MIT sues architect
People
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is suing architect Frank Gehry, alleging serious design flaws in the Stata Center, a building celebrated for its unconventional walls and radical angles. School officials say the center, completed in spring 2004, has persistent leaks, drainage problems and mold growing on its brick exterior. The suit says MIT paid Gehry Partners $15 million to design the Stata Center, which cost $300 million to build. The suit - which also names Beacon Skanska Construction, now known as Skanska USA Building - was filed Oct. 31 in Boston and seeks unspecified damages. Gehry Partners did not respond to calls. An executive at Skanska’s Boston office said Gehry ignored that there were flaws in the design. Gehry’s work includes the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Seattle’s Experience Music Project.
Crowe to be baptized
Australian actor Russell Crowe, 43, is planning to be baptized. The Oscar-winning actor with the bad-boy image told Men’s Journal that he planned to be baptized in a Byzantine chapel he had built on his country property in Australia for his wedding to Australian singer/actress Danielle Spencer in 2003. He said his sons, Charlie, 3, and Tennyson, 1, were baptized there. “I started thinking recently, if I believe it is important to baptize my kids why not me?” he says in the magazine’s December issue. “I’d like to do it this year.”
No charges for Combs
Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, 38, won’t face criminal charges for reportedly punching a man after a dispute over a woman at a New York nightspot last month, prosecutors said Tuesday. The accuser stopped cooperating with law enforcement and gave different versions of the incident, a Manhattan District Attorney’s Office official said, and prosecutors weren’t able to prove criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
Medical files
Surgery on 8-limbed girl
A 2-year-old girl born in India with four arms and four legs was undergoing surgery Tuesday to leave her with a normal body. The girl named Lakshmi is joined to a “parasitic twin” that stopped developing in the mother’s womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus. A team of 30 doctors was removing the extra limbs and organs, led by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Sharan Patil in Bangalore, India.
It’s a record
He’s not rattled
Jackie Bibby, “The Texas Snake Man,” broke his world record Monday by sitting in a see-through bathtub in Dublin, Texas, for 45 minutes with 87 rattlesnakes. The feat was timed to qualify for Guinness World Records Day, which is Thursday. Bibby’s previous mark was 75 rattlers. The snakes, which were not defanged and still contained their venom, slithered about freely but none struck. “They can go wherever they want as long as they don’t start biting,” said Bibby, who sat in the dry tub with a pillow behind him, wearing regular clothing for the feat. A Guinness official certified the record. Dublin is about 120 miles southwest of Dallas.
Critters
Pig shaping up
Alaina Templeton, 5, the pet mixed-breed pig whose weight tripled while she was in the care of a pig sitter, has been placed on a diet and an animal-cruelty charge has been filed against the caretaker, Mary Beesecker, 52, of Houston, Minn. Alaina, part potbellied pig, has lost 10 percent of her 150 pounds and is recovering from surgery to remove a collar that had become embedded in her overly fat neck, owner Michelle Schmitz said. Alaina made headlines after Schmitz complained the pet sitter had allowed Alaina to go from her normal 50 pounds to 150 pounds in nine months. Schmitz had left Alaina with Beesecker, a co-worker, while she was on medical leave to recover from ankle surgery. Beesecker did not respond to calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Passages
George Osmond, 90, father of Donny and Marie Osmond and patriarch to the family’s singing group The Osmond Brothers, died Tuesday at his home in Provo, Utah. Mr. Osmond and his wife, Olive, who died in 2004, had nine children, most of whom became performers.
Today in History
1874: The Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly.
1916: Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.
1940: The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed “Galloping Gertie,” collapsed during a windstorm.
1967: Carl Stokes was elected the first black mayor of a major city - Cleveland, Ohio.
1973: Congress overrode President Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive’s power to wage war without congressional approval.
Today’s Birthdays
Evangelist Billy Graham, 89. Singer Johnny Rivers, 65. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, 64. Actress Julie Pinson, 40. Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes, 35. Actors Jason and Jeremy London, 35. Actress Yunjin Kim (”Lost”), 34.
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