Tomorrow will be Mother’s Day 2012. And most of us go through the motions of celebrating without having any idea about the day’s original intent.

Mother’s Day can be traced back to Julia Ward Howe.

Julia Ward Howe

In her Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870, Howe called on her “sisters” to work to establish peace so that her son could return home from war:

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail & commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesars but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

Christy Turlington Burns is a global maternal health advocate, founder of Every Mother Counts, and the director/producer of the 2010 documentary “No Woman, No Cry.”

Christy Turlington Burns

Christy proposes for this year’s Mother’s Day: A “No Mothers Day.” Her “proclamation” encourages mothers to join in solidarity to “disappear” for the day, out of solidarity with those who needlessly die in pregnancy and childbirth. She believes that in acting together, mothers can show just how much a mother is missed when she is gone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Christy asks that we — mothers and everyone else — reignite the spirit of common purpose that Julia Ward Howe sought to inflame in Americans, and direct it toward a silent wartime that is taking hundreds of thousands of women’s lives each year — childbirth.

About 360,000 girls and women die worldwide each year from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications according to estimates made by the World Health Organisation. And sadly, nearly all of these deaths are preventable.

They are preventable if we extend very basic, known and trusted services: If we help women get to health care facilities in their time of need; if we ensure that a skilled professional is available to oversee their labor and delivery; if we provide access to family planning so that children are spaced. These goals are all within our reach, but only if we decide that women’s lives are worth saving.

While rates of maternal mortality are often highest in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, in several of those countries we are beginning to see declines.

Two years ago, in her quest to raise awareness and support for maternal and child health care, Christy made a documentary film, “No Woman, No Cry,” and founded an advocacy and mobilization campaign called Every Mother Counts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Every Mother Counts measures success by the actions taken to reduce maternal mortality and improve maternal health. The goal is 5 million actions by 2015 — perhaps signing a pledge, running a 5K or even a marathon or donating an old cell phone so it can be used to facilitate communication and medical care in rural areas. Their website, everymothercounts.org, suggests specific actions to take, many of them straightforward steps that help spread the word or raise resources for simple solutions. Individually they may seem small but together, they can save lives.

You can join Christy at http://www.facebook.com/everymothercounts.

She is hot…..she is scorching hot! And she is competing for the top spot in 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll.

Her name is Georgia Salpa, a Greek-Irish model.

Georgia Salpa

Born on May 14 1985 to a Greek father and Irish mother in Athens, Salpa moved to Ireland when she was four and was raised in Killiney, Dublin. She is the eldest of four children, having two sisters and one brother.  After finishing school she backpacked the globe for two years, visiting more than 30 countries including India, Thailand, Costa Rica, Brazil, Australia and China.

In Ireland, Salpa has undertaken modelling assignments for various publications. She has made TV appearances on such programmes as The Podge and Rodge Show, Republic of Telly, Celebrity Salon and Catwalk to Kilimanjaro. She played a role as herself on Republic of Telly.

Scorching Hot Georgia Salpa

Georgia Salpa in a sexy pose

Georgia writes a weekly feature in the Irish Daily Star newspaper.

She reached a new peak in the presence of public consciousness in August 2009 after posing in a bikini for a controversial photoshoot for Food & Wine magazine alongside chef Neven Maguire. The magazine apologised after those offended vented their fury on Liveline.

Georgia Salpa flaunting her assets

Salpa has since moved over to the UK, where she participated in the Channel 5 show Celebrity Big Brother where she was the third housemate evicted. While in the house she dismissed her relationship with Calum Best as “a simple fling”. She was up for eviction on the first turn but defeated Andrew Stone to secure her stay in the house. She then faced eviction for a second time following the third round of nominations after fellow housemate Kirk Norcross nominated her for resisting his advances. She was evicted on that occasion.

In February 2012, Salpa topped a poll to find Ireland’s most desirable Valentines.

