And The Richest Member Of Congress Is …

The Hill, a political news site, unveiled its annual list of the 50 richest lawmakers on Tuesday. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, held on to the top slot with a cool $290.5 million.

“McCaul remains in the stratosphere of the very richest members of Congress,” said The Hill, noting that his wealth “stems from several family trusts,” and that his father Lowry Mays founded Clear Channel Communications. His value actually rose by $3 million in 2011, the time period covered in the list.

McCaul is far ahead of his challenger, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the wealthiest Democrat in Congress, who reported a net worth of $198.8 million last year. That’s a $5 million increase from the year before, even though in 2010 he only made No. 3. Much of Kerry’s wealth comes from his wife, an heir to the Heinz Ketchup estate.

Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, dropped one notch from 2010 but still placed third. The Hill said his wealth plunged about $80 million to $140.6 million. He is the founder of Directed Electronics, a maker of car security systems and also has a high-yield trust worth $50 million as well as bond holdings. He took on $50 million worth of personal loans last year, which The Hill said was the main reason his estate took such a big hit.

Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, come in fourth, with $91.1 million, after his wealth soared by $25 million last year. His portfolio includes a blind trust and tech company holdings.

The fifth richest lawmaker is Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat and former Virginia governor, with $85.9 million. The Hill said his assets include investment funds, bonds and a $1 million life insurance policy.

Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin and a candidate for the vice presidency, is worth a relatively paltry $2.2 million and didn’t make the cut.

Even though Democrats make up three of the top five on The Hill’s list, Republicans outnumber Democrats, 31 to 19.

Nicki Minaj Joins ‘American Idol’ Cast as Judge

Rapper Nicki Minaj is joining songstress Mariah Carey as the newest judge of American Idol.

Multiple sources say Minaj has yet to sign off on the deal, but is expected to be in the judges seat when Season 12 premieres this winter. Other judges reportedly up for consideration are singer Nick Jonas and Pharrell Williams, a singer and producer who has worked with the likes of Snoop Lion (formerly Snoop Dogg).

Long-time judge Randy Jackson will assume the role of a mentor this season.

Minaj is currently prepping for a tour in October following the release of her latest album in April.

Minaj is currently prepping for a tour in October following the release of her latest album in April.

They nailed it! Fans pay artistic tribute to Olympics

Not since the days of American track star Florence Griffith Joyner has nail art been front and center as an Olympic style trend like it is at the 2012 London Olympics. Athletes are showing their competitive spirit through flag-decorated nails and colors meant to mimic the medals they aim to win.

But these special motifs aren't just for Olympians.

Samantha Tremlin is one of many nail art fans getting into the spirit of the 2012 London Olympics with funky fingertips. She wasn't crazy about the Olympics before the summer games came to her country this year. But since then, the manicure fanatic who goes by "the Nailasaurus" has been honing her technique of recreating tiny Union Jack designs.

"Nail art is a hobby of mine, so as the Olympics are quite a big event and being held in my home country this year, I thought I would show some support for Team Great Britain!" said the 21-year-old Cardiff, Wales, resident, who shared her handiwork.

"This year it's very close to home. It feels as though the games have united every single person in the country with all excitement and pride we're feeling."

From swimmers Missy Franklin and Rebecca Addlington to archers, cyclists and weightlifters, athletes everywhere are sporting patriotic nail decor at the games, thanks in part to British "nail queen" Sophy Robson, whose team of nail artists is providing services to athletes and their guests in "grooming salons" in the Olympic Village.

"It was such fun working with the athletes," said Robson, who designed a menu of 207 country flags to choose from in a partnership with corporate sponsor P&G. "There are no egos involved and they are just excited to have something represent their country on their nails."

Even if you're not in London or Europe, participating in the nail art trend connects viewers to the revelry, celebrity nail technician Deborah Lippmann said.

"It's a way that everyone can feel like they're a part of the experience in a supportive way, no matter where you are," said Lippman, whose eponymous nail polish brand is sold worldwide.

It's not as permanent as a haircut and having 10 fingers means the opportunity to sport various themes, with one finger dedicated to the American flag in support of country and the other to Usain Bolt because he's just that cool.

The appeal for fans is probably the same as it is for athletes: you can show off your patriotism without saying a word, said Lisa Bailey, the blogger behind the DIY resource Nail Art 101.

"Nail art can have the stigma of being for "prissy" girls or girls who are afraid to get down and dirty," Bailey said. "These women are showing that you can have hot nails and still break world records! It's no longer just for princesses and rich girls."

