Portable Planet

Vanessa Hudgens, the seemingly squeaky-clean star of the Disney hit High School Musical, has apparently taken a nude photo of herself which has now been leaked onto the internet.

This is a case of very bad timing for Ms. Hudgens.  The eighteen year old actress and boyfriend Zac Efron are currently negotiating to star in the third installment of the High School Musical.  And Disney has a track record of wanting their female stars to project a virginal image. 

“This was a photo which was taken privately. It is a personal matter and it is unfortunate that this has become public,” her rep told .

She recently won the 2006 Teen Choice Award in the “Choice Chemistry” category for her portrayal of Gabriella Montez in High School Musical.  Her co-winner was Mr. Efron.

The possibility of food colours and preservatives affecting children’s behaviour has long been an unresolved question for parents. This significant new research by a team from the University of Southampton’s Schools of Psychology and Medicine provides a clear demonstration that changes in behaviour can be detected in three-year-old and eight-year-old children.

The research, which was funded by a £0.75m grant from the Food Standards Agency and is published in The Lancet online today (6 September), involved studying levels of hyperactivity in 153 three-year-olds and 144 eight-year-olds living in the city of Southampton. The children were selected from the general population to represent the full range of behaviour, from normal through to hyperactive, and not for any previous behavioural problems or known sensitivities to particular foods.

The children’s families were asked to put them on a diet free from the additives used in the study. Over a six-week period the children were then given a drink each day which either contained one of two mixtures of food colours and benzoate preservative, or just fruit juice – with all the drinks looking and tasting identical.

Hyperactivity is a behaviour indicated by increased movement, impulsivity and inattention. The results of the Southampton study show that when the children were given the drinks containing the test mixtures, in some cases their behaviour was significantly more hyperactive. These results replicate and extend previous FSA-funded research by the team in Southampton.

The research team used a combination of reports on the children’s behaviour from teachers and parents, together with recordings of the children’s behaviour in the classroom made by an observer, and, for the older children, a computer-based test of attention. None of the participants – teachers, parents, the observer, or the children – knew which drink each child was taking at any one time.

Professor of Psychology, Jim Stevenson, who led the research, comments: ‘We now have clear evidence that mixtures of certain food colours and benzoate preservative can adversely influence the behaviour of children. There is some previous evidence that some children with behavioural disorders could benefit from the removal of certain food colours from their diet. We have now shown that for a large group of children in the general population, consumption of certain mixtures of artificial food colours and benzoate preservative can influence their hyperactive behaviour.

‘However parents should not think that simply taking these additives out of food will prevent all hyperactive disorders. We know that many other influences are at work but this at least is one a child can avoid.’

Source: University Of Southhampton

U.S.-based monitoring groups say the al-Qaida terrorist network intends to release a new video recording of Osama bin Laden on or before next week’s sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

No photos or video of Bin Laden have been seen since late 2004, and the last audio message attributed to the fugitive terrorist leader was heard more than a year ago.

Two private monitoring organizations - SITE intelligence Group and IntelCenter - say an announcement, in the name of al-Qaida’s media-production arm, al-Sahab, seen on an Islamist website this week indicates the new al-Qaida video is about to be released.

A photograph said to be a recent portrait of bin Laden accompanied the announcement.

The United States is offering a $25-million reward for bin Laden, but he has eluded capture since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. President Bush says the U.S. will find Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice, no matter how long it takes.

Source: VOA

Apple’s $200 iPhone price cut has been a mixed blessing for consumers. 

On the one hand, it’s great for everybody who hasn’t run out and purchased the must-have gadget of the moment yet.  On the other, there are a lot of people who shelled out $599 just a couple of days ago who are none-too-thrilled with the development.

Steve Jobs has come up with a solution that ought to make at least some people happy.  The open letter he has written to address the situation follows.

To all iPhone customers:

I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.

First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to ‘go for it’ this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone ‘tent’. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.