Georgia Salpa looks smoking hot in blue hotpants

Salpa said: ‘People always talk about the 100 Sexiest… and to think that you’d actually be in it!’

She seemed overwhelmed to be in the running with her idols, saying: ‘I like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (last year’s winner). She’s amazing, I love her. I like Megan Fox, I think she’s really hot too.’

The Big Brother star also revealed she prefers Englishman to Irishman, although obviously wasn’t quite bowled over by Kirk Norcross’ efforts in the Channel 5 series.

She added: ‘I think English boys are more ballsy. They’ll actually come up and ask you out. In Ireland, I don’t get asked out much. English boys are a lot more flirty.’

Georgia Salpa perches in front of a large metal cabinet, her suggestive all-in-one appears to have 'slipped' off her shoulder and is dangerously close to revealing her entire chest.

Ain't she hot?

Do you think I'm sexy?

Modern day Eve?

Georgia Salpa looking very pretty

Georgia Salpa striking a sexy pose

Georgia Salpa in a teasing pose

He is a six-year-old boy suffering from a form of autism that makes social interaction difficult but he is a gifted piano player.

Meet Ethan Walmark, the autistic boy who has become a YouTube sensation with his piano-playing talent. Music has become a therapy for him.

In this viral video, he plays an impressive rendition of Billy Joel’s classic “Piano Man.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Looking coyly up at the camera, he trills out an introduction to the song, and then he’s off, barely glancing down at the keys as he plays, clearly a natural.

Being too short to even reach the pedals, he stands by the piano, coming up to about shoulder height on the seated guitar player.

Ethan Walmark playing Billy Joel's classic Piano Man

His parents, Mike and Alison, were wowed by his ability to play the Beatles’ I Will on the piano by ear when he was just four.

And they have given him their whole-hearted encouragement ever since

‘We just want our son to be happy, whatever that means to him.’ Mike Walmark said. ‘It’s not about us anymore. It’s about him.’

Ethan has 20 videos on YouTube of him performing hits such as Take on Me by A-Ha and James Taylor’s Mockingbird with siblings and by himself.

A bullfrog has become the latest internet sensation after a video of it sitting on a bench like a human went viral.

The YouTube video of the bullfrog apparently enjoying himself with its legs dangling from the wooden seat and its hands on its thighs has garnered over 5 million views since it was uploaded on April 25. And like a human, the frog seems to have a beer belly!

Frog relaxing on a bench like a human

RoltonB, the YouTube user who posted the video, has this to say about the video: “The video was shot entirely fortuitously. The frog is OK. There is no nails, no glue, animal abuse, etc. Later, she jumped off the bench and galloped away to the water.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Drew Garrett and Lauren Willy, two 17-year-old allegedly “hot” girls from Los Angeles, have become an Internet sensation, but for all the wrong reasons. Like other young girls such as Rebecca Black who try to be famous, Drew and Lauren have been subjected to a rage of vicious comments and death threats.

The two girls, calling themselves Double Take, recorded a video of their song entitled “Hot Problems” about all the troubles attractive people face. The video features the two moderately attractive teenage girls singing (and that’s putting it very politely) about the everyday problems they encounter as a result of their attractiveness and how perfect they are.

Double Take "Hot Problems"

These “hot” girls’ problems are now everyone’s problems as the video has gone viral, garnering almost 8 million views and 400,000 dislikes since it was uploaded on YouTube on April 15.

“It was all just for fun and to just have something we could share with our friends,” Drew said. “Well, we enjoy writing funny lyrics and songs and we decided that we really liked this one. So we decided to make it into a song and video, eventually. We really had no intentions when we put this up to begin with, so seeing it take so rapidly, we haven’t really had a chance to decide what we want to do. I think that hopefully there could be a future with it.”

The overnight rise to online fame has been surprising to the pair. Drew noted, “It was shocking. It hasn’t really sunken in for any of us. The first day it was a joke around the school and then the next day we had friends of friends contacting us.”

