Lu Zhi-hao From China Named As World's Fattest Boy

A four year old boy from China, weighing 62 kilograms, has been named the world's heaviest boy.

Lu Zhi-hao, who is 110cms tall from Shunde, Guangdong, is being taken by his worried parents to Hong Kong to try and undertake his obesity.

Dubbed by Chinese media as China's "no. 1 fat kid" Lu Zhi-hao, known as Xiao Hoa, has been taken to numerous hospitals in Guangdong to find out why he's so fat, but doctors can only say that it is down to awful eating habits.

If something is not done to decrease his weight, doctors predict Lu Zhi-hao's obesity will become life-threatening by the time he turns 20.

A Hong Kong weight-loss centre has offered to help Lu Zhi-hao lose weight for free. The centre, which has not given out its name, uses non-intrusive Japanese skill to help the body break down fat.

Xiao Hao's parents are now applying for a consent to travel to Hong Kong and hope to be here with their obese child in a couple of weeks.

"We hope there must be specialists in Hong Kong who can help us," says Lu Zhi-hao's father, Lu Ye-ming.

The mother and father of the child are both of normal weight, and obesity has not been a part of the family's health history. Lu Zhi-hao gradually ate his way to fatness.

He is now on a diet, which means reducing down from his regular three bowls of rice per meal to just one bowl.

The WHO says more than 20 percent of the populations in some Chinese cities are now obese.

Emily Crowned Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant 2010

Emily(C) from Kuala Lumpur wins the championship at the grand finale of Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant 2010 (formerly known as Miss Malaysia Chinese International Pageant) held in Kuala Lumpur. She will represent Malaysia to contend in Miss Chinese International beauty pageant 2011.





















Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant is an annual beauty contest organized by Astro (Malaysian satellite television) since 1998. The winner will stand for Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur in the Miss Chinese International beauty pageant held in Hong Kong the next year.

Scientist Discover New Lemur Species In Madagascar

British researchers say they've confirmed a species of lemur living in Madagascar forests and supposed to be new to science.

Primate expert Russ Mittermeier has confirmed the endurance of the creature, dubbed the fork-marked lemur for a black stripe on its head, when he and his colleagues captured and took blood samples from the small primate before returning it to its forest home.

Mittermeier, the president of Conservation International, is convinced it is a new species, although genetic testing of the samples will be needed to verify it.

Forked-marked lemurs fit in to a small genus called Phaner. If confirmed as a new species, they would be only the fifth member of that group.

"This is yet another significant discovery from the island of Madagascar, the world's highest priority biodiversity hot spot and one of the most amazing places in our planet," Mittermeier said.

"It is particularly remarkable that we prolong to find new species of lemurs and many other plants and animals in this heavily impacted country, which has already lost 90 percent or more of its original vegetation."

Due to its very restricted range, Mittermeier said, it is possible the fork-marked lemur will turn out to be an endangered or significantly endangered species.

Santa Visits Georgetown Again!

The Georgetown Fire Department conducted its annual Santa Tour on Sunday, despite rainy, windy weather. Not rain nor sleet nor dark of night will keep Santa Claus from touring every street in Georgetown and bringing toys for Toys for Tots.

Since 2000, the Georgetown Fire Department has been collecting Toys for Tots. The citizens of Georgetown have donated well over 25,000 toys and made it probable for the USMC Reserve and Toys for Tots to put a smile on thousands of children’s faces on Christmas morning.

"The response from the community has been awesome and unbelievable every year," Ricker said. "Between the churches, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts and the community, it's amazing how much support we have."

Alexandra Kocs Crowned Miss Plastic 2010

Alexandra Kocsis was crowned the winner of this year's Miss Plastic beauty pageant which jury contestants based on the cosmetic surgery they've had.

Anita Gyuris came second in the contest while Kata Szakal won third place in the pageant, which is now in its second year. Student Alexandra, 24 won after judges praised the efficient stitching on her boob job.

'I was very enthusiastic on sport when I was young that I never had enough fat on my body for a really great big pair of breasts.' 'So I asked my doctor to give nature a helping hand and his work turned out to be stunning.'

'The jury seemed to love them because they said my boobs and my operation were the most natural beauties in the show.' Twenty two contestants competed in the national rounds of Miss Plastic 2010 which was staged in Budapest, Hungary.

