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Archive for 2009

Man uses remote to control his ‘bionic bottom’/男子使用遙控器來控制自己的「電子屁股」 十一月 14

A man whose bowel was damaged in a motorcycle crash has been given a bionic bottom.

Ged Galvin, 55, now presses a remote control to open his bowels and go to the toilet.

The IT project manager from Barnsley, south Yorkshire, almost died when an off-duty police officer pulled out in front of him in her car.

Mr Galvin suffered massive internal injuries and had to be fitted with a colostomy bag until surgeons at the Royal London Hospital could perform the complex operation to rebuild his bottom.

The medical team took a muscle from above his knee, wrapped it around his sphincter, and then attached electrodes to the nerves.

These are now operated by a palm-sized remote control that he carries in his pocket.

“It’s like a chubby little mobile phone,” he said. “You switch it on and off, just like switching on the TV.

“They call me the man with the bionic bottom, but that doesn’t bother me. My gratitude to the surgeons is endless because what they have done is a miracle.”

Mr Galvin, who had previously endured the indignity of carrying a colostomy bag, added: “I thought that in these days of modern medicine surely there was something they could do. They’d mended everything else – why not this? Anything was better than a colostomy bag.

“The operation changed my life and gave me back my pride and confidence. Because of the remote control I can lead a normal life again.”

The father-of-two is resigned to having the muscles in his bionic bottom replaced every five years. (Telegraph)

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Penguin peers through camera’s viewfinder… as his feathered friends strike a pose/企鵝為同伴拍照 十一月 13

Wildlife photographers? Who needs them.

This group of Emperor penguins seemed to have the whole process in hand – or flipper – after taking over a camera and tripod that were left on the ice in Antarctica.

One of them peered through the viewfinder with a beady eye, and others organised themselves in a family group with children at the front.

The inquisitive creatures delighted photographer David Schultz, 53, who had backed away with another camera to let them play with his equipment.

He said: ‘The penguins were humbling, hilarious, extremely curious and wonderfully photogenic.

‘I remember one of the birds stayed behind the camera as the others moved to the front. With their heads stretched out, constantly bobbing, it seriously seemed as if they were posing.

‘And then the one behind the camera changed position so it appeared as if it was looking right through the viewfinder.

‘Moments later they seemed to have become bored with it all and wandered back, only to be replaced with a cluster of inquisitive chicks.’

David was amazed when two of the penguins appeared to pose for a playful shot in the pristine white landscape while a third framed them from behind the lens. (Daily Mail)

Category: 動物奇觀  | Leave a Comment
New world’s tallest dog/新的全球最高的狗 十一月 13

Only one animal got credit for a record on Nov. 12, the same day Norway registered the world’s largest gingerbread man; the most people hugging in one minute were in the U.K.; Italy set the mark for the fastest consumption of a bowl of pasta; Finland had the most nationalities in a single sauna; and a team from Mexico assembled the world’s longest paper clip chain.

In the midst of it all, Guinness World Records officially named Titan, an ailing 4-year-old white Great Dane from San Diego, as the world’s tallest dog.

Titan is blind, deaf, epileptic and undergoes acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments every three weeks, owner Diana Taylor said.

He is a gentle soul who befriends everyone during his daily walks on the beach and is often mistaken by young children for a horse or cow, Taylor said.

Titan’s official height, as measured by a veterinarian, is 42.25 inches (107.32cm) from floor to shoulder. You could add eight inches if official measurements included the head, Guinness spokesman Stuart Claxton said.

Titan weighs 190 pounds and doesn’t stand on his hind legs because it isn’t good for him. If he did, Taylor figures he would stand 80 or 82 inches tall.

Titan takes over the title held by Gibson, a 7-year-old harlequin Great Dane from Grass Valley, Calif., who died earlier this year after battling bone cancer. He had measured 42.2 inches tall.

Nov. 12 is officially Guinness World Record Day, and more than 30 records around the world were announced or set. (AP)

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34B to a 34D – ‘Day to Night’ bra/讓夜晚外出應酬時罩杯變大的胸罩 十一月 13

A bra has been created that allows women to convert a modest bust during office hours into a spectacular cleavage for a night out.

The £24 Ultimo Mega Boost Day to Night Bra can boost a woman’s cup size from a 34B to a 34D with the simple addition of silicone pouches.

Unlike other chicken fillets, the additions mould to the skin to create a "natural, authentic rounded shape", according to the manufacturers.

The bra comes in three colours and can be worn in a variety of ways – halterneck, over the shoulder, one-shouldered, criss-cross or strapless.

