Introducing a Flu Vaccine You Give Yourself

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Photo Credit: Purdue University

Photo Credit: Purdue University

What if getting a flu vaccine no longer involved getting a shot?

Researchers at Georgia State University have spent the past few years working on a microneedle patch that dissolves into the skin for patients to easily and painlessly self-administer vaccines. Now, they’ve developed a flu vaccine using the system that, when tested on mice, proved to be 100 percent effective more than a year after the mice were vaccinated.

As they report in the September 2013 issue of the journal Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, the influenza vaccine uses dry virus-like particles (VLP) instead of a liquid with the dead or attenuated virus. The VLPs coat the micronneedle patch alongside a stabilizing agent, so that the patches won’t necessarily need to be refrigerated.

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Born with Down Syndrome, Newark Man Wins Respect Powerlifting (+video)

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Photo Credit: Jennifer Corbett

Photo Credit: Jennifer Corbett

Sitting at the kitchen table in his family’s Newark home, Jon Stoklosa comes across as a laid-back, almost shy guy. He answers questions with a word, preferring instead to look out the backyard window and let his parents, Hank and Liz, do the talking.

But the medal he clasps in his right hand offers a glimmer of the personality that hides beneath his sturdy 5-foot-5 frame.

It’s from a recent powerlifting competition in upstate New York, one where he bench-pressed a personal best of 402.5 pounds and came in third in his age division. He also picked up the “Most Inspirational” award, a unanimous choice by other competitors, many of whom gathered to watch the 31-year-old make his lifts.

Friends and family say Jon, who was born with Down syndrome, is an example of what is possible when people aren’t tethered by labels.

In addition to being able to bench-press more than 400 pounds, Jon can squat 440 pounds and dead-lift an identical amount. He has excelled at the sport, winning a gold medal in the Special Olympics World Games in 1999.

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Nyad Makes History with Swim From Cuba to Key West

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Looking dazed and sunburned, U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad walked on to the Key West shore Monday, becoming the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.

Nyad arrived at the beach just before 2 p.m. EDT, about 53 hours after she began her swim in Havana on Saturday.

As she approached, spectators surrounded her in the water, taking pictures and cheering her on. Once on the beach, she was put on a stretcher and received medical treatment, including an IV. Her lips were swollen.

It was Nyad’s fifth try to complete the approximately 110-mile swim. She tried three times in 2011 and 2012. She had also tried in 1978.

Her last attempt was cut short amid boat trouble, storms, unfavorable currents and jellyfish stings that left her face puffy and swollen.

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George Bush Sr Mistakenly Announces Nelson Mandela’s Death

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Photo Credit: REX FEATURES

Photo Credit: REX FEATURES

Mr Bush, 89, sent condolences which were picked up by an American newswire, BNO. It was then flashed up by CNN.

Jim McGrath, spokesman for Mr Bush, sent out an email entitled: “Statement by President George H. W. Bush on the death of Nelson Mandela.”

He wrote on behalf of the former president: “”Barbara and I mourn the passing of one of the greatest believers in freedom we have had the privilege to know.

“As President, I watched in wonder as Nelson Mandela had the remarkable capacity to forgive his jailers following 26 years of wrongful imprisonment – setting a powerful example of redemption and grace for us all. He was a man of tremendous moral courage, who changed the course of history in his country. Barbara and I had great respect for President Mandela, and send our condolences to his family and countrymen.”

But Mr McGrath tweeted and emailed a statement that the earlier comments were based on a flash from the Washington Post.

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Which Organs Can I Live Without, And How Much Cash Can I Get For Them?

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Photo Credit: Victor de Schwanberg

Photo Credit: Victor de Schwanberg

First, a disclaimer: Selling your organs is illegal in the United States. It’s also very dangerous. Handing off an organ is risky enough when done in a top hospital, even more so if you’re doing it for cash in a back alley. No, really: Don’t do this. OK? OK.

There are many organs one can theoretically do without, or for which there’s a backup. Most folks can spare a kidney, a portion of their liver, a lung, some intestines, and an eyeball, and still live a long life. That said, donating a lung, a piece of liver or a section of intestines is a very complicated surgery, so it’s not done frequently on the black market. And no one’s going to make much cash on an eyeball. “In the U.S., there’s a fairly steady supply of donated corneas from corpses,” says Sean Fitzpatrick, director of public affairs at the New England Organ Bank. “There’s pretty much no market demand for eyes.” Giving up a kidney, though, is a relatively simple surgery that has netted desperate people a few bucks.

