Medical website lets you virtually dissect dead bodies

It may be a grisly affair, but for centuries, the only way for aspiring medics to learn about anatomy was to dissect corpses.

Now, there is another way, as medical students can use ‘virtual dissection software’ to explore the human body in the absence of real corpses, which are in short supply.

While they may not get the sensation of cutting human flesh, the virtual tool claims to be cheaper and faster than using cadavers. 

The software is called Anatomedia and claims to be a 'comprehensive, self-paced learning programme that explores anatomy from four different perspectives,’ in order to teach students how the body is constructed.

It even allows people to complete practical dissections and post mortems, as well as being able to see ‘sections’ of the human body.

Users can see detailed dissections of real bodies, coloured overlays of specific structures and choose different perspectives from which to view the anatomy they are interested in.

The Australian makers of the learning tool said that users do not need any prior knowledge of anatomy to use the tool, and that labels that pop up over the images can be selected at any level of difficulty.

The Anatomedia website shows a demo video and screenshots. To use the tool, users must request access from the university via this site.

Professor Eizenberg told Digital Trends that it takes days to clear away the fat and fibres of a corpse, but this process can be done with a few clicks in the programme and each screen on Anatomedia represents a week’s worth of dissection.

'The tool can also be used by medical practitioners to explain anatomical issues to patients and its layer-by-layer dissections offer an excellent alternative in countries where dissection is not performed for cultural or other reasons,’ the company said.

In the future, it could even be used in the creation of a ‘virtual human’ that students can feel, as programmers assign tactile qualities to the database of photos using a programming language.

While such a project would cost around $15million (£8 million) to develop, the innovators think it could save medical schools money in the long run, as a cadaver lab can cost up to $4million (£2.4 million) to run every year.

There is no indication when the technology could be realised and the duo have yet to secure investment for their idea.

KEY VOCABULARY
1.grisly-->causing horror or disgust
2.aspiring-->someone who is trying to become successful
3.anatomy-->study of body and how it works
4.postmortem-->an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death
5.perspective-->angle

CONVERSATION QUESTIONS
a)What did you think when you read the headline?
b)What springs to mind when you hear the word 'dissect'?
g)If you were a doctor, which area would you like to specialize in?

c)What would you like to research?
d)Would you like to be a doctor?
e)What do you think are the worst things about being a doctor?
f)What do you think are the best things about being a doctor?

'My phobia of kittens is ruining my life'

A mother claims a rare phobia of kittens is ruining her life.

Alesha Duncan, 27, from Waterloo, London, says the sight of a kitten leaves her sobbing with terror and that even a picture of one can trigger a panic attack.

She says her phobia - known as ailurophobia - has ruined relationships and is now threatening friendships, but she is determined to beat it.

Ms Duncan, a fulltime mother to Sapphire, 13 and Luke, two, said: ‘I know most people love little kittens but to me they are just evil. There is nothing cute about them at all.

‘I hate the way they are allowed to just roam around the streets staring at people and hiding. It’s terrifying.

‘I don’t see them as harmless and cute. They are just little monsters. I absolutely hate everything about them.’

She says her phobia is debilitating because the animals are almost impossible to avoid, meaning she is confined to the house is she sees one and refuses to visit anyone who has a kitten as a pet. 

She claims her phobia has already ended one long-term relationship because her former partner had a cat - meaning she was unable to visit.

She said: ‘It was going really well between us but once I found out about the cat, I kept making excuses not to go and see him.

‘I was too embarrassed to admit the real reason so would invent reasons to cancel.

‘I would have invited him to my house but I wasn't ready for him to meet my child, so in the end there was nowhere we could relax together.

‘He couldn’t understand what was wrong with me and when I finally admitted the truth to him the damage was already done. We’d had too many arguments and decided to split.

If she spotted one she would stay inside until up to an hour after it had gone to make sure the coast was clear.

If she ventured out and saw one she would turn and run the other way.

Now she claims even the sound of a cat screeching at night sets her palms sweating.

She said: ‘My children have grown up with this so they understand mummy hates cats. 

