WhatsApp and nine

other ideas that were

snubbed before making

it big

From The Beatles to Harry Potter, Inspector Morse and Elvis, there are numerous brainwaves that first fell on deaf ears

Rich man: Jan Koum, founder of messaging service WhatsApp

WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton became overnight billionaires courtesy of Facebook when the social network giant bought their app.

But Facebook bosses should be kicking themselves after turning Acton down for a job in 2009.

At the time he took to Twitter saying: "Facebook turned me down.. looking forward to the next adventure."

And what an adventure followed - his next venture was WhatsApp, which shook up the world of messaging, turning users away from text messages and Facebook.

The service now has 450 million users and adds approximately a million new users a day.

set to fall in one hour

tomorrow - but then

Spring's on its way

The Met office has issued a yellow weather warning for parts of north west England, south west Scotland and north west Wales

Here we go again: A man wades through the water

Almost a month of rain is expected to fall on parts of the UK in just a few hours tomorrow - and the downpour will be followed by 70mph winds.

But the good news is spring is on the way with the promise of much more settled weather.

Cumbria, north west Wales and southern Scotland were due to get the worst of the downpour, with up to three inches drenching the regions.

Most of the rain was expected to fall over high ground, with towns and villages escaping the deluge.

The wet and windy conditions are expected to continue in the coming days.

Met Office forecaster Charles Powell said: “We do have a yellow warning in place for much of south west Scotland, north west England including Cumbria and into the north west of Wales.

“It is mainly going to effect the hills and mountains in those areas.

“There is a potential for as much as 80mm (3in) across parts of the Cumbrian fells.”

The average rainfall for Cumbria in February is usually up to four inches.

“In the south there will be not an awful lot of rainfall, it will be mostly dry and mild” he said.

12 'failed by Government'

as they are left on adult

psychiatric wards

Official NHS rules say kids with mental disorders should never be admitted to adult wards and the Department of Health had promised this would stop by 2010

Left: Hundreds of under-18s are admitted

Britian's top psychiatrist has accused the Government of failing mentally unwell children by forcing them to be treated on adult wards.

Official NHS rules say kids with mental disorders should never be admitted to adult wards.

The Department of Health had promised this would stop by 2010.

Yet alarming new figures show hundreds of under-18s – some as young as 12 – with mental health problems are being treated on adult psychiatric wards.

Dame Professor Sue Bailey, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “We are at a tipping-point in mental health.

“It is completely unacceptable that children are having to be treated on adult psychiatric wards.

risk of prostate

cancer - despite once

being thought to GUARD against disease

The chance is said to increase by 17% overall - even though the vitamin is widely used to boost the immune system and selenium is taken to ward off heart disease

Men have been warned to stop taking vitamin E and selenium supplements after research showed they can dramatically raise the risk of prostate cancer.

Vitamin E – once thought to guard against the disease – was said to actually increase the danger by 17% overall.

And the chance of getting aggressive cancer could rise 111% in some cases. Vitamin E is widely used to boost the immune system and selenium is taken to ward off heart disease.

But US scientists found overdosing on selenium raised the chances of aggressive prostate cancer by 91%. For men lacking in selenium, vitamin E pills increased the overall risk by 63% while the aggressive risk rose by 111%.

The US study was a follow-up of a trial to see if the supplements could prevent prostate cancer.

crushed to death by

giant boulder which

destroyed French

ski chalet

The youngsters, aged seven and 10, were staying near to the resort of Isola 2000 when a landslide occurred around 5am this morning

Sleeping children crushed to death by giant boulder in France

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Two children have been killed after a giant boulder crushed their ski chalet as they slept.

The youngsters were staying near to the resort of Isola 2000, in the French Alps, when the tragedy happened in the early hours of this morning.

A landslide occurred around 5am which sent the boulder crashing onto the chalet, crushing the children, aged seven and 10, to death.

in England - but we're

going to get slim with

the Mirror

Our three Copeland dieters tell their stories - and every six weeks will report back with their weight-loss progress in Your Life

Sarah Bell, 21, is 18st 4lb (size 18-20) while mum Janice Bell, 53, is 18st 3lb (size 20-22)

With fishing boats bobbing in the pretty harbour and breathtaking Lake District countryside, Copeland in West Cumbria could be straight out of a postcard.

But the borough has a reputation that you wouldn’t want to write home about.

Last week, Copeland was named and shamed as the fattest place in England with 75.9% of its adults classed as overweight or obese with a Body Mass Index of more than the healthy 25.

Copeland Borough councillor Karl Connor, 32, a rugby union player who stands 6ft 2in and weighs 24st, admits he needs to shed a few pounds himself and has even given up the booze to lose weight

online dating profile

pictures - can you guess

which one got me a

date?

he Mirror's Siobhan McNally sees if image really does count as she puts the same personal details with six very different photos of herself - with very different results

This is the busiest time of year for the internet dating industry, as singletons try to find a date in time for Valentine’s Day.

A recent study revealed that the right photo will help you land you the right man so single mum and Your Life columnist Siobhan McNally, 44, decided to test out the look of love..

I based my six “fake” profiles in different locations so I wouldn’t get too much of a crossover on the search criteria, but I used the same personal profile each time, only changing the type of person I was looking for according to my picture.

After two weeks, I then signed back into my six usernames to see how many men had viewed each one and, more importantly, messaged me.

To give me even more feedback, I then asked professional dating coaches Jo Hemmings and Peter Spalton to look at my profiles and explain which ones would be the most successful and why.

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Sunday, February 23, 2014