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Workers at Everglades National Park, Florida captured and killed a 16-foot-long Burmese python, who was found to have a whole adult deer in its stomach.
The Burmese python, one of the biggest ever found in South Florida, had recently swallowed a doe the size of a child.
An autopsy was conducted at Everglades National Park by Skip Snow, a python specialist who said the reptile had a girth of 44 inches (112 cm) with the 5st 6lb (35 kg) deer inside its stomach.
Skip Snow told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
“This is clearly an extreme event.
“It shows you they can eat huge things.
“The Burmese python – an ambush predator – would have staked out a known deer trail, seized the animal in its sharp teeth, crushed it by coiling around it and then eaten the corpse.”
Workers at Everglades National Park, Florida captured and killed a 16-foot-long Burmese python, who was found to have a whole adult deer in its stomach
It is the first time a snake has been caught so soon after eating a deer, allowing biologists to see just how large their prey can be.
According to Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the capture of the snake was crucial to help prevent the spread of pythons further north.
“It’s pretty clearly one of the biggest snakes we’ve seen,” Scott Hardin said.
“We haven’t gotten anything longer than 16ft in the wild in Florida.”
The Burmese python, one of the biggest ever found in South Florida, had recently swallowed a doe the size of a child
Specialists said the population of Burmese pythons in the Everglades has grown over the past several years, after being bought by people in the area as exotic pets.
According to state and federal wildlife officials, the dangerous snakes have been set loose by owners after growing too big, or escaped from enclosures destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
specialists also said the pythons primarily eat smaller mammals and birds, but larger specimens are happy to munch on alligators, deer and hogs.
The 16-foot-long python was discovered by workers from South Florida Water Management District, who were removing non-native plants from a tree island.
The world’s largest captive snake is a 25 feet, 22st (140 kg) python called Medusa, who lives in Kansas City and is capable of killing and consuming animals that weigh as much as a healthy adult.
In 2010, scientists from Denmark used computer technology to look inside the organs of a python after it had swallowed a whole rat.
The scientists noted that it took 132 hours for the snake to fully digest the rat, with the snake’s intestine expanding and its heart rate increasing to help it break down its substantial food.
According to researchers, pythons often fast for months and then eat enormous meals, and are able to consume up to 50% of their own bodyweight.
The pythons have in recent years been documented eating cockatoos, frogs and even other snakes.
St Louis Cardinals beat Texas Rangers 6-2 in the decisive seventh game and won baseball’s World Series 2011.
Both teams drove in two runs in the first innings, but St Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter then began to dominate as the runs dried up for Texas Rangers.
Allen Craig’s solo home run in the third put St Louis Cardinals ahead before Texas Rangers bullpen contrived to walk in two more runs in the fifth.
St Louis Cardinals added another run in the seventh as they cruised to victory. It was heartbreaking for Texas Rangers, who was beaten by San Francisco Giants in last year’s World Series – and had been one strike away from winning 2011’s Fall Classic on two occasions in Thursday’s epic Game Six.
Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington admitted:
“Someone has to win, someone has to lose and the Cardinals did it.
“They were the better team.”
The game started badly for Texas Rangers when leadoff hitter Ian Kinsler was caught stealing, but Josh Hamilton and Michael Young drove in a pair of runs as Texas got after Chris Carpenter early on.
St Louis Cardinals beat Texas Rangers 6-2 in the decisive seventh game and won baseball's World Series 2011
St Louis Cardinals drew level in the bottom of the first innings after Rangers starter Matt Harrison walked Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman.
The stage was set for Game Six hero David Freese, who steered a double into left field to score both runners and level the score at 2-2.
While Carpenter, pitching on only three days’ rest, threw five scoreless innings, St Louis Cardinals took the lead for the first time when Allen Craig smashed his homer over the right field fence.
Allen Craig was only starting the game as regular left fielder Matt Holliday was ruled out with a sprained right wrist he sustained in Game Six.
St Louis Cardinals threatened another rally in the bottom of the fifth when reliever Scott Feldman walked Allen Craig and hit Albert Pujols with a pitch.
Lance Berkman grounded out, but Texas Rangers gambled by intentionally walking Freese to load the bases for Yadier Molina – and it backfired as Feldman walked in a run.
That prompted Washington to lift Scott Feldman in favour of CJ Wilson – who had started Games One and Five but began his career as a closer – and the left-hander’s first pitch hit Rafael Furcal to walk in another run and leave the Rangers trailing 5-2.
Allen Craig made a great leaping catch in front of the left-field fence to deny Nelson Cruz a home run, while Chris Carpenter was eventually pulled early in the seventh innings as manager Tony La Russa – the master of matching pitchers with specific batters – turned to his bullpen.
“I was hoping to have an opportunity to go ahead and pitch in this game and fortunately it worked out,” said Chris Carpenter.
“It started off a little rough in the first. But I was able to collect myself, make some pitches and our guys did an awesome job to battle back.”
Lance Berkman, a Texan who was a World Series runner-up with Houston Astros in 2005, hustled well to start another St Louis Cardinals rally in the seventh innings, and this time Mike Adams was the Rangers reliever to suffer as Yadier Molina drove in Berkman to make it 6-2.
With the record 47,399 crowd joined by thousands more surrounding Busch Stadium to share St Louis Cardinals’ moment of glory, Jason Motte was handed the chance to come in as closer and retired the side in style.
Fittingly, it was Allen Craig in left field who caught a David Murphy fly ball for the final out as St Louis Cardinals wrapped up their 11th Fall Classic triumph.
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MTV’s most famous animated duo, Beavis and Butt-Head made their triumphant return last night.
From hilarious commentary about other MTV shows to plenty of misadventures and snarky asides from the Beavis and Butt-Head, there’s a lot to love about this reboot – as especially evidenced by the three funniest moments from the premiere.
To toast the launch of the much-talked-about Beavis and Butt-Head series reboot, some of the original B&B pioneers, including Baboon Animation and Titmouse staff, reunited last night over drinks and to watch the premiere, at Blue Haven, a pub in Manhattan.
Included among the butt-munchers were some of today’s strongest powerhouses in new media and animation for both kids and adults.
Among participants were Emmy-nominated director-writer Mike de Seve, known for his writing/directing work on DreamWorks’ Madagascar and Monsters vs. Aliens, and directing several SNL shorts, over 50 episodes of the Beavis and Butt-Head series, Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas, and on the B&B feature film; Kit Lybourne, an Executive Producer of the original Liquid Television, on which Beavis and Butt-Head premiered in 1993 and co-founder of the Oxygen network and The Whistle, a new transmedia sports network for kids; Machi Tantillo, former Studio Director at MTV Animation and executive at Oxygen; and directors and artists from Adult Swim’s Superjail and The Venture Brothers series.
Beavis and Butt-Head series reboot premiered last night in New York
Only few of the original crew went back to their seats to help on the Beavis and Butt-Head reboot in Los Angeles, but most are on to new territories like iPad and transmedia, said Mike de Seve.
“The new Beavis is just hilarious. But I think a lot of us can’t help ourselves-breaking the new ground is what gets our motors going” Mike de Seve said. “Rrrrrrr,” he added, “Like that.”
Superjail co-creator Ben Gruber, who broke into the biz through Beavis and Butt-Head and also Mike de Seve’s writing team at MTV Films, remembers the B&B crew:
“They were some of the kindest and some of the filthiest people I ever worked with.”
“It was a blast. B&B was fun, it was provocative, and it was actually universal in the same way that Dreamworks and Pixar movies are. No, I’m serious,” said Mike de Seve over a bottom-shelf whiskey.
“The point is, make it from the heart – characters who really, really want something that you can relate to, and are going for it against absolutely impossible odds. That works whether it’s chicks and beer they want, or to find Nemo. That drive is what gets audiences cheering. And in B&B fans’ case, farting.”
Ben Gruber recalled about the Beavis and Butt-Head crew:
“It was just a really great, nice group of people. We were all young. We’d work hard during the day, then go out drinking at Siberia, this bar actually down in the subway. If you worked all night (studio head) Machi would give you a toothbrush in the morning.”
Former MTV Animation VP John Andrews (now a development executive at Six Point Harness, makers of MTV’s other premiering cartoon, Good Vibes) joined the party by teleconference.
John Andrews recalls: “It was amazing to have your own cartoon studio right in the middle of Times Square. Like having a pinball machine in your living room.”
He also remembers that it occasionally got hairy, like the time a Beavis and Butt-Head episode was so controversial they had to move Mike Judge’s voice recording to a secret location for a week.
“And we hired Joe Frasier’s nephew as bodyguard,” says John Andrews.
“He was large,” says Mike de Seve.
“We needed large.”
Mike de Seve noted: “It’s amazing to me that so many friends and colleagues still work together. We’re not afraid to try new things. Have you had this calamari with bacon sauce for example?”
Ben Gruber is currently writing with Mike de Seve’s collective, Baboon Animation, on KikoRiki, which is the number one cartoon in Russia today.
“We’ve gone global,” laughs Mike de Seve.
“Till they take our passports.”
Baboon Animation is a collective of NY and LA writers, directors and artists in animation and new media, whose motto is “Cartoons for Humans.”
Baboon is providing the writing for Russia’s number one family series, KikoRiki; and Kit Laybourne’s new transmedia network The Whistle; and providing the writing and co-direction on the 5-star-rated iPad spy app, Operation Ajax from Cognito Comics (due for full release November 16).
A major British study found that taking aspirin regularly can reduce the long-term risk of cancer by 60%.
Researchers found that aspirin can reduce the risk of cancer by 60% in people with a family history of the disease.
The huge study covered 16 countries and is the first proof that aspirin has a preventive action that is likely to benefit anyone using it every day.
Many people who take low-dose aspirin to prevent heart disease will gain from its anti-cancer properties, while healthy people may follow the example of increasing numbers of doctors who take it for insurance.
A major British study found that taking aspirin regularly can reduce the long-term risk of cancer by 60 per cent
The study included 861 patients with Lynch syndrome, a genetic fault leading to bowel and other cancers at an early age, half of them were given two aspirins a day, 600 mg in total, for two years.
The rest of the patients included in the study were given placebo, or dummy, pills, says a report published online in The Lancet medical journal.
Initially, the researchers found no change in cancer rates between the groups. However, when they followed up the study after 5 years, they detected a significant difference.
By 2010, the researchers had identified a total of 19 new bowel cancers among those given aspirin and 34 among the placebo group, a cut of 44% among patients taking the drug.
Then, researchers focused on the 60% of patients who they were certain had conscientiously taken aspirin for at least two years they found an even more striking result.
In that group, only ten cancers were discovered compared with 23 in the placebo group, a cut of 63%.
Rates of other cancers linked to Lynch syndrome were almost halved by taking aspirin.
Professor Sir John Burn from Newcastle University, who led the research, said:
“What we have finally shown is that aspirin has a major preventive effect on cancer but it doesn’t become apparent until years later.”
The study is being hailed as the last piece of the jigsaw after years spent trying to prove that aspirin has a direct effect in stopping tumours.
A big step forward came last year with a study which showed that low-dose aspirin cuts overall death rates by a third after five years’ use.
However, it used records to look at the incidental benefits for patients taking it to stave off further heart attacks and strokes. The latest trial actually set out to prove that cancer could be prevented in people taking it for no other reason.
According to experts, healthy middle-aged people who start taking aspirin around the age of 45 or 50 for 20 to 30 years could expect to reap the most benefit because cancer rates rise with age.
There is widespread concern that side-effects such as stomach bleeding and haemorrhagic stroke outweigh any advantage among healthy people.
