Offbeat: Dead granny changes mind

Soaps and sponge with chocolate on the side? 

A dental nurse has eaten 4,000 washing-up sponges due to a rare disorder.

Kerry Trebilcock, 21, has also munched more than 100 bars of soap. She suffers from pica, which causes victims to crave objects that are not food.

Kerry, of Mylor, Cornwall, said: “One day I will beat this and be able to have a shower or do the washing-up without feeling hungry.”

She said she likes to spice up her bizarre snacks with hot sauce or mustard. Sometimes, she dips them in tea or hot chocolate like biscuits. She also chomps on chunks of soap — but only organic fruit-flavoured varieties, with lemon and lime her favourite.

Kerry said: “I have been very particular about the type of sponges and soaps I’d eat and how I’d prepare them. If I went out for the day I’d carry a small plastic bag of cut-up pieces of sponge with some tomato and barbeque sauce in Tupperware. I was never without a ‘snack’.”

Other pica sufferers eat metal, coal, sand, chalk — or even light bulbs and furniture.

Petite Kerry, who weighs just 8st, has endured shocking stomach cramps, constipation and diarrhoea.

And although she has cut down on her sponge munching, she has been unable to totally shake the condition. She said: “The sauces and dipping the sponges in drinks softened them — and I’d chew them until the flavour was gone. Then I would swallow the sponge.”

Sponges are commonly made from cellulose wood fibres or foamed plastic polymers.

Organic soap contains olive or palm oil, glycerin and plant scents, plus oatmeal to lift off dead skin.

Kerry’s eating habits changed after a holiday to Morocco in 2008, during which she picked up an infection of hookworm, a parasite that lives in the small intestine.

At first, she began craving junk food. But then something strange happened. She said: “After one dinner where I ate a double helping of lasagne and a tub of ice cream, I still felt hungry. To distract myself, I decided to wash the dishes. I took out a new sponge from a packet and had an overwhelming desire to eat it. I sat down with a glass of water and chewed the sponge until it was gone. It tasted of nothing but I found eating it enjoyable. Finally my hunger was gone and my stomach felt satisfied.”

Afterwards, though, she felt embarrassed and scared — and cried herself to sleep. But the next morning, as she washed herself with lemon and lime soap, she had an urge to eat some and swallowed a chunk.

She said: “I knew something was very wrong with me but I didn’t want to tell anyone as I felt like a freak. But after a week I’d eaten nine sponges and over a pound of organic soap.”

Her hookworm infection was diagnosed by her general practitioner but she kept quiet about her cravings in case he thought she was mad.

She said: “I would go to the supermarket and buy over 40 sponges and different types of organic soap. It made me hungry just smelling all the different soap products in the cleaning aisle. The cashiers joked that I must love cleaning!”

Kerry, who also eats normal food, finally confided to a friend in 2009. And after seeing the doctor again, she was told she had pica and could seriously damage her digestive system. A programme of counselling and vitamins has set her on the road to recovery. And she is determined to succeed. But it is a slow and arduous process.

Kerry said: “I still have a one-inch square of sponge and three teaspoons of organic soap with each meal. But I am making progress and speak to other sufferers of pica on internet forums, which helps. There are some out there far worse than me who eat car tyres, spoons and even sofas.”

Kerry is trying to curb her pangs with floral gum sweets. She said: “They taste like soap so they help me get the flavour I desire without doing any damage. I know one day I will beat this.”

Kerry’s student sister Jody, 20, told how the family initially found her sponge munching hard to understand. She said: “Watching her eat a sponge or soap was extremely weird. But Kerry has educated us all about pica. I’m so proud she has worked hard to fight this condition and is recovering through counselling. She is really brave to talk about it so openly.” Soure: thesun.co.uk

Fat head no more

Injuries sustained during a 25-foot fall forced doctors to remove part of Tim Barter’s skull but now surgeons have reshaped their patient’s head using a titanium plate and fat from his stomach.