The hit is being dubbed the worst song of 2012, if not of all time, according to ABC News, beating out Rebecca Black’s “Friday” for the most wretchedly awkward teen pop video on the Internet. Rebecca Black’s quasi-hit was actually catchy and fun to listen to.

“The Video That Destroyed my Faith in Humanity,” headline’s The Next Web’s post.

You kind of feel bad for the two girls when you read the comments on the video. But after you listen to the song, you will probably be compelled to write a scathing comment to add to the thousands.

Sit back now and “enjoy” Double Take’s “Hot Problems.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fucking welcomes you. Don’t get worked up thinking that I am being vulgar.

Fucking (German pronunciation: “fooking”) is an Austrian village in the municipality of Tarsdorf, in the Innviertel region of western Upper Austria. The village is 33 kilometres north of Salzburg, 4 kilometres east of the German border.

Welcome to Fucking

Despite having a population of only 104, the charming village has become famous for its name in the English-speaking world. Its most popular tourist attractions are the four traffic signs with its Fucking name on them, beside which tourists stop to have their photograph taken.

One version of the sign features the village name with an additional sign beneath it, with the words “Bitte – nicht so schnell!” (“Please — not so fast!”). The lower sign — which features an illustration of two children — is meant to advise drivers to watch their speed, but tourists see this as hilarious when coupled with the village name.

Fucking....Please - Not So Fast!

Drivers heading into the village often disturbed naked couples romping in front of the signs, and local entrepreneurs made the situation worse by flogging off Fucking postcards – Fucking Christmas cards and even more recently a Fucking beer.

British tourists have left the residents of the Austrian village fuming by constantly stealing the signs as souvenirs. After a spate of thefts, which included the theft of all four signs in one night, and a total of fifteen over a period of several years, in August, 2005, the road signs were replaced with theft-resistant signs welded to steel and secured in concrete to prevent them being stolen. Mayor Höppl said that officials were fed up with English-speaking tourists stealing the signs, and noted that with the newly-installed signs it would take all night to steal one. Höppl said that tourists, and the money they bring to the area, were welcome, but locals were sick of replacing the signs.

The village of Fucking

Kommandant Schmitzberger, the local police chief, also hinted at other avenues to stop what he calls “foreign criminals” from disturbing order in the village. Regarding these “other avenues”, Schmitzberger stated, “what they are, I am not at liberty to disclose, but we will not stand for the Fucking signs being removed. It may be very amusing for you British, but Fucking is simply Fucking to us. What is this big Fucking joke? It is puerile.”

While British visitors are finding it hilarious, the residents of Fucking are failing to see the funny side.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Local tourist guide Andreas Behmueller said it was only the British that had a fixation with Fucking.

“The Germans all want to see Mozart’s house in Salzburg; the Americans want to see where The Sound of Music was filmed; the Japanese want Hitler’s birthplace in Braunau; but for the British, it’s all about Fucking.”

Augustina Lindlbauer, the manager of an area guesthouse, noted that the area had lakes, forests, and vistas worth visiting, but there was an “obsession with Fucking”. Lindlbauer recalled how she had to explain to a British female tourist “that there were no Fucking postcards.”

It is believed that the settlement was founded in the 6th century by Focko, a Bavarian nobleman. The existence of the village was documented for the first time in 1070 and historical records show that some twenty years later the lord was Adalpertus de Fucingin. The spelling of the name has evolved over the years; it is first recorded in historical sources with the spelling as Vucchingen in 1070, Fukching in 1303, Fugkhing in 1532, and in the modern spelling Fucking in the 18th century, which is pronounced with the vowel oo as in book. The ending -ing is an old Germanic suffix indicating the people belonging to the root word to which it is attached, thus Fucking means “(place of) Focko’s people.”

British and American soldiers based in nearby Salzburg noticed the name after World War II, and began to travel to the village to have their photos taken beside the signs while striking various poses. The local residents, the Fuckingers, were considerably bemused as they had not previously been aware of the meaning of their village’s name when read as English. Since then, the number of visitors to Fucking has increased, with the occasional visit by a tour bus.

