Odd News

[AstralCrux]

Man claims he found condom in French onion soup

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SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man has sued a local Claim Jumper restaurant claiming he ordered French onion soup and bit into a condom instead of melted cheese. Zdenek Philip Hodousek filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court seeking unspecified damages over fears he may have contracted a disease.

Hodousek's attorney Eric Traut said his client wants to have restaurant employees' DNA tested to find a match to the condom.

A public relations firm representing Claim Jumper said no one can prove the so-called "foreign object" Hodousek took from the restaurant is the item that was submitted to a lab for testing.

The firm said an internal probe revealed no employee wrongdoing.

[AstralCrux]

World's first camel-milk chocolates going global

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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print By Tamara Walid Tamara Walid – Tue Jul 21, 1:24 pm ET

DUBAI (Reuters) – Dubai's Al Nassma, the world's first brand of chocolate made with camels' milk, plans to expand into new Arab markets, Europe, Japan and the United States, its general manager said Tuesday.

Martin Van Almsick said the United Arab Emirates company planned to enter Saudi Arabia first, followed by Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United States within the next few months.

The company plans to enter the Saudi market in a month through a partnership with a Jeddah-based distributor, said Van Almsick, adding the company plans to deliver the first ton of chocolates to Saudi Arabia soon.

Al Nassma is also in talks with British department store Harrods and San Francisco's Chocolate Covered to sell its products.

Al Nassma was formally established in October last year and aims to produce 100 tons of premium camels' milk chocolate a year.

In partnership with Austrian chocolate maker Manner, Al Nassma manufactures the end product at its Dubai facility.

With 3,000 camels on its Dubai farm, the company sells chocolates through its farm-attached store as well as in luxury hotels and private airlines. It plans to launch an online shopping facility within a month, Van Almsick said. The farm is controlled by the Dubai government.

The company is set to open its second store in the UAE in one of Dubai's large malls and is in talks with mall operator Majid Al Futtaim and others, he said.

"We aim to be the Godiva of the Middle East," Van Almsick said in an interview. "It's a luxury product, so we will never be in supermarkets. The plan is to be in one mall in each UAE city."

Al Nassma is also looking at the possibility of setting up a store in Japan, where demand for the product is high, he said.

All chocolates are produced without preservatives or chemical additives with a range of locally popular spices, nuts and honey, the company says.

Camel milk contains five times more vitamin C than cow milk, less fat, less lactose and more insulin, making it a good option for diabetics and the lactose intolerant, Van Almsick said.

(Editing by Will Waterman and Paul Casciato)

[Homicidalheathen]

Yuk

I am imagining it tastes like goats milk...and although I will partake of that if hungry enough...it could seriously fuck up some otherwise good cocoa.

World's first camel-milk chocolates going global

Buzz up!150 votes Send

Email IM Share

Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print By Tamara Walid Tamara Walid – Tue Jul 21, 1:24 pm ET

DUBAI (Reuters) – Dubai's Al Nassma, the world's first brand of chocolate made with camels' milk, plans to expand into new Arab markets, Europe, Japan and the United States, its general manager said Tuesday.

Martin Van Almsick said the United Arab Emirates company planned to enter Saudi Arabia first, followed by Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United States within the next few months.

The company plans to enter the Saudi market in a month through a partnership with a Jeddah-based distributor, said Van Almsick, adding the company plans to deliver the first ton of chocolates to Saudi Arabia soon.

Al Nassma is also in talks with British department store Harrods and San Francisco's Chocolate Covered to sell its products.

Al Nassma was formally established in October last year and aims to produce 100 tons of premium camels' milk chocolate a year.

In partnership with Austrian chocolate maker Manner, Al Nassma manufactures the end product at its Dubai facility.

With 3,000 camels on its Dubai farm, the company sells chocolates through its farm-attached store as well as in luxury hotels and private airlines. It plans to launch an online shopping facility within a month, Van Almsick said. The farm is controlled by the Dubai government.

