Despite all negative publicity, India seem to have arranged a spectacular start to the Common Wealth Games 2010 at New Delhi with the great opening ceremony. Check the videos -

A dazzling, colourful, high-octane opening ceremony that was part Bollywood, part cultural extravaganza, did much to dispel the nightmares of the past fortnight, thrilling a sell-out crowd in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium as well as the athletes and officials from 71 Commonwealth nations.

It even managed to start on time, to the very second, proving there are some deadlines that Games organisers are capable of meeting.
 

But there was one person in the stadium who found it an uncomfortable night after being roundly booed as he rose to make the opening speech during the formal part of the proceedings.

“India is ready,” proclaimed the hapless chairman of the Games organising committee, Suresh Kalmadi, adding: “There have been many challenges but we have been able to rise above them all.”

The hostile reaction from spectators, prompting a quizzical look from the Prince of Wales, showed exactly what they thought of such crowing.

After revelations of “filthy” living conditions in the athletes’ village, incomplete venues and malfunctioning technology — all on Kalmadi’s watch - what should have been a showcase of India’s emerging economic power has turned into a PR catastrophe. And judging by Sunday, Indians know exactly who is to blame.

But the booing of Kalmadi proved a solitary discordant note on a spectacular night of dance, music and pyrotechnics, rounded off by a performance of the Slumdog Millionaire song 'Jai Ho’ by Oscar-winning singer-composer A.R Rahman, the so-called “Mozart of Madras”.

It was a truly lavish production that set a new benchmark for Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies just as Beijing took the Olympic curtain-raiser to new heights two years ago.

There is not a great deal that Sebastian Coe and his Olympic organising team can learn from Delhi’s preparations so far, other than how not to do it, but they would do well to match Sunday's show for sheer exuberance and excitement when it comes to London’s big night in two years’ time.Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Pictures -

Great job!

Despite all negative publicity, India seem to have arranged a spectacular start to the Common Wealth Games 2010 at New Delhi with the great opening ceremony. Check the videos -

A dazzling, colourful, high-octane opening ceremony that was part Bollywood, part cultural extravaganza, did much to dispel the nightmares of the past fortnight, thrilling a sell-out crowd in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium as well as the athletes and officials from 71 Commonwealth nations.

It even managed to start on time, to the very second, proving there are some deadlines that Games organisers are capable of meeting.
 

But there was one person in the stadium who found it an uncomfortable night after being roundly booed as he rose to make the opening speech during the formal part of the proceedings.

“India is ready,” proclaimed the hapless chairman of the Games organising committee, Suresh Kalmadi, adding: “There have been many challenges but we have been able to rise above them all.”

The hostile reaction from spectators, prompting a quizzical look from the Prince of Wales, showed exactly what they thought of such crowing.

After revelations of “filthy” living conditions in the athletes’ village, incomplete venues and malfunctioning technology — all on Kalmadi’s watch - what should have been a showcase of India’s emerging economic power has turned into a PR catastrophe. And judging by Sunday, Indians know exactly who is to blame.

But the booing of Kalmadi proved a solitary discordant note on a spectacular night of dance, music and pyrotechnics, rounded off by a performance of the Slumdog Millionaire song 'Jai Ho’ by Oscar-winning singer-composer A.R Rahman, the so-called “Mozart of Madras”.

It was a truly lavish production that set a new benchmark for Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies just as Beijing took the Olympic curtain-raiser to new heights two years ago.

There is not a great deal that Sebastian Coe and his Olympic organising team can learn from Delhi’s preparations so far, other than how not to do it, but they would do well to match Sunday's show for sheer exuberance and excitement when it comes to London’s big night in two years’ time.Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Pictures -

Great job!

Wheel chairs have been a boon for physically disabled people but they still have to control using their hands either with electronic/electric controls of just the wheels. What if you can control the wheel chair with your mind? Interestingly the technology is already here as the chair moves as the person riding it thinks - it goes left when you think left, right when you think right, forward when you think forward, etc.

