December 2008
| POLL RESULTS: How much are you planning to spend versus last year on the Holidays? Selection Votes more this year 30% 6 the same 40% 8 less this year 30% 6 20 votes total |
| MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! |
| We will be having a little down time but will be back in full force 2009. Have a great Holdiay Season from ThePapNews staff! |
| December 23RD 2008 China's Massive Quake Predicted By Toads! Two days before a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 50,000 people in China, massive swarms of toads began fleeing the cities and towns hardest hit by the cataclysm. "It was as if the toads knew what was coming," says seismologist Wei Gung. "Unfortunately, no one made the connection that would have led to an evacuation that could have spared thousands of lives." Scientists agree that it's practically impossible to predict when and where an earthquake will occur with today's seismic-monitoring equipment. Yet, thousands of toads pouring across the roads in Taizhou and Mianzhu proved to be horrifyingly accurcate since these towns were nearly obliterated by the earthquake. This isn't the first time animals have beaten scientists to the punch by reacting to coming hazardous conditions. Zoo creatures have also acted bizarrely in the past before a natural disaster struck. "Animals sense pre-earthquake micro-tremors," explains Pascal Bernard, a researcher at Jussieu University in Paris. "They also react to underground water movements, or even changes in the composition of the air." Now, after the devastation and death, victims of the Chinese quake and its aftershocks are demanding answers from government officials who ignored the obvious ill omen of the marching toads. "The road and bridges the toads crossed became nothing but rubble that's buried huge numbers of helpless victims," says Fung. "Perhaps scientists have been too quick to dismiss the long tradition in China of predicting earthquakes by observing the behavior of toads, rats and snakes." "The idea that toads sensed the earthquake can't be ruled out. In fact, I'm thinking they're better warning signs than any scientific monitor could ever be." |
| December 22ND 2008 Stay At Home Moms Worth Bundles If stay-at-home moms were paid in cold, hard cash, they'd earn $117,000 a year! Researchers at Salary.com calculated the staggering figure after evaluating a typical mom's duties as house keeper, teacher, van driver, psychologist, chef, interior decorator and accountant. And the 18,000 women surveyed agree the six0figure salary is right on the money. "A lot of people think we have a lot of fun and don't do a lot of work," says Samantha Russell, a stay-at-home mother of two toddlers in Fremont, New Hampshire. "They should try cleaning their house with little kids running around and messing it up right after them." The study also revealed these women worked an avergae of 94 hours a week - that's 54 hours of overtime! "But it's a reward knowing my sons are safe and happy," Russell says. "It's worth it all." |
| December 21ST 2008 Twins Reunited For most of her life, a woman adopted at birth felt something vital was missing from her life. Finally, after 35 years, she's discovered what it was - her twin sister! Elyse Schein, of Brooklyn, New York, had no idea what she would find when she began searchingfor her biological mother. "I felt it was time to get to the bottom of this mystery that had always shadowed my life," Schein says. She admits the discovery that she had a twin was both exhilarating and unnerving. In contrast, her sister Paula Bernstein was never curious about her birth parents. She was too busy working as a freelance writer and enjoying marriage and motherhood. So the call from the adoption agency in 2004 inviting Bernstein to meet her twin caught her completely by surprise. "I suddenly felt that my life was a lie in some ways, and thought, 'What else don't I know about myself?'" confides Bernstein, who also lives in Brooklyn. Their reunion at a cafe in Manhattan revealed lives with stunning parallels. Their mannerisms were a mirror image, they're both writers who studied film in college and they cherish the same obscure German movie - Wings of Desire. Six months after their first meeting, they began collaborating on their book, Identical Strangers (Random House). And their research revealed another bombshell - the infant girls were subjects of a secret study on separated twins by a pair of child psychologists connected to their adoption agency. The study ended in 1980 and no results were ever published. But despite all the years they've lost, the two women are reveling in their newfound sisterhood. "Before, we were really linked by blood and by being twins in a twin bond, but I think that now we're a family by choice," says Schein, who lives a few blocks from her sister. "It's really come full circle. I like to say we'bve adopted each other." |
