Miss Piggy's Grocery Store Checkout Headlines

[Necronus]

20 Year Old Infant Dies Never Having Aged

Spoiler: show

Brooke Greenberg, who baffled scientists because she never aged, has died at the age of 20, never having developed beyond the physical size of an infant or the mental capacity of a 2-year-old.

The daughter of Howard and Melanie Greenberg from Reisterstown, Md., Brooke is one of about a dozen children in the world who have what some call syndrome X -- a kind of Benjamin Button disorder that prevents them from aging.

Her funeral was Sunday at a synagogue outside Baltimore, family friends confirmed.

"The family is doing as well as can be expected," Chris Cole, a colleague of Brooke's father, told ABCNews.com today. "They are going through their traditions this week -- the shiva."

Brooke has been pushed around in a stroller all her life. In 2009, when her family was interviewed on ABC's "20/20," Brook weighed 16 pounds and was 30 inches tall. She didn't speak, but she laughed when she was happy, and clearly recognized her three sisters: Emily, now 26; Caitlin, now 23; and Carly, now 17.

But only her hair and fingernails grew.

In her first six years, Brooke went through a series of medical emergencies from which she recovered, often without explanation. She survived surgery for seven perforated stomach ulcers. She had a brain seizure followed by what was diagnosed as a stroke that, weeks later, had left no apparent damage.

At 4, she fell into a lethargy that caused her to sleep for 14 days. Then, doctors diagnosed a brain tumor, and the Greenbergs bought a casket for Brooke.

"We were preparing for our child to die," Howard Greenberg told ABC in 2009. "We were saying goodbye. And, then, we got a call that there was some change -- that Brooke had opened her eyes and she was fine. There was no tumor. She overcomes every obstacle that is thrown her way."

Richard F. Walker, a retired medical researcher from the University of Florida Medical School who now does his research at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, has followed Brooke's case since she was about 2 years old, comparing her genetic code with that of other children with the same condition.

"In some people, something happens to them and the development process is retarded," he told ABCNews.com earlier this year. "The rate of change in the body slows and is negligible."

Walker wants to learn not only what is wrong with these children but also if others in the family could pass on genes for this rare and baffling disorder.

Their bodies do not develop as a coordinated unit, but as independent parts that are out of sync, according to Walker. No known genetic syndromes or chromosomal abnormalities can explain why.

Brooke still had baby teeth at age 16, and her bone age was estimated to be more like 10.

"There've been very minimal changes in Brooke's brain," he said. "Various parts of her body, rather than all being at the same stage, seem to be disconnected."

Walker also studies Gabby Williams, an 8-year-old from Billings, Mont., who weighs only 11 pounds and a 29-year-old Florida man who has the body of a 10-year-old. Like Brooke, they never seem to age.

"My whole career has been focused on the aging process," he said. "My fixation has been not on the consequences but the cause of it."

Not only do the people he's studying have a growth rate of one-fifth the speed of others, but they live with a variety of other medical problems, including deafness, the inability to walk, eat or even speak.

Walker explains that physiological change, or what he calls "developmental inertia," is essential for human growth. Maturation occurs after reproduction.

"Without that process we never develop," he said. "When we develop, all the pieces of our body come together and change and are coordinated. Otherwise, there would be chaos."

But, said Walker, the body does not have a "stop switch" for this development. "What happens is we become mature at age 20 and continue to change."

The first subtle internal body changes of aging are seen in the 30s and become more visible in the 40s.

"There is a progressive erosion of internal order as a result of developmental inertia," he said.

In one of the girls Walker has studied, he found damage to one of the genes that causes developmental inertia, a finding that he called significant. He also suspects the mutations are on the regulatory genes on the second female X chromosome.

"If we could identify the gene and then at young adulthood we could silence the expression of developmental inertia, find an off-switch, when you do that, there is perfect homeostasis and you are biologically immortal."

Now Walker doesn't mean that people will never die. Human life will still end.

"But you wouldn't have the later years -- you'd remain physically and functionally able," he said.

As for Brooke, even though she never grew up, her rabbi remembered her two-decade life with dignity and reverence in a eulogy this week.

"While the outside world may have noticed Brooke's physical stature and been puzzled by her unique development state, she brought joy and love to her family," Rabbi Andrew Busch told the New York Daily News. "Her parents, three sisters and extended family showered her with love and respected her dignity throughout her entire life."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/marylan...ry?id=20712718

[SamanosukeShiva]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/1...f=food&ir=Food

Whew

A judge has denied a Southern California factory town's attempt to shut down production of the popular Sriracha chili sauce over complaints about the pungent smell of pepper and garlic fumes emanating from the factory.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien rejected the city of Irwindale's initial bid Thursday to cease operations at the Huy Fong Foods plant until the company can reduce the odor, City News Service reported.
"You're asking for a very radical order on 24-hour notice," O'Brien told attorney June Ailin, representing the city.
A Nov. 22 hearing was scheduled on a preliminary injunction.
The sprawling 650,000-square-foot factory processes some 100 million pounds of peppers a year into Sriracha (pronounced sree-YAH-chah) and two other popular Asian food sauces.
The peppers get washed, mixed with garlic and a few other ingredients and roasted during this time of the year, when jalapeno peppers are harvested in central California and trucked to the 2-year-old plant. The pungent smell of peppers and garlic fumes is sent through a carbon-based filtration system that dissipates them before they leave the building, but not nearly enough say residents.
They complained the odor gives them headaches, burns their throat and makes their eyes water.
Huy Fong executives said they were cooperating with the city to reduce the smell, but balked at the city's suggestion of putting in a new, $600,000 filtration system that may not be necessary.
The company said it was looking into other alternatives when the city sued.
Sriracha's little plastic squeeze bottles with their distinctive green caps are ubiquitous in restaurants and home pantries around the world.
Company founder David Tran said his privately held business took in about $85 million last year.