The chair, built by a Japanese government-funded agency called Riken,  blows the doors off of previous records for how quickly the device responds to brain waves. The Riken chair responds in 125 milliseconds, far faster than the multiple seconds that had been the standard.

The technology behind controlling objects with our brains has come far, fast: In 2003, Duke researchers taught monkeys to control a robotic arm, in 2005, Brown University researchers taught four quadriplegics to move a cursor on a screen with their brain waves. The subjects in that experiment had 70 percent accuracy. By comparison, the Riken wheelchair has 95 percent accuracy.

Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

 

Major advantages of the new technology

• Commands for smooth left and right turns and forward motion of the wheelchair are processed every 125 milliseconds by analyzing brain waves using signal processing technology.
• Brain-wave analysis data are displayed on a screen in real time, giving neuro-feedback to the driver for efficient operation.
• This technology is expected to be useful in the field of rehabilitation, and for physical and psychological support of wheelchair drivers.

Source: www.riken.jp

Definitely a great invention - hopefully the wheel chairs will be made commercially viable soon! I should also add that this technology can change all our technologies like our cars, computers, etc.

The technology does remind me of Tan Le's talk at TED. Check it out -

Wheel chairs have been a boon for physically disabled people but they still have to control using their hands either with electronic/electric controls of just the wheels. What if you can control the wheel chair with your mind? Interestingly the technology is already here as the chair moves as the person riding it thinks - it goes left when you think left, right when you think right, forward when you think forward, etc.

The chair, built by a Japanese government-funded agency called Riken,  blows the doors off of previous records for how quickly the device responds to brain waves. The Riken chair responds in 125 milliseconds, far faster than the multiple seconds that had been the standard.

The technology behind controlling objects with our brains has come far, fast: In 2003, Duke researchers taught monkeys to control a robotic arm, in 2005, Brown University researchers taught four quadriplegics to move a cursor on a screen with their brain waves. The subjects in that experiment had 70 percent accuracy. By comparison, the Riken wheelchair has 95 percent accuracy.

Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

 

Major advantages of the new technology

• Commands for smooth left and right turns and forward motion of the wheelchair are processed every 125 milliseconds by analyzing brain waves using signal processing technology.
• Brain-wave analysis data are displayed on a screen in real time, giving neuro-feedback to the driver for efficient operation.
• This technology is expected to be useful in the field of rehabilitation, and for physical and psychological support of wheelchair drivers.

Source: www.riken.jp

Definitely a great invention - hopefully the wheel chairs will be made commercially viable soon! I should also add that this technology can change all our technologies like our cars, computers, etc.

The technology does remind me of Tan Le's talk at TED. Check it out -

Craig Grant didn't like cats but strange sequence of events made him to love them so much that he founded Caboodle Ranch, the city for cats where cats can freely roam around. Check the pictures (from here)

Check the videos (from here) -

Caboodle Ranch Story (from here) -

Caboodle Ranch was unintentionally founded in 2003, when a series of unfortunate events finally lead to its creation. The following is a true story that started with one man and one cat - who never really got along well with each other.
I was renting a two bedroom condo by the beach with my son. It had all the comforts and conveniences of home. Nice furniture, a short walk to the beach and close to work. Then my son moved out on his own for the first time. He left his cat, Pepper, with me because he couldn't take it with him. I didn't like cats but I agreed to keep him. I wasn't used to being alone and I guess Pepper wasn't either. We slowly began to get along. A couple months went by and I found out Pepper was pregnant. Oh great, now what? She had five kittens. I wanted to give them away because I didn't want my beautiful home destroyed, but my son told me they had to stay with their mother for 8 weeks. Over that time I learned that every cat had his own unique personality and it wasn't long before the kittens were swinging from my curtains. I didn't care. Something had changed... I didn't want to give them up.
But with six cats, complaints started from the condo owner and the neighbors. I knew I had to look for other places to go. They weren't safe in the neighborhood.
I found a B.B. lodged in the side of one of my cats and another was bitten by a pitbull that I know was set loose on purpose. Something had to be done.
I wasn't sure what to do at first, so I built a shed in my son's yard and lived in it for a while. Then I found an advertisement in the paper from a realtor offering five acre partials on a tree farm; owner financing, low money down and low monthly payments... the problem was that it was 100 miles west of Jacksonville.
I drove out to see it and I loved it. Over the next months I bought five more partials. I now have 25 acres.
I cleared a small area and bought an office trailer as a shelter for my cats. I put in a pet door and padded shelves for them. We moved out there in November of 2003, the day after Thanksgiving. By that time I had 11 cats. I had taken in abandoned and stray cats from the neighborhood and areas that I work as a contractor. I had 22 cats by the spring of 2004.
I moved the shed out to the property and made a little cabin out of it. I thought it would be for me, but many of my cats wanted to sleep next to me... so I moved back into the office trailer where we had more room.
I no longer have any of my old furniture; material items aren't important to me any more. My cats have made me happier than I've ever been. They truly are the best friends I've ever had.

