The "News" thread.

[Unorthodox]

ok....


http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/15/not-funny-creepy-clown-lingers-on-streets-of-northampton-in-middle-of-the-night-4012455/

[Buster's Uncle]

Recycled Fashion? Menswear Made of Recycled Water Bottles
Nicole Fallon, BusinessNewsDaily Contributor  September 16, 2013 6:45 AM 


 
Fun and quirky business news from around the world.

Countless plastic water bottles end up in landfills across the country every single day. One company, Dirtball Fashion, is doing its part to lighten the environmental load by recycling these bottles into new products. But Dirtball isn't converting them into pens or plastic bags, but rather men's apparel.

Dirtball Fashion, founded in 2008 by race car driver and entrepreneur Joe Fox, makes 100-percent-recycled clothing and hats out of plastic water bottles and cotton scraps. When the bottles reach Dirtball's Hickory, N.C., facility, they are sorted by color, stripped of labels and caps, and ground into shavings, which are melted and extruded into virgin polyester fiber. The polyester is then blended with recycled cotton — scraps from the cutting-room floors of other clothing manufacturers — to create a new fiber that is spun into the yarn used to knit Dirtball's unique clothing fabric.

The company produces men's T-shirts, polos, shorts, socks, hoodies and headgear, all made entirely in the U.S. According to Dirtball's website, each T-shirt contains seven 16-ounce water bottles and is printed with water-based or thiolate-free ink. The "Dirt Short," which is made of 25 bottles, is also recyclable: Customers can send their worn-out pairs of Dirtball shorts back to the company's headquarters to be respun back into polyester fiber.

By using recycled bottles and cotton in its manufacturing process, Dirtball eliminates the waste of freshwater, crude oil and cotton, and prevents harmful chemicals and air emissions from reaching the air, soil and water tables, the company's website says. And Dirtball's philosophy and practices go beyond environmental consciousness: Its "made-in-the-USA" policy contributes to a stronger local economy and shorter shipping distances.

The apparel brand's latest project is the Green Jean, which will contain eight to 10 recycled bottles and come in four different styles. Dirtball is currently campaigning on Kickstarter to bring the line to market. To learn more, visit the company's website at DirtballFashion.com.

http://news.yahoo.com/recycled-fashion-menswear-made-recycled-water-bottles-104509890.html

[Buster's Uncle]

New Bigfoot Evidence Screened as Experts Claim Proof of Existence
By Kevin Dolak | ABC News Blogs – Wed, Oct 2, 2013 4:09 PM EDT..



New Bigfoot Evidence Screened as Experts Claim Proof of Existence (ABC News)View Photo.



Bigfoot is real, and now at least one scientist claims there is proof.

A group of Sasquatch researchers who have been collecting over 100 pieces of evidence over the past five years screened "never before seen HD video" of the alleged creature at a news conference in Dallas on Tuesday.

The footage, which came from a similar effort dubbed The Erickson Project, led by Adrian Erickson, included what the group said was a sasquatch moving through wooded areas in Kentucky.

Dr. Melba Ketchum, who has led the group of researchers called the Sasquatch Genome Project, has been working on a $500,000 analysis of DNA samples from an unknown hominin species. Ketchum calls the project "a serious study" that concludes the legendary Sasquatch exists in North America and is a human relative that arose approximately 13,000 years ago.

"They're a type of people, they're a human-hybrid, we believe. And all of the DNA evidence points to that. And they can elude us, so if you get [footage] at all, it can be fleeting," Ketchum told ABC affiliate WFAA.

Ketchum, who was initially a skeptic, says she implemented strict protocols as DNA was extracted from the collected samples.

"We soon discovered that certain hair samples - which we would later identify as purported Sasquatch samples - had unique morphology distinguishing them from typical human and animal samples," Ketchum said in February of the research.

"Those hair samples that could not be identified as known animal or human were subsequently screened using DNA testing, beginning with sequencing of mitochondrial DNA followed by sequencing nuclear DNA to determine where these individuals fit in the 'tree of life,'" she said.

