Helluva way to get a tattoo....
It's a terrifying way to get a temporary tattoo. To get the feathery looking, fern-like pattern running down this man's left arm, he first needed to be struck by lightning.
Known as a "Lichtenberg figure," for the German physicist who first described seeing a similar pattern while experimenting with static electricity, these reddish fern-leaf patterns are a skin reaction to a lightning strike.
These dramatic "keraunographic" marks are sometimes referred to as "lightning flowers" or "lightning trees." They tend to occur on the arms, back, neck, chest, or shoulders of lightning strike victims.
As the tech blog Gear Diary reported, Winston Kemp earned this intricate body art during a spring storm when he went outside to save his pumpkins. Ironically, Kemp is an electrician, but it wasn't his job that put him in contact with this electrical jolt; it was a bolt from Mother Nature in his own backyard.
The 24-year-old says he saw something bright and heard something loud hit his neighbor's yard, but he didn't feel a thing.
"I just came back inside like nothing was wrong. Umm ... my arm was sore. But I didn't ... I don't think I saw any marks until 30, 45 ... [it was] maybe an hour before I saw the marks," he tells Gear Diary.
Kemp says it didn't hurt when it happened, but a few hours later his arm started to feel achy and sore. Big blisters started forming on his skin the next day, which his girlfriend, a pre-med student, carefully lanced and covered to prevent infection.
"The feathering marks are formed by the transmission of static electricity along the superficial blood vessels that nourish the skin," says Dr. Mathew Avram, director of the Dermatology Laser and Cosmetic Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
"They're the kind of marks that when an emergency medicine doctor sees it, you know exactly what the diagnosis is -- a lightning strike," he explains.
"These are an unbelievably rare thing to see," adds Avram.
What you tend to see is a superficial burn to the top part of the skin, he says. If the person was wearing a belt buckle or the skin was sweating a lot during the lightning strike, the fern-leaf patterns may be deeper.
Although Kemp did not go to an emergency room, Avram said a trip to the ER is generally a good idea, so you don't get any secondary infections from the skin wounds.
Usually the red marks fade within hours of the lightning strike, though Kemp's lasted longer than that. It's a good idea to put an antibiotic ointment or Vaseline on the affected skin several times a day until they completely heal.
Even a month after the lightning strike, Kemp said he still felt "random pains" running down his left arm and the skin felt tender.
"That's not surprising," says Avram. "Any time there's an injury to the skin you can get nerve sensations afterward and the redness from a burn can last for months."
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Air Stewardess Suffers 'Crash' Panic Attack
An American Airlines flight in Texas was delayed after an air stewardess had a panic attack about the plane crashing.
The aircraft was still on the ground at Dallas international airport when the flight attendant started screaming over the plane's PA system.
Passengers helped to restrain her in a seat, while the plane returned to the gate.
"She was just in a manic state, making some comments about the plane and 9/11, that she had memories of that. Obviously she was not herself," one passenger said afterwards.
Another passenger, Whitney Bessler, told Dallas Morning News: "She said she just wanted to save people and that she wouldn't be responsible if the plane crashed."
The FBI and airport police both said they did not plan to charge the woman with any crime, instead she was taken for psychiatric evaluation.
It was an "unfortunate but non-violent confrontation involving a flight attendant aboard an aircraft preparing for take-off," the US flight attendants union said in a statement.
When the flight finally got under way with a new cabin crew, passengers who wanted drinks were served for free. - sky
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Coke and Pepsi make changes to avoid cancer warning on labels
Coca-Cola and Pepsi have altered their production processes so they won’t have to put a cancer warning on labels.
The firms are changing the way their caramel colouring is made in the US because of health fears about a chemical it contains.
Bosses have told manufacturers of the additive to reduce its levels of 4-methylimidazole, which can be formed during the cooking process and has been linked with cancer.
Coke and Pepsi’s decisions follow a law being passed in California forcing drinks which contain a certain amount of carcinogens to carry a cancer warning.
Coca-Cola spokeswoman Diana Garza-Ciarlante said: “While we believe there is no health risk that justifies any such change, we asked our caramel suppliers to take this step so our products would not be subject to a scientifically unfounded warning.”
The colouring was put on California’s warning list after a study on mice.
But American Beverage Association bosses say there is no evidence it causes cancer in humans.
They add that someone would have to drink more than 1,000 cans of cola a day to reach the doses that showed links to the disease in rodents.
Coke has altered its recipe for drinks sold in California and the changes will be rolled out across the US.
But the firm says things will not alter in Europe.