A local resident of the village, Josef Winkler, attempted to cash in on the village’s fame by setting up a website (www.fucking.at), on which he sold t-shirts featuring the village road signs, with the slogan “I like Fucking in Austria” printed on them. According to Winkler, they were selling well, and he was in negotiations with Maxim regarding possible promotions, but was forced to stop his venture after being shouted at and threatened in the street. Winkler said, “It was a bit of fun that didn’t hurt anyone, but I found out that in this region you just can’t do something like that. The whole thing became a real trial for me and I had to stop. People are very traditional here.”

I like Fucking in Austria

In November 2008, the village hosted the Festival of the Fuck Bands music festival, which featured bands Fucked Up, Holy Fuck, Fuck and Fuck Buttons.

In July 2009, it was announced that the village would be installing CCTV cameras in an attempt to deter summertime tourists from filming themselves having sexual intercourse in front of the Fucking signs. A resident of the village said that installing cameras around the village may make tourists think twice and instead choose to only have a photograph taken in front of the sign.

The final straw has been a growing number of calls by pranksters from abroad who ring up locals and ask in English “Is That Fucking” – before bursting into laughter and hanging up.

“The phone calls are really the final straw”, said local Mayor Franz Meindl.

On April 17, 2012, about 104 Fucking fed-up villagers held a village meeting and have decided to switch the village name ‘Fucking’ to ‘Fugging’, irking folks in Fugging, Austria, a town some 200 miles to the south.

But, this is not the first time the villagers to clamor for changing their village name. Residents last voted on the subject in 1996 when it decided to keep the name despite problems caused by American servicemen from across the border in Germany that drove to the region just to be photographed in front of signs. They then sent the snaps back home to their girlfriends and wives.

Fucking signboard

There were once two Fucking in Austria, but in 1836 the people in the one nearest Vienna, the one most exposed to snickers from traveling English speakers, changed the name of their hamlet to Fugging. According to Andreas Dockner, mayor of that township, “We think one Fugging in Austria is enough.”

It is yet unclear whether the Fuckingers (fortunately the villagers are not referred to as Fuckers) will be allowed to adopt the name Fugging or if they will have to choose another name that’s not already taken.

Bustysingaporean…..just the name will send the minds of men into overdrive, leading them to conjure images of a voluptuous sexy woman.

Well, if you take a look at the photos of Bustysingaporean, she lives up to her nickname.

Li Ling Ling aka the BustySingaporean

Isn't she busty?

Li Ling Ling (李玲玲), an ex-banker and freelance model with vital statistics of 38DD-25-34, shot to the top of Google Singapore hot trends for several days in late October last year when some unscrupulous IT technician uploaded her topless naked photos on to the internet, creating a massive viral effect.

She believes that a computer technician in the US was the culprit behind the leakage of her racy photos. She was traveling in the U.S.A. and staying at a hotel when she had to send her laptop for repair. Someone saw her photos on her laptop and uploaded the more racy photos to the Internet with her email address and posting it to many websites and web forums. The topless photos have been circulated like wild fire on some pornography websites.

Prior to the topless photos scandal, she had been uploading sexy photos (but not the topless and naked photos) of herself onto her website. She also freelances as a glamour model.

According to her online profile, Ling Ling used to work as a public relations manager in a well-known American bank in Singapore. But after the scandal unfolded, she quit her job and fled Singapore to stay away from the limelight until the fallout from the scandal had died down.

Born in Taiwan on 11th November 1975, Li moved to Singapore at a young age and was raised in a strict Chinese family. She is one smart lady with the following qualifications: Bachelor of Law in University of Saskatchewan in 2000, Master of Law in University of London in 2005 and Master of Business Administration in University of York in 2008.