'I don’t want them to be scared of them so I try to play it down if I see one but there’s no way I could handle seeing them touch one.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2660261/My-phobia-kittens-ruining-life-Mother-two-says-sobs-terror-sees-cat-photo-trigger-panic-attack.html#ixzz34zE3eoIM
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Key Vocabulary

1.sob--> to cry noisily, taking in deep breaths
2.trigger--> causes something to happen
3.ailurophobia --> fear of cats which causes undue anxiety
4.debilitate-->Make (someone) weak and infirm
5.coast is clear--> no danger
6.venture out-->go somewhere 

Conversation Questions

a)What did you think when you read the headline?
b)What springs to mind when you hear the word 'fear'?
c)What are you most afraid of and why?
d)Why are we afraid of things that are not dangerous?
e)What was your biggest fear when you were a child?
f)Have you ever overcome a fear?
g)Are people in different countries afraid of different things?
h)What do you do when you are really scared?
i)How could you get over one of your fears?
j)Is fear healthy?
k)Do you fear certain insects or animals? Why?
l)Do you know anyone with a phobia?


Read more:http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1403/140328-phobias.html#ixzz34zkTS3XP

Pick your cliche: Give them an inch and they will take a mile; in for a penny in for a pound, etc. In bioethics, there is never a permanent boundary beyond which the utilitarian impulse will not take them.

Now, advocacy is beginning to ask conscious patients who want to stop life-sustaining treatment for their organs. So far, this “non-heart beating cadaver donor” process has only been done with the profoundly cognitively disabled.  But now, that line is under assault.

In a medical community in which withdrawal of life sustaining measures in unconscious and in conscious ICU patients is accepted, where organ donation after death is common practice, and in which there is a shortage of organs for transplantation, there can be no moral objection to ask certain conscious ICU patients to donate their organs after death.

Although withdrawal of mechanical ventilation on request of the patient on the ICU is rare and therefore the number of organs that come available is limited, it is still well worth considering. We argue that there are no valid moral and legal objections against it; it is ethically feasible and practically possible to ask the patients for organ donation after death.

Well, here’s one: I can think of few things more dangerous to the weak and vulnerable than to allow people having trouble going on believe that their deaths have greater value than their lives.

IDIOM

        

         Give somebody an inch and they'll take a mile

something that you say which means that if you allow someone to behave badly at all, theywill start to behave very badly.

in for a penny (in for a pound)

something you say which means that since you have started something or are involved in it, you should complete the work although it has become more difficult or complicated than you had expected

KEY VOCABULARY

1.cliche-->adage/old saying

2.utilitarian-->functional

3.advocacy-->recommendation

4.cadaver-->corpse

5.feasible-->achievable

CONVERSATION QUESTIONS

1. What did you think when you read the headline?
2. What springs to mind when you hear the word 'euthanasia'?          
3. Do people have the right to choose when to die?
4. Would you be willing to donate your organs after you die?
5. What are the arguments for and against euthanasia?
6. Is there a difference between euthanasia and murder?
7. Would you accept a killer’s heart if you needed a heart transplant?
8. Do people in your country have a positive attitude towards transplants?

Read more:http://www.lifenews.com/2014/06/12/euthanasia-activists-want-to-harvest-organs-from-conscious-icu-patients/

A Father Gets Into His Fussy Baby’s Crib To Calm Her Down

In this new video, Nunzio Raso, a father from Canada, gets into his fussy, baby girl’s crib to help calm her down. Michela, like many children, would wake up every two hours, prompting her father to get up, as well. Here, the two both get a little rest together.
“This is a video of my daughter Michela who for several months just can’t get to sleep without waking up every 2 hours,” he says.

History of Father's Day

History of Father's Day Festival as seen today is not even a hundred years old. Thanks to the hard work and struggle of Ms Sonora Louise Smart Dodd of Washington that just as we have set aside Mother's Day to honor mothers we have a day to acknowledge the important role played by the father. However, some scholars opine that Father's Day history is much older than we actually believe it to be. They say that the custom of honoring dad's on a special day is over 4,000 years old. There are a few more claims about the Father's Day origin about which we will learn in this page. 

