Headlines (Fit; Stimulus; MySpace; Twins; O.J.)

Are you ready to get fit? Take the test

If you didn't get a Presidential Physical Fitness Award in school, the government is giving you another chance to prove you're in shape.

The test involves three basic components: aerobic fitness, muscular strength and flexibility. The test is for people 18 and older who are in good health.

The aerobic component of the tests consists of a one-mile walk or 1.5-mile run. The run is not recommended for those who don't run for at least 20 minutes, three times a week.

Push-ups and half sit-ups make up the strength test. The push-ups are done until failure. The sit-ups are done for one minute. -- the Sun-Sentinel

I never took the Presidential Fitness test as a kid, so I'd be interested in taking this new test. And as long as I'm not asked to do any pull-ups, I'd definitely pass it.

Glitch delaying government delivery of stimulus checks

There's a glitch in the government's plans to pump $150 billion into the economy by sending taxpayers a rebate: The rebates aren't arriving. Potentially, millions of taxpayers who were expecting to have their money by today will be waiting for their checks until June or July.

In addition, an IRS spokesperson in Florida confirmed Monday that some economic-stimulus payments have gone to the wrong bank accounts. -- the Sun-Sentinel

Whoops.

I have direct deposit and still haven't received mine yet, so I'm guessing this is the reason.

It's funny how if you fail to pay the IRS, you can get thrown in jail. But if the IRS fails to pay you, well, sucks for you.

That's demanding accountability without showing accountability. Double standard.

I want my money.

Mom indicted in MySpace suicide case

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.

Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Josh didn't exist.

Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her. -- MSNBC.com

This is one of the more disturbing stories I've read in a long time.

Apparently this mother is so cruel and so cold-hearted (not to mention so BORED...this must've taken up a lot of her free time) that she went through the trouble of setting up a phony MySpace account with phony pictures, phony friends, phony interests, and phony comments all for the sake of helping her daughter win a petty grudge match against a classmate. Orchestrating this diabolical plan, a plot this intricate and convoluted, obviously took a lot of time and effort. And that's the typical behavior of a seriously SOCIOPATHIC individual. That kind of commitment to the destruction of others is scary. I think this mother needed a hobby. Maybe gardening, or baking, or pilates. Anything would do, really, just as long as it kept her from picking on high school students.

And though I feel bad for the family that's been left behind in shambles, I can't completely exonerate the suicide victim from all of this. It might sound horrible to say this, but shame on her for lacking any sense of confidence or self-worth. She was convinced to kill herself by a FICTITIOUS MySpace profile. She killed herself over a "boy" she only knew on the internet and never met in real life. She killed herself over someone who didn't even exist. Again, I feel awful for her family, but that's pathetic. If she was weak enough to commit suicide over an internet insult, then she was already inclined to commit suicide over anything else equally trivial. I don't think it's not too much of a stretch to imagine her hanging herself over, oh I don't know, a paper cut.

9-year-old girl's twin is found inside her stomach

A 9-year-old girl who went to hospital in central Greece suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said Thursday.

Doctors at Larissa General Hospital examined the girl and surgically removed a growth they later discovered was an embryo more than two inches long.

Andreas Markou, head of the hospital's pediatric department, said the embryo was a formed fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord.

Markou said cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one of 500,000 live births. -- the Sun-Sentinel

Sick.

O.J.'s girlfriend suffers 2 broken legs in Miami accident

A highway patrol official says O.J. Simpson's girlfriend has been seriously injured in a car accident in Miami.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Pat Santangelo says Christie Prody was injured early Saturday morning after pulling over to an expressway emergency lane because she had two flat tires.

When the 32-year-old got out and walked around the car, Santangelo says she was hit by another car. Her head and arms went through that car's windshield.

She was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital where Santangelo says she was still being treated Wednesday for broken legs. -- the Sun-Sentinel

Haha, I didn't realize there were people in the universe willing to actually date O.J. Simpson. She must be one of those daredevil types who go over Niagara Falls in a barrel or lion-tame or jump through flaming hoops on a motorcycle. The kind of person who likes staring death in the face and gets a thrill out of defying it.

That, or she was just a really big fan of the Naked Gun movies.