If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers

Proposal stuff

• Who to tell? Am I supposed to just tell everyone? Is there some etiquette here that if you personally tell someone then you have to invite them to the wedding? How does this work and how does anyone ever figure this stuff out?


• The ring. The ring he proposed with is his mother's engagement ring, it's gold with a diamond. Let's say there have been some misunderstandings about this and we've talked. Essentially, I feel like a bad person for my initial reaction to the ring being generally negative. My associations with the ring are 1) Your mom is divorced, so you're giving me a ring that represents a failed marriage and asking me to marry you? 2) Is it because you didn't have enough money for a new ring? I mean, I'd have been happy(ier) with an aluminum foil one if money was an issue. 3) I never wear gold because I think it's kind of an ugly color. So getting a gold ring was kind of disappointing because it made me feel like he didn't bother to pay attention to what I liked at all. 4) He didn't polish it or put it in a new box or anything, so it looked kind of...well, shabby in an old and beat up mustard yellow box.
  
  Of course, after we talked about it he said that to him the ring was representative of his family's acceptance of me, which is a big deal given our rocky beginnings. To him it brings memories of when his family was happily together and thus it has a lot of positive emotional value. For me to say that I think it's ugly is sort of a rejection of all the things that the ring represents to him.
  
  I can see both points of view here, and I don't like hurting his feelings. I'm trying really hard to like the ring but it's hard at the moment because on the day he proposed we took it in to a jewelry shop and sent it away to be resized so that it would fit me. At this point, I've only actually seen the ring for a total of about 5 minutes, and it was unpolished at the time (the value in that to the bf being that it further represents the age and memories).
  
  Anyone that's been told about the proposal has had a reaction to the age of the ring of, "That's so romantic!" This makes me feel like an awful person, but at least after discussing it with him I'm much more appreciative of the ring for what it represents rather than for just what it looked like.

Wedding stuff

• How much should it cost? Because we're pretty poor since he's in grad school and I ain't exactly making the big bucks here.


• Location. He said we should do it in a place that's special for us, the only problem is that the only places that are special to us because of memories are really Disney World which is really ridiculously expensive, and PAX which is nowhere near us.


• We're non-religious. Who do we want to do the ceremony? This ties in to the question of special-ness. If we want the person doing the ceremony to be someone special to us, well...the only people we could think of were Tycho and Gabe from Penny Arcade, who we don't even know personally.


• Some other wedding stuff. Having been to a few weddings of friends in the past, I've gotta say, I'm not a fan of weddings. They're boring, they're filled with a bunch of people you don't know (which is a nightmare for introverts like me), they're tedious, you never really get to spend any time with your friend the bride/groom, they're time consuming, and they're expensive. I've endured other weddings, part of me really rebels at the thought of voluntarily putting myself through another one and putting everyone else through one too. What would be special to the two of us? I suppose one centered around videogames and games. I'm still trying to decide how much of the customary wedding stuff to jettison in favor of things I'm comfortable with since everyone who might have a say seems fairly content to bow out of deciding or helping with the nightmare of planning.


• Wedding rings. I keep staring at silver colored diamond or gemstone rings which probably isn't all that appropriate for a wedding band, that's supposed to be the engagement ring. I've decided to stop torturing myself and my now fiance until I at least see the ring he gave me and actually get to try it on/see it on my damned finger.


• Honeymoon. This is more important to me than sadistically torturing people I know with a wedding and reception, but once again the issue is and always will be money.


• Wedding registry. This is supposed to be a chance to get better household gear and stock up on it. The problem is, we already live together in a 1 bedroom apartment. We really don't have a ton of space to put shit, so I can't envision asking people to buy us a bunch. This is really probably the least of my worries.

Future stuff

• They say that there's what's called a marriage tax. That when you get married you end up paying more taxes than you did when you were single. This concerns me because it seems like quite a price to pay year after year for being married. Of course, maybe this is proportionally smaller or is more beneficial if you have children. I guess we'll find out.



