Breaking News Thread Version 2.0

[Krandall]

cripes.

[Peelz]

genetic roulette

[Krandall]

Pediatricians Want Redesign of Hot Dogs, Candy to Curb Kids' Choking
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100222/hl_hsn/pediatricianswantredesignofhotdogscandytocurbkidschoking

MONDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- The leading group of pediatricians in the United States is pushing for a redesign of common foods such as hot dogs and candies, along with new warning labels placed on food packaging, to help curb sometimes fatal incidents of child choking.

"We know what shape, sizes and consistencies pose the greatest risk for choking in children and whenever possible food manufacturers should design foods to avoid those characteristics, or redesign existing foods when possible, to change those characteristics to reduce the choking risk," said Dr. Gary Smith, immediate-past chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention and lead author of the organization's new policy statement on preventing choking.

"Any food that has a cylindrical or round shape poses a risk," he pointed out. Smith said that hot dogs were high on the list of foods that could be redesigned -- perhaps the shape, although he said it would be up to the manufacturers to figure out the specifics.

Hard candies, on the other hand, could be designed so they're flat rather than round, said Smith, who is also director of the Center for Injury Research & Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

The AAP policy statement appears in the March issue of Pediatrics and is the first such guidance on the subject from that group.

"There's a general recognition that more needed to be done to protect children from choking," according to Smith. "We have a number of laws and regulations that help prevent choking due to toys. There are no such similar regulations for food."

Health experts welcomed the suggestions.

"I think it's very reasonable to strengthen regulations to prevent choking injuries for children," said Dr. Lee Sanders, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "The most common cause of death for kids aged roughly 1 to 5 is choking but it's also one of the most common reasons for visits to the emergency room and, for kids who don't die of these injuries, sometimes there are long-lasting injuries or implications," Sanders said. "It's a significant public health issue."

"People should know that grapes are a choking hazard for a certain-age child, that hot dogs are of risk," added Dr. Mike Gittelman, associate professor of clinical pediatrics in the division of emergency medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would "carefully review the analysis and recommendations."

"The FDA is concerned about the deaths and serious injuries caused by choking," said agency spokeswoman Rita Chappelle. "We will also continue to consult with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on assessing choking hazards associated with food and take action against food products that are 'unfit for food' on a case-by-case basis."

Hot dogs are a prime offender, accounting for 17 percent of food-related asphyxiations in children under the age of 10, according to one study.

"If you were to take the best engineers in the world and asked them to design a perfect plug for a child's airway, you couldn't do better than a hot dog," Smith said. "It's the right size, right shape. It's compressible so it wedges itself in. When they're in that tight [it's] almost impossible, even with the correct training and the correct equipment, to get out. When it's wedged in tightly, that child is going to die."

Other high-risk foods include hard candy, peanuts and nuts, even peanut butter.

The policy statement called for the government to establish a "mandatory system . . . to label foods with appropriate warnings according to their choking risk, to conduct detailed surveillance and investigate food-related choking incidents, and to warn the public about emerging food-related choking hazards."

Manufacturers' responsibility would be to affix "choking hazard" labels to high-risk products and to consider shapes, sizes and textures when designing products.

"I think there should be a commitment from the entire industry to label not only hot dogs but all high-risk foods with some type of informational label that allows consumers to make informed decisions," Smith said, adding that he thought companies would figure out that "safety sells."

The AAP also called on parents, pediatricians and other health-care workers to pay more attention to the issue.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) responded, but put special emphasis on the role of parents, teachers and other child care providers in helping keep kids safe.

"Food safety and consumer confidence is the number-one priority of the food and beverage industry. We applaud the attention the American Academy of Pediatrics is bringing to the prevention of choking among children," the GMA said in a statement.

"We especially agree that the education of parents, teachers, child care workers, and other child caregivers encouraging them to supervise and create safer environments for children is paramount to the prevention of choking among children. We also strongly agree that pediatricians, doctors and other infant and toddler care professionals should intensify choking prevention counseling including providing parents and care givers guidance on developmentally appropriate food selection for their children. We take our working relationships with FDA and USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] very seriously and look forward to continuing to work with the agencies to ensure that our products are as safe as possible," the GMA said.

[Krandall]

Marijuana use by seniors goes up as boomers age
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100222/ap_on_re_us/us_seniors_marijuana

MIAMI – In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.

Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.

The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.

Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.

Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging.

Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds marijuana has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.

"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.

Politically, advocates for legalizing marijuana say the number of older users could represent an important shift in their decades-long push to change the laws.