| December 20TH 2008 Booted From The Beach! Bubble-headed bureaucrats have put the bite on a beach's first lifeguard dog after two years of faithful service. Bilbo, a 6-year-old, 200-pound Newfoundland, passed rigorous safety and fitness tests before joining his owner, Steve Jamieson, on duty at Sennen Cove off the west coast of Cornwall, England. Since 2006, the pair spent the dog days of summer patrolling the sands in a four-wheeler, ready to leap to the rescue at the first sign of trouble. Bilbo is credited with saving three lives, using his technique of paddling out to distressed swimmers and pulling them to shore using the buoy strapped to his harness. His heroic exploits soon turned the chocolate-brown canine into a media darling, attracting crowds of adoring kids, a fan club, photo shoots, dog food sponsorship deals and even talk of a feature film. But all his success came in from a ruff landing when the Royal National Lifeboat Institute was given the responsibility of safeguarding the beach and immediately declared Bilbo persona non grata. "Bilbo is a privately-owned dog and doesn't belong to the RNLI," sniffs an agency spokesman. "We will not be using him to save lives at sea." And if the former celebrity pooch dares set paws on the beach, he faces a fine of $150, just like any other stray. "It's a scandal and an absolute disgrace!" fumes Jamieson, 54. "Bilbo has had fantastic support for his work." |
| December 19TH 2008 Parrot Tells Rescuers Name And Address! An escaped parrot was reunited with his grateful owner after the feathery fellow recited his complete home address! Yosuke had been on the lam for two weeks when police snatched him from a rooftop in Nagareyama, Japan. Officer Shinjiro Uemura says the stubborn African grey wouldn't utter a word under police interrogation. But once the cops gave him to an animal hospital, the parrot spilled the beans. "I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," Yosuke squawked to the vet. Not only did he provide his full home address, but he followed up that trick by singing songs to the hospital staff. "We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there," says Uemura. "So we called and told them we'd found Yosuke." |
| December 18TH 2008 Deep-Sea Mission To Open Gates Of Hell Scientists are sending robot submarines deeper than ever before to study undersea volcanoes - over the objections of religious leaders who fear they will open the gates of Hell! "These researchers might have the noblest intentions in the world, but they're fooling about with forces far older and more powerful than they understand," declares Reverend I. Gerhardt Krauss, a Lutheran minister from Berlin. "The kingdom of Hell is a very real threat - not just to them, but to all humanity." "And history has shown there are certain remote places on the planet where the barriers separating the infernal regions from our world are dangerously thin." Krauss and his colleagues reacted with alarm at the recent announcement from Brtitain's Durham University that an international team of scientists were launching an expedition to the center of the Atlantic Ocean. Researchers have taken the Royal Research Ship James Cook from the Azores Islands, off the coast of Spain, to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This vast mountain range marks the place where two tectonic plates are pulling apart two miles beneath the ocean's surface, creating a line of thousands of volcanoes stretching from the North Pole to the South Pole. "The problem is that we don't know how fast these volcanoes form," explains Professor Roger Searle, the principal investigator. "The ridges may form quickly, perhaps in just 10,000 years." "Understanding the processes forming Earth's crust is important, because the whole ocean floor, some 60 percent of the Earth's surface, has been recycled and re-formed many times over the Earth's history." Because of the extreme environment - the bone-crushing pressure of the sea floor coupled with the molten heat of the magma from beneath the fragile crust of the Earth - it's been nearly impossible to get accurate scientific measurements of the area. But past missions have come back with tantalizing glimpses of what lies beneath the planet's surface at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Long-distance magnetic scans have found evidence of vast chambers filled with objects in constant motion - as if thousands of human bodies were swirling in a flaming sea of slag. Special microphones designed to listen to undersea activity over distances of many miles have registered sounds from the area that experts describe as "bizarre" and "disturbing." "The Earth is constantly in motion, and audio scans of active zones, like the San Andreas Fault, are often filled with the creaks and groans of rocks squeezing and grinding into one another," explains geologist Howard Ebing, of Los Angeles. "Recordings from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge aren't quite the same." "They have almost a human quality, like a vast multitude of screaming voices - and the screaming never stops." "Whatever is going on down there is completely unique and unexplained." But religious historians point to similar reports from underground explorers spanning hundreds of years. "The Bible is clear that there is a realm of eternal torment deep beneath our feet in a region called either 'the pit' or 'the lake of fire,'" explains theologian Philippe Deloitet. "Throughout history, people who venture far undergorund - into the craters of volcanoes, tunneling into remote mines or natural caves - have returned with identical stories." "They feel unusually extreme heat and a sense of great menace, as if there's a dark will pressing against them." "This is followed by the sound of hundreds or thousands of voices experiencing unspeakable torture. Sometimes, the listener can make out words or phrases, but sometimes it's simply a mass of agonized shrieks." Deloitet warns that the deeper explorers go and the longer they stay, the worse things get after their return. There are earthquakes and seismic disturbances followed by what experts describe as demonic activity. Children are frequently possessed, cases of mental illness skyrocket and priests and churches come under attack by corrupt officials or deranged assailants. "The dangers of opening a gateway to Hell are all to real - the historical record shows that," Deloitet insists. "And the Mid-Atlantic Ridge could well be the largest gateway in the world." |