Girls can only succeed for the contest if they have received cosmetic surgery and must bring in their medical notes from the ops as proof. Judges rated them on their beauty - and a individual medical panel added extra marks once they have rated the quality of the plastic surgery.

Kocsis will proceed with international contestants in Miss Plastic Universe.

Egypt Plans To Construct First Nuclear Plant By 2019

Egypt's minister of electricity says the country plans to construct its first nuclear power plant and have it fully operational by 2019.

The state-owned MENA news agency quotes Hassan Youniss as saying that Egypt also plans to construct three more nuclear plants by 2025. Youniss said Egypt will release international bidding for the plant's construction at the end of the year. The facility is probable to cost between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion.

President Hosni Mubarak first announced plans to build a number of nuclear power plants in 2007, stimulating a program that was publicly shelved in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl accident at a Soviet nuclear plant in what is now Ukraine.

Sampras Issues Public Request To Find Stolen Trophies

Retired tennis star Pete Sampras has exposed that most of the trophies and memorabilia collected during his 15-year career have been stolen.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times the former World No.1 said the trophies were robbed from a public storage rental unit.

The missing items comprise two Davis Cup trophies, an Olympic ring and his first Australian Open title which he won in 1994.

He said his other 13 grand slam trophies are safe, but none of the stolen objects were insured.

The seven-time Wimbledon champion told that the items were placed in storage after he had moved homes two times.

Sampras, who retired in 2003, is publicizing the theft which took place three weeks ago in the hope that someone might offer a new lead.

Ama Crowned With The Title “Ghana’s Most Beautiful 2010”

Perhaps the most keenly contested edition since its inception three years ago, the curtain was lastly lowered on the 2010 version (Season IV) of “Ghana’s Most Beautiful” (GMB) beauty pageant, with Ama, representing the Eastern Region going home with the popular crown.

20-year-old Ama, whose full name is Nana Ama Agyeiwaa and hails from Akyem Oda in the Eastern Region, made no secret of her purpose to go home with the ultimate, when Season 4 of Ghana’s Most Beautiful beauty pageant took off in August this year.

It thus came as no surprise, when on Sunday at the National Theatre, she was able to beat the other three grand finalists – Bambi from the Central Region, Asibi from the Upper East Region and Chaana from the Upper West Region with 30.34%, to win the crown, KIA Picanto and cheque for GH¢5,000 among others, which were at stake.

Past winners of GMB are Ama from the Central Region in 2007, the Greater Accra Region representative, Adoley in 2008 and Nasara as of the Northern Region in 2009.

First Multi Format Microchip Awarded Prestigious Prize

A Cambridge company has been awarded the esteemed Coup de Coeur prize at the Franco British Business Awards.

SureFlap Company behind the first multi-format microchip cat flap – was picked by the judges as the entry with the most scientific flair.

The inventive product has attracted a growing list of French customers and the Dry Drayton company is now setting up a French language customer service telephone line to support them.

One of the judges – Barbara Habberjam, director for trade and investment at the British Embassy in Paris – said: “SureFlap is a well-deserved winner of the Coup de Coeur award for its technological flair and modernization, and its targeted and determined approach to the French market. There is valid scope for the product in a nation of pet lovers like France.”

Microchipping is designed to assist reunite lost pets with their owners, but Cottenham physicist Dr Nick Hill saw the potential to use this exclusive identifier within a cat flap so that it only opens for a specified animal.

The device recognizes all the common microchip formats used to spot pets throughout Europe – it has seen strong sales in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as France.

Marketing manager Judith Bank said: “The French market has been particularly receptive to the design features of SureFlap and to be recognised in this way is a valuable endorsement.'

Law Student Crowned Great Britain 2010

A law student proved she had both brains and beauty when she was crowned Miss Great Britain 2010. Gorgeous Amy Carrier, 20, from Liverpool, was given the name at the finals which broke 65 years of tradition as the crown was not passed on by her predecessor.

Amy Carrier, 20, was awarded the honor at a ceremony at the Grand Pier in Weston-Super-Mare. She says she wants to use the title to assist raise money and support charities and hopes to be a good ambassador and role model for all young women.

First runner-up was given to Lisa Lazarus, 23 and second runner up to Gina Basham, 22, who holds Miss Birmingham City.





















60 women from across the UK competed for the crown in front of a board of celebrity judged including Gary Cockerill; Chris de Burgh's daughter and former Miss World, Rosie Davison.

