You know how 10-year-old boys have competitions to see who can come up with the grossest thing? Well, watch and learn, kids.

It turns out people visiting a health resort got kind of a rude shock when a nurse giving them enemas failed to use water. Instead, she used hydrogen peroxide. Well, yes, the stuff you can bleach your hair with. Seventeen of them had to be treated in a hospital after the mix-up, according to our story.

I am not going to say anything else about this; you can just use your imagination for the rest. Or better still, ask a 10-year-old.

No, no, this is just healing oil, and this is a 2007 file photo of somebody at a petroleum spa in Azerbaijan. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili

Well, the Cube certainly seems to house a fast pool. Check out the results. Christian at timedfinals says in the very first session Japan's Natsumi Hoshi swam a blistering 200 fly.

Interestingly, only last month a former Australian coach had forecast no new records would be set in the pool. Why, because the finals would be held in the morning, and swimmers aren't at their best then. We'll see.  

Pictures by Claro Cortes IV and Jason Lee/Reuters

Growing up I'd hear stories about how some men would stick spikes and tridents into themselves and hang metal hooks off the skin of their backs as they sang and danced fervently, invoking the powers of supernatural beings in their trance-like state. I'd also hear about how some women, similarly decorated, would carry earthen milk pots on their heads as they march off to present their worldly offerings to the gods.

But it wasn't until recently that I saw it all for myself.

What I witnessed on that morning of the Hindu festival of Thaipusam came close enough to what ran through my mind's eye as a child, albeit slightly less melodramatic. But standing there with the devotees on their major thanksgiving festival and gradually realizing the significance of the festival for them, transformed what I had once imagined as the stuff of nightmares into a beautiful and visually stunning exhibition of faith, love and sacrifice.

"I BELIEVE IN GODS"

The sun hadn't yet come up when I made my way to the temple located in Little India. But it was already teeming with devotees preparing to take part in the Thaipusam procession. It would be a 4.5km march to another temple where they would offer whatever they had brought along literally on their backs to Lord Muruga, one of the sons of Hindu god Shiva.

But you don't need to be Hindu to join in the procession it seemed. Apparently all you need is what first-time participant Melvin Ho,  a 49-year-old man of Chinese origin, had - "Faith." Melvin said. "I believe in gods."

I stood and chatted with Melvin until he was directed by a Hindu friend to pray a little before the friend proceeded to pierce a slender mini trident through the skin of his forehead.

And then more prayers before the friend went on to insert over a dozen metal hooks into the skin of Melvin's back from which rows of lime would hang. Melvin's friend, with sweat trickling down his furrowed brow and his hands sporadically giving way to little intense quivers with each piercing, looked more pained than Melvin did.

And there was still there was more to come. Something else was happening and I had no clue but I could feel the air almost crackling with something like excitement. People were crowding in tighter around the man of the hour and I was caught in the midst of it.

I don't know if my pictures can do justice to the reality on the ground because everything suddenly built up into a whirlwind of motion: Melvin took sips of milk. People around us started praying out loud. Two men took turns shouting mantras into Melvin's ears as though forcing the charms into his very being. That state of frenzy continued for as long as it took for a metre-long metal skewer to go through both sides of his cheeks. 

And for thos electrifying two minutes I was on tip toes, camara glued to my face leaning precariously into the shoulder of the man driving the rod into Melvin's face. My hands were trembling.

Melvin, on the other hand, took it all like a pro. I wanted to drop my camera and applaud - especially after he turned to look at me and smiled. 

Or tried to. Having a symbolic trident through his face had effectively fixed everything in place.

It's widely accepted that breastfeeding boosts a child's immunity. But do the benefits of consumption translate to parents? It seems some parents are taking the "breast is best" campaign to a new level and consuming breast milk themselves -- either drinking it straight-up or squirting it in coffee.

Do you think parents' enthusiasm for breastfeeding has gone too far? Would you try a lactuccino?

The buzz around the handful of LBOs yet to close is reaching fever pitch. 

One deal in particular was on everyone's lips at a two-day private equity conference sponsored by Dow Jones this week - Clear Channel. Leaning against walls in corridors and settled in armchairs, conference-goers had hushed cellphone conversations about the $20 billion deal, still to close.

