Amber

Amber, a soft-spoken, feminine 12-year-old who loves Hello Kitty and fashion design, lives with a secret. It is a secret most sixth-graders can't fathom, one she hides behind pink skirts and makeup. It is a secret that led to all her baby pictures being tucked away as though her childhood had never happened. Amber was born a boy. When she was 10, she stopped going by her given name, Aaron, and began dressing as a girl. Last year, she started taking medication to keep her from going through puberty.

SEATTLE - This ended as it always seems to end, with UCLA watching Stanford players celebrate. That rite of March continued Sunday, with the fourth-ranked Cardinal rallying behind guard Amber Orrange to pull out a 51-49 victory in the Pac-12 women's tournament championship game at KeyArena. Stanford cut down the nets. UCLA wondered what might have been. "This hurts right now," Bruins Coach Cori Close said. "My heart hurts for our seniors. I felt they gave so much of themselves out there today.

Re "Do Amber Alerts Put Drivers in Jeopardy?" Oct. 15: Would it be right to discontinue the Amber alert system because it causes occasional congestion on the freeways? Let's think about that. Would it be right to discontinue stringent checks of airport passengers because of the inconvenience? Abolish background checks on gun purchases so people can purchase guns without waiting? Repeal seat-belt laws because those things are awfully restrictive? The answer is, of course, no. Amber alerts may cause minor congestion, but it's a small price to pay to keep children safe.

Amber Rose has posted the first picture of her new baby with Wiz Khalifa - sort of. The shot shows Khalifa cradling baby Sebastian - nickname "Bash" - but unfortunately doesn't reveal the wee one's face. Still, Daddy's caring demeanor is enough to elicit an "awww. " "Best daddy ever.... Up with the baby so Muva can go back to sleep," Rose said in the wee hours of the night on Instagram . She followed up later with a Twitter message to fans. "I wanna thank my Rosebuds & Rosestuds 4 holdin it down during my pregnancy Sebastian has so many bros & sisters in u guys I luv u all -Muva.

Studying amber obtained from Cretaceous-era deposits, an international team of paleontologists have discovered the oldest known insects engaged in pollination. The 105-million to 110-million-year-old thrips they found are coated in pollen grains that were presumably used to feed the insects' offspring. Thysanopterans, commonly called thrips, are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings -- hence the name, from the Greek thysanos (fringed) and pteron (wing). Thrips are generally considered pests because they eat plant tissues, but some are efficient pollinators for several species of flowering plants.

Trapped in a golden prism, the two fleas died a Midas-like death. If the prism is real amber, they are at least 5 million years old, for that is the minimum age it takes to form amber. If it's a fake, they may be younger than the reader. Amber and diamonds share the distinction of being the only gems with an organic base. Amber is the product of resin from ancient trees that has been washed, over the eons, by salt water.

It was a dark night in a pine forest, the Baltic Sea a faint murmur on a gravel beach a quarter-mile away. Three men--amber hunters--were out checking on their digs in the woods. Leszek, Krzysiek and Andrzej, young advocates of unbridled private enterprise, were moving with a certain stealth. It was vault-dark, and they carried no flashlights, but the way was familiar. They were on the lookout for police.

It is one of the most enduring mysteries of World War II: Where is the magnificent Amber Room that once graced the palace of Catherine the Great? For more than 50 years, treasure hunters have searched Europe in vain for the priceless amber mosaics carted off by Nazi soldiers during the war. Russians have long mourned the loss of the jeweled chamber and have worked for 18 years to re-create what they regard as the "Eighth Wonder of the World."

All that glitters is not gold, but that may come as news to the Russian federal government. In an attempt to cut down on theft of the sparkling nuggets of amber that stud the Baltic Sea cliffs of the Kaliningrad, politicians here and in Moscow have had the resource reclassified from a mineral to a precious gem. A law passed by Parliament this summer would deed control over all amber activities to the powerful Russian Committee for Precious Metals and Stones.

Party professionals like to plan events for those with big budgets, but they have some budget-wise advice for the rest of us as well: Music "Making your own music is as simple as putting together a great playlist on an iPod, and getting the right genre to play," said Yifat Oren of Yifat Oren & Associates. What's the age group? Is it mixed? If so, be sure to have something for all ages. People like to hear things they know." With an iPod, plus a DJ software program, Mark Yumkas of Angel City Designs said anyone can have a dance party.

Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose are proud parents of a new baby boy, born Thursday afternoon. "Happy Birthday Sebastian 'The Bash' Taylor Thomaz!!!," Khalifa posted on Twitter. "Everyone welcome this perfect young man into the world. " He'd prepped fans for the news by tweeting a picture of himself in surgical cap and mask a bit earlier in the day, along with the message, "Daddy time. " Dad's birth name is Cameron Thomaz. PHOTOS: The Hollywood baby boom The couple knew the sex of the baby back in September, when they announced the pregnancy on the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet, but had been keeping it a secret from the rest of the world until recently.

All things considered - micro-budget, unknown actors, no real special effects, the point of view of a single video camera - "Amber Alert" proves a resourceful little thriller. Director Kerry Bellessa, who also co-wrote with Joshua Oram, effectively pairs the "found footage" sub-genre with some "don't go in there" chills to create a film that feels both current and enjoyably retro. That said, "Amber Alert," in which "Harry and Sally"-esque pals Nate and Sam (Chris Hill, Summer Bellessa)

There are moments when a celebrity's celebrity friends can compromise privacy. Think Kelly Rowland letting slip that Beyonce and Jay-Z were expecting a baby girl, or Lance Bass confirming Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel's engagement by gabbing about wedding gifts.  But in the case of Amber Tamblyn and David Cross, the relatively low-flying actress and comedian, a famous friend underscored how awesome their recent wedding was and how...

Amber Tamblyn and David Cross are married - as are Jack Osbourne and Lisa Stelly. Actress Tamblyn, 29, and comedian-actor Cross, 48, were wed Saturday, according to Us Weekly . They'd been engaged for more than a year and were spotted out together as far back as 2008. Indie rockers Yo La Tengo played at the reception, according to guest Lance Bangs, a filmmaker, who posted a photo of the happy couple to his Instagram account. Osbourne and Stelly tied the knot on the big island in Hawaii on Saturday, Hello reported , just a day after denying rumors that the nuptials were looming.

What is it about a moon man that inspires fertility? For the second year in a row, a star couple has announced a pregnancy at the MTV Video Music Awards: This time it's Amber Rose and rapper Wiz Khalifa expecting. Beyoncé broke Twitter records for speed in sharing news of her bundle, now the well-dressed tot Blue Ivy Carter, when she showed off her baby bump at the 2011 show. “We do know the sex, but we're [keeping it private] for now,” Rose, rocking a healthy bump in an embroidered black dress, told People on Thursday.

Amber, a soft-spoken, feminine 12-year-old who loves Hello Kitty and fashion design, lives with a secret. It is a secret most sixth-graders can't fathom, one she hides behind pink skirts and makeup. It is a secret that led to all her baby pictures being tucked away as though her childhood had never happened. Amber was born a boy. When she was 10, she stopped going by her given name, Aaron, and began dressing as a girl. Last year, she started taking medication to keep her from going through puberty.

Anne Kalosh's excellent article "Testing the Waters of a New Era on a Voyage to the Baltic States" (March 28) opened up a floodgate of memories for me. She mentioned a number of her fellow voyagers, one of whom collected chess sets. Would that I could have tagged along to collect Baltic amber. I first fell in love with amber in 1934, when my mother and I sailed through much of the same waters traversed by the Kristina Regina. We, too, sailed into Stockholm, the island of Visby, Helsinki and St. Petersburg (then Leningrad)

When William Jefferson first saw his 15-year-old daughter Amber lying in a hospital bed with blood flowing from an inch-deep gash along the side of her face, he felt nauseated. A father's pain buckled his knees, and he stood over his youngest child hoping, praying, that his daughter would be whole again. "I cried," he said, "because she looked so pitiful, and there was nothing I could do. I just prayed to God."

Studying amber obtained from Cretaceous-era deposits, an international team of paleontologists have discovered the oldest known insects engaged in pollination. The 105-million to 110-million-year-old thrips they found are coated in pollen grains that were presumably used to feed the insects' offspring. Thysanopterans, commonly called thrips, are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings -- hence the name, from the Greek thysanos (fringed) and pteron (wing). Thrips are generally considered pests because they eat plant tissues, but some are efficient pollinators for several species of flowering plants.

Yes, Amber Riley fainted on the red carpet before a “Glee” event Tuesday night, but she bounced right back to participate in a panel discussion that night and on Wednesday hit Twitter to explain what happened - and to squash some rumors.   She got a little dizzy from all the photographers' flashes outside of the TV Academy of Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, she said, even though the chaos isn't exactly a new thing for her anymore. “Still a red carpet amateur I guess.