Filipinos warned on crucifixions

Health officials in the Philippines have issued a warning to people taking part in Easter crucifixion rituals. They have urged them to get tetanus vaccinations before they flagellate themselves and are nailed to crosses, and to practise good hygiene.On Good Friday dozens of very devout Catholics in the Philippines re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.It is something that has become a huge tourist attraction, although the Church frowns on the practice. Disinfect

The health department has strongly advised penitents to check the condition of the whips they plan to use to lash their backs, the Manila Times newspaper reports.

They want people to have what they call "well-maintained" whips.

In the hot and dusty atmosphere, officials warn, using unhygienic whips to make deep cuts in the body could lead to tetanus and other infections.

And they advise that the nails used to fix people to crosses must be properly disinfected first. Often people soak the nails in alcohol throughout the year.

Every Good Friday, in towns across the Philippines, people atone for sins or give thanks for an answered prayer by re-enacting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Giving thanks

In the northern city of San Fernando alone there will be three separate improvised Golgothas - the biblical name for the hill where Jesus was crucified.

Four people there have pledged to have their feet and hands nailed to wooden crosses, while others will flog themselves while walking barefoot through villages.

Sometimes people repeat the penance year after year, like the fish vendor who will be nailed to the cross for the 15th and last time on Friday to give thanks for his mother's recovery from tuberculosis.

With long hair and a beard, wearing sandals and a crown of thorns, he is tied with cloth to the cross but also has nails driven through the flesh of his hands and feet, avoiding the bones. - bbc

Self abuse is a form of entertainment for some people.

German surgeons operate on woman's bowels instead of leg

When it comes to a surgical mistake, this incident may take the cake: A 78-year-old German woman went into the hospital last month to have surgery on her leg. Because of a mixup, Frankenpost reports that she left the Hochfranken-Klinik in Münchberg, Germany, with an artificial anus.The paper says some members of the surgical team have been punished in connection with the series of mistakes that led them to operate on the wrong patient. Prosecutors are said to be looking into the incident. As for the unidentified patient, she still needs knee surgery and plans to file a lawsuit.

By the way, there is such a thing as an "artificial anus." Shosaburo Abe and Yoshikatsu Abe filed a patent application in 1991.

Here are some of the headlines we came across while researching this posting:
• Bit of a bummer
• Pensioner gets bum's rush on op
• Leg operation turns into a pain in the A..
• Hey doc, leave my butt alone!
• Leg op woman gets bum deal

The headlines make light of the woman's misfortune, but medical errors are a real problem in the USA and other countries.

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine reported that mistakes caused the deaths of between 44,000 and 98,000 hospital patients each year. Last Sunday, CBS News spoke with actor Dennis Quaid about the medication errors that almost killed his newborn twins.

Today, the Mercury News reports that an 87-year-old woman died at a Fremont, Calif., hospital after staff gave her four drugs that had been prescribed for other patients. State officials imposed tough sanctions in that case. In Sacramento, the Bee says another hospital was also fined $25,000 because employees gave a 29-year-old woman the wrong medicine and administered 10 times the prescribed dose of an anti-psychotic drug.

Earlier this week, a Canadian group announced new national guidelines designed to protect patients from medical mistakes.

"Experts say open and timely disclosure will help reduce medical errors in hospitals and are calling for a clear and consistent approach across the country," The Toronto Star reports. "For example, the guidelines advise hospitals to tell a patient if there was a 'close call' involving their care where ongoing safety is concerned. They also advise against using the word 'error' in relaying a medical mishap to a patient because usually the harm involves 'a series of failures.'"

Update at 2:10 p.m. ET: Thanks to reader Northern-voice for pointing us to this story in the Star Tribune, which recounts the experiences of a woman who was left with a cancerous kidney after surgeons removed the wrong one during an operation at Methodist Hospital.

