News Bites: Switched at birth and no one knew, for 12 yrs.

1. Russian kids switched at birth to live next door to each other

It’s the story that caught the attention of an entire nation, Russia. Two kids switched at birth were raised until the age of 12 in the wrong families. And it was only discovered after one father refused to support the child he’d raised because she didn’t look like him. Turns out she was neither his nor his wife’s, but belonged to another couple who was raising their child. That’s tough. A Russian court awarded $100,000 each in compensation to each family and they are discussing using the cash to buy homes next door to each other so they can see the children they both know grow up.

2. Steve Jobs’ final words: “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.”

The sister of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs who passed away earlier this month was with him when he died and said his final words were uttered as he stared at his wife and children. Mona Simpson didn’t know her brother for the first 25-years of her life (they were raised separately between parents). She said: “Even as a feminist, my whole life I’d been waiting for a man to love, who could love me. For decades, I’d thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man and he was my brother.” She went on to say: “Steve worked at what he loved. He worked really hard. Every day. That’s incredibly simple, but true. He was the opposite of absent-minded. He was never embarrassed about working hard, even if the results were failures. If someone as smart as Steve wasn’t ashamed to admit trying, maybe I didn’t have to be.” She then added poignantly: “We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories.” The whole thing is worth a read. More than worth it.

3. Thousands still stranded by Qantas, PM demands end to dispute

As Qantas flights began flying later yesterday afternoon, a backlog of thousands of passengers around the world needed to be cleared and the flow-on effect may last for a few days yet. It comes as Qantas management and the three unions involved in the dispute over conditions and keeping jobs in Australia entered a period of 21-days of negotiation, ordered by Fair Work Australia. “I have made it very clear to them that my expectation now that industrial action has ceased is that they will get around a table and get this sorted,” Ms Gillard said.

4. Today’s the day: the race that stops a nation

Join us later on at MM to see how we’ll be celebrating the day (and for plenty to look at too). And in the meantime, check out the tips on how to back a winner if you’re so inclined. Approximately 90,000 people are expected to head to Flemington this morning for the main event.

5. Treescrapers are a thing now.

OK, so we showed you the delight of the groundscraper, now, meet the treescraper. It’s pretty much a forest in the sky as designed by some Italian types who wanted their building to look a whole lot more green than your average highrise. But it’s not exactly cheap. Apartments start around $845,000. It’s a small price to pay for shrubbery at 105m though right?

6. Men don’t make friends with salad … true or false?

This interesting discussion about the increasingly gendered marketing of foods cropped up. You know how it goes. Men eat steak and pies and ‘bad’ food and women store Lean Cuisine for weeks at a time and eat mung beans. But is the marketing just capitalising on existing nutritional requirements? “Nutritionist Lola Berry says it goes back much further, all the way to primitive times when men needed high-energy, high-protein foods like meat to fuel their hunting expeditions. In today’s Western world of sedentary workplaces and channel-surfing hobbies, you’d be forgiven for thinking such an idea might be past its use-by date. However according to Berry – who follows the increasingly popular ‘Paleolithic’ or primitive diet based on the pre-agricultural diet of grass-fed meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, nuts and roots – it’s as relevant today as it ever was. At the end of the day, everybody should probably be eating more fruit and veggies. So men might need to eat more salads, and women might potentially need a bit more protein – especially if they’re exercising.”

And today’s WTF news…

7. Kim Kardashian hires divorce lawyer

Less than three months after tying the knot to NBA star Kris Humphries the pair are done for. But then, Kim has already made millions from the wedding which featured as a special on the Kardashian reality TV show. Kim’s first marriage lasted a bit longer – four years – to music producer Damon Thomas. The full details are now here.