Girl Has Parasitic Twin Surgically Removed

I cannot imagine what this young woman has gone through, both in terms of living for years with the body of her sister attached physically attached to her own and then having the body removed surgically. It is truly an amazing story.

This story originally aired on BBC in the UK in November of last year. Here is how the girl's story is summarized.

On the surface Workitu Debebet looks like any other teenage girl. But the 17-year-old has spent her young life hiding an incredible secret -- a parasitic twin, including two arms and two legs, fused to her pelvis. Workitu was raised thinking she was normal and reached her late teens without treatment because her poor parents had no way of accessing expert medical care. But Workitu's life has finally been transformed after a team of expert surgeons performed pioneering surgery to separate her from her unborn conjoined twin. Now, the teenager is going to school and making friends for the first time and is looking forward to having a career, getting married and even having children of her own. A new documentary series reveals the amazing courage of Workitu and her family who tried everything to help her, despite prejudice in her community against people with disabilities. Doctors at CURE Hospital In Addis Ababa were amazed when they saw Workitu, who is thought to be the oldest person still to be living with a visible parasitic twin attached to their body. Dr Eric Gokcen, the hospital's medical director, said: "It was something I had never seen before. A parasitic twin is actually rarer than conjoined twins. But as a physician, when I look at patients with a problem, my mind starts thinking about what I am going to do to help them." In an eight-hour surgery, the team carefully removed the outer body but left the extra internal organs because they were working fine. Workitu spent the next three months in hospital but healed perfectly and is now looking forward to her future.

Similarly, this little Indian boy named Deepak is a few countries away from Workitu in Ethiopia. He also hosted a parasitic twin for many years of his life.

God bless Workitu, Deepak, the doctors who operated on them, and both their families!!

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Liberal Protesters Outside NRA Headquarters Make Fools of Themselves

MRC's Dan Joseph showed up at a protest to interview picketers outside of the NRA’s headquarters in Fairfax, Va. This is a few miles from where I live, and is indicative of the liberals who have invaded once-conservative northern Virginia. This video shows the liberal robots who spew talking points and cannot think for themselves.

Did you not that not a single car honked during the scenes that were shown? Maybe there is hope for Fairfax, Virginia.

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Why Are Mysterious Bars Appearing on Desks of Chinese School Children?

Yesterday I wrote about the Chinese truck driver who was impaled by a log that dislodged from another truck and came through his window. Today brings another tidbit from China -- and luckily this one is not gruesome like the truck driver story.

Take a look at these pictures and see if you can figure out why these two schools in China have installed the bars on the students' desks.

Pictures from http://caxalote.com/?p=35286.

When I first saw these, I thought maybe kids were falling asleep in class, thus necessitating the bar. Then I noticed that they are all wearing their coats, so if it is cold enough to requires coats to be worn, there is little chance the students would fall asleep in the classroom. Then I considered whether posture was a concern, such that the bar would encourage them to sit up straight. That seemed plausible.

The real answer is actually unexpected. The two schools in China are implementing the innovative desk attachment device, which was developed by one of the school's directors, in order to prevent the students from getting too close to their workbooks, paper, and books. In turn, this reduces the chances of the children developing myopia, or near sightedness. (Notice the little girl in the second row in the bottom picture -- she seems to be ducking below the bar to write.) Indeed, my initial impression was correct -- that the bars will improve posture-- and that is a bonus. The bars could help prevent back problems when these kids grow up.

Would something like this be accepted in schools in the United States? I suspect most parents would think it is nonsense, especially if there is no articulable data to support a conclusion that the bars reduce the occurrence of myopia. Of course, since schools in nearly every state are implementing Common Core curricula, it's not far fetched that the nanny state could indeed install such implements of control on the desks of public school children.

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Enlarge text easily for easy reading on the Kindle Paperwhite

Chinese Truck Driver Survives Being Impaled by Log During Accident

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Every now and again you hear a story about someone getting shot or attacked with a knife, and the person survives because of the precise placement of the bullet or knife. Recently the UK Daily Mail reported on a Chinese truck driver who ran upon an accident -- literally -- and hit another truck from behind. The front truck was illegally carrying tree branches and other landscaping items that stuck out past the allowed limit. One of the logs on the truck entered the driver's side of the cab and penetrated the abdomen of the driver approaching from the rear. It took rescuers an hour to reach the accident scene due to the fact that it occurred in one of the busiest parts of the city.

Rescuers removing impaled driver from truck

The truck driver was impaled, and the log went all the way through the seat. Rescuers removed the entire seat and transported it with the driver to the hospital.

Driver being wheeled through the hospital

Doctors immediately took the man into surgery and found that the wooden spike had not destroyed any of his vital organs, particularly the heart.

