amyk's Blog

A 70-YEAR-OLD Indian woman has become the world’s oldest mum after giving birth to twins.

Omkari Panwar, the wife of a retired farmer, delivered a boy and girl by caesarean section on Friday.

The frail pensioner, who has two adult daughters and five grandchildren, underwent IVF treatment to produce a male heir to the family’s smallholdings.

Mum ... Omkari Panwar, 70

Her husband, Charan Singh Panwar, 77, mortgaged his land, sold his buffalos, spent his life savings and took out a credit card loan to finance the treatment.

“At last we have a son and heir,” he said. “We prayed to God, went to saints and visited religious places to pray for an heir.

“We kept no stone unturned and God has rewarded us. The treatment cost me a fortune but the birth of a son makes it all worthwhile. I can die a happy man and a proud father.”

The twins, born one-month premature and weighing only two pounds each are healthy and expected to survive, according to doctors at Jaswant Roy Speciality Hospital.

Family ... Omkari and relatives

Omkari, who has no birth certificate and does not know the day she was born, uses the date of India’s independence in 1947 to guess her age.

She said she was nine when the British Raj left India meaning she is now 70.

She lives in Muzaffarnagar, seven hours drive north of the capital New Delhi.

Romanian Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth to a daughter, aged 66 in 2005, is the world’s previous oldest mother.

After being told she had beaten the record by four years, Omkari said: “If I am the world’s oldest mother it means nothing to me. I just want to see my new babies and care for them while I am still able.”

Gynaecologist Nisha Malik, who performed an emergency operation on the 70-year-old said: “I was shocked when this old lady told me she was pregnant. I have been practising medicine for 20 years and I have never heard of such a case.”

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Here's my question.. if this guy sold his buffaloes, mortgaged his home, spent his life savings and took out a credit card loan to pay for the IVF treatment to have a son.. What exactly will this "heir" inherit?

And what would he have done if he got TWO GIRLS?

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, June 30th 2008, 11:32 PM

A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security guard, did nothing to help.

After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the Daily News.

Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided Esmin Green before she died.

"Thank God for the videotape because no one would have believed this could have happened," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"There's a clear possibility of criminal wrongdoing with regard to recordkeeping, and that has to be investigated."

The city Department of Investigation is part of a sweeping probe that has brought some changes to the ward known as G Building.

A federal suit filed last year in Brooklyn alleged neglect and abuse of mental patients at the hospital. The suit sparked an investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's civil rights unit before the June 19 death.

Two different security guards spotted Green, a native of the island of Jamaica, prone on the floor and did nothing, the tape shows. They have been fired, along with four other staffers.

Green, 49, taken to the unit for "agitation," keels over out of her chair at 5:32a.m., according to the time stamp on the video. She had been sitting about 3feet from an observation window. Two other patients were in the room.

Green is lying facedown on the floor, her legs splayed, when a security guard strolls by at 5:53 a.m., looks at her for about 20 seconds and then walks away.

She is writhing on the floor, thrashing her legs, about 6 a.m., when her medical chart contends she was "awake, up and about, went to the bathroom."

Green rolls on her back at 6:04a.m. She stops moving at 6:08 a.m., but two minutes later a security guard pushed his chair into camera view.

He never gets out of the chair, but looks at Green and scoots away. A female patient who was in and out of the room finally brings a clinic staffer to check the woman and a crash cart is summoned.

The medical chart claims she was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting room" at 6:20 a.m., although she was already dead. The cause of death is still under investigation.

"We are shocked and distressed by this situation," the Health and Hospitals Corp. said in a statement.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/
local&id=6237821

The link above.. in BLUE will take you to the article so you can see the video for yourself.   It is shocking and disgusting. I wonder what the world is coming to that human beings are treated like trash.  

This reminds me of the incident several weeks ago where the man was run over in the middle of the street.  The car that hit him kept going and people on the sidewalk simply stared at him.   

How did we get to this point?  Or is it that now we have surveillance video to prove how inhumane the world really is?

Internet addiction is a 'clinical disorder'

By Andy Bloxham  Last updated: 5:23 PM BST 19/06/2008

Sufferers spend unhealthy amounts of time playing online games, viewing pornography or emailing.