"For the longest time, our political opponents were older Americans who were not familiar with marijuana and had lived through the 'Reefer Madness' mentality and they considered marijuana a very dangerous drug," said Keith Stroup, the founder and lawyer of NORML, a marijuana advocacy group.

"Now, whether they resume the habit of smoking or whether they simply understand that it's no big deal and that it shouldn't be a crime, in large numbers they're on our side of the issue."

Each night, 66-year-old Stroup says he sits down to the evening news, pours himself a glass of wine and rolls a joint. He's used the drug since he was a freshman at Georgetown, but many older adults are revisiting marijuana after years away.

"The kids are grown, they're out of school, you've got time on your hands and frankly it's a time when you can really enjoy marijuana," Stroup said. "Food tastes better, music sounds better, sex is more enjoyable."

The drug is credited with relieving many problems of aging: aches and pains, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and so on. Patients in 14 states enjoy medical marijuana laws, but those elsewhere buy or grow the drug illegally to ease their conditions.

Among them is Perry Parks, 67, of Rockingham, N.C., a retired Army pilot who suffered crippling pain from degenerative disc disease and arthritis. He had tried all sorts of drugs, from Vioxx to epidural steroids, but found little success. About two years ago he turned to marijuana, which he first had tried in college, and was amazed how well it worked for the pain.

"I realized I could get by without the narcotics," Parks said, referring to prescription painkillers. "I am essentially pain free."

But there's also the risk that health problems already faced by older people can be exacerbated by regular marijuana use.

Older users could be at risk for falls if they become dizzy, smoking it increases the risk of heart disease and it can cause cognitive impairment, said Dr. William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

He said he'd caution against using it even if a patient cites benefits.

"There are other better ways to achieve the same effects," he said.

Pete Delany, director of applied studies at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said boomers' drug use defied stereotypes, but is important to address.

"When you think about people who are 50 and older you don't generally think of them as using illicit drugs — the occasional Hunter Thompson or the kind of hippie dippie guy that gets a lot of press maybe," he said. "As a nation, it's important to us to say, 'It's not just young people using drugs it's older people using drugs.'"

In conversations, older marijuana users often say they smoke in less social settings than when they were younger, frequently preferring to enjoy the drug privately. They say the quality (and price) of the drug has increased substantially since their youth and they aren't as paranoid about using it.

Dennis Day, a 61-year-old attorney in Columbus, Ohio, said when he used to get high, he wore dark glasses to disguise his red eyes, feared talking to people on the street and worried about encountering police. With age, he says, any drawbacks to the drug have disappeared.

"My eyes no longer turn red, I no longer get the munchies," Day said. "The primary drawbacks to me now are legal."

Siegel bucks the trend as someone who was well into her 50s before she tried pot for the first time. She can muster only one frustration with the drug.

"I never learned how to roll a joint," she said. "It's just a big nuisance. It's much easier to fill a pipe."

[Peelz]

"much easier to fill a pipe" what can I say?

[Krandall]

[Krandall]

No need to hammer Mir for crossing idiot line
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dw-mir022310&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Frank Mir has never been afraid to speak his mind and in a Pittsburgh radio interview last week, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder unloaded on current champ Brock Lesnar.

He said they shared "legitimate hate" and "anger," and then in a couple lines that went particularly crazy, declared he hoped he could essentially kill Lesnar if the two ever fight for a third time.

"I want to break his neck in the ring," Mir said on the Mark Madden Show on WXDX. "I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries."

Crude. Ridiculous. And, even by cage fighting standards, unnecessarily barbaric. No one understands that more now than Mir himself, who backtracked from the comments Tuesday and expressed embarrassment that in trying to force a rematch with Lesnar he went too far. He said he was trying to explain a fighter's mentality and it came out all wrong.

"I kind of lost myself there," Mir told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday. "I got carried away. Obviously I don't want to kill Brock Lesnar."

For the most part, there was nothing to see here, no need to suspend or fine Mir for speaking out. The UFC in particular, and mixed martial arts in general, walk a fine line as they continue to move into the mainstream. Broken neck comments don't help erase the old stigma of "human cockfighting."

Here's the thing, though: in the end the person most affected by Mir's comments is Mir. If there was ever a sport where trash talking wasn't just accepted but could even be applauded it is MMA. This isn't some team sport or non-contact exercise.

This is cage fighting. How polite do you want these guys?

Frank Mir will have to deal with this and anything else he says when the door closes on the Octagon and big Brock Lesnar is standing across the way. That's how it works. Talk all you want, there is no avoiding the bill coming due.

"I'm the one who's going to have to answer for it," Mir acknowledged.

