Before I go into anything, I first have to admit: I have been remissed in posting. I am sorry. My life is kind of insane….
Posts Tagged ‘body’
Kate Kelly: Medical Knowledge Used to Depend on Grave Robbing
July 16th, 2009 |
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Last week’s chilling discovery that bodies within Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois were routinely being dug up and moved so that the burial plots…
Flintoff to end Test career after Ashes
July 15th, 2009 |
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• Flintoff will continue to play ODIs and Twenty20 for England
• All-rounder wants to be world’s best limited-overs player
Andrew Flintoff has set his sights on becoming the world’s best limited-overs player after confirming he will retire from Test cricket at the end of this summer’s Ashes series. The England all-rounder, who has suffered a string of injuries over the past few years, hopes retiring from Test cricket will allow him to prolong his career sufficiently that he can represent England at the World Cup in 2015.
“I don’t think anything can generate as much excitement as an Ashes series,” admitted Flintoff. “But I enjoy the short form of the game and I want to be the best I can possibly can at that. I want to focus all my attention and all my energy on being the best in the world at that form of the game.
“One of the things about playing one-day cricket is that we’ve got a World Cup coming up in 2011, but I’d like to play in the one after that as well – there’s a lot of cricket left in me and there’s the focus of wanting to be the best in the world at that form of the game.”
Flintoff, who has a year left on his contract with Lancashire and Indian Premier League side Chennai Super Kings, hopes to continue playing one-day cricket and Twenty20 for both sides, as well as for England.
“I still have enthusiasm to play one-day cricket but there is obviously sadness there and I’ve finally had to acknowledge where I’m at in Test cricket with regards to my body,” he said. “I can’t grumble too much because I’ve played 75 Tests and if someone had said I would play that many I would have snapped their hand off.
“I started at 20 and I was rubbish and I’ve managed to carry on until now. I am a little upset by it because I’m only 31 but I’ve played a lot of cricket and I’ve got four more Tests to go.”
Flintoff sought advice from former England all-rounder Ian Botham, former captain Michael Vaughan and ex-team-mate Ashley Giles before making his decision, but said that ultimately it was his own body that told him to stop.
“Since 2005 I’ve had two years when I’ve done nothing but rehab from one injury or another,” said Flintoff. “It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a while and I think this last problem I’ve had with my knee has confirmed to me that the time is now right.
“I’ve been through four ankle operations, I had knee surgery just a couple of months ago and had three jabs in my knee on Monday just to get me right for this Test so I took that as my body telling me that I can’t cope with the rigours of Test cricket.”
Flintoff has missed 62 of 138 England Tests since making his debut against South Africa in 1998, and on top of the injuries mentioned has suffered a fracture to his foot, and a number of back and hip complaints. Despite this, he was named man of the series during England’s Ashes win in 2005, and said he was determined to go out on a high.
“For the next four Test matches I’ll do everything I need to do to get on a cricket field and I’m desperate to make my mark,” said Flintoff. “I want to finish playing for England on a high and if you look at the fixtures going forward, the way my body is suggests I won’t be able to get through that.”
Reflecting on the timing of his announcement, Flintoff said he felt compelled to make it now in order to allow the team to “move on”. “They can’t keep waiting for me to get fit or for me to play a game here and there,” said Flintoff. “They need to give someone else a chance to make their way in the game.”
“I would have liked to have stamped my mark more, but I had three years from 2003 to 2005 when I had everything going my own way. I got a few man-of-the-series awards on the bounce and I tried wholeheartedly and gave my best every time I went out there.
“Since 2005 I have just been plagued with injury so I’ve got the opportunity now to finish on a high by helping England to win the Ashes and it will give me great pleasure if I can play my last Test at the Oval and we can win the Ashes – it doesn’t get any bigger than that.”
Flintoff’s contract with Lancashire ends next year and he plans talks with captain Glen Chapple, chief executive Jim Cumbes and coach Peter Moores to determine his future with the club he has played for since being a schoolboy.
“I’ve not spoken to Lancashire about that yet and I still have a year of my contract left with them and I will have to discuss with them what the best way forward is,” he said. “I’ve given up Test cricket because my body can’t cope so playing four-day cricket could also be a problem, particularly as the fixtures come thick and fast.”
