Couple Shocked to Learn They Were Babysitting a Kidnapped Child

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Photo Credit: KOMO News

Photo Credit: KOMO News

In a bizarre twist to a violent kidnapping, a Renton [Iowa] couple was stunned to learn the child they were babysitting had been abducted.

“It’s probably the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” said John Truong moments after police took custody of the 2-year-old boy. “It’s like something out of a movie.”

Authorities issued an Amber Alert Tuesday night after learning the toddler and his mother had been kidnapped from their home in Des Moines. Tuong and his wife didn’t know about the alert until early the next morning.

“I’m eating my breakfast, I’m checking my Facebook, all of a sudden I see this Amber Alert for this child,” recounted Tuong. “And it looks like this child in my bed, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God! What’s going on?’ ”

He called police, who arrived to find the boy safe and sound. Tuong then explained to detectives how the boy he had never seen before ended up at his house. (Read more from “Couple Shocked to Learn They Were Babysitting a Kidnapped Child” HERE)

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Scientists Find Key to ‘Turbo-Charging’ Immune System to Kill All Cancers

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cancer1_2130923bA protein which ‘turbo-charges’ the immune system so that it can fight off any cancer or virus has been discovered by scientists.

In a breakthrough described as a ‘game-changer’ for cancer treatment, researchers at Imperial College found a previously unknown molecule which boosts the body’s ability to fight off chronic illnesses.

Scientists at Imperial College London, who led the study, are now developing a gene therapy based on the protein and hope to begin human trials in three years.

“This is exciting because we have found a completely different way to use the immune system to fight cancer,” said Professor Philip Ashton-Rickardt, from the Section of Immunobiology in the Department of Medicine at Imperial, who led the study.

“It could be a game-changer for treating a number of different cancers and viruses.” (Read more from “Scientists Find Key to ‘Turbo-Charging’ Immune System to Kill All Cancers” HERE)

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Researchers Believe a Biological Revolution Enabling Humans to Experience Everlasting Youthfulness Is Coming

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agingIt is likely the first person who will live to be 1,000 years old is already alive today.

This is according to a growing regiment of researchers who believe a biological revolution enabling humans to experience everlasting youthfulness is just around the corner.

At the epicentre of the research is Aubrey de Grey — a Cambridge gerontologist and co-founder or the California-based Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Research Foundation.

“The first thing I want to do is get rid of the use of this word immortality, because it’s enormously damaging, it is not just wrong, it is damaging,” he told Motherboard.

“It means zero risk of death from any cause — whereas I just work on one particular cause of death, namely ageing.” (Read more from “Researchers Believe a Biological Revolution Enabling Humans to Experience Everlasting Youthfulness Is Coming” HERE)

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Fukushima Robot Stranded After Stalling Inside Reactor

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1000Decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a setback after a robot sent in to a damaged reactor to locate melted fuel stalled hours into its mission and had to be abandoned.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the robot stopped moving on Friday during its first inspection of the containment vessel inside reactor No 1, one of the three reactors that suffered meltdown after the plant was struck by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Tepco, which recently conceded that the technology for robots to retrieve the nuclear fuel had yet to be developed, said on Monday it would cut the cables to the stranded robot and postpone a similar inspection using a separate device.

Developed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, the robot was supposed to be able to function for about 10 hours even when exposed to radiation at levels that would cause ordinary electronic devices to malfunction.

The “transformer” robot, which can alter its shape depending on its surroundings, was sent in to photograph the inside of the reactor containment vessel and record temperatures and radiation levels. (Read more from “Fukushima Robot Stranded After Stalling Inside Reactor” HERE)

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Why Raw Food and Paleo Dieting May Be the New Eating Disorder

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Photo Credit: Daily Mail

Photo Credit: Daily Mail

Orthorexia nervosa, the ‘health food eating disorder’, gets its name from the Greek word ortho, meaning straight, proper or correct.

This exaggerated focus on food can be seen today in some people who follow lifestyle movements such as ‘raw’, ‘clean’ and ‘paleo’.

American doctor Steven Bratman coined the term ‘orthorexia nervosa’ in 1997 some time after his experience in a commune in upstate New York.

It was there he developed an unhealthy obsession with eating ‘proper’ food.

‘All I could think about was food,’ he said. ‘But even when I became aware that my scrabbling in the dirt after raw vegetables and wild plants had become an obsession, I found it terribly difficult to free myself. (Read more from “Why Raw Food and Paleo Dieting May Be the New Eating Disorder” HERE)

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Dog Cancer Detection ‘98% Reliable’

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germanThe Italian study backs up tests carried out by the charity Medical Detection Dogs, which is based in Buckinghamshire.

Its co-founder Dr Claire Guest said its own research had found a 93% reliability rate when detecting bladder and prostate cancer, describing the new findings as “spectacular”.

