moonbuggy

‘A great presentation of five apocalyptic scenarios.’

(434meg Google video)

see it here »

‘Japanese health authorities are investigating a flu medicine that is also available in Australia after a teenager jumped 11 storeys to his death after taking the drug. It was the 18th juvenile fatality linked to Tamiflu in 17 months.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has asked the Japanese importer of Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug regarded as the most important shield against bird flu in humans, to collect information about the conditions of patients who take the drug.

The 14-year-old boy’s death follows a similar case two weeks ago, when a girl also 14, died after jumping from an apartment building at Gamagori, in central Japan.’

‘Taking certain vitamin supplements may adversely affect people’s lifespan, researchers have suggested.

Millions worldwide use antioxidant supplements such as vitamins A and E, and beta-carotene.

Looking at dozens of previous studies, Copenhagen University researchers suggested these appeared to raise, not lower, the risk of early death.

A supplements industry expert said the Journal of the American Medical Association study was fatally flawed.

But nutritionists said it reinforced the need to eat a balanced diet, rather than relying on supplements.’

‘Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday.

Prescription drug abuse already has outstripped traditional illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy in parts of Europe, Africa and South Asia, the U.N.-affiliated International Narcotics Control Board said in its annual report for 2006.

In the United States alone, the abuse of painkillers, stimulants, tranquilizers and other prescription medications has gone beyond “practically all illicit drugs with the exception of cannabis,” with users increasingly turning to them first, the Vienna-based group said.’

‘Team Hubris is installing a deep brain stimulator, essentially a neurological pacemaker, in my head. This involves threading two sets of stiff wires in through my scalp, through my cerebrum — most of my brain — and into my subthalamic nucleus, a target the size of a lima bean, located near the brain stem. Each wire is a little thinner than a small, unfolded paper clip, with four electrodes at one end. The electrodes will eventually deliver small shocks to my STN. How did I get into this mess? Well, I have Parkinson’s disease. If the surgery works, these wires will continually stimulate my brain in an attempt to relieve my symptoms.’

‘Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported on Tuesday.

Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at Shandong University of Science and Technology said ther electrodes could command them to fly right or left or up or down, Xinhua news agency said.

“The implants stimulate different areas of the pigeon’s brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and force the bird to comply with their commands,” Xinhua said. [..]

The report did not specify what practical uses the scientists saw for the remote-controlled pigeons.’

‘Nowhere in advertising is the gap between natural beauty and manufactured perfection more apparent than on subway posters. As we wait for transportation, we are unwillingly assaulted by larger-than-life representations of supposedly beautiful salespeople. The large scale of these ads and their extremely close proximity to the viewer offer up more than perceived intimacy, however… they give us the chance to see the mechanical flaws designed to correct their physical flaws.

Why don’t we just see them for what they are? They are regular people just like us, they just have a team of retouchers waiting at the ready.

Printable cold sores allow us to take action! Bring these people back down to our level, and tell advertisers that you don’t agree with their message. How can you help? It’s easy…’

‘Pakistani police have arrested two men after a village woman complained that her husband and relatives had sold one of her kidneys in order to buy a tractor, police said on Tuesday.

Although her kidney had been removed 18 months earlier, the woman, named Safia, only learnt it was missing after seeking treatment for a urinary tract problem in January.

“She has said that she was three months pregnant when her husband, Shakeel Ahmed beat her and then took her to the hospital for treatment,” said Mohammad Akram, duty officer at Noushera Jadeed police station in Punjab province.

“But at the hospital her husband, in connivance with three other people, sold her kidney to buy the tractor,” he said.’

‘Authorities are considering taking an 8-year-old boy who weighs 218 pounds into protective custody unless his mother improves his diet, officials said Monday.

Social service officials will meet with family members Tuesday to discuss the health of Connor McCreaddie, who weighs more than three times the average for his age. [..]

An unidentified health official was quoted as telling The Sunday Times that taking custody of Connor would be a last resort, but said the family had repeatedly failed to attend appointments with nurses, nutritionists and social workers.’

‘Planned Parenthood Wireless is a new choice for your cell phone service. By signing up for this service, you will help preserve reproductive rights, and ensure access to comprehensive family planning and medically accurate sex education for women and families around the world. You’ll do something you do every day – talk on your cell phone – and you’ll be helping Planned Parenthood as 10% of all monthly charges goes to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, at no extra cost to you.’