Caboodle Ranch is now a permanent sanctuary for cats who have been kicked around by heartless people. There are many sad stories between all the cats I've taken in. Some almost starved to death, some of them wounded strays. I've seen many locked in cages for months in animal shelters and have taken in some of those too.
Cats should be able to roam free, and at Caboodle Ranch, that's what they do. We are in the middle of 100 acres of wildlife. The cats follow me through the nature trails that I put in and maintain, they climb in tree forts that I've built and hide in underground dens I've dug for them.

Ranch Address -

Caboodle Ranch / 711 SE Benchmark Drive/ Lee, FL 32059

There is a Facebook fan page too - click here.

Also, if you want to make donations to the great cause, click here.

Craig Grant didn't like cats but strange sequence of events made him to love them so much that he founded Caboodle Ranch, the city for cats where cats can freely roam around. Check the pictures (from here)

Check the videos (from here) -

Caboodle Ranch Story (from here) -

Caboodle Ranch was unintentionally founded in 2003, when a series of unfortunate events finally lead to its creation. The following is a true story that started with one man and one cat - who never really got along well with each other.
I was renting a two bedroom condo by the beach with my son. It had all the comforts and conveniences of home. Nice furniture, a short walk to the beach and close to work. Then my son moved out on his own for the first time. He left his cat, Pepper, with me because he couldn't take it with him. I didn't like cats but I agreed to keep him. I wasn't used to being alone and I guess Pepper wasn't either. We slowly began to get along. A couple months went by and I found out Pepper was pregnant. Oh great, now what? She had five kittens. I wanted to give them away because I didn't want my beautiful home destroyed, but my son told me they had to stay with their mother for 8 weeks. Over that time I learned that every cat had his own unique personality and it wasn't long before the kittens were swinging from my curtains. I didn't care. Something had changed... I didn't want to give them up.
But with six cats, complaints started from the condo owner and the neighbors. I knew I had to look for other places to go. They weren't safe in the neighborhood.
I found a B.B. lodged in the side of one of my cats and another was bitten by a pitbull that I know was set loose on purpose. Something had to be done.
I wasn't sure what to do at first, so I built a shed in my son's yard and lived in it for a while. Then I found an advertisement in the paper from a realtor offering five acre partials on a tree farm; owner financing, low money down and low monthly payments... the problem was that it was 100 miles west of Jacksonville.
I drove out to see it and I loved it. Over the next months I bought five more partials. I now have 25 acres.
I cleared a small area and bought an office trailer as a shelter for my cats. I put in a pet door and padded shelves for them. We moved out there in November of 2003, the day after Thanksgiving. By that time I had 11 cats. I had taken in abandoned and stray cats from the neighborhood and areas that I work as a contractor. I had 22 cats by the spring of 2004.
I moved the shed out to the property and made a little cabin out of it. I thought it would be for me, but many of my cats wanted to sleep next to me... so I moved back into the office trailer where we had more room.
I no longer have any of my old furniture; material items aren't important to me any more. My cats have made me happier than I've ever been. They truly are the best friends I've ever had.

