Ryan Seacrest Exclusive Interview with Simon Cowell

In an exclusive interview before his last night on “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest talks to judge Simon Cowell about his time on the show, how it has impacted his life and his plans for the future.

American Idol Said Good-bye to Simon Cowell

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Paula Abdul sat on his lap, and his best insults were turned into a song as a softer Simon Cowell took center stage on Wednesday in his last appearance as a judge on “American Idol”.

The British music executive may have become a household name in the United States by trashing wannabe singers, but his send-off on Wednesday was a love fest.

The season finale was scattered with video clips of memorable Cowell faces, humorous tributes from fellow judges and a song that strung his most famous one-liners together.

Ex-judge Abdul teased Cowell about his haircut and recalled a love-hate relationship on screen that she said made them “America’s most dysfunctional family” before she quit the show last year.

“My darling Simon, I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years, hot cheerleaders, big movie stars, world famous recording artists, even a cartoon cat. But if I’m being truly honest, none of them holds a candle to you, my friend,” Abdul said in a surprise live appearance.

She then perched on his lap on the judges’ podium as seven former “Idol” champions and more than 15 past contestants serenaded him.

Cowell, dragged on stage shortly before the actual 2010 “American Idol” was announced, admitted to feeling emotional.

“When everyone asks who’s going to replace me, who’s going to be the next judge, the truth is, you guys are the judge of this show,” Cowell said, indicating the viewers and voters.

“And you’ve done an incredible job over the years,” he added.

Cowell is leaving “Idol” to bring a version of his British talent show “The X Factor” to the United States next year, leaving producers to find a replacement for him on the top-rated Fox singing show.

“I think they need Darth Vader to take his place or possibly Hannibal Lecter,” rock singer Alice Cooper told reporters before performing on Wednesday, referring to some of the movie world’s most famous villains.

10 Coolest Pac-Man Cakes

In case, you have missed Google’s logo Pac-Man 30th birthday, here are photos of some of the coolest cakes (and cookies, and cupcakes) that people have baked over the years to celebrate others’ special days.

1. Classic Pac-Man

Like the game, this cake is comfortingly straightforward. Get similar cakes: Chocolate Lover’s cake

2. Nontraditional
This wildly elaborate version was cooked up for Omar Kooheji, a sofware developer who wrote about the creation on his blog OHMZ. Judging from the vast amount of chips and soda, this was a gamer’s dream birthday.

3. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man
Behind every yellow orb thing there’s a strong yellow orb thing lady, and the members of SC3 (Southern California Classic Collectors) didn’t forget that when they whipped up these pair of Pac-Man and Ms.Pac-Man cakes for their October 2006 meeting.

4. Solo Ms. Pac-Man
A bakery called SophistiCakes in Raleigh, N.C.. took it one step farther and created a giant homage to Pac-Man’s better half.

5.The Game Cabinet
This brave baker went the nontraditional route, building up instead of out, which always presents the hazard of a cake collapse. On her blog, Glitter Pissing, the baker, Rakka, shared her feelings about the results: “I”m not too happy with either of those. Oh, well. Too late to do anything about it now.” We think she’s being too hard on herself. There is a tiny coin slot in the front, for Namco’s sake!

6. The Impromptu Pac-Man Cake
How many times have you cut a slice out of something and said, “That looks like Pac-Man?” At least three or four times, right?

7. The ’80s Homage
The only thing that could make this cake, created by Rachel Martin of Customized Cakes, more ’80s would be if John Cusack burst out of it.

8. Cookies
You, too, can bake these adorable Pac-Man and ghost cookies using the tutorial posted by Jocelyn at Snack or Die. It’s quite possibly the most ingenious use of a tulip cookie cutter we’ve ever seen (assuming that one has ever had cause to use a tulip cookie cutter ingeniously before).

9. Cupcakes
With round little yellow dude, rotund ghosts, cherries, and circular food pellets, Pac-Man is basically begging to be reinterpreted in cupcake form. These professionally executed versions come from Montreal’s Clever Cupcakes.

10. Just the Ghost, and Nothing But the Ghost, Ma’am.
The total lack of background story supplied with early video games somehow made the conflicts more eerie. Who were the ghosts and where did they come from? And what did they have against Pac-Man? At any rate, we love the spookiness that emanates from this cake’s glowing tea candle eyes.

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How A Heroic Skydiver Saves Woman’s Life After Parachute Failure

This is a very cool news. Imagine you’re skydiving and your parachute fails, there’s always a backup for sure. What happens if the backup fails, too? At that time, you will pray that you are jumping with a hero like Dave Hartsock, who risked his own life to save someone else’s.

Dave Hartsock was the instructor paired with Shirley Dygert for her first ever skydive—a challenge she undertook to celebrate her 54th birthday. Unfortunately, the jump turned out to be a nightmare when their first parachute failed to fully deploy and the backup chute got tangled up along with it.

As they were plummeting toward the Earth at 40mph, Hartsock pulled the chutes’ control handles to position himself underneath Dygert, hoping to break her fall when they hit the ground. His plan worked: Dygert walked away with only minor injuries, though Hartsock himself was left paralyzed. He’s slowly regaining some feeling, but even in recovery he remains humble about his actions:

People keep telling me that it was a heroic thing to do…In my opinion it was just the right thing to do. I mean, I was the one who was completely responsible for her safety. What other choices were there?

If you are Dave Hartsock, what will you do? Watch the video and decide…

Will You Pay US$910 For This Bunch of Grapes?

TOKYO – A new variety of premium grapes debuted in Japan on Monday, with a single bunch fetching as much as 100,000 yen ($910).

A Japanese hotel manager paid that amount, or about 2,860 yen ($26) per grape, for a 1 1/2 pound (700-gram) bunch of the Ruby Roman grapes to serve guests at an upscale hotel, officials said.

“We believe the price was probably a record high,” said local agricultural official Hirofumi Isu. “They’re delicious — sweet but fresh at the same time, very well balanced.”
The tomato-colored grapes made their debut at an auction in Japan’s northwestern Ishikawa prefecture, where they have been under development since 1994 in a state-led project.

The bunch that fetched the top price had about 35 grapes, each slightly smaller than a pingpong ball, Isu said.

The average price for the Ruby Roman grapes at Monday’s auction was about 27,000 yen ($245) a bunch.

Isu said local farmers hope to sell 1,500 bunches, or 1 ton, of the grapes by mid-September.
Fruit is generally expensive in Japan, and people often buy grapes, peaches and melons as luxury gifts. Japanese are often willing to pay top prices for high-end fruits, especially for the prestige of owning the very first ones of the year.

Will you pay this kind of crazy price for grapes?