Da-Hae West, 25, is from South Korea, but she lives in London. She wrote "Republic of Korea" in Korean on her nails, accompanied by the national flag.

"It's a small way to show my support!" she said in an iReport.

Allison Fitzpatrick of Charlotte, North Carolina, has been experimenting with nail art for about two years as a way to "spice up the average manicure," the 29-year-old said in an iReport. It's also a great way to feel connected to the games, especially since athletes are also wearing nail art, she said.

"With the Olympics being such an inspiring event I wanted to be able to add some of that inspiration to my everyday life," she said.

"Whether the design is the iconic Olympic rings, the Union Jack to celebrate the host city or a recreation of gold medalist Missy Franklin's patriotic nails, nail art is a fun and creative way to show support for the athletes right here at home."

With the home-court advantage, the Brits probably claim the most enthusiastic Olympic-themed nail art. Plus, there's a lot of room to play around with the Union Jack, as nail art enthusiast Jenny Pasha of London demonstrated with her gold studded set of nails.

"I wanted to create a set of nails that were unique and showed off my support for Team GB," said Pasha, who documents nail art inspiration on her blog.

"I have done Union flag nails many times in the past, but for the Olympics everyone's goal is to go for a gold medal, so I decided to do an all gold set of nails," she said. "I am very proud to have the Olympics in my hometown and I love to show my pride through my nail art!"

Why Olympians bite their medals

It's a familiar pose by now: Fresh-faced Olympian grins while pretending to take a bite from the hard-won gold medal hanging around his neck.

But why do athletes feign chomping on their prized medallions, anyway?

Most likely to satisfy the pose-hungry media, says David Wallechinsky, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians. There are only so many things to do with a medal, and the excited champions are usually appeasing requests from the gallery of Olympic photographers when they bite down on their booty.

"It's become an obsession with the photographers," says Wallechinsky, co-author of "The Complete Book of the Olympics." "I think they look at it as an iconic shot, as something that you can probably sell. I don't think it's something the athletes would probably do on their own."

He's seeing the practice more this year than ever before, especially among swimmers -- though he has no idea why.

Photogs have caught star gymnast Gabby Douglas, track champ Sanya Richards-Ross and swimmer Ryan Lochte giving their medals some tooth. Lochte's shots sometimes feature the added bonus of a jewel-encrusted "grill."

It's not just an Olympic phenomenon, though. Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal famously gnaws his trophies when he wins.

Historically, the practice of biting into metal seems to have its roots in money counterfeiting. Money handlers would bite down on coins to test their authenticity, said David W. Lange of Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. Gold is a relatively soft metal and would show wear when distressed.

Since coins have not contained precious metals for about the past 50 years, it would be silly to try munching on them nowadays.

So how much of an Olympic gold medal is actually gold? It varies by the Games.

This year, the gold medal consists of 1.34%, or about 6 grams, of gold. The remainder is 93% silver and 6% copper.

The amount of gold used to make a medal shrunk after each of the two World Wars, according to Olympic medal collector and expert Jim Greensfelder. Gold medals were made of solid gold at three Olympics -- in 1904, 1908 and 1912 -- but the medals themselves were smaller.

Stressed-out men find heavier women attractive

The study

Eighty-one heterosexual, white men, aged 18 to 42, were put into two groups. The first group took the Trier Social Stress Test, which increased stress levels by asking participants to take on the role of a job applicant in front of a hiring committee. The second group was sent to a room to wait quietly.

Both groups were then shown images of women with various body mass indexes. Study participants evaluated the women's attractiveness on a scale of 1 (very unattractive) to 9 (very attractive). They were then asked to select the woman they found most attractive, the largest woman they found attractive and the smallest woman they found attractive.

The results

While both groups rated underweight women the same, the men with more stress gave significantly higher ratings to women in the normal and high BMI categories than their calmer counterparts. The stressed group's picks for the largest woman they found attractive was also much heavier, on average, than the control group's picks.

The take-away

Not much, if we're being honest. Scientists have long known that a society's ideal body size is shaped by their access to resources. Larger women are preferred when there is a threat, like limited food, because their bodies signify the ability to survive in hostile environments. In today's world, that threat can be as simple as the possibility of unemployment.

Even hunger has an impact on the male mind - previous studies have shown that hungry men find heavier women attractive, according to the study. (Yet another reason to keep the chocolate in your hands!)