She enjoys the attention of men, and gets a kick from the hungry stares of men when she dresses sexily. She is constantly aware that her cleavage always creates a lot of excitement in the public. With men constantly staring at her, she tends to breathe faster in the excitement of exhibitionism. It is very exciting for her when she sees men adjusting their pants when they stare at her body.

She was approached by an overseas model scout who was keen on signing her up as their in-house lingerie model. She always ended up modelling in skimpy outfits. With an angelic face and a devilish figure, she was always one of the favorite models of clients promoting sexy outfits. They always give her 1 size smaller than her normal size.

Li Ling Ling in bikinis

About half a year has elapsed since the scandal unfolded. Many people are wondering where is Ling Ling and what she is doing now. Well, I have good news for you all. Ling Ling is back in Singapore, pondering on her next career move.

Personally, I think she might do well if she decides to go into marketing of sexy lingerie. After all, she used to model in sexy lingerie. Hmmm…maybe she can name her business “Bustline.”

Maybe MediaCorp should hire her as a news anchor. She could really boosts the TV ratings especially if she wears sexy attire when doing the news broadcast.

The ratings of Japan’s NHK television channel have risen following the introduction of a busty news anchor by the name of Sugiura Yuki. Sugiura Yuki – who has a pair of G-cup breasts – has taken the anchor responsibilities in the morning news segment of the TV station. Although the 28-year-old has not shown off her assets, she has captured much attention. Her appearance on the news segment also became a hot social topic, which helped to boost the ratings of the programme.

Sugiura Yuki

Just imagine a news programme called Busty News with Bustysingaporean as the anchor. I bet Singaporean males will be glued to the TV when the programme is on the air, hoping to keep ‘abreast’ with the news!

Bustysingaporean in a teasing pose

A four-year-old girl from Winchester, Hampshire, has been accepted into Mensa after achieving a score of 159 on an IQ test, just one point below Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Heidi Hankins was spotted as being of a “genius level” of intelligence after she taught herself to read, add and subtract, count to 40, draw pictures of people, recite poems and read books meant for seven-year-olds at the age of two.

Four-year-old Heidi Hankins has an IQ of 159, just one point below Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein

Her father, Dr Matthew Hankins, 47, from Winchester, Hampshire, who works as a lecturer at the University of Southampton, said she had shown signs of high development from a very early age.

Dr Hankins said: ‘Heidi has really flourished quicker than other children – academically, artistically and physically.

‘We don’t push Heidi at all. She has taken up everything herself and teaches herself.

‘She is not precocious, she is just a little girl who likes her Barbies and Lego but then you will find her sitting down and reading a book.’

‘We always thought Heidi was pretty bright because she was reading early,’ said her father, Matthew, 46.

‘I happen to specialise in measuring IQs in children and I was curious about her, and the results were off the scale.’

‘I got her the complete set of the Oxford Reading Tree books when she was two and she read through the whole set of 30 in about an hour. It’s what you would expect a seven-year-old to do. She was making noises and trying to talk literally since she was born and by age one her vocabulary was quite good. She was using full sentences almost as soon as she started to speak.’

Hankins said Heidi was drawing princesses and animals aged 14 months – an age when most children can only mark the page.

And at 18 months the family found her using the computer to teach herself to read.

Dr Hankins and wife Sophy, 43, gave Heidi a Wechsler IQ test, which uses puzzles to measure a child’s intellectual potential, and sent the results to Mensa after nursery staff struggled to find tasks to stretch her.

According to Mensa, the average adult IQ score is 100 while a ‘gifted’ score is 130.  According to Mensa, the signs of a gifted child include an unusual memory, reading at an early age, intolerance of other children and an awareness of world events. A gifted child will also ask questions all of the time.

In order to qualify to join Mensa, individuals have to attain a score within the upper 2% of the general population. The youngest ever member is recorded as being two-year-old Elise Tan Roberts from Edmonton, North London, who joined the society in 2009.

Elise Tan-Roberts

Heidi has now become one of only 90 children under 10 in the UK to join Mensa – the society for individuals with unusually high IQs.

John Stevenage, chief executive of British Mensa, said: “Heidi’s parents correctly identified that she shows great potential.

“We wish them well, and are pleased that they have chosen to join the Mensa network for support, where we aim to provide a positive environment for younger members to develop.”

Heidi is a head taller than her classmates, and at 3ft 10in is closer to an average six year old. She has a nine-year-old brother Isaac, who is a chorister at Winchester Cathedral.

Heidi & brother Isaac

Heidi, who still enjoys playing with her Barbie dolls, now joins the likes of Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein  and Carol Vorderman – although the child genius’ IQ beats the Countdown presenter’s by five points.

It is now official. President Barack Obama last night invoked Executive Order 6102 (2012) which criminalizes the possession of monetary gold by an individual, partnership, association or corporation in the U.S.

The order forbids the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates within continental United States. U.S. citizens are required to deliver on or before May 1, 2012, all gold coins, gold bullions, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve in exchange for $1,412 per troy ounce. Under the Trading With the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, as amended on March 31, 2012, violation of the order is punishable by fine up to $150,000 or up to ten years in prison, or both.

It is now illegal to keep gold coins and gold bullion in the U.S.

Executive Order 6102 was an Executive Order signed on April 5, 1933, by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt “forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates within the continental United States”. The order was rationalized on the grounds that hard times had caused “hoarding” of gold, stalling economic growth and making the depression worse. The U.S. government confiscated tons of gold from millions of Americans with the stroke of a pen.  In fact, the government took in so much gold from Americans that it ran out of space to hold their ill-gotten bounty. They had to build a new place to hold the gold.  That place is called Fort Knox.

Since the Financial Crisis of 2008, the printing presses of the U.S. Federal Reserve have been churning out trillions of new funny-money QE dollars. The money the Federal Reserve creates is by fiat, by will, just like magic. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

The flight to precious metals has begun to accelerate at a pace unprecedented in the last few years at the expense of the US dollars. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, stated recently, “deflationary risks might re-emerge, implying a need for additional policy support.” No one could have predicted that this “additional policy support” would turn out to be the invoking of the Executive Order 6102 (2012).

The news of the invoking of the Executive Order 6102 (2012) has sent shock waves around the world.

With the U.S invoking Executive Order 6102 (2012), what do you think the price of gold would be when the market opens tomorrow?

That’s right, it would crash.

She is dubbed “the most beautiful boss” in Changshu City in eastern Jiangsu Province because of her beauty. And she used her charms to borrow about 500 million yuan from private lenders and 100 million from banks and companies by promising high returns at an annual interest rate of around 40 percent.

Her real name is Gu Chunfang. And now this most beautiful boss has gone missing, leaving her creditors in the lurch.

Gu Chunfang - the most beautiful boss

Claims are circulating that her debts could amount to around a billion yuan.

“Gu had told victims she would use the money to register companies, invest in projects and make loans,” a private lender calling himself “Y” said on the city’s online bulletin board.

Gu’s Suzhou Kaiwailong Trading Limited Co was involved in businesses including cement, metals, lubricants, chemical fibers, daily commodities, fabrics and hardware. She also operated a clothing shop and a high-end manicure store that closed following her disappearance.

Gu, 40, was born in Changshu and is a divorcee. She failed to graduate from junior high school, but she became popular in business circles and with officialdom because of her beauty.

Before she embarked on her business, she was a cosmetic saleswoman and a model for a clothing company and lead actress for a firm that made publicity films for the city.

A friend of Gu and director of a local company, who asked to remain anonymous, told China Daily that the mining business Gu had invested in required a lot of money.

“She borrowed money from friends in the city, first at an interest rate of 10 to 20 percent and later at a higher rate, because she had to borrow more to pay the excessive interest,” he said.

He said the local head of a real estate company who loaned Gu 180 million yuan had committed suicide.