WEAVE SAVES THE DAY

Story o' the day, courtesy of The Associated Press and KSHB-TV:

Kansas City police say a woman's tightly-woven hair weave probably saved her life. KSHB-TV reports that the woman's boyfriend fired a shot through the back window of a car late last night. Police say the woman's hair weave stopped the bullet, and she wasn't hurt.

Yet another reason to salute the weave.

DOC SAYS YOU'RE GONNA DIE

Man in Australia squats for a little roadside relief. Deadly brown snake squirms between his legs and lunges at the dangly bits. Man and snake freak.

The Cairns Post has the story:

Emergency workers raced to the scene to treat the man.

The wound was wrapped in plastic in case poison had penetrated the skin but medical staff gave the man the all-clear after conducting tests.

He was taken to Cooktown Hospital where he spent a night recovering.

The ambulance spokesman described him as "lucky", given his near encounter with one of Australia’s most poisonous snakes.

"I think he was a bit shocked and embarrassed," he said.

Life imitates joke.

NEVER GONNA BREAK MY FAITH

As you remember lost loved ones on Memorial Day, keep in mind Jeff Melton. His widow, Holly, has a challenge for locals, issued in a column in Sunday's News-Leader, and on her blog.

Holly Melton wants to establish an urgent care cancer clinic in the Ozarks -- "an urgent care medical facility that is dedicated to only the special needs of cancer patients." She writes:

When one is battling for his or her life, an urgent care clinic is needed that is specially designed to keep cancer patients free from the airborne illnesses found in a typical urgent or emergent care facility. A cancer patient's immune system is already greatly compromised. A clinic is needed where a cancer patient's wait won't be extended because of an incoming car accident that takes the immediate attention. A clinic is needed where a cancer patient will be touched gently, spoken to softly -- cancer patients are in great pain, not hard of hearing. Often the pain medication and the cancer treatments have left a cancer patient with a low tolerance for noise and light. The tumors and searing pain in their bodies make it absolutely necessary for gentle treatment, softer bedding, swift and expert bed transfers. A cancer patient doesn't want to go through their litany of medications another time. Therefore, there is a need for a registry of medications. There is a desperate need to care for those with cancer, no matter what stage of the disease.

If you have ever witnessed someone who has just received a round of chemotherapy, or a cancer patient who is so weak and in desperate need of a blood transfusion, or a cancer patient whose pain is so intense that the thought alone of moving makes them vomit, then you can see the need exists. Please join me. We can do this.

Stop by her blog, read up, consider joining her challenge. It's a worthy one.

TOO THIN IS IN

Click this link to the UK Times and tell us -- is this beauty?

The poster girl is Isabelle Caro, a French actress. She is 27. She weighs 68 pounds after 15 years with anorexia.

New billboards in Italy show her naked. They are supposed to highlight the hell of anorexia. But they're also promoting a fashion label.

As the UK Times reports:

Her emaciated body, framed by the controversial photographer Oliviero Toscani in a campaign to coincide with Milan Fashion Week, appears alongside the slogan “No Anorexia” and the brand name Nolita, a label intended for young women.

Fashionistas hailed the poster campaign as a turning point but health experts were outraged and voiced fears that teenage girls might be encouraged to “compete for extreme thinness” after seeing the images.

“I’ve hidden myself and covered myself for too long. Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance,” Caro told the Italian edition of Vanity Fair. She said that her own troubled childhood had provoked her illness, even if some in the fashion world conceded that stereotypes promoted by the industry itself were to blame.

Nolita, an Italian clothing company, said the billboards are supposed “to use the naked body to show everyone the reality of this illness, caused in most cases by the stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion." That, and to push the brand.

MMMM, DINOSAUR BONE SOUP

What to do with a ton of excavated dinosaur bones? When in central Chia, boil them in soup. Or grind 'em up and use 'em as medicine.

The Associated Press reports:

Until last year, the fossils were being sold in Henan province as "dragon bones" at about 4 yuan (50 cents) per kilogram (2.2 pounds), scientist Dong Zhiming told The Associated Press.

Villagers apparently believed the bones were from flying dragons. And yes, the doc's name is Dong.

