Needles

Doctors in China have discovered 26 sewing needles embedded in the body of a 31-year-old woman.

They think they were inserted into Luo Cuifen's body when she was a baby by grandparents upset she was not a boy.

Some of these needles have penetrated vital organs, such as the lungs, liver and kidneys. One has even broken into three pieces in the woman's brain.

From the BBC.

Summer Palace bronze to auction

Sotheby's said it plans to sell a Qing Dynasty horse head looted from China's imperial retreat for as much as HK$80 million ($7.7 million), sparking calls from Chinese officials for the sculpture to be returned to the nation.

The bronze is one of 12 zodiac animals from a water-clock fountain in Yuanmingyuan, or the imperial summer palace, according to Sotheby's, the world's biggest publicly traded auction house. The palace was set ablaze and its treasures plundered and scattered by British and French troops in October 1860. The horse head is the highlight of Sotheby's four-day Hong Kong auction starting on Oct. 6.

"This is stolen property," said Xu Yongxiang, who buys exhibits for the state-run Shanghai Museum. "It should be returned to the Chinese people through the government, not sold" . . .

The bronzes were cast by foreign Jesuits, according to Sotheby's. Qianlong Emperor (reign: 1736-1795) had commissioned Italian Jesuit artist Giuseppe Castiglione and Father Michel Benoist to design the European-style palaces and fountains.

From Bloomberg. The fact is, however, that the statute of limitations here runs only 50 years -- and if there were really any doubt over this situation, the sale wouldn't be taking place right in Hong Kong. Despite all the protests, China has been steadily buying back its own treasures, including Summer Palace items, often paying very substantial sums.

Slow search

There are still a few little refinements I have to add after upgrading Cronaca to the latest version of Movable Type, but overall the upgrade was refreshingly easy. The one apparently insoluble problem, however, is the much, much slower search function. I hope it will be fixed in the next upgrade. . . .

More on death by popcorn

By way of follow up on a post from May:

Four of the biggest makers of microwave popcorn are working to remove a flavoring chemical from their products that's linked to a lung ailment in popcorn plant workers while reassuring consumers about the snack's safety.

On Tuesday, Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center warned that consumers also could be in danger from the buttery flavoring, diacetyl. Doctors there believe they have the first case of a consumer who developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years.

From the Boston Globe, which also has more on that first consumer victim of popcorn-related lung disease:

Wayne Watson loved microwave popcorn so much he would eat at least two bags each night, breathing in the steam from the just-opened package, until doctors told him it may have made him sick.

His popcorn of choice was the extra-buttery variety.

Doctors tested Watson's home for levels of diacetyl fumes and found that while popcorn was microwaved in the kitchen, peak levels of the fumes were similar to those measured in factories, Rose said.

If in doubt, get the plain variety and butter it yourself.

Watson said he still craves popcorn but has taken his doctors' advice and snacks now on fruits and vegetables. He said his breathing has improved and he's lost 35 pounds. He no longer uses an inhaler or takes steroids.

His case of "popcorn lung" must have been relatively mild: the factory workers diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans required lung transplants.

We're short of spare parts, but we've got goats

Nepal's state-run airline has confirmed that it sacrificed two goats to appease a Hindu god, following technical problems with one of its aircraft.

Nepal Airlines said the animals were slaughtered in front of the plane - a Boeing 757 - at Kathmandu airport. . .

The airline said that after Sunday's ceremony the plane successfully completed a flight to Hong Kong.

From the BBC. I suspect that American passengers would find a different sort of runway sacrifice more efficacious. How about starting with those responsible for making passengers sit for hours in stuffy planes a stone's throw from the gate? Or perhaps those who route passengers onto delayed flights, knowing that they will be unable to make their connections and will inevitably end up stranded overnight?

I left my heart . . . on display

Jennifer Sutton, 23, from Ringwood, Hampshire, successfully underwent an operation to replace her heart earlier this year.

She had developed a life-threatening condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy in her teens.

Now the original heart, which nearly killed her, has been put on temporary display by the Wellcome Collection in central London.

From the BBC.

Re-evaluating pre-Roman Gaul

. . . a discovery in central France has led to a significant reassessment of the Gauls, who were, it transpires, much more advanced than previously thought.

Rather than the random gatherings of rudimentary thatched huts illustrated in the Asterix books, first published in 1961, archaeologists now believe the Gauls lived in elegant buildings with tiled roofs, laid out in towns with public squares or forums.

They also crafted metalwork just as complex as anything produced by the Romans, even before the Roman invasion in 52BC.

The findings have been made at a dig in Corent, near Lyon, where archaeologists have uncovered what they believe is the palace of Vercingetorix, the last military leader of all Gaul.

But see below. From the Telegraph, in an article just a bit too in love with playing up the Asterix angle. A more serious article in Le Monde (excerpt our translation):

A score of archeology students bustle about, the backdrop the characteristic volcanic hills of the Auvergne. "Here we are at the summit of the state, the home of one of the highest magistrates of the Arverne people", affirms Matthieu Poux, professor of Roman and Gallo-Roman archeology at the University of Lyon, sweeping his gaze over the 3000 to 4000 square meters of excavations. "In our shoes, the Anglo-Saxons [that is, English-speakers] would have already have jumped the gun and claimed to have discovered the residence of Vercingetorix or his father Celtill". . .

The plateau of Corent, which rises above the river Allier, around 20 kilometers to the south of Clermont-Ferrand, has since 2001 been revealing bit by bit the remains of a large Celtic city. Year by year, the excavations started by the Association for the research of the Iron Age in Auvergne overturn the common image of the Gauls living in villages of huts and organized in bands led by long-haired chieftains.

Well before the victory of Caesar over Vercingetorix -- in 52 BC, at Alésia -- and the Roman conquest, the Arvernes had developed a sophisticated urban model. This emergence of fortified towns governing the rural landscape is now dated to the turn of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC . . ..

The early Romanization of the Arvernes was undoubtedly due to their high magistrates travels back and forth between Italy and the center of France. That is suggested by the discovery, exceptional, of two fibulae in gold connected by a chain. "More than an ornament", affirms Matthieu Poux, "it was an emblem offered by Rome to the highest representatives of the state." He sees in it also a symbol of the connections and the early ties of allegiance between Roman and the Arvernes.

Wild cats roasting over an open fire . . .

Australians have come up with a novel solution to the millions of feral cats roaming the outback - eat them.

The felines are the descendants of domestic pets and kill millions of small native animals each year.

A recent Alice Springs contest featured wild cat casserole. The meat is said to taste like a cross between rabbit and, perhaps inevitably, chicken. . . .

he woman behind the controversial cat stew recipe has said Australians could do their bit to help the environment by tucking into more feral pests, including pigeons and camels. . .

Wild cats are considered good eating by some Aborigines, who roast the animals on an open fire.

From the BBC.