The company is set to open its second store in the UAE in one of Dubai's large malls and is in talks with mall operator Majid Al Futtaim and others, he said.

"We aim to be the Godiva of the Middle East," Van Almsick said in an interview. "It's a luxury product, so we will never be in supermarkets. The plan is to be in one mall in each UAE city."

Al Nassma is also looking at the possibility of setting up a store in Japan, where demand for the product is high, he said.

All chocolates are produced without preservatives or chemical additives with a range of locally popular spices, nuts and honey, the company says.

Camel milk contains five times more vitamin C than cow milk, less fat, less lactose and more insulin, making it a good option for diabetics and the lactose intolerant, Van Almsick said.

(Editing by Will Waterman and Paul Casciato)

[ttogreh]

Camels are actually amazing animals. If we switched to camels from cattle, we would save billions of dollars. Of course, that is just for meat. No camel could compete with a dairy cow for milk.

[Reaper]

Well, why not eat camel? I have tried buffalo and thought it was pretty good. Every time I sign into yahoo mail, I see strange news stories. I think people are getting more and more crazy, and partially because they want to get their 5 minutes of fame.

[Raev]

I can haz 5 minutes of fame prz?

[Reaper]

I can haz 5 minutes of fame prz?

I KNEW IT! haha

[AstralCrux]

Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light

The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal.

Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels to which our naked eyes are sensitive. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals.

(This visible light differs from the infrared radiation - an invisible form of light - that comes from body heat.)

To learn more about this faint visible light, scientists in Japan employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras capable of detecting single photons. Five healthy male volunteers in their 20s were placed bare-chested in front of the cameras in complete darkness in light-tight rooms for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day.

Faces glowed more than the rest of the body. This might be because faces are more tanned than the rest of the body, since they get more exposure to sunlight - the pigment behind skin color, melanin, has fluorescent components that could enhance the body's miniscule light production.

Since this faint light is linked with the body's metabolism, this finding suggests cameras that can spot the weak emissions could help spot medical conditions, said researcher Hitoshi Okamura, a circadian biologist at Kyoto University in Japan.

"If you can see the glimmer from the body's surface, you could see the whole body condition," said researcher Masaki Kobayashi, a biomedical photonics specialist at the Tohoku Institute of Technology in Sendai, Japan.

The scientists detailed their findings online July 16 in the journal PLoS ONE.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090722/sc_livescience/strangehumansglowinvisiblelight;_ylt=Arz7.IgYoU7GdHyNseMvDHiCfNdF

Edited July 25, 2009 by AstralCrux

[AstralCrux]

Goat's crowning as king of Ireland in doubt

DUBLIN (Reuters) – The annual crowning of a goat as king of Ireland at one of the country's oldest fairs is in doubt after organizers said the heir to the throne may be stopped from traveling to the festival.

Traditionally a male goat is caught in the mountains of Kerry in southern Ireland and paraded through the town of Killorglin where he reigns for the three days of Puck Fair, a centuries-old festival of drinking, music and dancing.

Locals may have to desperately trek the nearby hills after this year's chosen animal from the Northern Ireland town of Ballycastle could only get a four-day license for the trip south of the border.

"It takes at least a day to bring a goat from Ballycastle to Killorglan and the goat is on the stand for three days. It's not possible to do that within the four days," Puck Fair chairman Declan Mangan told state radio station RTE.

"The people in Ballycastle are looking for another goat who would be able to come for an extended trip to Kerry. In the meantime we have to look around the mountains here just incase."

Mangan said time is already running out for the local goat catcher to find a replacement for the fair which always falls on August 10-12, despite having origins that are not totally known.

"Our problem is if we don't get a goat from the north pretty quick, our goat catch Frank Joy will have to go out onto the mountains and usually he is out for two or three weeks looking for a suitable goat," Mangan said.

