| Dirty Cell Phones Could Make You Sick | | Posted Wednesday, February 07, 2007 3:10:08 PM by Blog57 Team | | Most people won't leave home without it, but what you may not know about your cell phone could be making you sick. It's hard to go anywhere these days without hearing an original cell phone ring or seeing people attached to their cell phones. For many, their cell is their connection to the world. And dozens of studies find cell phones are loaded with germs. Some even say they're dirtier than a toilet seat. But are they really that dirty? We wanted to find out for ourselves. So we asked biotechnology students at the Florida Community College of Jacksonville (FCCJ) to help us find out what's really on our phones. The FCCJ students swabbed a total of 38 cell phones. “Basically, the more phones we test, the more likely we are to see all these things," said FCCJ Professor Kevin Pegg.... | |
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| | | Forced to sleep on the streets | | Posted Friday, February 02, 2007 1:09:43 PM by Blog57 Team | | A woman who suffered horrific burns in a suspected arson attack says she has been forced to sleep on the streets after the fire rendered her home uninhabitable. Laura Simmons, 45, who suffered serious burns to her face, arms and hands in the blaze at Leopards Plaza on Saturday, was last night admitted to hospital for treatment sparing her a second consecutive evening sleeping outside. Doctors say living in such conditions could have caused Mrs. Simmons burns to get infected increasing the chance of permanent damage to her wounds. Meanwhile, Mrs. Simmons has received a message of support from another victim, who sustained 45 percent burns in an accident when she was a young girl. Sonia Gibbons said it took her several years to come to terms with her own injuries, and wanted to give Mrs.... | |
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| | | Sock could be step forward in war on smelly feet | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 11:46:47 AM by Blog57 Team | | Imagine a sock that makes your feet not only look nicer but smell better. Teaneck, N.J.-based Aetrex Worldwide Inc. has. Within the next month, it will introduce its Copper Sole Sock, designed to fight bacteria that causes fungus and odor, the 60-year-old foot-care products company said last week. In addition, the socks are essentially seamless, meaning there is no raised seam that can cause an irritation that could be potentially dangerous to diabetics. .... | |
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| | | Report: Floam Could Threaten Child's Health | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 1:50:10 PM by Blog57 Team | | A popular gooey substance sold to children could become toxic and threaten their health, according to a Problem Solvers investigation. Television and Internet advertisements for Floam describe the toy as non-toxic micro-beaded modeling fun that can be molded into different shapes. Ryan Hann, 7, played with Floam for about a week when his mother, Kelly, noticed the goo was losing its glow. .... | |
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| | | Members of local Legion posts recall service | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 3:25:25 PM by Blog57 Team | | Members of Monroeville American Legion Gold Star Post 820 and Pitcairn American Legion Post 256 are sharing their memories of military service in advance of Veterans Day this Saturday, Nov. 11. American Legion members Bob DeMarcki and Frank Gallo helped gather the veterans whose stories follow. Operation Iraqi Freedom Supply Sgt. John Barner, a 15-year veteran of the Army, could order food from Burger King while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He swam in pools and watched movies while not on duty at Balad Air Force Base, where he served in a movement control center, coordinating and briefing people going to and from the airport. But he never forgot where he was -- Base Camp Ana-conda, 68 kilometers north of Baghdad with the 430th Replacement Co.... | |
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| | | Link found between wine, long life | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 7:45:56 AM by Blog57 Team | | Can you have your cake and eat it? Is there a free lunch after all, red wine included? Researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging report that a natural substance found in red wine, known as resveratrol, offsets the bad effects of a high-calorie diet in mice and significantly extends their lifespan. Their report, published electronically Wednesday in Nature, implies that very large daily doses of resveratrol could offset the unhealthy, high-calorie diet thought to underlie the rising toll of obesity in the United States and elsewhere, should people respond to the drug as mice do. Resveratrol is found in the skin of grapes and in red wine and is conjectured to be a partial explanation for the "French paradox," the puzzling fact that people in France to enjoy a high-fat diet yet suffer less heart disease than Americans.... | |
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| | | Princely treatment for frogs at hotel in Panama | | Posted Monday, October 30, 2006 7:26:05 AM by Blog57 Team | | El Valle de Anton, Panama - The guests in Rooms 28 and 29 at the Hotel Campestre here in this lush volcano-crater town get the full spa treatment. Daily cleansing rinses. Exotic lunches. Even 24-hour room service. It would all be so lovely, a real dream, if they could only go outside every once in a while. But they can't. Not ever. One step outside, or in their case one hop, and they'd be goners. Thus is the lot of Panama's - and perhaps the world's - most unusual hotel VIPs, the darling little Panamanian golden frogs of El Valle de Anton. The frogs, considered so lucky in Panama that their images appear on lottery tickets, are in big trouble. They're on the run from a vicious fungus that has already wiped out as many as 120 species of amphibians in Central America.... | |
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| | | Ringworm of the body | | Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:08:35 AM by Blog57 Team | | Ringworm of the body is one of several forms of ringworm, a fungal infection that develops on the top layer of your skin. It's characterized by an itchy, red circle of rash with healthy-looking skin in the middle. Also called tinea corporis, ringworm of the body is closely related to other skin conditions with similar names. "Tinea" is a type of fungus, and "corporis" is the Latin word for "body." Other common tinea infections include: Athlete's foot (tinea pedis). This form affects the moist areas between your toes and sometimes on your foot itself. Jock itch (tinea cruris). This form affects your genitals, inner upper thighs and buttocks. Ringworm of the scalp (tinea capitis). This form is most common in children and involves red, itchy patches on the scalp, leaving bald patches.... | |
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| | | In search of the great pumpkin | | Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006 7:10:47 PM by Blog57 Team | | Question: Please give me some information on how to grow my pumpkin plants next year. They start out looking great, but then slowly die off. They seem to die off at the root at ground level. Is there a secret to growing those huge pumpkins you see on TV? - George Ramirez, San Bernardino Answer: The pumpkin, Cucurbitacae comes to us from South America and is related to the squash, gourd and melon family. They are available in all sizes. They do need lots of room, up to 500 square feet. Here is some information about growing pumpkins: Pumpkins should be rotated and planted in soil that was not previously used last year for potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes or cucumbers. Plant pumpkins in May in rows spaced 3 feet apart; plant seeds 1 inch deep in clusters of three to four every 2 feet.... | |
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| | | Local fungus reduces pumpkin supply | | Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006 1:24:08 PM by Blog57 Team | | An epidemic of pumpkin rot could prevent those planning on carving or smashing pumpkins from doing so this Halloween season. Pumpkin rot develops when the weather conditions are favorable for fungal growth. This year's sporadic hit of the fungus was most likely influenced by the rainfall in Lafayette for the months of August and September. The amount of rainfall was almost eight inches for those two months, said Karen Rane, a plant disease diagnostician at the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab. The pumpkins develop fungus and breed bacteria, eventually rotting from the inside out. Rane said growers cannot protect the fruit part of the pumpkin. However, fungicide can help protect the foliage by making it more resistant to weather conditions. Samantha Lovegrove, a sophomore in the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences, said she was not aware of the pumpkin rot and that she had been planning on decorating her apartment's balcony with carved pumpkins this year.... | |
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