• Name change. First of all, this seems like a big pain in the ass. There's a million different places where your name has to be fixed. Plus, I'm not sure that I want my name changed. I mean, in principle it seems fine but the reality is that his last name tacked onto my first name sounds dumb. Another concern here is that my only other sibling shows no signs of getting married and doesn't seem to have had any romantic interests in his life. I'm worried about this because I had an inkling that the continuation of our family name and all of that is of somewhat of a concern to my parents, and therefore giving up my last name might be equivalent of my killing our family's chances for that.



• Kids. I don't want to have them, but I feel obligated to at some point (family before I go completely infertile. This is not an issue right now, but it might be 5 years down the line when the biological clock is close to hitting 0 and neither he nor I wants one. It isn't so much the having a kid that I object to so much as it's the time, attention, and financial commitment. The fiance isn't looking forward to having kids either, so this is a big potential pain in the ass for the future.

1. Try to figure out which store will be the least masochistic to go to. Try to figure out which one will have the types of clothes that I like and feel comfortable in. Pick one and go to it.



2. Pick out a few pieces of clothing that look nice. Go to dressing room and try them on. Realize that they are either the wrong size, or make me look like a bear in a tutu.



3. Go back out and load up on about 8 billion things to drag to the changing room after admitting that I have no idea of what would look good or not. Try all of it on in rapid succession in the changing room to find that of them, 60% are the wrong size even though they're all labeled the same goddamned size, and 40% of them still look like a bear in a tutu.



4. Go back out and get 4 different sizes for each of the 60% of items. Go back to the changing room and try variations of each one until I can find one that fits. Have it finally fit and decide that it makes me look like a clown.



5. Take the 1 or 2 items that look ok and fit out to the store and find the racks that they were on. Load up on 2-8 of each so that I don't have to come back to do the whole rigamarole over again for a good long time.



6. Wear what looks like the same pair of pants and shirt every day because I bought a bunch of the same thing.

"After the train stopped and the conductors opened the door, the Korean people (there were about 5 of them) began to load their big, heavy cartons with unknown content. When we approached the door and wanted to show our tickets, the conductors, who were "guarding" our "entrance-door to North Korea", said only "zdes neljsa, zdes nelsja, drugoj vagon" (which means "here forbidden, here forbidden, other vagon"). They even didn't want to look at the ticket and didn't understand me (or didn't want to) when I said "my do Phenjana edim" (We are going to Pyongyang). I wanted to show the passport with the North Korean visa, but it seemed that they didn't want to have anything to do with us, the conductor only continued saying "drugoj, russkij vagon" and so on. Around us the Korean people were still loading stuff and looked at us strange backpackers…
What to do now? Will our plan already fail in Irkutsk?
At this moment a Russian conductor ("provodnik") from the Komsomolsk-bound sleeping car noticed that we had some problem and came to us. We explained him the situation.
Then the following happened (you have to know, that the RZD-conductor was quite tall and wearing the authoritative-looking RZD-uniform): He shouted "Provodnik!" to the direction of the door of the Korean sleeping car and gave the man, who reacted, an unmistakable sign to come here. He then showed him the ticket and – without speaking any word – first pointed to the car and place number on the tickets, then on us and then towards the Korean sleeping car. Unbelievable!
In the face of the Korean conductor we could notice his respect for the Russian conductors and he said only "khorosho, khorosho" – and let us in! Perfect, the first hurdle is done!"

Auto execs prepare for second run at Washington

When New Hampshire voters went to the polls in November, they not only helped elect the nation's first African-American president, they voted in the first female Senate majority in the state's history. New Hampshire is also the only state in the country where women lead both legislative chambers.

Doctors in Berlin are reporting that they cured a man of AIDS by giving him transplanted blood stem cells from a person naturally resistant to the virus.
Skip to next paragraph
RSS Feed

* Get Health News From The New York Times »

Readers' Comments

Share your thoughts.

* Post a Comment »
* Read All Comments (20) »

But while the case has novel medical implications, experts say it will be of little immediate use in treating AIDS. Top American researchers called the treatment unthinkable for the millions infected in Africa and impractical even for insured patients in top research hospitals.