"We feel just profoundly responsible for this," Dr. Samuel Carlson, an executive with the company that owns the hospital, tells the paper. -usatoday

Police blame ghosts for damage

Romanian cops have closed a vandalism investigation that left local houses in ruins by concluding ghosts were to blame. Families living in Lilieci reported windows broken, bicycles flying through the air, objects moving on tables and candles blown out when there is no wind. When they complained they were being hounded by evil spirits to police they were laughed at. But after officers saw the evidence with their own eyes they filed a report saying that ghosts were to blame. Mircea Hadimbu, 68, who says his house has now been completely wrecked, said: "The windows started to break one by one. I saw two bicycles moving through the air on their own." His sister Melentina Bocancea, 78, who lives nearby, added: "There were cups flying around the house and candles I lit were blown out as soon as I put a match to them even though there was not a breath of wind in the house." A police spokesman said: "There were bottles and things flying around. I did not know what to dodge first. We can find nothing to suggest it was anything other than what the people claim." A priest has been called in to perform exorcisms of houses in the town in the hope that the attacks will finally stop. - ananova

Send in The Amazing Randy.

Live security cameras

intitle:"Live View / - AXIS"
inurl:view/view.shtml^
intitle:axis intitle:"video server"

Couple Wears Dog Sweaters

A Newcastle couple have found a unique way of keeping their beloved dead pets close to their hearts - by having the dog hair made into woolly jumpers. Beth and Brian Willis lost their white Samoyed, called Kara, 12 years ago and Swedish Lapphund, Penny, in 2002.

After seeing a picture of Princess Diana wearing a dog fur stole at Crufts, they collected thousands of dog hairs from brushes and carpets.

The pair said the his and hers dog memorials were "warm and waterproof".

Mr Willis, who worked for Pickfords Removals for 27 years, wears his doggy jumper into town every Saturday to do the weekly shop.

The 73-year-old said: "They are extremely warm and pretty much waterproof. I've always got a sweat on by the time I get from the bus to the shops.". ..

"It is the most amazing stuff. It's like mohair but more lightweight and more soft, and the more you wash it, the more soft and fluffy it gets."

Mrs Willis added: "People are surprised when they find out we're wearing dog wool clothes. Some think it's disgusting and ask how we can do it, but it seems very normal to us." - bbc

Dark matter revealed!

Scientists think the mysterious substance makes up most of the mass in the universe -- but because it doesn't give off light, visible proof of its existence is elusive. Theory suggests that the invisible stuff acts as gravitational glue that keeps the stars and galaxies from flying apart. Now, armed with powerful telescopes, tricky lenses and fast computers, scientists are at last bringing the evidence of dark matter to light.

For example, in this image, the yellowish galaxy cluster in the middle serves as a gravitational lens that bends the light of even more distant galaxies. Those galaxies appear as distorted blue streaks surrounding the cluster. Scientists can analyze the distortions to determine how dark matter is distributed in the cluster.

Super Clumpy

Dark matter, it turns out, may be rather clumpy stuff. This image shows a galaxy supercluster -- a grouping of hundreds of interacting galaxies -- about 2.6 billion light years from Earth. The bright blue spots are the visible galaxies, superimposed over magenta-tinted clumps that represent a detailed map of dark matter. The map was created by inferring how the light from even more distant galaxies is bent as it passes through the gravitational field of the supercluster, which is called Abell 901/902. Astronomers found that the supercluster's galaxies lie within the clumps of dark matter, and the irregular shapes of the clumps match the distribution of the galaxies.

Invisible Scaffolding

This 3-D map of the large-scale distribution of dark matter in the universe provides compelling evidence that the invisible stuff serves as the scaffolding upon which the stars and galaxies are hung. The map reveals a network of filaments that grow over time and intersect in massive structures at places where galaxy clusters are located. To make the map, astronomers used ground and space telescopes to determine the shape of half a million distant galaxies. This galactic light was bent and warped by the gravity of other galaxies as it traveled to the telescopes. By analyzing the shapes of these distant galaxies, astronomers were able infer the distribution of dark matter.