In June 2009, neighbours found Barter unconscious outside his home after he tried to climb a drainpipe, the BBC reports. The visual effects director had locked himself out of his house and was trying to climb in when he lost his grip and plummeted to the ground.

Barter suffered a shattered eye socket, a broken leg, brain haemorrhaging and went into a 10-day coma.

After the incident, Barter experienced a bit of double vision, which temporarily impaired him from usual activities.

“Life stopped for a couple of months,” the Telegraph quotes Barter as saying. “I was frightened that my eyesight would never go back to normal...”

But now, life is returning to normal after physicians at King’s College Hospital were able to reshape Barter’s skull with a titanium plate and stomach fat, the British newspaper Metro reports.

Today, Barter is doing well and, interestingly enough, the 32-year-old has even taken to skydiving and rock climbing.

“I can’t put anything off any more I’m doing what I’ve always put on my list,” Barter told the BBC.

Robert Bentley, who pioneered Barter’s treatment, said Barter’s recovery was a testament to the quality of treatment available at King’s College Hospital.

“Patients having sustained such injuries as [Barter’s] highlight the fully integrated approach that we have as a major trauma centre,” Bentley told the London Evening Standard.
Source: huffingtonpost.com

The right way to zip it !

Virgin Atlantic has appointed a ‘whispering coach’ to help cabin crew avoid disturbing its highest-paying passengers.

Sir Richard Branson’s airline says the measure will have a “calming effect” on passengers in its new, fanciest ever upper class suite.

The crew is learning how to whisper to upper class passengers at a volume of 20 to 30 decibels on a special, day-long training course.

Virgin claims its Upper Class Dream Suite, being unveiled in April, will offer the “largest and most comfortable beds in the sky”.

Passengers will pay around £6,000 (Rs869,583) for return flights from London to New York, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Virgin’s customer service training supervisor Richard Fitzgerald has been designated the new whispering coach.

He says his brief is to ensure the most relaxing night’s sleep possible for the airline’s high rollers.

Mr Fitzgerald said: “The crew is now trained to whisper at tones between 20 and 30 decibels due to its calming effect and the fact that it won’t disturb other passengers whilst lights are out. It is incredibly important that all Virgin Atlantic’s cabin crew have their skills honed in order to provide the most comfortable experience possible for our passengers.” Source: web.orange.co.uk

Dead granny changes mind

A 95-year-old grandmother terrified her neighbours in China — by climbing out of her coffin six days after she ‘died’.

Li Xiufeng was found motionless and not breathing in bed by her neighbour more than a fortnight after tripping and suffering a head injury. When he failed to wake her up, Chen Qingwang assumed the frail grandmother had passed away in her sleep, in the village of Liulou, in Beiliu, Guangxi Province.

According to tradition, the ‘dead’ woman was laid in her coffin ahead of the funeral for friends and relatives to pay their respects. But the day before the funeral, Mr Qingwang arrived at his neighbour’s house to find the coffin empty and the corpse gone. “We were so terrified, and immediately asked the neighbours to come for help,” he said. After searching for the missing body, the villagers were stunned to find Mrs Xiufeng sitting on a stool in her kitchen cooking.

She reportedly told villagers: “I slept for a long time. After waking up, I felt so hungry, and wanted to cook something to eat. I pushed the lid for a long time to climb out.”

A county hospital reportedly believes Mrs Xiufeng suffered an artificial death, during which the person has no breath, but the body remains warm. Source: web.orange.co.uk

Now that’s a cat fight

Voters in the US have the chance to elect the perfect candidate for their senate seat after a cat named Hank entered the race.

Hank, a nine-year-old former street cat, who has a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter as well as having his own website, is standing for office in Virginia.

On his official website Hank states: “If I had to sum up my feelings for Virginia’s future, I would have to say: ‘Meow’. When I’m elected to the Senate, I’m going to work hard to make sure that there is milk in every bowl across this great nation.”

Also in the race for election are two former Virginia governors, Republican George Allen and Democrat Tim Kaine, reports the Washington Post. Virginia voters have even been treated to an advert as part of the ‘cat-paign’, in an attempt to usher Hank into power.

