Italian man shot in head sneezes out bullet

Darco Sangermano, 28, was hit in the temple by the .22 calibre bullet while wandering with his girlfriend through Naples – a city in Italy notorious for its rowdy New Year celebrations, often involving firearms and powerful fireworks.

The bullet went through the right side of his head, behind his eye socket and lodged in his nasal passage but miraculously did no serious damage.

Bleeding heavily, he was taken to hospital in an ambulance shortly after midnight, but while waiting to be seen by doctors he sneezed and the bullet shot out of his right nostril.

Mr Sangermano, a craftsman from Turin, returned to his hometown after being released from hospital.

“The route of the bullet broke his temporal bone, near his temple, and this slowed down the bullet which grazed his eyeball without hitting it directly,” Dr Guglielmo Ramieri told Gente magazine.

Surgeons operated on the eye, removing splinters of bone that the bullet left in its wake.

“The operation lasted several hours but he is fine,” said Mr Sangermano’s uncle, Vito Sangermano. “The doctors agree that he will not lose the use of his eye, even if for now his sight is blurry.”

In the next few weeks Mr Sangermano will undergo laser surgery to repair damage to his retina and is expected to make a full recovery.

via Italian man shot in head sneezes out bullet – Telegraph.

This is one of the strangest stories of 2011 which I somehow missed.

Swallowed pen still works 25 years later

CT scan demonstrating a linear foreign body in the stomach of a 76-year-old woman.

Cari Nierenberg – The case, which appeared in the British Medical Journal Case Reports, described a 76- year-old British woman sent to a GI specialist because of weight loss and diarrhea.

She was diagnosed with severe diverticulosis, a condition that’s common in older people in which small pouches bulge out from the colon. But when doctors did a scanning test of her belly they noticed something strange: “A linear foreign body in the stomach.” (Click here for photos.)

When asked about it, the woman remembered accidentally swallowing a black felt-tip pen 25 years earlier. (In case you’re wondering, dentures and toothpicks are two of the most common items that adults accidentally swallow.)

According to her gastroenterologist Dr. Oliver Waters, who authored the case report, she was standing on her stairs using an uncapped pen to poke a spot on her tonsils. She was also holding a hand mirror to guide the pen to the exact spot. Somehow, while doing this, she lost her balance and stumbled. The fall managed to push the pen down her throat. It glided down her gullet and found a home in her tummy.

She told her husband and her doctor what had happened, but they were skeptical of the story. X-rays done at the time were normal and found no trace of the pen. Flash forward to the present, to a different doctor and even better stomach-scanning technology to investigate the case of the missing marker. More than two decades later a scan hit pay dirt: The pen.

Although the woman’s current digestive problems had nothing to do with the marker she had unintentionally downed, doctors decided to remove it anyway. Their rationale was a case in the medical literature of a child accidentally swallowing a ball-point pen that bore a hole in his bowel. Incredibly, the pen had stayed in her stomach for 25 years without causing any significant damage to her GI tract, Waters says.

After bathing in stomach acid for a two-and-a-half decades, the pen was corroded and the plastic was flaky, but, amazingly, the pen still had usable ink and could write!

“This case highlights that plain abdominal x-rays may not identify ingested plastic objects and occasionally it may be worth believing the patient’s account however unlikely it may be,” the report advises doctors.

via The Body Odd – Swallowed pen still works 25 years later.

Don’t you hate when people won’t believe you about something you know is true?

Croissant thief on the loose in France

Since December 9, the man has robbed five bakeries in the western suburbs of the French capital, police said, each time using the same modus operandi.

After placing an order, the man holds up what appears to be a fake revolver, points it at the person behind the cash register and takes his pastries without paying.

No one has been injured in the robberies and in each case the value of the goods stolen has been low, at between eight and 20 euros (£7 and £17).

Meanwhile in Bordeaux, police arrested Father Christmas. The 53-year-old, who was employed as a Father Christmas at Bordeaux’s Christmas market, was arrested after brandishing a hunting rifle, which was unloaded, at his nephew, who was also his boss.

The Sud Ouest newspaper suggested that Father Christmas was angry over unpaid hours and felt “swindled”. …

via Croissant thief on the loose in France – Telegraph.

Jupiter Destroys Part of Its Own Core

Tudor Vieru – The largest and heaviest planet in our solar system is apparently well on its way to destroying its own core, a complex set of analyses has revealed recently. The most interesting implication of the new work is that the largest gas giant extrasolar planets may not have a core at all.

Analyzing what goes on on Jupiter is important from two main points of view – one, whatever happens to it affects everything else in the solar system except the Sun, and two, it can be used as a proxy for exoplanetary studies.

Jupiter is nearly twice as heavy as all other planets combined, and its presence is essential to the current configuration of the solar system. If it were to deviate from its current orbit, it move drag all other giants with it, and together they could obliterate Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury.

… In a paper submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters, the team argues that – most likely – the gas giant’s core is a lot smaller than it was when the planet first formed, more than 4 billion years ago.

This study could conceivably enable researchers to figure out how the planet evolved over time. “If we can do that, then we can make a very useful statement about what Jupiter was like at genesis,” David Stevenson of Caltech explains. He was not a part of the new study.

via Jupiter Destroys Part of Its Own Core – Softpedia.

Ducks freed from frozen lake after alarm quacks from feathered friend

Two ducks had found themselves stuck in an icy lake after plunging temperatures in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China.

It was the loud call from a third duck that attracted the attention of Qingdao Forest Wildlife World staff, who rushed to the lake to free the first bird.

They noticed another trapped bird not too far away, so using their inflatable boat, the staff proceeded to complete their rescue.

via Ducks freed from frozen lake after alarm quacks from feathered friend | Metro.co.uk.