Father’s Day Around The World

• March 14- Iran
• March 19- Bolivia, Honduras, Italy, Lichtenstein, Portugal, Spain
• May 8- South Korea
• First Sunday in June- Lithuania
• Second Sunday in June- Austria, Ecuador, Belgium
• Third Sunday in June- Antigua, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Trinidad, Turkey, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Zimbabwe
• June 17- El Salvador, Guatemala
• June 23- Nicaragua, Poland, Uganda
• Second Sunday in July- Uruguay
• Last Sunday in July- Dominican Republic
• Second Sunday in August- Brazil
• August 8- Taiwan, China
• August 24- Argentina
• First Sunday in September- Australia, New Zealand
• New Moon of September- Nepal
• First Sunday in October- Luxembourg
• Second Sunday in November- Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden
• December 5- Thailand

        CONVERSATION QUESTIONS

• What is the meaning of Father's Day?
• How, when, and where did Father's Day get its start? If you don't know, speculate on possible answers.
• How do the majority of people celebrate Father's Day in your country?
• When was the last time you hung out with your dad? What did you do?
• When was the last time you told your dad that you cared about him?
• If you possessed the power to grant one wish for your dad, what would you give him?
• What qualities are essential to be a great father?
• Do you ever do anything particularly special for Father's Day? If yes, what do you do?
• Has there ever definitively been an all time best Father's Day for you? If yes, please explain.
• Do you think that Father's Day constitutes just one more Hallmark holiday? Is it a complete waste of time? Why/not?
• Do you think you are (or will be) a good dad? Discuss your strengths and shortcomings, and how they apply to your idea of fatherhood.
• Although no one is perfect, do you have a specific regret about your dad? Do you perhaps wish that he had done (or hadn't done) something? Please explain.

Our quads are four times the work... and the fun: Parents of 70million-to-one babies reveal a life of Aldi nappies and milk powder in bulk a year after their birth

It took four rounds of IVF, tens of thousands of pounds and years of anguish to bring them into the world.

And then the really hard work began.

A year after these quadruplets were born at odds of 70million-to-one, their exhausted mother has revealed exactly what goes into caring for four babies – including 18 hours of feeding, five loads of washing and countless nappy changes every single day.

Sharon Turner, 38, told the Mail that becoming a mother of four in one fell swoop was a ‘wonderful, uplifting experience’, but conceded: ‘It has also been more exhausting than I could possibly have imagined.’

Mrs Turner spends up to 18 hours a day feeding her two identical boys, James and Joshua, and two identical girls, Emily and Lauren – one of only four sets of double boy-girl twins in the world.

She and husband Julian, 44, also put on at least five full loads of washing a day to keep on top of the dirty bedding and clothes, and estimate they will have to complete 30,000 nappy changes before the babies are grown up.

The quads came into the world 11 weeks prematurely in March last year, weighing just 2lb each. But once they got home, they grew from strength to strength.

Mrs Turner said: ‘For the first few months, we hardly got any sleep at all. They require constant attention, and just feeding them is a huge task.

‘It takes around three hours to feed all four babies, and they need to be fed every four hours. So once I have finished, I know I have an hour’s break before it all starts again.’

At first, the family bought 80 washable nappies in an attempt to be environmentally friendly – but when the constant washing became too much, they were forced to bulk-buy disposable ones from Aldi instead.

Then the family car had to be replaced with a nine-seater VW transporter large enough to fit their brood and all the necessary supplies, including two double buggies.

And as the children get older, the shopping list is expanding at an alarming rate.

Mrs Turner said: ‘They have just started eating solids and get through 14 bananas and 24 yoghurts a week. But when you think about what they will eat when they get older it is frightening.’

Mr Turner says he feels guilty for returning to his career as a sales director while his wife has to do the ‘real job’ of looking after the children.

But Mrs Turner’s parents Sandra, 66, and Steve, 63, have moved into their home near Hungerford, Berkshire, to help.

And despite the exhaustion, the couple insist they have not ruled out having more children. Mr Turner said: ‘Never say never. They have been a huge blessing in our lives.’

The Turners’ first year of parenthood will be shown on Quads: Our First Year at 8pm tonight on ITV.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2646693/Our-quads-four-times-work-fun-Parents-70million-one-babies-reveal-life-Aldi-nappies-milk-powder-bulk-year-birth.html#ixzz33ZsG0JUK
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2646693/Our-quads-four-times-work-fun-Parents-70million-one-babies-reveal-life-Aldi-nappies-milk-powder-bulk-year-birth.html#ixzz33Zqxleig 
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Chinese man gets stuck in South Korea after son, 4, doodles all over his passport picture

In any other circumstances this charming childish doodle would have been stuck to the fridge by a proud parent. 

