'They thought I was nuts': Meet the high school student who faked her own pregnancy - for a social experiment

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
UPDATED: 13:18 EST, 22 April 2011

Most students are happy to choose a conventional topic for their senior year project.
But aspiring social worker Gaby Rodriguez was determined to do something a little more challenging for hers, even if it meant lying to her whole school.
So the 17-year-old student from Washington State faked her own pregnancy, spending months wearing a fake belly to convince her friends - and gather their reactions.

Only a handful of people, including her mother, her boyfriend, and the school's principal, knew her burgeoning baby bump was in fact made from wire mesh and cotton quilting.
Her older brothers, the school's teachers and all the students aside from her best friend had been convinced she was pregnant - as had her boyfriend's parents.
Gaby said: 'At times, I just wanted to take it off and be done. I didn't want to go through this any more.'

She unveiled the truth - quite literally - on Wednesday, when she took off her fake bump in front of the entire student body at Toppenish High School in a presentation called 'stereotypes, rumours and statistics'.
Gaby decided to carry out the experiment as part of her senior project, which every student must pass in order to graduate.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1379460/High-school-student-17-pretends-pregnant-senior-project.html#ixzz2IW5wNSD8

7 Gun Groups That Make the NRA Look Reasonable




On Saturday, January 19, an alliance of pro-gun groups is commemorating the very first Gun Appreciation Day, encouraging Americans to head to their local gun shows, stores, and ranges to prove their support for the 2nd Amendment. The fake holiday is a call to arms to conservative gun owners as well as a direct rebuff to President Obama's push for gun legislation in the wake of mass shootings like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary. "Scheduled to send a message to Washington two days before Obama's second inauguration, the 'Gun Appreciation Day' is expected to rival 'Chick-fil-A Day' as a public statement of protest against government policies," a blast email from the organizers reads.

Some of the organizations promoting Gun Appreciation Day are so extreme that even the NRA won't go near them. (One of the now-disavowed official sponsors was a hardcore white nationalist political party.) These groups are smaller, far less powerful, and do not enjoy anything close to the NRA's hundreds of millions of dollars in annual fundraising. Here's a look at five groups that are hyping up the occasion—and two more of their ilk:


The Groups: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/gun-appreciation-day-groups