Prof. Burn, who takes aspirin every day, estimates there are 30,000 people with Lynch syndrome in the UK who might benefit from aspirin treatment.
“If we put them all on two aspirins a day now, in the next 30 years or so we would prevent 10,000 cancers. On the other hand, this would cause around 1,000 ulcers.
“If we can prevent 10,000 cancers in return for 1,000 ulcers and 100 strokes, in most people’s minds that’s a good deal, especially if you’ve grown up in a family with three, four, five, six people who have had cancer.
“On the other hand, if you’re just in the general population and you don’t have cancer in your family, then that’s going to be a much finer balance.”
According to Prof. Burn, further research will take place to discover the ideal dose of aspirin.
Tonya and Bryan Ricks, from Colorado Springs have been sentenced to 25 years in prison for abusing and starving their child resulting in serious bodily harm and failure to provide medical attention.
Tonya and Bryan Ricks pleaded guilty to starving their teenage son until he weighed just 37 pounds (17 kg) and leaving his seizure disorder untreated for five years.
According to doctors, the teenage boy would have suffered from as many as 12 seizures a day which compounded by malnutrition, left him bedridden, incapable of speech and unable to support his own body weight.
Tonya Ricks
Tonya and Bryan Ricks’ son was found in his own urine and faeces in 2009.
The couple’s other five children, age six months to ten years were also taken into custody and were severely malnourished.
Bryan Ricks
Tonya and Bryan Ricks made an emotional appeal to the judge prior to the sentencing, asking for mercy and expressing remorse over what they put their children through, KKTV reported.
“I am truly, truly sorry for putting them in this situation. It would mean a lot if they [her children] could hear it from me,” Tony Ricks said.
Though the judge applauded them for pleading guilty and not putting their children through the trial, he said it did not outweigh the “severe, continuous abuse”.
Tonya and Bryan Ricks’ 16-year-old son wrote a letter asking for a lengthy sentence which was read out to the court on Monday.
“I’m hoping my parents go to jail for a very long time for what they did to me,” he wrote.
The Ricks family problem was first noticed by Robert Stout, a Colorado Springs electrician in 2008.
The electrician told 11 News he reported the living conditions to police and was most concerned about the boy.
Robert Stout described him as being “frozen” and did not even flinch when a fly landed on his face.
“The thing I thought of was my son, that I would hope that somebody would call for my son if he was ever in trouble. So that’s why I had to call somebody, just to look in to see if what I saw was right.”
All six children were severely malnourished and had health problems which went untreated for years, doctors testified in court.
The children had rotting teeth, brittle hair and alligator-like skin and also suffered from viruses, infections, and many of the girls had asthma.
Two of the girls were suffering from fevers of more than 100 F when they had been taken from the home.
Another girl had a heart condition called ADT, a hole in the heart and the 16-year-old boy suffered from untreated daily seizures, numerous each day.
Neither of the children could hold a fork, tie their shoes or even owned a toothbrush. All children are now in foster care.
According to the foster mother, the 16-year-old has gained 60 pounds (15 kg) since he was taken from the home but “may never be able to walk again or live on his own”.
The teenager’s feet are turned in, from lack of growth and development, inhibiting his ability to walk.
Brenda Lynette Harding, a 30-year-old mother of two has been jailed for having a sexual relationship with 15-year-old Tristen Hagen who went on to suicide shortly after she ended the affair.
Tristen Hagen was targeted by Brenda Lynette Harding last year while she looked after him in Canon City, Colorado. According to police, the woman had cared for the boy since he was 13 and that he also lived with her for a period.
When Tristen’s father Mike Hagen suspected that an inappropriate relationship was taking place, he ordered Brenda Lynette Harding to stop seeing his son.
Brenda Lynette Harding, a 30-year-old mother of two has been jailed for having a sexual relationship with 15-year-old Tristen Hagen who went on to suicide shortly after she ended the affair
7News reported that Brenda Lynette Harding ended the relationship and Tristen Hagen was reported missing a day later on April 2 this year.
Teenager’s dead body was found two days later within sight of Brenda Lynette Harding’s home. An autopsy revealed Tristen Hagen had taken an overdose of pills.
Tristen Hagen’s dead body was found within sight of Brenda Lynette Harding's home
Authorities on the scene said: “From the vantage point where the body was discovered, Harding’s house could be clearly seen in an almost direct line of sight and his body lay in such a manner that it appeared he might have been looking at her house.”
Brenda Lynette Harding was sentenced to 90 days in jail and ten years to life on probation in Canon City, Colorado.
The woman must also register as a sex offender and not have contact with anyone under the age of 18, including her own two children, until a risk assessment can be completed.
Teenager Tristen Hagen, from the town of Buena Vista in Colorado, met Brenda Lynette Harding because as a friend of his stepmother.
Police said Tristen Hagen and Brenda Lynette Harding began to have a sexual relationship in June 2010.
The Canon City Daily Record reported from Brenda Lynette Harding’s trial where District Attorney Thom LeDoux spoke about how the teenager could not deal with the adult nature of the relationship.
The teenager’s father, Mike Hagen, said: “We found his lifeless body on a hill. She was told by me and other people to leave him alone. We don’t want to see this happen to anyone else.”
The father also posted on a Facebook memorial page for Tristen Hagen: “Son, we miss your smile, your laugh, your off the wall comments, we miss everything about you. I pray to god justice will be served on 10/24. I love you Tristen. You will live forever thru all of us.”
The Facebook page is filled with loving tributes from Tristen Hagen’s siblings telling of how much they miss their brother and asking that “justice be served” at Harding’s trial.
At Brenda Lynette Harding’s sentencing on Monday, Judge Julie G. Marshall noted she was not sentencing her for the boy’s death.
“While my heart goes out to the family in this case, I can’t sentence her for his choice to kill himself,” judge said.
“I am sentencing her for sexual assault on a child.”
Brenda Lynette Harding was charged with three felony counts of sexual assault on a child. The mother of two pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault on a child.
Dan Wheldon’s funeral has taken place today in his adopted hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner funeral service began at 10:00 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church in St Petersburg, and well-wishers lined surrounding streets as the procession passed by, en route to a private burial.
Order of Service wrote on the front page “Lionheart Forever”, underneath a picture of Dan Wheldon kissing one of his many trophies – in reference to the driver’s nickname, earned for fearless racing.
Dan Wheldon, 33, died in a fiery 15-car crash at Sunday’s season-ending IndyCar race in Las Vegas.
In a statement on Thursday, Dan Wheldon’s wife, Susie said:
“Though we won’t be able to fit everyone inside, I know that Dan would have wanted the community to share in the celebration of his life and to grieve his passing.”
Order of Service wrote on the front page “Lionheart Forever”, underneath a picture of Dan Wheldon kissing one of his many trophies - in reference to the driver's nickname, earned for fearless racing
Susie Wheldon thanked fans for offering support over the past few days, which she described as “unbearable” for the family.
Dan Wheldon is survived by his wife and two young children, Sebastian and Oliver.
Dan Wheldon was one of IndyCar’s most popular drivers and he developed a special bond with fans in both American cities that he called home – Indianapolis and St Petersburg – after moving from his native England.
Fans from Indianapolis and St Petersburg dropped off notes of condolence and items ranging from teddy bears to chequered flags at impromptu memorial sites this week.
“Although the last few days have been unbearable for our family, the overwhelming love and support we have received are rays of sunshine during these dark days,” Susie Wheldon said.
“The outpouring of sympathy and condolences has been so comforting, and I want to thank everyone for their kind notes, letters, gifts and flowers.”
Holly Wheldon, champion’ sister, tweeted yesterday: “Thank you so much to everyone who emailed and tweeted me amazing messages. Really appreciate it. Dan would be proud of all of you. :)”
Dan Wheldon’s funeral took place today at First Presbyterian Church in St Petersburg
During his service, country music star Wynonna Judd sang “I Can Only Imagine” and “Amazing Grace” in tribute to Dan Wheldon, known as Lionheart.
Writing on a sponsor’s blog in 2010, Dan Wheldon explained the moniker: “When I first started racing, a lot of the guys said that I raced with a lot of heart, occasionally not my head, but always with a lot of heart, like the way that Richard the Lionheart fought in battle.”
Dan Wheldon was born in Emberton, England. The future champion raced go-karts at the age of four. Dan Wheldon’s father was a go-kart racer and his mother was the timer at a local track.
Dan Wheldon was an IndyCar rookie in 2003 and won his first Indianapolis 500 two years later.
NASCAR drivers will honour Dan Wheldon with a special decal at this weekend’s race in Talladega, Alabama.
Meanwhile, St. Petersburg city council was scheduled to honour Dan Wheldon with a resolution on Thursday afternoon, and IndyCar officials are holding a public memorial service on Sunday afternoon at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indy.
Indy memorial service for Dan Wheldon will open its doors to the public on Sunday at 2:30 p.m., 90 minutes before the service is scheduled to start.
A trust fund for Dan Wheldon’s family has been established. Donations can be sent to Fifth Third Private Bank, attention Dan Wheldon Family Trust, 251 North Illinois St., Suite 1000, Indianapolis, IN 46204.
People wishing to send their condolences to Dan Wheldon family can address letters to The Wheldons, 9600 Koger Blvd N, Ste. 105, St Petersburg, FL 33702.
Dr. Clyde Yancy, a cardiologist from Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago says more people could live to the age of 100 by following seven simple steps to change their lifestyle.
According to Dr. Clyde Yancy, changes to lifestyle such as keeping a healthy weight, not smoking and controlling your cholesterol levels are an easy way to add an extra 10 years or more to your life span.
Dr. Clyde Yancy said 90% of people could live to the age of 90 and even reach 100 by following his advice.
The other steps are regulating blood pressure, managing diabetes, eating a healthy diet and getting active.
“By following these steps, we can compress life-threatening disease into the final stages of life and maintain quality of life for the longest possible time,” Dr. Yancy will tell experts from around the world at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress on Sunday.
Dr Clyde Yancy from Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago says more people could live to the age of 100 by following seven simple steps to change their lifestyle
Dr. Clyde Yancy is Magerstadt professor and chief of the division of cardiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
The specialist is urging governments to reverse the tide of lifestyle diseases by initiatives such as forcing food manufacturers to cut salt levels, and introducing smoking bans and health education in schools.
“We need to act now,” Dr. Yancy said.
The expert also said less than 1 in 10 Americans follow the seven steps in changing lifestyle.
Dr. Clyde Yancy’ seven steps to change your lifestyle and live to 100:
1. Get active: Inactivity can shave almost 4 years off a person’s expected lifespan. People who are physically inactive are twice as likely to be at risk for heart disease or stroke.
2. Know and control cholesterol levels: High blood cholesterol can lead to the build up of fatty deposits in your arteries, which are increasing your risk for heart disease and stroke.
3. Follow a healthy diet: Eating a healthy diet including plenty of fruit and vegetables is one of the most important things you can do to improve your health.
4. Know and control blood pressure: High blood pressure is often called a “silent killer” because it has no warning signs or symptoms. By knowing and controlling your blood pressure, you can cut your risk of stroke by up to 40% and the risk of heart attack by up to 25%.
5. Achieve and maintain a healthy weight: Being overweight or obese is major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Being obese can reduce your life span by almost 4 years.
6. Manage diabetes: Diabetes increases the risk of high blood pressure, atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries), coronary artery disease, and stroke, particularly if your blood sugar levels are poorly controlled.