Unfortunately, however, this four-year-old artist decided to test his budding talents on his father's passport while on a family trip to South Korea. 

The Chinese national is now stuck in the country after border officials failed to be impressed by his young son's creative addition of people, animals, and a beard - all daubed in black felt tip - to the passport.

It is understood that the problem arose when the man tried to board his plane back to China with the rest of his party. 

Authorities have now told the father - known only as Chen - that it is likely he won’t be able to travel home with his son, and the rest of his family.

The picture was originally posted on social networking site Weibo by the man, alongside a plea for help as to how he would be able to get home, Shanghaiist reports. 

The drawing appears to include a cat, flowers and a few people like characters.

The young artist has also drawn a beard and added some additional hair, sprouting from his father's face. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2645963/Chinese-man-gets-stuck-South-Korea-son-4-doodles-passport-picture.html#ixzz33XlOLvK4

KEY VOCABULARY

1. doodle-->draw
2. budding-->developing
3. fridge-->refrigerator
4. daubed-->covered
5. felt tip-->marker
6. plea-->appeal
7. sprouting-->growing

CONVERSATION QUESTIONS

	What images spring to mind when you hear the word ‘passport’?
	Do you like your passport? Is it easy to get a passport in your country? What are the dangers to passports? Do you ever get nervous going through passport control at airports or border crossings?
	Are there many stamps and visas in your passport? How much is a passport in your country? Do you think they should be free?
	Would you worry if you lost your passport while overseas?
	If you could have an additional passport from another country, what would it be?
	Is the passport from your country more or less useful than passports from other countries?
	Do you like your passport photo?
	What do you think passports will be like in the future?
	What do you do to keep your passport safe in other countries?
	Should we change the name of passports? We rarely travel through ports nowadays. Have you ever had a problem in the airport?

Blonde Brazilian man obsessed with South Korea undergoes 10 rounds of surgery to look 'more Asian'

A white Brazilian man with blonde hair and blue eyes has taken the extraordinary step of undergoing surgery to look like an Asian.

Xiahn, 25, has a love for 'K-pop' and Korean dramas and became obsessed with looking like the locals during his time as an exchange student in the country.

A year at Dongseo University in South Korea gave him the desire to have 'slanted eyes' and dark hair.

'I put my fingers inside the eye and pulled. That was the way I wanted to have my eyes,' he told Brazilian newspaper Zero Hora.

Xiahn underwent more than 10 operations to get the desired look, spending more than $3000 to look remarkably like a natural-born Asian man.

I was not afraid that something would go wrong, but I was afraid to stay with scarring in the eye and so I did look plastic, but everything worked out. My vision is perfect.

Originally named Max, the only thing hinting at Xiahn's former appearance is the shape of his nose.

Along with surgery to change the shape of his eyes, Xiahn wears dark eye contacts and dyes his hair black.

Hitting out at criticism, Xiahn said on his Facebook account: 'Regardless of religion that the person is, whether or not you believe in past lives, you have only this life, you have to be who you wan to be.'

The cultural chameleon has been 'liked' thousands of times on Facebook and said he has been fascinated by life in South Korea since he was 19.

He found surgeons in Brazil to carry out the amazing series of surgeries and said while his father supported his choices, his mother was less understanding.

'For me it is normal to change appearance,' he said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2645950/I-fun-bein-Korean-Blonde-Brazilian-man-undergoes-extraordinary-surgery-achieve-convincing-Oriental-look.html#ixzz33WOgxt00 

KEY VOCABULARY

1. slanted-->oblique or slope
2. scar-->disfigure or injure
3. hint-->remind
4. hit out-->to make a violent verbal attack
5. chameleon-->pretender 
6. fascinated-->excited

CONVERSATION QUESTIONS

1. Do you think beauty is the same for every person?
2. Do you think that different cultures think about beauty differently?
3. What do you think of plastic surgery?
4. What is the most common plastic surgery in your country?
5. What does “Beauty is only skin deep.” mean?
6. What kind of beauty contests are popular in your country? Do they have beauty contests for men too?
7. What celebrities do you know of that have gotten plastic surgery?
8. Who is the most beautiful/handsome celebrity in your country?
9. What makes someone beautiful?
10. Do you think science can measure beauty?
11. Would you have cosmetic surgery if it was free?