Mother of octuplets has six other children

Possibly one of the scarier headline in the news today.

The mother of a woman who gave birth on Monday to octuplets said her daughter already has six children at home and was undergoing fertility treatment.

That's 14 children for her to feed and clothe from now on. As CNN.com says:

In her written statement the woman who delivered eight babies in five minutes said she would soon make public the details of her "miraculous experience."

"We understand that you are all curious about the arrival of the octuplets, and we appreciate your respect for our family's privacy," she said.

"The babies continue to grow strong every day and make good progress. My family and I are ecstatic about all of their arrivals."

"Needless to say, the eighth was a surprise to us all, but a blessing as well," she added.

The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces -- are doing well following their Caesarean-section delivery at the Bellflower hospital, doctors said. They were born nine weeks premature.

Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatalist, said all but one of the octuplets are now breathing on their own. That baby might be taken off breathing equipment Friday.

Doctors initially thought the mother was pregnant with seven fetuses. She was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest.

During the seven weeks, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff members prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday, they were in for a surprise.

"After the seventh baby was born, we were taking a sigh of relief," Maples said.

"It was a surprise of our life when we in fact discovered there was an eighth baby," she said. "We never had an assignment for baby H nurse or baby H doctor. We just had to go on the fly and figure out what to do."

I can only imagine what this woman must be thinking or planning. Of course in the back of my mind the Kilkenny man is thinking "All she needs now is one more for a hurling team."

President Bush wearing a Brian Cowen mask perhaps

As spotted on the Irish Times website this morning:



Caption under the photo of President Bush Brian Cowen reads:

President George W Bush walks away after making his final televised address to the nation last night. Photo: Reuters/Jason Reed

Someone, somewhere has got some explaining to do...

What's that word the young people use these days? File? Fall? Fool? Flail?

One week to go

Photo take from this morning's Metro.

Outgoing US President George W Bush smiles at his final press conference in the White House yesterday, admitting he was disappointed that Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction.

It's somewhat surprising and relieving to think that in less than a week President Bush won't be in charge of nuclear weapons, foreign policy, aid donations or military attacks. He said he'll get "off the stage" to let his successor get on with things. I know a lot of hope is riding on Obama's shoulders, but things will have to change.

In related news, the Obama team is said to have been inundated with applications to join the administration. More than 350,000 people applied for a position in the team, four times the amount that applied to work for the Bush administration.

I wonder if they're accepting applications from Ireland?

Colin Farrell, Gabriel Byrne and Slumdog Millionaire win at Golden Globes

It's never really interested me before, but this year's Golden Globes - the 66th apparently - had such a diverse range of films and acting roles in competition, I must admit I was a little bit hooked.

Irish winners are Gabriel Byrne and Colin Farrell. Kate Winslet won two and Slumdog Millionaire won four.

House and 24 were beaten as were Brendan Gleeson, Judi Dench, America Ferrera, Christina Applegate, Hugh Laurie, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Sally Field, Frost/Nixon, The curious case of Benjamin Button, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sean Penn and well... you get the idea.

So, winners last night were:

The Cecil B. DeMille Award:
Steven Spielberg

Best Motion Picture - Drama:
Slumdog Millionaire (Saw this last night. Highly recommend it. Very well made.)

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler (as expected)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama:
Kate Winslet – Revolutionary Road (as expected)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Colin Farrell – In Bruges

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Kate Winslet – The Reader (Second win of the night - we can expect to see a lot more from her!)

Best Animated Feature Film
Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film
Waltz With Bashir (Israel)

Best Director - Motion Picture
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Slumdog Millionaire
Written by Simon Beaufoy

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
Slumdog Millionaire
Composed by A. R. Rahman

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
"The Wrestler" – The Wrestler
Music & Lyrics By: Bruce Springsteen

Best Television Series - Drama
Mad Men

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama
Anna Paquin – True Blood

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
Gabriel Byrne – In Treatment

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
30 Rock

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Tina Fey – 30 Rock

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television
John Adams

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture made for Television
Laura Linney – John Adams

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television
Paul Giamatti – John Adams

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television
Laura Dern – Recount

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television
Tom Wilkinson – John Adams

As always, check out the great Movies.ie for more on the films.

Wo ist der liebe? German police stop youngsters from eloping

Everything was set. Having spent New Year's Eve together, they'd decided to elope. They couldn't wait any longer, and he, emboldened by his recent travels in Italy, assured her how easy the escape would be. "We'll get to the airport", he said. "That'll be the most difficult part." She, trusting his maturity and experience, agreed.

They knew their parents may not approve. Finish your education, they'd say. Work hard to improve your chances, they'd say. Spend more time together to see if you really want to be together. Typical German parents trying to put their kids on the right track.

They wanted none of it.

Let's go to Africa, he said. They'd watched a documentary on it the night before, and full of youthful optimism, of love and of a healthy regard for warm weather, they decided where to go. They packed the practical essentials they thought they'd need.

Who though to act as witness? They decided his sister, Anna-Lena would be the perfect choice and confided in her. She readily agreed. They didn't plan a long trip - just long enough to have the ceremony and return.

As the New Year dawned over Hanover, they made their escape. Sunglasses on and wheely suitcases in hand they walked the kilometre to the nearest tram stop and went to Hanover train station where they waited for the airport shuttle.

That's when a suspicious guard, possibly jealous of the young love, possibly spurned by a partner previously and still bitter, possibly angry about working New Year's morning or maybe just seeing it as his "duty" decided to get the police involved.

Two officers made their way to the station. They questioned the three, almost without provocation, on their plans for Africa, requesting to see money, tickets and passports. They brought them to the police headquarters where the three got a chance to have a good look around. A consolation prize perhaps.

Parents were called. "I'm still in a state of shock." said his mother, "I thought 'I'm playing a part in a bad movie.' When we realised they were missing we went looking for them." It was only when the police had called that they knew what happened.

Their luggage was searched. The pink lilo they'd dragged was put with their summer clothes, cuddly toys and provisions.

They knew their parents would have something to say. Would try to stop them. They wouldn't be happy when they arrived. But they smiled for the camera. They knew their love couldn't be stopped for long.


Photograph: /AFP/Getty Images

It's hard to be a six-old-boy and a five-year-old girl in Germany. Mika and Anna-Bell are told they'll have to wait until they're older.

"They can still put their plan into action at a later date," Holger Jureczko, a police spokesman said. One wonders how long it will be before they try again.

Newstalk 106-108fm tomorrow: all about Memes

Thanks to Piaras, I've been invited to the Newstalk studios tomorrow from 7pm to contribute to a discussion on Culture Shock, the Arts and Culture show with host Fionn Davenport and ENN writer (and laptop destroyer) Emmet Ryan.

We'll be talking about internet memes:

The term Internet meme is a neologism used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet. (Wikipedia)

So, that's everything from Matt Harding to XKCD, from LOLcats to the Arte y Pico award, from tagged memes to Cowen's Downfall. It could be Sophie Merry to the success of Twitter.

Broadly, memes also cover the success of "this-is-cool-and-happening" blogs like Rick's, Jazzbiscuit and The Chancer. On a strategic level it contributes to the rise of personal brands and indeed how blogging itself could be seen to be one big meme.

That one is my personal favourite, simply the hope that sometimes, people see other blogs, they see the way they write, what they write about and think "I could do that too. I'll give it a go". I love to see it happen.

Culture Shock is on from 7pm to 9pm every Saturday evening on Newstalk 106-108FM. You can listen on the website. We'll be on in the first hour.

What are your favourites memes? Have you any examples or any links to share? Let me know :)