But despite the obvious temptation to play one last time in a Test match at Lord’s, Flintoff insists he will only play this week if his body is fit enough to withstand the rigours of playing against Australia. “I’ve chatted to Andrew Strauss and he is very supportive but I will make my decision on whether I will be fit enough to play in the Test match and not because I want to play one last Test for England at Lord’s,” he said.
Steve Harmison has been called into England’s 14-man squad as cover for Flintoff, though the all-rounder may yet play in the second Test at Lord’s. Flintoff had a cortisone injection to the knee following the drawn first Test in Cardiff, and batted both outdoors and indoors yesterday but did not bowl. The England coach Andy Flower said yesterday that a decision on the all-rounders availability would be made “in the next couple of days”.
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Flintoff says wants to end Test career with an Ashes high
July 15th, 2009 |
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England all-rounder Andrew ”Freddie” Flintoff formally announced on Wednesday that he would be quitting Test cricket after this year’’s Ashes series because his body had told him to stop.
“My body has told me it’’s time to stop. I”ve been through four ankle operations, I had knee surgery just a couple of months ago and had [...]
Flintoff says wants to end Test career with an Ashes high
July 15th, 2009 |
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England all-rounder Andrew ”Freddie” Flintoff formally announced on Wednesday that he would be quitting Test cricket after this year’’s Ashes series because his body had told him to stop.
“My body has told me it’’s time to stop. I”ve been through four ankle operations, I had knee surgery just a couple of months ago and had [...]
Leg-cutting funeral home to close
July 14th, 2009 |
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A judge in the US state of South Carolina has ordered the closure of a funeral home where an employee cut off the legs of a 6ft 7in (2m) body.
The worker used an electric saw to sever James Hines’s legs at the calf to make his body fit the coffin in 2004.
The owner had contested the revocation of his licence, saying he was absent when the incident happened and pointing to an otherwise unblemished record.
But after a brief hearing, the judge confirmed the business should close.
Earlier this year the owner of the funeral parlour in Allendale admitted that his father, who helped with cleaning and embalming bodies, had sawn off Mr Hines’s legs.
The admission came after a former employee told police about the incident, four years after it happened.
In April South Carolina’s funeral board exhumed the body and found the severed legs in the coffin.
Mr Hines has since been reburied in another coffin.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Doubts emerge over Papua killings
July 14th, 2009 |
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The rebel Free Papua Movement has denied any role in the shooting of an Australian at a mine in Indonesia.
Drew Grant was killed near the huge Freeport gold and copper mine, where he worked, in Papua province on Saturday.
Autopsies have suggested evidence may have been altered, and police said that the bullets used were military issue.
The revelations have raised doubts about official accusations that the separatist rebels were to blame for this and two other fatal shootings.
A security guard was killed on Sunday, and the body of a policeman found on Monday, near the mine operated by an Indonesian subsidiary of the US company Freeport McMoran, in the Timika district of Papua.
The Timika commander of Free Papua Movement (OPM), Kelly Kwalik, told the Jakarta Globe newspaper that his fighters neither had the desire, nor the equipment, for the attacks.
Yorris Raweyai, a Papuan lawmaker in the national parliament, dismissed claims that the separatist movement was responsible for the deaths.
"We know the OPM has been labelled as a troublemaker in Papua for four decades. But we also know that they have no guns and fight for their struggle peacefully," he said.
‘Possible manipulation’
Police have confirmed that high-powered weapons issued to military and police were used in the shootings.
Analysts have noted that Freeport is a lucrative posting for Indonesian security forces – they are paid by the mining company and also earn large amounts of money by charging money to local illegal miners.
Some analysts have suggested that the military could loosen its powerful grip on the region following the re-election of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Abdul Munim Idris, the doctor who conducted the autopsy on Mr Grant’s body, said that fragments of bullets were found in the body, but no whole bullets.
Asked whether there was any evidence the body had been manipulated, he said: "It’s possible," the radio station reported.
Mr Grant’s body has now been returned to Australia. His wife, Lauren, recently gave birth to their first baby.
