Jul
31
BLACKWOOD, N.J. - Talk about New Jersey’s fat cats. A 44-pound feline was found waddling around Saturday without a collar in Voorhees, and officials at the Camden County Animal Shelter hope she gets a nice - hopefully, diet-friendly - home.
“She’s built like a quarterback,” said Deborah Wright, a shelter volunteer and current foster owner of the kitty. “I mean, how do you lose a 44-pound cat?!”
Shelter officials are calling the porky cutie “Princess Chunk.”
The largest tabby on record weighed 46 pounds, 15 ounces. That cat, who lived in Australia, died in the 1980s. The Guinness World Records has since dropped the category, fearing cat owners might harm their animals in an attempt to break the record.
Princess Chunk’s owner has until Saturday to reclaim her. After that, the weighty pet will be eligible for adoption.
Wright plans to speak with a veterinarian to put Chunk on a diet. For now, Chunk’s diet consists of dry and wet cat food.
“I’m about to put a leash on her and walk her,” said Wright. “She could pass for a dog!”
Jul
31
MOBILE, Ala. - Police believe a body found in a small-time evangelist’s home freezer is his wife and a mother of eight, and arrested him on a murder charge as he preached at a south Alabama church. Anthony Hopkins, 37, was being held in the Mobile County jail Wednesday awaiting a bond hearing and appointment of an attorney.
Police said no one reported 36-year-old Arletha Hopkins missing, even though she hadn’t been heard from in three years. The body was discovered covered in a freezer in a utility room during a police search of the home in Mobile after a relative of the preacher contacted police.
Mobile Police Chief Phillip Garrett said Hopkins was arrested Monday night at at a revival in Jackson, a town in rural Clarke County where he has roots. The pastor of Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ, Beverly Jackson, told reporters that Hopkins told her he was a single parent because his wife had died in childbirth.
Police awaited results of forensic tests to determine the cause of death, but Garrett said authorities believe it is Hopkins’ wife. The freezer was moved to a forensics lab.
Garrett said Anthony Hopkins, the father of six of the eight children, has been charged with rape and sodomy in a separate case involving the female relative and could face more charges related to another relative.
Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said the children who lived with Hopkins - who ranged in age from 3 to 19 - have been taken into protective custody by the Department of Human Resources.
Garrett said the Hopkins children were home-schooled. He said Hopkins “kept to himself,” and apparently moved from place to place. Neighbors called him “Rev.” because he attended church so often, loading the children into a van.
Police said he preached at various churches and did not appear to be affiliated with a particular denomination.
At the church in Jackson, Hopkins was delivering a message about forgiveness that drew encouraging “amens” from the congregation.
Clarke County Sheriff’s Chief Investigator Sgt. Ron Baggett said he listened through the church door before assisting in the arrest about 10 p.m. Monday. About 25 people were in the congregation at the time.
Jul
31
ATLANTA - Flight attendants discovered the body of a 61-year-old woman in the restroom of a plane shortly before the flight landed in Atlanta Wednesday morning, a spokeswoman for the airline said.
It was unclear how Michaele O’Neil Carnahan died, and how long she was in the restroom.
The crew on the Los Angeles-to-Atlanta flight noticed the restroom was occupied on final approach, just before Flight 950 touched down at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at 5:51 a.m., spokeswoman Keyra Johnson said. Atlanta police were notified and met the plane at the gate, Johnson said.
“Delta extends its condolences to the family and commends our flight crew and medical professionals onboard who handled this incident with the utmost professionalism and respect for which they are known,” spokeswoman Betsy Talton wrote in an e-mail.
The body was taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab in suburban Atlanta for an autopsy scheduled for Thursday, said GBI spokesman John Bankhead. Authorities were awaiting the results to determine the cause of death, Bankhead said.
Bankhead said Carnahan was on her way from her home in Ventura, Calif., to Florida for a wedding.
