Priyanka Chopra Celebrating 29th Birthday Photo: "

Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra is celebrating her 29th birthday today. The actress shot to fame after she won the 50th Miss World Pageant in London eleven years ago.

Hailing from Jharkhand, Piggy Chops had to fight her way to become one of the leading stars of Bollywood presently. She made her debut with Hero: Love story of a spy opposite Sunny Deol. Later with Andaaz, she was recognized by everyone.



The actress has a lot to offer coming six months. Her Don 2 with Shah Rukh Khan is slated to release during Christmas. While her another two films, Agneepath and Barfee are slated to release in January next year.

After a brief break in Los Angeles, the actress has returned to India to celebrate birthday with her family.

















wishes Priyanka a very very happy birthday. Have a blissful life ahead Miss Chopra.

Daily Random Pictures Collection 17 Photo: "

Perhaps Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs should have sent some advanced copies of these photos to a certain group of bigwigs a few days ago?

Brie and Jacobs, two of the lady leads of the cult favorite NBC show "Community," get very down and dirty in a new photo shoot for GQ. Unfortunately for the duo, the show was totally snubbed earlier in the day when the 63rd Primetime Emmy nominations were revealed -- it was expected to perhaps get a Outstanding Comedy Series nomination, at the very least -- but at least they win the award for most willing to push boundaries -- both in comedy and attire.

And in the spirit of the show, Brie, who also stars on "Mad Men," was able to tie the two together. "When you're having sex with someone, it really is similar to putting yourself out there and saying, 'I think this is funny and I hope you laugh,'" she said.

Because a little dirt goes unnoticed until it's time to entertain guests, here's the best way to clean off that patio furniture.

best-way-to-cleanlimonada, flickr

Plastic patio furniture may get a bad rap in the decor world, but there's no cheaper way to seat lots of people outdoors. The main problem isn't a stylistic one, though. It's that plastic is porous and can hold onto dirt like there's no tomorrow. For a particularly stubborn stain, the vinegar treatment and standard soap-and-water didn't help. I even tried tile cleaner, but all I got was a headache.

I had a few Magic Eraser sponges (swear this is not a product placement) in my cleaning cabinet and on a whim, used it on the stain. To my surprise, it removed the stain with minimal effort. Just don't rub too hard, because I noticed that the sponge can dull the plastic surface.

Want more tips on cleaning outdoor furniture? Check out...
Removing Rust from Metal and Concrete
How to clean outdoor furniture
Prepare Your Outdoor Furniture For Entertaining

And to see other methods for cleaning patio furniture, watch this...

You don't always have to be on swatter duty in order to get rid of flies. Whether the pests are bringing your picnic down or calling your living room home, I tested 10 ways to deter flies using stuff we all have in our homes. And I promise, you won't have to squash anything (unless you want to, of course).

get-rid-of-fliesProblem solved. Photo: Refracted Moments, flickr

If you'd "never hurt a fly," then you've never experienced the...pleasure...of having to run inside from a lovely picnic because flies kept bumping into guests' heads while on a quest to eat their potato salad. Then the flies followed everyone inside. And that, in case you were wondering, was how I spent my Fourth of July weekend.

For me, the problem comes from living in a house that dates back to 1825. Yes, it's charmingly covered in ivy, but the floors and windows are at a subtle angle. Which means that a. you can look taller if you stand in certain areas of the house, and b. windows and doors don't always have a seal against the outside world. The small openings are the portals to housefly Narnia as they try to find relief from summer heat. Really, even scrupulous cleaning isn't enough to deter summer flies.

To get rid of them, I tested the following home cures that promise to get rid of flies (either by repelling them away from you and your guests, or by trapping them). Like my tests for controlling ants, these cures were culled from internet boards and well-meaning friends. And for good measure, I tested them indoors and out.

Here's what worked...and what didn't:

- Fabric softener sheets. I hung these from a clothesline, an action that alarmed my neighbor. "Forgot your laundry!" he said, holding up his laundry basket in an attempt to re-acquaint me with what laundry looks like. After I restored his faith in my sanity, I sat near the line and relaxed with a glass of lemonade. Again, the neighbor pops his head over the fence. "Drinking alone, huh?" he said. And then a fly landed on the lemonade glass. So: Hanging fabric softener sheets will make your neighbors think you've lost your mind and will ultimately do nothing to repel flies. Bottom line: Get new neighbors.

- Plastic bags filled with water. Though it always looks like a practical joke in progress, the local cafe swears by the fly-disorienting powers of the clear plastic bags of water suspended next to the doorways. I rarely see flies there, so I hang a plastic bag of water next to the back door (outside). In direct sunlight, the bag appeared to work in its immediate vicinity. But come twilight, the flies paid no mind to the obvious bag-of-water. Bottom line: This works if you use it during the day. (Readers suggest that adding a penny to the bag will make it work at night.)

