There can't be any worse fate in life than losing a baby. Still, the idea or recreating a dead child in the form of a doll strikes me as more than a little macabre and disturbing.
But a company called Reborn Baby spotted a gap in the market for bereaved parents and duly filled it.
For around $1,000, you can recreate your lost child with “realistic human skin and veins", and cuddle your way through the grieving process. The babies are weighted to a comparable feel, and customers can even add specifications, such as a heartbeat.
Oh and there are a few toddlers for sale too.
Personally, these dolls look like they've stepped straight out from the pages of Stephen King's horrific imagination. But then, I mercifully don't know what it is like to lose a child, either.
Judge for yourself. Creepy or clever?
According to a shocking new study by the University of Texas published in the Journal of Pediatrics, how you go about packing lunch might actually make your child sick.
A whopping 99 per cent of the 700 packed lunches for preschoolers studied contained foods that were "kept at unsafe temperatures", making them a breeding ground for bacteria -- the underlying cause of food poisoning and other bacterial infections.
Only 40 per cent of the lunches studied contained an ice pack to keep food chilled. According to Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Chief Medical Editor for NBC, cold foods shouldn't get warmer than 40 degrees Fahrenheit and no less than 140 degrees Fahrenheit for hot foods. "Any food that is kept in between this range for more than two hours is subject to contamination."
With back to school looming, and all that lunch making ahead of you, consider 'doubling up' on ice packs for times where refrigeration isn't possible, or packing non-perishable foods -- like snap-peas and mixed nuts.
When in doubt, nix the mayo when making sandwiches for picnics and lunchboxes, opting for 'safe' mustards instead.
Though Maria Toorpakai Wazir has always been a tomboy, from the onset of puberty she literally pretended to be a boy just so she could leave the house.
According to a recent article in the Star, her father, who was keen for her to have equal rights, oddly encouraged everyone to believe she was his son.
But when her passion and amazing talent for squash were recently discovered, she received death threats from the Taliban and was forced to flee her rural eastern Pakistan home which borders warring Afghanistan.
Life in the Pashtuns tribe to which Toorpakai belongs is a prison for females, who are confined to their homes day in, day out. A woman wearing shorts is considered an offence both to Islam and tribal traditions.
Toorpakai's father, a college lecturer, recognizes that "society cannot progress without the participation of half of that society". But even he couldn't stop the negative attention she received when she went to the sporting complex to practice her sport.
By age of 15, Toorpakai had won every tournament and championship going. She went pro in 2006, ranking No. 66 in the world just two years later. Though she hoped to bring back Pakistan's pride by gaining world titles in squash, she became increasingly fearful and stayed home for the sake of her family's safety.
Aside from the personal, the political situation in her Peshwar had become dangerous, so by 2007 Toorpakai started emailing squash clubs around the world -- offering coaching services in exchange for a safe haven in which to master her sport.
It took four years. But Canadian great, Jonathon Power, who ranked No. 1 in 1999, opened his arms and flew Toorpakai to Toronto, where she continues to train in peaceful surrounds.
"I didn't know how good she was going to be," confesses Power, who has hopes he can make Toorpakai's dreams of championship come true. Let's just pray her family will stay safe from harm as she rises to glory.
"We all have to die sometime," said her father nobly, adding that if he is killed for the opportunities he's given his daughter, it will be a martyr's death.
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