However the panic could be good news for one lucky goat.

"If you are a goat here in the mountains of Kerry, you could well end up being the King Of Ireland for the three days of Puck," Mangan added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090722/od_nm/us_ireland_goat_odd;_ylt=AtyuwmGKxgy.a01G_SLOR07tiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJvZmRpOW9kBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMDkwNzIyL3VzX2lyZWxhbmRfZ29hdF9vZGQEcG9zAzMEc2VjA3luX2FydGljbGVfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawNnb2F0MzlzY3Jvd24-

[TitsMcGee]

Well, why not eat camel? I have tried buffalo and thought it was pretty good. Every time I sign into yahoo mail, I see strange news stories. I think people are getting more and more crazy, and partially because they want to get their 5 minutes of fame.

We have a guy up here with a buffalo farm that sells the meet to people, it's quite good. Camel is also pretty good too from what I've heard.

[AstralCrux]

Ex-model's breast implants were key to body's ID

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writers Gillian Flaccus And Rob Gillies, Associated Press Writers Sat Aug 22, 2:54 pm ET

BUENA PARK, Calif. – The remains of a former model whose killing set off an international manhunt for a reality television star were so badly mutilated that investigators had to use the serial numbers on her breast implants to identify her.

The man charged with Jasmine Fiore's murder, reality TV show contestant Ryan Alexander Jenkins, has been on the run since reporting her missing the evening of Aug. 15. Her nude body had been found that morning, stuffed in a bloodstained suitcase in a trash bin in Buena Park, an Orange County city about 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles, but authorities wouldn't be able to identify her for a few more days.

Detectives tracked the serial number on the implants because they could not use fingerprints or dental records, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office.

Authorities believe Jenkins, a contestant on VH1's "Megan Wants a Millionaire," may have fled more than 1,000 miles to reach his native Canada.

VH1 cancelled the show, in which wealthy young men tried to win over a materialistic blonde, network spokesman Brett Henne said Friday. The network previously said the show was postponed after three episodes.

Alexander also was a participant in an as-yet-unaired competitive reality series, "I Love Money 3." A VH1 spokesman said no decision has been made on whether or not to run the show.

Some Canadian media reported late Friday that Jenkins had been taken off a plane at Toronto's Pearson International airport. However, Peel Regional Police Staff Sgt. Keith Brodie told The Associated Press that a gentleman resembling Jenkins who was taken off a flight from Vancouver is not him.

Buena Park police Lt. Steve Holliday said Jenkins, a native of Calgary, Alberta, is possibly armed with a handgun. Prosecutors recommended bail of $10 million upon his arrest and said he had significant resources to finance his flight.

Earlier Friday, prosecutors said the U.S. Coast Guard had briefly pursued a boat Wednesday off the coast of Washington state that was registered to Jenkins, but the Coast Guard disputed that claim late Friday.

The Coast Guard said it was contacted Wednesday by the Customs and Border Patrol and the Royal Mounted Police to assist in the search, but it was the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office that found the boat in Point Roberts, Wash.

Canadian authorities have since ended a massive border search using helicopters, ground police and dogs but continued their investigation, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Duncan Pound said. Tips in Canada were "on the low end," he said.

Jenkins is a real estate developer and investor who is also the son of a prominent Canadian architect. On the reality show, he said he had between $1 million and $2.5 million, said Tom Hession, chief inspector for the U.S. Marshals Service's regional fugitive task force.

Hession declined to say if authorities were watching Jenkins' assets as part of their investigation.

"When we're looking for someone who's a fugitive, we try to find out everything we can about that person," he said. "We're going to turn every rock over."

Fiore and Jenkins were briefly married in a quickie Las Vegas wedding in March and had been fighting in recent months. Prosecutors said the two checked into a San Diego hotel on Aug. 13, and Jenkins checked out the next morning. Fiore was not seen alive again.

