Hottest Babes Of French Open 2009

Sunday marks the beginning of the 2009 French Open tennis tournament – and you’re not going to want to miss it. Check full of more hotties than a Playboy pool party, the event is one of the world’s preeminent Grand Slam competitions. Maybe you know these girls and your ready to place your bet. But for those of you who don’t, we’ve put together all the hottest slammers competing in this year’s Roland-Garros. So strap on your sweat bands because this one’s a scorcher !

Elena Dementieva

WTA Ranking: 04

Age: 27

Nationality: Russia

If you like to mix money and women, place your bets on this ravishing Russian winning the whole damn thing. She earned her first international title at age 13; went pro in ‘98, top 100 in ‘99. In 2008, Elena won the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships (and $1.5 million), her first Tier II title since ‘06. Despite repeatedly making it to many final rounds in ‘08 and ‘09, we think she’s got another win up her sleeve, shorts–she’s got it hidden there, somewhere.

Jelena Jankovic

WTA Ranking: 05

Age: 24

Nationality: Serbia

Jelena Jankovic might be the most badass chick playing in the French Open, having been ranked No. 1 in 2008 for 17 weeks, before being taken out by Serena Williams. But despite that little “upset,” this grand-slammer wins matches, and that’s that. Oh yeah, and she looks ridiculously smokin’ in little shorts. Who would’ve guessed she’d win in that category, too

Ana Ivanovic

WTA Ranking: 08

Age: 21

Nationality: Serbia

She may be younger than you, but Ana Ivanovic has been making moves in the tennis world since the age of five. In addition to being the reigning 2008 French Open singles champion, this sexy Serb has topped numerous lad mag lists, most notably FHM. Let’s be honest, you’ve never even met a woman this good at anything, ever.

Anna Chakvetadze

WTA Ranking: 27

Age: 22

Nationality: Russia

A relative new-comer, Anna starts the US Open ranked at 11th in the world, with no World Championships under her waistband, yet. She peaked last year, landing the 5th in the world spot after the ‘07 US Open. And she reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and the French Open, also in 2007. It was a rough year for Anna in 2008, but she still sits as one of the best prospect players to hit the court.

Alona Bondarenko

WTA Ranking: 39

Age: 24

Nationality: Ukraine

Though Alona’s professional career began slowly in 2005, she comes into Wimbledon with a recent win in the ‘08 Australian Open doubles category…with her sister Kateryna, giving proof for the existence of God another solid argument.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

World Rank: 45

Age: 24

Nationality: United States

I’ll give you one guess what Bethanie Mattek-Sands is known for. Yep, it’s her boobs! (high five!) On top of having the tastiest ta-tas in tennis, Bethanie is also one of the sports craziest dressers. Oh yeah, and she’s won has won five ITF singles and three doubles titles, and plays for the New York Sportimes for World Team Tennis. Did we mention her boobs?

Maria Kirilenko

WTA Ranking: 47

Age: 23

Nationality: Russia

In 2002, Maria Kirilenko became one of the youngest winners of the Canadian Open and the US Open Juniors. She won the doubles title in Estoril om 2008, partnering Flavia Pennetta, and her fourth WTA title in Barcelona. Tell us she isn’t the next big thing.

Maria Sharapova

WTA Ranking: 65

Age: 21

Nationality: Russia

If you don’t know who Sharapova is then you need to flip through Sports Illustrated’s 2006 Swim Suit issue, now. As one of the best tennis players in the world, this 21-year-old hottie has won three of four Grand Slam titles and banked over $12 million in prize money in her young career. After 10 months on the DL, Sharapova is hungry for another Grand Slam title and as we’re sure you will agree, we’re happy to have her back.

Maret Ani

WTA Ranking: Unranked

Age: 27

Nationality: Estonia

This super-smokin’ 27-year-old Estonian first started playing tennis at the age of 14. Three years later, she moved to Italy after finding sponsorship, to begin her professional career. She’s was the top-ranked player in Estonia in 2006, before losing that spot to pro, Kaia Kanepi. But when you’re this fly, we don’t hold that kind of thing against you.

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World's First Lego Film Posters

Here's a gallery of famous film posters recreated using Lego bricks and minifigs.

Most of the posters in this gallery were made by Craig Lyons, a graphic designer from Bourne in Lincolnshire. He says: "I have always loved Lego and have a huge collection. I mainly collect the mini-figures, but have amassed 10,000's of pieces in my collection.

Craig's first poster was this one for Jaws - it's also his favourite. It's probably ours, too.

Creative lego art for Movie Harry Potter... Interesting !!

He says the hardest one to do was Reservoir Dogs: "as the figures had to be photographed separately, and all the shadows were tricky to do".

You can see more of Craig's Lego creations at his Flickr site

Craig is not alone in recreating movie posters in Lego. Here are a few more posted on Flickr. This Forrest Gump poster was created by Marcin ImpreSariO...

...who also made this one.

Creative lego art for Movie X-men Origins Wolverine ( New Released )

Creative lego art for The Legend movie named " Iam Lego ".

