In August, the German carmaker delivered a total of 10,912 vehicles to customers around the world, up 20.8 percent over the same month of last year, while from the beginning of 2012, Porsche has sold 92,474 vehicles, which translates to an increase of 15.0 compared to the same period in 2011.

Last month, Porsche's U.S. sales reached 3,026 units, an increase of 38.6 percent compared to the same month of last year, while in China, the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer reported an increase of 28.4 percent to 2,882 sales.

Even in Europe, which is in a recession, the automaker was able to sell 2,830 vehicles in August, up 12.8 percent from last year.

In August, the new 911 sold 1,559 examples (+29.5%), the new Boxster roadster 850 units (+32.0%) and the Cayenne, 6,331 vehicles (+36.0%).

It's an iconic theme song of a grand melodic score meant to bring to musical life the story of farm-boy Luke Skywalker's joining with the rebel forces to save Princess Leia and the entire galaxy from the evil grasps of Darth Vader and Death Star.

But the Star Wars theme song as a lullaby?


For 7-month-old Sebastian Leyack of Santa Rosa, Calif., yes, it is. You could say "the force" is with tiny Sebastian, who appears to only have ears for the internationally known score to the famous movie trilogy, something his parents discovered by accident.

"We were driving down to visit my parents and I wasn't in a place where I could stop safely and he was crying and crying," Sebastian's mom, Amy Leyack, said. "We had just left the house and he was fed, had a clean diaper and a nap so there was nothing wrong but he was upset and I couldn't stop.

"I turned on the radio and that [Star Wars] was the first song and he stopped crying," she said. "I changed it to other music and he started crying, so I went back and he stopped."

Leyack couldn't believe that, first, the music had soothed him so quickly and that, second, it was Star War's music that did it.

"His dad is a big Star Wars fan," she said.

Such a fan that Amy and husband Gaston had watched the movies and listened to the music while Sebastian was in utero, and the Star Wars theme happened to be the only song that Leyack had downloaded on her phone.

Beth Feeback had a really good weekend. The North Carolina woman who bought a painting for $9.99 from a Goodwill store sale saw it sell for more than $27,000 at a Sotheby's auction.

"It's a great return on $9.99," Feeback said Sunday night.

The sale price listed on the Sotheby's website, $34,375.00, reflects the final gavel price plus a premium the buyer must pay, she explained. The painting had been expected to sell for between $15,000 and $20,000.

Somewhere in West Tennessee, not far from Graceland, nine women -- or "The 9 Nanas," as they prefer to be called -- gather in the darkness of night. At 4am they begin their daily routine -- a ritual that no one, not even their husbands, knew about for 30 years. They have one mission and one mission only: to create happiness. And it all begins with baked goods.

"One of us starts sifting the flour and another washing the eggs," explained Nana Mary Ellen, the appointed spokesperson for their secret society. "And someone else makes sure the pans are all ready. We switch off, depending on what we feel like doing that day.

"But you make sure to say Nana Pearl is in charge, because she's the oldest!" she added with a wink and a smile.

Over the next three hours, The 9 Nanas (who all consider themselves sisters, despite what some of their birth certificates say) will whip up hundreds of pound cakes, as part of a grand scheme to help those in need. And then, before anyone gets as much as a glimpse of them, they'll disappear back into their daily lives. The only hint that may remain is the heavenly scent of vanilla, lemon and lime, lingering in the air.

Even the UPS driver, who picks up hundreds of packages at a time, has no clue what these women, who range in age from 54 to 72, are doing. He's just happy to get a hug and a bag filled with special treats. What he doesn't know is that he's part of their master plan. A plan that began 35 years ago -- when the "sisters" got together for their weekly card game -- something their husbands referred to as "Broads and Bridge."

"Pearl says it was all her idea," Mary Ellen teased, "but as I remember it, we were sitting around reminiscing about MaMaw and PaPaw and all the different ways they would lend a hand in the community." MaMaw and PaPaw are the grandparents who raised four of the women, Mary Ellen included, when their mother passed away; and they took in Pearl as their own, when her parents needed some help.

"MaMaw Ruth would read in the paper that someone had died," Mary Ellen remembered, "and she'd send off one of her special pound cakes. She didn't have to know the family. She just wanted to put a little smile on their faces. And we started thinking about what we could do to make a difference like that. What if we had a million dollars? How would we spend it?