‘An “epidemic” of counterfeit therapeutic drugs is sweeping south-east Asia, costing hundreds of thousands of lives as victims take them under the mistaken belief that they are receiving vital treatment for their illnesses. A British doctor working in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, found that most of the anti-malarial medicines tested in a sample were sophisticated fakes, often displaying holograms on the packaging, originally aimed at making counterfeiting difficult.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 200,000 of the 1m malaria deaths each year would be prevented if all the drugs taken were genuine.

But the epidemic goes far beyond anti-malarials. [..]

Up to 50% of the drugs sold in Asia and Africa are fakes, in a trade estimated by the US Food and Drug Administration to be worth between $35bn and $44bn (£18.5bn-£23.1bn) annually. [..]’

‘ A Marlborough arborist with a broken leg spent 95 minutes stuck in a tree, only to be airlifted by rescuers straight into another tree, giving him more cuts and bruises.

Gavin Finch, 31, of Nelmac Marlborough, was topping a large pine overlooking Picton Harbour when a branch twisted and struck him as it fell yesterday afternoon.

Police, ambulance and fire officers were unable to reach Finch, who was halfway up the 40m tree, perched on a branch.

Nelmac manager Bob Boyes said it was decided to call the Wellington-based Westpac rescue helicopter to lift Finch out.’

‘ What’s the biggest hurdle to setting up a colony on the Moon or getting mankind to Mars and beyond? Aliens? Asteroids? Money? Try: humans themselves. Experts poring over plans to return to the Moon by 2018 and later stride to Mars believe the greatest-ever gamble in the history of space may ultimately depend on keeping the mind and body sound.

Anxiety, loneliness and tensions with crewmates, a daily battle to maintain fitness and avoid accidents, DNA-shredding radiation from solar flares or cosmic rays — all these make mental and physical health the key to whether a long-term mission will succeed or fail catastrophically.

Benny Elmann-Larsen, coordinator of physiology in human space flight at the European Space Agency (ESA), says psychological stress could be the biggest problem of all.’

‘The following system is provided as a free service for anyone researching different ways to pass a drug test. This system explains how to successfully pass a standard urine drug test using simple items you either have at home or can purchase at a grocery or drug store. It also explains how to successfully pass a hair drug test. The system is mainly designed for low to moderate-level users who will be taking a drug test at least 8 DAYS in the future.’

‘The NBC Today show aired this clip on Friday of a girl who has had the hiccups for over 3 weeks.’

(9.3meg Windows media)

see it here »

(3.2meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘In a stunning declaration at a London charity gig last night, teary punk celeb Kelly Osbourne revealed that a member of her family has the AIDS virus. [..]

Introducing a performance by the pop band Scissor Sisters, Kelly fought back tears as she said the cause was special to her because a member of her family had been diagnosed with the disease. Photographers said Osbourne sobbed before leaving the stage.

Calls and e-mailed requests for comment were not immediately returned.’

‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and today it is also in the click of your mouse. Consider the key key aspects of nipple appearance, nipple projection and areola size, and then cast your vote for the perfect nipple. It’s simple to do, click on the square with your favorite nipple then click “cast your vote”. If you enter your email address you can also receive our popular cosmetic surgery newsletter.’

‘Researchers are trying to find ways to regrow fingers – and someday, even limbs – with tricks that sound like magic spells from a Harry Potter novel.

There’s the guy who sliced off a fingertip but grew it back, after he treated the wound with an extract of pig bladder. And the scientists who grow extra arms on salamanders. And the laboratory mice with the eerie ability to heal themselves.

This summer, scientists are planning to see whether the powdered pig extract can help injured soldiers regrow parts of their fingers. And a large federally funded project is trying to unlock the secrets of how some animals regrow body parts so well, with hopes of applying the the lessons to humans.’

‘Campaigners against genetically modified crops in Britain last are calling for trials of GM potatoes this spring to be halted after releasing more evidence of links with cancers in laboratory rats.

UK Greenpeace activists said the findings, obtained from Russian trials after an eight-year court battle with the biotech industry, vindicated research by Dr Arpad Pusztai, whose work was criticised by the Royal Society and the Netherlands State Institute for Quality Control.

The disclosure last night of the Russian study on the GM Watch website led to calls for David Miliband, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to withdraw permission for new trials on GM potatoes to go ahead at secret sites in the UK this spring. [..]’

‘Women who claim to be victims of ‘date-rape’ drugs such as Rohypnol have in fact been rendered helpless by binge-drinking, says a study by doctors.

They found no evidence that any woman seeking help from emergency doctors because their drinks were allegedly spiked had actually been given these drugs. [..]

Around one in five tested positive for recreational drugs while two-thirds had been drinking heavily.

The findings further erode the theory that there is widespread use of Rohypnol and GHB, another drug said to be favoured by predatory rapists.’