Now, black-market organ dealers don’t do a great job of filing taxes, but here are some prices based on rumored deals and reports from the World Heath Organization. In India, a kidney fetches around $20,000…

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Could Clouds be Zapped by Laser to Stop it Raining? Scientists to Discuss Plans to Control the Weather

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Photo Credit: Glenn Copus

Photo Credit: Glenn Copus

We may have all dreamt of zapping away the rainclouds when it’s damp and miserable outside. But it seems that one day, the dream could actually come true.

Scientists are hopeful that lasers could be used to guarantee a cloudless sky – and will gather next month to discuss the possibility of shooting pulses of light into the heavens to control the weather.

In laboratory tests Swiss researchers have succeeded in using the technology to promote cloud formation. In theory, it could be used to trigger rainfall far out at sea or over uninhabited land – and keep it away from a major event.

The technique has also been used to control lightning, with the long-term aim of diverting it away from built-up areas.
Controlling the weather has been attempted before, most famously during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when scientists apparently fired chemicals into the sky to disperse cloud for the opening ceremony.

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Dunkin’ Donuts Apologises for ‘Bizarre and Racist’ Thai Advert

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Photo Credit: Dunkin' Donuts

Photo Credit: Dunkin’ Donuts

Dunkin’ Donuts has apologised after it ran an advertisement in Thailand featuring a woman in “blackface” make-up. The advert, which was used to promote the donut giant’s “charcoal donut”, was called “bizarre and racist” by a leading human rights group.

Dunkin’ Donuts chief executive in Thailand defended the campaign, but a spokesman for Dunkin’ Brands told the Guardian on Friday it would immediately pull a planned television spot featuring the imagery.

“Dunkin’ Donuts recognizes the insensitivity of this spot and on behalf of our Thailand franchisee and our company, we apologize for any offense it caused,” Karen Raskopf, chief communications officer for Dunkin’ Brands, said in a statement provided to the Guardian. “We are working with our franchisee to immediately pull the television spot and to change the campaign.”

The Thai arm of Dunkin’ Donuts had planned a poster and television campaign around the image, which it shared on Facebook. The advert shows a woman apparently wearing dark make-up and bright pink lipstick, with a 1950s beehive hairstyle. She is holding a “charcoal donut”, out of which a bite has been taken. The slogan next to the image reads: “Break every rule of deliciousness.”

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Naked Juice Forced to Give Customers up to $75 Each after Settling $9m Class-Action

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Photo Credit: Amazon

Photo Credit: Amazon

Naked Juice fans who bought bottles could get up to $75 in payments from a $9 million class action settlement fund after plaintiffs questioned the company’s claims of labels including ‘100 percent juice’ and ‘all natural’.

ABC News reports that customers who purchased eligible Naked Juice flavors between Sept. 27, 2007 and Aug. 19, 2013 can send in a claim form online at Nakedjuiceclaims.com or mail it by Dec. 17, 2013.

Those who have proof of purchase are entitled to a cash payment of up to $75.

Without proof, customers can claim up to $45 – depending on how much they spent on the juice.

Naked Juice, founded in 1983, helped put mass-produced green smoothies in the map.

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First Human Brain-to-Brain Interface (+video)

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Photo Credit: University of Washington

Photo Credit: University of Washington

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.

Using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation, Rajesh Rao sent a brain signal to Andrea Stocco on the other side of the UW campus, causing Stocco’s finger to move on a keyboard.

While researchers at Duke University have demonstrated brain-to-brain communication between two rats, and Harvard researchers have demonstrated it between a human and a rat, Rao and Stocco believe this is the first demonstration of human-to-human brain interfacing.

“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” Stocco said. “We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain.”

The researchers captured the full demonstration on video recorded in both labs. The following version has been edited for length. This video and high-resolution photos also are available on the research website.

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Gigantic Cat Prowls Detroit Neighborhood and Has Residents More than a Little Afraid (+video)

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Photo Credit: WJBK-TV

Photo Credit: WJBK-TV

This Motor City cat doesn’t purr; it hisses, observers say.

And it’s no kitten; it’s said to stand between 3 and 4 feet tall, believe it or not, and is lanky with a long tail.

If you think it’s hanging out at the Detroit Zoo, think again.

It’s hunkering down in a neighborhood…and the residents are afraid of what the giant feline might do if, for example, an inquisitive toddler approaches it.

“His tail is longer than my arm,” Antwaun Asberry, a 6-foot-5 resident, told the Detroit Free Press. “I was like, what the [expletive].. I don’t know what it is. I just want it gone.”

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