Bullet Proof

For proof that dark matter really exists, scientists turn to this image of a collision between two massive galaxy clusters that contains a bullet-shaped cloud of superheated gas. Theory suggests that during such a collision, a type of cosmic air resistance should slow down the hefty hot gas -- but not the dark matter. That's what this image shows. The hot gas, pictured in red, is separated by the dark matter, pictured in blue. Scientists say the image serves as strong evidence that dark matter really does exist.

Train Wreck

A massive collision of galaxy clusters about 3 billion years ago has proven to be a train wreck of sorts for dark matter theory. The prevailing theory suggests that the force of gravity should keep dark matter and galaxies together even during violent collisions, but that hot gas should lag behind due to the cosmic equivalent of air resistance. This image, however, shows the dark matter (blue) separated from most of the galaxies (yellow and orange). Scientists speculate that a gravitational slingshot effect may have separated the galaxies from the dark matter, or that the dark matter is interacting with some force other than gravity. Neither explanation fits well with existing theory. A third possibility is that the observations and calculations are off. Further research may yield an answer.

Ghostly Ring

Some rings signify marriage, others a Super Bowl victory. This one may signify that dark matter exists. Astronomers made this composite image of a ghostly ring of apparent dark matter (mapped in blue) around a cluster of galaxies about 5 billion light years away. Computer simulations of the ancient galactic collision that created the cluster provide clues to how the ring formed. During the smash-up, dark matter fell to the center of the combined cluster and then started to slosh back out toward the edges. But the pull of gravity caused the dark matter to slow and pile up like cars speeding into a traffic jam on the freeway.

Cold or Warm?

Assuming dark matter does exist, is it cold or warm? If some of the universe's earliest stars can be found, computer simulations suggest the issue could be resolved. Slow-moving particles of cold dark matter would have caused single, massive stars to form in isolation. Faster-moving particles of warm dark matter, in contrast, would have caused the stars of differing sizes to form on long, thin filaments of dark matter -- as pictured here. Since small stars are long-lived, they may still be lurking in our universe. Scientists hope to find them with new telescopes. - msnbc

Man auctions his life

A man in Australia is auctioning his life -- his house, his job, his clothes and his friends -- on eBay, after his marriage broke up, saying he wants to start a new life.
"It's time to move. A completely fresh start. I want to see where life takes me," Ian Usher, 44, told Australian television on Tuesday from Perth in Western Australia state.

Usher said he was auctioning his life as "a package" with his house in Perth valued at around A$420,000 (US$385,000).

"Hi there, my name is Ian Usher, and I have had enough of my life! I don't want it any more! You can have it if you like!," reads his Web site www.alife4sale.com, which has a link to eBay for bidders.

Usher said his life auction, which starts on June 22, included not only his house, a car, a motorbike, a jet ski and a spa, but also an introduction to "great friends" and a job at a rug shop in Perth for a trial two-week period.

"When it's over, I will just walk out the front door, take my wallet, my passport and start a new life," he said.

Usher said his ex-wife had heard of his auction.

"Her last comment was, 'it seems a bit mental to me'," he said. - yahoo

Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90. The Somerset-born author achieved his greatest fame in 1968 when his short story The Sentinel was turned into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

His visions of space travel and computing sparked the imagination of readers and scientists alike.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse paid tribute, hailing the writer as a "great visionary".

Since 1995, the author had been largely confined to a wheelchair by post-polio syndrome. ...

"Sir Arthur has left written instructions that his funeral be strictly secular," his secretary, Nalaka Gunawardene, was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.

She said the author had requested "absolutely no religious rites of any kind".

A farmer's son, Sir Arthur was educated at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.

He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and foresaw the concept of communication satellites.

Sir Arthur's detailed descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems inspired millions of readers.

When asked why he never patented his idea for communication satellites, he said: "I did not get a patent because I never thought it will happen in my lifetime."

In the 1940s, he maintained man would reach the moon by the year 2000, an idea dismissed at the time.