In total, 111 specimens of purported Sasquatch hair, blood, skin, and other tissue types were analyzed for the Sasquatch Genome Project's study. The samples were submitted from 34 different hominin research sites in 14 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.

At Tuesday's press conference, Dennis Pfoul, the group's project manager, showed footage of footprints of what he believes belongs to a Sasquatch in the snow in Colorado.

"We've all had experiences that have changed our lives, I mean, literally shook the foundation of what we believe in," Pfoul said at the news conference.

Funding for the Sasquatch Genome Project comes from Erikson and entrepreneur Wally Hersom, according to Ketchum. The Erikson Project has in the past teased footage of supposed Sasquatch sightings, notable in a November 2012 trailer for "Sasquatch: The Quest." Watch the trailer here.

Todd R. Disotell, a professor at the Department of Anthropology at New York University, told ABCNews.com that Ketchum's research is nonsense.

"It's just a joke," he said. "She is a laughing stock of people that are of a community that are already kind of wacko."

"This was not reported in any scientific way whatsoever. It's complete junk science, and then she misinterprets it. She hasn't published in peer-reviewed papers on this stuff. I don't know how this got put together," he said.

Disotell says that he has disproven samples from being what they're claimed to be many times, including debunking a yeti, a chupacabra, and a sasquatch eight times, including once on ScyFy's "Joe Rogan Questions Everything."

"You can't prove something doesn't exist," he said. "You can prove that every sample you're brought isn't what they're claiming, But you can't disprove this. It will go on forever. We'll always have it."

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/bigfoot-evidence-screened-experts-claim-proof-existence-183405414--abc-news-tech.html

[Buster's Uncle]

'Poop Pills' May Halt Gut Infections
LiveScience.com
Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer  October 3, 2013 12:39 PM


     
Bacteria extracted from human poop are the main ingredients of a new pill that may help treat patients who have difficult-to-cure intestinal infections, according to a new study from Canada.

The study involved 32 patients with recurrent Clostridium difficile, a bacterial infection that causessevere diarrhea and can be life-threatening. The infection can occur after people take antibiotics, which often wipe out "good" bacteria and leave the door open for harmful bacteria like C. difficile to flourish in the gut. Some patients, like those in the study, become trapped in a cycle of antibiotic treatment and recurrent C. difficile infection,said study researcher Dr. Thomas Louie, professor of medicine at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Study participants had suffered at least four bouts of C. difficile prior to the study. But after taking the pills — which repopulate the gut with "good" bacteria — nearly all participants were free of C. difficile infection, and have not had another infection since then, in the three months to three years that they have been followed. Just one participant appears to have had a recurrence, and this was after taking antibiotics for a separate infection, Louie said in a news conference today.

Poop transplants, formally known as fecal microbiota transplantation, have been previously shown to be an effective way to treat C. difficile infections.But in earlier studies, fecal bacteria were typically delivered through anenema, or a tube placed either in the colon, or into the nose and leading down to the gastrointestinal tract.

"Pills are a great option because they're easier for patients to take, [and]don't involve costly, invasive procedures," Louie said. And some patients fail to respond to enemas (because of incontinence), and cannot tolerate nose tubes for medical reasons, he said.

The researchers made the pills by processing donor fecal matter until it contained only bacteria. Then, they put the bacteria into three-layer capsules that do not disintegrate until they are passed the stomach and into the small intestine, Louie said.

Participants took 24 to 34 capsules over a five- to 15-minute period, and the pills were well-tolerated (no one vomited after swallowing the pills).

"Many people might find the idea of fecal transplantation off-putting, but those with recurrent infection are thankful to have a treatment that works," Louie said.

"It is still early research, but it may be a good option for patients who just can't break the cycle of repeated C. difficile infections," Louie said.

In the future, if researchers can discover which bacteria are mainly responsible for "curing" patients of C. difficile, those bacteria could be grown in a lab and manufactured into pills, Louie said.

