Four cancer deaths at university ‘may be linked to radioactive experiments’

Radiation from experiments carried out by a prizewinning nuclear scientist more than 100 years ago may be responsible for four cancer deaths at a university.

Three academics and a computer assistant have died after working in the same building.

The one-time laboratory at Manchester University was used by Ernest Rutherford at the turn of the last century.

He is known to have begun a series of experiments using radioactive material in 1906.

Officials from the Health and Safety Executive have now ordered a review to determine whether former lecturers, students and ancillary staff were contaminated by traces of radon and polonium left in the building.

All four of those whose deaths are under review worked in the university’s psychology department, which moved into the old physics department in 1972.

Dr Arthur Reader, 69, died from pancreatic cancer last week. Shortly before his death his wife, Grace, said his illness appeared to be “more than a coincidence.”

In February this year Vanessa Santos-Leitao, 25, a computer assistant who worked in the building from 2006, died of a brain tumour.

Dr Hugh Wagner, a psychologist, died last year of pancreatic cancer. He was 62 and had spent two decades working in room 2.62 of the Rutherford Building.

It was in this room in 1908 that Rutherford, assisted by a colleague, Thomas Royds, carried out experiments using radon.

The Rutherford Building is also known to have contained quantities of polonium, the substance which killed Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian dissident, in November 2006.

One of Dr Wagner’s colleagues, Dr John Clark, worked in the room directly below 2.62. He died of a brain tumour in 1992 after taking early retirement.

Concern about the Rutherford Building first emerged in June when three of the university’s psychologists published the findings of a private investigation in June.

Although they were unable to establish any direct evidence to link the deaths of their colleagues to radioactive contamination, university officials have confirmed that the Rutherford Building was the subject of a precautionary decontamination exercise in 1999. … – telegraph

Skydivers set for new heights over Everest

Dozens of skydivers will attempt the first parachute jumps over Mount Everest next week, organizers said on Tuesday. At least 34 skydivers from 14 countries, including Britain, the United States, Canada, Denmark and New Zealand plan to jump from an aircraft flying 465 feet above the Everest summit on October 2.

Hurtling past the 8,850-meter (29,035 feet) peak, the skydivers plan, weather permitting, to freefall for 1 minute before deploying their parachutes and cruising for 8-10 minutes to land in a flat drop zone at 12,350 feet. “This will be the most important event in the Himalayan adventure since 1953,” said Nigel Gifford, owner of the British company High & Wild which has organized the team.

“To freefall in front of Mount Everest with four other highest mountains is an exceptional experience,” said Gifford, 62, who climbed Everest in 1976. “It has never been done before.” Mount Everest was first climbed by New Zealand’s Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa 55 years ago.

Each participant will wear an oxygen mask and carry a larger than normal parachute to help a fast descent through the thin air of the world’s highest drop zone.

“It is a very big adventure, it is a truly historic adventure,” said 40-year-old Danish participant Per Wimmer. “This is not walking the path. This is true adventure,” said Wimmer, a financier and entrepreneur living in London, adding that the plan was not free from risk. Not finding the drop zone after the fall, extreme cold and malfunctioning of oxygen masks were some of the potential hazards, Wimmer said. – yahoo

Another mass UFO sighting

THREE station workers and three backpackers have been left stunned after witnessing strange lights flying over a remote station in the NT outback.

Ray Aylett, Normie Hooker and Alan “Doc” McIntosh were sitting on their pergola at Muckaty Station with three European backpackers when a bright light appeared.

Mr Aylett, 58, said they were all stunned by the bizarre sighting. “This strange light was coming straight for us, over the house,” he said. “We all walked outside and were watching it come towards us, then it went straight east and faded out.” Mr Aylett, who has lived at the station north of Tennant Creek for eight years, said he couldn’t believe his eyes as the bright light approached on a Thursday night two weeks ago.

“This thing was strange,” he said.

“I have never seen anything like it.” “Normie and Doc had never seen anything like it either, and those backpackers, they were in shock.” “I was sitting there watching for a couple of minutes.” “You could see it coming towards us but it wasn’t a plane.”

“It made no noise – you couldn’t hear anything.” Mr Aylett said there was no way their judgement could have been affected by alcohol. … He said the light returned the next night, this time coming from the other direction. “One bloke went out with a pair of binoculars and said it just turned and went east,” he said. – ntnews

Former Creek County judge disbarred

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday disbarred Donald D. Thompson, a former Creek County district judge whose conduct the court said “displayed a complete abdication of judgment.”

Thompson “stands convicted of crimes that demonstrate his unfitness to practice law,” the order states.

“His criminal behavior is not only socially unacceptable, but is an affront to the judicial branch of government and the legal profession.

“Such conduct can do nothing other than to undermine public confidence and trust in the dignity and integrity of the judiciary and the legal profession,” the order continued.

A jury convicted Thompson on June 29, 2006, of four counts of indecent exposure after a trial in Bristow. Prosecutors said Thompson exposed himself and used a penis pump to masturbate during four Creek County trials.

The high court’s order noted that the conduct was not isolated but occurred over a fairly lengthy period of time. A jury set Thompson’s sentence at one year in prison per charge and fines totaling $40,000. He was released from prison this year after serving 20 months.- tul

Researcher finds tiny dino in world of giants

A Canadian researcher has discovered what is believed to be North America‘s smallest dinosaur, a 70-million-year-old chicken-sized beast that was also unusual for its diet of insects.

