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Your future is in the palm of your (surgeon's) hand

Jake Adelstein, Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky
The Daily Beast
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 15:45 UTC
Palmistry
© Shonan Beauty Clinic
From left, before and after photos of a patient who underwent palm surgery to engrave an “emperor’s line,” heralding great success and good fortune.
In Japan, where palm reading remains one of the most popular means of fortune-telling, some people have figured out a way to change their fate. It's a simple idea: change your palm, change the reading, and change your future. All you need is a competent plastic surgeon with an electric scalpel who has a basic knowledge of palmistry. Or you can draw the lines on your hand with a marker and let him work the magic you want.

Missing a marriage line? That can be fixed. Wedding bells may ring.

Need some good fortune? Add a money-luck line and you might win the lottery or be promoted to vice president in your firm. For the smart shopper - one willing to undergo palm plastic surgery - the future isn't what it used to be.

"Doctor, I want you to change my fate. Please change my palm."

Even in Japan, where odd surgery requests are not unknown - like the man who had his penis removed and served it as a special dinner - Takaaki Matsuoka, a plastic surgeon at the Shonan Beauty Clinic's Shinjuku branch, was taken aback. It was January 2011, and a female patient wanted her palm reformatted to bring her better luck. Matsuoka wasn't sure he could do it.

He scoured medical journals until he found examples of such surgery being done in Korea, studied the methods, then confirmed with the patient what she wanted done, and performed the surgery for ￥100,00 ($1,000). It went well.

The surgery had to be performed with an electric scalpel - which burns the flesh, creating the scent of burnt hot dogs, and leaves a semipermanent scar.
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Bug

Bug bombs caused New York building blast?

Colleen Long
Associated Press via Yahoo News
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 16:40 UTC
Two dozen bug bombs may have been set off at once inside a Chinatown beauty salon, leading to an explosion and fire that injured a dozen people, fire officials said Friday.

Three people remained hospitalized in serious condition Friday. Nine others suffered burns and smoke inhalation in the Thursday blaze, including four firefighters.

Fire investigators received reports that 24 pesticide cans, which release gas to kill bugs, were deployed at once in the first-floor beauty salon of the five-story brick building. The poisonous flammable fumes ignited, possibly from a pilot light or a spark from an electrical appliance. Fire officials were still investigating the blaze but believe it was accidental, spokesman James Long said.
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Firefighters remove debris from the back of a building in the aftermath of a fire on Thursday, July 11, 2013
Bug bombs, also known as foggers, are considered so poisonous and dangerous that New York City health officials have tried - so far unsuccessfully - to put restrictions in place so that only professional exterminators use the devices.

The devices cause between four and eight explosions every year in New York City, and about 300 nationally, according to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and a 2009 letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from the city's director of poison control urging tighter restrictions on the pesticides.

"Failure to read, understand or follow label instructions is widespread," according to the letter. "The use of foggers results in regular catastrophic events."
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Blackbox

Corpus Christi, Texas house explosion injures 3 - 'damaging homes as far as three blocks away'

Gabrielle Levy
United Press International
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 16:28 UTC
Any early-morning explosion rocked southeast Corpus Christi, Texas, injuring at least three people and damaging homes as far as three blocks away.

At least two people in critical condition were pulled from the house at the center of the blast and taken to Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital and later flown to San Antonio Military Medical Center's burn unit.

A third person requested treatment but refused transportation.

"The investigation is continuing," Corpus Christi Fire Chief Andy Cardiel said. "The gas department is checking their lines, their meters and their valves to see if they had any kind of release. It's going to be way too early to determine what a cause is at this point."
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning hits mum who gives birth


Emirates247.com
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 16:15 UTC
A pregnant New Mexico woman has survived a bolt from the blue to give birth to a bouncing baby girl.

Authorities say Kendra Villanueva and the baby's father Ian Gordon were watching fireworks with friends on July 4 when lightning struck both of them in the front yard of an Albuquerque home.

"We were actually going inside because we heard the lightning and the thunder," Ian Gordon told KRQE-TV .
      Read More...
Blackbox

Asiana Flight 214 wreckage at San Francisco airport begins smoking while being removed


Daily Mail UK
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 16:00 UTC
Asiana plane crash
Crews removing Asiana Flight 214's plane wreckage early Friday morning encountered smoke coming from the aircraft's main body which had held passengers. The smoke was captured by KGO-TV cameras, and the news station said it occurred moments after crews used a sling to lift the fuselage. It appears that the wreckage has since been removed.

Calls to airport and fire officials to determine the cause of the smoke were not immediately returned. Airport officials hope to re-open the runway by Sunday. The closure has led to flight cancellations and delays. Meanwhile, nearly a week after Asiana Flight 214 collided with the rocky seawall just short of its intended airport runway, details of the crash that killed two people have emerged, citing airspeed as a major contributor.

'The first thing that's taught to a pilot is to look at the airspeed indicator. It is the most important instrument in the cockpit,' said Lee Collins, a pilot with 29 years and 18,000 hours experience flying a variety of airliners.