The study was presented today (Oct. 3) in San Francisco, at IDWeek, a meeting of several professional medical organizations, including the Infectious Disease Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. It has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Another study presented at the meeting found that patients are satisfied with existing methods of fecal transplantation. The study surveyed 28 patients who received a fecal transplant through a tube in the nose that went into their GI tract. On average, patients rated their overall satisfaction with the procedure as 9.6 out of 10. When asked how likely they were to recommend the procedure to a family member or friend, the rating was 9.9 out of 10.

About 500,000 Americans become ill withC. difficile each year, and 14,000 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 15 and 30 percent of patients with C. difficile experience recurrent infections.

http://news.yahoo.com/poop-pills-may-halt-gut-infections-163923108.html

[Geo]

la vie, il est parfois difficile... 

[gwillybj]

So now it's eat [poop] and live?

[Buster's Uncle]

[shrugs]  Poop happens.

Coded message from the National Weather Service? ‘PLEASE PAY US’
Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo! News October 4, 2013 8:20 PM



Does this image contain a thinly veiled message from the National Weather Service? (Yahoo News)



Someone at the Anchorage, Alaska, branch of the National Weather Service seems to have a very important message regarding the federal government shutdown: “PLEASE PAY US.”

The acrostic message appears to have been included in the first paragraph of a weather alert issued from the office on Friday. In an acrostic message or poem, the first letters of each sentence in a paragraph combine to spell out a word that is separate from the larger text.

Employees at the National Weather Service, like many other federal government workers, have continued to show up for their jobs even as the government is in its fourth day of a shutdown.

 NBC News attempted to contact someone at the office, but no one was taking credit, or blame, for the release.

A permanent link to the NWS update containing the acrostic message was changed a few hours after it was discovered. But technically, the original message is still up on the weather service site but is being pushed farther down the page as each new meteorological alert is issued.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/coded-message-from-national-weather-service--%E2%80%98please-pay-us%E2%80%99-002058457.html

[Buster's Uncle]

It seems that poop really does happen...

Yale searches for stinker adding feces to dryers
Associated Press
19 hours ago  Education


     
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Yale University hopes to solve a case of whodungit by identifying the stinker who has been soiling students' laundry by sticking human feces inside clothes dryers.

The culprit has been dubbed the "poopetrator" and is being blamed for at least four incidents in the past month in the laundry room at Saybrook College.

"We have asked our students not to leave their laundry unattended, the affected machines have been thoroughly disinfected and we are actively seeking information about who the perpetrator might be," Saybrook Master Paul Hudak told the Yale Daily News. "That's about all we can do."

Hudak said Yale police are investigating. Officials at the Ivy League school also are considering changes to laundry room access.

Yale police declined to comment in the investigation.

Lucy Fleming was one of the first victims. She opened a dryer in the Saybrook College laundry room on Sept. 7 and found her clothes soiled by human feces. Someone also urinated on them. She tried to rewash them, but they were ruined.

"I simultaneously wanted to throw up, cry and punch someone," Fleming told the Daily News.

The suspect apparently struck again on Friday by hanging up a clothesline with soiled clothes in a courtyard of Berkeley College. A person claiming to be the culprit alerted students and the Daily News about it.

"Some people think the whole thing is funny; some think it is scary; and everyone thinks it is gross," Yale sophomore David Steiner told the New Haven Register.

Steiner received two emails on Friday that apparently were from the culprit, the Register reported. The name on the emails was "Copro Philiac." Coprophilia is an abnormal interest in fecal matter.

http://news.yahoo.com/yale-searches-stinker-adding-feces-dryers-170144030.html

[Geo]

...
Lucy Fleming
...

Poor Fleming.

[Unorthodox]

I, just once, want to see a commercial that lists this side effect. 

http://www.shortlist.com/cool-stuff/virals/common-sore-cream-can-make-you-believe-you-are-dead

Common Sore Cream Can Make You Believe You Are Dead
18 Oct 2013
Next time someone you know is ill, and say they feel like they're dying, you might have to believe them.