Atlanta police stationed at the airport respond to calls about dead bodies on airplanes a couple of times a year, said Officer Eric Schwartz, a police spokesman. Talton said the situation was rare, but flight crews are trained to handle “a number of situations on board.”
Airlines are not required to track or report the medical incidents they handle, so an exact tally of in-flight deaths is hard to determine. MedAire, an Arizona-based company that staffs doctors on the ground to advise flight crews in a medical emergency, counted 89 deaths for the flights they handled in 2006, which represents about one-third of the world’s commercial flights.
If the death rate is similar for the rest of the flights, annual deaths on airplanes could exceed 260.
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Jul
31
Queen Victoria’s bloomers sell for $9,000
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LONDON - A pair of Queen Victoria’s bloomers, with a 50-inch waist, were snapped up for $9,000 by a Canadian buyer at a central England auction Wednesday.
Auctioneer Charles Hanson said Queen Victoria’s underpants belonged to “a very big lady of quite small stature with a very wide girth.” She was said to be 5 feet tall.
The handmade knickers - which date back to the 1890s - bear the monogram “VR” for Victoria Regina. They are open-crotch style, with separate legs joined by a drawstring at the waist, a popular style in the late Victorian era.
The royal drawers belonged to a family in western England whose ancestor was a lady-in-waiting for the queen.
“These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting,” Hanson said. “They are monogrammed and crested and we know that they are hers.”
Also up for auction was Queen Victoria’s chemise, with a 66-inch bust, sold for $8,000. Her nightgown sold for $11,000.
Before the auction, Hanson valued the underwear at $1,000, while the chemise and nightgown were valued at $600 each.
Queen Victoria lived from 1819 to 1901. She became queen at age 18 and was the U.K.’s longest-reigning monarch. Her reign is noted for both imperial expansion and the decreasing political power of the monarch.
Jul
31
AMSTERDAM (Reuters Life!) - Scientists have made a colored view of an early rejected painting underneath Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Patch of Grass’ painting, using advanced X-ray techniques, a Dutch university said on Wednesday.
The very detailed image shows the face of a woman and may give art historians a better understanding of the way Van Gogh developed as a painter.
“It is estimated that one third of Vincent van Gogh’s early paintings have been painted on top of existing ones. Van Gogh literally recycled his own canvasses,” scientist Joris Dik of the Delft University of Technology said.
Conventional X-ray techniques give a colorless, partial view of the hidden painting and only show vague contours of a person behind ‘Patch of Grass’, the university said.
By recycling his work Van Gogh painted many layers over the original painting but the scientists managed to scan all the different elements in those layers of the relevant area with X-ray fluorescence.
“We can make a virtual 3-dimensional model of the painting and start to peel off all the layers one by one. Then we get a nice detailed view of the hidden face,” Dik said.
Van Gogh painted ‘Patch of grass’ in 1887 in Paris and it hangs in the Kroller-Muller museum in the Dutch eastern city of Otterlo.
(Reporting by Tineke van der Struik, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Jul
26
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man was accused of shooting his lawn mower because it wouldn’t start. Keith Walendowski, 56, was charged with felony possession of a short-barreled shotgun or rifle and misdemeanor disorderly conduct while armed.
According to the criminal complaint, Walendowski said he was angry because his Lawn Boy wouldn’t start Wednesday morning. He told police quote, “I can do that, it’s my lawn mower and my yard so I can shoot it if I want.”
A woman who lives at Walendowski’s house reported the incident. She said he was intoxicated.
Walendowski could face up to an $11,000 fine and six years and three months in prison if convicted.
A call to Walendowski’s home went unanswered Friday morning.
Jul
26
WASHINGTON - Congress passed the most significant housing legislation in decades Saturday, offering help to struggling homeowners and seeking to stabilize a troubled housing market that has dragged down the economy.
President Bush will sign it quickly, the White House said, despite reservations over $3.9 billion in the bill that would aid neighborhoods devastated by the housing crisis buy and fix up foreclosed properties.
