Losing 185kg (29 stones) in body weight might seem like an extreme way to get into the record books.

Manuel says reading The Bible has encouraged him during his diet
But that is what Manuel Uribe from Monterrey, Northern Mexico, has done.
Now the world's heaviest man is on track to become the planet's most successful slimmer.
Put another way, his weight loss in one year is the equivalent of shedding two fully grown adult males from his body.
Manuel is already in the latest edition of the Guinness World Records as the heaviest living person.
That's because, not long ago he weighed 560kg (88 stones), or half a tonne.
Supervised diet
Supersized by nature, he has now downsized through diet and willpower.

A demonstration of how much weight Manuel Uribe lost
And that will put him in the record books again.
"Look at my face," he says. "I have lost a lot."
Manuel puts it all down to something called the Zone Diet.
The diet, supervised by a team of scientists and nutritionists, consists of a strict formula of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
It's about controlling hormone levels in the body, particularly insulin and glucagons.
Those behind the diet say that when these are at the correct levels through the right intake of food, anti inflammatory chemicals are released to keep the body's weight in check.
They say the body then uses its stored fat for energy, thereby causing weight loss.

Manuel cannot leave his reinforced bed"Life is good now because food is medicine," said Manuel. "If you have the right food your body gets what it needs. If I can lose weight, anyone can."
Manuel certainly doesn't starve himself to achieve his weight loss.
He eats roughly five times a day.
His lunch was a plate of chicken cooked in olive oil with broccoli, tomatoes and slices of raw red pepper.
Mother 'proud'
He can eat fish, chicken, some meat, many types of fruit and pretty much any vegetables, but all in strictly controlled portions called 'blocks'.
He is even allowed one fizzy drink a day - sugar-free, of course.
"He likes his food," said his mother, Otilia. "But I am very proud for what he has achieved in the past year."
The Zone Diet is controversial.

Manuel's mother says she is proud of her son's achievement
The American Heart Association doesn't recommend diets high in proteins. It also says there is not enough evidence about the long-term effects of being on the diet.
The Zone Diet's backers say they have a lot of evidence to prove it is safe and that it is not 'high protein', as such.
They say that the amount of protein a person absorbs depends on their height and build. They say that goes for carbohydrate and fat intake as well.
Manuel's weight problems are partly genetic, partly down to overeating.
His scale of morbid obesity puts him in the top half of one percent of overweight people.
Extreme case
Dr Roberto Rumbaut, a surgeon in Mexico who specialises in obesity, puts Manuel's case in perspective.
"Manuel Uribe is an extreme case," he said. "Where the obesity crisis lies is in people who are 13 to 31kg (30 to 70lb) overweight."
Dr Rumbaut said there were 1.6 billion overweight people in the world, of which about 450 million are obese, according to figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Roberto Rumbaut says obesity puts pressure on health services
"It's these people who are putting pressure on health services everywhere," he said.
Dr Rumbaut says it's not just diet that will resolve what has been called the world's "globesity" problem.
"It's the old fashioned stuff like exercise and lifestyle changes," he said.
Back at the house, Manuel sits on the reinforced steel bed that he has not left in six years.
Next to it is a massage machine that he uses to draw the circulation along his limbs. His only movement is to use his hips to swing himself from the lying down position to sitting upright.
New girlfriend
It is a dream of his to walk.
It's a dream shared by his new girlfriend, Claudia, who has helped to wash, feed and encourage him through this last year or so of dramatic weight loss.
"We are very happy for the effort he has been making recently," she said.

Manuel's girlfriend, Claudia, has encouraged him
"Sometimes he is sad and cries because he cannot get off his bed. But he is an example for other obese people to move forward. As he says: 'If I can, you can'."
Alongside his copy of the Guinness World Records lies another text, The Bible.
"I have Claudia, my mother and God to thank," said Manuel. "I am happy."
Still larger than life, but now, the incredible, shrinking, Manuel Uribe.