A new study published in Journal of the Neurological Sciences has identified a link between Acyclovir - also known as the common cold sore cream Zovirax, (which can additionally be used to treat herpes, chicken pox and shingles) - and Cotard's syndrome, a rare condition causing people to believe they have died, that parts of their body do not exist, or that they have 'lost' their blood and internal organs.

A link between using the drug, renal failure and Cotard's has now been found by pharmacologists after aggregating data from Swedish hospital admission records and drug databases, with 1% of users experiencing psychiatric effects. In rare cases, these may manifest as Cotard's.

Examples of the syndrome have included a woman who used acyclovir as a treatment for shingles, then became overwhelmed by a strong feeling that she was dead. Even when symptoms lessened, she was adamant that her left arm did not belong to her. Another sufferer in 1990 believed that he was dead and was in hell, after being taken to a warm South Africa from colder Scotland, in an effort to help him recover.

Analyses have revealed that acyclovir can leave low levels of a breakdown product CMMG after being processed by the kidneys; those who had Cotard's showed increased levels of CMMG. Lowering the dose or stopping the use of Zovirax appeared to halt symptoms.

Co-author of the study Anders Helldén commented that “several of the patients developed very high blood pressure, so we have a feeling that CMMG is causing some kind of constriction of the arteries in the brain.”

So, you might feel like you're dying after using Zovirax. But it could also be those 20 pints you drank. One of the two for sure.

[Unorthodox]

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/10/17/dr-manny-america-obsession-with-zombies-is-hurting-our-society/?intcmp=latestnews

Is watching “The Walking Dead” seriously hurting American society?

I would argue ‘Yes.’  Hate me all you want, or call me paranoid and misinformed, but there is one common theme that is pervasive in American pop culture today: violence.  Even more specifically, zombie violence. The idea of a zombie-infested world inspires fantasies of monsters possessed by an uncontrollable rage to kill, and viewers get a thrill imagining what it would be like to participate in this new world order.

We also see this zombie obsession in many videogames.  Even more disturbingly, these games create environments for young children, in which they are exposed to an imaginary world where they get to play with firearms and place themselves in dangerous situations that they find exciting.  And studies have shown that these videogames can sometimes condition people, especially young children, to be apathetic towards violence.  That’s why they’re labeled M for Mature.

This obsession with the undead in television and other media is quite puzzling.  The concept of zombies has been around for decades, and their mythology has even been studied by scientists to prove that such an outbreak can never occur. Yet, whether it be in books or film, zombie popularity has only increased after having originally been popularized by the 1960s film, “The Night of the Living Dead.”

Now, it seems that zombies on television are part of our daily routine.  The obsession also permeates into other facets of our lives, such as with so-called Zombie Runs, in which people dressed as zombies chase other “civilians” to make them run faster towards the finish line.  Even scientists at the National Institutes of Health have spent time creating an apocalyptic how-to guide on dealing with a zombie outbreak.

Give me a break. As a doctor and scientist, I know one thing for sure: When you’re dead, you’re dead.  Our brains should be less focused on imaginary zombie hoards and more focused on harnessing the tools that we need in order to enhance our lives, whether it be music, education, science or the classics. Entertainment should help us soothe our brains so that we can ease our minds of some of the stress from our daily lives. 

With this country heading towards a socialized system of government, in which officials don’t want you to think or focus on what is important for your own personal growth, I’m sure they’re more than happy to let you obsess over something as stupid as zombies. 

And in turn, you ultimately become the zombie.

Wake up and smell the coffee.  Stop obsessing over eating brains, and focus on cultivating your own.

mmmm brains....

[Buster's Uncle]

Novel approach to hair growth employs infant foreskins
October 21, 2013 12:07 PM Relaxnews



Novel approach to hair growth employs infant foreskins


     
A new experiment to regrow hair by cloning follicles and using discarded infant foreskins to graft them has shown some early success in lab mice, researchers said Monday.

The process generated new human hair in five of the seven animals on which it was tested, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The approach goes beyond the current strategies of transplanting hair from one part of the scalp to another, or using medication to slow hair loss or stimulate the growth of existing hair, said lead researcher Angela Christiano, professor of genetics and development at Columbia University Medical Center.