Two executives at the private equity firms buying the radio operator -- Bain and Thomas H. Lee -- showed up to talk about trends in the buyout industry. That wasn't quite satisfying enough for a pack of investors who hotly pursued them after the conference (admittedly that's an assumption that they all hold positions in the stock but one wonders why the frenzied interest otherwise). The Bain exec managed to escape by squeezing into an elevator with his press representative. "No comment" was about the sum total that the crowd got. 

By Daniel Muñoz

"You guys are with me, Osama Bin Laden. Don't worry. Nothing bad will happen." I laughed at hearing this as a feeling of false "security" swept over me.

I was with a TV crew going on patrol of Bogota's red light district with this wannabe Osama, whose real name is Fernando Aguirre, a 50-year-old poor man who claims to be the son of the real Bin Laden.

As we made the rounds from one brothel to another it became clear that Aguirre has gained the respect of the bouncers of these dens of prostitution here in Latin America's third most populated capital city.

His only instructions were to stay close to him and not take photographs showing the faces of Colombia's famously beautiful hookers, who cater to the lust of not only Colombians but also tourists from around the world.

The security guards chuckled and gave Aguirre tips. They and some uniformed police officers, who allow him to carry a fake wooden rifle, chatted with him about security in the area. This Bogota neighborhood is notorious for muggings and gangs of taxi drivers who take people for what is known as the "millionaire's tour," which involves being kidnapped for an hour or so and taken at gunpoint from one cash machine to another to empty out your bank account.

Aguirre patrols the neighborhood four or five times every night, until about 5am. Food venders give him something to eat when he needs it and they pour him small cups of coffee to keep him awake. At the end of each night he goes back to where he lives, a secret lair which he refuses to take us to, much like that of his outlaw "father," wherever he might be.

After living my whole life in Colombia, a country long under the thumb of violent characters, I feel better knowing that this "terrorist" is looking out for us.

(view Daniel's Osama slideshow here)

SAN DIEGO - Mitt Romney presents himself as the man to fix the U.S. economy but his determination to do so doesn't quite stretch to signing up as vice president if his chief rival for the Republican nomination, Sen. John McCain, wins the race.

Campaigning in California, the former Massachussets governor stressed his business acumen in comparison to McCain who he said had shown again and again that the economy was "not his strong suit."

"I think the other day, by the way, he said he would choose a vice president who had a lot of knowledge about the economy because of his own relative weakness in that area," Romney told a rally in San Diego.

"But I've got some bad news. I'm not available for VP."

The Harvard-educated former business executive co-founded the private equity firm Bain Capital and has repeatedly portrayed himself as more of an economics expert than McCain, a Vietnam veteran Romney described as "an American hero."

Romney said it was time for a change in Washington where politicians had failed to address economic challenges for decades. 

"Senator McCain is a fine guy but he's been there 25 years and if he hasn't been able to get it done in a quarter of a century, why give him a chance at being president?"

PICTURE: Reuters/Danny Moloshok: Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney thanks supporters in Fountain Valley, California 

We all love stories about animals that do complicated human things. Remember the frog on the motorcycle, the cat that loved Facebook and that terrier who played bluegrass banjo?

Now meet Nicolasa, a cat who seems to love surfing, and is pretty good at it although she's only been doing it for a month.

In the interest of responsible pet ownership I really wouldn't advise other cats to try this, and above all, remember: catnip and surfing don't mix!

A Nicolasa surfing slideshow

Peruvian surfer Domingo Pianezzi rides a wave accompanied by a cat named Nicolasa at the San Bartolo beach in Lima January 31, 2008. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares

More stuff from the Oddly Enough Blog

This morning the commerce department released 4th quarter GDP growth figures:

Gross domestic product rose at a seasonally adjusted 0.6% annual rate October through December, the Commerce Department said Wednesday in the first estimate of fourth-quarter GDP.

If you factor in inflation near above 3% YoY in Q4, then the real economy shrank.

Aside from the housing slump, slowing consumer spending, inventory liquidation and lower overseas sales restrained the economy. The 0.6% pace wasn't only much slower than the third-quarter's racing 4.9%, it was far below expectations on Wall Street. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires was 1.2% GDP growth during the autumn months.

Economists still see only a 50% chance of recession this year. As more financial shoes drop--monoline insurers will be downgraded triggering billions more in writedowns, the commercial real estate bubble will implode--we'll likely be a in a recession this quarter.