Jennifer Aniston engaged to actor Justin Theroux

Jennifer Aniston is heading back to the altar, after accepting a marriage proposal from Justin Theroux, representatives from both actors said Sunday.

The love life of Aniston, who was married from 2000 to 2005 to actor Brad Pitt, has been a subject of tabloid fodder for years, where she has been linked to a number of men, including musician John Mayer and comedic actor Vince Vaughn.

The 43-year-old actress has kept busy since departing the hit NBC sitcom "Friends" in 2004, including roles in films such as "Horrible Bosses," "Marley and Me" and "The Break-Up." Still, fans questioned whether she'd find a soul mate, especially after Pitt united with actress Angelina Jolie and their family grew.

"Having experienced everything you don't want in a partner over time, it starts to narrow down to what you actually do want," the actress told InStyle earlier this year. "As I get older, I realize what qualities are important in love and what suits me. And what I won't settle for.

"Justin Theroux had an amazing birthday Friday, receiving an extraordinary gift when his girlfriend, Jennifer Aniston, accepted his proposal of marriage," Theroux's representative Ina Treciokas said Sunday.Her quest ended Friday, when she got engaged to Theroux on his 41st birthday, Aniston's representative Stephen Huvane said.

Theroux has established himself in Hollywood on several fronts. According to the entertainment website IMDb.com, he was a screenwriter for the films "Tropic Thunder," "Iron Man 2" and "Rock of Ages" and has been in a number of films and TV series since the mid-1990s. These include "American Psycho," "Mulholland Drive," "Zoolander" and, most recently, "Wanderlust" along with Aniston.

11-year-old girl married to 40-year-old man

Before their wedding ceremony begins in rural Afghanistan, a 40-year-old man sits to be photographed with his 11-year-old bride. The girl tells the photographer that she is sad to be engaged because she had hoped to become a teacher. Her favorite class was Dari, the local language, before she had to leave her studies to get married.

She is one of the 51 million child brides around the world today. And it's not just Muslims; it happens across many cultures and regions.

Photographer Stephanie Sinclair has traveled the world taking pictures, like the one of the Afghan couple, to document the phenomenon. Christiane Amanpour spoke with Sinclair about a book which features her photographs called, "Questions without Answers: The World in Pictures by the Photographers of VII."

Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in rural Afghanistan in 2005.

Amanpour asked Sinclair if the 11-year-old Afghan girl married in 2005, and others like her, consummate their marriages at such an early age. Sinclair says while many Afghans told her the men would wait until puberty, women pulled her aside to tell her that indeed the men do have sex with the prepubescent brides.

Sinclair has been working on the project for nearly a decade. She goes into the areas with help from people in these communities who want the practice to stop, because they see the harmful repercussions.

"Whenever I saw him, I hid. I hated to see him," Tehani (in pink) recalls of the early days of her marriage to Majed, when she was 6 and he was 25. The young wife posed for this portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their mountain home in Yemen.

In Yemen, a similar picture. Tehani and Ghada are sisters-in-law photographed with their husbands, who are both members of the military. Like most of the girls, Tehani didn’t even know she was getting married, until the wedding night. She was six years old.

Tehani describes how she entered the marriage, “They were decorating my hands, but I didn’t know they were going to marry me off. Then my mother came in and said, ‘Come on my daughter.’ They were dressing me up and I was asking, ‘Where are you taking me?’”

Sinclair says, “This harmful, traditional practice of child marriage is just so embedded in some of these cultures that the families don't protect them as they should.”

The subjects do know they’re being photographed and Sinclair tells them the topic she is working on. She does tell them that there is teen pregnancy in places like the U.S., but for the societies she’s photographing it’s even worse that 13-year-old girls are pregnant and unmarried.

Nujoud Ali, two years after her divorce in Yemen – when she was only ten years old – from her husband, more than 20 years her senior.

Another one of the photographs Sinclair took is of a Yemeni girl named Nujood Ali. In a rare turn of events, Ali managed to get a divorce at age 10.

“A couple months after she was married, she went to the court and found a lawyer – a woman named Shada Nasser and asked her to help her get a divorce, and she was granted [it],” Sinclair says. “It's definitely rare and Nujood became kind of an international symbol of child marriage, because she was able to do this. And I think she's inspired a lot of other girls and other organizations to support these girls, to have a stronger voice.”

Leyualem, 14, is wisked away on a mule by her new groom and groomsmen in Ethiopia.