“It’s very nice, and it’s not even surprising,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “But it’s just off the table of practicality.”

The patient, a 42-year-old American resident in Germany, also has leukemia, which justified the high risk of a stem-cell transplant. Such transplants require wiping out a patient’s immune system, including bone marrow, with radiation and drugs; 10 to 30 percent of those getting them die.

“Frankly, I’d rather take the medicine,” said Dr. Robert C. Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, referring to antiretroviral drugs.

Moreover, the chances of finding a donor who is a good tissue match for the patient and also has the rare genetic mutation that confers resistance to H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, are extremely small. Nonetheless, the man has been free of the virus for 20 months even though he is not using antiretroviral drugs, and the success in his case is evidence that a long-dreamed-of therapy for AIDS — injecting stem cells that have been genetically re-engineered with the mutation — might work.

The cure was announced Wednesday by Dr. Gero Hütter and Dr. Eckhard Thiel, blood-cancer specialists at Charité Hospital in Berlin. The case was described last week in The Wall Street Journal.

The first pictures of planets outside our Solar System have been taken, two groups report in the journal Science.

Visible and infrared images have been snapped of a planet orbiting a star 25 light-years away.

Canadian authorities have released a prisoner known as Big Mike who was found to be too fat to fit in his cell.

Michel Lapointe is a convicted drugs gang member arrested in 2006 who weighs 450lb (205kg).

Being James Bond isn't easy. Daniel Craig has the scars to prove it. It cost him eight stitches, a severed fingertip and several bruised ribs, but Craig has once again stepped into the shoes of James Bond for "Quantum of Solace," set to debut in U.S. theatres Friday.

I walk away from the table. I feel sorry for that little boy. I worked in adolescent psych and saw many rich children, kids born with every advantage, suffocate inside their parents’ self absorbed lifestyles and fall prey to self destructive behaviors. I remember the parents at the family conferences – arrogant, successful, and impatient - wondering why we couldn’t “fix” their children. Life was a zero sum game for them. For some reason this little boy’s parents remind me of them. I hope, for his sake, that I’m wrong. He’s only going to be a little boy once. Let him enjoy it. Anxiety and failure comes for us all eventually. Why rush things?

An Oklahoma woman invited to a rural Louisiana campsite for a Ku Klux Klan initiation ritual was shot and killed after she asked to be taken back to town, the sheriff of a New Orleans suburb said Tuesday. Eight people were arrested after authorities found the woman's body hidden under some brush, on the side of a road several miles from the remote campsite where the initiation was planned.

Regulations that stop strange-shaped fruit and vegetables being sold are about to be changed by the European Union. But are we willing to eat wonky veg?

A Brazilian woman has died after being struck by her husband's coffin when the hearse they were travelling in was involved in a car crash.

The 67-year-old woman was on the way to the cemetery to bury her husband, who had died the day before.

The hearse was struck from behind by an Alfa Romeo car, police said.

The coffin slammed into the head of the woman, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the hearse, killing her instantly, according to officers.

A rapidly deteriorating situation in the U.S. auto industry may serve as the backdrop for a classic contest of political wills between the outgoing Bush administration on one hand and both President-elect Obama and the newly strengthened Democratic congressional majority on the other.

If President Bush refuses to help bail out the struggling Big Three automakers, the Democratic leadership is promising that it will do so, most likely in the form of a lame-duck session convened as early as next week.

A train hit and killed a 16-year-old student Monday afternoon in Cramerton, N.C., while he was listening to an MP3 player.

Police said Joshua Phillips was walking home from South Point High School. A freight train hit him from behind on a railroad trestle near North Main Street.

Police said Phillips apparently never heard the train coming.

But a man living in Louisville contacted WLKY because, as of the end of November, it will be one year he's been suffering with hiccups -- and the situation is getting worse.

Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian was arrested on Tuesday as prosecutors sought to detain him in connection with a long-running corruption probe, officials said.

Under interrogation on Tuesday, Chen chose not to answer some questions, while dozens of supporters protested outside the investigators' office.

