Bloombito, the alter ego of NY mayor on Twitter
New York: A new Twitter account that makes fun of Michael Bloomberg’s struggles with Spanish has become so popular that even the New York mayor has not been able to resist the temptation to begin following “@MiguelBloombito”.
Behind “Bloombito” is Rachel Figueroa-Levin, a housewife of Puerto Rican origin who only wanted to entertain her friends and fend off boredom while she waited shut up in her apartment for Hurricane Irene to pass, and it has become a real Twitter phenomenon attracting more than 14,000 followers in just a few days.
“Hola Newo Yorko! El stormo grande is mucho dangeroso!,” said Bloombito in its first tweet Saturday, a few hours before Irene made landfall at Coney Island.
As the hours passed, more and more people began to follow Bloombito’s pronouncements amused by tweets such as “Los trainos y el bussos son muy operationo. Go to worko. No excuso!,” which was posted Monday, the first workday after the storm.
Bloombito’s fame has shot up like a rocket among net surfers, and among them is Bloomberg himself, who is a great fan of the social networks and who informs citizens about his policies via Twitter.
The mayor, on his Twitter account @MikeBloomberg, said to his alter ego, “Are you listening to me?” and posted a link to a video on YouTube of a press conference at which, upon being asked about Bloombito, he smiled and commented, “I have to improve a bit. But it’s difficult – I’m 69 years old – to learn a new language.”
Bloomberg’s habit during many of his public appearances has been to spout brief comments in far-from-perfect Spanish in addressing the Hispanic public, and this behavior led Figueroa-Levin to create the Bloombito profile. (IANS)
British woman ‘asks for kidney online’
London: An Asian-origin British woman has reportedly become the first in the UK to advertise for a kidney donor on an American website.
Saira Khan, 37, made her plea through a charity that finds online “Good Samaritans” who want to give organs to people they feel empathy towards, British newspaper ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported.
And, an American woman, Dana Klejment, is said to have decided to offer one of her kidneys to Khan who is thought to be the first British patient to have found a “directed” donor — one who wants to give a specific individual an organ rather than donating it to a stranger, the report said.
Khan, a mother of three, has had kidney disease for 10 years and is on a waiting list to receive a replacement organ as her husband, Omar, is not a suitable donor match.
But she hopes to see her health improve more quickly by advertising for a living donor through the Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation of America, which puts adverts on websites to match patients with donors who are moved by their plight. (PTI)
Man plunges to death after girlfriend
London: A troubled man in Britain plunged to his death from a 150-foot tower block just after his girlfriend fell.
Steven Parker, 23, followed his love Kiran Creevy, 20, in plunging 150 feet from the 12th floor of her empty Leeds council flat, the Daily Mail reported.
The couple, who lived in a maisonette nearby and were having problems finding work, reportedly left a suicide note before dialling 999.
Neighbours said they heard his final words saying: “If she’s going, I’m going too.” Kiran’s mother said she received an emotional telephone call from her daughter in the early hours of Wednesday morning. She got into her car and was on her way to see her. But as she arrived at the flat they had fallen to their deaths.
Rachel Whitehead, Kiran’s aunt, told the Daily Mirror that Steven was due to become father in just 10 weeks after an affair with an 18-year-old woman during a break in the couple’s relationship.
She said: “We just can’t believe she has done this. He was going out with two girls at once. He was seeing them both and the other girl is pregnant. One minute he was with Kiran and the next minute back with her. I do feel sorry for the woman. What is she supposed to say to their child, `Your dad committed suicide with his other girlfriend?”West Yorkshire Police are probing circumstances surrounding their deaths. (IANS)
A mountain for you
The Netherlands :What started as a joke about creating an artificial mountain in the utterly flat Netherlands may actually be feasible. This was not what semi-professional cyclist-cum-journalist Thijs Zonneveld had expected when he posted a column on a popular Dutch news website on August 5 in which he laughingly urged his countrymen to create their own mountain with alpine slopes, meadows and villages. (UNI)