Called the Albertonykus borealis, the odd-looking creature had bird-like features including slender legs, jaws like pincers and stubby arms with big claws.

Its bones were excavated near Red Deer, in fossil-rich Alberta, in 2002 among about 20 Albertosaurus remains, and went unnoticed.

The dinosaur is a newly discovered member of the family Alvarezsauridae, from which fossils had previously been dug up only in South America and Mongolia, said Nick Longrich, paleontology research associate at the University of Calgary. …

“Most of the dinosaurs we know about — things like Tyrannosaurus, giant carnivores, or Triceratops, big herbivores — are large. This thing is very small, about 2-1/2 feet (two-thirds of a meter) long and we think it’s doing something very different: we think it might have actually been an insectivore,” he said.

It was not made for digging, like moles. Its features were not unlike those of anteaters, and Longrich said it appears it tore into logs so it could feast on termites or beetles. … He said it may have been prey for such other dinosaurs as Albertosaurus and Velociraptors, those that could catch the speedy little beast.  … – newsdaily

More lumps wash up on Kapiti Coast

More mysterious lard-like lumps have washed up on lower North Island shores, proving a beacon to dogs and fortune hunters.

Waikanae Beach resident and shopkeeper Sue Wilkie discovered a large, white, barnacle-covered object at the water’s edge while walking her dog yesterday morning.

“It really stood out. At first I thought it was an old float covered in barnacles.

“When I got up to it I thought it was concrete, but when I looked around the other side it was greasy and crumbly, just like the lump found at Breaker Bay.

“My German shepherd Bella was attracted to it, gave it a good sniff but backed off fast.”

Mrs Wilkie was keen to cut the greasy lump into blocks and sell it as moisturising sunblock. “It could be a godsend for nudies on our beach.”

John Jaspers, of Lower Hutt, was on his dune buggy at Waikanae Beach with dog Conrod when they spotted a white blob on the tide.

They both leapt off the buggy and Conrod sniffed the blob, but was not game enough to take a bite.

After the first lump was reported at Wellington’s Breaker Bay at the weekend, opportunists tore into it, hoping it might be ambergris, a valuable spit or vomit excretion from sperm whales that is used in perfume. But it now seems more likely to be tallow or lard. …

Hoping that it was ambergris, he took a sample and lit it, after being told that, if it burnt with a blue flame and had a pleasant odour, it could be the prized whale excretion.

“Unfortunately it just melted and really stank,” he said.

“It was awful, like rancid fat or lard.” – stuff

Robber’s bum rap

An alleged bank robber was caught as she tried to raid the same branch twice – when a witness identified her by her big bum.

Police say Sandra Meiser, 26, got away with a £12,000 robbery in Norf, western Germany, after threatening bank staff with a gun.

Witnesses told officers that the raider was a woman with a “very large” backside and “powerful thighs”.

Then weeks later one witness found himself behind what he believes to be the same bottom as they stood in a queue at the same branch.

“He called the police and they arrested her and found her ski mask and hand gun in her jacket. He said he recognised her bottom straight away – he’d never forget something that big,” said one bank worker.

Now Meiser is facing up to 10 years in jail on robbery and firearms charges while the 61-year-old witness has landed a £4,000 reward. – ananova

Sarah Palin Gets Protection From Witches

Sarah Palin is nuts. Witch hunts are so not cool.

Wheelchair on plane bursts into flames

Battery fire causes near disaster on British holiday jet carrying 229 passengers.

A holiday jet carrying 229 passengers narrowly avoided disaster when a wheelchair stored in the hold burst into flames shortly after landing at Manchester airport. Ground staff unloading baggage from the hold of the First Choice holiday jet noticed blue sparks coming from the chair, it was revealed today. The chair was removed from the Boeing 727-200 jet and placed on a vehicle – where it immediately burst into flames and was destroyed.

Okay, mailonsunday says, “The explosion happened after it was removed from the Boeing 727-000 and placed on a vehicle where it immediately burst into flames.” Others say First Choice flight FCA 2662 was a Boeing 757-200.  Take your pick: 727-200, 727-000, 757-200, 867-5309? Anyway…

The scare happened on Sunday September 7, when the First Choice flight FCA 2662 jet landed in the early hours of the morning after a flight from Fuerteventura.

A spokeswoman for Manchester Airport praised the ground handling staff who “spotted the hazard and reacted quickly.” The battery on the wheelchair should have been disconnected in the Canary Islands, she added. The scare today prompted the Civil Aviation Authority to issue a warning to passengers about the dangers of “seemingly innocuous items,” said a spokesman. - timesonline

Other things that shouldn’t catch fire, but do.

Iran leader says ‘American empire’ near collapse

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sharply attacked the United States and NATO, accusing them of acting as aggressors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of starting those wars “in order to win votes in elections.”

“American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders,” Ahmadinejad said.

In a highly rhetorical speech, the Iranian leader again criticized archenemy Israel and showed no sign of reaching out to Western powers at the U.N., where the United States and its European allies are seeking a new round of sanctions if no agreement is reached on limiting Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Some worry that Israel or the U.S. might resort to military strikes if they believe all diplomatic options have been exhausted.

While the U.S. and its allies allege Iran wants to develop its uranium enrichment program to make nuclear weapons, Tehran insists it is designed to produce electricity for civilian use — a position Ahmadinejad reiterated Tuesday. – ap

Well, unless he is speaking about the secret plot of Russia, China and the EU to join forces and take over the US in a few years, he is completely wrong. Just kidding. I hope.

Whatever. Our military is totally ready for anything.