Archive for January, 2008

Way to Reverse Loss of Memory, Discovered by Scientists

January 31st, 2008 by admin | Comments Off | Filed in science

If scientists really discovered the way to reverse loss of memory, this is a great help to those suffering in Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works.

The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man’s appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man’s brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.

Link

Extraordinary Electron Micrograph Images

January 30th, 2008 by admin | Comments Off | Filed in odd

This images are extraordinary electron micrograph images taken using electrons to illuminate a specimen and create an enlarged picture of it

A section through human skin. The skin layers, from top to bottom, are the stratum corneum, composed of flattened, dead skin cells that form the surface of the skin. The dead cells from this layer are continuously being shed and replaced by cells from the living epidermal layer below (red). The lowest layer seen here is the dermis. In the middle, a sweat gland can be seen.

A Microfilariae (larval worms) of a parasitic nematode roundworm being attacked by cells of the immune system. Numerous nematodes cause disease in humans, living as parasites of the intestines, blood, lymph, subcutaneous & connective tissues.

Link

Cheeseburger In A Can

January 30th, 2008 by admin | Comments Off | Filed in offbeat news

Cheeseburge in a can – for people with no time to cook or go to the fastfood chain. Only €3.95.

Link

Violet Booth, Reunited with Engagement Ring After 67 Years

January 29th, 2008 by admin | Comments Off | Filed in offbeat news

After 67 years, Violet Booth was reunited with her engagement ring which she tossed into a field in 1941 after a disagreement with her fiancé, Samuel.

Violet Booth, then Violet Bailey, threw the diamond ring away after arguing with her husband-to-be, Samuel.

The childhood sweethearts, who were out walking, quickly made up. But after a fruitless search for the ring, they believed it was lost for ever.

Yet, almost seven decades later, Mrs Booth, now 88, is able to wear it again after her grandson found it buried in the field.

It took two hours for Leighton Boyes, 33, to unearth the ring with his metal detector. His grandmother, who wept as she put it back on her finger, said it was the perfect way to remember her husband, who died 15 years ago.

Link

Wim Hof, Tantric Master Breaks His Own Ice Record

January 28th, 2008 by admin | Comments Off | Filed in xo feat

Wim Hof, the Tantric Master, hreaks his own record of being engulfed in ice for 72 minutes.

Wim Hof, 48, stood on a Manhattan street in a clear container filled with ice for an hour and 12 minutes Saturday.

Hof said he survives by controlling his body temperature through tantric meditation. Tantra is an Eastern tradition of ritual and meditation said to bring followers closer to their chosen deities.

Hof set the world record for full body ice contact endurance in 2004, when he immersed himself in ice for an hour and eight minutes.

Link

Robert Fidler Hid Mock Tudor Castle Behind 40ft Hay Bales

January 28th, 2008 by admin | Comments Off | Filed in offbeat news

For for year, Robert Fidler and his family hide mock Tudor castle behind 40ft hay bales to avoid having to apply for planning permission, according to reports.

Over the course of two years, he managed to secretly – and unlawfully – build the imposing mock Tudor structure in one of his fields, shielded behind a 40ft stack of hay bales covered by a huge tarpaulins.

Once it was finished, he and his family moved in and lived there for four years before finally revealing the development – complete with battlements and cannons – in August 2006.

Mr Fidler claims that because the building has been there for four years with no objections, it is no longer illegal.

But he is under siege from council planners, who say the castle at Honeycrock Farm, Salfords, Redhill, Surrey, will have to be knocked down.

Link

Leonid Stadnyk, World’s Tallest Man Living Man

January 27th, 2008 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in human body, people, world record

Leonid Stadnyk is currently the world’s tallest living man. He is recognized by Guinness World Records 2008 edition.

Leonid Ivanovyc Stadnyk (born 1971 in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is the world’s tallest living man according to Guinness World Records 2008. He is a certified veterinarian and veterinary surgeon and lives with his mother in the village of Podolyantsi, Ukraine. Leonid Stadnyk’s excessive growth began after brain surgery when he was 12 years old. He developed a pituitary gland tumor which caused the gland to secrete large amounts of growth hormone, resulting in what doctors describe as acromegalic gigantism.

Link

Human-shaped Roots of Fleeceflower Plant Foun in China, Looks Like Naked Man and Woman

January 27th, 2008 by admin | 6 Comments | Filed in plant

This Human-shaped roots of Chinese fleeceflower plant is entirely the product of Mother Nature, according to its owner Fan. It shows a naked man and woman with fine details.

It appears just as it was when the plant was pulled from the ground, according to the man who spotted it on a vegetable stall in a town in China’s eastern Shandong province.

The man, named Fan, was so taken with his find he is said to have paid 600 yuan, more than £40, to buy it.

Curious visitors now travel from miles around to see the foot-long veggie couple on display at his home.

The fleeceflower is a favourite dietary supplement in Asia where its boiled extract is believed to reduce cholesterol and fight heart disease.

The root is also sold as a diet food to help reduce obesity.

Link

Demi-Lee Brennan, ‘Miracle girl’ Switched Blood Group After Transplant Operation

January 26th, 2008 by admin | Comments Off | Filed in science, world record, xo feat

Australian teenager named Demi-Lee Brennan, became the first known transplant patient switched blood group, from O negative to O positive, after a liver transplant operation.

Demi, now 15, of Kiama, near Sydney, no longer has to take drugs to stop her body rejecting a donated liver because her blood group changed from O negative to O positive following the operation.

Doctors in New South Wales hope that her case could help thousands of other patients.

Dr Stuart Dorney, a former head of Westmead Hospital’s liver transplant unit, said: “We think it happened because we used a young person’s liver and Demi had low white blood cells.”

Many transplants fail because of complications linked to the body rejecting the new organ.

Demi’s case was outlined in this week’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Link

Top Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World

January 24th, 2008 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in animal, top list, world record

Here’s the list of the top ten deadliest snakes in the world. The Fierce Snake or Inland Taipan tops them all.

1) Fierce Snake or Inland Taipan – scientific name: Oxyuranus microlepidotus
2) Australian Brown Snake – scientific name: Pseudonaja textilis
3) Malayan or Blue Krait – scientific name: Bungarus candidus
4) Taipan – scientific name: Oxyuranus scutellatus
5) Tiger Snake – scientific name: Notechis scutatus
6) Beaked Sea Snake – scientific name: Enhydrina schistosa
7) Saw Scaled Viper – scientific name: Echis carinatus
8 ) Coral Snake – scientific name: Micrurus fulvius
9) Boomslang – scientific name: Dispholidus typus
10) Death Adder – scientific name: Acanthopis antarcticus

Link