Fiore's mother, Lisa Lepore, told the AP her daughter had the marriage annulled in May. However, there were no court records of an annulment in either Clark County, Nev., where the couple was married, or in Los Angeles County, where they most recently lived.

Court records show Jenkins was charged in June in Clark County, Nev., with a misdemeanor count of "battery constituting domestic violence" for allegedly hitting Fiore in the arm and was set to be tried in December.

Neal Tomlinson, a partner at the law firm representing Jenkins in that case, declined to comment.

In his hometown of Calgary, Jenkins was sentenced to 15 months probation in January 2007 on an unspecified assault charge.

Alain Hepner, Jenkins' attorney in that matter, said as part of the judgment the judge also ordered counseling for anger management, domestic violence and sexual addiction. Hepner said there was also a civil restraining order.

In Calgary, Paulina Chmielecka said she was engaged to Jenkins for 2 1/2 years and never saw a violent side.

"The guy was a great guy, as far as I knew he was very happy," she told the Canadian TV network CTV. "In our relationship, we had our fights — everyone does — but I would never say, 'Well, he could have murdered someone.' There's no way."

A resume posted on the professional networking site LinkedIn.com showed that Jenkins has a license to fly commercial airplanes and has dabbled in several development enterprises and investments since graduating from college in 1999. Those include Townscape Development Inc., a condo project undertaken in Calgary with his father, architect Daniel Jenkins.

The elder Jenkins did not return phone or e-mail messages at his office.

After taping for "Megan Wants a Millionaire" finished in early March, Jenkins met Fiore in a Las Vegas casino and the two got married, said Lepore, Fiore's mother. Court records show the date of marriage as March 18.

But in May "they had a big blowout" and fought because he was jealous of her ex-boyfriends, Lepore said.

Jenkins then went to Mexico to do another reality TV show but struggled to get Fiore back when he returned.

"He convinced her during that month that he was really the guy for her," Lepore said. "He wrote poems and stories, and prayed, and (claimed he) had this huge spiritual awakening."

The U.S. has filed a provisional apprehension warrant with Canada that allows officials there to issue a Canadian arrest warrant based on the U.S. charges, said Hession, the U.S. marshals official. The Canadian government will extradite defendants to the U.S. but only with reassurances that they will not face the death penalty in the U.S.

Emami, the Orange County district attorney spokeswoman, had said her office was not pursuing the death penalty.

___

Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press Writers Raquel Maria Dillon, Derrik J. Lang and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles also contributed to this report

[Homicidalheathen]

zoology news

Muck Monster: An unknown sea creature is baffling many people in West Palm Beach, Fla. The creature, dubbed the "muck monster," would not come above the surface in Lake Worth Lagoon, and made a pattern of ripples seen here, as witnesses were capturing it on video this month. A marine biologist said he's not certain what it is

http://news.aol.com/weird-news

pic on aol news today

and:

nude pole dancing on the subway lol fuck I am moving to NY

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/22/nude-pole-dancing-in-new_n_266014.html

Edited August 25, 2009 by Homicidalheathen

[GOTHIKA]

scorpion found in mcdonalds!

Edited August 25, 2009 by GOTHIKA

[AstralCrux]

McDonald's and paper trees....

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/artist-turns-fast-food-trash-delicate-paper-trees?partner=yahoobuzz

[AstralCrux]

LEAD STORY: Japanese men battle epic loneliness by fostering intense relationships, and romance, with stuffed pillows representing teenage girls.