Sinclair has documented the practice outside of the Muslim world. In a Christian community in Ethiopia, she captured the image of a 14 year-old girl named Leyualem in a scene that looks like an abduction. Leyualem was whisked away on a mule with a sheet covering up her face. Sinclair asked the groomsmen why they covered her up; they said it was so she would not be able to find her way back home, if she wanted to escape the marriage.

Kaushal ,10, and Rajni, 5, participate in the marriage ceremony in Northern India.

Sinclair travelled to India and Nepal, and photographed child marriages among some Hindus.

A five-year-old Hindu girl named Rajni was married under cover of night: “Literally at four o'clock in the morning. And her two older sisters were married to two other boys,” Sinclair says. “Often you see these group marriages because the girl and the families can't afford to have three weddings.” In the five-year-old girl’s case, Rajni will continue to live with her own family for several years.

Rajni, 5, was woken up around 4 am to participate in the wedding ceremony. Here, she is carried by her uncle to her wedding in India.

Girls aren’t always the only ones forced into marriage. Sinclair wanted to photograph child marries in India and Nepal, because sometimes the boys entering a marriage are also young. “And often they're victims just as much of this harmful traditional practice,” she says.

Sinclair told Amanpour that she hopes her photographs would not only highlight the problems to westerners, but also show people in the areas where this takes place that  if the girls continue to be taken out of the population to forcibly work at home, that their communities suffer as a whole.

“It's a harmful traditional practice that is slowly changing. We just want to have it change even faster.”

Magnet experiment saves baby big surgery

 

In late 2009, doctors placed a magnet on either side of Patrick's intestinal blockage. Though the procedure was experimental, Dr. Eric Scaife was successful at removing the membrane without extensive surgery. 

The day after Nelly Divricean gave birth to twin sons Andrew and Patrick, doctors gave her terrible news: one of her tiny, premature babies was in serious trouble.

"Something's wrong," the doctors told her. "We think Patrick has a blockage. We need to move him to a different hospital."

A blockage somewhere inside Patrick's intestines was preventing him from moving his bowels. Doctors needed to fix it before his intestines ruptured and he died.

Weighing just 4 pounds, Patrick was too small for a major surgery that could solve the problem permanently, so doctors moved him from Salt Lake City's Intermountain Medical Center to nearby Primary Children's Medical Center, where a section of his intestines was temporarily diverted into a colostomy bag.

"Because he couldn't poop, they had to make a way," Divricean said.

A few months later, Divricean and her husband, Michael, brought Patrick back to his surgeon, Dr. Eric Scaife.

"OK, what do we do next?" she asked him.

Scaife took an X-ray and what he saw wasn't good. A thin, hard membrane was blocking a section of Patrick's intestines -- the result of a rare birth defect called rectal atresia that occurs in one out of every 5,000 babies.

"We need to remove it," the doctor told the couple.

Scaife described to Patrick's worried parents a long, technically difficult surgery. Patrick would be cut open through his abdomen and vertically along his tailbone. Once inside, Scaife would remove the membrane and then piece together two sections of intestines.

He had his concerns. It was a big operation on a little baby. The surgery might cause scarring, or it might injure nerves in Patrick's pelvis that could lead to incontinence.

If Patrick was Scaife's son, what would he do? Divricean asked the surgeon.

Scaife told her he'd think on it and give them an answer the next week.

"Hopefully, they'll come up with something that will save Patrick or will give us a better option at least," Divricean thought as she waited for the week to pass.

A better option

A week later, Scaife had an idea.

Instead of removing Patrick's blockage, he wanted to break through it -- with two powerful magnets.

In the hands of children, strong magnets have proven dangerous, even deadly. When swallowed, they've passed into the intestines, and their attraction to each other has forged a hole in tissues.

It occurred to Scaife that in the skilled hands of a surgeon, magnets might be a useful tool instead of a hazard. If he placed a magnet on either side of Patrick's blockage, their attraction might make a hole and destroy the membrane, allowing stool to pass.

Scaife's idea was untested and unproven -- but if it worked, Patrick wouldn't need surgery.

"A magnet's a wonderful thing," said Dr. R. Adam Noel, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Louisiana State University Heath Science Center in New Orleans. "They can be used in very clever medicine."

Surgeons have used magnets to bore drainage holes in intestinal tissue, lengthen the esophagus and straighten dips in chests.

For Scaife's idea to work, he would need to find the perfect magnets. They had to be strong enough not to slip off the membrane and sized just right to create the hole.

"I'm not quite sure how we get them," he told the couple.