Lesnar could very well pound Mir senseless again, the way he did at their last fight at UFC 100 in July 2009. Mir won the first fight between the two by submission in 2008.

Considering the stakes involved for any fighter who wants to run his mouth, it's tough to get too upset when they do. It's their risk. It's on them. The thing that makes MMA so exciting – a true man vs. man battle – is why there can only be so much tsk-tsking over this.

Mir was talking big and it got out of control, going from colorful to cartoonish. "Idiotic" is how Mir described it.

Mir is a natural promoter, always willing to do media interviews and even serving as color commentator for World Extreme Cagefighting fights on the Versus Network. He knows what he's doing and freely admits he's been so vocal about attacking Lesnar because controversy doesn't just help sell fights, it helps create them in the first place.

"Hype puts you in line for fights," he said. "A Brock rematch is big on my list. I can't let this control my emotions. The thing I want is to fight him. Obviously I took it too far."

Mir takes on Shane Carwin, himself a vocal Lesnar basher, on March 27 in Newark, N.J. Assuming Lesnar's recovery from illness is on schedule, the winner likely gets a title shot this summer, probably in Las Vegas in July.

Fighting Lesnar isn't just the biggest payday out there for a fighter; it would give Mir a chance to avenge the disappointing UFC 100 result. While Mir and Lesnar weren't friends before that one, and the trash talk from both sides was intense, there was still a relationship between the two.

Just three days before the bout, the fighters, both accompanied by their wives, ran into each other in a back hallway of the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Both were parents to newborns, Lesnar's second child and Mir's fourth. They actually took time to look at pictures of each other's babies.

Mir said even that tenuous relationship was snapped when Lesnar continued to taunt Mir and pointed a finger in his face even after knocking him out in the second round of their fight. Lesnar defended it as saying he was full of post-fight emotion and Mir had talked smack in the run-up to the fight.

"I always understand we're going to say things to help promote the fight," Mir said. "But when it's over with, it's over with. For him to behave that way afterwards did bug me."

No matter who is correct, Mir said his anger at Lesnar motivated him to push for a rematch a little too hard. Eight months later, Mir was on a radio show and went too far. "I wouldn't want my kids to hear that," he acknowledged.

The mini-controversy is likely over. Those that want to use the comments to cement a negative opinion of MMA probably will. Those that know better, and understand Mir's personality, will brush them aside and look forward to the eventual clash.

And that's the point with the UFC. As long as he avoids crossing the idiot line, Frank Mir should say pretty much anything he wants.

It is he and he alone who will have to deal with Brock Lesnar.

[Peelz]

morons.

[Krandall]

RIP, Rickrolling: YouTube Kills Original Video
http://www.pcworld.com/article/190128/rip_rickrolling_youtube_kills_original_video.html

Are you sitting down? I have some horrible news for you. YouTube has removed the original "Rickrolling" video from its site due to a terms-of-use violation. Though there are other avenues in which to get a Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up" fix, the original, the one that captured the nation's attention, the video that spurned over 30 million hits, is dead.

In case you weren't one of the lucky many to experience it, to be "Rickrolled" is to be baited by a contextually relevant Web link and then get smacked with Astley's official YouTube music video. "Rickrolling" started in early 2007 on the 4chan imageboard, and a year later spread like wildfire, becoming an unavoidable meme. The use of "Never Gonna Give You Up" stemmed from a 4chan prank called "duckrolling," in which people would be sent to an image of a duck on wheels. SurveyUSA estimated that at least 18 million Americans were "Rickrolled."

It's hard to believe, but "Rickrolling" extended way beyond simple Internet pranks. It was used during protests against the Church of Scientology, touched upon the First Lady, and even gave name to an iPhone virus that changed jailbroken iPhone backgrounds into images of Astley.

As it is wont to do, the Internet leapt upon the meme and tried turning it into something more expansive than it ought to be. Many Geocities-esque sites were born devoted to the cause, including a database and a dubious phone service.

But it's all over now, baby blue. Time to dust off the Keyboard Cat videos.

[Peelz]

RIP, Rickrolling: YouTube Kills Original Video
http://www.pcworld.com/article/190128/rip_rickrolling_youtube_kills_original_video.html

Are you sitting down? I have some horrible news for you. YouTube has removed the original "Rickrolling" video from its site due to a terms-of-use violation. Though there are other avenues in which to get a Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up" fix, the original, the one that captured the nation's attention, the video that spurned over 30 million hits, is dead.