He earlier accused the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) government of persecuting him under pressure from Beijing, which considers Taiwan a renegade province to be reunified with China, by force if necessary.

"The KMT and the Chinese Communist Party see me as their number one prisoner as I am the biggest stone blocking their way to reunification," pro-independence Chen told reporters.

He accused his successor, Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, of pursuing a political agenda and punishing him for violent demonstrations during a visit by Beijing's top envoy to the island last week.

The USS Intrepid, the World War II-era aircraft carrier that has served as a floating museum on Manhattan's West Side waterfront since 1982, was much in need of a makeover. After nearly two years in dry dock, a vastly improved Intrepid reopens to the public Saturday, just in time for Veterans Day.

Visitors now enter the 900-foot Essex-class carrier, one of the so-called fast carriers, through a large atrium on the ship's main hangar deck. A large video screen shows images of the ship in war and in peace. There's also a diagram of the Intrepid that shows where you are and what there is to see, as well as a hole in the deck that lets visitors see seven decks down into the bowels of the ship.

A BBC radio presenter has been replaced over allegedly racist comments made during an off-air phone conversation.

Sam Mason, who took over the BBC Radio Bristol weekday afternoon programme six weeks ago, was suspended on Friday.

She was informed by station bosses on Saturday that she would no longer be working for the BBC.

According to The Sun newspaper, Miss Mason allegedly told a Bristol taxi firm "not to send an Asian driver to pick up her daughter".

The Sun said Miss Mason, 40, told a cab operator: "A guy with a turban on is going to freak her out."

O'Boyle was just one of about 154,000 veterans who call the streets home. Some find help through the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has approved funding for about 15,000 beds this year in transitional housing programs and provides approximately 5,000 veterans each year with residential services in VA hospital-based programs.

This leaves up to 134,000 veterans to fend for themselves. Private and nonprofit organizations, including New York-based Pathways to Housing, step in where the VA leaves off.

As retailers brace for penny-pinching shoppers this holiday season, they're hoping their websites can deliver some good news. At the very least, the internet should outdo the sidewalk in delivering sales growth. Moreover, with websites like FatWallet and SlickDeals featuring bargain basement prices, hunting around for the best value is a convenient mouse click away. That's an easier proposition for many than slogging to the mall and fighting traffic, crowds and parking problems.

A boat captain has been charged with alien smuggling after a vessel ran aground in October and six migrants died.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the boat ran aground on Oct. 31 off Virginia Key. The U.S. Coast Guard and several other agencies searched for and rescued more than 20 migrants who had been on the boat. Six people's bodies also were found.

Several of the rescued migrants told authorities that they had paid between $4,000 and $15,000 apiece to come to the U.S. in a wooden boat, and that Crecencio Hernandez, 62, of the Dominican Republic was its captain.

A 13-year-old Oklahoma City boy who was shot in the chest with an arrow last week has been released from OU Medical Center.

Police said Johnathon Brainard was critically injured Thursday when he was shot by 14-year-old Caleb Parham during a confrontation at Parham's home in northwest Oklahoma City.

Brainard's mother, Molly Jenkins, said the arrow broke through her son's sternum and pierced his heart.

Jenkins told Eyewitness News 5 on Monday that her son is in a lot of pain but was sent home with a lot of pain medication. She said that there was no timetable for recovery but that it could take months. There is also no timetable for when he'll return to school or whether he'll be returning to Edmond's Summit Middle School, where he was a classmate of Parham.

Parham has been arrested and taken to a juvenile detention center on a complaint of assault with a dangerous weapon.

Police said Brainard and Parham were arguing, and Parham went into his house and got a compound bow, loaded it and shot Brainard.

The corpse flower at the Milwaukee Public Museum is blooming even though it suddenly collapsed Saturday.

The giant plant emits a stench like dead fish when it finally blooms. It has only happened about 150 times anywhere in the world.

The museum has another corpse flower growing that could open next year.

A 150-year-old family pet is back home in Cupertino after going missing for more than a month.

The desert tortoise named "Butch" was found Monday in the yard of his caretakers, Chuck and Penny Carle. He went missing from the yard in September.