Lonely Japanese men (and a few women) with rich imaginations have created a thriving subculture ("otaku") in which they have all-consuming relationships with figurines that are based on popular anime characters. "The less extreme," reported a New York Times writer in July, obsessively collect the dolls. The hardcore otaku "actually believes that a lumpy pillow with a drawing of a (teenage character) is his girlfriend," and takes her out in public on romantic dates. "She has really changed my life," said "Nisan," 37, referring to his gal, Nemutan. (The otaku dolls are not to be confused with the life-size, anatomically-correct dolls that other lonely men use for sex.) One forlorn "2-D" (so named for preferring relationships with two-dimensionals) said he would like to marry a real, 3-D woman, "(b)ut look at me. How can someone who carries this (doll) around get married?" [New York Times Magazine, 7-26-09]

Cultural Diversity

Thousands of Koreans, and some tourists, uninhibitedly joined in the messy events of July's Byryeong City Mud Festival, which glorifies the joys of an activity usually limited to pigs. Mud wrestling, mud-sliding, a "mud prison" and colored mud baths dominated the week's activities, but so unfortunately did dermatological maladies, which hospitalized 200 celebrants. [Daily Mail (London), 7-12-09]

National Specialties: In May, Singapore's Olympic Council, finding no athlete good enough, declined to name a national Sportsman of the Year. [Reuters, 5-6-09]

A survey of industrialized nations by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development revealed that Japanese and Koreans sleep the least, while the French spend the most time at both sleeping and eating. [Reuters, 5-4-09]

A Tokyo rail passenger company, Keihin, installed a face-scanning machine recently so that employees, upon reporting for work, can tell whether they are smiling broadly enough to present a good impression. [Mainichi Daily News, 7-4-09]

Latest Religious Messages

The director of a child advocacy group told The Associated Press in June that, since 1975, at least 274 children have died following the withholding of medical treatment based on religious doctrine. In one high-profile case this year, the father of a girl said turning her over to doctors would violate God's word (she died), but in another, a Minnesota family that had trusted their son's cancer to prayer, based on advice from something called the Nemenhah Band, changed course and allowed chemotherapy, which so far appears to have prolonged the boy's life. [MSNBC-AP, 6-30-09]

The Shinto temple Kanda Shrine, near Tokyo's version of Silicon Valley, does a brisk business blessing electronic gadgets, according to a July dispatch in Wired magazine. Lucky charms go for the equivalent of about $8.50, but for a personal session, the temple expects an offering of the equivalent of at least $50. The Wired writer, carrying a potentially balky cell phone, approached the shrine with a tree branch as instructed, turned it 180 degrees clockwise, and laid it on the altar. After bowing twice and clapping his hands twice, he left, looking forward to a glitch-free phone. [Wired, July 2009]

Questionable Judgments

They Took It Too Far: Maryland corrections officials, hoping to improve juvenile rehabilitation by a kinder, gentler approach to incarceration, opened its New Beginnings Youth Center in May. The lockdown facility had declined to use razor wire, instead merely landscaping its chain-link fences with thorny rose bushes. After one inmate easily escaped on the second day of operation, razor wire was installed. [WRC-TV (Washington, D.C.), 6-1-09]

Bride Lin Rong wed in August in China's eastern Jilin province, walking down the aisle in a dress that was more than 7,000 feet (1.3 miles) long (rolled up in a wagon behind her). [bBC News, 8-7-09]

Britain's National Health Service of Sheffield issued a "guidance" to schools this summer to encourage teaching students alternatives to premarital sex, including masturbation. According to the Daily Telegraph, the leaflet (titled "Pleasure") contains the slogan "(A)n orgasm a day keeps the doctor away" and likens the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables, and exercising, to the benefits of masturbating twice a week. [Daily Telegraph, 7-12-09]

Latest Questionable Grants: Welsh artist Sue Williams was awarded the equivalent of about $33,000 in June, from the Arts Council of Wales, to explore cultural attitudes toward women's buttocks, especially "racial fetishism" in African and European culture. Williams said she will create a series of plaster casts of buttocks to work with, beginning with her own. [The Times (London), 6-28-09]

In July, the National Institutes of Health awarded $3 million to the University of Illinois Chicago to identify the things that cause lesbians to drink alcohol. It will be very important, said research director Tonda Hughes, to compare why lesbians drink with why heterosexual women drink. (This is a different NIH grant from the ones reported in News of the Weird in June, to study why gay men in Argentina drink and why prostitutes in China drink.) [WBBM-Chicago Sun Times, 7-21-09]