Caboodle Ranch is now a permanent sanctuary for cats who have been kicked around by heartless people. There are many sad stories between all the cats I've taken in. Some almost starved to death, some of them wounded strays. I've seen many locked in cages for months in animal shelters and have taken in some of those too.
Cats should be able to roam free, and at Caboodle Ranch, that's what they do. We are in the middle of 100 acres of wildlife. The cats follow me through the nature trails that I put in and maintain, they climb in tree forts that I've built and hide in underground dens I've dug for them.

Ranch Address -

Caboodle Ranch / 711 SE Benchmark Drive/ Lee, FL 32059

There is a Facebook fan page too - click here.

Also, if you want to make donations to the great cause, click here.

Snails are such a French-associated speciality, and are often ordered from menus by tourists due to the novelty factor. The French eat them because they can be very tasty and satisfying, but where do they actually come from? Well, snails that are eaten in France are not all gathered from the wild, although a lot are...in Greece. Some are bred on one of France’s 200 snail farms.

Its fascinating to learn that snails are hermaphrodites- which means both male and female at the same time! However, they do need to mate - for around 12 hours! - in order to breed. Their sexual organs are where you might expect their ears to be, and 3 weeks after mating, they stick their head into a pot of earth, and spend a further 12 hours laying their 100 or so eggs. Another 3 weeks on and the eggs, rather than hatching, actually turn into snails. Finally, after a week, the babies are taken to the netted, domed pens, where they will live for around 4 months, until they are fully mature adults, ready to be eaten. Radishes are sown in the pens, and their leaves serve as both food and hiding places for the snails, and the whole ecosystem is sprayed with water to keep the humidity level where it sould be. The ‘breed’ of snail is the Gros Gris, which originates in North Africa. Their bodies are around 3 inches long. Their cousins, the Petit Gris or garden snail, are the wild, native snails which are gathered and eaten in France and Britain. The snails are killed by being plunged into boiling water. Next, each snail is individually gutted, before being washed is salt and vinegar, and boiled in stock for an hour and a half. Some snails go into the Fouquet’s pâtés, preserves, hors d’œuvres and tasty re-heatable dishes, while others are stuffed back into shells and covered with garlic and parsley butter, for baking in a hot oven until bubbling and browned.

If there had to be a new way to eat snails, the French had to find it. Its called - Snail Caviar. Each snail lays its eggs once a year, producing around 100 eggs on average. With this tiny, but precious amount, these eggs are hand picked every year and sort through them, retaining the best ones for  tins of caviar. The snail caviar is prepared in a brine of fleur de sel de Guérande, and is available to buy in tins of 50, 125, 250, 500 and 1000 grams. So what does it taste like? Well, according to those in the know, its reminiscent of ‘a walk in the forest after the rain, with the aroma of mushrooms and the undergrowth, tasting of hints of oak leaves and moss’.Being a food hipster is not cheap by any means--: 50 gram (1.8 oz) of snail caviar retails for $115.

Snails are such a French-associated speciality, and are often ordered from menus by tourists due to the novelty factor. The French eat them because they can be very tasty and satisfying, but where do they actually come from? Well, snails that are eaten in France are not all gathered from the wild, although a lot are...in Greece. Some are bred on one of France’s 200 snail farms.

Its fascinating to learn that snails are hermaphrodites- which means both male and female at the same time! However, they do need to mate - for around 12 hours! - in order to breed. Their sexual organs are where you might expect their ears to be, and 3 weeks after mating, they stick their head into a pot of earth, and spend a further 12 hours laying their 100 or so eggs. Another 3 weeks on and the eggs, rather than hatching, actually turn into snails. Finally, after a week, the babies are taken to the netted, domed pens, where they will live for around 4 months, until they are fully mature adults, ready to be eaten. Radishes are sown in the pens, and their leaves serve as both food and hiding places for the snails, and the whole ecosystem is sprayed with water to keep the humidity level where it sould be. The ‘breed’ of snail is the Gros Gris, which originates in North Africa. Their bodies are around 3 inches long. Their cousins, the Petit Gris or garden snail, are the wild, native snails which are gathered and eaten in France and Britain. The snails are killed by being plunged into boiling water. Next, each snail is individually gutted, before being washed is salt and vinegar, and boiled in stock for an hour and a half. Some snails go into the Fouquet’s pâtés, preserves, hors d’œuvres and tasty re-heatable dishes, while others are stuffed back into shells and covered with garlic and parsley butter, for baking in a hot oven until bubbling and browned.