So the ladies began brainstorming.

"One of the sisters suggested that we should all start doing our own laundry and put the money we saved to good use. I admit, I protested at first. There's just something about laundering that I don't like. But I was outnumbered! So among the nine of us, we'd put aside about $400 a month and our husbands never noticed a thing. Their shirts looked just fine."

And then the women started listening. They'd eavesdrop -- all with good intentions, of course -- at the local beauty shop or when they were picking up groceries. And when they heard about a widow or a single mom who needed a little help, they'd step in and anonymously pay a utility bill or buy some new clothes for the children.

The Ancient Mayan calendar speaks of 21 December 2012 as the end of times and the beginning of a new cycle of evolution for planet earth, humanity and the cosmos. This prophecy has been hyped through media and Hollywood as an apocalyptic 'end of the world' scenario. However, the Mayan elders say that the ancients were informing the modern world to be ready for a giant transformation for the human race.

December 2012 is being looked upon as the time of a significant spiritual shift in the collective consciousness of the planet into this new Golden Age. That's why 12,000 people will be assembling in Wembley Arena on 12.12.12 to experience The Big Om mass sound healing event - an event with the power at a quantum level to shift the vibration of the planet - which will be live-streamed around the world.

BEVERLY, MA - Imagine you are sitting at a table in a company cafeteria. The door opens, and in march 15 of your fellow employees, single file and in step. They arrange themselves at chairs around a table and sit in unison; each one then places a soda can on the table and opens it in perfect time with the rest. Sounds like a scene from Village of The Damned? Think again!

This is "synchronized breaking", being hailed by corporate executives across the country as "the best thing since sliced bread", developed in Beverly, MA at a tech company called . It was conceived in late 2010 as a management tool to enable supervisors to keep close tabs on their subordinates. It evolved over the following year to incorporate split-second timing and synchronization of actions, all coordinated by a super-precise atomic clock. Synchronized breaking is currently sweeping across the country, and is being lauded as a possible turning-point in the American economy's downward trend.

Salt Lake City - Seeking to limit the fallout from a videotaped speech in which he asserts 47 percent of Americans "pay no taxes" and do not take "personal responsibility and care for their lives," Mitt Romney hastily called a press conference today to apologize personally to the "150 million starving, filthy beggars [he] might have offended."

Saying that he deeply regretted his choice of words at a private $50,000-a-plate fundraising function in May - during which he argued "[his] job is not to worry" about the lower-earning half of the nation's populace - Romney personally appealed to the country's "dirt-caked garbage pickers and toothless street urchins" for forgiveness.

"First and foremost, I would like to offer a heartfelt apology to all the whores, junkies, bums, and grime-covered derelicts out there who make up nearly half our nation," a visibly contrite and solemn Romney said outside a campaign stop at a local high school. "Let me assure you that I in no way meant to offend any of the putrid-smelling, barefoot masses out there. My campaign is not about dividing this nation, but about bringing all sides together - the rich, elegant members of the upper class, as well as the 47 percent who are covered in flies and eat directly from back-alley dumpsters."

JACKSONVILLE, FL - Criticizing the Obama administration's response to the current crisis in Libya and Egypt, Mitt Romney told reporters Wednesday that we should never, under any circumstance, apologize for the values that make this country great, such as our belief in the right to practice religion without persecution, our commitment to the freedom of assembly, or the overwhelming xenophobia that led to the relocation and internment of more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.

"As Americans, we should never feel the need to question who we are or what we stand for, whether it's our strong commitment to family or whether we're rounding up a group of innocent people, separating them from their friends and loved ones, and putting them into what are essentially overcrowded prisons because they happen to be of Japanese descent," Romney told the assembled press corps, adding that free speech and concentration camps are American ideals that should be cherished, not second-guessed.

Allison Matera was just too nice. She couldn't figure out a way to politely tell her churchgoing friends and community that she wanted out. So, instead, she told her choir she was dying of cancer.

She kept the ruse going for almost a year. For a while, she would give them updates on her treatment in person. When she stopped going to church, Matera told everyone she was checking in to a hospice to die.

Finally she phoned the pastor, posing as a nurse, and informed him of her "death" January 18, 2007. But I guess she missed the old gang, and appeared at her own funeral, pretending she was a sister. The jig was up shortly thereafter.