Rock People

Chicago police arrested motorist Daniel Phelan, 27, in August and charged him in connection with a three-week spree of drive-by rock-throwing at other cars. Officers discounted ordinary road rage as a cause, in that Phelan appeared to have been driving around during that time with an arsenal of rocks in the passenger seat. [WBBM-Chicago Sun-Times, 8-7-09]

A 22-year-old man was arrested in Kitsap, Wash., in August after tossing a barrage of rocks at people, leading some to chase him until police intervened. The man explained that he is preparing to enter Ultimate Fighting Championship contests but had never actually been in a fight and wanted experience at getting beaten up. [Kitsap Sun, 8-12-09]

Least Competent Cops

The Supreme Court of Spain tossed out assault charges against Henry Osagiede in August because of unfairness by Madrid police. Osagiede, a black man, was convicted after the victim identified him as her attacker, in a lineup in which he was the only black man. [Reuters, 8-5-09]

Six Ormond Beach, Fla., motorcycle officers, detailed to chaperone the body of prominent Harley-Davidson dealer Bruce Rossmeyer from the funeral home to the cemetery, accidentally collided with each other en route, sending all six riders and their bikes sprawling. [Miami Herald-AP, 8-5-09]

Recurring Themes

"Spitting Contests": A man was almost killed in Rodgau, Germany, in July when, attempting to show friends he could spit a cherry pit the farthest off of a balcony, made a running start but accidentally toppled over the railing. He was hospitalized with hip injuries. [spiegel Online (Hamburg), 7-28-09]

"Assistance Monkeys": Evidence of the dexterity and usefulness of monkeys (for fetching objects for disabled people) came from the Plants & Planters store in Richardson, Texas, in July. The store owner, seeking to combat recent burglaries, installed a surveillance camera, which revealed a monkey scaling the fence, scooping up plants, flowers and accessories, and handing them to an accomplice waiting on the other side. [WFAA-TV (Dallas), 7-21-09]

Undignified Deaths

Two 22-year-old men were accidentally killed in Mattoon, Ill., in May during an outing in which an open-top double-decker bus was used to transport guests. Several people were standing in the top tier, but investigators said only the two tallest men were accidentally hit when the bus passed under Interstate 57. [WGN-TV-AP (Chicago), 6-1-09]

A 23-year-old man drowned in Corpus Christi, Texas, in February, when he sought to back up his claim in front of "friends" that he could hold his breath underwater for a long period of time. [Caller-Times (Corpus Christi), 2-26-09]

A News of the Weird Classic (June 2003)

In early 2003, several news organizations profiled 70-year-old Charlotte Chambers, who was a reserve defensive back for the Orlando Starz of the Independent Women's (tackle) Football League. Said the Starz chief executive, "Last year, I thought I should tell the other teams to go easy and not hit her too hard. But now I'm afraid she's going to hurt somebody." Said the 5-foot-4, 140-pound Chambers, "I say, 'You better hit me (first), because I'm laying you out.'" [New York Times-AP, 5-18-03]

Thanks This Week to Kathryn Wood, Pete Randall, Jason Kingston, and Heather Ross, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.

(And for the accomplished and joyous cynic, try News of the Weird Daily/Pro Edition, at http://NewsoftheWeird.blogspot.com.)

[AstralCrux]

The link

Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in Papua New GuineaIn pictures: Lost land of the volcano

Robert Booth

The Guardian, Monday 7 September 2009

The Bosavi woolly rat had no fear of humans when it was discovered. Photograph: Jonny Keeling/BBC

A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea.

'A giant woolly rat never before seen by science'

A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never before been recorded by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world.

