- So….how is that extra security working out for skiing
sensation Lindsay Vonn? Vonn rolled into Schladming, Austria for the world downhill skiing
championships with extra security, purportedly hired by sponsor Red Bull, to
make sure she could “get around” without any trouble. Unfortunately for Vonn, security
can only keep a person safe when they’re not sliding down a snowy hill at
speeds upwards of 40 mph. Sans her hired muscle, Vonn crashed and apparently hurt her right knee during a super-G at
the world championships Tuesday and was airlifted from the scene and taken to a
hospital by helicopter. Peter Schroecksnadel, Austria's ski federation
president, said doctors informed him that Vonn tore her cruciate and lateral
ligaments. Schroecksnadel insisted that this is "the only injury she has,
nothing besides this,” but “nothing besides this” could still be enough damage
to keep Vonn out of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Two torn
ligaments could certainly prevent Vonn from competing at the Olympics,
depending on how quickly she heals. She crashed after losing her balance on her
right leg while landing after a jump. Her ski flew off immediately upon impact
and she slid off course and hit a gate before coming to a halt. Medical
personnel treated her for 12 minutes before she was airlifted from the scene.
This marks the sixth straight major championship in which Vonn has been hit
with injuries and her fall comes almost exactly one year before the start of
the 2014 Games. The fall comes one month after Vonn returned to the circuit
following a month-long break to recover from an intestinal illness that put her
in a hospital for two days in November. At the time of her crash, she was 0.12
seconds behind race winner Tina Maze of Slovenia. Conditions on the slopes were
rife for disaster, as the race was postponed for 3½ hours because of fog and
several racers struggled with the conditions. "It's not a very difficult
course but in some parts you couldn't see anything," Fabienne Suter of
Switzerland said. Not the best recipe for staying upright and healthy……..
- How long ago did a late Neanderthal
population exist in southern Spain? Science is always revising its theories and
answers, so the response varies depending on the day of the week. Today’s
answer is that this population may have been much older than previously
thought. Until now, scientists believed the Neanderthal population in the
region existed 35,000 years ago. A new study led by professor Thomas Higham from
the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford suggests it
may be time to revise that theory. Using a "more reliable" form of
radiocarbon dating, Higham’s team re-assessed fossils from the region and found
them to be far older than anyone thought. "The picture emerging is of an
overlapping period [in Europe] that could be of the order of perhaps
3,000-4,000 years - a period over which we have a mosaic of modern humans being
present and then Neanderthals slowly ebbing away, and finally becoming
extinct," Higham explained. In other words, modern humans may have
co-existed with our evolutionary "cousins" for several millennia. "What our research contributes is that in
southern Spain, Neanderthals don't hang on for another 4,000 years compared
with the rest of Europe. And the hunch must be that they go extinct in the
south of Spain at the same time as everywhere else," Higham added. The
topic of human-Neanderthal co-existence has long been a topic of debate, as is
the idea that the south of Spain acted as a refuge for the last populations of
Neanderthals. If these results are accurate, they raise interesting questions
about what role humans may have played in Neanderthals’ demise. Previous
research has indicated that modern humans lived in the lands now known as Italy
and the United Kingdom as far back as 41,000-45,000 years ago. To determine how
recently Neanderthals lived in southern Spain, Higham’s team screened more than
200 fossil bones from 11 Iberian Palaeolithic sites, looking for traces of
collagen, a major structural protein in bone that is the most suitable target
for radiocarbon dating. Only 27 specimens met the standards for us in the study
and just six of those provided a useable date………..
- Bubble wrap has done done it again, y’all. Arguably one of
the most fun, entertaining products ever invented by mankind, bubble wrap
provides hours of joy and amusement for children of all ages as they pop its
rows and rows of plastic bubbles, generating hilarious popping sounds that
never fail to delight. Still, few people recognize bubble wrap’s ability to
save lives and prevent serious injury, especially at construction sites. An
unidentified construction worker in Boston will never make that mistake again
after he averted serious injury or
worse Monday morning when he fell 30 feet off a building, but landed on bubble
wrap. Because of his softened landing spot, the man suffered back and shoulder
injuries and had to be treated at a local hospital, but it could have been much
worse, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department said. The 38-year-old worker
was working three stories up off the ground on a building at 1959 Commonwealth
Ave. in cold, windy conditions. The scaffolding at the site is wrapped in
bubble wrap and some extra rolls were on the ground where the worker fell.