7. Stop smoking: Half of all long-term smokers die early from smoking-related diseases, including heart disease, lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. As soon as you become smoke-free, your risk of heart disease and stroke begins to decrease. After 15 years, your risk will be nearly that of a non-smoker.
Dr. Clyde Yancy also said there was hope of reversing the rising tide of health problems:
“The opportunity for prevention is not an unrealistic expectation. Over the past 40 years the rates of heart disease and stroke have steadily declined.”
Gordon and Norma Yeager from Iowa, who had been married for 72 years, had only one hour separation between them in their passing.
Gordon, 94, and Norma Yeager, 90, had never been separated, even after their tragic car accident which sent them both to the hospital.
Gordon and Norma were both born in Iowa before he moved to a farm a Minnesota with his family. He later came back in the town, when he was 16, to work at the Chevrolet Garage in State Center, Iowa, a business which he would eventually go on to own.
Once back in the town, Gordon Yeager fell in love with Norma who was still studying at high school.
After his proposal, Gordon and Norma were married on the very day that she graduated, May 26, 1939.
They had a small wedding in the same evening held in the home of Gordon’s sister, the expense of which was covered by his first pay cheque.
Gordon Yeager fell in love with Norma who was still studying at high school
Gordon and Norma Yeager spent their first few years of marriage in California where he worked as a welder in the shipyards during the Second World War while volunteering at night for the war effort.
The newlyweds later returned to the town of State Center and had four children – Donna, born in 1940, Roger in 1943, Gordon in 1946 and the youngest Dennis in 1949.
Tragically both middle sons Roger and Gordon later died in car crashes.
Gordon and Norma Yeager first ran a hardware store before taking over the Chevrolet Garage with Gordon’s brother Roger until both men retired at 65.
Their youngest son, Dennis, 62, described his parents as incredibly active individuals.
“We took family camping trips in Iowa and Canada but spent most of the time at Clear Lake, Minnesota. We rented a cabin and went boating.
“I remember my Dad, even at almost 60 years old, water-skiing at Clear Lake. One time, when I was driving the boat he disappeared under for such a long time, that my Mom was worried sick.
“When he eventually surfaced, she screamed at him, <<what were you doing down there?>> to which he yelled back, <<well I wasn’t coming back up without my trunks!>>”
When they retired, Gordon and Norma Yeager spent half the year in Tucson, Arizona, enjoying the outdoors and fishing in the Hoover Dam.
Despite their closeness, Dennis admits at times his parents were “total opposites”.
“They just loved being together but of course they would get mad at each other.
“My Dad was very sociable, he loved doing anything that involved being with people. My Mom was quieter but she would support my Dad in whatever he was doing. She would be there making sure everyone had something to eat, had a drink in their hand.
“She was such a perfectionist. When they had the garage, she won every award going from Chevrolet for her book-keeping. I remember they would be up together poring over those books until 2:00 a.m. if there was even a penny out of place.”
Gordon and Norma Yeager had been married for 72 years and had only one hour separation between them in their passing
After Gordon and Norma Yeager celebrated the rare achievement of a 70th wedding anniversary, they loved to spend time watching sports, socializing and walking their little Yorkie dog Radar.
Last week, while making a trip into town, the car Gordon Yeager was driving mistakenly pulled out in front of another.
According to the police report, the oncoming driver tried to avoid the collision, but it wasn’t able to stop in time.
Dennis Yeager said he found his parents at hospital sharing a unit in the intensive care unit, never separated and holding hands they lay, though “not really responsive”.
In the same day, on October 12, at 3:38pm, Gordon Yeager passed away, with Norma and family beside him. The anomaly began though for the family, when Gordon’s heart monitor kept beeping.
Dennis Yeager recalled: “It was really strange. They were holding hands, and dad stopped breathing but I couldn’t figure out what was going on because the heart monitor was still going.”
“But we were like, he isn’t breathing. How does he still have a heart beat?’
Their son asked a nurse who checked, pointing out the couple’s hands which were still locked together.
“Her heart was beating through him and picking it up,” the nurse explained.
One hour later, at 4:48pm, Norma Yeager died too.
Gordon and Norma Yeager held hands at their funeral on October 18, sharing the same casket. Their family said after Gordon and Norma Yeager are cremated and their ashes will be mixed together.
Gordon and Norma Yeager are survived by Norma’s sister, Virginia Kell, and Gordon’s brother, Roger, along with their children Donna and Dennis as well as 14 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
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A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that moderate consumption of wine can increase bone mineral density (BMD) and prevent post-menopausal fractures linked to osteoporosis.
Researchers from the University of East Anglia and Kings College London have studied over 1,000 pairs of female of age about 55. The subjects were questioned about their dietary habits and the scientists have measured the thickness of their bones in the hip joint, the spine and the top of the femur. These are the places in which the bones are broken more often when osteoporosis occurred in post-menopause.
Moderate wine drinkers had higher bone density in the spine and the hip than non-drinkers, or drinkers of other types of alcohol (spirit, beer).
A glass of wine a day could prevent osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, stroke and heart attack, but excessive drinking increases risks of these conditions.
A diet of fish and chips, baked beans, meat pies and cooked meats apparently lowered bone mineral density and a diet high in fruit and vegetables seemed to have no substantial benefits.
“Moderate intakes of alcohol from wine were associated with a higher bone mineral density and the consumption of a traditional 20th-century English diet was linked with a lower bone density,” said scientists.
The findings come before World Osteoporosis Day on October 20, 2011.
Polyphenols, found in the skin of grapes, could help the bones strengthening, not the alcohol, other studies have suggested. Polyphenols are known as antioxidants and they help to prevent heart and brain diseases (stroke, Alzheimer’s), besides osteoporosis.
While a glass a day could prevent osteoporisis, and smaller studies have suggested alcohol might have a protective effect, heavy drinking is known as a major factor that weakens the bones, and leads to osteoporosis.
It is not the first time when researchers focus on the linkage between osteoporosis and wine.
Katherine Tucker, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University in Boston, said in 2004 that beer could prevent osteoporosis in men bones, while wine is good for women bones. Beer contains silicon and wine polyphenols. The study was performed on 2,900 men and women, but there were not enough men who had drunk wine, nor women who had drunk beer, thus, the study only linked men to beer and women to wine. However, Professor Tucker said it is possible that men could benefit from two glasses of wine, while women from two cans of beer.
The study was presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research annual meeting. Men who drank one to two beers a day had around 7% higher hip bone mineral density than nondrinkers. In women, increase was slightly less but was still significantly better than bone mineral density in nondrinkers.
The same message about the importance of moderation was sent at that time too, because “while two cans of beer or two 6 ounce [177,44 ml] glasses of wine are good for bones, drinking more is harmful,” and about distilled beverages (vodka or Scotch) “daily consumption of more than two drinks promotes osteoporosis,” Professor Tucker said.
What is osteoporosis?
In children bones grow and regenerate rapidly, but in adults the process is slower. Over the age of 30 a person starts to lose bone mineral density. Through life old bone is being destroyed by osteoclasts and new bone is formed by osteoblasts. The osteoblasts (cells that produce new bone) became gradually outnumbered by osteoclasts (cells that remove the calcium and phosphorous from an old bone). The balance between these two types of cells is very important for a healthy bone.
Osteoporosis occurs when bone mineral density is lower. The bones are fragile and break (fracture) easily.
Osteoporosis (porous bones, from Greek: ὀστέον/osteon meaning bone and πόρος/poros meaning pore) is a condition that causes bones to become weak and fragile and to break (fracture) easily. It appears frequently in the spine, wrist and hips. Osteoporosis is called a silent disease because lots of people become aware of it only until a fracture occurs.
The gold standard for diagnosis is dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA, formerly DEXA). It measures bone mineral density and expressed it in standard deviations from a young adult reference population (T-score).
* T-score -1.0 or greater is normal
* T-score between -1.0 and -2.5 is low bone mass (osteopenia)
* T-score -2.5 or below is osteoporosis
Osteoporosis affects an estimated 75 million people in Europe, USA and Japan.
Steroid drugs, smoke, heavy drinking and a family history of osteoporosis are important risk factors.
Worldwide, an osteoporotic fracture is estimated to occur every 3 seconds, a vertebral fracture every 22 seconds.
Osteoporosis is estimated to affect 200 million women worldwide – approximately one-tenth of women aged 60, one-fifth of women aged 70, two-fifths of women aged 80 and two-thirds of women aged 90.
About 20-25% of hip fractures occur in men. The overall mortality is about 20% in the first 12 months after hip fracture and is higher in men than women.
It is estimated that the lifetime risk of experiencing an osteoporotic fracture in men over the age of 50 is 30%, similar to the lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer. (Source: International Osteoporosis Foundation).
Can osteoporosis be prevented?
First the risk factors have to be removed. Adequate nutrition (with food rich in proteins, calcium and vitamin D), daily moderate sun exposure (to stimulate vitamin D production) and adequate exercise can slow osteoporosis progression and prevent fractures. An excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation increases the risk of skin tumors or melanoma. Childhood and adolescence are the perfect times to improve bone mineral density through exercise and to prevent osteoporosis.
2011 World Osteoporosis Day Animation (video)
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Osteoporosis-3D Medical Animation (video)
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Katia Zatuliveter, an alleged Russian spy admitted a 4-year relationship with married British Liberal Democrat MP, Mike Hancock, but denied she deliberately targeted him during yesterday hearing.
Katia Zatuliveter, 26, also had a string of affairs or “flirtations” with other political figures including a Nato official and a Dutch diplomat.
The alleged Russian spy is accused of trying to access secret defense information from Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock, for whom she worked as an assistant.
Katia Zatuliveter, the alleged Russian spy admitted a 4-year relationship with married Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock
Katia Zatuliveter admitted opening MP Mike Hancock’s “private and confidential” defense select committee letters, and allegedly influenced questions he asked in British Parliament.
On October 18, Katia Zatuliveter launched an appeal against British government efforts to deport her and insisted she was not a Russian agent.
Katia Zatuliveter told during yesterday hearing that she first met MP Mike Hancock in 2006 when she was 21 and studying international relations at St Petersburg University.
MP Mike Hancock attended a conference in St Petersburg and Katia Zatuliveter was assigned to “chaperone” him.
MP Mike Hancock first met Katia Zatuliveter in 2006 when she was 21 and studying international relations at St Petersburg University
Katia said they went for a drink in the lobby of his hotel on the night they met, but she resisted to his advances.
“He told me he wanted to sleep with me. He went up to his room and he brought a CD and some money.”
Katia Zatuliveter refused to sleep with the MP or take the money.
“He made it very clear from the beginning he was interested in me. He tried to kiss me. He was very charming during this time.
“I was not getting much attention from men during this period.”
Later Katia Zatuliveter travelled to Moscow to meet again MP Mike Hancock, but told the court her intention was to practice her English before an exam and not to sleep with him.
Jonathan Glasson, for the Home Office, said: “The real motivation was so you could develop a sexual relationship wasn’t it?”
Katia Zatuliveter replied: “I could prepare to do an exam in St Petersburg or I could go and spend a few days with a native speaker.”
Jonathan Glasson went on: “You knew exactly what was going to happen didn’t you, and it didn’t have anything to do with practising your English? It was to develop a relationship with Mr. Hancock.”
Katia Zatuliveter answered: “No it wasn’t.”
Katia Zatuliveter and Mike Hancock relationship began in June 2006, and that year she moved to Britain.
She worked part time for MP Mike Hancock three or four days a month and applied for, and was given, a Parliamentary pass.