“Hank knows that the key to a better America and a brighter future is the creation of jobs — jobs that will improve a street, a town, a state, and the nation,” his Facebook profile states.

Hank is actively recruiting volunteers to help spread the word by knocking on doors, manning the phones and staffing polling places on election day, the Washington Post reported.

Source: web.orange.co.uk

Largest penguin found

News Zealand is home to some of the world’s weirdest animals and things were not any different 24 million years ago!

Standing 1.3 metres (52 inches) tall, the penguin lived when New Zealand was mostly underwater and consisted of isolated, rocky outcrops that offered protection from predators and plentiful food supplies, researchers said.

The first traces of the penguin, dubbed Kairuku — Maori for diver who returns with food — was found embedded in a cliff at Waimate in the South Island by University of Otago paleontologist professor Ewen Fordyce in 1977. Over the years, Fordyce discovered more complete remains and invited University of North Carolina specialist Dan Ksepka to help reconstruct the lost giant in 2009.

They determined the bird was much larger than the biggest modern penguin, the Emperor, which grows up to 1.0-metres, and weighed in at 60 kilograms (132 pounds), twice as much as the Emperor. AFP

When mom is the bomb

A pilot who sent birthday greetings to a colleague’s “mom” on board triggered panic when passengers thought he said “bomb”.

An air traffic controller asked the Southwest Airlines pilot to wish his mother a happy birthday as he flew from Baltimore to New York.

Taking to the plane’s intercom, the pilot told passengers that they had a “mom on board” — but many thought he said a “bomb on board”.

Panicking passengers asked other members of the crew to clarify what the pilot had said, and were assured that there was no bomb. Several passengers complained to the authorities about the announcement.

Brandi King, spokesman for Southwest Airlines, said: “The pilot made an announcement that was misunderstood. He did clarify with the passengers that he was wishing the mother on board a happy birthday.” In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said: “Pilots and controllers will sometimes engage in brief greetings. If such conversations go beyond this limit, controllers are counselled to refrain from such unnecessary talk.”

Source: web.orange.co.uk

Paws for thought

Ever wonder how dogs can walk barefoot in the snow? Now a Japanese scientist may have the answer — an internal central heating system.

The secret lies in how dogs circulate their blood to prevent cold surfaces from chilling the rest of their bodies, according to Hiroyoshi Ninomiya, a professor at Yamazaki Gakuen University, just west of Tokyo.

The system uses warm, oxygenated blood to heat the cold blood that has been in contact with a cold surface before returning it to the dog’s heart and central circulation.

“Dogs exchange heat at the end of their legs. Arterial blood flows to the end of their legs and then heats up venous blood before returning it to the heart,” Ninomiya said of his findings, published in the journal Veterinary Dermatology.

Ninomiya studied a preserved dog’s leg under an electron microscope and found that because of the proximity of arteries and veins in the foot pad, the heat in the blood carried from the heart to the arteries is easily conducted to the cooler blood in the veins.

This heat transference maintains a constant temperature in the foot pad, even when exposed to extremely cold conditions.

Dogs are not alone in having this sort of heat exchange system, which is shared by other animals such as dolphins, Ninomiya said. But not all dogs thrive in the cold, due to refining by breeders seeking specific traits, he added.

“Dogs evolved from wolves, and so they still have some of that ancestry remaining,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that one should always go and drag around in the snow all the time. There are many varieties of dogs nowadays that are not able to stand the cold,” he added. Reuters

RoboHelper

Why would you want a human helper when you can have a robot instead? Aldebaran Robotics is back to its helperbot ways, this time releasing a video of Romeo, a “humanoid robot that can act as a comprehensive assistant for persons suffering from a loss of autonomy.”

Basically, Romeo is a robot that can help people who have the basic mobility or dexterity to handle daily functions. He can be used to open doors, fetch objects, twist open jars, and so on. He is also designed to understand basic human speech, comprehending what the owner wants based on voice commands.

That’s the only way he’d really work in a real world setting anyhow. Source: mobilemag.com

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2012.