Brain-Eating Amoeba

Infection At 'MyPoopBeach'?

It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.

According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases, three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona.

After doing more tests, doctors said Aaron probably picked up the amoeba a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu, a popular man-made lake on the Colorado River between Arizona and California.

The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up into the brain, where it continues the damage, "basically feeding on the brain cells," Beach said. "Usually, from initial exposure it's fatal within two weeks," he said.

"For a week, everything was fine," Evans said. Then Aaron got the headache that wouldn't go away. At the hospital, doctors first suspected meningitis. Aaron was rushed to another hospital in Las Vegas.

On Sept. 17, Aaron stopped breathing as his father held him in his arms. "He was brain dead," Evans said. Only later did doctors and the CDC determine that the boy had been infected with Naegleria.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/weird_news/20070929_ap_6diefrombraineatingamoebainlakes.html

Peace Frogs

A team of Japanese scientists has succeeded in breeding see-through frogs.

The scientists claim these are the world's first transparent four-legged animals.

The team genetically engineered the frogs to have clear skin.

They hope the frogs' see-through skin can help in scientific research since the amphibian's internal organs and blood vessels can be viewed without harming the frog.

".08 Pushing The Limit"

Some parents and students are angry about Oyster River High School's senior T-shirts, WMUR-TV in Manchester N.C. reported.

The front of the T-shirt reads "Oyster River High School seniors", while the slogan on the back reads ".08 Pushing The Limit", with a little paw print that resembled a decimal point before the numbers.

Students said the .08 is a reference to the blood alcohol limit.

It is not clear who created the shirts, but students said the senior class paid for them.

The T-shirts have not been banned, but a letter was sent home urging parents not to let their children wear them to school.

More Fun On The People's Court...

Ol' Crazy Eyes

The Sad Story Of Jonnie And Coco

A runaway chimp was shot dead after breaking out of his enclosure at an English zoo, his keepers said.

Chimpanzees Jonnie and Coco broke out of their compound Friday at the Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, about 35 miles north of London. The Zoological Society of London, which runs the zoo, said Coco was recaptured, but Jonnie could not immediately be caught and had to be killed.

"It's just standard procedure, if the animal cannot be quickly and safely recaptured it will be shot," ZSL spokeswoman Alice Henchley said.

When asked why the chimps weren't shot with a tranquilizer gun or in another non-lethal manner, a zoo spokeswoman said that under their procedures, they have to shoot to kill when they have an animal who might be of danger to the public.

"We can't be sure with a tranquilizer," said the spokeswoman for the zoo. "It doesn't work quickly enough." Jonnie, an adult male, was gunned down by the zoo's specially trained firearms squad, Henchley said.

The People's Court

"It's hard being me."

Screwed.

Police have arrested a man for stealing more than 1 million screws from his employers and selling them on the Internet.

Police said the 33-year-old assembly worker at an unidentified firm squirreled away screws in a specially designed hiding place and took up to 7,000 of them home every day when he left work.

Over a two-year period, he stole some 1.1 million screws with an estimated value of $155,000, police in the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg said in a statement.

The man sold the screws over the Internet at discount prices, and that alerted police, who wondered where he was getting the vast quantities of components.

Pancreas?

A cancer patient says she was left alone in a CT scanner for hours after a technician apparently forget about her, and she finally crawled out of the device, only to find herself locked in the closed clinic.

Pima County sheriff's deputies arriving at the oncology office had her unlock the office door to let them in, said Deputy Dawn Hanke, a department spokeswoman.

A technician placed her inside the large machine at about 4 p.m. on Sept. 19, dimmed the lights so she could relax and told her not to move during the 25-minute procedure.

"At some point, my mom lost track of time and felt like too much time had passed, but she couldn't look at a clock or anything because it was dark," her son Ariel Tellez said.

After calling out, then screaming for help, she said, she spent several hours trying to free herself from the machine. Finally, she wiggled out from under a heavy blanket and out of the machine. By the time deputies found her, it had been five hours since she was placed inside.

Hondo

The flag-painted fire hydrant that was removed because critics thought dogs would disrespectfully urinate on it is being reinstalled, but with a fence to keep the pooches away.

The hydrant was part of a dog park named for Hondo, a police dog killed chasing a suspect 10 years ago.

"While hydrants are playfully associated with dogs as a 'target,' this hydrant was specifically designed and painted to serve as a very personal tribute to a service animal killed in the line of duty," said Hillsboro parks spokeswoman Corinne Bloomfield.

Since the hydrant was removed earlier this week, the department got responses from dog owners and war veterans in support of the tribute, "which is clearly the intent of this hydrant and does not disrespect Hondo, the U.S. flag or K-9 officers," Bloomfield said.

The hydrant was already on surrounded by prickly shrubbery. Bloomfield said her department would add a fence and look for more ways to dog-proof it.

...I Don't Have The Power!

Brazil's national electricity grid is laying on extra energy to avoid a nationwide blackout Friday when the final chapter of the hit soap opera "Tropical Paradise" airs, officials said Thursday.

TV Globo expects that 90 percent of television viewers in the country of 186 million people will tune in for the final chapter to learn who murdered the scheming villain Tais and to find out if Bebel, the Pygmalion-like prostitute, will live happily ever after.

"We are worried about a possible blackout caused by a sudden surge in electricity at the end of the program," said a spokesman for the electricity company, who spoke on condition he not be named, in accordance with department policy.

"When it is all over, millions of people will get up from their armchairs and sofas to turn on the lights of their living rooms, open the refrigerator for a cold beer or heat a meal in the microwave oven," he said.