The Carle family believed he was stolen because there is a chain link fence around the property.

Desert tortoises go into hibernation this time of year, and Butch immediately went to sleep after his return.

The titan arum or Amorphophallus titanum (from Ancient Greek amorphos, "without form, misshapen" + phallos, "penis", and titan, "giant") is a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The largest single flower is borne by the Rafflesia arnoldii; the largest branched inflorescence in the plant kingdom belongs to the Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera). The titan arum was originally discovered by an Italian botanist, Odoardo Beccari, in Sumatra in 1878. It thrives at the edges of rainforests near open grasslands. Though found in many botanic gardens around the world it is still indigenous only to the tropical forests of Sumatra. Due to its fragrance, which is reminiscent of the smell of a decomposing mammal,[1] the titan arum is also known as a carrion flower, the "Corpse flower", or "Corpse plant" (in Indonesian, "bunga bangkai" – bunga means flower, while bangkai means corpse or cadaver; for the same reason, the same title is also attributed to Rafflesia which, like the titan arum, also grows in the rainforests of Sumatra).

President-elect Barack Obama is poised to move swiftly to reverse actions that President Bush took using executive authority, and his transition team is reviewing limits on stem cell research and the expansion of oil and gas drilling, among other issues, members of the team said Sunday.

The government on Monday provided new financial assistance to troubled insurance giant American International Group, including pouring $40 billion into the company in return for partial ownership.

The action, announced jointly by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, was taken as it became increasingly clear that an original financial lifeline thrown to AIG in September would be insufficient to stabilize the teetering company. All told, the moves boost aid to the company to around $150 billion in what is likely to be the largest bailout to a single private firm. Fed officials, however, expressed confidence that the money would be repaid to taxpayers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday expressed hope that the California Supreme Court would overturn Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage. He also predicted that the 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have already wed would not see their marriages nullified by the initiative.

"It's unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end," Schwarzenegger said in an interview Sunday on CNN. "I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area."

Rome's Ciampino airport has temporarily closed after a Ryanair flight from Frankfurt suffered "substantial damage" as it made an emergency landing.

The budget airline said the plane experienced engine problems from multiple bird strikes as it came in to land at Rome's second-largest airport.

She and the other 40 or so members of the Maine Troop Greeters have made it their mission to welcome every incoming and outbound flight of soldiers and Marines who use Bangor International Airport as a refueling stop.

No matter what time of day or night, there will always be applause, handshakes and hugs to make the troops feel appreciated.

Guptill says he remembers coming home from that conflict and receiving no welcome at all.

Guptill and other veterans, including those who served in Vietnam and World War II, were determined not to let that happen again.

For those heading to Iraq or Afghanistan, the recognition is noticed and greatly appreciated, troops say.

"It makes me feel good," said one soldier headed out on his first deployment. "I'm a little nervous," he continued, adding that the warm greeting helped ease his nerves.

An 8-year-old boy is scheduled in court Monday to face two counts of premeditated murder in the shooting death of his father and a friend.

The hearing comes on the same day mourners were to gather for a funeral.

Police say the boy, a third-grader, confessed to planning and carrying out the shooting deaths of his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and a co-worker who rented a room from him.

The men were found dead inside Romero's home northeast of Phoenix on Wednesday.

Authorities had no motive for the shootings.

"That's what's puzzling to us," Police Chief Roy Melnick said Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "There's no record of any problems in school, no reported abuse."

Ten people had to be rescued from a stuck elevator in New Bedford on Thursday night.

A group of people piled into an elevator on the second floor of the New Bedford City Hall at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and they weren't able to get out for two hours.

On the way down to the first floor, the elevator's emergency brakes engaged because the car exceeded its weight capacity of approximately 1,700 pounds, the New Bedford Standard Times reported.

Lincoln police said a mother dropped off her teenage daughter at a hospital under Nebraska’s safe haven law.

It happened at the capital city’s Bryan LGH West hospital just after 11 p.m. Sunday.

Authorities said the mother told them she was having relationship problems with her daughter.