Creative lego art for Movie 300

I Will Be The First To Walk On Moon ! Guess Who ?

BRITAIN’S first official astronaut could soon fulfil his lifelong dream of walking on the moon.

In his only newspaper interview since being chosen for the European space programme, ex-Army major Tim Peake revealed a lunar walk is being discussed as a possible mission for him.

The last lunar landing was by Apollo 17 in 1972 — the year Tim was born and three years after Neil Armstrong’s famous first steps on the moon.

Now Tim, 37, faces nearly five years of intensive training before he’s ready for blast-off.

He told his favourite paper last night: “This is a childhood dream. I have always wanted to go into space and have always been interested in exploration and pushing boundaries.

“That passion is what pushed me into becoming a test pilot, and becoming an astronaut is one step further. What I’m most looking forward to is being chosen for a mission, and a lunar walk would be a dream come true.

“There are seven missions guaranteed between now and 2020 and at least one of those would be a lunar walk, so walking on the moon is a real possibility.

Confidence : “The International Space Station is going to be expanded, and the crew increased from three to six, so that is also a possibility.”

Tim, of Salisbury, Wilts, got his Army Air Corps wings in 1994, becoming a test pilot and helicopter reconnaissance pilot.

He added: “Over my career I’ve flown more than 30 different types of aircraft. I’ve had engines fail, rotor control problems and all sorts of emergencies, but this has given me the confidence to react calmly — which is useful in this career.”

Tim, who has a baby son with wife Rebecca, was one of 8,500 applicants for the space programme. Just six made it through after months of medicals, exams and tests.

ASTRONAUTS aboard the International Space Station yesterday toasted a scientific breakthrough . . . with drinking water produced from their recycled WEE.

A new system collects the crew’s urine from the toilet and moves it to a huge tank where it is boiled.

Water vapour is collected, mixed with SWEAT collected from condensation in the air, then filtered ready for drinking.

The three-man crew raised their drinking bags and congratulated Nasa engineers who worked on the money-saving system, which will help provide water for outposts on the moon and Mars. US astronaut Michael Barratt said: “The taste is great."

Psychiatric Kid - A Boy Drilled His Skull Saved By Doctor

He had the knowledge to recognise that the young boy was about to die from a blood clot on the brain.

But Dr Rob Carson knew he didn't have the right tools to deal with the emergency.

Unless you count that drill in the hospital maintenance cupboard, of course.

With Nicholas Rossi's life hanging in the balance, this was a time for desperate measures.

Recovering: Experts say Nicholas Rossi would have died, had Dr Rob Carson drilled through his skull with a drill from the hospital maintenance cupboard

And within minutes the doctor was using the handyman's De Walt cordless to bore into Nicholas's skull to relieve the pressure on his brain.

Last night experts agreed that the operation undoubtedly saved the child's life.

'There were only minutes to spare,' Dr Carson revealed, as he told of the drama yesterday. 

Relief: Nicholas with his parents Karen and Michael Rossi who can't praise Dr Carson enough for his quick-thinking actions

Nicholas had been brought to him after falling off his bike near home. 

The 12-year-old had knocked himself out briefly after hitting his head on a kerb but then began complaining of a headache.

His mother Karen, a trained nurse, drove him to the local hospital in the small Australian town of Maryborough, in Victoria, where Dr Carson was on duty.

Nicholas was kept under observation but after an hour he began to pass in and out of consciousness, and then went into spasms.

Dr Carson recognised this as a sign of internal bleeding in the skull, the result being pressure on the brain. 

It was the same fatal condition that claimed the life of actress Natasha Richardson after a skiing accident in March.

Because the small hospital was not equipped with neurological drills, Dr Carson needed to think on his feet. 

He raced to the maintenance room and found the drill which handymen usually used for drilling holes in wood.

Before he went further, he telephoned a leading neurosurgeon in Melbourne, Mr David Wallace, and asked for his assistance in talking him through the procedure, which he had never carried out before, even under hospital conditions. 

Nicholas's father Michael Rossi said: 'Dr Carson came over to us and said "I am going to have to drill into Nicholas to relieve the pressure on the brain. We've only got one shot at this and one shot only".

'Dr Carson told me all he can remember saying is: "Get the Black and Decker".

'He drilled into my son's head and we heard the suction.' 

Anaesthetist Dr David Tynan, who assisted Dr Carson, said the operation took just over a minute: 'It was pretty scary.

'You obviously worry, are you pushing hard enough or pushing too hard, but then when some blood came out after we'd gone through the skull, we realised we'd made the right decision.'

It was then decided Nicholas was stable enough to be sent by helicopter to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital. 

It was learned later that Nicholas had fractured his skull and torn a small artery between the bone and the brain just above his ear.

Dr Carson remained modest amid the praise from Nicholas's family. 

'You just do those things,' he said. 'It's not a personal achievement. It's just part of the job. I had a very good team of people helping me.'

When Creativity Goes With Anti-flu Mask

Everywhere you turn nowadays you’re bound to be flooded with news and updates surrounding the swine flu epidemic. 13above is not an exception but our news regarding the issue is much more colorful and is about the masks people wear to be protected.