'Airspeed is everything. You have airspeed, you live. You don't, you die.'
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2 + 2 = 4

Victim makes teen car prowlers face up to crime spree

Christine Clarridge
The Seattle Times
Sun, 07 Jul 2013 08:10 UTC
When Eliza Webb found a cellphone inside her ransacked vehicle in West Seattle last month, she figured the cellphone probably belonged to the person who'd prowled her car and that that person was likely a teen. But Webb decided not to call police.

Image
© Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times
Eliza Webb and her husband, Blake, hold some of the things found with her car - items that don't belong to either of them.
When Eliza Webb found a stranger's cellphone inside her ransacked car last month, it didn't take a lot of sleuthing to determine two things: one, the cellphone probably belonged to the person who'd prowled her car; and two, the culprit was likely a teen.

Webb, who works with high-school students and is married to a man who has paid dearly for a youthful indiscretion, paused before summoning police.

"I think bringing the police and courts into something like this can have long-term, devastating consequences for kids," said Webb, 29, of West Seattle.

"I wanted to meet him, talk to his parents and see if there might be another way. I felt that if I could get him to own up to what he'd done and understand there were consequences, it could be a much better outcome."
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Ambulance

Boeing plane fire closes Heathrow Airport runways

Cassandra Vinograd
Associated Press via Yahoo News
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 13:44 UTC
Image
A fire on an empty Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane forced Heathrow Airport to temporarily close both its runways Friday.The incident comes as unwelcome news for Chicago-based Boeing Co., whose Dreamliners were cleared to fly again in April after a four-month grounding amid concerns about overheating lithium-ion batteries.

Heathrow said there were no passengers aboard the Ethiopian Airlines plane, which was parked at a remote stand of the airport, and runways reopened after about an hour. British police said the fire is being treated as unexplained.

Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said in an email that the company had personnel on the ground at Heathrow and "is working to fully understand and address" the situation.

Ethiopian Airlines was the first airline to resume using the 787, with a flight on April 27 from Ethiopia's capital of Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya, after the battery incidents.

The airline could not immediately be reached for comment.
      Read More...
Green Light

BREAKING: Passengers "Electrocuted and Crushed" as Train derails in Paris suburb station of Bretigny-sur-Orge


France 24
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 11:23 UTC
Image

The train crash, Friday 12th July 2013, at Bretigny-sur-Orge, near Paris.
A train derailed in the southern Paris suburb of Brétigny-sur-Orge on Friday evening, with authorities reporting "many casualties". Local media claimed that at least eight people have been killed.

A train derailed on Friday evening at a station in Brétigny-sur-Orge, a southern suburb of Paris, causing "many casualties" according to rail authorities.

Precise details remain unclear, but media reports indicated that passengers were trapped in the train and that some had been electrocuted.

Daily newspaper Le Parisien reported that at least eight people had been killed.

The Interior ministry called the accident a "code red" - meaning an accident in which "many people are victims".

"The train came in to the station at high speed and it split in two for reasons that have not yet been established," a police source told AFP. "One half continued to move along, while the other was left on its side by the platform."
      Read More...
Stock Up

Everything is O.K. - U.S. stocks rally; Dow Jones on pace for record high

Tomi Kilgore & Chris Dieterich
Wall Street Journal
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 09:46 UTC
Image
A global stock rally that began in the U.S. returned home to Wall Street Thursday morning, as signs that the Federal Reserve will keep its easy-money policies in place for the long haul put the Dow Jones Industrial Average on target for a new all-time high.

Gains began late Wednesday after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the economy still needs "highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future."

U.S. stock futures took off, then triggered gains in both Asia and Europe. Mr. Bernanke's comments also prompted a selloff in the dollar, a decline in Treasury yields and a rally in gold prices.

The Dow climbed 149 points, or 1%, to 15443 in the minutes after Thursday's opening bell, putting it pace to top its all-time closing high of 15409.39, hit on May 28.

Mr. Bernanke's statement reassured investors who in recent weeks were grappling with the question of when, and how dramatically, the Fed is likely to change policy, particularly a "tapering" of its $85 billion a month bond-buying program.
      Read More...
Crusader

Irish Free State finally permits abortion (in rare cases)

Henry McDonald
The Guardian
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 09:36 UTC
Image
Irish parliamentarians passed a groundbreaking law early on Thursday allowing limited abortion rights in the republic.

Enda Kenny and his coalition government pushed through the protection of life in pregnancy bill, which will allow for abortions only when a woman's life is under threat if her pregnancy continues or if she is suicidal.

Despite threats of excommunication from cardinals and bishops, the privately devout Catholic prime minister eventually won the vote after a marathon two-day debate in the Dáil.

Members voted by 127 to 31 to legalise abortion in cases of medical emergencies as well as the risk of suicide.

However, pro-choice and anti-abortion groups have already threatened court cases to challenge the new law.
      Read More...
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