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Year 16 (XVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Taurus and Libo (or, less frequently, year 769 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 16 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events[link]

By place[link]

Roman Empire[link]

• A Roman army of 50,000 men commanded by Germanicus gains a great victory at Idistaviso, defeating the German war chief Arminius and recovering the lost eagles of Varus' legions.^[1]
• Germanicus employs North Sea fleet to avoid dangerous rivers, embarking an army in the Rhine delta aboard circa 1,000 ships. He defeats the Germans at Amisius river estuary and the Weser, but during its return the Roman fleet is partially destroyed by storms.^[2]
• Noricans having joined with the Pannonians in invading Histria, are defeated by Publius Silius, proconsul of Illyricum.

• Vonones, the beleaguered king of Armenia is summoned to Syria by Roman governor, Creticus Silanus.^[3]

By topic[link]

Arts and sciences[link]

• Ovid's "Epistulae ex Ponto" appears.

Births[link]

• September 16
  • Drusilla, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder (d. 38)
  • Samual Yare, druid, assistant to the Roman Emperor 100–126^{[citation needed]}
• Agrippina the Younger, Roman Empress

Deaths[link]

• Scribonia, second wife of Caesar Augustus and mother of Julia the Elder (approximate date)
• Clemens (impostor)^[4]

References[link]

Abigail Loraine Hensel and Brittany Lee Hensel (born March 7, 1990) are dicephalic parapagus twins, meaning that they are conjoined twins of whom each has a separate head, but whose bodies are joined. They are highly symmetric, giving the appearance of having just a single body with little variation from normal proportion. In fact, several vital organs are doubled up, each twin having a separate heart, stomach, spine and spinal cord.

Each twin controls her half of their body, operating one of the arms and one of the legs. This means that as infants, the initial learning of physical processes that required bodily coordination, such as clapping, crawling, and walking required the cooperation of both children. While each is able to eat and write separately and simultaneously, activities such as running and swimming must be coordinated and alternate symmetrically. Other activities as diverse as brushing hair and driving a car require that each twin perform a sequence of quite separate actions that coordinate with the other.

Despite the curiosity that their condition has generated, the Hensel twins have managed to live private lives with relatively little press attention. At the age of 16, they gave an interview on The Learning Channel on December 17, 2006, in which they discussed aspects of their daily lives and plans for the future.

Background[link]

Abigail and Brittany Hensel were born in Carver County, Minnesota, the daughters of Patty, a registered nurse, and Mike Hensel, a carpenter and landscaper. The twins have a younger brother named Dakota, or Koty for short, a younger sister named Morgan, and a dog named Sadie. They were raised in New Germany and attended Lutheran High School in Mayer, Minnesota.

Physiology[link]

The Hensel twins have a single body with separate heads and necks, a chest that is wider than normal, two arms and two legs. At birth, they had a rudimentary arm attached to a shoulder blade at the back. The arm was removed, leaving the shoulder blade.

Abigail's head tilts laterally outward about 5 degrees to the right, while Brittany's head tilts laterally at about 15 degrees to the left, causing Brittany to appear shorter. At age 12, they underwent surgery at Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare to correct scoliosis and to expand their chest cavity to prevent future difficulties with breathing.^[1]

Each of the twins manages one side of their conjoined body. The sense of touch of each is restricted to her body half; this shades off at the midsagittal plane such that there is a small amount of overlap at the midline. They are effective in cooperatively using their limbs when both hands or both legs are required. By coordinating their efforts, they are able to walk, run, swim and ride a bicycle normally—all tasks that they learned at a normal speed. Together, they can type on a computer keyboard at a normal speed and drive a car.