 

Many of them have reacted to the threat with humour and creativity ! Check out more pics on Creative anti-flu masks after the jump.

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"INVISIBLE" Ancient Bugs Discovered By Hi-Tech X-Ray

This ancient fly, dubbed Trichomyia lengleti, is one of a handful of bugs added to a new online database of "digital fossils." 

Paleontologists from the European Synchrotron Research Facility in France used high-energy x-rays to peer inside 640 pieces of opaque, fossilized amber that date to the Cretaceous period, 145 to 65 million years ago.

The fossils were found in 2008 in from the Charentes region of southwestern France. Until recently, fossils inside opaque amber were invisible to paleontologists. But the new accelerator technology revealed unprecedented views of 350 previously invisible insects, animals, and plantswhich could previously only be studied from fossilized mud imprints.

Using x-rays for paleontology is a new and important technique for seeing inside fossils that you can't cut or break open, said researcher Paul Tafforeau.

"When we are dealing with fossils we have to study them, but we also have to preserve them."

You won't find this cockroach crawling around city apartments--It scurried across the earth around 60 million years ago.

But now x-ray radiation has revealed the prehistoric critter frozen inside a piece of opaque amber. 

The cockroach was added to a new online database of digital fossils, which have become a new area of study in archaeology and taxonomy.

A hundred-million-year-old spider (above) is seen buried inside a tomb of opaque amber.

The digital fossil--a combination of multiple x-rays--was recently added to a new online database compiled by French researchers.

A hundred-million-year-old millipede ancestor encased in amber (pictured) was recently imaged by researchers from the European Synchrotron Research Facility.

Using a high-resolution scan called microtomography, researchers pinpointed finely detailed body parts, such as bristles, tiny legs, and insect wings--and even the hairs on the one-millimeter-long millipede.

In just 48 hours of imaging with a particle accelerator, researchers found more than 350 previously invisible creepy crawlies from Cretaceous-period amber (above right). 

Cracks and imperfections often show up in x-rays of amber (above, top left), posing a challenge to paleontologists who want to see the amber's contents. 

But a research team at the European Synchrotron Research Facility found that soaking amber in water fills in cracks, allowing for much clearer views of the insects (top, bottom left).

This prehistoric wasp-like insect, called Hymenopteran falciformicidae, was recently revealed by new x-ray technology. 

European researchers are investigating innovative ways to visualize these digital fossils, such as 3D physical models and glass blocks with the a print of the specimen inside.

This hundred-million year old isopod crustacean--an aquatic relative of woodlice--was one of more than 350 insect fossils found hiding in chunks of amber.

The critter was added to the European Synchrotron Research Facility's new online database of "digital fossils," which is accessible to the public.

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Venomous Spider Spreading Breeds In Britain

A VENOMOUS spider is spreading across Britain due to climate change, experts warned yesterday.

The False Widow — cousin of the Black Widow — carries enough poison to kill a human.

It first arrived in Devon from the Canary Islands 140 years ago.

But it has now set up colonies in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire after a series of mild winters.

Gran Lyn Mitchell, 52, fell into a coma after being bitten as she slept at home in Egremont, Cumbria, in January.

Joanne West, 32, was temporarily paralysed by a False Widow on her bed three months later in Fareham, Hants.

The purple and black creature looks similar to a Black Widow, but has a smaller body — the size of a 1p piece.

Matt Shardlow, director of charity Buglife, said: “They may also have evolved to cope with the colder weather.”

Dad Bites Out Child's Eye ??!!

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD California boy may be permanently blinded after his father bit out one of his eyes and mutilated the other.

Police told The Bakersfield Californian Angel Vidal Mendoza, 34, appeared to be under the influence of the drug PCP when he attacked the boy on April 28.

They said Mr Mendoza later rolled his wheelchair outside and began hacking at his own legs with an axe.

Angelo Mendoza Junior told police, "My daddy ate my eyes"...

Doctors at Mercy Hospital said it is unclear whether Angelo will regain vision in his right eye.

The boy's mother wasn't home at the time..

Mr Mendoza is due in court on Thursday charged with mayhem, torture and child cruelty.

World's Largest Bikini Parade

Strip search ... Las Vegas has staged the world's largest bikini parade in a bid to revive the city's flagging visitor numbers.

Grin and bare it ... the publicity stunt saw around 300 bikini-clad women parade down The Strip.

Measure up ... women were asked to send in a photo along with their hip, waist and bust measurements, before participation could be approved.

Star assets ... the record attempt was hosted by Girl of the Playboy Mansion star Holly Madison.

More talent ... and the girls just kept on coming.

Show stopper ... the event also featured a catwalk show of bathing suits from the fifties to the present day.

Helping hand ... Guinness World Record adjudication executive Danny Girton Jr was on hand to make sure everything went smoothly.

Perk-up ... even the famous showgirls haven't been able to help the flagging city, which has failed to attract visitors due to the economic downturn.

Sign of the times ... the occasion marked the 50th anniversary of the building iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" neon sign.

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