Australian Federal Police are in Indonesia assisting in the investigation of Mr Grant’s murder.
Separatist sentiment in Papua has been focused in recent years on calls for a referendum – similar to that held in East Timor in 1999 – to allow Papuans to decide if their resource-rich region should stay in Indonesia.
The former Dutch colony was absorbed into Indonesia in 1969 after a vote by selected elders widely seen as flawed. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Govt. dissolves local assembly in Kosovo
July 13th, 2009 |
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The government passed a decision to dissolve the local assembly in Leposavić, and instituted a temporary body for the municipality. It was announced in the Official Gazzette that the interim body will deal with all issues within the Leposavić municipal assembly’s authority until a new assembly is constituted after early elections there.
British teenager killed in Thai water park
July 13th, 2009 |
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A 14-year-old boy from the Isle of Man has died at a water park in Thailand after he became trapped in a pumping system while looking for his lost goggles.
Nathan Clark, from Douglas, went to search for his goggles after they dropped through a grill at the bottom of one of the pools at the Pattaya water park, 85 miles east of Bangkok.
Members of his family told of their horror as staff at the tourist attraction refused to listen to their pleas for help for because they did not believe the accident could have happened.
Nathan’s father, Jim Clark, a tunnel engineer, had dived in to try and save him after Nathan’s elder brother Rhys, 15, raised the alarm, but he could find no trace of his son. Nathan’s body was finally found after engineers opened a water gate in the pump room.
Jim Clark hit out at a Thai cameraman after they tried to film his son’s body on the floor of the pump room, lashing at one with a spanner. Thai police have subsequently ordered him to pay 12,000 baht (about £240) compensation.
Jim Clark, who works for the international tunnel construction company Robbins in New Delhi, said: ” The guards did nothing for 30 minutes. They would not believe what had happened. When I finally forced them to do something they went to the pump room, opened a hatch, and my son’s body came out.
“The park has offered compensation. It’s not even something I want to even think about at the moment. This is not about money.”
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Former champion Gatti found dead
July 12th, 2009 |
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Former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti has been found dead in a hotel room in north east Brazil.
The Canadian’s body was discovered on Saturday at a holiday resort where he had gone with his wife and son.
Italian-born Gatti, 37, was IBF super-featherweight champion in 1995 and WBC light-welterweight champion in 2004. He retired in 2007.
Wounds were found on his body, according to reports, but the cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
"It is still too early to say anything concrete, although it is all very strange," police investigator Edilson Alves was quoted as saying.
A spokeswoman for the Pernambuco public safety department confirmed that Gatti’s wife and one-year-old son were unhurt.
The family had arrived in the resort of Porto de Galinhas on Friday.
606: DEBATE"R.I.P True legend of the sport"
patmanceltic2
Gatti’s career spanned 49 fights and he won 40 of them, 31 by knockout.
He eventually retired two years ago following a seventh-round knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez.
Kathy Duva, of Gatti’s promoters Main Events, described his death as an "unspeakable tragedy".
She said: "His entire boxing career he fought with us, we’ve known him since he was 17.
"He just captured the imagination of so many people."
Duva added: "I remember walking away from his last fight and somebody walked up to him in the casino late at night and congratulated him
"He said ‘Why did he congratulate me’ and I said ‘He was excited to meet you’ and he kind of looked very surprised by that. He had no idea what an icon he was or how much he meant to people." </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Cleaning Woman Who Vanished From Skyscaper Believed Dead
July 11th, 2009 |
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NEW YORK (AP) — A body hidden inside a Manhattan skyscraper where a cleaning woman vanished four days ago was found Saturday morning.
Police spokesman Paul Browne said the corpse was found just before 9 a.m., stuffed in an air conditioning d…
New autopsy after French unrest
July 10th, 2009 |
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A second autopsy has been ordered on the body of a young man whose death in police custody has caused three nights of rioting in a southern French town.
Police say Mohamed Benmouna, a 21-year-old of Algerian origin, died after trying to hang himself in a cell earlier this week.
Youths have set shops and cars on fire and battled riot police in the town of Firminy in reaction to the death.