Boston firefighters responded to the scene of the accident and found the force
of the fall had been so severe that the man had to be cut from the bubble wrap.
When he does recover from his injuries and is able to return to work, hopefully
a company that manufactures bubble wrap will be smart enough to sign him up as
a spokesman and capitalize on his story to promote the never ending benefits of
a truly wonderful product……..
- The stars are beginning to align for the forthcoming
sequel to the cult comedy classic “Anchorman” – literally. With the
long-awaited sequel set for a Dec. 20 release, the cast for "Anchorman: The Legend Continues"
is taking shape. Will Ferrell, the creative mind behind the project and the
film’s star, will be joined by returning cast members Christina Applegate, Paul
Rudd, Steve Carrell and Dave Koechner, but that Channel 4 news team will have a
new partner in crime for the sequel: Ferrell’s fellow “Saturday Night Live”
alumnus Kristen Wiig. Producer Adam McKay broke the news of Wiig’s inclusion on
Twitter, writing, "Just
found out Kristen Wiig officially on board for Anchorman 2. Cannonball!"
Applegate, who played Ron Burgundy’s rival and love interest Veronica Corningstone in “Anchorman,” shared
McKay’s excitement about having a well-respected comedic mind like Wiig on
board for the second installment in the franchise. "So excited Kristen
Wiig has joined our cast for anchorman2," she said. "Going 2 b best
movie ever made. Besides the best movies ever made." Ferrell and Wiig gave
a teaser for what fans can expect on the big screen when they presented
together and delivered a few laughs (most of them on account of Ferrell’s
bitchin’ mustache) at last month’s Golden Globe awards. By the time “Anchorman:
The Legend Continues” hits theaters, it will have been more than nine years
since the first film was released. If the strong casting news continues, the
movie just might be hilarious enough to make movie goers forget how long the
second installment took and that it almost didn’t happen because of budget
disputes………
- Miracles do happen. Look no further than the north African
nation of Mali, where one of the world’s true wonders continues: French troops
actually fighting instead of surrendering. French soldiers are fighting side by
side with Malian
troops to put down a rebel uprising and the fight continued Monday when the
joint fighting force sealed off Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, driving
out rebels who decided to burn a little history on their way out the door and torched
several buildings in the ancient Saharan trading town, including a library of
priceless manuscripts. The fleeing Islamist rebel fighters did not fire a
single shot to stop 1,000 French soldiers including paratroopers and 200 Malian
troops as they seized the airport and surrounded the centuries-old Niger River
city, looking to block the escape of al-Qaida-allied fighters. Prior to
retaking Timbuktu, French and Malian forces captured Gao, another major
northern Malian town which had also been occupied by the alliance of Islamist
militant groups since last year. France has been involved in the conflict in
its former Sahel colony for two weeks at the request of Mali's government but
also with wide international backing. In that time, they have helped to drive the
Islamist rebel fighters northwards out of towns into the desert and mountains. A
French military spokesman confirmed that the assault forces at Timbuktu were
being careful to avoid combat inside the city so as not to damage cultural
treasures and mosques and religious shrines, although that also plays well into
the stereotype that the French don’t do so well with actual fighting. Saying
you’re protecting a seat of Islamic learning by not firing unnecessary shots is
a solid excuse, though. The French fighters were unable to keep the fleeing
Islamist fighters from torching a South African-funded library, according to Timbuktu's
mayor, Ousmane Halle. "The rebels set fire to the newly constructed Ahmed
Baba Institute built by the South Africans ... this happened four days
ago," Halle said, adding that the rebels also torched his office and the
home of a member of parliament. The library they burned is the Ahmed Baba
Institute, one of several libraries and collections in the city containing
fragile ancient documents dating back to the 13th century. Clearing the city
will be difficult because of its labyrinth of ancient mosques and monuments and
mud-brick homes between alleys, but if anyone can do it, it’s the French………
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