He was the author of more than 100 fiction and non-fiction books, and his writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction a human and practical face. He collaborated on the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey with the film's director Stanley Kubrick. - bbc

LiveLeak.com - Musician Plays Burning Piano.

Stars of YouTube video 'How to Scam Del Taco' arrested in Rialto

Pausing between mouthfuls, the man calling himself Mr. Califero proudly displayed his haul for the camera.

Seven tacos, a large order of fries, two sodas and two quesadillas with extra chicken would have cost $15. But as he titled his Feb. 19 homemade video, this was about "How to Scam Del Taco" and get the food for free.

"See what happens?" said the 6-foot-5, 500-pound narrator, whose real name is Robert Echeverria. "Guess that's how you do it."

As outlined in a video posted on the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube, Echeverria netted the feast from a Rialto Del Taco by calling the manager to say he was a local CEO whose lunch order had been botched and he didn't have a receipt.

Five minutes later, he and two friends are seen in a parked SUV laughing, eating and mugging for the camera.

Rialto police didn't find it so funny.

Within days of getting a tip about the video early this month, detectives identified the 32-year-old Echeverria as a gang member and obtained felony second-degree commercial burglary warrants for the arrests of him and his two 18-year-old friends.

If convicted, the maximum prison sentence could be seven years.

"This seems to be the new wave of crimes being committed: posted on YouTube for the world to see," said Rialto police Lt. Joe Cirilo. "They're victimizing someone here and making a joke out of it."

On Monday, the video had been viewed 430 times. - pe.com

$40,000 for Man Tasered on YouTube

 

Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all.

Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb.

"This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large parts of a dinosaur actually looked like, in the flesh," said Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Manchester University in England, a member of the international team researching Dakota. - cnn

130-yr-old patient puzzles doctors

An ascetic admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) claims to be 130 years old, but the doctors at the premier hospital are taking it with a pinch of salt.  Resting in the hospital after a surgery for removal of a bladder tumour, Sant Swami Ramanand, who hails from Behta jungle near Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, claims that he is 130 years old.

"It is for sure that he is above 100 years old. But whether he is 130 years old or not, I am not sure about it," said Dr N P Gupta, Head of the Department of Urology, AIIMS, under whom Ramanand is undergoing treatment.  Even if Ramanand is over 100 years old, he has created a record of sorts as it is the first time in the history of AIIMS wherein a person above the age of 100 had undergone a surgery.

"He was suffering from carcinoma of bladder. He has undergone a cysrtopanedoscopy and removal of bladder tumour without any incision," Dr Gupta said.  Regarding the authenticity of Ramanand's claims, Dr Gupta said, "There is no arrangement in medical science which can correctly suggest a person's age after he or she has crossed the age of 60 or 70. If we are believing him, it is all because he talks about Gandhi and lots about the history of India."

Regarding the present state of Ramanand, Dr Gupta stated that he has been operated upon successfully. He will be discharged sometime next week, he said, adding the hospital was yet to check if the cancer has spread elsewhere and study the tumour that has been taken out. The oldest person in the world, according to Guinness Book of World Records, is a 122-year French woman. - timesofindia

Swarm Of Bees Closes California Highway

Millions of swarming honey bees were on the loose Sunday after a truck carrying crates of the insects flipped over on a California highway. The California Highway Patrol said 8-to-12 million bees escaped Sunday from the crates in which they were stored and swarmed over an area of Highway 99 and stung officers, firefighters and tow truck drivers trying to clear the accident. CHP Officer Michael Bradley said a tractor trailer flipped over while entering the highway on its way to Yakima, Wash. The flatbed was carrying bee crates each filled with up to 30,000 bees. Bradley said several beekeepers driving by the accident stopped to assist in the bee wrangling. The bees had been used in the San Joaquin Valley to pollinate crops. - msnbc

Couple, married 83 years, share their secret

The year was 1925. Calvin Coolidge was president, Adolf Hitler released the first part of his book, “Mein Kampf,” Charlie Chaplin’s big movie was “The Gold Rush,” flappers were singing and dancing to “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “I’m Sitting on Top of the World,” the Scopes Trial played out in Tennessee, the first television images were broadcast, Al Capone ruled the streets of Chicago, flagpole sitters were all the rage, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were the newest recording artists, the price of a first-class stamp hit 2 cents.