The Ultimo silicone inserts weigh from an ounce to 2.6oz, depending on the wearer’s cup size. They are said to be the first inserts that come with their very own bra, rather than being sold separately.

It follows the launch of La Decollette, a nighttime bra which smooths wrinkles around the bust by keeping the breasts apart during sleep.

Ultimo’s Michelle Mone said Mega Boost bra replaced the need for surgery.

"‘People talk about cleavage being back but it never really went away," she said.

"The best thing about the new Mega Boost Day to Night Bra is that you can change your cleavage on a whim and it’s completely hassle free. It’s the perfect solution if you’re heading off after work and don’t have time to go home and change." (Telegraph)

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Man breaks record for pulling bus with his hair/頭髮拉動雙層巴士 男子打破世界紀錄 十一月 13

A strongman broke the world’s most hair-raising record this morning when he pulled a double decker bus more than 20 metres – using only his hair.

Manjit Singh, a 59-year-old from Leicester, attached a clamp to his thick ponytail and bore the pain of pulling a seven ton vintage routemaster 21.2 metres through Battersea Park to set a new world record and celebrate Guinness World Record day.

After the event he said: "It was painful, but it was worth it. I could only think about my legs and head and keeping on going to set a record, to go as far as I could."

He said that there was no training he could do to prepare for the event and he had no special regime for his unbreakable hair. "I just use shampoo, like the kind you can get in any pound shop up and down the country," he laughed.

The motivation to attempt the bizarre record came from his failure to pull a similar bus attached only to his ears two years ago. The father of four said: "My children think it’s great, they think I’m a real star now."

The bus pull was just one of the records attempted around the world to celebrate Guinness World Records day. In London people attempted the world’s biggest group hug, in Northern Ireland people attempted the world’s biggest human domino fall and in Texas people attempted the world’s biggest simultaneous lassoing. (Telegraph, AFP)

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Ex-soldier has all 223 names of troops killed in Afghanistan tattooed on his body/前英國士兵將223名在阿富汗陣亡的同僚姓名紋在身上 十一月 12

His bare back is still red raw from their freshly-inked names.

But former soldier Shaun Clark had promised to have the name of every troop killed in Afghanistan tattooed on his body in honour of their sacrifice.

And he wasn’t going to back out.

Mr Clark, 43, spent more than four hours in the tattooist’s chair today as each of the 223 names were etched in ink over his chest and back.

Mr Clark, who served with the 8th Battalion Light Infantry Regiment from 1989 to 1996, was waiting in the tattooist’s chair at 11am this morning to carry out his painful pledge.

The first name was etched on his body just as the traditional Armistice Day two-minute silence began.

He said: ‘I don’t mind suffering for a few days if I can let the lads know that people really care about what they’re doing out there, and raise some money for the guys coming home wounded as well.

‘The family thought I was mad to begin with, but they’ve come round to the idea now, and my wife is backing me all the way.’

The married father-of-two from Doncaster hopes his challenge will raise £500 for the charity Help for Heroes.

He plans on updating the sombre list every year on Remembrance Day if required.

He added: ‘I know it’s a bit extreme covering the top half of your body front and back with 223 names, but it’s my way of honouring all those men and women and it’ll be there as a memorial for as long as I live.’

Mr Clark has set up a page on the Just Giving fundraising website and has raised £165.

His page is inundated with supportive comments from well-wishers.

Help for Heroes is a charity that raises money to support members of the Armed Forces who have been wounded.

In just over two years, the charity has raised over £30 million through more than 10,000 individual events. (Daily Mail)

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1.5 lbs. of nails, coins, and copper wire pulled from man’s stomach/男子胃裡被取出0.7公斤鐵釘、硬幣和銅線 十一月 12

"They call me the hardware store," says Requelme Abanto from his hospital bed in northern Peru. Doctors in the city of Cajamarca said they removed 1.5 pounds of metal from Abanto’s stomach, including nails, coins, and rusted copper wire and scrap metal.

Cajamarca hospital surgeon Carlos Delgado said that he’s never seen anything like what he found in last week’s operation.

"We went in thinking it could be appendicitis, but weren’t we surprised by what we found — a hole in his stomach," Delgado said.

Delgado said specialists are examining Abanto’s mental health as he recovers.

The 26-year-old construction worker ate the metal for months, and told Peru’s Channel 9 television that he may now do it in public "as sport."

"I swallowed 17 nails in February and didn’t die," he said. "Five-inch nails, all in one day." (AP)

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The girl who sneezes 12,000 times a day has doctors baffled/少女一天打1萬2千次噴嚏 群醫束手 十一月 12



Lauren Johnson is a typical 12-year-old girl – except that she can’t stop sneezing.

