Britney Spears – before and after computers got hold of her

Britney Refuses To Allow Her Image To Be Retouched – Much like my naked shoot in the Marie Claire, Britney has insisted that none of her shots for US-based fashion firm Candie’s should be digitally enhanced. But she agreed for re-touched versions to be released simultaneously – highlighting the pressure on women to look perfect. Thanks for that, Britney. [mirror]

47 Nations Commit Securing Nukes – This is quite important news as it has to do with us all exploding into a ball of fire one day – or not. President Obama persuaded 46 countries Tuesday to sign on to a plan to put the world’s nuclear material beyond the reach of terrorists within four years, but the commitments are voluntary, and experts said reaching the goal will be difficult. [washingtonpost]

Priest Calls For Pope’s Resignation – The phones are ringing off the hook at the parish of St. Michael’s Church, where the Rev. James Scahill called in a sermon last weekend for the pope to resign over the church’s sexual abuse scandal. Pope Benedict XVI has found himself tied to the crisis after news broke last month that 30 years ago, when he was an archbishop, he approved accommodations in his diocese for a priest accused of child sex abuse. [cnn]

Ferrari 599 GTO Configurator Launched – Ferrari has launched an online configurator for the 599 GTO, ahead of the car’s unveiling at the Beijing Motor Show. Ferrari has prepared a very comprehensive list of options. Take colors, for instance: the carmaker is offering no less than 26 colors, including metallic, non-metallic and 1950s-1960s colors. [luxuo]

Are You Born To Be A Billionaire? – If you’re too boring and short-sighted to play the various European and American lotteries online, then maybe you will get there another way? Carlos Slim Helu, the wealthiest human on the planet, is worth fifty billion dollars (by Forbes’ latest exhaustive count). Those kinds of numbers can’t help but make you think: What exactly does it take to amass that kind of wealth? More important, do you have it? [forbes]

99 iPad Apps, Reviewed – If you like the look of the iPad and you have your eye on one (Julia Raphaely) then I suggest you browse through this thorough list of iPad apps, which includes 20 iPad Productivity/Connectivity Apps, 8 iPad Lifestyle Apps, 6 iPad Social Networking Apps, 7 iPad News Apps, 7 iPad Music Apps, 6 iPad Book/Comic Book Apps, 9 iPad Entertainment Apps and 36 iPad Game Apps. Sick! [gizmodo]

Jim Carrey Insists It’s a Twitter ‘Breakthrough’ Not ‘Breakdown’ – Since announcing his break-up with girlfriend Jenny McCarthy on April 6, Carrey has turned up the strange. Knocking Tiger’s Wood’s wife Elin for Tiger’s infidelity was only the beginning — it turns out. But as Carrey himself explains on the site: “This is no breakdown! It’s a breakthrough! And if you’ll just loosen these straps, I’ll show you the difference!” [popeater]

Fascinating New Science Measures Relative Stupidity of People on Twitter – Thank you, Internet, for “Stupid Fight,” a highly precise tool of science that compares the relative excessive exclamation-mark usage and typos of any given groups of Twitterers to find out which is “more stupid.” “Many of these people follow celebrities and try to send them messages. But which celebrity’s fans are most stupid? It’s time to find out!” [vanityfair]

Excerpts From the Biography That Oprah Doesn’t Want You to Read – Celebrity profiler Kitty Kelley’s unauthorized Oprah biography was released today. But who has time to sit down and read a 544-page book? These guys spent the afternoon going through the exhaustive tell-all to bring you the juiciest bits. And yes, there are many mentions of the Learjets.. [gawker]

Croatian Teenager Wakes From Coma Speaking Fluent German – I know! The girl, from the southern town of Knin, had only just started studying German at school and had been reading German books and watching German TV to become better, but was by no means fluent, according to her parents. Since waking up from her 24 hourcoma however, she has been unable to speak Croatian, but is able to communicate perfectly in German. [telegraph]

Facebook Is Ruining Dating – Facebook can mess up your life in a whole bunch of ways. It can get you fired or evicted, plunge you into debt with its addictive games, and even (yeah, right) infect you with syphilis. We wouldn’t look at all of those as serious threats, but we all know from experience that one threat is real: Facebook makes dating far more complicated than it used to be. [mashable]

Steven Siegal Is Sued For Keeping Sex Slaves – No spice. 23-year-old Kayden Nguyen has filed suit against Steven Seagal for more than a million alleging the one-time action star sexually assaulted her and that “Mr. Seagal had been keeping two young female Russian ‘Attendants’ on staff who were available for his sexual needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” Officially, the charges are: illegal sex trafficking, retaliation, wrongful termination and false representations about employment. [theblemish]