The bill, approved 72-13 in a rare weekend session in the Senate, would give the government power to throw a financial lifeline to the ailing mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They back or own $5 trillion in mortgages, or nearly half the nation’s total. The rescue plan is intended to prevent the two pillars of the home loan market from failing and causing broader market turmoil, while strengthening oversight of their operations.
An estimated 400,000 homeowners would escape foreclosure by getting the chance to refinance into more affordable loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. There would be higher limits on loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy and the FHA can insure. The loans would be capped at $625,000.
The Senate on Friday removed the last hurdle to passage on a 80-13 test vote that showed broad support for the election-year help. The House passed the bill Wednesday.
Bush initially said the proposal was a burdensome bailout for irresponsible borrowers and lenders. But he dropped a threat to veto it this week after Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson argued that the support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was vital to calming markets in the U.S. and abroad.
The administration also opposed the aid for neighborhoods, arguing that approach would hurt homeowners by giving lenders an incentive to foreclose rather than help people stay in their homes.
“Because of the Democratic Congress’ delays and the need for action now, President Bush will sign this bill when he receives it, despite our concerns with some provisions, including nearly $4 billion to help lenders, not the homeowners this legislation is intended to serve,” White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said.
Supporters said the bill was a long-overdue response to the mortgage meltdown and would help boost the sagging economy. Democrats bashed Republicans for delaying the measure and forcing the Saturday session.
“This is far more than sending a bill to the president’s desk for his signature. It’s sending a message to the American people that the Congress of the United States - despite an alternative reputation - can actually get things done, and can work together to achieve a good result,” said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
The bill includes several cherished Democratic priorities, including the creation of a permanent affordable housing fund to be financed by Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s profits and the neighborhood grants.
The Bush administration and many congressional Republicans swallowed those items grudgingly in exchange for reining in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a long-held goal of theirs. Paulson said the government backup for the mortgage giants was vital.
“These components are orders of magnitude more important to turning the corner on the housing correction,” he said in a statement.
Paulson’s request for the emergency power to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to a bipartisan deal on the bill.
“It’s been nearly six years since we called for a strong, independent regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and nearly a year since the president called on Congress to quickly pass legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration to keep more deserving Americans in their homes, especially low-income Americans,” Fratto said. “So it’s good that the Democratic Congress has finally acted.”
Many conservative Republicans are opposed to the foreclosure rescue, which they call a bailout of reckless homeowners and unscrupulous lenders. They are equally furious about the help for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, companies they say enjoy lavish profits in good times and wield their outsized political clout to resist regulation while depending on the government to bail them out should they falter.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., slowed the measure’s final passage because Democrats refused to allow a vote on his proposal barring the two mortgage companies from lobbying and making political contributions. He said the legislation was a mammoth bill stuffed with extraneous items, powered by the desire of lawmakers in both parties to act on a pressing issue.
“No matter what’s wrong with it, most of the members of this Senate are going to come in and vote for it, and check the box and go home and say they did something about housing,” DeMint said.
Jul
26
VIENNA (AFP) - Salzburg is alive with the sound of music once again, as the von Trapp family’s villa opened its doors to the public this weekend for the first time, as a hotel and museum.
The villa in Aigen, a southeastern suburb of Salzburg, was for over 15 years the home of Captain von Trapp, his seven children and their governess Maria, who would inspire a Broadway musical, an Oscar-winning film and some of the best-loved characters on the silver screen.
Now, 70 years after the family left Austria for the United States following the Nazis’ annexation of the country in 1938, and over 40 years after cinema audiences were first treated to “The Sound of Music,” the estate has rediscovered its roots.
The 878 square meter (9,450 square feet) “Villa Trapp” opened on Friday afternoon in the presence of one of the children, Maria von Trapp, aged 93. “Its very nice to be here, I feel like home again”, she said at a press conference in the villa.