Preparing for extraction of the log

During a grueling four-hour operation, surgeons were able to remove the log and save the man's life.

Maybe when he recovers, the Chinese driver should meet the two New Zealand drivers -- one who was impaled by a canoe that was dislodged from a truck and came through his windshield into his chest, and the second who was impaled in the backside when he fell onto an air spigot and was filled up with air. Talk about blowing things out of proportion! (The guy survived and joked about his injury later himself.)

Or maybe he should talk to Jason Ripley of the United Kingdom, who was impaled by a loose barrier that was propelled through his car windshield and lodged in his right shoulder. Jason also survived to tell the tale. 

39 year-old Jason Ripley during rescue operation that saved him

 You can't make this stuff up, folks.

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A Tale of Four Cities: Unpleasant Discoveries in Unassuming Homes

The first of two bizarre stories comes from Utah, and it is so "fresh" that all the facts are not yet out. One version of the Utah story says a family who was cleaning out the garage of their home when they found a box containing the body of a dead baby. They called police, who got a search warrant and executed it to search the house. In that search police found six more babies, all appearing to be full term.

Another version says it was the ex-husband of the woman who found the first baby and notified authorities. Whatever the means of discovery, the police have now arrested the previous owner, a 39-year-old woman named Megan Huntsman, who moved out of the house in 2011. Authorities have charged Ms. Huntsman  with six counts of murder over a ten year period from 1996 to 2006.

It is not known why the murder charge count is six when seven bodies have been found. It is possible that one of the babies was underdeveloped and/or not full-term, so the death may not qualify as murder if it is unclear that the infant survived outside the womb.

There will undoubtedly be more news reported on this bizarre story in the coming days.
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Quite eerily, the town where these seven deaths occurred was Pleasant Grove, Utah. What's eerie about that? Less than six months ago, another grisly discovery of a dead baby was made in the Missouri town of Pleasant Hill. The Missouri baby's body was found in a bucket, encased in concrete. The husband and wife who live in the home have four other children. As of November 7 when the report of the discovery was made, no information was available about whether there were suspects in the case or the nature of the relationship of the baby to the people living in the house.

Just over a year earlier, on August 12, 2012, the body of a woman was discovered in an apartment in Pleasant Ridge, OH, outside of Cincinnati. The woman was later identified as LaVaneva Green, and her death was ruled a homicide. A juvenile eventually was arrested for her murder.

Then there was the triple murder in November of last year in Pleasant Valley, New York.  A Pakastani man named Abbas Lodhi was found dead in his car outside a supermarket, with his nine-year-old son also dead in the car. Subsequently the older son, age 13, was found dead from gunshot wounds at family's home. Lodhi's wife, Sarwat, was missing, and may at first have been a suspect. However, when her bullet-riddled body was found on the highway the next day, the investigation led to the conclusion that the pharmacist father had killed his wife and two sons in a triple murder-suicide.

I think I will steer clear of towns that have "Pleasant" in their name.

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Crazy Caller from Northern California Harasses Me and Calls Me an Idiot for No Reason!

Some days I wonder how people got the jobs that they have, particularly when I witness their people skills, or lack thereof. Today is one of those days. My curiosity turned to ire when I received the three most obnoxious phone calls that I have ever heard in my life. I am still reeling from them. I did have the presence of mind to record part of the last call that I received. I told him that I was recording him in the first call, but I could not figure out how to get the phone to record while I was on it. I grabbed my husband's phone and put mine on speaker, so I was able to capture the last 30 seconds of the call. The video below contains my explanation of what happened.

I need the help of my readers in tracking down the madman who called me three times, cursed me out and insulted me when it was HE who called me! That is the mystery of all of this. He called me, but proceeds to tell me that his company does not need me. It was like being on Candid Camera!

I filed an online complaint with the FCC and gave them the crazy guy's phone number. I told them that I expressly told the caller in the first call to remove my name and number from his list and not to call again. After that he called me two more times, which is a violation of the do-not-call law and constitutes harassment (and possibly stalking).

With his voice immortalized on this video, maybe someone will recognize him. His phone number is 747-202-0728. It traces to Los Angeles, California, but is unlisted. So reverse lookups did not work -- even when I paid for one. Please, Readers, I need your help in getting this video out there for people to see, and maybe someone in northern California will recognize the mad man!

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Girl Does Impressions of Accents While Speaking Gibberish

This video has been seen over ten million times in one month, and it is still misunderstood. The young woman who filmed herself is not mocking other accents and languages. Rather, she is trying to show what speakers of other languages sound like to her ears. She does not intend to say anything coherent, because most of us do not understand the languages she is imitating. She speaks gibberish on purpose because it is the accents on which she is focusing. I find her talent to be amazing and entertaining.

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