It was a scene as creepy as a Hannibal Lecter movie.

One man was shot to death by Miami police, and another man is fighting for his life after he was attacked, and his face allegedly half eaten, by a naked man on the MacArthur Causeway off ramp Saturday, police said.

The horror began about 2 p.m. when a series of gunshots were heard on the ramp, which is along NE 13th Street, just south of The Miami Herald building.

According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away.Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.  Police are searching for witnesses of this brutal crime.

Inca surgeons in ancient Peru commonly and successfully removed small portions of patients’ skulls to treat head injuries, according to a new study.

The surgical procedure—known as trepanation—was most often performed on adult men, likely to treat injuries suffered during combat, researchers say.

A similar procedure is performed today to relieve pressure caused by fluid buildup following severe head trauma.

Around the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco (see Peru map), remains dating back to A.D. 1000 show that surgical techniques were standardized and perfected over time, according to the report.

Many of the oldest skulls showed no evidence of bone healing following the operation, suggesting that the procedure was probably fatal.

But by the 1400s, survival rates approached 90 percent, and infection levels were very low, researchers say.

The new findings show that Inca surgeons had developed a detailed knowledge of cranial anatomy, said lead author Valerie Andrushko, of Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

“These people were skilled surgeons,” she said.

Beer, Plants Aided Patients

Inca healers carefully avoided areas of the skull where cutting would be more likely to cause brain injury, bleeding, or infection, Andrushko noted.

The operations were conducted without the modern benefits of anesthesia and antibiotics, but medicinal plants were probably used, she said.

“They were aware of the medicinal properties of many wild plants, including coca and wild tobacco,” Andrushko said.

“These, along with maize beer, may have been used to alleviate some of the pain.

“Natural antiseptics such as balsam and saponins [plants with soaplike properties] may have reduced the likelihood of infection following trepanation,” she added.

The new study was recently published online in The American Journal of Physical Anthropology….. Read Rest of Story Here

JAMA lambastes Vioxx publishing practices

It’s My Right to Have Kid, Pregnant Man Tells Oprah

Transgender Man Says He Kept Uterus Intending to Become Pregnant

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN

April 3, 2008 —

Thomas Beatie, a former woman who is now a pregnant man, defended his decision today to have a baby, saying he has a “right to have a biological child.”

Despite removing his breasts, growing a wispy beard and legally having his gender changed from female to male, Beatie, 34, kept his female sex organs intact because he hoped to have a child some day.

After years of struggling with his sexual identity and deciding to live as a man, he did the most womanly thing possible — he became pregnant.

In an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey, Beatie said his lifelong desire to have children motivated him to use his still working female reproductive organs when he learned that Nancy, his wife of five years, was unable to conceive.

“I actually opted not to do anything to my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day. I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn’t define who I am,” Beatie told Winfrey.

“I feel it’s not a male or female desire to have a child. It’s a human need. I’m a person and I have the right to have a biological child.”

Beatie was impregnated with sperm from a donor. His wife, Nancy, inseminated him at home with a device she said was like a syringe without the needle. They bought it from a veterinarian and it is typically used to feed birds.

He has an intact vagina, but he he did not say how he would deliver the baby.

Beatie, who was born Tracy, said he first felt he was trapped in the wrong body when he was in his 20s. He quickly went from a Miss Teen Hawaii USA finalist to taking testosterone and growing a beard.

“Sexuality is completely different than your gender,” he said, responding to a question about why he did not remain a lesbian woman. “I felt more comfortable being the male gender.”

“It was difficult for society to respect the way I felt inside if I didn’t look like a man outside. I started wearing men’s clothes and people started regarding me as a man.”

Despite having two adult children from her first marriage, Nancy said she could no longer have children because she had her uterus removed.

“It wasn’t difficult because I can’t have children,” Nancy said. “I had endometriosis and they had to remove my womb, therefore I don’t have a womb.”

Beatie and Nancy tried to conceive once before with him carrying the child, but the pregnancy was unsustainable because the fertilized egg had implanted outside of the uterus.

The couple had a difficult time finding a doctor who was willing to help them conceive.

They saw nine obstetricians before one was willing to help them.

“People’s normal perceptions are going to be challenged, but once I met Thomas and Nancy I realized they’re devoted and need quality medical care like everyone else,” doctor Kimberly James told Oprah.

“Thomas has been off testosterone for two years before even trying to conceive. His testosterone levels are normal. Some physical changes are permanent, but his hormone levels are normal. People ask ‘is the baby going to be normal?’ The baby is totally healthy,” she said.

The couple’s family and neighbors have reacted in different ways, some supportive, others less so.

When his first pregnancy failed, “my brother said it was a good thing that it didn’t happen because it would have been a monster,” he told Winfrey.

Nancy’s two daughters, however, are very supportive.

Neighbors, identified only as George and Victoria, from Bend, Ore., said they were more surprised that shocked.

“I was under the impression that Nancy was pregnant. I often see Thomas out and about cutting grass. Thomas told us it was he that was pregnant. I was surprised. It’s not Nancy? It’s Thomas. I have to get my head around this,” Victoria said.

Beatie said he and his wife are legally married because Beatie is legally a man. They plan to provide a happy home for their baby girl.

“Love makes a family and that’s all that matters,” he said.

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ScienceDaily (2008-01-25) — A minuscule, single-eyed camera fits in a easily swallowed pill. The device would conduct low-cost screens to prevent esophageal cancer. A fundamentally new design has created a smaller endoscope that is more comfortable for the patient and cheaper to use than current technology. Its first use on a human, scanning for early signs of esophageal cancer. … > read full article

Ancient Maya sacrificed boys not virgin girls: study

As time went on….

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Hitler and his henchmen victimized an entire continent and exterminated millions in his quest for a so-called Master Race.

But the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn’t originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little-known, role in the American eugenics movement’s campaign for ethnic cleansing.

Eugenics was the pseudoscience aimed at “improving” the human race. In its extreme, racist form, this meant wiping away all human beings deemed “unfit,” preserving only those who conformed to a Nordic stereotype. Elements of the philosophy were enshrined as national policy by forced sterilization and segregation laws, as well as marriage restrictions, enacted in 27 states. In 1909, California became the third state to adopt such laws. Ultimately, eugenics practitioners coercively sterilized some 60,000 Americans, barred the marriage of thousands, forcibly segregated thousands in “colonies,” and persecuted untold numbers in ways we are just learning. Before World War II, nearly half of coercive sterilizations were done in California, and even after the war, the state accounted for a third of all such surgeries….. Read the rest of the story here

This sounds insane!  A doctor would never recommend that  their patient start smoking for better health, anxiety management or as a remedy for a sore throat right?  FALSE! Not too long ago, medical journals and ladies magazines were full of advertisements which showed a doctor smoking and recommending cigarettes  as treatment for common medical ailments. The days of when tobacco companies and drug companies gave doctors huge incentives are thankfully over. Nowadays, physicians are lucky to get a pen  to write with or a note pad.  Occasionally, a sandwhich and a soda are provided  to listen to a sales pitch, but not much more than that.   

Today,  we now know that cigarettes are responsible for over 500,000 deaths every year, specifically in the form of lung cancer, heart attacks and strokes.  To put that in perspective,  the Vietnam war, which lasted over 10 years saw 54,000 US soldiers die, 10% of what cigarettes kill in 1 year.

Medicines like Chantix have become great options but simple will power  and determination are also important, and a lot cheaper. In either case, if you are a smoker, you really need to quit today as your life will depend on it.