In 2008 Katia Zatuliveter began working for MP Mike Hancock full time as a Parliamentary researcher, with access to his Parliamentary email account.
Katia Zatuliveter then moved in with Mike Hancock at his central London flat, where she opened weekly correspondence from the select committee including letters marked “private and confidential”.
Katia Zatuliveter said: “I was able to read them, but I was not interested.”
Jonathan Glasson said: “You have been reporting from Londongrad, from the heart of British democracy, the UK Parliament.
“You were much more than a researcher for a backbencher MP. You have ensured that the Russian Intelligence services have eyes and ears in the House of Commons, you were someone who would ensure that questions were asked in Parliament.”
“You were pleased to be getting attention from a man who was in a powerful and influential position?”
Katia Zatuliveter replied: “I know he is not particularly powerful, he is a back bench MP, why are you trying to portray him as a senior government minister?”
After the appeal, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission will rule whether Katia Zatuliveter can stay in Britain or will be deported.
Katia Zatuliveter also claimed she had no idea the MP Mike Hancock was married until the end of their affair.
She also admitted taking money from him.
According to lawyers for the Security Service, Katia Zatuliveter knew MP Mike Hancock was a womanizer and used that knowledge to get close to him.
Jonathan Glasson said Mike Hancock was “potentially vulnerable” to the Russian intelligence services because allegations of his extra-marital affairs “have circulated for many years” and were published in the British press.
Katia Zatuliveter denied any knowledge of this, but later, she recalled he told her he had an ex-girlfriend in Moscow.
The court was told that MP Mike Hancock was chairman of the All Parliamentary Group on Russia.
And it also told that Katia Zatuliveter had contact with a suspected Russian spy – given the name “Boris” by the court – who has since been expelled from Britain.
“He was a Russian intelligence officer, wasn’t he?” Jonathan Glasson said.
Katia Zatuliveter replied: “That’s what I was told by MI5, so I don’t know it’s true. But they also said that I was, so I don’t know.”
Katia Zatuliveter claimed she broke off contact with Boris on Mike Hancock’s advice after he tried to arrange a meeting with her.
She said there was “no truth” in MI5’s allegation that she was an agent for the Russian intelligence services by April 2006.
Katia Zatuliveter said: “I am innocent and I don’t believe I should be deported without having done anything.
“I am legally here, I have a work permit until August 2012.”
Katia Zatuliveter was served with deportation notice in December 2010.
Early in the morning, the bailiffs and riot police smashed through fences to evict dozens of traveller families living illegally on the Dale Farm site in Essex, UK.
Authorities entered Dale Farm site after breaking down a rear fence just after 07:00 BST, prompting angry scenes.
The travellers lost a last-ditch attempt to stave off the evictions at the Court of Appeal on Monday.
An alarm siren sounded inside the perimeter of Dale Farm and protesters gathered at the main gate rushed to the eastern side of the site where police were streaming in.
They engaged in hand to hand fighting with the officers who had come across the adjacent fields.
The operation was entirely police led and they were moving at jogging pace, driving back the protesters in a running battle.
Early in the morning, the bailiffs and riot police smashed through fences to evict dozens of traveller families living illegally on the Dale Farm site in Essex
100 officers pushed people aside as they made their way through Dale Farm site. Ranks of officers, including many from the Metropolitan force, lined up in front of the main gate and its gantry which has now become the symbol of the fight.
They were pelted with bricks, bottles and other debris and used riot shields above their heads as protection.
Dale Farm travellers hurled missiles on authorities who responded by using Tasers.
Some of the travelers used motorcycle d-locks to chain themselves by the neck to ruined cars but police pushed aside a rambling protester and marched deeper into the site.
Dale Farm protesters gathered at the main gate rushed to the eastern side of the site where police were streaming in
Electricity supplies were cut and protesters wearing masks said this had turned off crucial medical equipment belonging to elderly residents.
Moments later a caravan was set ablaze, sending flames and thick black smoke into the air.
Within 15 minutes police had complete control over Dale Farm site.
According to Essex Police, officers entered the site “following intelligence which informed the commanders that anyone entering the site was likely to come up against violence and a serious breach of the peace would occur”.
The Essex Police statement said: “Intelligence received indicated protesters had stockpiled various items with the intent of using these against bailiffs and police.
“First officers on the site were attacked with missiles being thrown including rocks and liquids. These officers were fully equipped to deal with this situation.”
“Consistent attempts have been made, both on Tuesday and this morning, to negotiate with protesters to leave the site peacefully.”
Dale Farm eviction, which could cost up to £18 million ($28 million), marks the end of a 10-year battle between travellers, who bought a former scrap yard on green belt land in 2001 and established their caravans there, and local authorities. More travellers joined them and some semi-permanent chalet dwellings were built.
Dale Farm history
1960’s Small numbers of travellers begin to settle alongside the Dale Farm site, part of which was authorized as a scrapyard.
1990’s The site has grown to 37 plots authorized by Basildon Council.
2001 Dale Farm traveller families began to set up pitches illegally on green belt land.
2005, May- Travellers are ordered to leave Dale Farm after a planning inspector declares the development illegal. Basildon Council votes to bring enforcement action.
June – Actor and political activist Corin Redgrave suffers a heart attack while speaking at a Basildon Council meeting discussing the future of Dale Farm. He describes travellers as “the most deprived community in the country”.
2006, May – Dale Farm travellers hold a vigil outside Westminster as the Government discusses new guidance on gypsy and traveller sites.
2007, December – The Save Dale Farm Campaign appeals for a rethink following a Basildon Council ruling to hire eviction specialists and bulldoze the site.
2008, May – Travellers celebrate the opening of a new community centre despite continuing court action from Basildon Council to allow the eviction to go ahead.
2009
January – The Court of Appeal rules that an earlier judgment in the High Court – which quashed Basildon Council’s decision to take enforcement action – was flawed. Lord Justice Pill said the decision to clear the site was lawful.
2011, March – Basildon Council votes for a fresh resolution to clear Dale Farm. Officials estimate the eviction will cost more than £18 million. The Government agrees to part-fund the council and police operations.
July – Eviction notices are served by Basildon Council. The council gives residents occupying 51 unauthorized pitches 28 days to vacate the land.
August 8 – The campaign to stop the eviction gathers pace as actress and human rights campaigner Vanessa Redgrave visits Dale Farm. Activists begin to set up ‘Camp Constant’ to help defend travellers. Lawyers fail in a High Court bid to halt the eviction.
September 5 – The date for the beginning of the clearance is revealed as September 19 – Travellers criticize the council after the date was leaked to the media before they were informed.
September 16 – Elderly resident Mary Flynn given a final chance to challenge clearance of the site.
September 18 – Supporters and travellers resisting the clearance of Dale Farm lock down the site as they prepare for the arrival of bailiffs.
September 19 – Bailiffs arrive at the main gate of Dale Farm to start the eviction of up to 80 families living on the unauthorized plot. Later, the residents win a last-gasp injunction preventing the council from clearing structures.
September 21 – Travellers flee the site amid fears of eviction. A group of travellers claiming to be from Dale Farm relocate to a public park in Luton.
September 26 – Residents win a temporary reprieve. A judge rules that residents are entitled to an extension of an injunction stopping their evictions until the courts have ruled on the legality of their proposed removal.
October 17 – Residents refused permission to appeal against a High Court ruling that gave Basildon Council the go-ahead to evict them.
October 19 – Supporters clash with bailiffs and riot police as the planned eviction finally gets under way.
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Alan Billis, a terminally ill taxi driver from Torquay, UK, has become the first man to be mummified in the style of the ancient Egyptians for at least 3,000 years.
Scientists embalmed Alan Billis following his death from lung cancer using the techniques that preserved Tutankhamun’s body after his death in 1323 BC.
Alan Billis, 61, loved watching documentaries and he agreed to have his body preserved after seeing an advertisement from Channel 4 looking to film the process.
The former taxi driver wife Janet, 68, said:
“He just said, <<I’ve just phoned someone up about being mummified>>. I said, <<You’ve what?>>. I thought here we go again. It’s just the sort of thing you would expect him to do.”
Alan Billis before to be mummified in the style of the ancient Egyptians and his wife Janet
Janet Billis and their three children gave his decision their blessing, and the resulting programme – Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret – is due to be screened on Channel 4 in UK next week.
Alan Billis, who has been dubbed Torquay’s Tutankhamun, explained his unusual decision in the documentary, saying:
“People have been leaving their bodies to science for years, and if people don’t volunteer for anything nothing gets found out.”
Alan Billis died in January this year and, over a period of several months after his death, the internal organs were removed and kept in jars, with the exception of his brain and heart.
Alan Billis’ skin was covered in a mixture of oils and resins and bathed in a solution of Natron, a salt found in dried-up river beds in Egypt.
Then, his body was kept for a month in a glass tank at the Medico-Legal Centre in Sheffield, which houses the city’s mortuary. After this period, Alan Billis’ body was taken out, placed in a drying chamber and wrapped in linen.
According to Dr. Stephen Buckley of the University of York, who helped research Egyptian mummification techniques before the programme, Alan Billis’ body could now last several millennia.
During an interview with the Radio Times, Janet Billis said:
“I didn’t find it upsetting. There wasn’t anything scary.
“I think it was because you could see they all took such good care of Alan. When I did eventually watch the film and saw his mummified face, you could see it was still him, still very much Alan. <<I won’t be Tutankhamun, I’ll be Tutanalan>>, he used to say.
“The involvement in the television programme kept him occupied, took his mind off the illness.”
Dr Stephen Buckley with the mummified body of Alan Billis
As well as Dr. Stephen Buckley, the team of experts behind the mummification included Dr. Joann Fletcher, Maxine Coe and forensic pathologist Prof. Peter Vanezis. Prof. Peter Vanezis said he was pleased with the result, adding:
“The skin itself has this leathery appearance which indicates that he has become mummified all over.
“It makes me very confident that his tissues have been mummified correctly and in a very successful manner.”
Alan Billis’s mummy is expected to stay in Sheffield until the end of 2011. It will then be studied by scientists researching decomposition.
Stacie Crimm, who had been diagnosed with terminal neck cancer, decided to refuse chemotherapy so her unborn daughter could live instead.
Stacie Crimm, 41, from Ryan, Oklahoma, survived another five months before being forced to deliver her baby daughter Dottie Mae, weighing just 2lbs 1oz (940 grams), by Caesarean section – and even managed to hold her on one occasion before dying three days later.
Stacie Crimm‘s brother Ray Phillips told the Oklahoman: “This baby was everything she had in this world.”
Stacie Crimm called her brother in March when she received the news that she was pregnant after years of thinking she was infertile.
In the next days and weeks, the mother-to-be shopped for all the things her baby would need. Meanwhile, a serious worry began to gnaw at Stacie Crimm, as she was having severe headaches and double vision, while tremors struck every inch of her body.
Stacie Crimm began to tell her brother Ray of her growing concerns.
“I’m worried about this baby,” Stacie Crimm said in one text, according to the Oklahoman.
“I hope I live long enough to have this baby.”
“Bubba, if anything happens to me, you take this child.”
Stacie Crimm was no longer with the father of the baby and would have raised Dottie Mae as a single mother if she survived.
Stacie Crimm, who had been diagnosed with terminal neck cancer, decided to refuse chemotherapy so her unborn daughter could live instead
In July, Stacie Crimm visited a number of doctors and a CT scan revealed that she had head and neck cancer.
She had then to choose between her life and that of her baby’s and it was an easy decision.
Stacie Crimm’s brother told the Oklahoman that she refused the potentially lifesaving chemotherapy in the hope that she would eventually hold a healthy baby in her arms.
