Wii Fit miracle helps paralysed girl walk again

A 10-year-old girl left paralysed by a virus four years ago has learned to walk again thanks to an unusual aid – Wii Fit.

Nicole Cahill received treatment in a New York hospital before returning home to Wexford, Ireland. But although she underwent a series of conventional treatments there, it's her copy of Wii Fit at home that's provided the real miracle, reports the Irish Herald.

"The Wii Fit is great because there are so many balancing and stretching exercises on it," said her overjoyed mother. "We'll have to wait and see, but we think she's doing so well that she'll be walking [unaided] sooner than we think."

Brace yourselves though – while the news is undoubtedly heading for Nintendo's 'good PR' drawer, we're anticipating injuries galore with the forthcoming release of the Riiflex; a "weighted attachment" that transforms the humble Wii remote into a make-shift dumbbell. Get ready kids: Wii accidents are about to go to the next level.

Facebook murderer guilty

In other news, a man has been found guilty of murdering his estranged wife because she changed her marital status on Facebook to 'single', reports the BBC.

"Enraged" by her status and subsequent refusal to respond to his messages, Edward Richardson stabbed hairdresser Sarah Richardson to death in May 2008 at her parents' home in Staffordshire.

Richardson, who attempted to take his own life after the attack, has been sentenced to a minimum of 17 years in prison.

New threat hits the skies

Meanwhile, parachutists and hang-gliders beware. New net-launching tech able to bring you back down to earth could soon be utilised by US Air Force security police – that's if a request for a "portable net-throwing tangler-gun" is approved.

Allegedly a "non-lethal" weapon, the CULAPS system is described as "a lightweight net aimed and fired from the ground that envelopes the target and thereby removes the target's lift bringing it to the ground."

Precise definitions of "non-lethal" have yet to be established.

Gadget therapy

Oh dear, social net-boasting hit a new all-time-low this week with the birth of the Tweet-a-Watt. Essentially a modified Kill-A-Watt power metre, the device measures your daily power consumption, and then transmits the figures to Twitter.

Yawn. We can't see too many people being sucked into a competition for the lowest usage. Then again, boredom's a curious thing.

And finally…

While we would never advocate hacking a road sign, it appears that some people with less scruples than us have no qualms replacing useful information with more questionable content, such as 'Zombies coming', and 'Show me your t***'.

That's what one hacker did, who helpfully details all on his website. Not the sharpest tool in the box clearly, particularly as he also filmed himself standing next to said sign…