| December 17TH 2008 Platypus Missing Link Scientists are puzzling over the latest genetic map of the world's most bizarre creature - the duck-billed platypus. "It's such a wacky organism," explains Richard Wilson, director of the genome center at Washington University in St. Louis, who spent two years deciphering platypus DNA. "As we learn more about things like platypuses, we also learn more about ourselves, where we came from and how we work." As you might expect from a creature with a duck's bill, beaver's tail, and scaly claws with venomous spines, no less, the platypus carries individual genes similar to those found in mammals, reptiles and birds. It's also a very complicated set of DNA, with 18,500 genes in total - the same number as a human being. Some scientists are hailing the platypus genome as proof that the crazy creature is a missing link between humans and more primitive animals. "In these genes, we see many easily recognizable features from complex mammals, like human beings, combined with relics from earlier forms of life, like birds and even reptiles," explains biologist Cullen Symonds. "This sequence of genes shows that all life on Earth is related - there's a living link between iguanas and sparrows and you and I." "The platypus might look slightly ridiculous, but it's proof that we're all connected by our DNA." |
| December 16TH 2008 Forget Kids Get A Monkey! Empty-nester are going bananas over the latest substitute for thr pitter-patter of little feet - tiny monkeys! Lori Johnson, of Orlando, Florida, says she felt lost after the youngest of her 12 children left home 18 years ago. "I wanted someone to look after," the 58-year-old grand-mother explains. "A vet said if I wanted a child for life, I should consider a primate." So Lori and her husband Jim, 62, adopted a white-faced capuchin monkey named Jessy. Today, Jessy still wears diapers, clutches a security blanket and rides in a baby stroller for dailey walks in the park. She's got an adorable array of tiny dresses and coats, and regularly chows down on baby food, mashed potatoes and warm cereal. "My kids were a bit jealous at first," Lori explains. "They said I look after Jessy better than I looked after them." "But I always replied, 'Jessy will never leave me like you did!'" Because monkeys can live up to 60 years, Lori and Jim have made special plans for Jessy to be taken care of after their deaths. The monkey is included in Lori's will and a life insurance policy. "We have insurance so that, if anything happens to myself and Jim, Jessy will recieve $20,000 toward her future care," Lori explains. "Jessy is our baby - I wouldn't want her to be treated badly by anyone." |
| December 15TH 2008 Olympic Hero An athlete whose lower legs were amputated as a baby makes history as an Olympic sprinter in Beijing this past summer. Oscar Pistorius began training as a runner in 2004, flying around the track on a pair of artificial legs called carbon-fiber blades. However, he was banned from competing against able-bodied runners because leaders in amateur athletics feared his futuristic prosthetics gave him a mechanical edge. Pistorius refused to accept defeat and challenged the ban all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. And the 21-year-old South African has just won his case! "I hope this silences many of the crazy theories that have been circulating in recent months about my having and unfair advantage," Pistorius says. "My foucs throughout has been to ensure that disabled athletes be given the chance to compete fairly with able-bodied athletes." As a result of his victory, Pistorius has struck gold with race organizers offering $40,000 appearance fees. Conquering obstacles is nothing new for the extraordinary young man born without calf bones, whose only treatment was amputation below the knee. Pistorius was 17 years old when he began running and within the first year, he won top honors in the 200-meter sprint at the Paraolympics in Athens, Greece. |
| December 14TH 2008 The Beer For Dogs Man's best friend is ready to become his drinking buddy, too - thanks to a real "hair of the dog" beer brewed exclusively for canines! Dog Beer is a non-alcoholic, beef-flavored brew made from malt barley extract and imported from Holland, where it's known as Kwispelbier - tail-wagging beer. "There's potassium, protein and fats in there," explains Mike Hall, manager of Pets at Home, a retail store testing the new product. "There's nothing in there to harm the dogs, that's for sure." "We've had quite a lot of repeat business - people coming back for more because their pets really enjoyed it." |
