From the outside, the platypus looks like a grade-school art project assembled by a kid too busy making spitballs to pay attention in class. The creature, which is classified as a mammal, has a duck's bill and webbed feet, lays eggs like a reptile, but has fur and rears its young on milk.
Researchers say the platypus genome is equally cobbled together from bird, reptile and mammalian lineages. One more oddity: Males can deliver venom from tiny spurs on each hind limb. Click on the "Next" arrow above to learn about nine more oddballs in the animal world...
--MSNBC
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Woman's hair weave stops bullet
Police said a woman's tightly-woven hair weave saved her life.
Police were called to a Kansas City market at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Arriving officers found the 20-year-old woman there. She told police she had pulled into the market and saw a man with whom she had recently ended an eight-month relation with inside a car, NewsChannel5 sister station KSHB-TV reported...
--MSNBC
Police were called to a Kansas City market at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Arriving officers found the 20-year-old woman there. She told police she had pulled into the market and saw a man with whom she had recently ended an eight-month relation with inside a car, NewsChannel5 sister station KSHB-TV reported...
--MSNBC
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Donor kidney removed via vagina
US surgeons say they have successfully removed a healthy donor kidney through a small incision in the back of the donor's vagina.
Removing the kidney through "a natural orifice" speeds up recovery and gives a better cosmetic result - avoiding a six inch abdominal scar - they say.
The Johns Hopkins team say the 48-year-old woman who donated the organ to her niece on 29 January is "doing well".
Surgeons have also removed gallbladders and appendixes through the mouth.
Diseased gallbladders, kidneys and appendixes have been removed through the vagina before.
But this is believed to be the first time that doctors have managed to harvest a healthy donor kidney for transplantation in this way...
--BBC News
Removing the kidney through "a natural orifice" speeds up recovery and gives a better cosmetic result - avoiding a six inch abdominal scar - they say.
The Johns Hopkins team say the 48-year-old woman who donated the organ to her niece on 29 January is "doing well".
Surgeons have also removed gallbladders and appendixes through the mouth.
Diseased gallbladders, kidneys and appendixes have been removed through the vagina before.
But this is believed to be the first time that doctors have managed to harvest a healthy donor kidney for transplantation in this way...
--BBC News
Monday, February 02, 2009
Mexico, Radio Shack turn to voodoo to beat United States
A Mexican sports daily is pinning its hopes of beating the United States in a World Cup qualifying match on voodoo — with help from a U.S-based electronics chain.
An advertisement in the sports daily Record on Tuesday invited fans to clip a coupon and redeem it at their local Radio Shack store for a voodoo-doll likeness of a U.S. player. The hope was that a little black magic might help Mexico break a decade of futility on the road versus its northern neighbor.
"Help end the losing streak so Mexico advances," the ad read.
An illustration showed a pair of scissors slicing off the leg of a doll in a U.S. jersey that was bruised, crying out in pain, leaking stuffing, and stuck with pushpins.
The press office of Radio Shack in Fort Worth did not immediately return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment...
--USA Today
An advertisement in the sports daily Record on Tuesday invited fans to clip a coupon and redeem it at their local Radio Shack store for a voodoo-doll likeness of a U.S. player. The hope was that a little black magic might help Mexico break a decade of futility on the road versus its northern neighbor.
"Help end the losing streak so Mexico advances," the ad read.
An illustration showed a pair of scissors slicing off the leg of a doll in a U.S. jersey that was bruised, crying out in pain, leaking stuffing, and stuck with pushpins.
The press office of Radio Shack in Fort Worth did not immediately return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment...
--USA Today
Sewage yields more gold than top mines
Resource-poor Japan just discovered a new source of mineral wealth -- sewage.
A sewage treatment facility in central Japan has recorded a higher gold yield from sludge than can be found at some of the world's best mines. An official in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, said the high percentage of gold found at the Suwa facility was probably due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity that use the yellow metal. The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 grammes of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.
That is a far higher gold content than Japan's Hishikari Mine, one of the world's top gold mines, owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, which contains 20-40 grammes of the precious metal per tonne of ore.
The prefecture is so far due to receive 5 million yen ($55,810) for the gold, minus expenses...
--Yahoo! News
A sewage treatment facility in central Japan has recorded a higher gold yield from sludge than can be found at some of the world's best mines. An official in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, said the high percentage of gold found at the Suwa facility was probably due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity that use the yellow metal. The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 grammes of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.
That is a far higher gold content than Japan's Hishikari Mine, one of the world's top gold mines, owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, which contains 20-40 grammes of the precious metal per tonne of ore.
The prefecture is so far due to receive 5 million yen ($55,810) for the gold, minus expenses...
--Yahoo! News
N.J. disc jockey to part with Jenny's number
After five years fielding thousands of calls to one of rock 'n' roll's most celebrated phone numbers, disc jockey Spencer Potter is hanging up on Jenny.
Her seven digits are familiar to anyone who paid attention to pop music in the early 1980s: 867-5309, immortalized by the band Tommy Tutone.
Potter and his roommates requested the number on a lark for their home phone in northern New Jersey. They got it, along with about 30 to 40 calls a day...
--Yahoo! News
Her seven digits are familiar to anyone who paid attention to pop music in the early 1980s: 867-5309, immortalized by the band Tommy Tutone.
Potter and his roommates requested the number on a lark for their home phone in northern New Jersey. They got it, along with about 30 to 40 calls a day...
--Yahoo! News
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)