So the Divriceans went shopping.

"We went to Toys R Us," Divricean said. "They just had some that were too big."

A few more toy stores later, not finding what they needed, they realized kiddie magnets weren't going to cut it. Divricean searched the Internet and bought industrial-strength magnets from an online company.

The couple then made an appointment for Patrick's procedure.

The procedure: 'It made sense'

At the hospital, Patrick went back under the X-ray machine. Scaife, along with a radiologist who was helping him, could see the blockage.

What they were about to do next was an experiment. The magnets they wanted to place inside Patrick weren't approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a medical device, and Scaife knew of no one who had performed the procedure.

"Innovation, even with simple magnets and a pretty simple kind of procedure, is not easy. It's tricky, so you have to proceed cautiously, even when the parents are saying, 'Yeah I'd like to do that. It sounds better,'" said Art Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University's School of Medicine.

"If you're doing unapproved experiments, or something novel, the risk is enormous, especially with a child."

Scaife had consulted his colleagues and determined that if the magnets slipped and somehow created a hole in Patrick's intestines, he would be forced to do the operation he was trying to avoid. Otherwise, he didn't see a downside to the procedure.

"This certainly did not go through, sort of, formal medical channels," Scaife said. "But there was very clearly, I think, an informed consent ... it made sense to them, it made sense to me, and I think with that kind of clear understanding we proceeded."

Scaife and the radiologist maneuvered the magnets into position.

"We just dropped the magnets in like coins into a slot, and they immediately clicked together," he said.

Over the next few days the force of the magnets applied pressure to both sides of the membrane, pinching it and draining it of blood until it weakened and broke.

The magnets had made the hole that Scaife was expecting. They were still connected a week later when Scaife took them out. Sandwiched between them was a wafer-thin disc of membrane tissue.

"We couldn't believe that that really worked," Divricean said. "It was just something really amazing."

After the procedure, Divricean took Patrick into her arms. Holding him, she knew he was spared a complicated, invasive surgery.

"It worked out well -- really well -- for him," Scaife said.

The procedure was covered by insurance, Divricean said.

In December 2009, nearly six months after Patrick was born, he had a bowel movement in a diaper for the first time.

"We took pictures of the diaper," Divricean said, laughing. "We thought we were crazy doing that, but we were so excited."

Computer hacking for 8-year-olds

 

The hacker who goes by the pseudonym CyFi won't share her real name and declines to be photographed without her signature aviator sunglasses.

At the annual Def Con hacking conference here Friday, Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and head of the U.S. Cyber Command, brought CyFi on stage during his keynote address and called her "the most important person for our future."

CyFi is 11 years old.

For the second year in a row, Def Con organizers included a full schedule of Def Con Kids programs for beginner hackers ages 8 to 18. The children and teens, who must be accompanied by a parent, learned how to pick locks, competed to find the most bugs in mobile apps and learned about digital forensics by investigating a mock crime scene in a hotel room. Some skilled young hackers also taught classes and gave talks.

To kick off the conference, Def Con founder and veteran hacker Jeff Moss welcomed the kids with a talk on the ethics of hacking and rules for how to stay out of trouble with the law.

"I think it's harder for you guys now than it was for me," Moss told a room of kids and their parents.

Moss started the conference in 1992 because he wanted an open place for hackers to meet in person and share information. Twenty years later, the young attendees from Def Con's early years have grown up, established careers and started families.

Now they bring their own children to Def Con to soak up the knowledge and culture, but this new generation faces a different set of rules and a maze of new laws -- not to mention parents who are savvy enough to know what they're up to and keen on keeping their progeny out of trouble.

Navigating the law

"I just want to open it, but don't want to see what's on the other side," a young woman told and Moss and Lauren Gelman, an attorney who works in the field of Internet law and policy.

Many of Def Con Kids' school-age hackers are driven by the challenge of finding vulnerabilities in security systems and networks, not stealing information or money, or selling their knowledge to third parties. These "white-hat" hackers report any issues they find directly to the developers or relevant companies so they can be more secure.

But good intentions aren't always enough when it comes to staying out of legal trouble.

When Moss was starting out, computer technology wasn't widely understood by law enforcement, and laws weren't yet in place that classified his actions as illegal.

"Technically, I wasn't committing any crimes. I wasn't stealing any money, wasn't trying to break anything," said Moss. The U.S. and international governments have since drafted complicated laws that criminalize many aspects of hacking.