It is so bad that she sneezes up to 20 times a minute, or 12,000 times a day.

The non-stop sneezing began two weeks ago when Lauren from Virginia in the U.S. caught a cold.

Lauren can’t go to school and is even struggling to eat.

The only relief she gets is when she falls asleep each night. Her condition has left doctors baffled.

During a five-minute interview on the Today Show in the U.S. Lauren sneezed hundreds of times, her speech interrupted every few seconds.

The 12-year-old – dubbed the ‘Gesundheit Girl’ said: ‘I can’t stop.

‘I thought it wouldn’t last this long but it’s been two weeks now.’

She said she is not in pain – simply in discomfort.

‘It’s primarily the sneezing,’ she added. ‘Maybe I’ll get a raw nose from the tissues but that’s it.’

One expert believes she is suffering from a syndrome known as ‘machine gun sneezing’, in which victims sneeze incessantly.

Lauren told the Today Show that she felt ‘miserable’.

‘It’s been a long two weeks. I’ve seen my friends here and there but I haven’t been to school.’

Her mother, Lynn Johnson, has spent the past week going to a variety of doctors looking for a diagnosis and relief for her daughter – and has now gone on television in a bid to find a cure or a specialist who can help.

They have tried 11 different medications so far.

‘Life for her has stopped. Everybody is baffled. Nobody really knows how to treat it,’ Ms Johnson said.

She added: ‘It turns off when she sleeps. Only in a deep REM sleep it turns off.’

They tried hypnosis but it did not work.

Lauren has also seen a therapist in case a psychological factor is triggering the physical reaction.

She has been unable to go to school because it puts other students off – and she struggles to eat between sneezes.

Lauren told a local news website: ‘The hard part is missing school and when people stare.

‘It’s very hard.’

Doctors believe it may be that she is suffering from an ‘irretractable psychogenic disorder’ that could be triggered by stress.

Her mother added: ‘There’s less than 40 cases ever documented ever in the entire world. Nobody really knows how to treat it, what’s going to work, and even in the cases where it might have worked or turned the sneezing off for awhile, a lot of times it comes back again and then you’re right back to where you started.’

Neither Lauren nor her mother say she is stressed out. Her sneezing is not contagious. (Daily Mail)

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Bra that can be used as a golf putting mat/可用作高球推桿練習墊的胸罩 十一月 12

Lingerie makers Triumph have unveiled the ‘Nice Cup in Bra’, which can be removed, rolled out and used as a putting mat for the keen golfing lady.

Triumph have designed the new bra to appeal to Japan’s busy golfing women. The green corset-style garment can be removed and unrolled to create a 1.5m-long putting mat.

When the user sinks a putt into one of the cups, a built-in speaker pumps out a congratulatory "Nice shot!"

The bra also features pockets for extra golf balls and tees, and a detachable flag pin that serves as a score pencil.

The bra set comes with a skirt with the words "Be Quiet" printed on the rear, which doubles up as a flag for use on the course.

Quite how the user is supposed to do cover herself when she removes the underwear is unclear.

Twice a year, Triumph unveils a new novelty bra in Japan to highlight social trends.

In previous years the company have invented the postal bra – with pockets for letters – and a chopstick bra made from miso soup and rice bowls, with a special holder for chopsticks.

In May they unveiled the novelty husband hunter bra, which features a countdown clock that stops once an engagement ring is inserted into the mechanism, and plays Mendelssohn’s "The Wedding March". (Telegraph)

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World’s most expensive beer costs £700 a bottle/世界最貴的啤酒一瓶台幣37500元 十一月 12

A London restaurant has brought out a bottle of what is believed to be the world’s most expensive beer, costing £700 a bottle.

The 12-litre bottle of Vieille Bon Secours ale has been stored for the last 10 years and has an alcoholic volume of 8 per cent.

The beer has been described as having a complex taste with citric, caramel and toffee flavours with an undertone of liquorice and aniseed.

Only a few other bars and restaurants are believed to stock the beer, which can also be bought online and is available in blond, amber and dark.

Belgian Beer Ambassador and Master Beer Sommelier Mark Stroobandt, said: "All three varieties are complex in flavour but are well balanced so the alcohol is not intrusive.

Muir Picken, executive chef of the Belgo Restaurant, who currently has one bottle of the beer left in his cellar, said: "At 12 litres it is pretty heavy duty – it takes two people just to pour it.

"A large part of the cost is the bottle itself but it is a very rare niche beer."

The next most expensive beer is Samuel Adam’s Utopia which is brewed by the Boston Beer Company, USA, and sells for £60 a bottle. (Telegraph)

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