The Dicephalic Conjoined Twins

The story of Abigail and Brittany Hensel was a big one years ago. They are dicephalic conjoined twins. Basically, they are a single body with two heads. Each twin controls one half of the body.

“Brittany is the left twin, and Abigail is the right twin. They have two spines which join at the pelvis. They have two stomachs, three lungs, and two arms. (A third, underdeveloped and useless arm between their heads was amputated in infancy.)” [Wikipedia]

Dicephalic conjoined twins are not common but their life-spans are usually short since many share vital organs that would not be able to support both twins as they get older. The Hensel girls have two of most the organs above the waist.

What I find so facinating is how their organs function together. Most of the shared organs are the ones that are below their waist. They have two hearts, yet they share a circulatory system. Sob7an Allah. I just can’t seem to get it through to my head. How can the circulating blood be able to “decide” (couldn’t find a better word) to go through one heart or another?

When I first read the story in an old issue of Life Magazine found in the house when I was 15 or 16, all I could think about was how hard it would be to live like they do. I would feel so sorry for them. They were six years old at the time the article was published and most of the focus of the story was on the medical and physical issues of the twins instead of their actual daily lives.

About two years ago, I saw a rerun docummentary on the twins on the Discovery Channel when they were around 13 years old. I saw them go to regular school, play on the volleyball team, soccer team, basketball team and the track team. They live their life more than I do.

The video below is an update of them at age 16. They can now drive!

I don’t feel sorry for them anymore. They have each other and that is all they know. They don’t know what it’s like to have your own body to yourself so they’re not really missing out on anything. It’s beautiful how they are so coordinated and mentally connected to be able to walk, run, hold a book and flip pages without skiping a beat. What’s even more beautiful is how they’ve always said and are still saying that if they had a choice, they would never think of being separated.

Me and the girls share a birthday. On March 7th, they will turn 17 and I will turn 21.

Video link

Happy Birthday

Zay il Hawa by 3abdl 7aleem. [35.4 MB]

together again..

Star Academy 4

Are you a fan of Star Academy and are pissed that you can’t watch it when you’re overseas?

I FOUND A SOLUTION!!

There is a website that uploads the videos of the dailys and the weekly “primes.” As you can expect, their website is swamped all the time. So after a video is uploaded, it is available for download right away but for some reason, after a couple of days it is not. When you go to the website, you’ll see that the primes and dailies of the past are listed but when you download the source, it is not there.

I try to download 5 hours after the daily show originally ended and the primes a whole day after. You just have to figure out your own schedule.

Good luck and ENJOY!

GO MARWA!

Dailies
Primes

Best Colts!

The Indianapolis Colts have made it to the Superbowl for the first time ever! Well, when they were the Baltimore Colts the made it in 1970 but lost.

This will be star quarterback Peyton Manning’s first time too!

Check out the video below of my friend Brian when we were watching the game tonight. It was after the last touchdown of the game that put us in the lead after being down 18 points. This game was the biggest comeback ever in championship game history!

Comebacks are awesome. But the best comeback I experienced by far was the UEFA Champions League final with Liverpool and AC Milan. Daaaaaym!

I’m sorry my blog has been looking like a sports blog lately.

David Beckham

This is a long response from Yazeed’s comment on the previous post.

I know he’s been wanting to go to the US but I’m pretty sure he was expecting that when he would be around 37 or something. When he would be too old to be actually needed in european football and just a “big name” in the US teams.

He is still in his prime and would have been a great addition to any team in Europe. Dropping a talented and famous (we all know that that element IS important even though we all don’t want players’ celebrity to affect the game) 31 year old from the national team is just wrong on so many levels. But I’m not totally surprised about it. England fans are known to treat their players like shit if they make one mistake and blame all bad things on that mistake and player. It’s shameful and disrespectful and supremely insulting to Beckham who played an important role in taking the england team where it’s been over the years.

If Zidane was in the England team and he’d have done the same thing if they had reached the World Cup final, he would have had to migrate out of the country. Instead, the French people and the world of football still treated him like the true legend he is and blamed France’s failure on the whole team.

I was surprised however, with the Real Madrid situation. I would have NEVER thought Capello to sideline him like that this season and then have him question his importance to the team and club. Every player is important and should feel comfortable in their club in order to perform well in their duties. I think capello is being obsessive about the team and all this media coverage and pressure about Beckham and the new signings has gotten to his head and caused the recent negative performance of Real Madrid the last five or six games. He’s a big coach, he should be able to handle this. I guess maybe it’s the Real Madrid curse.

MSNBC have an image slideshow of the life of Beckham. It’s feels like he’s being treated as if he has retired completely from the sport. Depending on the way you look at it, he really has retired from football.

Goodbye Beckham, and thank you for the wonderful times.

Team Ass

It’s his fault Beckham is not on the national team.

It’s his fault Beckham appeared worthless in Capello’s eyes.

It’s his fault Beckham is going to LA Galaxy.

It’s his fault Beckham will vanish into oblivion with the crappy Major League Soccer.

I hope Steve McLaren fails.

I hope the England team doesn’t qualify for Euro 2008.

Beckham is still a World Class player and it makes me mad that he is constantly being treated like some old has-been. Both Capello and Mclaren are assholes. I’m so pissed.

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