On August 16, Stacie Crimm collapsed at her home in Ryan, Oklahoma, and was rushed to OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City.
At the hospital, specialists told her the invasive tumor had begun wrapping around the brain stem.
On August 18, the baby’s heart rate plummeted and Stacie Crimm’s heart stopped. Code Blue was issued and doctors decided a Caesarean -section was the baby’s only chance.
Dottie Mae was born by Caesarean section and was weighing just 2lbs 1oz
Dottie Mae was weighing less than a third of an average newborn. The little baby girl was swiftly taken to neonatal intensive care, while Stacie Crimm was placed in intensive care in another building.
“Sister was dying right there. She was gasping,” Ray Phillips told the Oklahoman.
“The human body fights death.”
Stacie Crimm fought back and managed to wrestle herself off the ventilator and sedation after a few days.
“There was still a lot of hope at that point,” said Ray Phillips’ wife Jennifer.
The cancer had affected one of the new mother’s eyes and destroyed the muscle behind it; had paralyzed her throat so that when she did talk, she was hard to understand. Stacie Crimm had tumors on her brain and she often became unconscious and had not been able to sign Dottie Mae’s birth certificate.
Stacie Crimm was too weak to be taken to her baby, and Dottie Mae was too weak to be brought to her.
“We’d show her pictures and she would cry and she would want to hold her baby,” Ray Phillips told NewsOk.
“It was quite the ordeal. I felt helpless. I wanted to help her, I wanted to do what I could for her – we all did – but they had told us it was impossible for her to see the child.”
On September 8, Stacie Crimm stopped breathing and once again was resuscitated. Doctors warned her family that she was very close to death.
But Stacie Crimm had not yet held, kissed or looked into the blue eyes of Dottie Mae whose life she had chosen above her own.
Nurse Agi Beo worked with nurse Jetsy Jacob and talked to Neoflight, the medical centre’s neonatal transport team, about using a capsule-like ICU to safely move Dottie Mae to her mother.
Dottie Mae had been moved in a capsule-like ICU to her mother
“I knew all of this was going on in the background and I didn’t say nothing to her until I knew it was going to happen because I didn’t want to get her hopes up,” Ray Phillips said.
Ray asked his sister what she would think about seeing her daughter that day. Stacie Crimm’s eyes popped open and she began looking around to find her.
Shortly, the two nurses arrived with Dottie Mae and laid her right on Stacie Crimm’s chest. Mother and daughter stared into each other’s eyes for several minutes.
“Nobody said anything, it got real quiet,” Ray Phillips told NewsOk.
“I told my sister, <<You have done a beautiful thing>>. It was the perfect moment, that’s what I called it.”
Stacie Crimm, assisted by her siblings, Ray and Elizabeth, meets her baby Dottie Mae before she passed away
Stacie Crimm died three days later, on September 11. Her funeral was on September 14.
Stacie Crimm obituary on the Dudley Funeral Homes website reads:
“Dottie Mae was the light of her life and her greatest accomplishment. She chose to give this baby life instead of taking treatment for herself.”
Dottie Mae now lives with her uncle Ray, his wife Jennifer and their four children in their Oklahoma City home.
Dottie Mae now lives with her uncle Ray, his wife Jennifer and their four children in their Oklahoma City home
Private investigator Bill Stanton announced in a press conference that undisclosed donors have hired him and offered $100,000 reward for Lisa Irwin’s “safe return and/or conviction of a person or persons involved in this horrible crime.”
Lisa Irwin's undated photo showed at a press conference on October 5.
The mysterious benefactors have a relationship with Lisa Irwin’s family and want the attention to be focused on the baby not on their identities, said Stanton on October 14.
The investigator will collaborate with Dr. Marisa Randazzo, a psychologist who worked for the U.S. Secret Service and specializes in threat assessment.
“I hope this opens up someone’s heart or someone’s eyes and they realize this is serious and we can get Lisa home safe and sound,” he said.
However, he did not add who to contact with information, or how the reward would be managed.
Lisa’s parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, were not present at the news conference.
Lisa Irwin's parents, Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, at news conference on October 5. They begged Lisa's abductor to leave her in a safe place.(AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Mike Ransdell)
The 11-month-old baby, Lisa Irwin, is missing from her parents’ home in the 3600 block of North Lister Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri, for almost two weeks since October 4.
Kansas City Police started an Amber Alert for Lisa Irwin on October 4 early in the morning. Deborah Bradley said she had seen her daughter, sleeping in her crib, last time at 10:30 p.m. on October 3 . When Jeremy Irwin arrived at home, on October 4, he found the door unlocked, the lights on, a window opened and saw Lisa was missing. Lisa’s father is an electrician and was working overnight shift. They immediately called 911 at 4:00 a.m.
Police canceled the alert eight hours and a half later. “Although the investigation and search for Lisa Irwin continues, an active Amber Alert is no longer necessary in this case. Lisa Irwin is still considered a missing/endangered juvenile,” said police Sgt. Stacey Graves.
Police and FBI investigators have been searching the woods near the Lisa Irwin‘s home, the fields, a well at an abandoned house, drainage areas and a landfill with no results.
“We haven’t really thought about shutting down. I think that will come sometime, but we hope to solve this case before then,” Capt. Steve Young of Kansas City Police told ABC News on October 14.
Lisa Irwin in a family photo provided by KCPD on OCtober 4.
Bill Stanton worked as a police officer and now is private investigator in New York. He came to joined the search for Lisa Irwin this week.
“I am seeing a family’s heart literally torn out of its chest,” he told Good Morning America.
“Let me try not to give a politician’s answer. Let me just say this, she doesn’t want to be discounted. She wants to be looked at, vetted and then once everyone feels she’s not a suspect, let’s move on,” he said when ABC News asked him if he was suspicious about mother’s involvement.
“Anything that I get goes directly to the Kansas City Police Department. I’m not here to compete with KCPD. I’m here to compliment them. They’ve given me my boundaries and I will respect those boundaries,” he said.
Stanton is not an official part of the investigation, but the Police accept any help they can get, said Young.
“Clearly, if anybody has all day long to help out, then that’s fantastic. If he should develop information and he could pass it on to us, why wouldn’t we accept it?“
Earlier on October 15, family members expressed their gratitude for the Kansas City community, authorities and media for their help in searching Lisa Irwin. They placed pictures in the baby’s grandparents’ yard in the 5200 block of North Walrond in the Northland.
Michael Lerette said he was Bradleys’ cousin from Texas and Marine who has served overseas. He asked on family behalf that anyone with information call a tip line or 911.
A firefighter searches the area for Lisa Irwin on October 4.(AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Todd Feeback)
“I’d gladly give my life to bring Lisa home safely. We’re hanging in there. Please, please, please keep praying,” he said.
Wanting to keep Lisa’s image in the media, the family posted home made videos with baby on YouTube.
Lisa Irwin was born on November 11 2010, she has blue eyes and blond hair. She is 30 inches (76 cm) tall and weighs 30 pounds (14 kg). She has two bottom teeth, a small bug bite under her left ear, a beauty mark on her right outer thigh and currently has a cold with a cough.
Lisa Irwin was wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with white kittens on it.
Anyone who has information on Lisa Irwin was urged to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
Lisa Irwin in a family video
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Bill Stanton talks to ABC News reporter on Lisa Irwin case (video)
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A weekly intake of a minimum 45 grams (1.6 ounces) of chocolate containing at least 30% of cocoa, or dark chocolate, is linked to a lower stroke incidence in women, showed a study.
The study was led by Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, of Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
“We followed 33,000 women over the course of 10 years, and we found that those who ate most chocolate had a much lower risk – 20 per cent lower – of suffering a stroke,” she said.
The study, performed by Susanna Larsson, Jarmo Virtamo, and Alicja Wolk, was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
In 1997, 33,372 women, age 49 to 83 years, were enrolled and followed up around 10.4 years. The subjects completed questionnaires about their diet and lifestyle.
Apparently eating 66.5 grams (2.35 ounces) of chocolate a week protects women against stroke.
There were 1,549 strokes over the following ten years, 1,200 cerebral infarctions (a blood vessel in the brain is blocked, starving an area of the brain of blood), 224 hemorrhagic strokes (bleeding in the brain), and 125 unspecified strokes. Among the persons with more 45 grams (1.6 ounces) dark chocolate intake per week, there were 2.5 strokes per 1,000 women per year. In the same time there were 7.8 strokes per 1,000 women among those with less than 8.9 grams (0.31 ounces) a week intake. A stronger association, not explained yet, was observed for hemorrhagic stroke than for cerebral infarction (ischemic stroke). Only women with chocolate consumption around 66.5 g (2.35 ounces)/week had a significantly reduced risk of stroke. The study does not point out the type of chocolate eaten by the women, but mention that in the 1990s around 90% of chocolate in Sweden was milk chocolate, containing about 30% cocoa solids.
“Cocoa contains flavonoids, which have antioxidant properties and can suppress oxidation of low-density lipoprotein which can cause cardiovascular disease,” said Professor Larsson.
In the United States there are around 800,000 strokes every year. Among them, one of six dies and lots remain disabled. Antihypertensive drugs (medicine to lower high blood pressure), quitting smoking, adequate exercise, and healthy diet are the remedies doctors recommend. The chocolate, even dark chocolate, is not included.
The beneficial effects of dark chocolate on human health were highlighted over the years.
There are data which show that dark chocolate might be beneficial to the cardiovascular system (heart and blood vessels). Dark chocolate has been shown to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in mild high blood pressure cases. Dark chocolate also has been demonstrated to improve endothelial and platelet function (preventing blood clots, chest pain and heart attack) and to ameliorate insulin resistance. Flavonoids contained in dark chocolate have strong antioxidant activity and can prevent the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (bad cholesterol), lowering the risk of atherosclerosis (stiff and clogged arteries).
Mary Engler of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues, found that around 45 grams (1.6 ounces) a day of dark chocolate can keep blood vessel elastic and healthy. The dark chocolate (high-cocoa content) contains epicatechin. Epicatechin is a particularly active plant flavonoid. Flavonoids prevent cholesterol from gathering in blood vessels and reduce the risk of blood clots. The study used Dove dark chocolate for two weeks and was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Mary Engler previously reported the results at the 2002 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association and at the Experimental Biology 2003 meeting.
Another study published in the Journal of Proteome Research and conducted by researchers at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, showed that eating about 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduce stress. Half of the chocolate was eaten mid-morning and the other half was eaten mid-afternoon. The scientists found that high levels of stress hormone, cortisol, and the fight-or-flight hormones (catecholamines, adrenaline) present in highly stressed, anxious people were reduce by dark chocolate. Dark chocolate partially normalized stress-related differences in energy metabolism and microbial activity in the gut (microbiota).
Regarding the amount of anti-oxidants, dark chocolate and cocoa are better than pomegranate, cranberry, or blueberry juice, fruit powder mixes, a study conducted by the Hershey Company has showed. Polyphenols, organic molecules contained in dark chocolate, could maintain arteries smooth and lower risk of heart disease.
A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry showed cocoa powder, baking chocolate and dark chocolate have between 14.1 to 18.5 micrograms of resveratrol (antioxidant) per serving (average California red wine contains 832 micrograms per glass).
Dark chocolate with minimum 60-85% cocoa content could prevent sunburns, showed an experiment conducted by researchers from Laval University in Quebec City (Canada) among women with sensitive skin. They ate three squares of dark chocolate a day for twelve weeks. The polyphenol ensure good oxygenation and blood supply to the skin surface, which could explain the protective effect of cocoa.