In case you weren't one of the lucky many to experience it, to be "Rickrolled" is to be baited by a contextually relevant Web link and then get smacked with Astley's official YouTube music video. "Rickrolling" started in early 2007 on the 4chan imageboard, and a year later spread like wildfire, becoming an unavoidable meme. The use of "Never Gonna Give You Up" stemmed from a 4chan prank called "duckrolling," in which people would be sent to an image of a duck on wheels. SurveyUSA estimated that at least 18 million Americans were "Rickrolled."

It's hard to believe, but "Rickrolling" extended way beyond simple Internet pranks. It was used during protests against the Church of Scientology, touched upon the First Lady, and even gave name to an iPhone virus that changed jailbroken iPhone backgrounds into images of Astley.

As it is wont to do, the Internet leapt upon the meme and tried turning it into something more expansive than it ought to be. Many Geocities-esque sites were born devoted to the cause, including a database and a dubious phone service.

But it's all over now, baby blue. Time to dust off the Keyboard Cat videos.

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

[Colorado700R]

IT HAPPENS EVERY FRIDAY!  WERE YOU AWARE?

                  Mornings at the Pentagon

                  By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
                  McClatchy Newspapers

                  Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines, sailors
and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty that is
war. Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded and facing
months or years in military hospitals.

                  This week, I'm turning my space over to a good friend and
former roommate, Army Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a year
long tour of duty in Iraq and is now back at the Pentagon.

                  Here's Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known ceremony
that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers,
applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on
the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for
America Website.

                  "It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the
Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine,
the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire
length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some
civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There
are thousands here.

                  This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army' hallway.
The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army.
Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each
other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and
renew.

                  Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the
center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies
in this area.

                  The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. "10:36
hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five
rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This
clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind
it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

                  "A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of
the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He
is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his
wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or
perhaps a private first class.

                  "Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his
gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I
described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat
different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not
having shared in the burden ... yet.

                  "Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in
the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think
deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is
pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.

                  "Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A,
come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need
be by a field grade officer.

                  "11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My
hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My
hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after
soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30.. Fifty-three legs come with
them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid
hearts.


                  They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and
then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted
by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their
chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway,
through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling
like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem
amazed and are smiling shyly.

                  "There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old
war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite
understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up
with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant
Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an
appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that
hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a
few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of
the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the
past.

                  These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are
our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single
Friday, all year long, for more than four years.

--------------------

I've been there for this, it the most humbling expierence of my life to see these men with their families with their bodys shattered but with their pride and honor overflowing.

Aaron

[Krandall]

Cruise travelers tell of deadly waves off Spain
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_mediterranean_cruise_ship_accident



BARCELONA, Spain – The Mediterranean was heaving as the 68-year-old Italian stood in the cruise ship lounge. A moment later a monstrous wave shattered the windows and sent shards into her head, leaving her bleeding on the floor and calling out for her husband.

Torrents of water gushed into the Louis Majesty, pouring through several floors of the ship.

"I thought I would end up in the sea, drowned," said Anna Lita, who had a black eye and bandages on her head and hand Thursday.

The three waves that struck the Cypriot-owned ship Wednesday claimed two lives off the coast of northeast Spain. The vessel was carrying 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members, from a total of 27 countries.

Lita's husband Carlo, 69, who had been beside her on a sofa, was thrown in the air and ended up with five stitches in the head and a leg injury.

Another Italian, Giovanni Zanoni, said that after the waves blew out the windows of the lounge, the ceiling caved in and pandemonium broke out.

"People were screaming, panicking. They were grabbing life vests," Zanoni said. He said he saw one huge shard of glass hit a man in the face, killing him. It took a while to find the body because he was under the wreckage of the ceiling, Zanoni said.

The ship's owner and operator, Louis Cruise Lines, said the vessel was struck Wednesday by three "abnormally high" waves more than 33 feet (10 meters) high that broke glass windshields in the forward section on deck five, which is one of 10 used by passengers. Two people died and 14 were slightly hurt, the company said.

Large waves are not rare in the Mediterranean, but ones that size occur only once or twice a year, said Marta de Alfonso, an oceanographer with the Spanish government.

This accident happened in an area of the Mediterranean called the Gulf of Leon, which is known for big waves when storms hit.

The ship was on a 12-day cruise from the ports of Genoa and Marseilles in the western Mediterranean, calling at Tangiers, Casablanca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Cadiz, Cartagena, Barcelona and had been due to return to Genoa on Thursday.

Passengers said the weather was terrible as they left Cartagena in eastern Spain Wednesday, and the captain announced he was skipping a planned stop in Barcelona and heading straight for Italy.

"I remember when the wave hit," Lita said. "It broke all the windows and I was rolling and rolling and did not stop calling out for my husband."