The safe haven law allows parents and guardians to drop off children up to 18 years old at hospitals without fear of prosecution.

Nebraska’s legislature will convene later this week in a special session to change the age limit in the law to infants 3 days old and under.

So far, 30 children have been dropped off since the law took effect in July.

Kimball said shinning a laser at any aircraft is a state and federal felony. In a recent case, a couple in Kern County were sentenced to two years and 18 months in federal prison for shining a laser into the cockpit of a Kern County sheriff's patrol helicopter.

During the presidential primaries, Barack Obama infamously rolled a score of 37 for seven frames.

Known more for his prowess on the basketball court, the soon-to-be leader of the free world later talked on the Jimmy Kimmel show about replacing the White House bowling lanes with a basketball court.

"I saw the clip on YouTube, and I have some tips for Obama," Duke said. "Obama's been in a suit and tie too long. He needs to get some athletic apparel and a bowling ball that fits his hand. He needs to work on hitting the head pin because he didn't do that very well (on the YouTube clip)."

The American economy lost another 240,000 jobs in October, the government reported Friday morning, the 10th consecutive monthly decline and a clear signal that an accelerating slowdown is assailing households and businesses.

The unemployment rate climbed to 6.5 percent , the highest level since 1994 and up from 6.1 percent the month before.

Since August, the economy has lost 651,000 jobs — more than three times as many were lost from May to July. So far, 1.2 million jobs have been lost this year.

The approval of Proposition 8 comes even as the state is suffering through another bout of bad economic news. On Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who opposed Proposition 8, in part on economic grounds, announced that the state’s budget deficit had already swelled to $11.2 billion for the coming year, and called the Legislature back into session and proposed higher taxes to address the budget problems.

The heads of the three leading U.S. automakers met with the congressional leaders Thursday to discuss a possible bailout - one day before General Motors and Ford Motor are expected to report sizable quarterly losses and reveal painful cost-cutting measures.

Executives with knowledge of the meetings said they focused on preliminary discussions about what was at stake if one or more automakers fail. The meetings also included Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers union.

Sprint Nextel Corp., the U.S. wireless carrier that has lost more than $1 billion this year, renegotiated its credit agreements to avoid the risk of default.

Sprint said today that it replaced a $6 billion revolving credit facility with a $4.5 billion agreement due in 2010. The new terms allow Sprint to amass more debt relative to earnings.

A new study published in the journal Biological Psychology used fMRI scans to compare brain activity in eight unusually aggressive 16- to 18-year-old males to those of eight normal adolescent males while they watched videos of people getting hurt.

While both groups showed activity in the brain's pain centers, the brains of aggressive males, those with conduct disorder, also showed activity in the brain's pleasure centers, suggesting that they may have been enjoying what they were seeing. Normal males showed no such activity.

Mr Obama made the promise of a new pet to Malia, 10 and Sasha, seven, in an election victory speech broadcast to millions around the world, suggesting it is one campaign pledge that will be kept.

Malia, however, is rumoured to favour a goldendoodle - a poodle crossed with a golden retriever.

In an American Kennel Club survey of 42,000 people this summer, a pedigree poodle came out as the top choice for a new First Dog.

The demise of some of China's ruling dynasties may have been linked to changes in the strength of monsoon rains, a new study suggests.

The findings come from 1,800-year record of the Asian monsoon preserved in a stalagmite from a Chinese cave.

Weak - and therefore dry - monsoon periods coincided with the demise of the Tang, Yuan and Ming imperial dynasties, the scientists said.

A Coweta County man who set his house on fire while cleaning out cobwebs with a blowtorch won't be charged, Fire Chief Bill Haynes told CBS 46 Thursday afternoon.

Authorities said Galen Winchell set fire to his home on Smith Road in Sargent around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday as he cleaned cobwebs from exterior eaves with a blowtorch. Winchell noticed the blaze when he saw smoke pouring from the attic.

Some say Darnell Curry's story is a miraculous one after an unprecedented surgery attempted to give him a new life.
Darnell, 53, weighed over 500 pounds. For three years, he was a prisoner in his own home.

