News of the hour that hits the crowd

Doctors can’t tell Mandy Sellars why her legs keep expanding – all they say is that her only option is a drastic amputation. She travelled to the US for a new TV show in search of an alternative... It’s not easy being Mandy Sellars. She has hugely outsized legs that make having a normal life nearly impossible. People stare whenever she leaves the house, she needs a special car to get around and can’t work full time. What’s more, her condition is getting worse and doctors say she needs an amputation so severe she won’t be able to sit up. And she doesn’t even know what’s caused it. But the cheerful 33-year-old from Accrington, Lancs, just won’t be told. She’s challenged medics’ verdict and has just got back from America where she went to find a new treatment. And now she’s on a mission to find out once and for all what’s the matter with her. “As you can imagine the size of my legs and clubfoot make walking difficult and I need crutches just to get around my ground floor flat. “And people

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A publicist for the Dave Matthews Band says saxophone player LeRoi Moore has died of injuries suffered in an all-terrain-vehicle accident in June. Publicist Ambrosia Healy says Moore died Tuesday at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was initially hospitalized in late June after the accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Va. Moore had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin physical rehabilitation when complications forced him back into the hospital. Moore was 46. Moore was injured in an ATV accident on June 30 in Charlottesville. He reportedly punctured a lung and broke his ribs. He was released from hospital but was readmitted following complications. "LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville,

I'm sure some of you remember the lovely Leryn Franco. She was the attractive Paraguayan picked up by NBC cameras during the Beijing Opening ceremonies. It took people a little while to figure out that she competes in the javelin, but it took people almost no time to figure out she has her own modeling calendar. Anyway, there's not much debating her attractiveness, so how about we find out how she did in the javelin? Uh, not so good. As Fourth Place Medal informs us, Franco competed this morning and finished second-to-last in the qualifying round with a throw that was 12 meters short of her personal best. I don't know a lot about javelin, but I know that when you come in second to last, the only person worse than you probably comes from a country where javelins don't even exist. In other words, you suck. But at least Franco made an impression on us and taught us all a valuable and important lesson: Don't be ugly. Leryn Franco bridges the gap between sports and hot w

Olympic disappointment for Hoosier divers Anne Marie Tiernon/Eyewitness News Beijing - More Hoosier athletes in action Monday night in Beijing. Two divers took to the platform and took a shot at bringing home a medal. Thrilling day for the men's gymnastics team getting the bronze medal and not expected to be on the podium without the help of the Hamm brothers. Not the case for our hoosier divers David Boudia and Thomas Finchum who were expected to medal and did not. Hopes were high and gratitude was overflowing from Audrey Finchum, mother of Hoosier diver. "Everybody pooled their fund to help us get here and we are just so thankful, it really means a lot, thank you." The Boudia and Finchum families arrived at the Water Cube, the diving venue, to see Noblesville's David Boudia and Indianapolis' Thomas Finchum compete in the synchronized ten meter platform. But the families also shared a concern: "I want him to do the best he can do so that he is happy with his

BEIJING -- David Boudia and Thomas Finchum couldn't deliver the United States' first Olympic diving medal since 2000, finishing fifth today in the synchronized 10-meter event at the Water Cube. Boudia, Noblesville, and Finchum, Indianapolis, won the Americans' only diving medal at the 2007 World Championships and had one streak of 10 consecutive international meets in which they won medals. They were less than five points from a bronze medal. As expected, China's Lin Yue and Huo Liang won the gold, scoring 468.18 points. Germany's Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein were second, 450.42, and Russia's Gleb Galperin and Dmitriy Dobroskok third, 445.26. Australia was fourth at 444.84. The Hoosiers scored 440.63. They were in third place through four of the six rounds but dropped to fifth after their fifth dive. No U.S. diver has won a medal at the Olympic Games since Laura Wilkinson's gold on platform at Sydney in 2000. No U.S. male diver has won a medal since Ind

Google's e-mail service Gmail is offline for many users right now. Those wondering if they are alone in experiencing the outage can find comfort on Twitter, which is up and sizzling with Gmail down alerts. To track the spread of the outage (and to find out when it is corrected), take a look Twitter Search, which is posting dozens of items a second about the outage. Some Webware readers are reporting that Gmail's business e-mail service is also down. Users already logged into Gmail when the outage started may be able to read messages in their in-box, although sending messages generates an error. Update: Many users are reporting that the straight HTML version of Gmail is still working (some say it does not). Likewise, access via IMAP is still functioning for some users. More updates: Google's blogs are strangely silent on the topic, but the Gmail Help Discussion in Google Groups has the official updates about the outage. Also, some users are reporting that Gmail is working fo

Raymond Hunter Geisel was arrested Wednesday for a death threat geared toward Sen. Barack Obama. According to a Secret Service affidavit, Geisel, 22, was in a class for bail bondsmen when he "allegedly referred to Obama with a racial epithet and continued, 'If he gets elected, I'll assassinate him myself.' " "Another person in the class quoted Geisel as saying that 'he hated George W. Bush and that he wanted to put a bullet in the president's head,' according to the Secret Service. "Geisel denied in a written statement to a Secret Service agent that he ever made those threats, and the documents don't indicate that he ever took steps to carry out any assassination. He was charged only with threatening Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, but not for any threat against President Bush." Geisel was interviewed on Saturday by agents of the US Secret Service's Miami field office and arrested a day later. Geisel denied making thre

mythbusters kari tricks What is it that makes the water in this container invisible? Is it sulfur hexafluoride? You have probably heard of the gas Helium which is lighter than air, well that glass container is filled with a gas called Sulfur hexafluoride. Sulfur hexafluoride is a colorless, odorless gas which is heavier than air. Because it is so dense you can float a light aluminium boat on top of it. What’s even more interesting is that it has the opposite effect on your voice to the effect helium has. When you breathe in helium it makes your voice higher pitched, but when you breathe in Sulfur hexafluoride your voice become deeper. There are a lot of videos found in youtube.com illustrating how true they used the invisible water but putting something in the water and it really floats and later on sinked when the demonstrator pour the invisible water on the top of the floating object.

BEIJING -- Whenever U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps or Australian Libby Trickett breaks a world record, it is not just the spectators in the stands that jump to their feet and applaud. As the photographers happily snap away and the television commentators start yelling themselves hoarse, the swimmer's sponsors are laughing all the way to the bank. World records never last long in swimming but a flood of records in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics has created an unlikely controversy because most were achieved in Speedo's new space-age swimsuit. The jury is out still out on whether the suits are actually responsible for all the records. The manufacturers wink and smile whenever they're asked about their benefits but scientists who have tested them have found no real evidence proving there are any advantages. Whatever the case, the controversy has been a marketing dream for the sponsors whose product has suddenly become one of the most recognizable brands of the Games even thou