ACCORDING to a report by London's Sunday Times on December 24, 2006, the world's youngest professional gamer is an 8-year-old American boy, Victor De Leon.
Victor has been gaming since age two, when his dad used to hand him a controller to soothe crying fits. He then gradually turned himself into Lil Poison, master of a virtual universe of acrobatic combat. He earned his first professional contract at the age of six.
Lil Poison is beginning to earn a fortune from tournaments, commercial sponsorships and celebrity endorsements. His name will soon appear on a line of casual clothing and on special "skins", or cases, used to house gaming consoles. Victor's emergence as a celebrity is fuelling a surge of interest in what Americans are beginning to call "e-sports" or "cyber athletics".
A REPORT from Daily Telegraph says that the Royal Regiment of Scotland, stationed in South Iraq and Afghanistan, has 5,000 soldiers but just 320 kilts, or one for every 15 men.
"Representative of Scotland for several centuries, the kilts are worn during ceremonial or public duties and they are psychologically important for the identity of soldiers," explained the Lieutenant Willy McNair.
The shortage comes after the Army decided to end its 150-year association with its former kilt makers. The Army has put to tender a ￡1 million contract for the new kilts and will not receive a full set until January 2008. The new partner has not yet been revealed.
AS reported by the Daily Mail on December 14, 2006, a 46-year-old woman Sarah Burge, in Cambridgeshire, became addicted to cosmetic surgery after her first nose operation in 1986. To date, she has had 26 operations, with almost every part of her body "corrected" at a cost of ￡180,000.
She's had her nose made smaller, her cheekbones bigger, her chin more prominent and her breasts lifted. She's had fat sucked from her face, her hips, her thighs and her jawline, and excess skin cut from her tummy and eyes. The bits of her that surgeons couldn't cut or resculpt were lasered, Botoxed or pumped with cosmetic fillers.
One of the first things Sarah Burge tells is that she was born in the same year Barbie was launched. She is proud of the connection, and prouder still that people draw comparisons between her and the plastic doll. She says. "Barbie is very beautiful, glamorous and fun. What woman wouldn't want to be all those things?"