But at the urging of his family and doctors, Darnell decided to undergo risky surgery.
It's a dangerous move for Darnell. Before the procedure, his abdomen nearly touched the ground. It's what doctors call an "abdominal apron," or apron pannus. It nearly immobilized him and was a dangerous strain on his knees, hips, groin and internal organs.

The surgery to remove Darnell's hanging skin took six hours and a team of doctors at the University of Louisville Bariatric Unit.

"There were probably six different surgeons involved," said Little. "[And] a lot of ancillary staff just to allow us to get where we needed to be and allow the retraction we needed."

"Retraction" meant using pure human strength to lift up Darnell's abdomen so the surgical team could cut and remove two triangular sections of skin.

"The skin and fat itself weighed 175 pounds," Little said.

LONE OAK, Ky. - Election fever gripped most of us the past few days, but some folks must now get past the after-effects.

Consider the voters in Lone-Oak. A close race, but a majority decided to dissolve their city in 30 days.

It came down to a difference of 11 votes, but when you live in a city that's as small as Lone Oak is, it makes all the difference in the world.

"I voted to dissolve the city because of the tax issue mainly," Joyce Puckett said. She's one of 75 people who voted to do away with Lone Oak.

She says it all came down to taxes.

"We were paying $200 on my house just in taxes alone. The only favor we got back was police protection but McCracken County Sheriff is also doing that," Puckett said.

So now the city police department will cease to exist, along with the city government and elected positions like the mayor.

The clergyman and nuns allegedly hit and kicked the 49-year-old man in an argument over the lease on the restaurant, which is owned by the Catholic Church.

The restaurateur said he rushed to the eatery, in the village of Rutino near Salerno, in southern Italy, after hearing that the priest and nuns were causing trouble.

He told police that he got into an argument with the priest, who smashed a chair over his head. The nuns followed up by kicking him in the stomach.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand rape victim drove her rapist to a police station when he fell asleep in his car after assaulting the woman, local media reported on Wednesday.

Vipul Sharma, 22, was found guilty of abduction and two charges of rape by the Auckland District Court Tuesday, court officials told Reuters Wednesday.

The New Zealand newspaper said Sharma met the woman at an Auckland bar in 2006 and later drove her first to a park where he raped her in the back seat of his car.

After the attack Sharma allowed the woman to drive and fell asleep in the passenger seat, so the woman drove him to Auckland Central police station where he was arrested, said the newspaper.

"She showed a lot of bravery and common sense. I have nothing but respect for what she has endured," police detective Simon Welsh told the newspaper.

Bush and Obama showed early signs of cooperation, with the president inviting his successor to visit the White House "as soon as possible" and promising to help make the changeover a smooth one.

With the economic summit on the horizon, a Bush administration official said the White House is "consulting closely with the president-elect's team," but could not say whether Obama or one of his representatives would be included in the meeting with 20 foreign leaders next week. "This effort will obviously straddle the two administrations, and it will be up to the president-elect as to how he would like to have input," the official said.

China's government has urged America's new president-elect, Barack Obama, to oppose independence for Taiwan.

A foreign ministry spokesman said the issue was key to good relations.

The demand comes after Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou held a brief but historic meeting with a senior Chinese envoy in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.

The nine year old child lives with her parents and six brothers and sisters in a humble, two-roomed house overlooking the mosque built by her namesake, Queen Arwa, who ruled Yemen 900 years ago.

Arwa is the youngest of three Yemeni girls who recently went to court complaining they were married against their will and asking for divorce - an astonishing display of defiance that has prompted the government to review its law on early marriage.

An Arizona jogger had an unwelcome companion on a recent run - a fox, hanging on to her arm by its teeth.

The rabid animal had attacked her foot and then as she grabbed its neck, it bit her arm and would not let go.

She ran a mile to her car, where she managed to free herself, wrap the fox in a shirt and throw it in the boot.

It later bit an animal control officer and both jogger and vet received anti-rabies injections, and the fox was confirmed as carrying the disease.