- Crushed mint. Is there a mint lobby? Because I see "crushed mint leaves" as a suggested solution to everything from ants to headaches. Unsurprisingly, they were suggested for repelling flies. Like a good scout, I crushed fresh mint leaves, placed them in small cups and left them out around the back steps and on my kitchen table. The flies didn't land in the cup, but they buzzed around near it. Bottom line: Does not work.

- Lavender-scented candles. This sounded like the loveliest idea for repelling flies. I had a few that had been given to me as gifts, so I placed them on the back stairs, a picnic table and in the kitchen. The results are mixed: The candle on the picnic table adequately kept the flies away, while the ones on the stairs and in the kitchen didn't do much. However, all the candles were not the same. The one on the picnic table was a three-wick candle that had a high concentration of scented oil. The rest were smaller single-wick candles with a fainter fragrance. So I think the key here is that the extra heat generated by three flames distributed the fragrance further than a standard candle. Bottom line: This works. Just be sure to use a big, highly-fragranced candle.

- Sugar trap. I was optimistic about this one: Dumping a quarter cup of sugar into an open mason jar, then filling the jar halfway with water. The hypothesis is that the flies are attracted to the sugar, then fall into the jar and drown. But I guess the flies here laugh in the face of such low-tech devices, instead preferring to walk down the sides of the jar, sip the nectar and fly out. Two fell in, though. Bottom line: Doesn't really work.

- Dish soap trap. Instead of sugar, pour an inch of liquid dish soap directly into the jar, then add another inch of water. This worked nicely to trap flies. However, not all liquid dish soap fared well. A floral scent didn't attract flies to the trap, but a green apple scent beckoned the flies to their doom. Definitely go for a fruit scent. Bottom line: This works. Be sure to use a fruit-scented dish soap.

A Southern Californian woman is accused of cutting off the penis of her estranged husband. She was arrested late last night after investigators responded to a 911 call and is now in custody at the Orange County Jail.
Catherine Kieu Becker of Garden Grove reportedly prepared dinner for her husband and put a poisonous substance or drug in his food to make him drowsy, reports KTLA. While the man was sleeping, Becker allegedly tied him to the bed. When he awakened, Becker cut his penis off with a knife and threw it into the garbage disposal, turning it on as she did so.
Lt. Jeff. Nightengale told NBC LA that Becker called 911 at around 10 p.m. requesting emergency assistance. Nightengale said that Becker "told responding officers that he 'deserved it.'" Nightengale also revealed that the married couple was going through a divorce.
Nightengale spoke with the HuffPost and confirms that the victim has been upgraded to stable or good condition and is being treated at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. Nightengale also says that pieces of the severed member were recovered from the crime scene and transported to the hospital with the victim last night, but he has no details on how the surgery went. Police hope to interview the victim either today or tomorrow.
Becker has been charged with "aggravated mayhem, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, administering a drug with intent to commit a felony, poisoning and spousal abuse," according to the Associated Press. The most serious of these charges is "aggravated mayhem," which carries a life sentence with possibility of parole (as opposed to just "mayhem," which has a sentence of 3-5 years).
Of the aggravated mayhem charge, Nightengale says, "It's so heinous -- we're looking at this as premeditated. Her intention was to permanently deprive him of a piece of his body and do it in such a way to inflict a great amount of pain and psychological damage." He also adds, "I've been doing this for 22 years and the only other time I remember this happening was when Lorena Bobbitt did it, and that didn't even happen here. This isn't a typical domestic violence case -- it was way over the top."
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The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on Thursday announced the nominees for the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards. At first glance, the list seems to stock largely the same series as last year, but there are some significant newcomers.
In the Best Series, Drama category, HBO newcomers "Game of Thrones" and "Boardwalk Empire" enter the running as strong contenders. On the comedy side, fan and critical favorite "Parks and Recreation" has joined the fray, alongside fellow NBC shows "The Office" and "30 Rock."
Newcomers to the Outstanding Actress in a Comedy are "Mike & Molly" star Melissa McCarthy, who helped present the nominations and Laura Linney of Showtime's "The Big C."
In the actor categories, Jon Hamm looks to win his first Outstanding Actor in a Drama, and is buoyed by the fact that three-time winner Bryan Cranston, of "Breaking Bad," was not nominated thanks to his show's timing. Louis CK, of the eponymous comedy, "Louie," got a nod in the Outstanding Actor in a Comedy category.
Something to note: "Conan" was nominated for an Emmy, but Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show" was not.
Justin Timberlake and Zach Galifianakis landed nominations for their hosting jobs of "Saturday Night Live," while three "Glee" guest stars -- Gwyneth Paltrow, Kristen Chenowith and Dot Marie Jones -- got nods.

