(image from tonic.com)
   Australian couple, Kate and David Ogg had premature twins, a boy and a girl, at a hospital in Sydney. The boy, Jamie Ogg, was declared dead at birth. The couple was so grief stricken as Kate held two-pound Jamie to her chest. During this time period Jamie would take random breaths. Doctors told the Oggs that this was just nerves and their son was indeed dead. After two hours Kate put some breast milk on her finger and offered it to her deceased son who sprung to life. Doctors were awestruck by this miraculous occurrence.

References: Mother's cuddle brings baby 'back to life', Miracle Mom Cuddles Premature Son Back To Life

(image from CNNmoney.com)
   Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, along with his wife Melinda, are in the process of organizing the largest charitable cause in the history of the world. Organized on thegivingpledge.com by Melinda Gates, the two richest men in the world (okay so Mexico is richer than us now... or at least Carlos Slim Helú is ranked number one on the Forbes 400 this year) have been slowly formulating a pledge among the world's billionaires to give away a minimum of half their fortune in their lifetime or in their will.
   Although where the money goes is yet to be declared, this would be a tremendous amount of turn around. Forbes 400 net worth for 2009 was estimated at $1.2trillion dollars. If they were to give half of that away it would equal $600million dollars, double what the United States, the most charitable country in the world, gives away annually. To put this into perspective, according to Fortune Magazine, in 2007 the 18,394 taxpayers who had a ten-million dollar or more adjusted gross income claimed a total of $32.8 billion in charitable causes, a total of 5.84% of their $562 billion income. A 50% pledge would be an increase in donations close to eighty-six times more.
   Through numerous dinners, Buffet and Gates have acquired forty pledges. Only ninety percent more to go from the Forbes 400. The Gates have yet to give a percentage of their pledge, but Warren Buffet has pledged to give away 99% of his wealth by the time he dies or upon death. Other pledges include Mayor Bloomberg, David Rockefeller, Ted Turner and George Lucas. To see a full list of the current pledges check out thegivingpledge.com. The billionaires hope to eventually receive pledges from the rich worldwide.

References: The $600 billion challenge, Bill Gates No Longer World's Richest Man

   Do you lay awake at night in trepidation over the age old riddle of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, I don't either, and honestly I haven't spent much time pondering what I always considered more of a koan than a debate. However, scientists in the UK used a super-computer named HECToR (High End Computing Terascale Resource) to study how eggs are produced due to the shell's remarkable durability and the similarities between shell, teeth and bones. The scientists, led by Dr. Colin Freeman, were able to use HECToR's results to study the process in greater detail. What the scientists found is that a protein found only in chickens (their ovaries more specifically), ovocledidin-17 or OC-17, is crucial to the egg's formation. Due to this discovery, and much more complicated details about the process, the egg would have had to have been created inside of the chicken, meaning the chicken came first. Wow, now I can sleep again.

Interested in reading more? See the article at DailyTech: The Chicken or the Egg.

  I'm not going to lie, I rarely follow other state's politics, and for those of you who are from South Carolina or do follow it's politics, you might be asking who is Alvin Greene? Don't feel bad, you're not the only one. Alvin Greene flipped the world of politics upside down when he beat all other candidates for the primary Democratic candidate for US Senate. Alvin Greene in the political sense, is a nobody. Greene is an unemployed Army veteran who lives with his father. During Greene's campaign, he spent no money on adds, signs, commercials and led no debates. He did not speak once to the public, which has left everyone confused as to how this man won 60% of the votes. Michael Sigman, writer for The Huffington Post, posed the idea that voters thought they were voting for a different Al Greene (there is a famous singer known as Al Greene). However others, such as John Stewart, have found that people voted for Greene because his name appeared alphabetically first. Despite accusations that Greene was a plant by the Republicans, inquiries about his mental health, and a pending felony for showing pornography to a college student, Greene claims he is the people's choice and has no intent in backing out. Could Alvin Greene be the next US Senator? I have heard some lead the debate that all politicians are idiots so how could it hurt to have Greene in office... honestly, how bad could it get? Well, I leave you with this; how bad did it get when we elected an idiot to be president?

References: Fox News, The Huffington Post, The Christian Science Monitor

  The house on 108 Ocean Avenue went up for sale last month. This house became infamous in 1979 from the film The Amityville Horror, directed by Stuart Rosenberg. Since then there has been numerous books, documentaries and remakes including a 3D film in 1983. It wasn't just horror films that set this five-bedroom Dutch Colonial apart, on November 13, 1974 Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, Jr., at the age of 23, murdered his immediate family. The six victims were found shot to death in their beds.
  The inspiration for the movie didn't come until George and Kathleen Lutz moved into the DeFeo home in December of 1975. Being aware of the house's history, the Lutz's had a Catholic Priest (Father Ralph J. Pecoraro) perform a blessing on the house. During this process Father Ray reportedly heard a male voice telling him to "get out!" At a later date he came down with a fever and blisters on his hands when visiting the house. George and Kathleen reported many supernatural occurrences, from odors to apparitions to physical harm. In January of 1976 the Lutz family moved out, leaving most of their possessions behind.
  In March of 1977 Jim and Barbara Cromarty bought the house for $55,000. The Cromarty family has reported no unusual happenings and even went so far as to point out a lack of property damage where the Lutz family had reported. Despite many controversies, the Amityville Horror became so popular that Jim and Barbara had the address changed from 112 Ocean Avenue to 108 Ocean Avenue. Despite the lack of evidence to support the Lutz family's claims, In June 1979, George and Kathy took a lie detector test relating to their experiences at the house, which they both passed.
  The 10,900 square feet home is for sale for $1.15 million and is estimated at $872,500 by Zillow.com. The selling of 108 Ocean Avenue has caught worldwide attention. Public figure and paranormal leader Ryan Buell left a statement on his facebook stating "Thank you to the 4,654 people who alerted me that the Amityville House is up for sale...lol! After much consideration, I've decided that I prefer to have a house that didn't have a family brutally slaughtered in it! I'm old-fashioned!" In fact, out of all prospective buyers, the most promising appears to be PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). The animal rights organization wants to lease the building from it's current owners in order to create an exhibit to frighten people out of eating meat and wearing animal byproducts. NYDailyNews reported that Tracy Reiman, vice-president of PETA, wrote the present owners with this message: "In our horror house, the sound of slaughterhouse blades whirring while animals scream for their lives would play over loudspeakers. Visitors would be able to see animatronic hens struggling for space inside tiny battery cages and lifelike "fish" gasping for air as they slowly suffocate on the deck of a fishing boat."

References: Mail Online, Wikipedia: Ronald DeFeo, Jr., Wikipedia: Georg Lutz, Zillow.com, NYDailyNews.com, IMDb: Amityville Horror