‘Six blind patients have had their sight partially restored by a “bionic eye” surgically implanted on to their retina. Although it restores only very rudimentary vision, the device has proved so successful that its developers are about to begin a study of a more sophisticated version with between 50 and 75 patients.

If this trial goes to plan the device could be available to patients in two years, and one day it could be used to digitally enhance human sight. The bionic eye works by converting images from a tiny camera mounted on a pair of glasses into a grid of 16 electrical signals that transmit directly to the nerve endings in the retina.’

‘For 17 months, Jimmy Earl Adams battled heart problems as he prepared his defense on a charge of sexually assaulting a client at the cosmetic procedures center he owns in North Richland Hills, his attorney said.

On Friday morning, moments after a Tarrant County jury acquitted the 59-year-old, Adams was rushed to a local hospital, suffering what he said was a heart attack.

“My comment … my comment is that I’m in the emergency room,” Adams said in a telephone interview a few hours after the verdict. A woman who took the telephone from him said the family declined to make any additional comments.’

‘The opiate drug morphine is effective in easing long-standing coughs, as doctors have suspected, a study shows.

Physicians have been prescribing, on a hunch, the powerful drug to people with stubborn coughs for years.

But until now, there was no hard proof from a trial comparing the effect of morphine with a dummy treatment.’

‘Police announced they uncovered a plastic bag stuffed with the skeletal remains of at least six newborns Sunday after searching the grounds of a Christian missionary hospital in the central Indian town of Ratlam.

Director General of Police A.R. Pavar said they found the remains hidden in a drainage ditch on the hospital’s property in Ratlam after scouring the grounds following a tip off from a local.

All 390 bone fragments are thought to be from newly born babies and fetuses, but Pavar said an investigation will offer more information. [..]

Bishop L. Maida, the senior official who represents the church that runs the hospital, told CNN the hospital is more than a century old and nothing like this has happened before.’

‘AIDs patients suffering from debilitating nerve pain got as much or more relief by smoking marijuana as they would typically get from prescription drugs – and with fewer side effects – according to a study conducted under rigorously controlled conditions with government-grown pot.

In a five-day study performed in a specially ventilated hospital ward where patients smoked three marijuana cigarettes a day, more than half the participants tallied significant reductions in pain.

By contrast, less than one-quarter of those who smoked “placebo” pot, which had its primary psychoactive ingredients removed, reported benefits, as measured by subjective pain reports and standardized neurological tests.’

‘Early on the morning of Dec. 13, police officers responding to a 911 call arrived at a house in Hull, Mass., a seaside town near Boston, and found a 4-year-old girl on the floor of her parents’ bedroom, dead.

She was lying on her side, in a pink diaper, the police said, sprawled across some discarded magazines and a stuffed brown bear.

Last week, prosecutors in Plymouth County charged the parents, Michael and Carolyn Riley, with deliberately poisoning their daughter Rebecca by giving her overdoses of prescription drugs to sedate her.

The police said the girl had been taking a potent cocktail of psychiatric drugs since age 2, when she was given a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder, which is characterized by mood swings.

The parents have pleaded not guilty, with their lawyers questioning whether the child should have been prescribed such powerful drugs.’

‘A Chinese man has been sentenced to death for conning people out of 3 billion yuan ($387 million) in a giant scam to breed ants, local media said on Thursday.

Wang Zhendong, from the northeastern province of Liaoning, fabricated a business purported to be making wine, tea and medical elixirs using mature ants, the Beijing News said. [..]

More than 10,000 people, lured by the promise of returns of up to 60 percent, signed 100,000 contracts with Wang’s bogus company before the case came under investigation in June 2005. [..]

In his defense, Wang said he did not know the first thing about raising ants and was “quite unclear” about the costs, the Beijing News said.’

‘Your body is your canvas. Tattoos and piercings can be the brushstrokes used on that canvas.

But when you’re a teenager, do you really think about how you will breast-feed your baby if you have nipple rings?

The subject might be of limited interest, but there is enough speculation about it that the June/July edition of AWHONN Lifelines – the official magazine of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses – explores the issue.

And it finds, surprisingly, that “women with healed nipple piercings can breast-feed and should be encouraged to do so.”’

‘Men who have had a vasectomy may face an increased risk of developing a rare type of dementia marked by a steady loss of language skills, researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois, writing in the journal Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, linked this male sterilization surgery to a neurological condition called primary progressive aphasia, or PPA. [..]

Of those with primary progressive aphasia, 40 percent had undergone a vasectomy, compared to 16 percent of the others. Those with PPA also suffered the ailment an average of four years earlier than the others.’