Monday, April 17, 2017

News Snippets

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Some items from yesterday’s news that you may have missed . . .
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Married twins:

A married couple were told they were biological twins after they visited an IVF clinic because they were struggling to conceive a child. A Jackson, Mississippi, fertility doctor informed the unidentified pair that they were biological twins after he noticed the striking similarities in their DNA, it was revealed on Thursday. The devastated couple was left at a loss with what to do, as marriage between siblings is outlawed in the southern state. 

Their parents both died in a car accident and, due to a filing error when they were adopted by other families, the adoption parents were never told about their child's other sibling. The pair unknowingly reunited while attending college and they quickly bonded over their strikingly similar backgrounds and fell in love. 

They have been left at a loss as to what to do, marriage between siblings being illegal in Mississippi.

What a pisser!

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Oldest woman dies:

Emma Morano, at 117 the world's oldest person and also believed to have been the last surviving person born in the 1800s, died at her home in northern Italy. She died while bouncing her son on her knee. He is aged 96. No, that's not true, I made that bit up. She passed away while sitting in an armchair at her home. She outlived all her eight brothers and sisters, including one who died at 102.


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100 oldest women:

The list of the verified oldest 100 women, both living and dead, can be found at the following link:

Here are the top 10, Emma Morano coming in at No 5:

1.  Jeanne Calment (France): 21.02.1875-04.08.1997, 122 years, 164 days 
2.  Sarah Knauss (US): 24.09.1880-30.12.1999, 119 years, 97 days 
3.  Lucy Hannah (US): 16.07.1875-21.03.21993, 117 years, 248 days 
4. Mary-Louise Meilleur (Canada): 29.08.1880-16.04.1998, 117 years, 230 days 
5.  Emma Morano (Italy): 29.11.1899- 15.04.2017, 117 years 137 days
6.  Violet Brown (Jamaica): 10.03.1900- , 117 years, 36 days (still living)
7.  Misao Okawa (Japan): 05.03.1898-01.04.2015, 117 years, 27 days
8.  Maria Capovilla (Ecuador): 14.09.1889-27.08.2006, 116 years, 347 days
9.  Susannah Mushatt Jones (US): 06.07.1899-12.05.2016, 116 years, 311 days
10. Gertrude Weaver (US): 04.07.1898-06.04.2015, 116 years, 276 days

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Sonny Bill Williams- an item of interest:

Rugby superstar Sonny Bill Williams has been given a specially modified jersey without a reference to his club’s sponsor on the collar. Williams converted to Islam in 2008. Sharia prohibits acceptance of specific interest or fees for loans of money (known as riba or usury) This became a problem for Williams, who was returning after a 7 month absence through injury, in that the logos of the club’s sponsors, the Bank of New Zealand and Investec, were featured on the players’ collars. He solved the problem last weekend by putting tape over the offending logos:


The new logo on the collar, for Williams only, is for child support service provider, Plunkett:


“I want to be clear that this is nothing personal against the BNZ or Investe. My objection to wearing clothing that markets banks, alcohol and gambling companies is central to my religious beliefs and it is important to me to have been granted this exemption.” – Sunny Bill Williams


A newspaper reported in February 2017 that Williams had let fellow Muslim Anthony Mundine $500,000 interest free and on a handshake, returning the favour from when Mundine gave him $750,000 in 2008 when Williams had left the Canterbury Bulldogs without being released by the club to play French rugby union.

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Stolen placenta:


A Kiwi mum fears a burglar has eaten her son's placenta after nicking it from her freezer. Loralie Burns, from Sunnyvale, west Auckland, recently moved to a new house nearby but some of her kitchen appliances including her fridge-freezer were still at the old property. The 35-year-old found out today from her former landlord that frozen meat was stolen from the freezer - including a tupperware container which had her son's placenta stored in it. The horrified mum has issued a plea on Facebook for its return. "Please to whoever went through my old house / next door & felt the need to take the meat from the freezer," she wrote. "PLEASE return the item in the blue tupperware container as it contains my son's placenta. "I don't care how it comes back, I don't need to know who...just please get it back to me asap! If you know someone who brought home a few roasts last night please check your freezers."

Burns kept the placenta after her son Dante was born five months ago and she planned to bury it somewhere significant. 

She couldn't remember if the container had been labelled by her midwife and is worried the thief would mistakenly eat it.


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An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth . . .


A blind man has had his sight restored using his own tooth. Goulburn man John Ings undertook radical new surgery called osteo-odonto kerato-prosthesis to restore his vision. The 72-year-old has gradually lost his vision over the past 16 years after contracting herpes simplex and undertook the groundbreaking surgery at Sydney Eye Hospital. 

The operation is a four-part procedure which begins with the patient's tooth being removed and a hole being drilled into it to place a plastic lens inside. The tooth is then sewn inside the patient's cheek for three months where it grows tissue and develops its own blood supply. After three months surgeons remove the tooth and insert this into the old cornea and some skin is removed from the mouth and placed over the new cornea to seal it. An opening is made to allow the new lens to see out.

The surgery has been performed successfully twice in Australia.



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