The discoveries are being seen as fresh evidence of the richness of the world's rainforests and the explorers hope their finds will add weight to calls for international action to prevent the demise of similar ecosystems. They said Papua New Guinea's rainforest is currently being destroyed at the rate of 3.5% a year.

"It was mind-blowing to be there and it is clearly time we pulled our finger out and decided these habitats are worth us saving," said Dr George McGavin who headed the expedition.

The team of biologists included experts from Oxford University, the London Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution and are believed to be the first scientists to enter the mountainous Bosavi crater. They were joined by members of the BBC Natural History Unit which filmed the expedition for a three-part documentary which starts tomorrow night.

They found the three-kilometre wide crater populated by spectacular birds of paradise and in the absence of big cats and monkeys, which are found in the remote jungles of the Amazon and Sumatra, the main predators are giant monitor lizards while kangaroos have evolved to live in trees. New species include a camouflaged gecko, a fanged frog and a fish called the Henamo grunter, named because it makes grunting noises from its swim bladder.

"These discoveries are really significant," said Steve Backshall, a climber and naturalist who became so friendly with the never-before seen Bosavi silky cuscus, a marsupial that lives up trees and feeds on fruits and leaves, that it sat on his shoulder.

"The world is getting an awful lot smaller and it is getting very hard to find places that are so far off the beaten track."

Edited September 8, 2009 by AstralCrux

[Homicidalheathen]

I just found the site for weirdos

or people just interested in strange

http://www.weirdomatic.com/

kinda like the weird fashion show

http://www.weirdomatic.com/weird-fashion-show.html#more-1044

[AstralCrux]

Cancer patients whose tumors are targeted with heat treatment as well as chemotherapy are more likely to stay alive and cancer-free for longer than those who receive only chemotherapy, researchers said on Tuesday.

The finding suggests it may be possible to cut the dose of chemotherapy drugs by using heat, although more research is needed to establish this, they said.

German researchers looking at cancers in soft tissues such as muscle, fat and tissue around the joints, found that heat treatment more than doubled the proportion of patients whose tumors responded to chemotherapy.

Importantly, the process did not increase the harmful effects of chemotherapy treatment.

Shares in BSD Medical, which makes the heat treatment system used in the German study, more than doubled in early trade and were the biggest gainers on the Nasdaq market. The stock was 120 percent higher at $4.13 by 1350 GMT.

"We expect our findings will encourage other researchers to test the approach in other locally advanced cancers," said Rolf Issels, a professor of medical oncology at the University of Munich in Germany.

"Targeted heat therapy has already shown promise in recurrent breast and locally advanced cervical cancer in combination with radiation, and studies combining it with chemotherapy in other localized tumors such as those in the pancreas and rectum are ongoing."

Heat therapy for cancer involves a technique known as regional hyperthermia, which uses focused electromagnetic energy to warm the tissue in and around the tumor to between 40 and 43 degrees Celsius (104 to 109.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

The heat not only kills cancer cells, but also seems to make chemotherapy work better by making cancer cells more sensitive, Issels said. It also improves blood flow, allowing chemotherapy to be more effective.

Issels said his findings, presented at the ECCO-ESMO European cancer congress in Berlin, showed that soft tissue sarcoma patients receiving the targeted heat therapy plus chemotherapy "fared better on all outcome measurements."

"Almost three years after starting treatment, they were 42 percent less likely to experience a recurrence of their cancer at the same site or to die than those who were getting chemotherapy alone," he said.

The average length of time that patients remained disease free was 32 months in the group that got both treatments, compared with 18 months in the group that got chemotherapy alone -- an improvement of 30 percent.

Issels said the equipment and specialist knowledge to be able to offer such heat therapies is only currently available in a handful of clinics and hospitals in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and the United States.

But he urged cancer doctors to take note.

"The clear results of this trial show that the field has now matured to the point where we must step up efforts to explore its potential to offer an entirely new way of treating locally advanced disease in several major cancers," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Lin Noueihed)