Film fans may be disappointed: the 22 bedroom villa and its 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) park, which former Austrian navy captain Georg von Trapp bought after the death of his first wife Agathe — the grand-daughter of British torpedo inventor Robert Whitehead — did not feature in Robert Wise’s film as it was then occupied by a group of missionaries.
Instead, nearby Schloss Frohnburg and Schloss Leopoldskron stood in for the estate, with indoor scenes shot on a soundstage in Hollywood.
But the original mansion with its imperial yellow facade, white borders and dark green shutters, surrounded by trees, offers what no film location can: a sense of history.
The late-19th century mansion by Italian architect Valentin Ceconi was the home of Captain von Trapp and his seven children — their real names: Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna and Martina — from 1923 to 1938.
And this is where “Fraeulein Maria” — actually Maria Kutschera, a teacher from Vienna who had joined the Nonnberg Benedictine convent in Salzburg — was first introduced to the children and her future husband whom she married in 1927.
Now, the villa, which is still owned by the missionaries who inhabited the grounds until recently, has been turned into a hotel and event location, catering to wedding parties and dinners, even offering cakes from one of Maria von Trapp’s own recipes.
Starting in 2009, the Villa Trapp will also organise another true Austrian tradition: a grand annual summer ball.
Meanwhile, guests can stay in the suite that once served as Captain von Trapp’s office, or in the parlour in which the family took their afternoon tea.
“In each hallway, in each corner, you will find a piece of the history of a world-famous family,” boasts the villa’s website.
In the grand salon, one can admire photographs of the family, a bell from Captain von Trapp’s ship and a model boat he built himself, while on the sprawling estate, guests can sit on a bench where he used to relax.
The estate was confiscated by the Nazis during World War II and put at the disposal of SS police chief Heinrich Himmler, who had barracks built on the grounds for his men.
Missionaries then bought the villa and park after the war in 1947 and occupied it for over 60 years, before a private company rediscovered its appeal.
Appropriately, the villa’s opening coincides with two important dates on the Austrian calendar.
2008 marks the 70th anniversary of the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria and the von Trapps’ departure for the United States, where they would ultimately settle down in Vermont.
The Villa Trapp’s inauguration also came a day before the opening of the world-renowned annual Salzburg Festival, in which the von Trapp family singers won their first prize in 1937, before playing in venues around Europe and the United States.
Jul
24
Warning Signs of a Heart Attack
Filed Under Health | Leave a Comment
Most center incidents are not such as in the movies - sudden and intense. Usually, properties embark on slowly, amidst mild pain or discomfort. Often shoppers affected are not positive what is incorrect and wait too extended before obtaining help. Here are the multiple regular signs of a middle attack or core disease the current serves to make to one.
Chest discomfort. Most core fits involve discomfort in the core of the chest this lasts a good amount of as opposed to a few minutes, or which goes away and comes back. It can feel covet uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. Fatigue or a vague sense of making ill without explanation, actually amongst women.
Discomfort in a greater number of populations of the upper body. Symptoms can key in pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach. Shortness of breath, that women in some may suffer without chest discomfort.
Other signs: breaking out in a cold sweat, indigestion, nausea or lightheadedness
Jul
24
Middle age and elderly women whose diets affix a lot of red meat come to suffer an increased possibility of developing diabetes, according to a survey in the medical journal Diabetes Care.
Dr. Simin Liu, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the firm between red meat consumption and the likelihood of brand 2 diabetes, the brand so does not necessarily motivate insulin.
A overall of 37,309 participants in the Women’s Health Study got trailed for an regular of 8.8 years. The matters got at minimum 45 ages of age, and had never carried on diagnosed surrounded by core disease, stroke, cancer, or diabetes when the report began. Food questionnaires got used up to determine how significantly red meat the questions ate.
During the study, 1558 women got diagnosed in kind 2 diabetes.
Women who at the top quantities of red meat got 28 per cent a good amount of normal to improve diabetes as opposed to this peers who ate the bottom amounts. In terms of some meats connected to diabetes, bacon and hot dogs got referred to as as two of the worst offenders.