Finding The Right Plastic Surgeon

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Canadian professional wrestler Chris Benoit, who performed for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), was found dead, along with his wife Nancy, 43, and their son Daniel, 7, in their home in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday. Police are calling the deaths a “double murder-suicide.”

“There are no further details at this time, other than the Benoit family residence is currently being investigated by local authorities. WWE extends its sincerest thoughts and prayers to the Benoit family’s relatives and loved ones in this time of tragedy,” said a statement posted on the WWE website.

Scott Ballard, Fayette County District Attorney, says that “the details (of the incident), when they come out, are going to prove a little bizarre.”

Fayette County Sheriff deputy Lt. Tommy Pope stated that police found the family at about 2:30 p.m. (eastern time) when the WWE called police and asked them to do a “welfare check” after friends stated that Benoit sent them “curious text messages.” It is reported that Benoit missed several meetings which prompted the call to police. Pope also stated that police were “not actively searching for any suspects outside of the house.”

In a press conference, the Sheriff’s Office released the details that Benoit’s wife and son had both died of asphyxiation. He also hinted that the wife had been bound. TMZ.com is reporting that Benoit strangled his wife on Friday, smothered his son on late Friday or early Saturday, and then hanged himself inside his weight room on late Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.

Benoit was scheduled to wrestle in Houston, Texas for a match at WWE’s Vengeance pay-per-view event on June 24. However, Benoit flew home due to “personal reasons,” said Jim Ross, the announcer for WWE events.

Benoit was a professional wrestler with the nickname The Canadian Crippler, who wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Entertainment. His wife Nancy was known in the wrestling ring as Woman and Fallen Angel. She was a valet and manager and also wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions, Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Pope Benedict XVI spoke with astronauts aboard the International Space Station yesterday, marking the first time a pope has conversed with astronauts in orbit.

Organized by the European Space Agency (ESA), the call originated from the Vatican Library at 7:11 am Eastern time. German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, president of the Italian Space Agency Enrico Saggese, and General Giuseppe Bernardis of the Italian Air Force were also in the room at the Vatican. Aboard the spacecraft were Italian, U.S., and Russian crew members of the Endeavour STS-134 mission and Expedition 27.

Endeavour commander and U.S. astronaut Mark Kelly greeted His Holiness aboard the spacecraft. The Pope wished Kelly’s wife, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, well as she recovers from an assassination attempt that took place in January. Doctors inserted a hard plastic implant, or a bone flap, into Giffords’s skull last Wednesday. The Pope also asked of the astronauts’ impressions of the planet from space.

“We fly over most of the world and we don’t see borders, but at the same time we realize that people fight with each other and there is a lot of violence in this world,” Kelly said. The Pope sent his condolences to Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, whose mother died earlier this month while he was in space.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a review Friday into the design and manufacture of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, following five incidents in five days involving the aircraft and two Japanese airlines.

On Monday, an electrical fire broke out aboard a Japan Airlines 787 at Boston’s Logan International Airport, when a battery pack which powers the auxiliary power unit, for when the plane is on the ground, caught fire. The fire was discovered by maintenance workers after passengers and crew disembarked following their flight from Tokyo’s Narita Airport.

The next day, a separate Japan Airlines 787, also at Logan International Airport, heading to Tokyo, suffered a fuel leak that spilled around 40 gallons, which was spotted by the crew of the aircraft taxiing behind them. “That Japan Air may know it, but they’ve got fuel or something spilling out the outboard left wing. Quite a bit,” said the pilot of aircraft behind them on local air traffic control frequencies.

Wednesday, in Japan, an All Nippon Airways 787, the launch customer for the aircraft, cancelled a flight after a brake problem was reported.

Earlier Friday, two All Nippon Airways suffered separate incidents in Japan. An oil leak was noticed in the engine after one aircraft had landed in Miyazaki, coming from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Another flight, flying between Haneda Airport and Matsuyama said the pilot’s side window in the cockpit suffered a crack.

The FAA in a statement said “In light of a series of recent events, the FAA will conduct a comprehensive review of the Boeing 787 critical systems, including the design, manufacture and assembly.” Further adding, “The purpose of the review is to validate the work conducted during the certification process and further ensure that the aircraft meets the FAA’s high level of safety.”

According to the statement, “The review will also examine how the electrical and mechanical systems interact with each other.” The Boeing 787 relies more on electrical, as opposed to mechanical, systems than past aircraft from the manufacturer including having electronics operate hydraulic pumps and using electric brakes. Large portions of the plane’s structure use lightweight carbon fiber composite instead of more traditional metal airframe.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, “The safety of the traveling public is our top priority […] This review will help us look at the root causes and do everything we can to safeguard against similar events in the future.”

“We are confident that the aircraft is safe. But we need to have a complete understanding of what is happening,” said newly sworn-in FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta. “We are conducting the review to further ensure that the aircraft meets our high safety standards.”

Boeing released a statement saying, “[The company] is confident in the design and performance of the 787. It is a safe and efficient airplane. The airplane has logged 50,000 hours of flight and there are more than 150 flights occurring daily.”

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Chinese protests against the publication of a Japanese government textbook continued for a second day in China, (Sunday) as an estimated three thousand protesters marched on the Japanese consulate in Guangzhou. Thousands of protesters also marched in Shenzhen, throwing objects at Japanese businesses.