They suffer four symptoms: They forget to eat and sleep; they need more advanced technology or more hours online as they develop 'resistance' to the pleasure given by their current system; if they are deprived of their computer, they experience genuine withdrawal symptoms; And in common with other addictions, the victims also begin to have more arguments, to suffer fatigue, to get lower marks in tests and to feel isolated from society.

Early research into the subject found highly educated, socially awkward men were the most likely sufferers but more recent work suggests it is now more of a problem for middle-aged women who are spending hours at home on their computers.

Psychiatrist Dr Jerald Block said some sufferers were so addicted to the internet that they required medication or even hospital treatment to curb the time they spent on the web.

He said: "The relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer through any number of mechanisms: emailing, gaming, porn."

He added: "It's much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games."

Dr Block, of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, in the USA, first made the claims in an editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry.

British psychiatrists have previously reported that between five and 10 per cent of online users are internet addicts.

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If I had to guess.. I'd say it's much higher than 5 to 10 percent.

Do you know any internet addicts?  Are you worried you might become one (or already are)?

Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Howard Weyers tried the "carrot" approach by giving his employees incentives and encouragement to quit smoking. But when that didn't work, he resorted to the stick. A big stick.

Weyers, owner of a health care benefits administrator in Lansing, Mich., gave his 200 employees an ultimatum in 2004: Quit smoking in 15 months or lose your job. He refused to hire smokers. Ultimately, he extended his smoking ban to employees' spouses and monitored compliance through mandatory random blood testing.

Weyers' method, while effective, wouldn't fly in California because the state has laws that prohibit employers from making hiring or firing decisions based on employee participation in a legal activity.

About 45 million Americans smoke cigarettes despite more than three decades of public efforts to encourage people to quit.

In addition to lost work hours, employers have a vested interest in getting their workforce to kick the habit, given that they pay a large portion of health care costs and are the main source of health insurance for more than half the population.

-- About 23 percent of American adults and 28 percent of teens smoke.

-- 70 percent of smokers say they want to quit.

-- 10 percent of smokers living today suffer from a smoking-related illness.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; U.S. Surgeon General; State of California; American Cancer Society.

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Should employers have the right to give their employees an ultimatum -- quit smoking or you're fired?  This guy is even banning employee's spouses from smoking!

And how about that MANDATORY random blood testing? 

Get Osama Bin Laden before I leave office, orders George W Bush 

 By Sarah Baxter

President George W Bush has enlisted British special forces in a final attempt to capture Osama Bin Laden before he leaves the White House.

Defence and intelligence sources in Washington and London confirmed that a renewed hunt was on for the leader of the September 11 attacks. “If he [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured Bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place,” said a US intelligence source.

Intelligence on the whereabouts of Bin Laden is sketchy, but some analysts believe he is in the Bajaur tribal zone in northwest Pakistan. He has evaded capture for nearly seven years. “Bush is swinging for the fences in the hope of scoring a home run,” said an intelligence source, using a baseball metaphor.

A Pentagon source said US forces were rolling up Al-Qaeda’s network in Pakistan in the hope of pushing Bin Laden towards the Afghan border, where the US military and bombers with guided missiles were lying in wait. “They are prepping for a major battle,” he said.

The main operations in Pakistan are being undertaken by Delta, the US army special operations unit, and the British SBS.

Special forces are being sent to capture or kill Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters based on intelligence provided by the Special Reconnaissance Regiment and its US counterpart, the Security Co-ordination Detachment.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said last week that the US would “partner [the Pakistanis] to the extent they want us to” to combat insurgents.

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Hard to believe it's been nearly 7 years since 9-11 and Bin Laden is still out there.

What are your thoughts on this alleged "ramped up" effort to catch Bin Laden before President Bush leaves office?

We make difficult decisions in the newsroom everyday.  Yesterday was especially difficult.  We had the story of the female jogger found murdered near an Orange County park Wednesday afternoon... and the five people killed in Sanford as their SUV slammed into a stopped train at a crossing.

We had video of that SUV hitting the train from a helicopter, but chose not to show it on TV.  We didn't think people needed to see these people driving to their deaths. 

We also had video of Nicole Ganguzza's family hearing the news that she had been found murdered.  We chose not to show that, too.. out of respect for the family.

These days, it seems a lot of news outlets show you EVERYTHING.  What are your thoughts?  Do you agree with our decision NOT to show these two events?

Clinton's exes talk about his sexcapades for $1.99!