However, Gelman pointed out that in many cases, the rules are still not clear or current, and that current laws are far behind what Def Con attendees are doing. She recommended the kids avoid breaking laws by asking for permission before testing any systems, and if that's not possible, to find a situation where they can ask for approval.

"The lawyer perspective and mother perspective and ethics perspective is you can get in a lot of trouble if you don't ask for permission." Gelman is married to journalist and former hacker Kevin Poulsen and has two children.

Moss has his own test for deciding whether to hack something: "My rule of thumb is, do I completely own it? If yes, I can hack it."

If hackers are unsure whether they are breaking the law, Gelman suggests they check the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) site, which spells out rules for everyone from bloggers to coders. The 22-year-old organization also provides legal assistance for those who do get in trouble, taking on some cases itself or referring people to attorneys.

Building a reputation

Breaking the law isn't the only concern Moss, Gelman and parents have for the budding hackers -- true anonymity online is harder to come by and a bad reputation can follow these kids into adulthood.

Moss warned the kids that everything they do online now until they die will be backed up to the cloud. "That makes life more difficult for you guys, because if you get in trouble now, you're screwed."

Twenty years ago, hackers could operate in the shadows without leaving much of a trail. Chat logs weren't recorded for long and hackers' handles weren't easily traceable to their real-life identities. Now, most communications that take place online are stored permanently and some can be dug up by law enforcement and human-resources departments.

Moss was just a kid himself when he got started with computers.

At 13, his father brought home an IBM computer for the family. By 14, Moss was online creating a new identity for himself, conversing with adults who were oblivious to his real age and spoke to him like an equal.

"I couldn't drive a car, but I could have conversations about politics with people in Russia," he said.

In those days, if someone made a mistake or needed a fresh start, they could create a new online identity. Moss got a do-over at an early age and recreated himself online as Dark Tangent, which grew into a trusted and respected identity he still uses now.

Today, a fresh start is harder to come by and old communications can surface at any time. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg learned this the hard way when embarrassing instant-message conversations from his college days were made public years later.

"Your reputation is the most important thing you own," said Moss, urging the young hackers to behave ethically, not because it will make their parents happy, but because they are the ones who will have to live with the results.

Hacking for good

With so many dangers, why would parents encourage their children to hack at all? Def Con Kids organizers believe in the good that can come from hacking, including making the country more secure and helping encourage freedom of speech around the world.

"Technology can really change the world," said Gelman, citing the liberation-technology movement that encourages hackers to help people spread messages from countries where online communication is restricted.

The U.S. government sees the potential in these bright young minds as well.

The Department of Defense ran the digital forensics program at Def Con Kids, hoping to encourage more education and interest in the field. And Alexander met with three of the children before going on stage to give his keynote address.

"This is our future," Alexander said of the kids. "What you're doing here to help train those folks is absolutely superb, and you should be proud."

Meet the man who started #NBCFail

Steven Marx wasn't that mad. And with only 17 Twitter followers, the 48-year-old certainly wasn't popular when he reportedly created the #NBCFail hashtag.

But that online conversation would become one of the dominant storylines of the London Olympics, particularly among people who like to mock NBC's sportscasters and in the United States where viewers were upset with the network for delaying its broadcasts of the games to show them in prime time.

Marx, a Web designer in Peoria, Illinois, is credited by the blog Mashable with creating that conversation in reference to the London Games. "Interesting how NBC never mentions you need a cable/satellite subscription w/MSNBC/CNBC to view any coverage online. We're screwed. #NBCFail," Marx wrote on his Twitter account on July 26, the day before the Opening Ceremonies in London.

He was surprised by the heated and hilarious conversation that followed.

"I don't know to what extent I can take credit," he told CNN by phone on Tuesday. "I don't know how it works, if people saw my hashtag and used it or if other people came up with it on their own and added to it.

"It's kind of fun for me. I've been working in the field of technology for 20 years now and it's finally fun for me to get my 15 minutes of Internet fame."

Marx was on vacation in New Mexico when someone sent him a message on Twitter telling him that bloggers were crediting him with starting the #NBCFail topic.

He found it amusing in part because he wasn't all that mad at NBC, just annoyed that he couldn't watch Olympic programming live and online for free. It sounds as though he almost feels bad about playing a small role in unleashing the fury of the Internet on the U.S. broadcast network.