An airline crew used duct tape to keep a passenger in her seat because they say she became unruly, fighting flight attendants and grabbing other passengers, forcing the flight to land in North Carolina. Castillo, 45, struck a flight attendant on the buttocks with the back of her hand during Saturday's flight, FBI Special Agent Peter Carricato said in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte.

She also stood and fell onto the head of a blind passenger and later started pulling the person's hair, the complaint stated.

The body of a 49-year-old man missing since September was found in a Shawnee County barn on Tuesday.

The body of Larry Carls, of Wakarusa, was discovered around 1:30 p.m. by his father. William Dale Carls was on his way to work in a field on the family's property when he went to check an unsecured barn door and discovered his son's body.

Deputies said he had been dead for several weeks.

Larry Carls had been missing since leaving his home in the middle of the night on Sept. 9, according to his sister, Vera Brinkman.

Carls left a note for his wife and 4-year-old son that night, saying he needed to get away and be alone so he could "find out what God wanted him to do."

Brinkman said Carls was associated with a religious group that promotes fasting and had lost about 50 pounds after two seven-day fasts in July and August.

An Omaha restaurant's staff has been treated to an early Christmas after receiving a tip of more than $10,000.

The staff at Sullivans Restaurant at 15th and Douglas streets waited on the same group almost every night for three weeks. The group was made up of musicians, in town with the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Coffee, doughnuts and ice cream are being offered up in election day giveaways by Starbucks Coffee Inc., Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. and Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc.

But Starbucks' giveaway may violate state and federal laws because it specifically targets voters, according to the attorney general of Washington state.

Seattle-based Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) said it is giving away a free "tall" 12-ounce cup of coffee to anyone who votes.

North Carolina-based Krispy Kreme (NYSE:KKD) is giving away star-shaped doughnuts and Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's is offering free scoops of its ice cream Tuesday. But those companies aren't requiring people to say they voted to get their treats.

Despite the alleged election law problem, a spokesman for the Washington state AG said the office didn't plan to press charges, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Ben & Jerry's said in a statement that it had considered a promotion similar to Starbucks' but changed plans when it learned of the possible legal complications. Instead, all customers at its shops between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Tuesday will be given free scoops.

Krispy Kreme is only requiring that customers at its 85 company-owned stores mention its promotion to get their free doughnut. Some of its 145 franchisees will also participate.

Taiwan and China set aside decades of hostilities Tuesday and agreed to drastically expand flights and allow shipping links across the Taiwan Strait, a potential hotspot that has long threatened to become a war zone.

Stoning victim 'begged for mercy'

Human rights group Amnesty International says the victim was a 13-year-old girl who had been raped.

Initial reports had said she was a 23-year-old woman who had confessed to adultery before a Sharia court.

The witness says she was forced into a hole, buried up to her neck then pelted with stones until she died in front of more than 1,000 people.

Cat and dog owners are to be told to provide "entertainment" and "mental stimulation" for their pets under new government advice.

The code of practice also includes advice on diet and providing "somewhere suitable to go to the toilet".

A Texas businessman who owns a ranch in central Colorado has pleaded guilty to one count each of criminal mischief and animal cruelty in the slaughter of 32 bison that belonged to a neighbor.

Jeff Hawn also agreed to pay $83,000 to the bison's owner, $70,000 to charities and $4,000 to the Park County Sheriff's Department.

Minerva Lopez, 32, was initially charged last month with 16 counts of child abuse. Her husband, Porfirio Olivas-Lopez, 38, who was initially charged with 11 counts of child abuse, now faces 24 counts of child abuse.
A mother who allegedly beat and tortured her 14-year-old daughter entered an insanity plea Monday to 25 felony charges, after prosecutors ramped up the number of child abuse charges against both of the girl's parents.
Town of Madison police Detective Robb Hale, who is investigating the case, said the new abuse charges involve "other atrocious events" such as dunking the girl's head into a toilet and forcing her to eat insects and a dead mouse, along with more allegations that the girl was beaten with different objects.
The complaint also alleges that Lopez admitted scalding the girl with hot water, choking her, cutting her wrist with a kitchen knife and biting her face.