[Salodin]

Why are they even trying through this route? They know a judge will just strike it down, better to take time to prove it's negative effects on the town and let the citizens drown them in litigation over the side effects.

[Ksandra]

Why are they even trying through this route? They know a judge will just strike it down, better to take time to prove it's negative effects on the town and let the citizens drown them in litigation over the side effects.

WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THEM IDEAS WTF IS WRONG WITH YOUR HEAD STUPID NUTBAR

[Tokitoki]

WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THEM IDEAS WTF IS WRONG WITH YOUR HEAD STUPID NUTBAR

This. Sriracha goes in everything I make (well that's not true, but...).

[Day]

They just need several smaller factories. As much as I love Sriracha, it's hardly worth the well being of everyone in that town.

[bluefan]

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local...230151181.html

A man suspected of firing a paintball gun at people was shot with a real gun Thursday evening in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
The man, 21, was shot in the shoulder about 7:40 p.m. in the 7800 block of South Emerald Avenue, police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said.
He was taken in good condition to Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, Greer said.
As Area South detectives investigated, they learned the man shot was the same person suspected of shooting a paintball gun at people earlier in the evening, Greer said.
He was taken into custody for the earlier paintball incident, along with a 39-year-old man, and authorities recovered two paintball guns, Greer said.
Details on the time and location of the earlier paintball attack were not yet known, and police could not say if anyone was hurt in that incident.
Charges against both men are pending.
Authorities could not immediately confirm whether the two shootings are related.
The incident occured one day after three people were charged with shooting people with paintballs on the South Side.


Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local...#ixzz2jPMShFI1

I guess the Darwin effect was taking a night off.

[Jaybar]

Thank god. Was getting sick and tired of all the local news channels warning people about paintball shooters. Justice: served cold.

[6souls]

School Shut Down and Kids Hospitalized After 6th Grade Boys Spray Too Much Axe

It is hardly news that pre-pubescent boys have no idea how to properly administer Axe body spray.

It is news when said inappropriate Axe use causes a school-wide shutdown.

Eight students were hospitalized, and two others were taken to their own doctors, after someone released the especially pungent body spray in a sixth grade classroom at 1 p.m. Emergency crews rushed to Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Brooklyn to investigate the “hazardous” smell.

This isn’t the first time Axe body spray has terrorized educational facilities.

A Pennsylvania high school had to ban the spray in March after a student was hospitalized after exposure to its fumes. A year earlier, Connecticut high school officials said that a fire alarm went off after a student’s “overabundance” of Axe spraying in a locker room.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/10/31/...-too-much-axe/
https://gulfcoastmag.org/index.php?n=24
http://news.yahoo.com/pa-school-asks...134645176.html
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.s...ody_spray.html

[Silenka]

Is there like...some chemical in Axe that causes health issues when too much is inhaled at once? Or is it just kids with fragrance allergies or something? Wtf.

[Tricen]

When enough is sprayed, it will fuck anyone up. That shit is pungent.

[Mazmaz]

and yet legal. Thanks FDA

[hey]

Is there like...some chemical in Axe that causes health issues when too much is inhaled at once? Or is it just kids with fragrance allergies or something? Wtf.

People used to empty an entire can at once at my school. It was impossible to even breath.

[Callisto]

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local...230151181.html



I guess the Darwin effect was taking a night off.

Kinda warms my heart seeing this is a Chicago story, when I was a kid we always had to deal with people doing paintball gun drivebys on Halloween. Obviously not life threatening but those fuckers sting if they get you in a soft tissue area and obviously can wreck your costume for the night.

[Nephlite]

Woman's Boston Marathon Bombing Costume: What It Says About Everyone

It was the Halloween costume seen ‘round the world: A Michigan woman named Alicia Ann Lynch dressed as a victim of April's Boston Marathon bombing, sporting runner’s clothing and fake splattered blood. And as a result, she ignited the rage of the Internet.

On Oct. 31, 22-year-old Lynch posted a photo of herself wearing the costume on Instagram and Twitter, using the handle @SomeSKANKinMI. Shortly after, users descended on Lynch, tweeting their disgust.

Moral of the story: Don't put shit on the internet you don't want the internet to get and ruin your life. Dumb ass even posted a picture of her driver's license online which further revealed her identity and her parents who are subjects of death threats and whatnot.

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-livin...205502002.html

[notorious bum]

Ignorance begets ignorance.

[Tajin]

Lol

[Moss]

the nudes weren't bad

[Tyrath]

Shes got tig ol bitties.

[Lucavi]

Tiiiiits.