If there had to be a new way to eat snails, the French had to find it. Its called - Snail Caviar. Each snail lays its eggs once a year, producing around 100 eggs on average. With this tiny, but precious amount, these eggs are hand picked every year and sort through them, retaining the best ones for  tins of caviar. The snail caviar is prepared in a brine of fleur de sel de Guérande, and is available to buy in tins of 50, 125, 250, 500 and 1000 grams. So what does it taste like? Well, according to those in the know, its reminiscent of ‘a walk in the forest after the rain, with the aroma of mushrooms and the undergrowth, tasting of hints of oak leaves and moss’.Being a food hipster is not cheap by any means--: 50 gram (1.8 oz) of snail caviar retails for $115.

We are all visually tempted (or even tortured) by the the pictures in different billboards on our drive on the highway but this is probably the first time when our olfactory system will be affected too!

On a North Carolina highway, drivers will not just see the picture of beef on a new billboard but also smell the aroma coming from the sign.

The billboard showing a fork piercing a piece of meat. on N.C. 150 in central North Carolina emits the smell of black pepper and charcoal to promote a new line of beef available at the Bloom grocery chain. Bloom is part of the Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion chain.

The scent, specially formulated by scent-air technologies, will be produced through June 18. It will be at its strongest from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and again from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

We are all visually tempted (or even tortured) by the the pictures in different billboards on our drive on the highway but this is probably the first time when our olfactory system will be affected too!

On a North Carolina highway, drivers will not just see the picture of beef on a new billboard but also smell the aroma coming from the sign.

The billboard showing a fork piercing a piece of meat. on N.C. 150 in central North Carolina emits the smell of black pepper and charcoal to promote a new line of beef available at the Bloom grocery chain. Bloom is part of the Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion chain.

The scent, specially formulated by scent-air technologies, will be produced through June 18. It will be at its strongest from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and again from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Six male volunteers are being locked up for nearly 18 months to see how a future mission to Mars could cope psychologically.

The men - an Italian, a Frenchman, three Russians and one Chinese man - are spending the next 520 days in isolation at a research centre in Moscow.

As in a real Mars mission, the crew will have to survive on limited food rations and the only way they will be able to communicate with the outside world will be by email, with a delay of up to 40 minutes.

The hatch will only re-open at the end of the experiment or if one of the participants is forced to pull out.

"It will be trying for all of us. We cannot see our family, we cannot see our friends, but I think it is all a glorious time in our lives," said Wang Yue, 27, ahead of the experiment.

The volunteers will have their days in the module at the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems divided into eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work and eight hours of leisure.

A team of three will spend one month aboard a special module meant to represent the Mars landing craft, while two will also spend time exploring a reconstruction of Mars itself.

The idea is to mimic exactly the timescale of a Mars mission - 250 days for the trip to Mars, 30 days on the surface and 240 days for the return journey, totalling 520 days.

The crew is single sex deliberately, to allow the volunteers to focus on their professional duties instead of having the distraction of female crew members.

"It is better for the crew to be same-sex," Russian space policy expert Yuri Karash said on Russian TV. "No-one has abolished the basic instinct yet."

Mars - the Red Planet - is between 34 million and 250 million miles away from earth, depending on the orbits of the planets.

The space agencies want to send a mission there within the next three decades.

(from Sky News)

Six male volunteers are being locked up for nearly 18 months to see how a future mission to Mars could cope psychologically.

The men - an Italian, a Frenchman, three Russians and one Chinese man - are spending the next 520 days in isolation at a research centre in Moscow.

As in a real Mars mission, the crew will have to survive on limited food rations and the only way they will be able to communicate with the outside world will be by email, with a delay of up to 40 minutes.

The hatch will only re-open at the end of the experiment or if one of the participants is forced to pull out.