LEFT-HANDED WOMEN DOOMED

Well, it's not that bad, but a new study indicates that life for lefty women isn't as peachy as it is for their right-handed sisters.

The Telegraph reports:

The researchers followed 12,178 middle-aged Dutch women for nearly 13 years, 252 of whom died.

When left-handed women were statistically compared with other women, the left-handers had 40 per cent more chance of dying from any cause, a 70 per cent higher risk of dying from cancer, and a 30 per cent higher risk of dying from diseases of the circulatory system.

Left-handed women also had twice as much chance of dying from breast cancer, nearly five times the risk of dying from colo-rectal cancer, and more than three times the risk of dying from a cerebrovascular condition.

It's all good, otherwise.

NO NEED TO GO ON LIVING

The notion of living a meat-free life holds some attraction to us. But then we think about bacon.

Bacon. Greatest foodstuff ever. Good with salad, pairs well with peanut butter, and quite tasty wrapped around another piece of meat. Can't say that about tofu.

So of course the researchers have to be killjoys. According to the BBC:

Eating large quantities of cured meats like bacon could damage lung function and increase the risk of lung disease.

A Columbia University team found people who ate cured meats at least 14 times a month were more likely to have COPD - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, kills around 30,000 people in the UK each year.

The report, in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, said nitrites in meat may be to blame.

Smoking while eating bacon is not a good idea.

ELIZABETH EDWARDS HEALTH SCARE?

Heads up: Elizabeth Edwards may be back in the news on Wednesday. WHO reports:

Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards was supposed to be in Indianola, Iowa, at 6pm Tuesday for a house party. But instead, WHO-TV has learned he's headed back home to be with his wife, who's battling breast cancer. Senator Edwards was scheduled to attend a wine and cheese fundraiser for up to 150 people. But he phoned the party's host around 4 p.m. to say he had to fly home immediately after his wife received some unexpected test results from the doctor. Elizabeth Edwards has been in remission after doctors diagnosed her with breast cancer in 2004. Her husband's presidential campaign said Mrs. Edwards had a routine test Monday and has to go back to the doctor Wednesday for a followup exam.

Could be nothing. Hope it's nothing.

C-SECTION, THANK GOD

Teresa Alejandra Cruz is 23. When she was 16 she gave birth to a 11.46-pound infant. That was nothing compared to this: Cruz's latest baby is even bigger.

An Associated Press report has Antonio Vasconcelos' weight listed at 14.5 pounds -- a runt compared to the world record of 22.5 pounds, but still one big baby. The AP reports:

"We haven't found any abnormality in the child, there are some signs of high blood sugar, and a slight blood infection, but that is being controlled so that the child can get on with his normal life in a few more days," Narciso Perez Bravo, the hospital's director, said.

The baby is 22 inches long.

FLOUR CITY BAKERY REMINDER

Monday marks two years since Lou Ziegler died. The former editor of the News-Leader was 56.

His daughter, Karley Ziegler Mott, runs Flour City Bakery, a business in New York. She sells handmade soaps, lotions, cool stuff like that.

As we noted late last week, Mott will donate all net proceeds from today's business to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.

So go: Visit Flour City Bakery, order some stuff, help fight the disease that killed a remarkable man. On this day of hope and giving, it is the least we can do to remember Zig.

BUY SOAP, FUND RESEARCH

Based in New York, Flour City Bakery is Karley Ziegler Mott's business. She makes what she calls "handmade soaps, lotions and other fine potions."

On Monday, Jan. 29, you can buy what Mott makes, and help fight pancreatic cancer. You'll also be remembering one helluva newspaperman.

From a Mott e-mail:

The Lustgarten Foundation is the only one whose donations go completely to research rather than funding the pharmaceutical companies. Former President Carter is very active in this charity.

If you could pass this on, I would appreciate it. Whether people purchase one lip balm or 500 bars of soap, every cent will help a good cause.

Karley Mott's father was Lou Ziegler, former editor of the News-Leader. Monday marks the two-year anniversary of Ziegler's death from pancreatic cancer. He was 56.

On Monday, honor the memory of the man and help fight what killed him. Flour City Bakery is the place to do it. As Mott notes in her e-mail, "Dad wouldn't want me feeling blue on the 29th -- he would want the people he cared about to do something positive."