Thief is force-fed 40 bananas to retrieve a gold necklace he swallowed while fleeing police -

Thief is force-fed 40 bananas to retrieve a gold necklace he swallowed while fleeing police - 

A thief was force-fed 40 bananas as part of moves to retrieve a gold necklace he swallowed while fleeing from police.
The man denied snatching the chain from a woman in the street in Mumbai and gulped it down as he was fleeing officers in a desperate attempt to conceal his crime.
But X-rays showed what he had done and police in the western Indian city administered an enema which failed to yield the desired result.

Doctors suggested an operation would be the best way forward, but police officers decided it would be too expensive and opted instead for the bananas.

'He was fed more than 40 bananas throughout the day,' Mumbai police Senior Inspector Shankar Dhanavade told AFP.
'Eventually the chain was found. We made him wash and disinfect it,' the policeman added.
The 25-year-old man appeared in court on Friday and is in police custody, said Dhanavade.

According to reports, it was not the first time Mumbai police had turned to the fruit in order to recover a stolen item.
In July last year a chain was retrieved after a thief was made to eat two dozen bananas and drink several litres of milk laced with laxatives, the Hindustan Times reported.
Months earlier in April, a thief was fed five dozen bananas after swallowing a gold chain with a large pendant.
The thief successfully excreted the loot. But the disgusted victim refused to touch it and instead took it to a jeweller in a plastic bag, the newspaper said.

Read more: - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3394181/Thief-force-fed-40-bananas-retrieve-gold-necklace-swallowed-fleeing-police-Mumbai.html

New freeze-dried 'poo pills' could be the answer to obesity -

New freeze-dried 'poo pills' could be the answer to obesity - 

SCIENTISTS are set to test freeze-dried pills containing the faecal matter of healthy and lean donors in a bid to tackle the obesity crisis.

Twenty obese volunteers will be taking part in the research and each will be receiving capsules that include several grams of stool from slim donors.

The pills will be taken every week for six weeks without making any changes to their normal diet and exercise habits while researchers track any changes.

These health and weight recordings will be taken at three, six and 12 months, with the potential to continue further depending on the success of the trial.

Elaine Yu, a professor and clinical researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital is leading the unusual trial.

While speaking to technology website Ars Technica that she and colleagues are "cautiously optimistic" but admits "We have no idea what the result will be".

The faeces filled capsules are designed to replace a person's intestinal microbes with those from the healthy donor.

The method has been tested in a number of animal studies and some anecdotal data in humans and has proved effective.

Previously, researchers took the gut microbes from a set of twins, one slim, one obese, and transplanted them into two sets of microbe-free mice.

The mice were on the same diet but those who got the obese twin's microbes became plumper, while the mice who received the lean twin's microbes remained slim.

Read more - 
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/6852866/New-freeze-dried-poo-pills-could-be-the-answer-to-obesity.html

ABC7 News car broken into while attending anti-robbery press conference in D.C.- mayor and chief were 100 feet away -

ABC7 News car broken into while attending anti-robbery press conference in D.C.- mayor and chief were 100 feet away - 

 An ABC7 News car was broken into while the crew was attending a press conference held by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Cathy Lanier to discuss a Task Force created to fight robberies.

According to ABC7 News reporter Stephen Tschida, thieves tore through the news vehicle Wednesday morning and a culprit smashed a window out of the car and stole a cache of equipment.

Tschida said the crime happened within view of where the mayor and chief were speaking, approximately 100 feet away.

ABC7 News will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.

Read more - 
http://wjla.com/news/local/abc7-news-car-broken-into-while-crew-was-attending-anti-robbery-press-conference-in-dc

Canadian money is cooler than yours - Quantum-mechanically cool Diffraction Grating technology -

Canadian money is cooler than yours - Quantum-mechanically cool Diffraction Grating technology -  

Apparently, built into the transparent maple leaf design on our Canadian bills is a diffraction grating technology…

That when you shine a laser light through the maple leaf…

An encoded value of the bank note can be seen projected onto a blank surface.

For the $10 Steve used, it diffracted “$10, $10” around the central laser point.

And a $20 note would be encoded with “$20, $20” and so forth. Steve says if you want to try this at home and you are sans a laser, you can even use the Christmas lights on your tree.
The technology used in our money is called WinDOE®, a diffraction optical feature that forms an image when a specific light source passes through the feature. 

OK not exactly. But how randomly neat, eh?

Vaginal speaker lets you play music to fetuses - Parents-to-be can share using headphones which hang out of the vagina -

Vaginal speaker lets you play music to fetuses - Parents-to-be can share using headphones which hang out of the vagina - 

Babypod, a speaker inserted into the vagina, launches with ‘first concert for foetuses’ as 2009 Eurovision song contest contender sings to pregnant women

Does anybody else remember when a Donny Osmond poster was found up a woman’s vagina? Because I do. I’ve never forgotten it, and I never will.