"It will be trying for all of us. We cannot see our family, we cannot see our friends, but I think it is all a glorious time in our lives," said Wang Yue, 27, ahead of the experiment.

The volunteers will have their days in the module at the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems divided into eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work and eight hours of leisure.

A team of three will spend one month aboard a special module meant to represent the Mars landing craft, while two will also spend time exploring a reconstruction of Mars itself.

The idea is to mimic exactly the timescale of a Mars mission - 250 days for the trip to Mars, 30 days on the surface and 240 days for the return journey, totalling 520 days.

The crew is single sex deliberately, to allow the volunteers to focus on their professional duties instead of having the distraction of female crew members.

"It is better for the crew to be same-sex," Russian space policy expert Yuri Karash said on Russian TV. "No-one has abolished the basic instinct yet."

Mars - the Red Planet - is between 34 million and 250 million miles away from earth, depending on the orbits of the planets.

The space agencies want to send a mission there within the next three decades.

(from Sky News)

Sandra Ruiz gave birth to her son five months ago which made her touch the record weight of 385 pounds. She got tired of the weight so she decided to enroll in a gym and start losing it. She joined Mademoiselle Fitness Center in south Oklahoma City. All went well, but on one of her visits to the gym while she was working out on the stationary bike - a worker at the gym asked her to get off since she was too fat to use it!

"The lady said I couldn't get on the machines because we are overweight," Ruiz said. "Everybody was watching seeing what was going on, and I got very sad because I'm so emotional about my weight right now."

She said the gym told her she could instead use their aerobics room to walk in, but Ruiz said if she wanted to just walk she would do that outside for free.

Ruiz said that's what she is now doing and why she wants out of her contract and doesn't feel she should have to pay their cancellation fee.

"If ya'll didn't want big people to get on your machine, ya'll would have told us, and if we would have known, we wouldn't have come here," Ruiz said.

Source: www.newson6.com

The owner of the gym confirmed that some of the equipment at the gym come with a weight limit. They claim that she was given a workout program specifically for her including water aerobics but she decided to try out the bike instead!

Check the video.

At 385 pounds, I think it is important that she use her weight responsibly. What if she gets hurt on one of the machines due to it? A lot of equipment comes with the weight limit - I don't find anything wrong with the gym's reaction - do you?

Sandra Ruiz gave birth to her son five months ago which made her touch the record weight of 385 pounds. She got tired of the weight so she decided to enroll in a gym and start losing it. She joined Mademoiselle Fitness Center in south Oklahoma City. All went well, but on one of her visits to the gym while she was working out on the stationary bike - a worker at the gym asked her to get off since she was too fat to use it!

"The lady said I couldn't get on the machines because we are overweight," Ruiz said. "Everybody was watching seeing what was going on, and I got very sad because I'm so emotional about my weight right now."

She said the gym told her she could instead use their aerobics room to walk in, but Ruiz said if she wanted to just walk she would do that outside for free.

Ruiz said that's what she is now doing and why she wants out of her contract and doesn't feel she should have to pay their cancellation fee.

"If ya'll didn't want big people to get on your machine, ya'll would have told us, and if we would have known, we wouldn't have come here," Ruiz said.

Source: www.newson6.com

The owner of the gym confirmed that some of the equipment at the gym come with a weight limit. They claim that she was given a workout program specifically for her including water aerobics but she decided to try out the bike instead!

Check the video.

At 385 pounds, I think it is important that she use her weight responsibly. What if she gets hurt on one of the machines due to it? A lot of equipment comes with the weight limit - I don't find anything wrong with the gym's reaction - do you?

Check out the video of the world's stupidest burglars -

The first guy doesn't even care that his partner in crime as gone unconscious before he repeats the stunt!

I am sure, they would have been the easiest criminals to catch!

Not sure if the video is real or not, but it does make a good story!

Check out the video of the world's stupidest burglars -

The first guy doesn't even care that his partner in crime as gone unconscious before he repeats the stunt!

I am sure, they would have been the easiest criminals to catch!

