-story condominiums. ShiningSquirrel, 16 hr 33 min ago , -3/+3 Nothing funny about it. This happens all over the country. If the rabbits are not luckey enough to be rescued by a shelter, most of them die very unpleasent deaths at the hands of wild animals or simply starve. The rabbits in this story are lucky, most are not dropped in such a "pleasent" area. Remember people, buy only chocolate bunnies for... Less

Walter Gropius had a lot more in common with Vitruvius than he let on. The fact is, modernism is a classical discipline, and it places the same value on the classical virtues of balance, order, proportion and scale. So what happens now that modernism is loosening its long-held grip? In some cases order and proportion are giving way to their opposite: the architectural equivalent of a whirl-a-gig ride. A new crop of residential design, particularly in Japan, puts homes in tilted and dizzy-making postures. So far the trend is not prevalent enough to earn a name. But if it had a label, it might be Slantism. Nor... Less

With little fanfare, Sun Microsystems released version 3.0 of xVM VirtualBox , the Open Source and multi-platform desktop virtualization tool for Unix, Linux, Windows and Mac. The new release represents a culmination of hundreds of bugfixes and significant performance enhancements, including the ability for the product to permit guest OSes to use up to 32 virtual CPUs each. Under previous versions of the product, only one CPU core per guest OS was permitted. With the “Guest Additions” CD accompanying the release, VirtualBox 3.0 provides full integration for even the most recent Microsoft OSes,... Less

Loki101, 49 minutes ago , -2/+1 Peace = left alone to drink beer, watch football and porn without being nagged by a wife, a job or any sorta responsibilities Love = *unfunfunf* Happiness = ... is a beer, bitches, bling... and football! kubedawg, 32 minutes ago , -0/+2 But... Bacon... swordedge, 42 minutes ago , -0/+1 Beer and bacon are not enough for me... poontang on the other hand.... joshblufs, 33 minutes ago , -0/+3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./ It’s a trap! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _,,,--~~~~~~~~--,_ . . . . ._________/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,-‘ : : : ::::... Less

Sportingnews.com — In a war of Tweets, Shawne Merriman, a social-media savvy linebacker for the Chargers, seems to have the upper hand on Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco, but on the web and on the field. Merriman threatens to "wring [Ochocinco's] neck" if he calls him out again. That's a threat you take seriously from a guy who had a steroid suspension. FirstCuts, 3 hr 7 min ago , -3/+11 Even if a grainy, 12seconds video, Shawne Merriman scares the crap out of me. CB810, 2 hr 55 min ago , -4/+10 Rule 1... don't instigate Shawn Merriman. NaviGATR, 2 hr 53 min ago , -2/+19 Twitter fight? Really? Is that like a slap... Less