Now, there’s another means of smuggling Osmond into one’s insides – a vaginal speaker. Spanish company Babypod has invented a speaker that is designed to be inserted into the vagina, stimulating foetal development.

“Babies learn to speak in response to sound stimuli, especially melodic sound. Babypod is a device that stimulates before birth through music. With Babypod, babies learn to vocalise from the womb,” reads the blurb on the company’s website.

There has been plenty of research on the effect of sound on foetuses, and evidence suggests that unborn babies do respond to music in the womb. There are already multiple speakers available on the market (“prenatal speakers”) which are fitted around a pregnant woman’s stomach.

Babypod, however, cites research from a gynaecological clinic, the Institut Marquès, that babies hearing external noise clearly is “solely possible via the vagina”, because the abdominal wall muffles sounds.

The pale pink device, which costs 150 euros (£110), is controlled by a phone app but does not use Bluetooth. Parents-to-be can share their babies’ listening experience using split headphones which hang out of the vagina.

The Babypod, which has a top sound level of 54 decibels, is recommended for use from the 16th week of pregnancy, and for between 10-20 minutes a time – or around half the length of the average Joanna Newsom song.

Babypod was launched at the “first concert for foetuses ever held in the world” in which Soraya Arnelas, who finished 23rd in the 2009 Eurovision song contest, “serenaded” 10 pregnant women fitted with the speakers, singing Christmas carols.

Babypod reassures customers that the vibrations of the device do not adversely affect a foetus – “this is why sex toys are allowed in pregnancy”.

One can’t help but think of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode in which a woman is discovered smuggling a mobile phone in her vagina when Larry David calls it and hears it ring.

One can also imagine alternative uses for the Babypod speakers. Adele’s line “hello from the other side” from her huge hit, Hello, would surely come into its own echoing from the vagina during a particular sex act.

Testimonials from users on Babypod’s websites praise the fact that ultrasound scans showed their babies singing along or mouthing a response to music from the speakers. Which means that, should a sadistic mother-to-be ever choose to play Osmond’s Puppy Love, a foetus should be able to object accordingly.

Read more - 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/05/vaginal-speaker-foetuses-babypod-music

Late-night snacks ‘could wreak havoc on your memory’ -

Late-night snacks ‘could wreak havoc on your memory’ - 

Late-night snacks could have a negative impact on your learning and memory abilities, according to a new study.
The research from the University of California found that eating regular meals at times that are normally for sleeping reduced the cognitive performance of mice, and similar effects could exist in humans.
Dawn Loh, first author of the study said: “We have provided the first evidence that taking regular meals at the wrong time of day has far-reaching effects for learning and memory.”
The team of researchers tested whether mice were able to recognise an object. Mice who were regularly fed during their sleep-time were significantly less able to remember the object, and their long-term memory was also greatly reduced.
Both these functions are controlled by a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is involved in activating nerve impulses along certain pathways.

When an experience is repeated, those same pathways are supposed to increase in strength — but this effect was reduced when the sleep cycle was affected by meal time disruption.
In the mice fed late at night, the activity of a protein called CREB was lessened. This protein may be involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and it being less active decreases memory.
It’s suspected that different brain areas not being in synch may be the cause of the memory issues.
The team also found disruptions to sleep patterns, leading to broken up sleep and short naps to catch up on the sleep lost during the night.
Professor Christopher Colwell, one of the researchers on the study, said: “Modern schedules can lead us to eat around the clock so it is important to understand how the timing of food can impact cogitation.
“For the first time, we have shown that simply adjusting the time when food is made available alters the molecular clock in the hippocampus and can alter the cognitive performance of mice.”

Read more - 
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/diet/latenight-snacks-could-wreak-havoc-on-your-memory/news-story/e28b72d600660d3ca4ee0ffc08b4c351

Male bass are experiencing unwanted sex changes, apparently thanks to the “chemical soups” that pass for waterways -

Male bass are experiencing unwanted sex changes, apparently thanks to the “chemical soups” that pass for waterways - 

Male bass are experiencing unwanted sex changes, apparently thanks to the "chemical soups" that pass for waterways in the Northeast. The Washington Post reports 85% of male smallmouth bass surveyed in the region have "characteristics of the opposite sex"—specifically eggs where their testes should be.

The same is true of 27 percent of area largemouth bass, Vice adds. For a recently published study, researchers tested bass near 19 wildlife refuges in the Northeast, according to a US Geological Survey press release.

Researchers didn't do a chemical analysis of the water where the intersex fish were found, so they can't be sure specifically what is causing the sex changes.

But they suspect the problem is things that get dumped down drains and into US waters. Researchers believe the likely culprits are birth control pills, pesticides, hormones in livestock manure, and other chemical-heavy products, according to the press release.

Vice reports those products contain estrogen, which can produce dramatic effects even at very low levels. But this isn't just a problem in the Northeast. Up to 90 percent of male smallmouth bass in parts of West Virginia are intersex, and increasing sex changes have been noted in nearly 40 fish species around the world going back 20 years, according to the Post.

Study author Luke Iwanowicz calls these fish "the canary in the coal mine." "We are looking at fish but, of course, there is that concern that, if this stuff is in the water, it can be affecting other wildlife," he tells Vice.

Read more - 

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/01/04/male-bass-are-experiencing-unwanted-sex-changes.html

Hillary to open the X-Files: promises to 'get to the bottom' of Area 51 - 'I think we may have been visited already' -

Hillary to open the X-Files: promises to 'get to the bottom' of Area 51 - 'I think we may have been visited already' - 

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said that if she is elected, she will 'get to the bottom' of questions over what the government knows about UFOs and aliens.
She made the promise when speaking with Daymond Steer of The Conway Daily Sun in New Hampshire. She had previously interviewed with the same reporter in 2007.
When asked if she would support UFO disclosure group efforts, she enthusiastically said 'yes'.
In 2007, Clinton said the most common freedom-of-information requests her husband Bill Clinton received at his library were about UFOs.

'Yes, I'm going to get to the bottom of it,' Hillary Clinton told The Sun reporter last week. 
In 2014, Bill Clinton told late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel that he wouldn't be surprised if aliens visited Earth, and last week 
'No, I am trying to tell you I don't know, but if we were visited some day I wouldn't be surprised, I just hope it's not like Independence Day,' he said, referring to the 1996 film in which aliens attack the Earth.

Hillary Clinton appeared to agree with her husband's comments when she spoke about aliens on last week.
'I think we may have been (visited already). We don't know for sure,' she said.
She added that she would like to look into Area 51, which she first called Area 54 but quickly corrected herself. 
The Air Force facility based in Nevada has long been rumored to house aliens.
Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta is fan of UFO lore, the presidential candidate told the Sun. She said he watches an FX sci-fi show.

Read more - 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3383221/Hillary-Clinton-vows-reveal-truth-UFOs-Area-51-president-Bill-admits-aliens-visited-Earth.html

Sugar may increase breast, lung cancer risk, study finds -

Sugar may increase breast, lung cancer risk, study finds - 

Table sugar may increase the risk of breast cancer, according to a new animal study from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Previous research has drawn a link between higher sugar intake and breast cancer development, suggesting inflammation as a source, but the current study instead looked at the role of sugar in mammary gland tumor development.

The study, published Friday in Cancer Research, found that mice with sucrose intake comparable to levels of Western diets had a greater risk for tumor growth and metastasis, compared to mice on a non-starch sugar diet.

“This was due, in part, to increased expression of 12-LOX and a related fatty acid called 12-HETE,” Peiying Yang, Ph.D., an assistant professor of palliative, rehabilitation, and integrative medicine at MD Anderson, said in a press release.

The study found that at six months of age, 30 percent of mice on a starch-control diet had measurable tumors, while 60 to 58 percent of mice on sucrose-enriched diets developed mammary tumors.

In addition, the mice on a sucrose- or a fructose-enriched diet were at an increased risk of cancer spreading to their lungs, compared to those on a starch-control diet.

Study authors said moderate sugar consumption is critical, as the per capita consumption of sugar in the United States is more than 100 pounds per year, and increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is a significant contributor to the worldwide epidemics of obesity, heart disease and cancer.

Read more - 

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/01/04/sugar-may-increase-breast-lung-cancer-risk-study-finds.html?intcmp=hplnws

Children aged five eating own weight in sugar each year

Children aged five eating own weight in sugar each year

The average five-year-old consumes the equivalent of their body weight in sugar in the course of a year, health officials have warned.
Parents are being urged to take control of their children’s habits, as the Government prepares to publish its strategy on child obesity, amid calls to introduce a tax on sugary drinks and foods.
The new campaign by Public Health England (PHE) warns that five-year-olds should only be consuming the equivalent of five sugar cubes a day.
On average, child are having three times their recommended maximum daily intake, which rises to six cubes for six to ten-year-olds, and seven cubes for anyone of the age of 11.

Over the course of a year, a child aged between four and 10 will consume around 5,500 sugar cubes – or three and half stone - the average weight of five year old, PHE said.
Officials have launched a new free app, which reveals how much sugar is in everyday food and drink in a bid to encourage parents to take control of their families’ sugar consumption.
It works by scanning the barcode of products and showing the total sugar in each product in cubes and grams.
Tooth decay has become the most common reason that five-to-nine year olds are admitted to hospital, with a 14 per cent increase in admissions in three years.

Read more -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/12069267/Children-aged-five-eating-own-weight-in-sugar-every-year.html