Amateur video footage taken by a passenger and aired on Spanish television showed a huge, foamy wave hitting what appeared to be the lounge area, sending water gushing in and people scurrying for safety.

"Suddenly we saw a wave that went up above our level, and I said to my husband, 'tonight we will not have to wash the windows,'" said Claudine Armand of France, who was in her cabin at that point. "Right then we heard we heard a loud noise, and it was the wave that hit us."

"When we came out of the room we saw the wave had flooded everything," she told Associated Press Television News.

Pierre Languillon, also of France, said damage was extensive and he saw many people with superficial injuries.

"They called for doctors, as many doctors as there were. Luckily nothing happened to us, but I think we averted a catastrophe."

Louis Cruise Lines spokesman Michael Maratheftis said 14 passengers who suffered only minor injuries were taken to hospital as a precaution.

Arrangements have been made to fly all passengers home Thursday and the ship will carry on with its normal schedule later this month after repairs are completed, he told the AP from Cyprus. By the end of the day most will have left the ship.

Maratheftis said the two dead passengers — a German and an Italian — suffered fatal injuries from the glass shards and ripped-out window frames and furniture.

"It was three waves, one after the other. The damage was done by the second and the third waves. We are talking about waves that exceeded 10 meters in height. This was unforeseen and unpredicted because the weather was not really that bad," Maratheftis said.

De Alfonso said there was in fact a big storm in the area at the time and the waves might have been stirred up by fierce winds. Waves often come in threes, she said.

Another passenger, Jean Claude Fery, of Marseille, said he was in his cabin looking out the porthole at tremendously turbulent seas. "I have never seen waves so big. It was unbelievable."

A Louis Cruise Lines statement said the waves smashed windows in a public area on deck 5 on the forward part of the vessel.

Louis Cruise Lines' Web site says the ship is 680 feet (207 meters) long, and features 10 passenger decks and 732 staterooms along with various bars, pools, restaurants and shops.

[Hefe]

That is very cool Aaron

[Krandall]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2879290/Pilot-was-shot-between-the-eyes-and-still-flew-to-safety.html

A HERO Chinook pilot was shot between the eyes by a Taliban bullet - but flew on and saved all 20 aboard.

Flight Lieutenant Ian Fortune, 28, had flown in to pick up casualties as a firefight raged between American and Afghan forces and heavily-armed rebels near Garmsir in Helmand Province.

He circled until troops reported incoming fire had calmed down.

But as Ian flew in the helicopter came under attack - which continued as casualties were being loaded.

Then as he lifted off Ian was shot.

A bullet hit a metal rail on the front of his helmet which is used to attach night vision goggles.

The round then penetrated his helmet hitting him between the eyes. It knocked his head back and caused severe bleeding.

More bullets followed, hitting the Chinook's controls and shutting down the stabilisation system.

But with blood pouring into his eyes, Ian battled with the controls to stop the chopper from spiralling out of control.

Then with the aircraft lurching from side to side he continued flying for eight minutes before landing at Camp Bastion.

Ian was taken to the field hospital and treated for his wound.

It is the first time in the nine-year war in Afghanistan a pilot has been shot while in the air.

One senior RAF source said: "This could have become one of the worst incidents of the conflict.

"If the bullet had hit the pilot a millimetre lower, those on board wouldn't have stood a chance.

"And had it not been for the skill of the pilot the result would have been the same."

TV's Mike, 41, who was with a crew from the Discovery Channel, said: "The courage and heroism of the pilot was beyond belief."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2879290/Pilot-was-shot-between-the-eyes-and-still-flew-to-safety.html#ixzz0hMcDFyED

[Krandall]

Woman Crashes Car While Shaving Vag
http://regretfulmorning.com/2010/03/woman-crashes-car-while-shaving-vag/


A Florida woman recently caused an accident while on her way to visit her boyfriend. Police say Megan Mariah Barnes was driving and had her ex-husband take the wheel for her from the passenger's seat while she prepared for a date.

While on the way to Key West, Barnes sensed that her vaj wasn't smooth enough, so she decided to shave it. The Thunderbird she was driving slammed into the back of another vehicle and she kept on going. Cops say about a half-mile down the road Barnes pulled over and jumped into the back seat and let her ex-husband get in the driver's seat.

Barnes was convicted of a second DUI and driving under suspension the day before, so she really didn't need to get caught driving again.

But, of course, she did. Burns on her ex's chest from the passenger side airbag proved he wasn't driving when the accident happened. She was charged with driving with a revoked license, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident with injuries and driving with no insurance.

Now she and her shaved beaver are likely headed to jail.