The protesters repeated their demands for a boycott of Japanese goods, to block Japan from obtaining a seat on the U.N. Security Council, and for Japan to change textbooks which they say whitewash Japan’s war atrocities. Protesters burned Japanese flags while singing and shouting anti-Japanese slogans. They also carried anti-Japanese signs along with Chinese flags.Chinese view the textbook as “whitewashing” the events and actions of Japan to cast them in a more positive light.

The protests are against the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, which is publishing a high-school textbook that refers to the Nanjing Massacre as an “incident” (translation) and de-emphasizes the roles of comfort women as well as the contemporary issues surrounding Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to the Yasukuni shrine, in honor of Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese government has claimed that the demonstrations have an “anti-Japanese sentiment,” for which China should apologise.In Tokyo, Japan formally summoned Wang Yi, China’s ambassador to Japan, concerning China’s actions on Sunday.

“We formally demanded China’s apology and compensation,” said Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura. He also said that Wang Yi replied “No” when asked for an apology.

While not issuing a formal apology through diplomatic channels, Wang claimed that China did not approve of the violent aspects of the protests.

“The (Chinese) government does not agree with extreme action,” he said.

Back in Beijing, the People’s Daily reported that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang deflected blame away from China for the recent downturn in Sino-Japanese relations.

“Japan must adopt an earnest attitude and appropriate ways to deal with major principled issues concerning the feelings of the Chinese people,” Qin said. “The Japanese have to do more things conducive to enhancing mutual trust and maintaining the relations between the two countries, rather than doing the reverse,” he said.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A Delta II rocket blasted off from NASA’s Cape Canaveral launch pad today, carrying five satellites designed to investigate the northern lights and the electromagnetic storms that cause them. The launch had been twice delayed due to bad weather, but was eventually performed at 23:00 UTC.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have collectively invested $200 million in the mission, known as the THEMIS Project. Through this mission, they hope to develop better techniques to forecast electromagnetic storms, in order to protect communication satellites, power grids, and spacewalking astronauts. Scientists from the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary also helped with the project.

The Sun continuously sends a stream of charged particles, called the solar wind, at the Earth. We are generally protected from the solar wind by the Earth’s magnetosphere. During substorms, however, the magnetosphere gets overloaded by the solar wind and the magnetic field lines stretch until they eventually snap back, energizing and flinging electrically charged particles towards Earth.

Scientists want to find out what snaps in the overloaded magnetosphere to trigger a substorm.

Monday, June 23, 2008

2008 COMPUTEX Taipei, the largest trade fair since its inception in 1982, featured several seminars and forums, expansions on show spaces to TWTC Nangang, great transformations for theme pavilions, and WiMAX Taipei Expo, mainly promoted by Taipei Computer Association (TCA). Besides of ICT industry, “design” progressively became the critical factor for the future of the other industries. To promote innovative “Made In Taiwan” products, pavilions from “Best Choice of COMPUTEX”, “Taiwan Excellence Awards”, and newly-set “Design and Innovation (d & i) Award of COMPUTEX”, demonstrated the power of Taiwan’s designs in 2008 COMPUTEX Taipei.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Consumption of grilled or baked fish at least once a week can preserve the brain structure of seniors and reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by three to five times, according to the results of a recent US study.

The study, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, asked 260 volunteers with an average age of 76, about the frequency of their fish consumption. Ten years later, brain scans were carried out on those being researched. Those who regularly ate fish were found to have better preservation of parts of the brain related to memory. An additional five years later, 31% of those who did not regularly consume fish contracted mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease. Of those who ate fish at least once a week, between three and eight per cent contracted the aforementioned medical conditions.

According to The Daily Telegraph, consumption of grilled or baked fish increases the intake of Omega 3 fatty acids, providing a greater amount of blood flow to the brain; therefore prompting a reduction in inflammation and internal gathering of plaque encountered in the lead-up to Alzheimer’s disease. Fried fish does not reduce the risk of contracting Alzheimer’s disease due to the low amount of Omega 3 it contains.

Dr. Cyrus Raji, who took leadership of the study, called it “the first study to establish a direct relationship between fish consumption, brain structure and Alzheimer’s risk.” Raji concluded that “people who consumed baked or [grilled] fish at least one time per week had better preservation of grey matter volume on MRI in brain areas at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.”

The Alzheimer’s Society’s research manager, Dr. Anne Corbett, stated: “This moderately sized study adds weight to existing evidence suggesting that eating fish reduces your risk of developing cognitive decline.” However, she contested these findings, saying they “did not account for lifestyle factors such as other foods or exercise”, which may have affected the overall outcome. Dr. Corbett advised consumers to “eat a healthy diet including fruit and vegetables along with taking regular exercise and giving up smoking” to reduce the risk of contracting dementia.

Meanwhile, Alzheimer’s Research UK lead researcher, Dr. Simon Ridley, believed the study had not clarified “whether other underlying factors may have contributed to the lower risk in people who eat fish.” There is “a clear need for more conclusive research into the effects of dietary fish on our cognitive health,” according to Dr. Ridley.

The results of the study are to be presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.