First ‘Santa friendly chimney’ created after boy’s letter

A young boy’s fears that his new house would not have a chimney big enough to fit Father Christmas has led a Cotswold builder designing one of the world’s first Father Christmas-friendly chimneys.

Leo Park, six, was understandably alarmed when his mother Jade began designing a new holiday home with a chimney that was too small for Father Christmas.

So he wrote to local builder Jeremy Paxton, whose team set to work on the “perfect Father Christmas chimney” using a simple mathematical formula.

Leo wrote: “I am worried that my mummy’s house doesn’t have a big enough chimney. I think Father Christmas will get stuck. Please can you help? Love Leo.”

Mr Paxton was taken by the sweet-natured note and commissioned an architect and a mathematician to design a Chimney that could fit Saint Nick, his bulging frame and a sack full of presents on Christmas day.

On Monday Mr Paxton unveiled the chimney, which is undergoing practical tests, at the Lower Mill Estate near Cirencester, Glos. …

via First ‘Santa friendly chimney’ created after boy’s letter – Telegraph.

Woah, some parents don’t know about Santa’s infinite shrinking magic?

Maggots Clean Wounds Faster Than Surgeons, but Results Not Better After 1 Week

Maggots can remove dead tissue from wounds more quickly than standard treatments, but the therapy has no superior benefit beyond one week.

Medical use of maggots was approved in 2004 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, only a small minority of patients with unhealing wounds receive the treatment, said Dr. Robert Kirsner, a dermatologist at the University of Miami School of Medicine, who was not involved in the new study.

The study included about 100 men with wounds on their lower limbs. About half received maggot therapy and half received surgical treatment. For the maggot therapy, sterile maggots were placed in a small pouch that was placed on top of the wound. The therapy was applied twice a week for two weeks.

Neither the patients nor the doctor evaluating the wounds knew which therapy a patient received (patients wore a blindfold when their bandages were changed.)

After eight days, the percentage of dead tissue in the wounds of patients who received the maggot therapy was 54.5 percent, compared with 66.5 percent in patients who received surgery. But after 15 days and 30 days, the amount of dead tissue in the wounds was about the same for both groups.

The number of patients who reported feeling a crawling sensation in their wound, and the number reporting pain, was also about the same in both groups, according to the study, which was conducted by researchers at the University Hospital Center of Caen, in France.

via Maggots Clean Wounds Faster Than Surgeons | Wound Healing | LiveScience.

A New Kind Of Metal In The Deep Earth

The crushing pressures and intense temperatures in Earth’s deep interior squeeze atoms and electrons so closely together that they interact very differently. With depth materials change. New experiments and supercomputer computations discovered that iron oxide undergoes a new kind of transition under deep Earth conditions. Iron oxide, FeO, is a component of the second most abundant mineral at Earth’s lower mantle, ferropericlase. The finding, published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, could alter our understanding of deep Earth dynamics and the behavior of the protective magnetic field, which shields our planet from harmful cosmic rays. …

Compounds typically undergo structural, chemical, electronic, and other changes under these extremes. Contrary to previous thought, the iron oxide went from an insulating (non-electrical conducting) state to become a highly conducting metal at 690,000 atmospheres and 3000°F, but without a change to its structure. Previous studies had assumed that metallization in FeO was associated with a change in its crystal structure. This result means that iron oxide can be both an insulator and a metal depending on temperature and pressure conditions.

“At high temperatures, the atoms in iron oxide crystals are arranged with the same structure as common table salt, NaCl,” explained Cohen. “Just like table salt, FeO at ambient conditions is a good insulator—it does not conduct electricity. Older measurements showed metallization in FeO at high pressures and temperatures, but it was thought that a new crystal structure formed. Our new results show, instead, that FeO metallizes without any change in structure and that combined temperature and pressure are required. Furthermore, our theory shows that the way the electrons behave to make it metallic is different from other materials that become metallic.”

“The results imply that iron oxide is conducting in the whole range of its stability in Earth’s lower mantle.” Cohen continues, “The metallic phase will enhance the electromagnetic interaction between the liquid core and lower mantle. This has implications for Earth’s magnetic field, which is generated in the outer core. It will change the way the magnetic field is propagated to Earth’s surface, because it provides magnetomechanical coupling between the Earth’s mantle and core.”

“The fact that one mineral has properties that differ so completely—depending on its composition and where it is within the Earth—is a major discovery,” concluded Geophysical Laboratory director Russell Hemley.

via A New Kind Of Metal In The Deep Earth – Science News – redOrbit.

Strange nuclear waste lint might be “biological in nature”

Savannah River Site scientists are working to identify a strange growth found on racks of spent nuclear fuel collected from foreign governments.

The “white, stringlike” material was found among thousands of spent fuel assemblies submerged in deep pools within the site’s L Area, according to a report filed by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a federal oversight panel.

“The growth, which resembles a spider web, has yet to be characterized, but may be biological in nature,” the report said.

Savannah River National Laboratory collected a small sample in hopes of identifying the mystery lint – and determining whether it is alive.

L Area, with 3-foot-thick concrete walls, includes pools that range from 17 to 30 feet deep, where submerged racks are used to store an array of assemblies – some containing highly enriched uranium – from foreign and domestic research reactors. The material is kept there for national security reasons.

The safety board’s report said the initial sample collected was too small to allow further characterization.

“Further evaluation still needs to be completed,” the report said.

Will Callicott, a spokesman for Savannah River National Laboratory, said in an e-mail that officials hope to collect a larger sample for analysis.

“But whatever it is, (it) doesn’t appear to be causing any damage,” he said.

via Strange nuclear waste lint might be “biological in nature” | The Augusta Chronicle.