Scientists in the world of spider studies have found a rare species of ugly eight-legged creatures and donned it with the name Heteropoda davidbowie. The spider is known for it’s large size and yellow hair, and is only found in parts of Malaysia.

Peter Jäger, the German scientist responsible for naming the spider, bestowed the honor upon David Bowie because of his 1972 album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The scientist has also said that naming species after celebrities can add more PR to the plight of the creatures and help shed some more light on their conservation practices.

The davidbowie spiders are suspected to be less than 500 strong as a species as their wooded habitats on the Indian island of Rameshwaram is clearcutted to make room for new hotels and vacation resorts.

The bassist behind one of the most popular rock bands of all time is prepping for a new solo release with some big name guests. Timothy B. Schmit’s new album, “Expando”, will hit record stores on October 20th with 11 new tracks. Each of which seems to be stacked with a big name guest artist including Kid Rock, Graham Nash, Kenny Wayne Shepard, country star Dwight Yoakam, and blues sensation Keb’ Mo’.

According to Billboard:

Schmit adds that he had little trouble lining up guests to be part of “Expando.” “It’s pretty great because I didn’t even go through management to get most of these guys,” he says. “I would call these people myself and just set it all up. Everybody came to my house, my studio, and it was really, really great. I thought, ‘Why not just try asking some of these people that I really admire? What’s the worst that could happen — they might say ‘no,’ and some (others) did, but the people I mentioned were all sitting here in my studio and had a lot of fun.”

Of course, don’t expect to see any Eagles bandmates on the bill. Schmit has decided to use “Expando” as a means to put some ‘distance between them’ this time around.

If you haven’t heard yet, apparently “the drama” was on high at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. After winning the award for Best Female Video, 19 year-old country singer Taylor Swift had the microphone stolen from her by rapper and Chicago-native Kanye West who came on stage to proclaim to the crowd how Beyonce should have won.

Kanye has since gone on to apologize on Jay Leno’s debut show last night and the country has backed up Swift on every appearance she’s had since the Sunday night award shows.  Swift has even said she would agree to meet with Kanye so he could apologize for his rude act in person, but he hasn’t reached out as of yet.

Which begs the question, why should anyone care about this?

While you can still catch the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry before it closes on September 27th, there are talks of bigger Potter-related experiences on the horizon.

Universal’s Orlando Park announced recently the opening of the Wizzarding World of Harry Potter, a special area of the current theme park dedicated to the boy wizard and his adventures. The area will consist of three rollercoasters, games, and shops all set in a town decorated to look like Hogwarts and other scenes from the books & movies.

Author J.K. Rowling has been an integral part of the design team and helped Universal to create the most authentic experience possible. Look for theWizzarding World to open in Spring of 2010.

[CBS News] We usually associate college students with books, classes, and a few cases of cheap beer. Apparently, we can add “ninja” to that list.

A student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore discovered an intruder in his off-campus house. After asking the man to leave, the intruder accosted him and the student did what he had to in order to defend himself. Which in this case, was chop off his hand with a samurai sword.

I have never known Baltimore to be a hotbed for vigilante justice where burglars have their hands removed, but apparently there’s more to the city than meets the eye.

The students had previously had two laptops and a Sony PlayStation stolen from their home the night before. No names have been released.

Former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor is planning on suing his former band over unpaid royalties. The group stopped paying Taylor in 1982, when “they’d signed to a different record company and had new contracts and were advised they didn’t need to pay me anymore,” Taylor told the U.K.’s Daily Mail. Taylor, who left the group in 1974, explained to the newspaper the that songwriting credit was one of the reasons he left the band in the first place.

(Photo by Getty Images)

Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers’ hearts with “Dirty Dancing” and then broke them with “Ghost,” died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57. Look through recent photos of Swayze in remembrance.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf.

No other details were given.Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.

He had kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting “The Beast,” an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot. It drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran on the cable television station in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.
Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making “The Beast” because they would have taken the edge off his performance. He acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was “considerably more optimistic” than that.

“I’d say five years is pretty wishful thinking,” Swayze told ABC’s Barbara Walters in early 2009. “Two years seems likely if you’re going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I’d better get a fire under it.”

Source: AP