The winner of Miss GB's is given a modeling agreement to be the face of Powershot organic energy drink, a part in a movie, £5,000 cash and a photo shoot and 5-star stay on the Amalfi coast.

France Produces Two Beauty Queens

It was for the first time ever, France produced two main beauty queens from rival contests.

On Saturday, 19-year-old business school student Laury Thilleman of Brittany was chosen Miss France 2011 by viewers of television channel TF1 in the traditional competition. But the very next day, that contest’s long-time organizer, Geneviève de Fontenay was busy hosting her own spin-off: the "Miss Nationale-Geneviève de Fontenay 2011" pageant, in which Barbara Morel of Provence, also 19 years old and a student, was crowned by a jury.

Fontenay had been president of the Miss France committee since 1954, but newly sold the competition to French production company Endemol. “France deserves two winners”, Fontenay declared to the French press. “The French will decide the one they prefer. My winners have always adhered to the values I promote - dignity under all circumstances, respect of oneself and of others”.

Though she primarily remained involved in the contest’s organization, disagreements with Endemol led Fontenay to leave the contest entirely. According to widespread rumours, Fontenay felt that the company did not respect her standards for the contestants. She was said to be mainly unhappy with revelations that certain former participants had previously posed nude.

When she said that she intended to set up a rival competition, Endemol took the 78 year-old icon to court. The court ruled in Fontenay’s favour.

"Horse Dragon," Colossus Dinosaurs Discovered In Utah

A shield-toothed horse-dragon may sound like a fabulous creature, but the newly described dinosaur once roamed the U.S. West, a new study says.

The 125-million-year-old herbivore Hippodraco scutodens whose partial skull and bones were unearthed in 2004 in eastern Utah has a long, low skull like a horse's and a mouth filled with shield-shaped teeth.

Hippo and draco are Latin for "horse" and "dragon," respectively, while scutum means "oblong shield" and dens means "tooth."

Also revealed newly, fossils of another newly described species from the same time period, Iguanacolossus fortis, were found in 2005 not far from Hippodraco.

That "ponderous beast" is named for its comparatively large size—about 30 feet (9 meters) long, compared with Hippodraco's 15 feet (4.5 meters), according to the study.

Iguanacolossus's teeth look like those of Iguanodon, a related, 33-foot (10-meter) North American herbivore that likely lived a few million years before Hippodraco.

Both of the newfound dinosaurs are iguanodonts, an "tremendously successful" group of plant-eaters that expanded worldwide during the early Cretaceous period, the study team wrote.

Despite their abundance, North American iguanodonts from this period are rare in the fossil record except in one Utah rock formation, which spans about 40 million years and contains fossils of many types of creatures, according to study leader Andrew McDonald, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.

"They're part of this actually interesting window into the early Cretaceous that's been emerging in western North America during the past two decades," McDonald said.

"They're filling in another chapter of what will ultimately be a complete and intricate story."

World's Largest Airship To Be Hosted By NASA

If you like big and green, NASA's Ames Research Center will shortly have something for you: the world's largest and greenest airship.

The space agency announced that the Mountain View, Calif., research center's Moffett Field will soon play host to a mammoth 265-foot-long and 65-foot-diameter airship from Kellyton, Ala.'s E-Green Technologies. The Bullet Class 580 will be developed and tested at Ames in 24,000 square feet of Ames' well-known Hangar 2.

The new airship, which has a planned first flight date of early 2011, is probable to run on algae-based biofuel, and fly at speeds of up to 75 miles an hour at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet.

Ames and Moffett Field are becoming a hotbed for airships. Already, the capacity is the home of Airship Ventures, and its own giant zeppelin. And, of course, Moffett Field has a storied history of hosting airships, stretching back to 1933, when the U.S. Navy's Zeppelin ZRS-5 785-foot-long zeppelin resided there.

The E-Green Technologies Bullet Class 580 is expected to fly with "a joint NASA Langley Research Center and Old Dominion University payload, the Radar Oxygen Barometric Sensor Project, a remote sensing instrument for measuring barometric pressure at sea level-an important meteorological measurement in the calculation and forecasting of tropical storms and hurricanes."

Graeme McDowell And Martin Kaymer Share Top Award

European Ryder Cup teammates Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer have together won the 2010 European Tour Golfer of the Year award the first time the honor has been shared in its 26-year history.