GDP acts as a scoreboard for the economy by measuring all goods and services produced. Its housing component, residential fixed investment, dropped by 24% in the fourth quarter, reducing overall GDP by 1.18 percentage points. Third-quarter investment had fallen by 21%, taking 1.08 percentage points out of GDP. The 24% drop was the worst since a 35% plunge during fourth-quarter 1981.

No surprise that residential fixed investment continues to crater......

The biggest GDP component, consumer spending, decelerated in the fourth quarter, rising 2.0% after increasing 2.8% in the third quarter. Purchases of durable goods rose 4.2% in the fourth quarter, after increasing by 4.5% July through September. Fourth-quarter nondurables spending rose by 1.9%. Services spending climbed 1.6%. Overall, consumer spending contributed 1.37 percentage points to GDP October through December; it had contributed 2.01 percentage points in the third quarter.

I'm amazed that consumer spending continued to expand, though again I'd note that inflation grew faster, meaning real growth in consumer spending was negative. And a not insignificant part of consumption growth was likely from gasoline purchases. What were the inflation readings?

The price index for personal consumption expenditures rose by 3.9% after increasing 1.8% in the third quarter.

The much-watched PCE price gauge excluding food and energy increased 2.7% after rising 2.0% in the third quarter.

The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, rose 3.8% after increasing 1.8% in the third quarter.

If you don't drive or eat, inflation was a mere 2.7%. If you do, it was near 4%. [Another post this week will discuss why, despite these elevated inflation numbers, some folks still fear DEFLATION more than inflation. It's a fascinating debate....]

But as credit is tightening, so is the consumer's ability to finance incremental consumption. Without credit, 2008 will likely show a contraction in consumer spending. Since it drives 70% of the economy, a decline in consumption will most likely mean GDP contracts in the aggregate.

The stock market, incidentally, may cheer this number. The fact that GDP growth came in below economists' expectations will give the Fed extra incentive to cut interest rates this week. Right now Fed Funds futures are assuming a 50 bps cut in the target rate. Count on it.

This, of course, is unfortunate. Cutting interest rates won't solve our economic problems, it will just mask them with cheap money. A good way to think about this is to look back at BKUNA's recent earnings call.

On it, the Florida bank's management team spoke about the benefit they'll derive from lower interest rates. Lower rates will help option ARM holders refinance into fixed rate mortgages. That's not a bad thing in and of itself. But throwing more credit at housing only serves to keep prices high. We know, based on housing's historical relationship to median income, that prices are still way to high. To bring sanity back to that market, prices must revert to the mean. Cheap credit keeps that from happening, it keeps the bubble from deflating.

[It's interesting that BKUNA would want folks to get out of ARMs and into fixed rate mortgages. The bank makes more money on ARMs, or should after rates adjust upward. But they know better than anyone that as ARMs reset, borrowers will simply mail in the keys and walk away from the property......]

In the eyes of Wall Street, Comcast Corp is no longer a growth stock and needs to start to focus more on returning value to shareholders, so says a Goldman Sachs report today.

The note from Goldman analyst Ingrid Chung comes two weeks after we reported that investors are beginning to re-think the Comcast 'value stock' story and are now calling for the reinstatement of a dividend. The last time the U.S. cable company paid a dividend was nine years ago.

Chung also says investors will be looking for a confident 2008 outlook from Comcast on Valentine's Day, when it is scheduled to report quarterly earnings:

While competition and the economic slowdown continue to chip away at Comcast's business, we would become more constructive on the stock if the company were to post strong 2008 free cash flow guidance and show a renewed commitment to shareholder friendly initiatives (such as a dividend) when it reports 4Q2007 results on 2/14.

Goldman Sachs downgraded Comcast shares to a "Neutral" rating on Dec. 4 after the cable company lowered its full-year revenue growth forecast.

The stock fell around 40 percent in the last year as investors believe the company is struggling with pressures from the U.S. economic slowdown and increased competition for customers from satellite TV operators and new advanced video services from phone companies.

One investor is publicly calling for the head of Chief Executive Brian Roberts. Chieftain Capital, which owns around 2 percent of Comcast's outstanding shares, also thinks a dividend would be a good idea. Chung said Comcast can help its own cause by making itself more appealing to value investors:

We believe Comcast can no longer view itself as a growth company and in order to attract the incremental investor, Comcast needs to show investors that lowered expectations are now achievable and to demonstrate an increased commitment to returning cash to shareholders.

(Photo: Comcast CEO Brian Roberts/Reuters)