Wednesday, 11 June , 2008, 13:04    

New York: Bill Clinton’s former gal pals Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones dish the dirt about infamous White House intern Monica Lewinsky and the size of his manhood in a new pay-per-view video on the internet.

For USD1.99, viewers of genniferandpaula.com can get see and hear the two women confide that Lewinsky was dumping the Democratic Party because it “left a bad taste in her mouth”.

Dubbed "Two Chicks Chatting," the seven-video package also shows Flowers and Jones exchanging notes on the former US President’s private parts.

Jones also recounts the time when Bill Clinton, then Governor of Arkansas, supposedly propositioned her in a Little Rock hotel room.

As for the size of Clinton’s manhood, well Jones says his "little soldier" was only as big as her little finger – something with which Flowers agrees.

The women also give two big thumbs down to his wife Hillary's failed bid for the White House.

"How can anyone who can't control her husband control our country?" asks Jones.

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What do you think about these gals dishing about their old sexcapades with the former President?  

Would you pay to hear their stories? 

8 suspended for Rays-Red Sox brawl

NEW YORK (AP) -- Boston outfielder Coco Crisp, Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields and six other players were suspended Friday, a day after their wild brawl at Fenway Park.

Three Red Sox got suspended: Crisp for seven games, pitcher Jon Lester for five games and first baseman Sean Casey for three games. Five Rays were penalized by Major League Baseball disciplinarian Bob Watson: Shields for six games, DH-outfielder Jonny Gomes and pitcher Edwin Jackson for five games each, outfielder Carl Crawford for four games and second baseman Akinori Iwamura for three games.

All eight players also were fined undisclosed amounts. The Red Sox and Rays have often clashed in the past, and a fight between Crisp and Shields in Boston's 7-1 win Thursday night triggered the latest outburst.

"I want to be very clear: I defend everything our guys did," Rays manager Joe Maddon said before Friday night's game at Texas.

"I feel actually proud of the way we handled the situation that was presented."

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Here's my beef. If this same brawl happened with a bunch of so-called regular guys in a parking lot in a bad neighborhood.. police would be everywhere and people would be rounded up and arrested on assault charges!

Why is it that professional athletes who assault eachother "on the job" are NOT criminally charged? Heck.. the incidents are even caught on tape! There's no disputing who did what. What's the deal?

American to charge for 1st checked bag, Delta balks

Wednesday May 21, 11:33 am ET
By David Koenig, Associated Press Writer

But rival Delta doesn't plan to match American's fee for the first checked bag, a spokeswoman said.

American, the nation's largest carrier, said Wednesday the fee for the first checked bag starts June 15 and that it would raise other fees for services ranging from reservation help to oversized bags. The other fees will mostly range from $5 to $50 per service, the airline said.

Last month American announced it would join other carriers in charging $25 for second bags checked for some passengers, but it wasn't immediately clear how Wednesday's announcement would affect that.

The planned fee on the first checked bag immediately ran into resistance. Delta Air Lines Inc. spokeswoman Betsy Talton said the Atlanta-based airline is considering all of its options in light of $130-a-barrel oil, but doesn't plan to match the $15 fee American announced.

American plans to cut domestic flight capacity by 11 percent to 12 percent in the fourth quarter. American had previously expected fourth-quarter capacity to fall 4.6 percent from the same period in 2007.

Parent AMR Corp. said reduced flying will lead to an undisclosed number of job cuts at both American and its American Eagle subsidiary.

AMR expects to retire 45 to 50 planes from its fleet, most of them gas-guzzling MD-80 aircraft. Those were the plane grounded for faulty wiring last month.

American said rising oil prices have increased its expected annual fuel costs by nearly $3 billion since the start of the year.

AMR shares tumbled $1.10, or 13.4 percent, to $7.10 after the announcement which came as its shareholders gathered for their annual meeting.

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When I heard this today.. I was peeved!    I can understand charging for a 2nd checked bag.. but the 1st?

We already have tickets to fly American in late June, so we'll be forced to pay the fee this time around, but I don't think we'll be flying 'American' again.

Your thoughts?