Organ distribution[link]

Abigail and Brittany have individual organs in the upper part of their body, while most of the organs located at or below the level of the navel are shared, the exception being the spinal cord.^[2]

• 2 heads
• 2 spines merging at the coccyx and joined at the thorax by sections of ribs. Surgery was employed to correct scoliosis.
• 2 completely separate spinal cords
• 2 arms (originally 3, but rudimentary central arm was surgically removed, leaving central shoulder blade in place)
• 1 broad ribcage with 2 highly fused sternums and traces of bridging ribs. Surgery was employed to expand the pleural cavities.
• 2 breasts
• 2 hearts in a shared circulatory system (nutrition, respiration, medicine taken by either affects both)
• 4 lungs with the medial lungs moderately fused, not involving Brittany's upper right lobe; three pleural cavities
• 1 diaphragm with well-coordinated involuntary breathing, slight central defect
• 2 stomachs
• 2 gallbladders
• 1 liver, enlarged and elongated right lobe
• Y-shaped small intestine, which experiences a slightly spastic double peristalsis at the juncture
• 1 large intestine with one colon
• 3 kidneys: 2 left, 1 right
• 1 bladder
• 1 set of reproductive organs
• 2 separate half-sacrums, which converge distally
• 1 slightly broad pelvis
• 2 legs

Separation[link]

Upon their birth, their parents rejected the option to attempt surgical separation after hearing from doctors that it was not likely that both girls would survive the operation. As the girls grew and learned to walk and develop other skills, the parents confirmed their decision against separation, arguing that the quality of life for the surviving twin or twins living separately would be less than their quality of life as conjoined beings.^[3]

Adulthood[link]

The Hensel twins both successfully passed their drivers license exams, both the written and driving tests. They had to take the tests twice, once for each twin. Abby controls the pedals, radio, heat, defogger, and other devices located to the right of the driver's seat, while Brittany controls the turn signal and lights; together, they control the steering wheel.

They both graduated from high school in 2008. They began college at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.

In conversation, the twins are clearly distinct persons, with distinct likes and dislikes. Their preferences in food, clothing color, etc., differ. Some of their clothes are altered by their seamstress so that they have two separate necklines in order to emphasize their individuality. They will usually have separate meals, but sometimes will share a single meal for the sake of convenience (e.g., each takes a bite of the same hamburger). Abigail is better at mathematics, and Brittany is better at writing. For tasks such as responding to e-mail, they type and respond as one, anticipating each other's feelings with little verbal communication between them. In such cases as the latter, their choice of grammatical person is to use the first person singular out of habit when they agree, but when their responses do differ, they use their names in the third person singular.

There is some concern about their ability to have continued good health, because only four known sets of conjoined twins who share an undivided torso and two legs have ever survived into adulthood, and most have congenital heart defects or other organ anomalies. None have shown up in the Hensels' case. They have so far had no desire to make themselves available for any medical studies. They intend to make a rather limited number of media appearances in the future, primarily just to appease the world's curiosity and to reduce the number of people who might otherwise be taken aback by their unusual body configuration. They intensely dislike being stared at or photographed by strangers while going about their private lives.^[4] In the interviews made for Discovery Channel in 2006, the girls, then 16, said that they hoped to date, get married, and have children. They also stated that they hoped that by providing some information about themselves, they would be able to lead otherwise fairly typical social lives as together, they continue to make new friends.^[4][5]

Media appearances[link]

In April 2006, they appeared in Joined for Life, a TV documentary produced by Advanced Medical and distributed on the Discovery Health Channel. They also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 8 and April 29, 1996. In April 1996, the twins were featured on the cover of Life under the caption "One Body, Two Souls", and their daily lifestyle was depicted in the corresponding article entitled "The Hensels' Summer". Life followed up with another story in September 1998. In 2003, an updated story of them at age 11 (filmed in 2001) was published in Time and again in Life. They appeared in a follow-up documentary on The Learning Channel on December 17, 2006, filmed around the time of their 16th birthday, in which they discuss dealing with puberty and getting their driver's licenses. In the summer of 2006, they had a vacation in Texas at the home of a family whose dicephalus twin girls had died at a few hours old.^{[3][6][7][8][9][10]}

Filmography[link]

Documentaries and other television appearances include:

References[link]

External links[link]

• Abby Hensel at the Internet Movie Database
• Britty Hensel at the Internet Movie Database

Las Ketchup is a Spanish pop group, founded by flamenco producer, Manuel Ruiz. The group is best known for the 2002 song, "The Ketchup Song" (Aserejé), which sold over 7 million singles.

