Atlantis shuttle lands safely
Woof! Meet the world’s tallest dog
(Thanksgiving)Once homeless, now he’s feeding the hungry
Friday, November 27, 2009
what's new at globe ?Uninvited couple crashers into state dinner
Michaele Salahi spent seven hours in a posh Georgetown salon getting ready for her big night out. She was going to the White House for the Obamas' first state dinner. Creating the perfect hair and makeup for the glamorous blonde for such a special occasion would take time, of course. But then there were the cameras, the takes and retakes.
The Northern Virginia socialite was being taped by a production crew for Bravo cable channel's forthcoming "The Real Housewives of Washington."
"It was a lot of schmoozing with the staff," James Packard-Gomez, CEO of Erwin Gomez Salon, said Thursday, explaining why the hair and makeup session lasted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The salon was abuzz because Michaele and her husband, Tareq, were among the 320 VIPs invited to join the president and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "They were asking, 'So, what do you think of them getting invited to this?' "
The stylist doing Michaele's hair asked to see the White House invitation, Packard-Gomez said. "She starts rummaging through her purse, and then said, 'It must be out in the car.' "
Would the film crews get into the White House, too? " 'We tried,' " he says she told them, " 'but they wouldn't let them in.' "
International uproar
But the White House says there never was an invitation. Somehow the aspiring reality-TV stars managed to get themselves in Tuesday night and were photographed with Vice President Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, causing an international uproar about security at the executive mansion.
The Secret Service said the Salahis crashed the party and that the agency is investigating how the couple penetrated presidential security. The Salahis' attorney, Paul W. Gardner, posted a statement on the couple's Facebook page: "My clients were cleared, by the White House, to be there. More information is forthcoming."
The Salahis did not respond to e-mails Thursday. But their publicist, Mahogany Jones, said in an e-mail: "We will be addressing this specifically with several media platforms." Meanwhile, CNN announced that the now-famous couple would appear on "Larry King Live" on Monday night.
Bravo and the local production company it has contracted, Half Yard Productions, said the production team was aware that the Salahis were headed to the state dinner and took the couple's word that they were on the guest list. A film crew followed the Salahis on the drive to the White House but did not attempt to follow them onto the grounds.
Camera crew filmed White House crashers
Stars attend White House state dinner
Once again, first lady's fashion sense dazzles
NBC News anchor Brian Williams, an invited guest at the dinner, told the "Today" show that he noticed the couple's SUV being turned away from the East Gate entrance. A camera crew was with them, and a woman touched up the Salahis' makeup and hair, Williams said.
It is still unclear whether the couple managed to meet or be photographed with President Obama, Michelle Obama or the guest of honor. Guests went through a formal receiving line in the Blue Room before dinner, but a White House official said Thursday that he did not know if the couple went through the line. India's embassy did not respond to a call for comment.
This is not the first time the Salahis have represented themselves as power players: On the couple's joint Facebook account are pictures of them in the first family's glass-enclosed viewing area after the inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
what's new at globe ?
Scientists discover thousands of deep sea creature
BRUSSELS – With a caretaker holding his hand, a Belgian man who was diagnosed as comatose for 23 years typed out a message Tuesday that he felt reborn after decades of loneliness and frustration. A leading bioethicist, however, expressed skepticism that the man was truly communicating on his own.
Car-crash victim Rom Houben was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state but appears to have been conscious the whole time, doctors here said. An expert using a specialized type of brain scan that was not available in the 1980s says he finally realized Houben was conscious and provided him with the equipment to communicate.
Assisted by a speech therapist who rapidly moved his finger letter by letter along a touch-screen keyboard, Houben told AP Television News that years of being unable to move or communicate left him feeling "alone, lonely, frustrated, but also blessed with my family."
The therapist, Linda Wouters, told APTN that she can feel Houben guiding her hand with gentle pressure from his fingers, and that she feels him objecting when she moves his hand toward an incorrect letter.
"It was especially frustrating when my family needed me. I could not share in their sorrow. We could not give each other support," Houben wrote during the interview at the 't Weyerke institute in eastern Belgium.
"Just imagine. You hear, see, feel and think but no one can see that. You undergo things. You cannot participate in life."
Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said he is skeptical of Houben's ability to communicate after seeing video of his hand being moved along the keyboard.
"That's called 'facilitated communication,'" Caplan said. "That is ouija board stuff. It's been discredited time and time again. When people look at it, it's usually the person doing the pointing who's doing the messages, not the person they claim they are helping."
Caplan also said the statements Houben allegedly made with the computer seem unnatural for someone with such a profound injury and an inability to communicate for decades.
Asked how he felt when his consciousness was discovered, Houben responded through the aide that: "I especially felt relief. Finally be able to show that I was indeed there."
"Just like with a baby, it happens with a lot of stumbling," he wrote.
The doctor who discovered that Houben had been wrongly diagnosed said that he is re-examining dozens of other cases.
Dr. Steven Laureys said he has discovered some degree of consciousness using state-of-the-art equipment in other patients but won't say how many. He looks at about 50 cases from around the world a year but none are as extreme as that of Rom Houben, who was fully conscious inside a paralyzed body. Many center on the fine distinction between a vegetative state and minimal consciousness.
He said Tuesday that: "It is very difficult to tell the difference."
His studies showed that some 40 percent of patients with consciousness disorders are wrongly given a diagnosis of a vegetative state.
"It is clearly unacceptable. It is four times out of ten that they think the patient is in a vegetative state but in reality he is minimally conscious," Laureys said.
Patients from Europe and around the world brought to his center in Liege for a second opinion go through and PET scans, MRI's and a battery of other tests during a weeklong reassessment.
"Sometimes patients fly in and there is all this hope. But after the tests we have to confirm they are the opposite case from Rom and that there is no error," Laureys said. "But that too helps the family accept reality."
In Belgium alone there are some 350 patients diagnosed as in a vegetative state, he said.
BRUSSELS – With a caretaker holding his hand, a Belgian man who was diagnosed as comatose for 23 years typed out a message Tuesday that he felt reborn after decades of loneliness and frustration. A leading bioethicist, however, expressed skepticism that the man was truly communicating on his own.
Car-crash victim Rom Houben was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state but appears to have been conscious the whole time, doctors here said. An expert using a specialized type of brain scan that was not available in the 1980s says he finally realized Houben was conscious and provided him with the equipment to communicate.
Assisted by a speech therapist who rapidly moved his finger letter by letter along a touch-screen keyboard, Houben told AP Television News that years of being unable to move or communicate left him feeling "alone, lonely, frustrated, but also blessed with my family."
The therapist, Linda Wouters, told APTN that she can feel Houben guiding her hand with gentle pressure from his fingers, and that she feels him objecting when she moves his hand toward an incorrect letter.
"It was especially frustrating when my family needed me. I could not share in their sorrow. We could not give each other support," Houben wrote during the interview at the 't Weyerke institute in eastern Belgium.
"Just imagine. You hear, see, feel and think but no one can see that. You undergo things. You cannot participate in life."
Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said he is skeptical of Houben's ability to communicate after seeing video of his hand being moved along the keyboard.
"That's called 'facilitated communication,'" Caplan said. "That is ouija board stuff. It's been discredited time and time again. When people look at it, it's usually the person doing the pointing who's doing the messages, not the person they claim they are helping."
Caplan also said the statements Houben allegedly made with the computer seem unnatural for someone with such a profound injury and an inability to communicate for decades.
Asked how he felt when his consciousness was discovered, Houben responded through the aide that: "I especially felt relief. Finally be able to show that I was indeed there."
"Just like with a baby, it happens with a lot of stumbling," he wrote.
The doctor who discovered that Houben had been wrongly diagnosed said that he is re-examining dozens of other cases.
Dr. Steven Laureys said he has discovered some degree of consciousness using state-of-the-art equipment in other patients but won't say how many. He looks at about 50 cases from around the world a year but none are as extreme as that of Rom Houben, who was fully conscious inside a paralyzed body. Many center on the fine distinction between a vegetative state and minimal consciousness.
He said Tuesday that: "It is very difficult to tell the difference."
His studies showed that some 40 percent of patients with consciousness disorders are wrongly given a diagnosis of a vegetative state.
"It is clearly unacceptable. It is four times out of ten that they think the patient is in a vegetative state but in reality he is minimally conscious," Laureys said.
Patients from Europe and around the world brought to his center in Liege for a second opinion go through and PET scans, MRI's and a battery of other tests during a weeklong reassessment.
"Sometimes patients fly in and there is all this hope. But after the tests we have to confirm they are the opposite case from Rom and that there is no error," Laureys said. "But that too helps the family accept reality."
In Belgium alone there are some 350 patients diagnosed as in a vegetative state, he said.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
what's new at globe .funny
Shark gives birth after tank tussle
A shark gives birth to 8 pups prematurely from a wound sustained in a fight with another shark.
Thief gets trapped, drops trousers
A thief gets himself stuck in a tiny window while trying to break into a supermarket in Almancil, southern Portugal.
He even dropped his trousers in an effort to wriggle free.
According to police, the slim 22-year-old Romanian man had spent about 11 hours stuck in the window, including the two hours it took police and the fire brigade to get him out.
BROMONT, Quebec – A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun.
Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife.
But the payments dried up this fall and when Blanchard called Manulife, she says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook.
She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.
Blanchard said Manulife told her it's evidence she is no longer depressed. She's fighting to get her benefits reinstated and says her lawyer is exploring what the next step should be.
Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor's advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.
Manulife wouldn't comment on Blanchard's case, but did say they would not deny or terminate a claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook.
A shark gives birth to 8 pups prematurely from a wound sustained in a fight with another shark.
Thief gets trapped, drops trousers
A thief gets himself stuck in a tiny window while trying to break into a supermarket in Almancil, southern Portugal.
He even dropped his trousers in an effort to wriggle free.
According to police, the slim 22-year-old Romanian man had spent about 11 hours stuck in the window, including the two hours it took police and the fire brigade to get him out.
BROMONT, Quebec – A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun.
Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife.
But the payments dried up this fall and when Blanchard called Manulife, she says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook.
She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.
Blanchard said Manulife told her it's evidence she is no longer depressed. She's fighting to get her benefits reinstated and says her lawyer is exploring what the next step should be.
Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor's advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.
Manulife wouldn't comment on Blanchard's case, but did say they would not deny or terminate a claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook.
Friday, November 13, 2009
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