Today In History

NYSE (1914): Closed due to the outbreak of World War I, but opened again four months later to help the war effort by selling bonds.

Word of The Day

Oldster: An old or elderly person.

News; Swimming For Survival

Slow-moving turtles might not seem like very exciting racers. But this spring, the first-ever Great Turtle Race will pit migrating leatherback sea turtles against each other in a 750-mile (1,207-kilometer) swim to the Galápagos Islands. The race is part of an effort to educate people about the threats facing sea turtles.

In February, Pacific leatherbacks started swimming their way from Costa Rica, where they nest, to the waters near Ecuador's Galápagos Islands, where they feed on jellyfish. Eleven of these turtles were wearing satellite harnesses that tracked their location.

By using this satellite tracking data, the Great Turtle Race organizers will show online viewers the turtles' journey, starting on April 16 and running through April 29. The winner will be the turtle that swam the farthest.

Each of the 11 burly competitors will have its own sponsor for the broadcast, including big companies like Microsoft and Travelocity. The Los Altos, California, Bullis Charter School is sponsoring a turtle with help from the San Francisco-based Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The school's sixth-grade class traveled to Costa Rica this February to help researchers study the turtles. Back at school, students from all grades are learning about these big oceangoing reptiles as part of a special course. They're also working on a blog to help kids across the country learn about leatherbacks. The students named their turtle Saphira, after the female dragon from the book Eragon.

Leatherbacks are the biggest sea turtles on Earth, with some weighing in at more than 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms). "They can be the size of your kitchen table," says Lisa Bailey of Conservation International. They're also ancient—leatherbacks have lived on Earth for about 100 million years.

But today they're in trouble. At sea, turtles can get tangled in fishing nets or suffocate on drifting plastic bags, which they mistake for jellyfish. On the beach, bright lights from hotels and houses sometimes confuse both adult females coming ashore to lay their eggs and hatchlings trying to find their way to the ocean.

These and other problems have caused Pacific leatherback sea turtle populations to drop by 90 percent over the past 20 years. "If we don't do something, they'll be gone in ten years," said Bullis Charter School student Talliya Smith, 11. Smith helped release hatchlings and excavate leatherback nests with her classmates at Playa Grande in Costa Rica. 

The migrating leatherbacks swim more than 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) south to the waters around the Galápagos. Some go even farther south to the colder waters off Chile. Cruising at a rate of more than 43 miles (70 kilometers) per day, they make the trip in about two or three weeks. Once they arrive, the turtles dive to depths of more than 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in search of jellyfish and other food. In four years, when the turtles are ready to nest again, they'll return to Costa Rica, says sea turtle expert James Spotila.

Saphira, the Bullis Charter School's turtle, is a veteran nester. Since researchers first spotted her nesting at Playa Grande in 1995, Saphira has made 25 nests, averaging 55 eggs in each clutch.

Warren Zhang, 11, and his classmates saw Saphira—who is an amazing 56 inches (143 centimeters) long by 41 inches (103 centimeters) wide—while they were out on turtle night patrol at Playa Grande. "The turtle dug its nest in record time," he said.

The satellite tags that Saphira and her ten turtle competitors carry on their journey will help researchers learn more about where leatherback sea turtles go, even after the online race ends. However, her hatchlings' journeys are more mysterious; researchers think hatchlings drift and feed in offshore ocean currents, but little else is known about what they do until they return to nest for the first time at Playa Grande, which can be ten or more years later.

Check up on the turtles at www.GreatTurtleRace.com, including picking your pre-race favorite beginning April 5.

Today In History; Death of Rufus Bowen, American Mathematician

1978: Rufus Bowen worked in mathematical dynamics systems theory. His untimely death at age thirty-one cut short his pioneering work, including studies of topological entropy, symbolic dynamics, Markov partitions and invariant measures. His ideas have had lasting importance, inspiring much of today's research. Bowen’s friends and colleagues established the Bowen Lectures as an annual memorial to his life and contributions to mathematics. Each year, the Department of Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley invites an outstanding mathematician to deliver the Bowen Lectures on important mathematical research topics. 