| December 13TH 2008 Tall Tales? Did you know that spiders crawl into your mouth while you're asleep? Of course you didn't - because it's baloney! Yet millions of people believe this and other urban myths. "Quite often, people accept things as facts just because everyone repeats them," explains social psychologist Peter Oxworth. "But many so-called facts are retold only because they make sensational stories." Here are the top five most-repeated urban legends: Legend: You accidentally swallow eight spiders a year in your sleep. Fact: Spiders have a strong survival instinct and avoid the giant, hot mouths of much larger animals! In 1993, magazine columnist Lisa Holst spread this story by e-mail to prove that you could put anything on the Internet and people wold believe it. Legend: You only use 10 percent of your brain, but could use more. Fact: The sections of your brain are highly specialized, so using the part that remembers names won't help you solve math problems any faster. Long ago, neurologists noticed that people survive with large sections of brain removed, which was later misinterpreted to mean that the whole brain never lives up to its potential. Legend: Men think about sex every seven seconds. Fact: If that was true, men would never get anything done. Experts say that during an average day, some men NEVER think about sex! (Yeah right!) No one knows how this myth was launched. Legend: Wait half an hour after eating before swimming. Fact: Swimming is no different than walking or any other exercise after a meal - water has no special, lethal cramp-causing properties. Legend: Suicides sky rocket before Christmas, Fact: Suicide rates actually drop during the holiday season, but we tend to notice Christmas suicides more, and then blame them on the season. |
| December 12TH 2008 The Real Forrest Gump Forrest Gump is back from the Army! Michael Conner Humphreys, the child actor who played young Gump 14 years ago, has just finished a year-long tour in Iraq. The 23-year-old soldier, who joined the Army in 2005, is at Fort Riley, Kansas, waiting for his release from the service. He's tracing the Hollywood path of his co-star, Tom Hanks, who followed up Forrest Gump with a G.I. role in Saving Private Ryan, then directed Band of Brothers. Humprey's first new film will be Pathfinders, about a parachute regiment that served during D-Day. His tour in Iraq gave him plenty of perspective on real-life combat. "It was a good experience, and you saw a lot of bad things, a lot of people got hurt over there," he explains. "I just hope that we did some good." |
| December 11TH 2008 Horse Accident A tumbling horse performed an amazing acrobatic feat, flipping head over heels and landing safely on the track! The heart-stopping accident took place at a race in Hanover, Germany, when the saddle slipped under jockey Anna-Katharina Bromann, sending her mount Schatten-lady into the safety rails. Bromann fell off as her mount plunged forward, gracefully rolling nose-to-tail over the turf. Luckily, both emerged unhurt. |
| December 10TH 2008 Solar Probe Turns Up Heat NASA and John Hopkins University have teamed up to send a space probe into the sun's searing atmosphere to learn how solar winds and the radioactive particles they generate determine weather patterns here on Earth. The Solar Probe will zip into the sun's corona, where temperatures hover at a red-hot 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. It's in the corona that solar winds - trillions of atomically charged particles - are born and begin their lightning-fast journey to Earth and other planets in the solar system. The winds are a major factor in weather patterns, and the probe may point the way to novel solutions for global warming, widespread drought and other problems. The probe will fly closer to the sun than any other spacecraft has ever done. A 6-inch-thick carbon-foam heat shield will prevent it from burning to a cinder. |
| December 9TH 2008 Obama - The High-Tech Candidate President-elect Barack Obama is a man of the future. As a senator from Illinois, he's thrown his weight behind a bunch of technologically challenging projects that will make our military and our medicine more effective. Obama pushed through a bill to devote $1.95 million to develop a super-powerful tactical laser to enable our troops to zero in on and destroy enemy targets with pinpoint accuracy. He's also backing a move to fund research into medical applications for light-emitting diodes. Preliminary studies indicate these tiny lights can be modified to help wounds heal faster, rebuild damaged muscle, repair blind eyes and turn back the effects of diabetes. Thanks to Obama's efforts, the Illionois Institute of Technology has landed a $1 million grant to figure out how to turn gas-guzzling Army Humvees into fuel-effcient electrical hybrid vehicles. As an added advantage, the new Humvees will run almost silently, making it easy for our forces to sneak up on the bad guys. |
| December 8TH 2008 THEY ARE COMING! THE UFOS!!! The vehicle of tomorrow is going to look for all the world like it just arrived from an alien planet. The Performance Aviation Manufacturing Group has created the world's first vertical takeoff and landing vehicle that's not just a pie-in-the-sky concept, but actually ready to start rolling off the production line. The ILV (Individual Lifting Vehicle) can attain an altitude of 20 feet and fly at 25 miles per hour. OK, that's not warp speed, but it's a start. The vehicle - powered by two 105-horsepower, four-cylinder engines - is designed so it can fly with only one of them should disaster strike and the other malfunctions. The pilot - you - stands on a platform above the engines and controls the "flying saucer" by shifting his or her weight back and forth and side to side. The first applications of the ILV will be in law enforncement, aerial photography and search and rescue, but it's only a matter of time until consumer versions will be popping up in driveways around the country. |
| December 7TH 2008 A More Human Computer Computers are about to take a giant leap forward. Until now, methods of communicating with a computer have been designed with the machine in mind. Now, a new project aims to turn the tables and create a computer that interacts with us just the way we interact with each other. The revolutionary system is called Semaine, and it's being developed by an international team of artificial intelligence experts and computer engineers headed by DFKI, a german research center. The goal is to get to the point where your computer can read your facial expressions and body language as well as understand the words you're speaking to achieve a level of communication that's ... well ... human. "Communication involves more than words," says linguist John Helicar. "We convey meaning by the tone and pitch of our voices, the expressions on our faces and the way we hold our bodies." "Until now, computers could only ' read' our words. Semaine will be able to chat with us the way our best friend does." |
| December 6TH 2008 E.S.P. Leads To Lost Dog A gifted psychic succeeded where high-tech heat-seeking cameras and a weeklong manhunt had failed - locating a lost dog and reuniting him with his grateful owner. When Marmite the Jack Russell terrier went missing, Nikki Newcome was desperate. The 35-year-old sales manager spent a week digging up rabbit holes and searching every square inch of her farm in Brownhills, England. "We had thermal imaging equipment brought out in an effort to find him, we were that worried," she recalls. But Marmite was nowhere to be seen. At the end of her tether, Newcome called animal psychic Pea Horsley. Despite being over 100 miles away, the medium was able to describe Marmite's whereabouts - wedged in a man-made hole with concrete walls and water at the bottom. She was also able to trace Marmite's path, about a mile away from the family farm. "I could tell he was alive but trapped somewhere," Horsley explains. "He felt cold, it was dark and he felt quite exhausted." Newcome followed the psychic's instructions and found herself at the banks of a canal near an abandoned lock. And there, in the bottom of a shaft, she found her beloved dog! Local firefighters were able to lift him out - a few pounds lighter, but still happy and healthy. "We did all the logical things to track him down, so we decided to resort to other means," Newcome explains. "I definitely believe in the psychic world now. "It was incredible, the way he was found!" |
| December 5TH 2008 Tourists Terrified By Spirit A couple visiting acred ruins in New Mexico got the scare of their lives when a ghostly figure arose from the ancient stone structure. "My husband Jeff and I were spending the day at Chaco Canyon," explains TheRingoNews reader Sofia Rothsdale, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. "It's an amazing site out in the desert that was a social and religious center from 900 to 1100 A.D." The amateur archaeologists spend their vacations traveling to areas around the U.S. that have historical significance. "We've seen a lot of remarkable things, but getting a photo of an actual ghost was both terrifying and thrilling," says retail manager Jeff, 49. "It happened as we approached a deep structure called a kiva that was used in religious ceremonies." Sofia recalls hearing the sound of swirling winds coming from the brick-lined hole just before the spirit emerged. "Jeff was just ahead of me, snapping pictures," says the 54-year-old home-maker. "So the timing was perfect for him to capture the image. But I must tell you, I was scared stiff and skedaddled away from the kiva as fast as I could." Although the horrifying iccident left them shaken to the core, they were delighted once the film was developed and they had absolute proof of their hair-raising adventure. "Friends who were skeptical about what we saw changed their tune after seeing the snapshot," Jeff says with a grin. "But I hope that's the last ghost I run into on vacation!" "I told Sofia, I'm sure that seeing that spirit up close and personal about took 10 years off my life!" |
| December 4TH 2008 Cornflakes Are Killers Climate change has created a poison in corn that causes excruciating pain and death. And scientists say this devastating killer could soon invade crops across America! The poison, called mycotoxin, first appeared in rye bread that had been contaminated with ergot fungus in the Middle Ages. "People started suffering mass hallucinations, manic depression, gangrene, spontaneous abortions, reduced fertility and painful, convulsive death," says environmental health researcher Lisa Bricknell, of Central Queensland University in Australia. Scientists believe the latest deadly contamination of grain crops is caused by rising temperatures and drop in rainfall in inland areas of the U.S. "These conditions favor the development of mycotoxins, particularly corn, and they could easily enter our food chain with devastating effects," says grain expert Jesse Latham. "In short order, unsuspecting parents could be feeding killer cornflakes to their kids at breakfast!" |