Three years ago, I was fat. I really was. I was a roly-poly great big lump of lard. I weighed 14st 4lb, far too much for my 5ft 8in frame. I’d go into High Street stores and despair that no clothes fitted me.
I’d stand in front of the mirror and stare in horror at my increasing curves. I didn’t just look fat — I looked as if I was about to give birth. It was so bad that people got up for me on trains.
A woman in a restaurant even came up and congratulated me on my pregnancy. ‘Not long now,’ she said encouragingly. I sat there, burning with shame and close to tears.
That’s what really did it. I decided then and there that I couldn’t bear being fat any more.
Like former Birds Of A Feather star Pauline Quirke, who this week revealed her new svelte figure after losing more than six stone, I decided there was only one thing for it. The excess baggage had to go.
Quirke lost her weight on the LighterLife diet — a drastic regime that requires women to eat no more than 500 calories a day. I lost four stone with WeightWatchers, which offers a less drastic approach. But we both achieved the same result, losing 30 per cent of our total body weight.
I am now — after three years of dieting and being extremely careful about what I eat — a healthy and light 10st 3lb. Every time I climb on the scales, I want to do a dance of pure joy. For the first time in 15 years, I’m slim. In fact, I’m actually lighter than I was in my early 20s.
Yet proud as I am, something crucial and unexpected has changed. It’s not only my body shape that has been transformed, but my personality, too.
It’s as if I have morphed into a different person on the inside, as well as outside.
From being a laid-back type, happy to eat, drink, be merry and have endless parties, I’ve become a rampant control freak.
Instead of cooking or spending time with my husband, I’m either doing stomach crunches in the sitting room or talking about how guilty I feel that I’ve eaten too much. I am, in short, a bore. I have that nervous energy I always used to associate with thin people.

Well, you can't say he didn't warn you.

In June, Ryan Murphy told Ryan Seacrest that the "Glee" stars entering their senior year at McKinley High would graduate from the show at the end season, instantly stirring massive buzz given that three of the show's biggest names -- Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith -- would be upperclassmen this coming year.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Murphy made clear that there would be no prep years or college plot lines.

Those stars -- Michele, Colfer and Monteith -- are "not going to be back at all for Season 4," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic, or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year."

Those comments closely matched what he told Seacrest, when he said, "The thing that I wanted to do and the cast wanted to do, we didn't want to have a show where they were in high school for 8 years. We really wanted it to be true to that experience. We thought it would be really cool if we were true to the timeline."

Murphy has aimed to add new stars to the show each year, with the second season bringing aboard breakout stars Darren Criss and Chord Overstreet, among others. Fans erupted in anger when they found out that, while Criss was made a series regular for the third season, Overstreet would apparently not be included in the show very much going forward. Soon after, a seeming reversal of the decision was announced, with Overstreet publicly extended the opportunity to continue on as a guest, with a series regular position possibly being attained as early as midseason.

Murphy is also adding cast members through the summer reality show, "The Glee Project."

Using microwaves to kill malaria parasites and developing a way to give fetuses immunity to HIV are among the dozen ideas the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation thinks are worth more research dollars, after giving more than 500 scientists seed money to take an initial look at some far-out concepts.

A dozen scientists or teams of researchers will each get an additional $1 million over five years to take their ideas to the next level and see if they have the potential to save lives, the foundation announced Wednesday.

The foundation initially chose more than 500 scientific ideas out of nearly 20,000 proposals for its Grand Challenges Explorations grants, worth $100,000 each, saying it would be taking a calculated risk by giving money for whatever wacky idea the world's best minds come up with to combat malaria, HIV and other world health problems.

The ideas remain highly speculative into the $1 million stage.

"They run against conventional wisdom," said Chris Wilson, director of the foundation's Global Health Discovery program. "Of course, more often than not, conventional wisdom is right."

As an example, he points to the idea of using microwaves to kill malaria parasites, from within their hosts – mice for the experiment, but humans eventually.

"That's probably not going to work," Wilson said. "But if it did work, it would be pretty stunning."

The scientist, Jose Stoute, a medical researcher who specializes in infectious diseases at Penn State University, might not appreciate that less-then-enthusiastic endorsement, but Wilson says the same thing about nearly all these grants.

"Science is a place where lots of things don't work," he said, adding that the foundation remains optimistic about these grants. "I think we're cautiously optimistic that somewhere along this path, some of these might happen," he said.

To graduate to a million dollar grant, the scientists have to prove their initial idea has merit as a potential way to save lives and that it is practical and potentially scalable and affordable, Wilson said.

Stoute said he and his co-collaborator, Carmenza Spadafora at Panama's Institute of Advanced Scientific Investigations and High Technology Services, got the idea for the project from an innovative cancer treatment involving microwaves that uses iron to tag cancer cells.

Since the malaria parasite naturally collects iron as a byproduct of its actions within the human body, they thought malaria might be another good target for microwave treatment. Stoute is working with microwave engineers to design a machine to deliver the treatment in the lab.

Collaboration among different kinds of scientists is an attribute of many of the Grand Challenges projects.

Mike McCune, professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, said working in multidisciplinary teams has helped a number of researchers from his university get a Gates grant.

His project, to fight HIV infection while a fetus is in the uterus, takes a number of known scientific principals and combines them in a new way.