Word of The Day

Wangle: To adjust or manipulate for personal or fraudulent ends. To make or get by devious means, finagle.

News; Tigers Cuddle With Apes

Bogor, West Java, in Indonesia

Tigers don't normally snuggle with orangutans. The big cats are meat-eaters, after all. But when Demis and Manis the tiger cubs were rejected by their mother, zookeepers at Taman Safari Zoo thought they might like the company of two other orphan siblings: Nia and Irma the orangutans.

"The first time I put them together, they just played," says zookeeper Sri Suwarni. The four shared toys, wrestled, and took naps together. Then one morning, Nia and Irma began hugging Demis the tiger, and he lick-kissed them back! "That's when I knew they were true friends," Suwarni says.

As the tigers grew, their natural instincts started showing, so Suwarni moved them into a separate exhibit. Now two other apes Suwarni is raising have also made a new friend—a leopard cub.

Today In History; Rasputin, Russian Mystic

1872: Born Gregory Yefimovich in the icy land of Siberia, Rasputin grew up in poverty with a life as harsh as his environment. As a child and young man, he gained a reputation as a mystic and seer, revered by some and feared by others. His reputation grew to that of holy man and followed him to St. Petersburg, where he was introduced to the Romanovs, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra, the rulers of Russia. Rasputin soon became their friend and confidante, then their most trusted government advisor, eventually wielding absolute power over the Romanovs and over Russia. His power came to an end when he was murdered in December, 1916, by members of the royal family. 

Word of The Day

Impecunious: Having very little or no money usually habitually, penniless.

News; Harriet Tubman, Civil War Spy

Harriet Tubman is well known for risking her life as a “conductor” in the Underground Railroad, which led escaped slaves to freedom in the North. But did you know that the former slave also served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War and was the first woman in American history to lead a military expedition?During a time when women were usually restricted to traditional roles like cooking and nursing, she did her share of those jobs. But she also worked side-by-side with men, says writer Tom Allen, who tells her exciting story in the National Geographic book, Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent. Tubman decided to help the Union Army because she wanted freedom for all of the people who were forced into slavery, not just the few she could help by herself. And she convinced many other brave African Americans to join her as spies, even at the risk of being hanged if they were caught.In one of her most dramatic and dangerous roles, Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to free slaves from plantations along the Combahee (pronounced “KUM-bee”) River in South Carolina. Early on the morning of June 1, 1863, three gunboats carrying several hundred male soldiers along with Harriet Tubman set out on their mission.Tubman had gathered key information from her scouts about the Confederate positions. She knew where they were hiding along the shore. She also found out where they had placed torpedoes, or barrels filled with gunpowder, in the water.As the early morning fog lifted on some of the South’s most important rice plantations, the Union expedition hit hard. The raiders set fire to buildings and destroyed bridges, so they couldn’t be used by the Confederate Army. They also freed about 750 slaves—men, women, children, and babies—and did not lose one soldier in the attack.Allen, who writes about this adventure and many others, got to know Tubman well through the months of research he did for the book. The historic details he shares bring Tubman and many other important figures of her time to life.To gather the facts, Allen searched libraries and the Internet, and even walked in Tubman’s footsteps. “I went on the river just south of the area where the raid took place,” he says. “You are in that kind of country she would have known, with plenty of mosquitoes and snakes, and there are still dirt roads there today—so you get a feeling of what it was like.”Allen says his most exciting moment came when a librarian led him to written accounts by people who actually saw Tubman and the raiders in action.“She was five feet two inches (157 centimeters) tall, born a slave, had a debilitating illness, and was unable to read or write. Yet here was this tough woman who could take charge and lead men. Put all that together and you get Harriet Tubman. I got to like her pretty quickly because of her strength and her spirit,” Allen says.To find out more about this courageous and adventuresome woman, read the book, Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent.