Collodion Babies or Plastic Babies

Collodion Babies or Plastic Babies

The collodion baby is a descriptive term for the infant who is born encased in a tight shiny membrane that resembles plastic wrap. The skin resembles a yellow, tight and shiny film or dried collodion (sausage skin). These babies are often premature. Collodion babies are also known as plastic babies. This is a very rare disease and is found in who are often premature one among every six lakh babies.

The collodion membrane undergoes desquamation or peeling, which is usually complete by 2 to 3 weeks of life. This reveals the underlying skin disorder.

The collodion membrane is due to abnormal desquamation (a peeling process). It is due to mutation of certain genes and is usually an autosomal recessive, congenital ichthyosis (scaly skin condition). However 10% of collodion babies have normal underlying skin – a mild presentation known as ‘self-healing’ collodion baby.

Collodion babies are at high risk of some complications. The cracking and peeling of the membrane increase the risk of infection from microorganisms. These infants are also at risk for fluid loss, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, body temperature instability, and pneumonia.

Collodion babies should be placed in a high humidity chamber, and monitored closely for complications. A high humidity environment will allow slow, gradual sloughing off of the membrane. The membrane will come off on its own and should not be peeled off.   Application of mild petroleum-based moisturizers may help the infant feel more comfortable while the membrane is peeling off.

44-Year-Old Fetus in 84 –Year-Old Woman

44-Year-Old Fetus in 84 –Year-Old Woman



44-Year-Old Fetus in 84 –Year-Old Woman

A 44-year-old fetus has been found in an 84-year-old Brazilian woman. The discovery came last Friday, when the woman's intense stomach pains landed her in a hospital in Tocantins state in central Brazil.

X-rays revealed the unthinkable: a "stone baby." This is a rare phenomenon known as lithopedion, in which the fetus grows and then dies outside of the uterus. With the body unable to rid itself of it, the dead fetus is instead covered in calcium as a means of protection, resulting in the "stone baby."

The X-rays discovered the face, the bones of the arms, of the legs, the ribs, and the spine of the fetus, which is believed to have died at between 20 and 28 weeks. That woman says she does not want the fetus removed.

Bring Future To You

Bring Future To You

Want to bring the future to yourself? See what’s going to happen in your life in next eight years with a time machine. Yes, a time machine that will not take you into the future, it will bring the future to you.

An Iranian scientist, Ali Razeghi claims to have invented a ‘time machine’. The machine can predict up to eight years in the future with 98 per cent accuracy.

The machine, dubbed ‘The Aryayek Time Traveling Machine’ supposedly works by using a complex set of algorithms which he says took him ten years to develop.

The device easily fits into the size of a personal computer case and can predict details of the next five to eight years of the life of its users. A government can see five years into the future and would be able to prepare itself for challenges.

The scientist is expecting to market this invention among states as well as individuals once they reach a mass production stage.

(Source)

Skipper finds bottle with message nearly a century old

Skipper finds bottle with message nearly a century old

A Scottish skipper has hauled in what could be his most unusual catch - a bottle containing a message written 98 years ago.

Andrew Leaper was pulling in his nets when the bottle appeared.

To his amazement, he discovered on opening it that it contained a message asking the finder to record the date and location of where it was found and return it to director of the Scotland Fishery Board to collect a sixpence reward.

Further investigation revealed that the bottle - 646B - had been set adrift as part of 1,890 by Captain CH Brown of the Glasgow School of Navigation.

It was designed to sink and float close to the seabed to monitor currents.

Only 315 of the bottles have ever been found.

(Source)

World’s Oldest Person

World’s Oldest Person

According to the Guinness World Records, Besse Cooper is the world's oldest person. She is 116 years old.  Guinness claims Cooper is one of only eight people who have reached 116.

In honor of Cooper's achievement, a bridge was named after her in Monroe, Ga., where she lives by the Walton County Board of Commissioners. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Friday, Aug. 24 for the bridge opening.

Cooper was certified as the world's oldest person by Guinness World Records in January 2011, although she briefly had to give up her title when it was discovered that Brazilian-born Maria Gomes Valentin was 48 days older. But when Valentin died six months later, Cooper was reinstated as the world's oldest person.

Cooper was born in Sullivan, Tenn., in 1896, according to the Walton Tribune. She moved to Monroe during World War I to become a teacher. In 1924, she married her husband Luther and the couple had four children. Today, Cooper has 12 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, according to the Guinness World Records.

Cooper has a secret to achieving 116 years of life.

"I mind my own business," she told the Guinness World Records. "And I don't eat junk food."

Albino Burmese Python Cake

Albino Burmese Python Cake

The photo of this Albino Burmese Python looks so real, but it is a cake. Yes, the snake is a fake. It's a fake snake cake. This photo is of a snake CAKE made to look like an Amelanistic Burmese Python for a birthday party.
indeed.

Just take a look at this real Albino Burmese Python for  comparison sake. The fake snake cake has an incredible resemblance to the real Albino Burmese Python, which is one of the six largest snakes in the world with most averaging 12-feet long. But it can grow up to 19 feet, and, if not handled properly, can be quite dangerous.
 

(Source)

Human Immortality

Human Immortality

Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov's 2045 Initiative could fulfill the dream of humans becoming immortal. The 31-year-old claims he has assembled a team of top scientists to work on the initiative — a six-stage project that would ultimately see our brains housed in a fully functional holographic human avatar by the year 2045.

Itskov claims his idea will "free" the majority of people on the planet from "disease, old age and even death" through advanced neuroscience, nanotechnology and android robotics.

He projects a human brain will be successfully transplanted into an artificial body in just eight years.

(Source)

Ancient Roman road found in Greece

Ancient Roman road found in Greece

Archaeologists in Greece's second-largest city have uncovered a 70-metre section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was city's main travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago.

The marble-paved road was unearthed during excavations for Thessaloniki's new subway system, which is due to be completed in four years. Several of the large marble paving stones were etched with children's board games, while others were marked by horse-drawn cart wheels. Also discovered at the site were remains of tools and lamps, as well as the bases of marble columns.

About seven metres below ground in the center of the city, the ancient road follows in roughly the same direction as the city's modern Egnatia Avenue.

(Source)

Extreme Ironing

Extreme Ironing is an extreme sport in which people take an ironing board to a remote location and iron items of clothing. According to Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing is "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt."

Some locations where such performances have taken place include a mountainside of a difficult climb; a forest; in a canoe; while skiing or snowboarding; on top of large bronze statues; in the middle of a street; underwater; in the middle of the M1 Motorway; whilst parachuting and under the ice cover of a lake. The performances have been conducted solo or by groups.

Extreme Ironing started in the city of Leicester in the UK, in the summer of 1997. When mild mannered Steam, returned home after a long day in the knitwear factory, the last thing he wanted to do was start on a pile of ironing. The sun was shining and Phil preferred the idea of an evening out pursuing his hobby of rock climbing. Then it occurred to him to combine these activities into an extreme sport and the result was the sport of extreme ironing. In the beginning extreme ironists used very long extension cords, but now they use battery powered irons.

(Source)

Woman impregnated by squid

A 63-year old woman from South Korea became pregnant with 12 baby squid while eating a portion of cooked squid.

She claimed to have felt a prickling sensation in her mouth while chewing on the sperm sacks of squid, which forcefully shoot sperm that try to embed themselves when they land.

The lady went to doctors complaining of what they described as 'bug-like organisms' in her mouth. In fact, doctors found baby cephalopods, which are small pods covered in adhesive to make them stick.

Doctors were only able to formally identify the pods as squid spermatophores after they removed them from the victim's gums, tongue and cheek.

(Source)

Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

15-year-old girl in the UK has just woken from two months of almost solid sleep due to an extremely rare medical condition. Stacey Comerford from Shropshire in the UK is one of just 1000 people alive to suffer from Kleine-Levin syndrome, commonly known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. The disorder means she sleeps for 20 hours a day for weeks at a time. When she awakes during these 'episodes', she's barely able to sip water or get any food down.

Kleine-Levin Syndrome also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by recurring periods of excessive amounts of sleeping and eating. At the onset of an episode the patient becomes drowsy and sleeps for most of the day and night, waking only to eat or go to the bathroom. They also experience confusion, disorientation, complete lack of energy and lack of emotions. Individuals are not able to attend school or work or care for themselves. Most are bedridden, tired, and uncommunicative even when awake.

(Source 1, 2)

Chagas: The new AIDS

Chagas, a tropical disease spread by insects has infected more than 8 million people, most of them in Latin and Central America.

The editorial, published by the Public Library of Science's Neglected Tropical Diseases, said the spread of the disease is reminiscent of the early years of HIV.

Both diseases disproportionately affect people living in poverty, both are chronic conditions requiring prolonged, expensive treatment, and as with patients in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, most patients with Chagas disease do not have access to health care facilities.

Unlike HIV, Chagas is not a sexually-transmitted disease. It is caused by parasites transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects. The insect, known as the kissing bug bites you on the face. When you wake up and scratch the itch, the parasite moves into the wound and you're infected.

(Source)

Two Sydney men named baby's parents

Two men have been declared the parents of a toddler born through a surrogate, after a New South Wales court in Australia ruled it was in the child's best interests.

The birth mother agreed to give up recognition on the birth certificate, leaving only the names of the Sydney same-sex couple on the document.

(Source)

Camouflage Homes

Ever wish you could just disappear? Well, a camouflage home may be the answer! These noticeable or unnoticeable homes are the examples of amazing architectural skills. From modern estates to funky little mud huts built by hand.

                             Wood House, Hilversum, Netherlands

This mini-dwelling is disguised as a pile of wood that's been stacked for the winter. In actuality, the building is a pre-fab structure made of steel and plastic. The log-like appearance was achieved by applying a wood veneer.

                            Casa do Penedo, Fafe Mountains, Portugal

What looks like left-over boulders from the Stone Age is actually a house. Casa do Penedo or the 'House of Stone', was built in 1974 with four different boulders.

 

                            Leaf Box, San Francisco, California

This modern cube, which stands behind a San Francisco row house, is actually an art studio. The verdant plant life that grows on its walls was introduced to make the boxy building blend into the property's adjacent parkland.

 

                            Dune Home, Atlantic Beach, Florida

Carved into the dunes of Atlantic Beach, Florida, these two psychedelic apartments are pure 1970s. Native landscaping on the exterior ensures comfortable 70-degree temperatures indoors. Created by architect William Morgan, they were constructed using technology that was devised to create unite swimming pools.

Dragon Rock, Garrison, New York

 Industrial designer Russell Wright designed this retreat, called Dragon Rock, in the 1960s. Nestled into a rocky hillside among 75 acres of trees and woodland gardens, the house and studio overlook a quarry pond.

  

(Source)

Human body in a vacuum of space

If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury. Holding your breath is likely to damage your lungs, something scuba divers have to watch out for when ascending, and you'll have eardrum trouble if your Eustachian tubes are badly plugged up, but theory predicts that otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no immediate injury. You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.

Various minor problems sunburn, certainly some swelling of skin and underlying tissue start after ten seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two minutes, you're dying. The limits are not really known.

You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does not transfer away from a body quickly. Loss of consciousness occurs only after the body has depleted the supply of oxygen in the blood. If your skin is exposed to direct sunlight without any protection from its intense ultraviolet radiation, you can get very bad sunburn.

(Source)

Bombay Blood Group

Bombay blood group is a rare blood group also called Hh blood group. This blood phenotype was first discovered in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, in India, by Dr. Y.M. Bhende in 1952. A patient was admitted to KEM Hospital and required blood transfusions. A sample of blood was sent to the Blood Bank for grouping as is the usual practice. The red cells grouped like O group and hence O group blood was administered. The patient developed haemolytic transfusion reaction, and therefore transfusion had to be stopped.

A detailed study of the patient’s blood revealed a rare genotype (blood group), which was neither ‘A’ nor ‘B’ nor ‘AB’ nor ‘O’. Since the first case was detected in Mumbai (then Bombay), the blood group came to be called as Bombay Blood Group. Blood from a Bombay Blood Group individual only should be transfused to a Bombay Blood Group patient.

Individuals with the rare Bombay phenotype (hh) do not express H antigen (also called substance H), the antigen which is present in blood group O. As a result, they cannot make A antigen (also called substance A) or B antigen (substance B) on their red blood cells, whatever alleles they may have of the A and B blood-group genes, because A antigen and B antigen are made from H antigen; For this reason people who has Bombay phenotype can donate RBCs to any member of the ABO blood group system (unless some other blood factor gene, such as Rhesus, is incompatible), but they cannot receive any member of the ABO blood group system's blood (which always contains one or more of A and B and H antigens), but only from other people who have Bombay phenotype.

This very rare Phenotype is generally present in about 0.0004% (about 4 per million) of the human population, though in some places such as Mumbai (formerly Bombay) locals can have occurrences in as much as 0.01% (1 in 10,000) of inhabitants and 1 in a million people in Europe.

(Source)

Nomophobia - fear of being without your phone

Nomophobia is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. The term, an abbreviation for "no-mobile-phone phobia", was coined during a study by the UK Post Office who commissioned YouGov, a UK-based research organisation to look at anxieties suffered by mobile phone users.

The study found that nearly 53% of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they "lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage". The study found that about 58% of men and 48% of women suffer from the phobia, and an additional 9% feel stressed when their mobile phones are off. The study sampled 2,163 people. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed cited keeping in touch with friends or family as the main reason that they got anxious when they could not use their mobile phones.

(Source)

Baby born without blood

You can hardly tell today, but when six-month-old Olivia Norton was born, doctors were shocked by her 'ghost white' body.

Olivia was born with a condition so rare it is likely to be written in to medical textbooks – she was born without blood.

The condition known as fetomaternal haemorrhage meant Olivia's blood ran back into her mother's system, leaving her with such a low heamoglobin count it couldn't actually be considered blood.

Fetomaternal haemorrhag is found in around one every 5000 babies, and can occur spontaneously or due to trauma.

Doctors gave Olivia less than two hours to survive, but thanks to rapid blood transfusions, her skin returned to a normal shade of pink within hours.

(Source)

Flying car cleared for takeoff

                                       AFP ©

Drivers hoping to slip the surly -- and traffic congested -- bonds of Earth moved a step closer to realizing their dream, as a US firm said it had successfully tested a street-legal plane.

Massachusetts-based firm said their production prototype "Transition" car-plane had completed an eight-minute test flight, clearing the way for it to hit the market within a year.

The two-seater craft, which has the rounded features of a Fiat 500 and collapsible wings, is on presale for $279,000 and some 100 vehicles have already been ordered.

(Source)

Longest Wedding Dress

The Guinness World Record for the wedding dress with the longest tail in the world was made in Bucharest on March 20, 2012. The 2,750 meter long train broke a previous record of 2,488 meters. It is made of 4,700 meters of material using 1,857 needles, taking 100 days to make.

(Source)