"In some ways it's showing some of the worst sides of what this instant media can do," he said, adding: "It's sort of that mob mentality that Twitter encourages. I think in this sense it's showing the bad. But in the Occupy (Wall Street) movement, it showed the good that Twitter can do for organizing. Even though it's made me slightly famous, I'm not necessarily thrilled with what's happened. I'm not terribly impressed with NBC, but that's not new this year."

Some online writers have said that watching the #NBCFail hashtag has become more fun that watching the actual Olympics.

And plenty of others have taken up the torch of teasing NBC, too. A feed called @NBCDelayed posts constant "breaking" updates about old news, making fun of the fact that the Olympics are shown on a several-hour delay in the United States.

"BREAKING: Underdog Jamaican bobsleigh team loses control and crashes," that feed wrote on Tuesday night in reference to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.

CHECK OUT SNAKE WITH 3 HEADS IN INDIA

Cuban Man '24' Proud Of His 4 Extra Fingers, Toes

They call him "Twenty-Four." Yoandri Hernandez Garrido's nickname comes from the six perfectly formed fingers on each of his hands and the six impeccable toes on each foot.

Hernandez is proud of his extra digits and calls them a blessing, saying they set him apart and enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts and posing for photographs in this eastern Cuban city popular with tourists. One traveler paid $10 for a picture with him, Hernandez said, a bonanza in a country with an average salary of just $20 a month.

"It's thanks to my 24 digits that I'm able to make a living, because I have no fixed job," Hernandez said.

Known as polydactyly, Hernandez's condition is relatively common, but it's rare for the extra digits to be so perfect. Anyone who glanced quickly at his hands would be hard-pressed to notice anything different unless they paused and started counting.

Hernandez said that as a boy he was visited by a prominent Cuban orthopedist who is also one of Fidel Castro's doctors, and he declared that in all his years of travel he had never seen such a case of well-formed polydactyly.

"He was very impressed when he saw my fingers," said Hernandez, who is the only one in his family to be born with extra digits.

In a part of the world where people's physical traits are often the basis for nicknames – even unflattering ones like "fatty" or "shorty" – "veinticuatro" ("twenty-four" in English) is not an insult but rather a term of endearment, and Hernandez, now 37, said his uniqueness has made him a popular guy. He has a 10-year-old son with a woman who now lives in Havana, and his current girlfriend is expecting his second child.

"Since I was young, I understood that it was a privilege to have 24 digits. Nobody has ever discriminated against me for that," he said. "On the contrary, people admire me and I am very proud. I have a million friends, I live well."

Nevertheless, it occasionally caused confusion growing up.

"One day when I was in primary school, a teacher asked me how much was five plus five?" Hernandez recalled. "I was very young, kind of shy, and I didn't say anything. She told me to count how many fingers I had, so I answered, "12!"

"The teacher was a little upset, but it was the truth," he said.

Hernandez said he hopes he can be an example to children with polydactyly that there's nothing wrong with them.

"I think it's what God commanded," he said. "They shouldn't feel bad about anything, because I think it's one of the greatest blessings and they'll be happy in life."

Is the government doing enough to protect us online?

More than 400 million people trust Google with their e-mail, and 50 million store files in the cloud using the Dropbox service. People manage their bank accounts, pay bills, trade stocks and generally transfer or store huge volumes of personal data online. Who is ultimately in charge of making sure all this information is secure: the government, the companies or the users?

At a lively panel discussion at the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, computer security experts discussed the roll of the government in online security. The debate centered on whether the U.S. government should take the lead in setting security standards for the industry or whether companies are responsible for their own security and that of their users.

"I lose my cool when I hear people from the government say people from the private sector need to stand up. Providing for the common defense is what the government is supposed to do," said security systems expert Marcus Ranum.

The U.S. government is considering various security bills that address online security standards.

One controversial bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, would allow private companies to share data with government agencies when there is an attack or breach, without fear of lawsuits from customers over the shared data. However, several civil liberties groups believe the bill needs more restrictions on how the government can use that shared information.

Creating laws isn't the only way the government can push for greater security. It can also use its significant financial sway on major companies.

"The government is an enormous purchasing agent in our industry. Why can't the NSA come up with a security standard that they like?" asked Bruce Schneier, security critic and author. "Let them go to the operating system companies, the database companies, the cloud providers, and say if you want the government business, you have to adhere to this."

Opponents of the government-control approach say corporations are responsible for their own security online, just as they would be for the physical security of their offices or property. Law enforcement is there to respond to incidents, not make sure the doors are properly locked, they contend.

Some of the enthusiasm for the government to take the initiative on cyberthreats is rooted in distrust of big Internet companies.