LIEBERMAN CALLS ON GOOGLE TO TAKE DOWN TERRORIST CONTENT

YouTube Videos Are Produced by Al Qaeda and Other Terror Organizations; Videos Show Attacks on U.S. Soldiers, Civilians

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Monday called on Google to remove Internet video content produced by terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda. The videos – readily available on YouTube –show assassinations, deaths of U.S. soldiers and civilians, weapons training, incendiary speeches by al-Qaeda leadership, and other material intended to encourage violence against the West.

The videos are branded with Al-Qaeda logos – a practice detailed in a recent bipartisan Committee staff report entitled “Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat.” These production logos are easily recognizable, making it easy for Google to remove them from its Internet sites. Lieberman called on Google to enforce its own community standards against videos that show gratuitous violence or people getting “hurt, attacked, or humiliated.”

“Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training,” the Senator said in his letter. “YouTube also, unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive, and amplified voice, despite military setbacks or successful operations by the law enforcement and intelligence communities…

“Protecting our citizens from terrorist attacks is a top priority for our government. The private sector can help us do that. By taking action to curtail the use of YouTube to disseminate the goals and methods of those who wish to kill innocent civilians, Google will make a singularly important contribution to this important national effort.”

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What do you think about Senator Lieberman's efforts? 

Should 'You Tube' be responsible for removing terrorist videos?

Ants swarm, fouling electronics

The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants"—crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.  

The ants—formally known as "paratrenicha species near pubens"—have spread to five Houston-area counties since they were first spotted in Texas in 2002.

The good news? They eat fire ants, the stinging red terrors of Texas summers.

They also bite humans, though not with a stinger like fire ants.

Worse, they, like some other species of ants, are attracted to electrical equipment, for reasons that are not well understood by scientists.

They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction.

Exterminators say calls from frustrated homeowners and businesses are increasing because the ants—which are starting to emerge by the billions with the onset of the warm, humid season—appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers.

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I really hate ants.  We had an invasion of carpenter ants at our home last year.. and I could hardly sleep at night just thinking about them.   And nothing is worse than those nasty fire ants. 

Apparently these creepy little "Crazy Raspberry Ants" will eat fire ants.. so they got that going for them =)

How long before the "crazy" ants invade Florida (you know it'll happen eventually)?  Any predictions? 

Curious George publisher may sue over T-shirt

Cobb bar selling shirts combining book character's picture, Obama's name

By JAMIE GUMBRECHT, CHRISTIAN BOONE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/13/08

The publishing company that owns the Curious George image says it is considering legal action to stop the sale of a T-shirt depicting Barack Obama as the monkey from children's books.

The T-shirts are being peddled by Marietta bar owner Mike Norman at his Mulligan's Bar and Grill in Cobb County. They show a picture of Curious Georgie peeling a banana, with the words "Obama '08" underneath.

Rick Blake, a spokesman for publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which owns Curious George, said Wednesday that the company didn't authorize the use of the character's image, but hasn't been in touch with anybody selling or manufacturing the shirts.

"We find it offensive and obviously utterly out of keeping with the value Curious George represents," Blake said. "We're monitoring the situation and weighing our options with respect to legal action."

Norman has said he got the T-shirts from someone in Arkansas. He started selling them at his bar -- known for the provocative, ultra-conservative political slogans often posted on signs out front -- in April but said he has no plans to mass market them.

The sales came to light this week when a loose coalition of local groups called a protest of the T-shirts.

About a dozen protestors rallied against the shirts Tuesday afternoon, condemning them as racist and asking Norman to stop selling them.

Norman acknowledged the imagery's Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey.

"We're not living in the (19)40's," he said. "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears -- he looks just like Curious George."

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This is unbelievable to me.  I don't care what your political leanings are.. how is this NOT racist?  Should the Curious George publisher sue?

Your thoughts?

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A local newlywed couple who grabbed headlines around the world after they were involved in a brawl on their wedding night have broken their silence.

Dr. David Wielechowski and his wife, Christa, say they are the victims from that night more than a week ago at a Ross Township hotel.

The couple, who addressed local media this afternoon, say since the news broke, they've been living a nightmare.

"What is being said and written about me is untrue and these allegations are ruining my life," David said.

"I heard that I was a punch line at the end of a Jay Leno or Letterman joke," Christa said.

She believes they became an international story because of video of her leaving the Allegheny County Jail in her wedding gown and the groom released with a black eye and wearing only one shoe.

The Wielechowskis say they had been drinking on their wedding night as they searched in vain for their hotel room on the seventh-floor at the Holiday Inn.