Prosecutor Jacques Pin said he wanted to "remove all doubt" in the case.
A first examination of Mr Benmouna’s body on Thursday showed that he had died from "cardiac arrest by suffocation", he said.
Mr Benmouna had been arrested on suspicion of extortion.
The unrest in Firminy began on Tuesday, when youths burnt cars and threw stones at security forces.
On Thursday, in a third night of violence, several shops were destroyed by fire and police cars were damaged. Police responded with tear gas and said six people had been arrested.
The youths have challenged the official version of Mr Benmouna’s death – that he hung himself with cords from a mattress.
His family have called for calm, but have also filed a complaint to ask for a full investigation.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux repeated on Friday that the death had been a suicide.
"He was put in detention, and during his detention, he wanted to commit suicide and unfortunately, he did so," he told French radio.
In 2005, night-time rioting spread across France after two teenagers died in a Paris suburb. Residents said they had trying to escape from police.
The violence mainly affected areas that are home to immigrant communities, many of North African origin.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Pain and Posture: The Basics
June 23rd, 2009 |
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Old “Doc” Plume, the local hardware store owner, who was known for his miraculous cures for arthritis, had a long line of “patients” waiting outside the door when a little old lady, completely bent over, shuffled in slowly, leaning on her cane. When her turn came, she went into the back room of the store and, amazingly, emerged within half an hour, walking completely erect with her head held high. A woman waiting in the line said, “It’s a miracle! You walked in bent in half and now you’re walking erect.  What did Doc do?” She answered, “He gave me a longer cane.”
It’s funny; most of the people with bad posture or pain syndrome I run into want to know a miracle exercise that will cure their dysfunction. Sure, exercise can help and be a big part of a program designed to deal with pain and posture. But more often than not, it is the little things in our everyday lives that could use some adjusting. With that, here is a short list of activities to be mindful of.
Driving: Do you slouch, lean to one side more than the other? Maybe you keep one hand high on the steering wheel and the other low, causing you to shrug one shoulder more than the other. The point: try to shift and change positions often if you spend lots of time in the car. The best position will always be hands at 10 and 2. And holding your back tall and flat against the seat.
Desk: You should know by now that posture at the desk is important. You’re in this position for several hours at a time and it can have BIG repercussions on your health. Get up often and be aware of any favoritism to any particular positions you might find yourself in. Reaching and twisting from a seated position is a big no-no. Try to organize your desk to be more spine friendly by putting often-used folders and materials within arm’s reach.
Sleeping: Our sleep posture is one of the most overlooked aspects of our life. You spend 8 hours (hopefully) a night in either one or various positions that could have a large impact on your posture during the day. Do you pile the pillows high? This leads to excess stretching of the extensors in the neck, possibly contributing to a forward head posture. Do you pull the bed sheets tight over your feet, pulling your toes into a pointed position? This can lead to limited ankle mobility, which then affects your entire body mechanics, from walking to sitting. Do you sleep on your side with one leg bent and across your body? This can lead to an imbalance between your left and right spinal erectors, which then could be contributing to your back pain. This is can be even worse if you’re a woman with generous hips. Paranoid yet? I didn’t even mention how sleeping on your stomach can contribute to an excessive lordodic curve ,which then may lead to extra compressive forces for your lumbar spine to handle. So which is the best position to sleep in? On your side, knees bent, pillow between the knees and your head resting on a single pillow. Or if you prefer, on your back with a pillow under your knees, sheets loose, and again, a single pillow for the head.
The point I’m trying to drive home here is that we need to pay more attention to our bodies when they’re NOT in motion. It’s the little things like these that add up and contribute to a life of constant and nagging pains. Practice a technique known as mindfulness. Every once in awhile turn your attention inwards and ask yourself; have I been in this position for too long? Could I do something to make my current posture or situation more comfortable and back friendly? Before you know it, the pain that once prevented you from doing normal everyday tasks will have disappeared and become a thing of the past.
Jamie Nischan owns and runs a successful fitness coaching business in Stamford CT. Through the use of posture correction and exercise he treats pain often associated with excessive use of computers. More about Jamie can be found at www.thebuffgeek.com.