"Our method, in contrast, has the potential to actually grow new follicles using a patient's own cells," she said.

Researchers hope the technique -- once it is tested more throughly and expanded into human trials -- could be useful for women with hair loss, men in the early stages of male pattern baldness, and burn victims who need both skin and follicles.

The breakthrough came when researchers tried a new way to foster growth via the dermal papilla cells, which give rise to hair follicles.

In the past, these papilla would not thrive in 2D cultures in a lab dish.

So taking inspiration from experiments on lab rats, whose papillae can be readily transplanted, they cloned human papillae in a 3-D tissue culture.

The tissue came from discarded infant foreskins obtained through circumcision procedures at Columbia University Medical Center.

Infant foreskin was chosen "because it would challenge the human dermal papillae not just to contribute to hair follicles within the skin, but rather, to fully reprogram the recipient epidermis to a follicular fate," said the study.

When scientists grafted the newly grown human skin tissue complete with donated human papillae, they saw hair growth in five of seven lab animals.

The hair matched the human donor DNA and lasted at least six weeks.

Co-author Colin Jahoda, professor of stem cell sciences at Durham University, England, said the team is hopeful that clinical trials could begin soon.

"We also think that this study is an important step toward the goal of creating a replacement skin that contains hair follicles for use with, for example, burn patients," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/novel-approach-hair-growth-employs-infant-foreskins-160716513.html

[Geo]

Foreskin. 

[Unorthodox]

http://www.10news.com/lifestyle/health/disgusting-eye-injuries-caused-by-counterfeit-contact-lenses-used-for-halloween-costumes-under-federal-investigation-102413

DENVER - Several federal agencies are investigating counterfeit decorative contact lenses that could cause permanent eye injuries to people who wear them in their Halloween costumes.

By law, a prescription is required to purchase contact lenses. Any store selling lenses without requiring a prescription is breaking the law.

"Our concern is that consumers who buy and use decorative contact lenses without a valid prescription can run significant risks of eye injuries, including blindness," FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Director John Roth said in a press release about the investigation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they are working with the FDA, Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to seize counterfeit contact lenses, illegally imported decorative lenses, and lenses unapproved by the FDA. Their operation is being called "Operation Double Vision."

"What's truly scary is the damage these counterfeit lenses can do to your eyes for a lifetime," said HSI Executive Associate Director James Dinkins.

Along with the press release announcing their consumer warning, the agencies shared photos of eye damage related to the counterfeit lenses including iritis, keratitis and corneal ulcers.

Pic in link, I would not dream of subjecting you to...

[gwillybj]

Satellite Spots Light Show in the Middle of the Ocean.
By Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo News


 
Those weird lights in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean — what are they?

Are they an unstoppable force of electric underwater creatures swimming, slowly but steadily, toward the shore where they will flood our cities and force us all to watch "Finding Nemo" from now until the end of time?

Fortunately, no (for now). The lights, which were spotted using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the Suomi NPP satellite, are actually a large collection of fishermen.

NASA explains, "There are no human settlements there, nor fires or gas wells. But there are an awful lot of fishing boats."

Yep, that's right, those lights that could easily be mistaken for a series of heavily populated islands are actually powerful lights on boats.

What exactly are the fishermen looking for? And why are they out blasting their high beams?

From NASA:

The night fishermen are hunting for Illex argentinus, a species of short-finned squid that forms the second largest squid fishery on the planet. The squid are found tens to hundreds of kilometers offshore from roughly Rio de Janeiro to Tierra del Fuego (22 to 54 degrees South latitude). They live 80 to 600 meters (250 to 2,000 feet) below the surface, feeding on shrimp, crabs, and fish. In turn, Illex are consumed by larger finfish, whales, seals, sea birds, penguins ... and humans.
Fishermen use the powerful lights, "generating as much as 300 kilowatts of light per boat," to draw the plankton and fish that the squid eat toward the surface. The squid then follow the food. Alas, it's the last meal for many.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/satellite-spots-light-show-in-the-middle-of-the-ocean-153852876.html