A Coca-Cola statement said: "The caramel color in all of our products has been, is and always will be safe, and The Coca-Cola Company is not changing the world-famous formula for our Coca-Cola beverages.
"Over the years, we have updated our manufacturing processes from time to time, but never altered our Secret Formula.
"We have asked our caramel manufacturers to modify their production process to reduce the amount of 4-MEI in the caramel, but that will have no effect on the formula or on the great-tasting, high-quality products that consumers expect from us. These modifications will not affect the colour or taste of Coca-Cola.
"Our commitment to the highest quality and safety of our great brands remains our top priority. And we will continue to rely on sound, evidence-based science to ensure that our products are safe." - mirror
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Dentist to probe 'cavities' inside Great Pyramid - and unlock the Pharaoh's last secret chambers, unseen for 4,500 years
A Hong Kong dentist is wielding forceps to help solve the last mystery of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
He is part of a team that hopes to to solve the mystery surrounding the doors blocking two narrow shafts in the pyramid, which is the tomb of the Pharaoh Cheops, also known as Khufu.
The shafts have puzzled archaeologists since they were found in 1872 - with some speculating that Khufu's burial chamber lies beyond, with fabulous treasure possibly within.
Ng Tze-chuen, 59 has designed a tiny 'gripper' for an insect-sized robot which will finally reach beyond the doors inside the pyramid.
The robot will travel up the shafts, which are so narrow only a small robot could fit, to eventually drill through the two doors. It carries a camera to record what it finds.
The international team, which will take the name Djedi - after the magician with whom Khufu is thought to have consulted for the pyramid layout - plans to use the robot this spring, depending on when the license to do so will be issued, Ng said.
‘The Chinese have more experience with chopsticks. And a dentist has more experience in gripping with forceps,’ said Ng.
‘Why Egypt is so interesting, it’s because of the hieroglyphics. It’s like a detective story. It’s all waiting for me to use my grippers.’
Inspired by dental forceps - he has designed 70 of his own to properly grip the tricky crevices of patients’ teeth - Ng said his team will mount tiny grippers on an insect-sized robot expected to gently trek the winding shafts of the pyramid without causing damage to the walls. Continue reading at dailymail
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Harold Camping Admits Rapture Prediction 'A Mistake'....Well, Yeah!
Ninety-year-old Harold Camping predicted that the world would come to an end on May 21, 2011. And then again on October 21, 2011.
And while it has been clear for months that the world, in fact, did not end on either date, Camping has finally issued an official statement admitting the mistake.
According to "When is the Rapture?," an article written by Camping, the Rapture is the end of the world and happens when "our Lord comes to judge the world."
On the day of the Rapture, "the believers in Christ who have not experienced physical death will be changed into their glorified bodies," Camping wrote. "At that time, they will be caught up in the air to be with Christ."
At the time of the first prediction, Camping was the president of Family Radio, a non-profit radio network that, according to its website, acts "with the express purpose of sending the Christian Gospel into the world."
When May 21, 2011 came and went with no sign of the Apocalypse, Camping still said he was not entirely wrong about the prediction. Speaking to the media outside the headquarters of Family Radio on May 23, Camping said that while the world had not ended, the spiritual Rapture had begun.
"We have to be looking at all of this a little bit more spiritual, but it won't be spiritual on Oct. 21," he said. "Because the Bible clearly teaches that then the world is going to be destroyed altogether."
Shortly after he said that, Camping suffered a stroke on June 13, 2011, and retired from Family Radio.
When Oct. 21 also came and went with no sign of the Rapture, Camping was publicly silent until now.
"We humbly acknowledge we were wrong about the timing," his statement reads. "We tremble before God as we humbly ask Him for forgiveness for making that sinful statement."
But Camping and Family Radio say they believe that while the prediction was a mistake, it was all in God's plan.
"Though we were wrong God is still using the May 21 warning in a very mighty way. In the months following May 21 the Bible has, in some ways, come out from under the shadows and is now being discussed by all kinds of people who never before paid any attention to the Bible," Camping wrote. "Even as God used sinful Balaam to accomplish His purposes, so He used our sin to accomplish His purpose of making the whole world acquainted with the Bible."
And, the statement reads, Family Radio will not announce a new prediction for the end of the world.
"We also openly acknowledge that we have no new evidence pointing to another date for the end of the world. Though many dates are circulating, Family Radio has no interest in even considering another date. God has humbled us through the events of May 21, to continue to even more fervently search the Scriptures (the Bible), not to find dates, but to be more faithful in our understanding." - yahoo
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