Housing Complex Clerk Thinks Body Of 96-Year-Old Suicide Jumper Is April Fool's Prank, Throws It In Dumpster... -

Housing Complex Clerk Thinks Body Of 96-Year-Old Suicide Jumper Is April Fool's Prank, Throws It In Dumpster... - 



A housing complex clerk mistook an elderly suicide jumper’s body for an April Fools’ Day joke before the woman’s body was nonchalantly disposed in a nearby dumpster under the assumption her corpse was a mannequin.
Stepping out for a smoke break outside the senior-living Peterborough Apartments around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, desk clerk and nine-year employee Ronald Benjamin saw a shape lying on the patio, The Tampa Bay Times reports. Concluding it was just an April Fools’ Day joke, he left what he thought was just a mannequin laying on the ground, and went back to work.
Two hours later, another complex employee asked Benjamin about the shape, and he assured her it was just a prank.
A woman and her son later came to deliver The Tampa Bay Times newspapers, and Benjamin asked for the boy’s help in moving the mannequin into a nearby dumpster. Grabbing the clothes and shoes, the two heaved the “ball of whitish-gray hair” that “weighed almost nothing” into the dumpster, reports The Times.
It wasn’t until around 8 a.m. that an apartment maintenance worker looked into the dumpster realized that it was actually the body of a depressed 96-year-old resident who had jumped 16 stories to her death in the night.
Benjamin was called back after his shift ended to account for the incident, and the 61-year-old employee was shocked.
“It’s all I’ve thought about all day,” Benjamin told a Times reporter at his home Wednesday evening. “I haven’t slept all day.”
“I’m telling you, I swear to God, the face looked like a rubber mask,” Benjamin told The Times. “If I thought for one instant it was a real person I would have called the police, my manager, everyone I could think of.”
Benjamin said that the woman’s face appeared rubbery and formless, “like a Halloween mask discarded on the ground,” he told The Times. He said the bars had closed about an hour before he’d seen the figure and dismissed it as something tossed onto the property as part of an April Fools’ Day prank.
Police said they believe Benjamin’s account and are not planning any criminal charges, however Benjamin was fired from his position by the complex.
Authorities said the elderly woman had left a suicide note, and her name had not been released as they look to notify family members.

Read more - 

http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2014/04/03/housing-complex-clerk-mistakes-suicide-jumpers-body-for-april-fools-prank/

STUDY: Mouthwash use 'linked to oral cancer'... -

STUDY: Mouthwash use 'linked to oral cancer'... - 



Heavy use of mouthwashes may lead to a higher risk of oral cancer, an expert claims.

Research suggests that people rinsing with such products more than three times a day have a greater chance of developing mouth and throat cancer.

Dr David Conway, a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow Dental School, said people should not routinely use a mouthwash and stick to brushing and flossing instead.

Poor oral health – one of the reasons people regularly use the rinses – also plays a part in cancer risk, he added.

The research supports an Australian study in 2009, which said there was ‘sufficient evidence’ that mouthwashes containing alcohol contribute to an increased risk of the disease, because they allow cancer-causing substances to penetrate the lining of the mouth more easily.

In the latest study, in journal Oral Oncology, University of Glasgow researchers and European colleagues assessed 1,962 cancer sufferers and 1,993 healthy people in 13 centres across nine countries.

Those with poor oral health, including people with dentures and persistently bleeding gums, were at greater risk, they found.

The study set out to identify risk factors for oral cancers affecting the mouth and larynx, as well as oesophageal cancer of the gullet.

Dr Conway said ‘I would not advise routine use of mouthwash, full stop.

'There are occasions and conditions for which a dentist could prescribe a mouthwash - it could be that a patient has a low salivary flow because of a particular condition or medicine they are taking.

‘But for me, all that’s necessary in general is good regular brushing with a fluoride toothpaste and flossing combined with regular check-ups by a dentist.’

He added there may be a link between excessive mouthwash rinsing and people who use it to mask the smell of smoking and alcohol – independent risk factors for oral cancer. 

The researchers were unable to analyse the types of mouthwash because they were used many years ago by those in the study.

Professor Damien Walmsley, adviser to the British Dental Association, said the study was not ‘conclusive’.

'It does, however, reaffirm that smoking together with heavy drinking and a poor diet over time are strong risk factors for developing cancers of the oral cavity and oesophagus,' he said.

'Unfortunately, these behaviours cannot be disassociated from people who neglect their oral hygiene and rarely, if ever, visit the dentist, as this study suggests.

'It also highlights that people, who are at risk of developing these cancers, may be using alcohol-based mouthwashes inappropriately to disguise smoking or drinking alcohol.

'Mouthwashes should be used according to manufacturer's directions.'

Read more - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2596497/Mouthwash-use-linked-oral-cancer-People-use-products-three-times-day-increase-risk.html

Meteorite narrowly misses skydiver - captures first ever footage of a falling meteorite after it has stopped burning -

Meteorite narrowly misses skydiver - captures first ever footage of a falling meteorite after it has stopped burning - 



A Norwegian man narrowly avoided being hit by a meteorite while skydiving and has captured the first ever video footage of a meteorite travelling through the air after its flame has gone out.
Anders Helstrup, who belongs to the Oslo Parachute Club said "I got the feeling that there was something, but I didn't register what was happening,"
"When we stopped the film, we could clearly see something that looked like a stone. At first it crossed my mind that it had been packed into a parachute, but it's simply too big for that."

A geologist confirmed that a meteorid had exploded about 20 kilometres above Mr Helstrup and his fellow skydivers when they made the historic jump in 2012. Ever since then, teams of experts and enthusiasts have been scouring the Norwegian countryside in search of the rock specimen that fell.
A meteoroid slows down when it enters the earth's atmosphere, painting a blazing trail of flames across the sky behind it as it turns into a meteorite.
When the flames go out, the meteorite enters a stage known as dark flight, where it falls straight to earth as a rock.



Read more -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10742854/Meteorite-narrowly-misses-Norwegian-skydiver.html