Cambridge University researchers have demonstrated that regular consumption of dark chocolate could reduce the risk of heart disease by a third. Other study said dark chocolate could be as good as exercise for human health.
Researchers from the United Kingdom and Colombia made a meta-analysis on 7 studies (the link between chocolate and heart disease) that included 114,009 people. The results were released in the British Medical Journal. Dark chocolate could lower heart disease and stroke by 37%.
Dark chocolate appears to have beneficial effects on heart, blood vessels, brain, skin, mood, stress, metabolism, gut microbiota.
On the other hand, over-eating sweets and chocolate, even dark chocolate, might have no or opposite effects.
Chocolate contains a lot of sugar and fat, and caffeine. The persons with diabetes, other metabolic diseases, prone to irregular heartbeats, palpitation or high blood pressure, have to be very careful concerning the chocolate intake. They should read the product label and the ingredients.
“Previous research has suggested that dark chocolate can increase levels of good cholesterol and decrease blood pressure, both of which can reduce your risk of stroke. However, it’s very hard to say whether this is true of all types of chocolate and it’s difficult to determine whether the reduced stroke incidence found in this study is directly linked to the amount of chocolate consumed. A lot more research is needed,” said Dr Sharlin Ahmed, of The Stroke Association.
“Given the observational design of the study, findings of this study cannot prove that it’s chocolate that lowers the risk of stroke. Chocolate should be consumed in moderation as it is high in calories, fat and sugar. As dark chocolate contains more cocoa and less sugar than milk chocolate, consumption of dark chocolate would be more beneficial,” wrote Professor Larsson.
“It’s important to keep findings like these in context. These findings don’t mean that people need to exchange chocolate for broccoli in their diet. Chocolate does have antioxidants, and antioxidants are beneficial for your health. They can help make your arteries more flexible and they can help you resist the oxidation of cholesterol. But, what if they had tried this study with apple skins or grapes? There’s an upside and a downside to everything. I don’t think people should eat all the chocolate they can, but some chocolate in moderation can have some benefit,” said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, cardiologist, of the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.
Like in more other situations the moderation is the key. However, more studies are required to specify the exactly percent of cocoa (Theobroma cacao seeds) content in the dark chocolate needed to stroke or heart disease prevention, and also the effect on male’s health.
Lydia Gale Clark, a student at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, died after she apparently downed 16 shots on the night of her 21st birthday celebration.
Lydia Gale Clark had been seen “stumbling” at several bars on a six-hour drinking marathon that ended Saturday early in the morning, at 3.30 a.m.
According to the student’s friends, she had drunk about 16 shots of alcohol on Friday evening.
Lydia Gale Clark, a student at Drake University in Des Moines, died after she apparently downed 16 shots on the night of her 21st birthday celebration
Police said that Lydia Gale Clark from Meridien, Kansas, who was an international relations and rhetoric student, woke at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday feeling “very sick” and asked a friend to help her use the bathroom at about noon.
The friend who helped her checked on Lydia Gale Clark a few minutes later and found her lying on the floor. The student had stopped breathing and was gasping and convulsing.
Lydia Gale Clark’s roommate called an ambulance and performed CPR. The ambulance arrived minutes later to take the student to Mercy Medical Center, but paramedics were unable to revive her.
According to the police report, Lydia Gale Clark was linked to excessive alcohol consumption, but an autopsy revealed abnormal heart tissue, which may have been another factor involved.
Brad Clark, Lydia’s father said he and his wife had talked to their daughter about drinking before her birthday.
“Her mom and I love her dearly and miss her dearly,” Lydia Gale Clark’s father said.
“When we first got the call in, for the first 24 hours, we just thought it was ignorance of what alcohol can do to you.”
Brad Clark said he had no doubt his daughter had too much to drink Friday night.
The Drake University student’s father said he was searching for the right words to warn her friends attending the memorial service in Kansas this Saturday about the dangers of alcohol.
Lydia Gale Clark’s abnormal heart tissue has now been sent to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for further testing.
On another day of Dr. Conrad Murray trial, the court saw a second shocking photograph of Michael Jackson’s dead body taken before an autopsy was carried out the day after his death.
Yesterday it was the second time the jury has seen a picture of dead Michael Jackson after a photograph was displayed on the opening day of the trial.
Michael Jackson‘s mother, Katherine, who flew back to Los Angeles from the weekend tribute to her son in Wales, left the courtroom before the autopsy photo was shown on a screen.
According to Dr. Christopher Rogers, Los Angeles Deputy Medical Examiner, Michael Jackson was comparatively fit when he died.
“He was healthier than the average person of his age,” said Dr Christopher Rogers, who added there was no sign of any fat or cholesterol on the walls of Michael Jackson‘s heart.
Dr. Rogers ruled the cause of mega-star’s death was homicide as a result of acute Propofol intoxication, the court heard.
He also dismissed Conrad Murray’s claims that Michael Jackson took a deadly dose of Propofol himself while the doctor left his bedside for two minutes to go to the toilet.
Dr. Rogers suggested it was too short a time for the singer to be able to self-administer the drug and for it take sufficient effect to stop his breathing.
Dr. Christopher Rogers said Michael Jackson was relatively fit for his age at the moment of death, but had many puncture wounds on his arms and legs from injections
According to Dr. Rogers, Dr. Conrad Murray had no equipment to help deliver the correct amount of Propofol to help Michael Jackson sleep.
“It would be easy for the doctor to estimate wrongly and give too much Propofol,” Dr. Rogers said.
Dr. Conrad Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter, is not expected to testify at the trial at Los Angeles Superior Court, but the recording means jurors at least got to hear his side of the story.
Before Dr. Christopher Rogers intervention, the last 45 minutes of the two-hour recording was played in the hushed courtroom yesterday.
Conrad Murray told police Michael Jackson’s children “really were weeping, really weeping” when they were told that doctors at UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles had been unable to revive their father.
“I hugged them all, gave comfort to Paris, comfort to Prince, comfort to Blanket, which is the last little guy, because whenever they were sick, they would always ask for Dr Conrad,” Murray said.
“After they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness and, you know, she will live alone without her dad and she didn’t want to be an orphan.
“I said, <<I tried my best>>. And she said, <<I know that, Dr Murray. At least I know. I know you tried your best, but I’m really sad>>.”
Conrad Murray also said he arranged for the children to see their father’s body so they could “find closure”.
“I asked them to prepare Mr Jackson’s body to make it as presentable as possible so the children could visit their daddy.”
“They spent a long time with their daddy. They cried.”
Meanwhile, he said Michael Jackson’s siblings LaToya and Jermaine had arrived at the hospital.
Earlier, Murray said he broke the news of the tragedy to the singer’s mother, Katherine.
Dr. Conrad Murray said he couldn’t explain Michael Jackson’s death to other Jackson family members gathered at the hospital.
“Do you know why he died?” one of the Jackson family member asked, according to Conrad Murray.
“My answer was no and that’s the reason why I was recommending to the family to have an autopsy, because I also wanted to know,” he told the detectives in the meeting at the plush Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina Del Ray, California.
According to prosecutors, Dr. Conrad Murray caused Michael Jackson’s death by giving him a lethal dose of the powerful anaesthetic Propofol, which should only be used in a hospital setting.
In the released recording, Dr. Murray admitted for the first time that he gave Michael Jackson Propofol, telling police he had been administering the drug almost daily for the previous two months.
Doctor claimed he was out of Michael Jackson’s bedroom for just two minutes to go to the toilet when he returned to find his patient had stopped breathing.
Conrad Murray made no mention of the fact that he was on the phone to a girlfriend when he discovered Michael Jackson dying in his bed.
He insisted the super star was begging him to help him rest after trying in vain to get to sleep for more than eight hours the night before he died.
Dr. Conrad Murray also claimed Michael Jackson’s eyesight was so bad that he could have been “legally blind” and said he removed calluses and a fungal infection on the singer’s feet that made it painful for him to dance.
Hoping for a soft sentence, Joe Gordon-a Thai-born U.S. citizen pleaded guilty Monday to charges of defaming Thailand’s royal family, a grave crime in this Southeast Asian kingdom punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
Reports show that Joe Gordon lived in the U.S. for about 30 years before returning to Thailand last March for medical treatment. He has been detained since late May in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima.
Joe Gordon
His primary crime appears to have been that he translated excerpts from locally censored biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej – “The King Never Smiles”- into the Thai language and published them on a blog. He also provided links to the translation to other two web forums, prosecutors say.
The book is banned in Thailand. In it, author Paul M. Handley retraces the king’s life, alleging that Bhumibol has been a major stumbling block to the progress of democracy in Thailand as he consolidated royal power over his long reign.
Joe Gordon committed the alleged crimes years ago while living in the U.S. state of Colorado, where he worked as a car salesman. This case has raised concerns about the reach of Thai law and how it is applied to both Thai nationals and foreign visitors.
Lese majeste is the crime of insulting a ruler, and Thailand has the most severe lese majeste laws in the world. Critics state they have been increasingly abused by political rivals to agress opponents, especially since a 2006 military coup.
“I’m not fighting in the case. I’m pleading guilty, sirs,” Gordon told three judges at a Bangkok criminal court. The 55-year-old spoke while standing with handcuffs and ankle shackles.
Judges said that a verdict and sentence would be issued on Nov. 9.
Defense lawyer Arnon Nampa told The Associated Press earlier that Joe Gordon had decided last week to plead guilty after being denied bail eight times.
“The fact that his bail requests have been repeatedly denied, that disheartened him and made him want to plead guilty,” Arnon said before Monday’s hearing. “He said he wanted the penalty to be lessened and intended to ask for the royal pardon.”
On occasions like Thai king’s birthday or the anniversary of ascension to the throne, royal pardons are granted to prisoners by the Thai king.
At first Joe Gordon has denied the charges against him. While he was being escorted into the courtroom, Gordon told the reporters that pleading innocent was futile. “How can I fight?” he said, adding that the justice system in Thailand is “not fair.”
“I want the American government to help me because this is about freedom of expression,” Gordon said.
American diplomats have pressed Thai authorities unsuccessfully to drop the case, arguing in part that it could damage the country’s tourism image and deter some from visiting.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Walter M. Braunohler said at Monday’s hearing:
“We will also continue to raise his case with Thai authorities, stressing at every possible opportunity his rights as an American citizen. We urge Thai authorities to ensure freedom of expression is respected.”
Many had hoped that the nascent administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, some of whose top supporters have been accused of lese majeste, would re-examine such harsh sentences for cases involving the monarchy. The issue remains highly sensitive, however, and Yingluck’s government has been just as aggressive in pursing the cases as its predecessors.
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Chauncey Hardy, an American basketball player has died in hospital on Sunday evening after he had been beaten in a dance club from Giurgiu, Romania.
Former Sacred Heart guard Chauncey Hardy died yesterday after suffering two heart attacks following the beating on Saturday night.
Chauncey Hardy, 23, had severe head injuries and was in a coma when he was admitted to the hospital.
Chauncey Hardy died shortly after undergoing surgery in a Bucharest hospital.
After a victory against Dinamo Bucharest, Chauncey Hardy, who played for CSS Giurgiu in southern Romania, was celebrating with a few of his teammates in a night club, when several men were reported to have attacked him.
Former Sacred Heart guard Chauncey Hardy died yesterday after suffering two heart attacks following the beating on Saturday night
At some point, around 4:00 a.m., some unknown men attacked Chauncey Hardy. It seems that they have been quarreling for a while. Chauncey Hardy fell and hit his head and he was taken to the hospital, where doctors decided he must go into surgery.