At one point, Jennifer Granick, the director of civil liberties at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, asked the large audience of security professionals who they trusted less, Google or the government? The majority raised their hands for Google.

"I fear Google more than I pretty much fear the government," said panelist Jeff Moss, the founder of Black Hat and DEF CON. "Google, I'm contractually agreeing to give them all my data."

For now, mutual distrust between the government and the private sector is keeping the two sides from working together as effectively as possible, and the public could suffer because of it.

"The biggest risks right now are not the bad guys," said Schneier. "They are the good guys who are not doing enough."

The users do have some responsibility to protect their data online, but the panelists agreed that regular people will usually bypass any extra steps, even if they are in their best interest, in the name of convenience.

Aurora heroes: Three who gave their lives

Great evil often brings out the best in good men, men like Todd Beamer on Flight 93, Medal of Honor recipient Michael Murphy in Afghanistan and now the Aurora three -- the three young men, each in different parts of theater nine, who gave their lives to protect their girlfriends.

Twenty-five-year-old Jon Blunk was sitting next to his girlfriend, Jansen Young, at the midnight premiere of "The Dark Night Rises" when the gunman (who shall remain nameless) opened fire in the dark theater. Blunk instinctively pushed his girlfriend to the ground and threw his body on top of hers. Blunk, a security guard, served eight years in the Navy and was in the process of re-enlisting in hopes of becoming a Navy SEAL, family and friends said. He was killed in the gunfire; his girlfriend survived.

Twenty-four-year-old Alex Teves dived on top of his girlfriend, Amanda Lindgren, when the gunfire erupted. Covering her body, he took the bullets so they did not harm her. She survived the massacre; he did not.

Matt McQuinn, 27 years old, threw his body in front of his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler, as the shooting continued. Yowler survived with a gunshot wound to the knee; McQuinn's body absorbed the fatal shots.

These men were three of the 12 innocent people killed early that morning. Their incredible sacrifice leaves us asking: Why? Why would a young man with his entire life ahead of him risk everything for a woman he has no legal, financial or marital obligations to?

As Hanna Rosin so eloquently pointed out in a recent article, calling it chivalry would be a tremendous understatement. By all appearances, these men believed that a man has a responsibility to protect a woman, even to the point of death. They believed that there are things in life worth dying for and the innocent woman sitting next to them was one.

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They believed, to put it simply, in a code of honor. They put the lives of the women before their own, an old fashioned notion to be sure, but certainly an honorable one (if you have any doubt, ask the survivors). Their instincts were to protect, not run away.

From all accounts, these young men were average, working men in their 20s. (We know a little about Jon Blunk, but not much, and we know even less about the others.) Like all men, they had their own struggles. After his death we learned that Blunk had an ex-wife and two children living in Nevada. He was scheduled to visit them to resolve marital issues. This isn't to take anything away from Blunk or the other two heroes, but to illustrate that, in spite of shortcomings, men can still recognize what it means to be a good man and act like one.

This is especially important given the state of many men today. Record numbers of men aren't working or even looking for work. Record numbers aren't marrying or even acting as fathers to their children. These men need heroes to imitate whom they can relate to in everyday life, not just make-believe superheroes who catch their imagination for an hour or two. They need heroes like the Aurora three.

While much of the media obsesses over the psychology and motivations of this deranged killer, we should hold the Aurora three high. It is only by telling their story that this code of honor will survive for future generations of men. "The world is forwarded by having its attention fixed on the best things," Matthew Arnold wrote.

In an age when traditional manhood has been increasingly relegated to fiction -- capes, masks and green screens -- these three men stand as real-life heroes. Their actions remind us that good triumphs over evil, not just in movies, but also in reality.

Why men fall asleep after having sex

Here’s some news from the world of science that could settle some old disputes in the battleground of the marital boudoir. Throughout history, unsatisfied wives and girlfriends have wondered why their otherwise-perfect male partners roll over and fall straight to sleep after sex instead of engaging in endless chit-chat. A team of researchers from Inserm in France believe they have the answer: it seems that men just can’t help it. Brain scans showed that after orgasm, the thinking area of men’s brains actually shuts down. Other parts then send a message out that the job is done, to let the body know that its interest in sex is no longer required. Then, (just in case even further explanation is needed), the brain is hit with surges of oxytocin and serotonin, nature’s own “shut up and go to sleep” chemicals, rendering dudes all but powerless against the urge to crash