Not sure if the video is real or not, but it does make a good story!

At 12 years of age, kids are supposed to play with a doll, not their baby. Four years ago, 12-year old Tressa Middleton,  shocked Britain by becoming its youngest mum. She candidly talked about having sex after getting drunk and excitement on becoming a mother. She became pregnant at the age of 11. Check the shocking pictures of 12-year old Tressa holding her baby -

Despite barely being out of primary school, Miss Middleton smoked up to 20 cigarettes a day, used cannabis and downed cocktails of Buckfast tonic wine and vodka.

Speaking under the cover of anonymity at the time, she disclosed that she had discovered the pregnancy weeks after having drunken sex in August 2005.

Drawing on a roll-up cigarette while heavily pregnant, she said: 'I slept with him because I was drunk and I wanted to. I don't regret it because if I didn't have sex with him I wouldn't  have my baby. I knew straight away that I couldn't have an abortion because that's something I don't believe in.'

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Tressa might have changed for now, but can we really trust her?

At 12 years of age, kids are supposed to play with a doll, not their baby. Four years ago, 12-year old Tressa Middleton,  shocked Britain by becoming its youngest mum. She candidly talked about having sex after getting drunk and excitement on becoming a mother. She became pregnant at the age of 11. Check the shocking pictures of 12-year old Tressa holding her baby -

Despite barely being out of primary school, Miss Middleton smoked up to 20 cigarettes a day, used cannabis and downed cocktails of Buckfast tonic wine and vodka.

Speaking under the cover of anonymity at the time, she disclosed that she had discovered the pregnancy weeks after having drunken sex in August 2005.

Drawing on a roll-up cigarette while heavily pregnant, she said: 'I slept with him because I was drunk and I wanted to. I don't regret it because if I didn't have sex with him I wouldn't  have my baby. I knew straight away that I couldn't have an abortion because that's something I don't believe in.'

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Tressa might have changed for now, but can we really trust her?

The first tropical storm of season, Agatha, killed at least 90 people in the Central America due to flash floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rains. Around 74,000 people had to flee from their homes as heavy rains hit Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

"As of the moment, we have reports of 73 people killed throughout the country, the majority from landslides," Guatemala's emergency management agency (Conred) chief David de Leon told AFP.

The Prensa Libre newspaper on its website gave an unofficial death toll of 80.

Source: www.google.com

Guatemala had been under a state of emergency since Saturday, while Honduras declared a nationwide state of emergency Sunday.

The worst storm-related disaster in Guatemala occurred in a village in Solola department where a landslide swept away 25 homes killing 15 people, with another 10 missing, according to San Antonio Palopo Mayor Andres Cumes.Source: www.google.com

Despite the weakening storm, El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes put his country under a state of emergency, due to high risk due to landslides.

Agatha represents the first tropical storm of the season starting with the letter "A" and with the agencies forecasting it to be a bad season for these storms, only time can tell the accuracy of the forecasts. Till then, let us hope that they are wrong and the season doesn't get bad for anyone!

The first tropical storm of season, Agatha, killed at least 90 people in the Central America due to flash floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rains. Around 74,000 people had to flee from their homes as heavy rains hit Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

"As of the moment, we have reports of 73 people killed throughout the country, the majority from landslides," Guatemala's emergency management agency (Conred) chief David de Leon told AFP.

The Prensa Libre newspaper on its website gave an unofficial death toll of 80.

Source: www.google.com

Guatemala had been under a state of emergency since Saturday, while Honduras declared a nationwide state of emergency Sunday.

The worst storm-related disaster in Guatemala occurred in a village in Solola department where a landslide swept away 25 homes killing 15 people, with another 10 missing, according to San Antonio Palopo Mayor Andres Cumes.Source: www.google.com

Despite the weakening storm, El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes put his country under a state of emergency, due to high risk due to landslides.

Agatha represents the first tropical storm of the season starting with the letter "A" and with the agencies forecasting it to be a bad season for these storms, only time can tell the accuracy of the forecasts. Till then, let us hope that they are wrong and the season doesn't get bad for anyone!