They started arguing when he wanted to go to the front desk and she wanted to keep looking and told him: " 'Well, you know what, you can just kiss my butt,' and I turned around and stuck my butt out at him," Christa recalled. "He's holding all these beers and went like this," she said playfully kicking out her leg, "on my butt. I took one step on this enormous gown and (fell)."

Christa said she lay on the floor laughing as a woman came out of her nearby room asking if David had kicked her.

"I'm telling both of them, 'No, no, I'm fine, I'm fine, can you please leave us alone, just leave us alone, mind your own business,' " she said.

They say two men came out of a room and one punched David in the eye twice and the other jumped him from behind.

"I was getting strangled to the point where I honestly thought I was going to die," he told reporters. "I was begging for my life. I was just begging for one breath and they were strangling my wife at the time and I did see this man swing and connect with my wife and at that time from the best of my knowledge I did hit this man who was hitting my wife."

The Wielechowskis say they were dragged onto the hotel elevator and the altercation continued all the way to the lobby where they fell out onto the lobby floor. There, they threw whatever they could grab at the people they saw as their attackers, forcing them to remain on the elevator and as it closed, they were left alone.

Christa yelled for someone to call the police. The Wielechowskis are the only ones charged in the incident.

"I feel like they're protecting the two young men," David said.

"When he was on a stretcher, he was being pulled out in a stretcher - I couldn't even recognize his face he was so bloody and beaten - and they said, 'Do you want to go to the hospital with your husband?' and I said, 'No, I want to make sure that these men go to jail for what they have done to my husband,' and I gave him a kiss and let him go, " Christa said.

The newlyweds plan to pursue that, but at the moment they have their own legal problems and will be in court later this month for a preliminary hearing.

The two Good Samaritans who police say tried to break up the fight have yet to speak publicly, but we have spoken to them off-camera.

They say their lawyers have advised them not to discuss the incident because they are witnesses in a criminal case.

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I just saw this couple on FOX Newschannel.  The husband's eye is still looking pretty nasty.. and they're both still sticking with this story that THEY were attacked. 

Are you buying it?  Or do you think the police got it right the first time?

Fox trumps Netroots; bloggers rebel

By MIKE ALLEN | 5/1/08 10:30 PM EST  

Barack Obama appearing on Fox. Courtesy Fox News.

The nation’s top Democrats are suddenly rushing to appear on the Fox News Channel, which they once had shunned as enemy territory as the nemesis of liberal bloggers.

The detente with Fox has provoked a backlash from progressive bloggers, who contend the party’s leaders are turning their backs on the base — and lending credibility and legitimacy to the network liberals love to hate — in a quest for a few swing votes.

In a span of eight days, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY.) and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean are all taking their seats with the network that calls itself “fair and balanced” but is widely viewed as skewing conservative.

With the party’s presidential contest reduced to hand-to-hand combat, Democrats are turning to the ratings leader among cable news channels in a clear rebuff to the liberal activists known as the Netroots.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the leading liberal site Daily Kos, told Politico’s Michael Calderone: "Democrats are being idiotic by going on that network.”

Ari Melber, the Net movement correspondent for The Nation, told Politico by phone that progressive activists and the Netroots are “not happy about it.”

“I don’t think that it is tenable to completely neglect or ignore what your base wants,” Melber said.

The Democratic leaders’ new openness to Fox reflects the liberal left’s diminishing power, at least at this point in the political cycle. Once feared by the Democratic candidates, these activists are now viewed at least in part as an impediment to winning the broad swatch of support needed to clinch the nomination.

Goaded in part by a taunting “Obama Watch” clock displayed by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, Obama appeared last Sunday after resisting the show’s entreaties throughout the campaign.

Clinton had a civil interview on Wednesday night with primetime host Bill O’Reilly, who has often mocked her husband.

And Dean will appear this weekend on “Fox News Sunday.”

Roger Ailes, the president of Fox News, took the boycott in stride, commenting that more Democrats watch Fox than watch CNN or MSNBC, the channel’s cable news competitors.

Network records show that since the campaign began in January 2007, Clinton has given 13 interviews to Fox News anchors and correspondents and Obama has given 10.

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Why do you think these top democrats are choosing to appear on FOX Newschannel?  Is this good or bad for their campaigns? 

What are your FOX Newschannel feelings?