At around 8 o’clock in the evening, Chauncey Hardy died on the hospital’s bed.
Romanian police announced that it has started an investigation on Chauncey Hardy’s death.
Sacred Heart Athletic Director C. Donald Cook said in a statement:
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of a fine young man who had his life cut short at such a young age while he was overseas doing something he loved.”
“This is a terrible tragedy and we are saddened as a University and a basketball program,” Sacred Heart men’s basketball coach Dave Bike said in a statement.
“This is not just about a basketball player, but the person as well. It transcends what happens on a basketball court. We feel tremendous sadness and loss for Chauncey’s family and those who were close to him.”
Chauncey Hardy averaged 12.5 points for Sacred Heart in 2009-10.
Mikey Welsh, the former bassist of Weezer rock band, was found dead from a suspected drug overdose at the age of 40, in the exact moment and the exact place as he predicted on Twitter.
Mikey Welsh was found dead in a hotel room in Chicago yesterday. The rocker was in Chicago to watch his old band headline the Riot Fest today.
Mikey Welsh predicted the exact location and time of his own death on Twitter, just two weeks ago
Surprisingly, Mikey Welsh predicted the exact location and time of his own death on Twitter, just two weeks ago.
On September 26, Mikey Welsh tweeted:
“dreamt i died in chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today.”
Mikey Welsh's prediction on Twitter
He added: “correction – the weekend after next.”
As well as this accurate prediction, Mikey Welsh also suggested a prescience of events to come on his Facebook page.
Showcasing one art piece, Mikey Welsh wrote that it was available for $250 dollars:
“if i am still alive at time of purchase, price to increase exponentially if i expire prematurely.”
For the moment, authorities didn’t say anything about Mikey Welsh’s official cause of death, but police are said to suspect the involvement of narcotics.
The news of Mikey Welsh death came via a message posted by his family on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, which read:
“We are deeply saddened to announce that Mikey Welsh passed away unexpectedly today.
He will forever be remembered as an amazing father, artist, and friend. May he rest in peace.”
Mikey Welsh joined Weezer following original bassist Matt Sharp’s exit in 1998.
The father-of-two artist played on the Weezer’s 2001 album, known colloquially as The Green Album, and can be heard on such hits as Island in the Sun and Hash Pipe.
Weezer, The Green Album with Mikey Welsh
In the same year, Mikey Welsh, who was also a touring bassist for Juliana Hatfield, suffered a mental breakdown and later attempted suicide.
“Basically, a lifetime of doing drugs and being undiagnosed as having disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and borderline personality disorder finally caught up with me when I was 30 years old,” Mikey Welsh said in a 2007 interview.
“At the beginning of a 3-month European tour with Weezer, I started slowly falling apart.”
Shortly afterwards, Mikey Welsh dedicated himself to his love of another art, painting.
Mikey Welsh moved from Boston to Burlington, Vermont with his wife and two daughters, where he worked on large-scale figures and abstracts.
Weezer reacted to news of Mikey Welsh’s death on the band’s official Twitter, writing:
“We are shocked and deeply saddened to hear the awful news, our friend and fellow weez rocker @mikeywelsh71 has passed away. We love u Mikey.”
Mikey Welsh had joined Weezer and the Flaming Lips at a show in New York as recently as July this year, where he played guitar on Undone.
Monday, October 10, is Columbus Day 2011 and many banks, state and local offices as well as U.S. post offices will be closed. In New York, the Columbus Day Parade will begin at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time, lasting until about 3:00 p.m.
New York’s Columbus Day Parade starts on Fifth Avenue at 44th Street and continues up Fifth to 79th Street.
A Columbus Day Mass will take place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 50th Street and Fith Avenue at 9:30 a.m. on Monday.
The Columbus Citizens Foundation has been organizing New York’s Columbus Day Parade since 1929.
More than 35,000 participate in the Columbus Day Parade each year, including more than 100 groups sporting floats, bands and an assortment of entries. About one million spectators view the parade – including almost 500,000 lining the streets to watch live – and it is among the largest celebrations of Italian-American culture in the world.
The Columbus Citizens Foundation has been organizing New York's Columbus Day Parade since 1929
Traditionally, Columbus Day is held on the second Monday in October.
The first record of an event commemorating Columbus Day in the United States was on October 12, 1792.
Columbus Day celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ “discovering” Americas.
Columbus arrived in the Americas on October 12, 1492. Observance of Columbus Day varies throughout the United States. It became an official holiday in Colorado in 1906, and a federal holiday in 1937, although Hawaii and South Dakota do not recognize Columbus Day at all.
In New York, and in other cities around the country, Columbus Day celebration is a big, annual event, however.
Columbus Day Parade is one of the New York City’s annual big events
Regarding this year’s Columbus Day Parade in New York Columbus Citizens Foundation said in a press release:
“On October 10, 2011, Fifth Avenue will be transformed during the Columbus Day Parade, the world’s largest celebration of Italian-American culture. The parade was led by Grand Marshal Joseph Plumeri, proud philanthropist, and Chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings.
“The Columbus Day Parade is a fun filled parade that gets bigger and better every year. Participants from all over the world march in our Parade with pride.
“This is already a special year for us, as we have invited and received confirmation from some of the most talented performers. Pia Toscano (American Idol Favorite) as well as the Italian Musical, “The Italian Fairy” are just some of the notable performers. The Sacred Heart University Marching Band as well as Stony Brook University Marching Band will be just a few of our new and exciting musical acts in the Parade. This year, the Parade will be marching up Fifth Avenue from 44th to 72nd Street. The grandstands will be located on Fifth Avenue between 67th and 69th Streets.
“The parade celebrates the spirit of exploration and courage that inspired Christopher Columbus’s 1492 expedition and the important contributions Italian-Americans have made to the United States. Over a dozen high school bands, as well as virtuosi professional groups from the United States and Italy, marched up Fifth Avenue and filled the canyons of midtown with joyous, heart-pounding music. Traditional folk groups performed centuries-old dances, and cutting-edge designs were brought to the parade route in displays of the vibrant culture that is Italy today.”
Abraxane plus gemcitabine achieved a median overall survival of 12.2 months in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, study reports. Patients with high-SPARC biomarker achieved significantly higher overall survival.
Celgene International Sàrl announced on October 6 that results from a clinical study of Abraxane (paclitaxel albumin-bound particles for injectable suspension) in combination with gemcitabine in 67 patients with previously untreated advanced pancreatic cancer were published in an online article by the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Abraxane, approved by FDA for breast cancer, could be a life-prolonging drug for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
After the first phase of the study, the recommended Phase II dose was 125 mg/m2 of Abraxane followed by 1000 mg/m2 of gemcitabine on days 1, 8 and 15 of every 28-day cycle.
In Phase II, almost half of the patients responded (overall response rate was 48% (21/44)) and two-thirds experienced disease control (disease control rate was 68% (30/44)). The median progression-free survival was 7.9 months (95% CI: 5.8, 11.0) and the median overall survival (OS) was 12.2 months (95% CI: 8.9, 17.9). The one-year survival rate for patients was 48%.
Levels of secreted protein acidic and rich in crysteine (SPARC) were evaluated in 36 patients. These patients were classified as either high-SPARC (average z-score greater-than or equal to 0, n=19) or low-SPARC (average z-score <0, n=17). According to the study, a significant increase in OS was observed for patients in the high-SPARC group versus the low-SPARC group (median 17.8 vs. 8.1 months, p=0.0431). SPARC level remained a significant predictor of OS in a multivariate Cox regression model after adjusting for multiple clinical covariates including gender, race, age, treatment and baseline CA19-9 level (p=0.041). Of note, SPARC in the stroma correlated highly with OS (p=0.013), while SPARC in the tumor cells did not (p=0.15). This is particularly intriguing as SPARC expression in the stroma, but not in the tumor, has been associated with poor survival, suggesting that a unique mechanism of action of Abraxane may play a role in this reverse outcome.
Secreted protein acidic, rich in cysteine (SPARC) is an acidic, secreted extracellular matrix glycoprotein that plays a vital role in bone mineralization, cell-matrix interactions, and collagen binding. SPARC also increases the production and activity of matrix metalloproteinases, a function important to invading cancer cells within bone. Additional functions of SPARC beneficial to tumor cells include angiogenesis, proliferation and migration. Overexpression of SPARC is reported in many human cancers such as breast, prostate and colon.
The most common DLTs in the first phase of the study were sepsis and neutropenia. During the second phase, the most common grade 3 or higher Abraxane-related non-hematologic adverse events were fatigue (21%) and sensory neuropathy (15%). The most common grade 3 or higher treatment-related hematologic adverse events were neutropenia (67%), leukopenia (44%) and thrombocytopenia (23%).
These data are being confirmed in an ongoing, international, randomized phase III trial of Abraxane + gemcitabine vs. gemcitabine for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. Additional information about the trial can be found at: http://www.clinicaltrial.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT00844649?term=abraxane&cond=pancreatic%2Bcancer&phase=2&rank=2&show_locs=Y#locn.
These data are reported from an investigational study. Abraxane is not approved as a treatment for previously untreated advanced pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. In typical usage, the term pancreatic cancer refers specifically to the significantly most common type of cancer, adenocarcinoma (and some variants thereof), that arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas, although the term can also reasonably be used to encompass less common types of cancer that also originate within the pancreas, and is quite frequently inclusive of the other exocrine cancers. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death both in the United States and internationally.
Celgene International Sàrl, located in Boudry, in the Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, is a wholly owned subsidiary and international headquarters of Celgene Corporation. Celgene Corporation, headquartered in Summit, New Jersey, is an integrated global pharmaceutical company engaged primarily in the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases through gene and protein regulation. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at http://www.celgene.com.
Abraxane is a solvent-free chemotherapy treatment option for metastatic breast cancer which was developed using Celgene’s proprietary nab® technology platform.
This protein-bound chemotherapy agent combines paclitaxel with albumin, a naturally-occurring human protein. Abraxane is currently in various stages of investigation for the treatment of the following cancers: expanded applications for metastatic breast, non-small cell lung, malignant melanoma, pancreatic and gastric.
In 1967 Monroe E. Wall and Mansukh C. Wani isolated a mitotic inhibitor from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, Taxus brevifolia and named it taxol. Later named paclitaxel, the natural product has antitumor activity and is the active agent in Abraxane.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Abraxane for Injectable Suspension (paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension) in January 2005 for the treatment of breast cancer after failure of combination chemotherapy for metastatic disease or relapse within six months of adjuvant chemotherapy. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline unless clinically contraindicated. For the full prescribing information for Abraxane please visit http://www.abraxane.com.
Abraxane® for Injectable Suspension (paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension) is indicated for the treatment of breast cancer after failure of combination chemotherapy for metastatic disease or relapse within 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline unless clinically contraindicated.
ADVERSE EVENTS
Severe cardiovascular events possibly related to single-agent ABRAXANE occurred in approximately 3% of patients in the randomized trial. These events included chest pain, cardiac arrest, supraventricular tachycardia, edema, thrombosis, pulmonary thromboembolism, pulmonary emboli, and hypertension. Cases of cerebrovascular attacks (strokes) and transient ischemic attacks have been reported rarely. During postmarketing surveillance, rare reports of congestive heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction were observed, primarily among individuals with underlying cardiac history or prior exposure to cardiotoxic drugs.