Both players enjoyed outstanding seasons, with 25-year-old German Kaymer wiining the U.S. PGA designation, as well as pipping Northern Irishman McDowell to the Race to Dubai money list title.

Meanwhile, 31-year-old McDowell also won his first major - the U.S. Open -and sunk the winning putt that gave Europe victory over the American in the Ryder Cup.

McDowell told the official European Tour website: "I am truly humbled to get this coveted award. It is the icing on the cake on what has been a very unique year for myself, Martin and everyone involved in European golf.

"It is an honor to share this prize with a player of Martin's caliber. He is one of the best players of our generation and I am confident will enjoy many more successes in the years to come."

Kaymer echoed those sentiments, adding: "This has been a really great year for me and winning this award is the perfect ending.

"It is credit for my performances in 2010 and to be voted for by the golfing media, the people who watch and report on our sport throughout the year, makes me feel very proud."

Woman Gives Birth In MRI Machine For The First Time In The World

Doctors at a hospital in Berlin, Germany have pulled off a world first by creating MRI images of a lady giving birth, The Local Newspaper reported.

A team of obstetricians, radiologists and engineers at Charité Hospital have spent the last two years creating an “open” MRI scanner that permits a pregnant woman to fit fully into the machine to give birth. Traditional MRI machines appear like long, narrow tunnels.

Researchers hope the new machine will allow them to study in “greater detail” how the baby moves through the birth canal, which should assist them understand why a growing number of women end up needing a caesarean section.

For the first time we can obviously see the mechanics of a vaginal delivery. For years, obstetricians have relied on very crude methods of understanding complications like cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD), which translates when the baby fails to fall into the birth canal and there is a rest in cervical dilatation, which ultimately leads to a C-section.”

“They never fully explain why some women are able to deliver 10-pound babies while others can not deliver 7-pound babies,” Dr. Manny Alvarez said.

Another immediate advantage to this technology is that it could also help better explain shoulder dystocia.

“This is a difficulty that could lead an infant to be significantly damaged at the time of vaginal birth,” Alvarez said. “Shoulder dystocia is when a baby’s head delivers through the vagina, however the shoulders get impacted behind the mother’s pelvic bone and it’s very difficult to guess. I think using this technology will allow us to have a better understanding of this process long-term.”

Here in the U.S., an predictable 30 percent of pregnant women deliver via caesarean section.

A hospital spokesman said the birth that took place in the new scanner went smoothly, and both the mother and baby are in good physical condition.

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create complete images of the organs and tissues. Doctors frequently use them to help diagnose conditions such as aneurysms, spinal cord injuries and tumors, as well as back and joint injuries.

Angelina Jolie Introduces The World The Dazzling Sweater Gown

All of us would have heard about Sweater dress but not sweater gown. Angelina Jolie wore a Versace sweater gown to the New York premiere of The Tourist.

The floor-length ivory dress has a plunging neckline and a gorgeously high thigh slit. It also has extensive sleeves and is made of angora. So it’s kind of a vixen/prude hybrid that is also season appropriate.

The Hollywood actress plays upper class English lady Elise in the new movie, opposite Johnny Depp. And the Oscar-winner reveals she studied etiquette and learned to move with poise to make her portrayal precise.

Facebook Newspaper “PostPost” Launched

PostPost is a new “social newspaper” from TigerLogic that has just been deployed for Facebook. The application basically takes your newsfeed and displays it in a more controllable way. It takes your links, photos, and videos, and compiles them into a legible format, sort of like a newsletter.

TigerLogic is a rapid application deployment solutions company that developed PostPost, which also uses Yolink search API so that users can simply locate passed backlinks and context.

According to some reviews, the application marks a sign of the movement away from RSS feeds to most of these newspaper-type solutions as social media sites grow in fame.

Using the plugin jQuery Masonry, created by David DeSandro, PostPost imports links, videos, and photos from the Facebook Open Graph API. Displayed in such a way to look like a typical newspaper, the PostPost news can also be adjusted to the size of the user’s browser window for easy presentation.

PostPost has the potential to scale well as it was built using JavaScript, using the platform for the display and user controls. It also uses the existing Facebook infrastructure to host content. Using JavaScript means that PostPost can display the ‘newspaper’ in real time with the capability to fetch news as it is issued.