| December 3RD 2008 A Crystal Skull Dooms Thief The thief who stole a priceless crystal skull may have signed his own death warrant because the macabre heirloom carries a terrible curse. "When I heard the skull was taken from a New Age shop in California, I immediately felt sorry for the crook who grabbed it," says Dr. Joshua Manfred, a renowned expert of antiquities and the occult. "The skull was created more than 500 years ago by artisans of the Mayan culture that once ruled southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador before they fell to the invading armies of Spain in the 1500s." Mayan high priests believed the crystal skull had the power to heal suffering and influence natural events - much like the magical artifact at the center of Harrison Ford's new blockbuster movie, Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the crystal Skull. "But if the skull was stolen rather than worshiped or presented as a gift, an evil spell would bring great torment and anguish to the thief," Manfred explains. "The first crook who fell victim to the curse was burned alive in a house fire. It burned cold and left nothing but ash except for the crystal skull, which remained in perfect condition." "Centuries later, an archaeologist couldn't resist the chance to own such a spectacular antiquity. But within days of smuggling the skull out of the contry, he contracted yellow fever and died in agony." "There's no doubt that the criminal who nabbed it this time will be destroyed by the terrible curse if he doesn't return it soon." |
| December 2ND 2008 German Researchers Close In On Lost Ark! Indiana Jones might have some real-life competition from a team of German archaeologists who have discovered the altar that once held the Ark of the Covenant! Researchers working at Aksum, in northern Ethiopia, claim to have found the palace of the Queen of Sheba, the fabulously beatiful wife of King Solomon. And within the palace, they believe stands a place of worship that housed the most precious treasure of God's Chosen People, the gilded chest built to contain the stone tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai! The Bible says the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem had been built to store the Ark, and mentions that the sacred relic vanished after the Babylonians conquered the Israelites in 586 B.C. But there's no known record of where the Ark was kept or what may have become of it - only that it was filled with God's power. A team led by Dr. Helmut Ziegert has been excavating a site in Askum for the past nine years. "From the dating, its position and the details that we have found, I am sure that this is the palace," Ziegert declares. In the 10th century B.C., Sheba was said to have left Jerusalem with the Ark and returned to her native Ethiopia. After her death, her son Menelek refurbished her palace, converting it to a temple dedicated to Sothis, the god of the Sog Star, Sirius. "The results we have suggest that a Cult of Sothis developed in Ethiopia with the arrival of Ark of the Covenant and continued until 600 A.D.," university officials announced. |
| December 1ST 2008 Mom Of 17 Children!!! One mom is the world's greatest expert on names that begin with "J" - she's pregnant with her 18th child, and their names all begin with the letter. Michelle Duggar, 41, of Tontitown, Arkansas, is due on New Year's Day. Her oldest, Josh, is 20, and the youngest, Jennifer, is 9 months old. In between are nine other brothers and six sisters, including two sets of twins - Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 16; Jessa, 15; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 10; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 7; James, 6; Justin, 5; Jackson, 3; and Johannah, 2. "We'll keep having children as long as God wills it," says Michelle, who's been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life. She and her husband Jim Bob Duggar, a real-estate agent who owns commercial property, home-school all their kids. Chores in their 7,000-square-foot home are divided into "jurisdictions" between boys and girls. each older child has a younger buddy to help through the daily routine. "We have a master schedule of each family member's responsibilities displayed on our dining room wall," Michelle explains. "For each month, we also have individual daily checklists that cover school work, chores, music lessons, and personal hygiene. "These checklists enable us to keep our children accountable and also reward them accordingly." Recently, while filming a series for Discovery Health, the Duggar children held a "jurisdoction swap," in which the girls did the boys' chores and vice versa. "The girls were changing tires, working in the garages and mowing the grass, and the boys got to cook supper from start to finish, clean the bathrooms and everything else," Michelle explains. Dad Jim Bob explains what he believes keeps his king-sized clan going strong: "The success in a family is, first off, a love for God, and secondly, treating each other like you want to be treated." "Our goal is for each one of our children to be best friends, and everybody working together to serve each other makes that happen." |