In the randomized metastatic breast cancer study, the most important adverse events included alopecia (90%), neutropenia (all cases 80%; severe 9%), sensory neuropathy (any symptoms 71%; severe 10%), asthenia (any 47%; severe 8%), myalgia/arthralgia (any 44%; severe 8%), anemia (all 33%; severe 1%), nausea (any 30%; severe 3%), diarrhea (any 27%; severe <1%) infections (24%), vomiting (any 18%; severe 4%), and mucositis (any 7%; severe <1%).
Other adverse reactions have included ocular/visual disturbances (any 13%; severe 1%), renal dysfunction (any 11%; severe 1%), fluid retention (any 10%; severe 0%), hepatic dysfunction (elevations in bilirubin 7%, alkaline phosphatase 36%, AST [SGOT] 39%), hypersensitivity reactions (any 4%; severe 0%), cardiovascular reactions (severe 3%), thrombocytopenia (any 2%; severe <1%), and injection site reactions (<1%). In clinical trials and during postmarketing surveillance, dehydration was common and pyrexia was very common. Rare occurrences of severe hypersensitivity reactions have also been reported during postmarketing surveillance.
Please see full Prescribing Information, including Boxed WARNINGS, CONTRAINDICATIONS, WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS, and ADVERSE REACTIONS.
Important Safety Information
Abraxane for Injectable Suspension (paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension) should be administered under the supervision of a physician experienced in the use of cancer chemotherapeutic agents. Appropriate management of complications is possible only when adequate diagnostic and treatment facilities are readily available.
Abraxane therapy should not be administered to patients with metastatic breast cancer who have baseline neutrophil counts of less than 1,500 cells/mm3. In order to monitor the occurrence of bone marrow suppression, primarily neutropenia, which may be severe and result in infection, it is recommended that frequent peripheral blood cell counts be performed on all patients receiving Abraxane.
Note: An albumin form of paclitaxel may substantially affect a drug’s functional properties relative to those of drug in solution. DO NOT SUBSTITUTE FOR OR WITH OTHER PACLITAXEL FORMULATIONS.
ADDITIONAL WARNINGS
The use of Abraxane has not been studied in patients with renal dysfunction. In the randomized controlled trial, patients were excluded for baseline serum bilirubin >1.5 mg/dL or baseline serum creatinine >2 mg/dL.
Pregnancy-Teratogenic Effects: Pregnancy Category D Abraxane can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. If this drug is used during pregnancy, or if the patient becomes pregnant while receiving this drug, the patient should be apprised of the potential hazard to the fetus. Women of childbearing potential should be advised to avoid becoming pregnant while receiving treatment with Abraxane. Men should be advised to not father a child while receiving treatment with Abraxane.
Abraxane contains albumin (human), a derivative of human blood.
PRECAUTIONS
No drug interaction studies have been conducted with Abraxane. Caution should be exercised when administering Abraxane concomitantly with medicines known to inhibit or induce either CYP2C8 or CYP3A4.
Abraxane therapy should not be administered to patients with baseline neutrophil counts of less than 1,500 cells/mm3. It is recommended that frequent peripheral blood cell counts be performed on all patients receiving Abraxane. Patients should not be retreated with subsequent cycles of Abraxane until neutrophils recover to a level >1,500 cells/mm3 and platelets recover to >100,000 cells/mm3. In the case of severe neutropenia (<500 cells/mm3 for 7 days or more), during a course of Abraxane therapy, a dose reduction for subsequent courses of therapy is recommended.
Sensory neuropathy occurs frequently with Abraxane. The occurrence of grade 1 or 2 sensory neuropathy does not generally require dose modification. If grade 3 sensory neuropathy develops, treatment should be withheld until resolution to grade 1 or 2 followed by a dose reduction for all subsequent courses of Abraxane.
Because the exposure and toxicity of paclitaxel can be increased with hepatic impairment, administration of Abraxane in patients with hepatic impairment should be performed with caution. The starting dose should be reduced for patients with moderate and severe hepatic impairment.
Injection site reactions occur infrequently with Abraxane and were mild in the randomized clinical trial. Given the possibility of extravasation, it is advisable to closely monitor the infusion site for possible infiltration during drug administration.
It is not known whether paclitaxel is excreted in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk and because of the potential for serious adverse reactions in nursing infants, it is recommended that nursing be discontinued when receiving Abraxane therapy.
Adverse events such as fatigue, lethargy, and malaise may affect the ability to drive and use machines.
Source: Celgene International Sàrl
Sarah Palin has announced yesterday, October 5, she will not run for presidential race in 2012.
There has been much speculation about whether Sarah Palin, who famously became John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election, would enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
And after months of side-stepping questions Sarah Palin has finally announced that she will not run for the White House – because her “family comes first”.
In a letter sent to her supporters, Sarah Palin wrote:
“After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for president of the United States.”
Sarah Palin has announced she will not run for President in 2012
It has been suggested that Sarah Palin now will lend her weight to Texas governor and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry.
The announcement comes after Sarah Palin was stung by suggestions in a new book that she once snorted cocaine off a 55 gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with friends and had illicit affairs with a top NBA star and one of her husband’s business partners.
The revelations, which will inevitably now be seen to have struck a devastating blow to her political ambitions, suggest Sarah Palin took the class A drug with her husband, while smoking marijuana at college in secret liaisons with one of her professors.
Joe McGinniss’ book “The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin” also alleged that Sarah Palin is far from the traditional family woman she claims to be.
Sarah Palin, 47, had a one-night stand with Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice less than a year before she eloped with her husband, Joe McGinniss’ book claimed.
Sarah Palin was said to have met the 6ft 8ins player in 1987 when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska and she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU television.
It was also claimed that Sarah Palin had a six-month affair with Brad Hanson, who ran a snowmobile dealership with her husband Todd – a betrayal which led to Todd dissolving their business.
In a bid to expose Sarah Palin’s skeletons, Joe McGinness studied the former vice presidential candidate for three years and last year even moved in to a home next door in Wasilla, Alaska, to dig some more.
Recent polls had, however, suggested Sarah Palin was gaining ground on President Barack Obama.
According to a new survey, Sarah Palin was as little as five points behind him.
After trailing Barack Obama by more than 20% in polls all year, the McClatchy-Marist survey, taken on September 13 and 14, had the President leading Sarah Palin by only 49 points to 44.
A key reason is that Sarah Palin started to lead Barack Obama among independents – a sharp turnaround.
The poll found that Barack Obama looks increasingly vulnerable in next year’s election, with a majority of voters believing he will lose to any Republican, a solid number saying they will definitely vote against him and most potential Republican challengers gaining on him.
Barack Obama still leads all the announced candidates, however.
Governor Rick Perry of Texas continues to lead the field of announced candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, supported by 30% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
Rick Perry is followed by former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 22% and Representative Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota with 12%.
Others trail in single digits.
A separate survey for Fox News – where Sarah Palin is a highly-paid commentator – found that an astonishing 66% of Tea Party supporters – and 71% of Republicans – would prefer, however, if she did not run for President.
Sarah Palin’ statement in full:
“October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.
My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.
From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.
I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.
Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.
In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.
Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!
God bless America.
Sarah Palin”
Steve Jobs, Apple founder died today after a heavy and lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.
Tributes, led by President Barack Obama, began pouring in within minutes of the company confirming the death of Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind the iPhone, iPad and the iPod at the age of 56.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” read a statement by Apple’s board of directors.
“Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
“His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”
The Apple Home page has revealed that Steve Jobs had died
The homepage of Apple’s website this evening switched to a full-page image of Jobs with the text, “Steve Jobs 1955-2011”.
Clicking on the image revealed the additional text:
“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being.
“Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.
“Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”
Apple announced the death of its founder, Steve Jobs on the website
Steve Jobs leaves a wife, a son and two daughters.
Steve Jobs’ relatives also released a statement, which said he “died peacefully today, surrounded by his family”.
“In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the news of Steve Jobs’s death to Apple employees via e-mail:
“I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.
“We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon.
“No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honour his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.”
In April 2011, Steve Jobs seemed frail sparking speculation he would have to resign
Within minutes of his death being confirmed, tributes to Steve Jobs began flooding the web, led by President Barack Obama, who tweeted:
“Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. From all of us at #Obama2012, thank you for the work you make possible every day – including ours.”
Barack Obama later gave a fuller statement, in which he praised Steve Jobs as a “visionary” who was “bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it”.
“The world has lost a visionary,” Obama said.
“And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.
“Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.
“Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.”
From its earliest beginnings as a personal computer also-ran in a scrappy garage in northern California to its all-conquering development of life-changing gadgets the rise of Apple has been intrinsically linked to Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs holds the Apple II computer in 1977
When Steve Jobs left for eleven years after a row over the company’s direction, Apple’s fortunes dipped.
His return, after a successful stint as head of animation innovators Pixar, marked the start of the company’s relentless drive to become one of America’s biggest and most successful companies.
Steve Jobs’ death comes just six weeks after his poor health led him to stand down as the company’s CEO and his successor, Tim Cook, presented the new generation iPhone yesterday.
The fact that Apple stayed cool as it grew is credited to Steve Jobs’ innovative marketing techniques almost as much as his visionary wizardry.
Even when he announced that he was taking two years off on medical leave, Steve Jobs still kept hold of his CEO title, just as he did on two previous occasions in the past seven years when he needed to take leave from the day-to-day running of the company for health reasons.
At the time, Steve Jobs could barely walk and photographs of him looking gaunt and frail led to reports that he just had weeks to live.
But Steve Jobs fought back and appeared to be relishing proving the doubters wrong by introducing the second-generation iPad and meeting up with President Obama to discuss the future of the tech industry.
Other than his well-rehearsed stage appearances to launch the latest Apple innovation, Steve Jobs always treasured his privacy.
Steve Jobs survived surgery to remove a cancerous pancreatic tumor in 2004 and a liver transplant in 2009.
As CEO, Steve Jobs earned only $1 a year, but he held 5,426 million Apple shares as well as 138 million shares in Disney.
Steve Jobs’ wealth is estimated at more than $5billion.
With his trademark jeans and casual jumper, Steve Jobs became synonymous with the company’s every innovation in recent years, from the iPod through to the iPhone and iPad.
Born in San Francisco, Steve Jobs, who was adopted, dropped out of university after one term and only took his first computer job to raise money to go on a spiritual retreat to India.
Steve Jobs returned a Buddhist with his head shaved and admitted experimenting with LSD, calling his drug-induced experiences ‘one of the two or three most important things’ he had done in his life.
Back in northern California, Steve Jobs started working for computer firm Atari before founding Apple in his garage in 1976 with friends Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Mike Makkula.
After a power struggle in 1985, Steve Jobs left the company, only to return eleven years later to launch the company’s extraordinary growth over the past fourteen years.
Steve Jobs introduces the Apple Nano in San Francisco
One of the world’s most famous CEOs, Steve Jobs remained stubbornly private about his personal life, refusing interviews and shielding his wife and their children from public view.
Even when he resigned six weeks ago, he divulged very little, not directly mentioning his cancer as the reason he quit.
“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Steve Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation.
“Unfortunately, that day has come.”
But that personal life – he was given up at birth for adoption, had an illegitimate child, was romantically linked with movie stars – was full of intrigue for his fan base and Apple consumers.
Steve Jobs and his wife Laurene Powell during Pixar Exhibit Launch at The Museum of Modern Art in New York
Steve Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, were married in a small ceremony in Yosemite National Park in 1991, lived in Woodside, California, and had three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.
Steve Jobs admitted that when he was 23, he had a child out of wedlock with his high school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan. Their daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs, was born in 1978.
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