Using Yolink’s search integration capabilities, finding and indexing the backlinks within stories will be made much simpler. The panel that serves as the ‘newspaper’ from PostPost allows users to comment straight from the panel.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small corporation for two years, she joined TMC as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana at present focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear with softswitches.

Innovative Taxi with Global Ambitions Is The "Taxi of Tomorrow"

It's a long way from the streets of New York to the factories of Turkey, but this 5,000-mile voyage could soon be made by all of the city's iconic yellow taxis.

A glass-roofed, eco-friendly vehicle intended by Turkish automaker Karsan is among the three finalists in New York City's search for a taxicab for the future.

New York launched the "Taxi of Tomorrow" competition to find a safe, energy proficient and accessible model. The winning design will be the exclusive New York City taxi for at least 10 years, according to city officials.

Karsan's V1 is the only model that was planned from scratch for the contest.
A reflection of the country's growing automotive ambitions, it would be Turkey's first high-profile recognized vehicle if it wins.

So far all the cars Turkey makes are built under license for major manufacturers. Karsan, while not accurately a household name outside its homeland, makes vehicles for Hyundai, Peugeot, Citroen and Renault.

"Having a vehicle designed and built in Turkey being used as a New York taxi would be a very strong branding chance for the Turkish automotive industry," said Jan Nahum, executive director of Karsan.

"It's an incredible source of pride and obsession for us," he said of being named a finalist. "New York is probably the most popular and visible city in the world, and its iconic yellow taxis are seen in almost every picture."

The Karsan V1 would be wheelchair available, spacious enough to hold five passengers and a stroller, and have a glass roof to give passengers a view of New York's skyscrapers.

It could hold a gasoline, compressed natural gas or electric engine, depending on which knowledge is the greenest at any time.

The winner of the "Taxi of Tomorrow" contest will be the first ever custom-built New York taxi. There are 16 different vehicles from nine manufacturers in the present fleet of 13,000 licensed taxicabs.

New Species Of Rust Consuming Bacteria Destroying Titanic

A new bacteria has been found in the wreck of the Titanic, rising in "rusticles," icicle-like structures on the ship's rusting iron, Canadian researchers say.

The formerly unknown bacteria, Halomonas titanicae, was found in samples of rusticles taken from the Titanic by the Mir 2 robotic submersible in 1991, the BBC reported Monday.

Researchers from Dalhousie University and the Ontario Science Center in Canada and the University of Seville in Spain secluded the bacteria from those samples.

DNA sequencing showed them to be a new species of the Halomonas genus found in salt water environments.

The bacteria may shed light on the method by which rusticles form and the "recycling" that such microbes carry out on submerged metal structures, the researchers said.

Such findings could have significance to the protection of offshore oil and gas pipelines and the safe disposal at sea of ships and oil rigs, they said.

The find has been published in the journal International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Studies Affirm That Boy Fetus Vulnerable To Stress

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there was a small but actual rise in the number of miscarriages across the country -- especially for women who were pregnant with boys.

The finding adds to confirmation that boys are more vulnerable to stress than girls while in the womb. The study also affirms that the tragic events of 9/11 intensely affected people far beyond the limits of New York City.

"The stress of a mother affects the fetus, and it's not just these individual stressors like whether you had a divorce or lost your job, but also these ambient stressors, like the economy and September 11," said Tim Bruckner, a population health researcher at the University of California, Irvine. "The effects resonated across the whole society. We were fundamentally bereaving what we saw on TV."

In the United States an average of 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. But in times of stress, like after natural disasters or economic subside, studies have shown that the ratio drops, and fewer boys are born than expected. So far, it hasn't been clear why.

One theory is that stress harms sperm that bear Y-chromosomes. It could also be that people just have less sex during stressful times, which might favor girls. Or perhaps something happens during pregnancy to influence the birth ratio.

The tendency of an tremendously anxious woman to miscarry male babies might have developed in our ancestors as a way to maximize the number of grandchildren she would eventually have, Bruckner said.

When times were flush and food plentiful, the theory goes, women could pour more resources into their rising sons, boosting the chances that they would go on to become alpha males. In many mammals, including red deer, alpha males are more probable to find mates and have babies.

If conditions turned sour during a pregnancy, on the other hand, it might be fine for a woman to miscarry a male baby and try again next year when life is less stressful.

The new study doesn't offer any clear advice to pregnant women about how to avoid miscarriages, Bruckner said. Instead, it highlights one of the ways that collective stress can impact the health of our nation at its core.