Career[link]

Las Ketchup was originally discovered by the flamenco producer Manuel “Queco” Ruiz, who signed them to his newly formed independent Córdoba-based label Shaketown Music, which he ran together with Manuel Illán.^[1] They recorded the songs “Asereje” and “Kusha Las Payas" with Ruiz producing, and shopped the demo to a number of large record companies with the intention of securing a distribution deal.^[1] The demo was received by Columbia/Sony A&R Javier Portugués and director Raúl López who, on listening the recordings, stared at each other in delight exclaiming, "Wow, this is fantastic!".^[1] At first the intention was to arrange a distribution deal with Shaketown Music but on hearing the song they realised its international potential and so negotiated for Las Ketchup to sign with Sony.^[1]

In the summer of 2002 they had a major flamenco Europop fusion hit with "Aserejé" (released as "The Ketchup Song" in the UK and other countries), which reached the top of the charts in many countries including Spain, Portugal, Colombia, UK, Italy, Greece, France, Finland, Turkey, Syria, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Philippines, Switzerland, Germany, Romania, and Australia. However, it failed to hit the Top 40 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Still worldwide, the trio became instant rivals to another Spanish female trio, Lunae, who released their debut single in Europe at the same time in 2003. The title and part of the lyrics were in Spanish. The hit also had an accompanying dance.

The group re-released the Ketchup Song later in the same year, with a new video, as a Christmas song.

The name of the group is a reference to their father Juan Muñoz, a flamenco guitarist known as El Tomate (The Tomato). This also explains why their debut album carried the title Las hijas del Tomate (Daughters of Tomato).

In 2006 they were joined by Rocío, their fourth sister, to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The girls have said themselves that Rocío has always been a member of Las Ketchup, but she wasn't in the photographs, videos or performances because she was pregnant.

The group sold over 12 million copies with the first album, but the second did not achieve the same success.

Recent events[link]

Las Ketchup came back as a 4-girl group, with a new album titled Un Blodymary (Bloody Mary). Their long absence was due to their writing songs for the album and Pilar's pregnancy. The album release was delayed until the beginning of 2006. They planned to release 1 million copies and their producer "Queco", who also produced and wrote their worldwide single "Asereje", indicated that this album retains their original sound.^{[citation needed]} Their first single from the CD was also titled "Un Blodymary". This song was the Spanish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The song did not perform as well as expected, ending 21st with only 18 points.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Hijas del Tomate (2002)
• Un Blodymary (2006)

Singles[link]

Awards[link]

• 2002 'Ondas awards'

– Best New Artist/group

• 2004 Billboard Latinos awards

– Best pop album from new generation ("Las hijas del Tomate")

– Most tropical-salsa song played by Duo or Group ("The Ketchup Song" (Aserejé)

• 2003 Latin Grammy Award

– Best Pop Album By a Duo or Group with Vocals Las hijas del Tomate (Nominated, lost to Bacilos Caraluna.)

• 2003 Record Fair MIDEM (Cannes)

– Best New Artist/group

• 2003 Amigo Awards

– Best New Group

– Best New Artist

• 2004 Record fair MIDEM (Cannes)

– Breakers of borders (Best-selling Album out of its country and inside of Europe with "Las hijas del Tomate") Song)

Parody[link]

In 2002, the German comedian Elmar Brandt wrote (using the tune of Aserejé) a Gerhard Schröder parody called "Der Steuersong" (The Tax Song)^[18] for the radio program The Gerd Show.

In 2002, a satirical version to the tune of Aserejé by El Groupo Mayonessa circulated in Gibraltar prior to the referendum on a proposal of joint sovereignty, entitled 'Vota Que No, Que No, Que No No No'^[19]

See also[link]

• Son de Sol

References[link]

External links[link]

• Unofficial Las Ketchup Site
• Las Ketchup at AskMen.com
• Las Ketchup at Answers.com