The latest research, by the Department of Urology at the Humanitas Clinical and Research Centre in Milan, involved two German shepherds sniffing the urine of 900 men – 360 with prostate cancer and 540 without.

Scientists found that dog one got it right in 98.7% of cases, while for dog two this was 97.6%.

They said the dogs are able to detect prostate cancer specific volatile organic compounds in the urine but said an important question remains of how a dog would find it in daily practice. (Read more from “Dog Cancer Detection ‘98% Reliable'” HERE)

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Gearing up for Robot Wars

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Photo Credit: Washington Times

Photo Credit: Washington Times

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work on Wednesday outlined the Pentagon’s plans for an advanced war-fighting strategy involving robot weapons and remote-controlled warfare.

In a speech to the Army War College Strategy Conference, Mr. Work said the “third offset strategy” will rely heavily on autonomous systems that will allow machines and U.S. technological superiority to win wars.

The strategy follows two earlier “offsets” — the use of asymmetric means to counter enemy advantages. During the Cold War, strategic deterrence and tactical nuclear arms were used to offset the Soviet Union’s ground force numerical advantages. In the 1970s, precision-guided conventional weapons were deployed to offset the quantitative shortcomings of foreign conventional forces.

Mr. Work said precision-guided warfare is reaching the end of its shelf life as foreign states have developed countermeasures.

The third offset will be designed to defeat states like China, which is developing niche, offset weapons such as anti-ship ballistic missiles and anti-satellite arms. (Read more from “Gearing up for Robot Wars” HERE)

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‘Unnervingly Real’ Android of Popular Presenter Transvestite Becomes the First in World to Host Its Own TV Show

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TransA cross-dressing Japanese television star’s robotic clone has made its ‘unnervingly real’ on-screen debut – the first android to host its own show.

Japanese engineers, who are trying to replace celebrities with human-like androids, have pushed the clone of transvestite entertainer Matsuko Deluxe into the limelight.

The late-night television personality shared the stage with his ‘Matsukoroid’ doppelganger for the first time on Saturday night.

‘It’s unnervingly real,’ said one commentator of the programme Matsuko Matsuko, which premiered at the weekend.

Mr Deluxe, who is popular in Japan for his frankness, said it was ‘fascinating’ come face-to-face with his lookalike. (Read more from “‘Unnervingly Real’ Android of Popular Presenter Transvestite Becomes the First in World to Host Its Own TV Show” HERE)

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Governor Issues Executive Order Imposing Draconian Fines for Long Showers

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Photo Credit: LA Times

Photo Credit: LA Times

By Pam Key. Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) said Californians will face heavy fines for taking long showers.

Brown said, “This executive order is done under emergency power. It has the force of law. Very unusual. It’s requiring action and changes in behavior from the Oregon border all the way to the Mexican border. It affects lawns. It affects people’s — how long they stay in the shower. How businesses use water.”

Brown said to enforce his order, “Each water district that actually delivers waters — water to homes and businesses, they carry it out. We have a state water board that overseas the relationships with the districts. Hundreds of them. If they don’t comply, people can be fined $500 a day. Districts can go to court to get a cease and desist order. The enforcement mechanism is powerful. In a drought of this magnitude, you have to change that behavior and you have to change it substantially.” (Read more from “Governor Jerry Brown to Levy Draconian Fines for Long Showers” HERE)

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California’s Wealthy Lagging in Water Conservation

By Frank Shyong, Hailey Branson-Potts and Matt Stevens. There are few signs of California’s epic drought along a stretch of Maple Drive in Beverly Hills.

Deep green front lawns stretch out, dotted with healthy trees and sculpted foliage. The only brown lawn in sight was at a home under construction.

As California gears up for the first mandatory water restrictions in its history, a long-standing class divide about water use is becoming increasingly apparent.

Beverly Hills and other affluent cities use far more water per capita than less-wealthy communities, prompting some to cast them as villains in California’s water conservation effort. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Dog-Poop DNA Tests Nail Non-Scoopers

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Photo Credit: Seattle Times

Photo Credit: Seattle Times

And you thought that at least your dog’s intestinal movements would be, you know, a private thing.

Just you and Rex at the park, or maybe by your neighbor’s hedge, in that spot where that neighbor can’t spot you two.

But, no, DNA testing for dog droppings — to identify whether it was left by Rex or Fluffy — has finally arrived in this region.

Bad dog, Rex. Here are the double helixes that prove it.

A company called BioPet Vet Lab, out of Knoxville, Tenn., says its PooPrints testing kits are now in 26 apartment and condo complexes and homeowner associations in greater Seattle. (Read more from “Dog-Poop DNA Tests Nail Non-Scoopers” HERE)

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