And in Hugo, Minn., an 18-year-old man named Clarence Vail married his 16-year-old sweetheart, Mayme. They had met in the eighth grade, and marriages at such young ages were more the norm than the exception back then. Unremarkable at the time, that union, now 83 years old and still as strong as ever, has finally claimed a place among the historic events of the year. ...

They don’t have a magic formula to explain the success of their marriage. They just took seriously what they said to each other when they stood at the altar.

“You take your vows, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer,” Mayme said. “I guess you just stick to it, come what may.”

They say they haven’t had an argument since 1946, something that Mayme attributes to the fact that her husband, who is 101, is the strong, silent type who isn’t given to argument. “That’s why we got along so well,” joked the 99-year-old Mayme. “He never spoke out of turn. I didn’t give him a chance.” - msnbc

 

The Army Mule Robot

I posted this a year or more ago but it looks like they have made more progress since then.

Brain Surgeon Operates With a Cheap Cordless Drill

An eminent British neuro-surgeon has been performing complex brain operations using a £30 do-it-yourself cordless power drill at a clinic in Ukraine.

Henry Marsh, a senior consultant at St George’s hospital in Tooting, south London, has used the Bosch 9.6 volt battery-operated hand tool to open up the skulls of his patients to remove life-threatening tumours. Occasionally the battery has gone flat halfway through.

The operation is performed with the patients fully awake – a technique that fell out of use in Britain 50 years ago. Marsh said that Ukrainians could withstand such a practice because they were “very tough”.

The 58-year-old consultant travels to Ukraine twice a year to perform free operations at a clinic run by a fellow surgeon, Igor Petrovich. The handyman drill was used because the local doctors could not afford state-of-the-art equipment.

When working for the National Health Service, Marsh uses a £30,000 compressed-air medical drill, but he said that the Bosch was an effective stand-in. “There’s not a huge difference,” he said. “The drill is Igor’s solution. It’s simply an ordinary drill which he uses with the standard medical drill bits.

“I have used the Bosch drill myself when I’ve been operating with Igor. It’s exactly the drill that you could have in your garden shed. He bought it at a do-it-yourself shop.”

There is a shortage of fully trained anaesthetists so Marsh’s patients are given only a local anaesthetic. This enables him to talk to them to ensure that he is not doing any permanent damage as he drills. - anorak

Antarctic iceberg that looks like candy

One of them looks like a giant mint humbug, with its clear blue, green and brown stripes.The other looks as if it has been shot through with a streak of spearmint.

These stunning banded icebergs - formed over hundreds, if not thousands, of years - were pictured floating in the waters of the Antarctic.



Some of the stripes formed when layers of the iceberg melted and refroze.

Others were created from the dust and soil picked up when the ice sheet that gave birth to the iceberg was sliding down an Antarctic hillside.

They were photographed by Norwegian sailor Oyvind Tangen, on board a research ship around 1,700miles south of Cape Town and 660miles north of the Antarctic.

"It reminds me of striped candy I bought as a child," said 62-year-old Mr Tangen.



Source: Dailymail

Landing on Moon Illusion

Source: Amazingillusions

Top 10 Worst Company URLs

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URL
Everyone knows that if you are going to operate a business in today’s
world you need a domain name. It is advisable to look at the domain name
selected as other see it and not just as you think it looks. Failure to do
this may result in situations such as the following (legitimate) companies
who deal in everyday humdrum products and services but clearly didn’t give
their domain names enough consideration:1. A site called ‘Who Represents’ where you can find the name of the agent
that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange
advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South
Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their
whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com

This is a few years old but I didn't see it until tonight. From nextwebgen.

SlamBall

 

A little bit of every sport rolled into one…

Video: YouTube via Bits & Pieces via Spluch