The 75-year-old man was admitted to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong on Sunday with severe facial burns after lighting up in his home while the ventilator's plastic tubes were still running to his nose.
The man relies suffers from lung disease, caused by his smoking, and relies on the oxygen tank to stay alive.
The South China Morning Post reported the man's doctor said the man knew he shouldn't smoke while the ventilator was going, but took the risk because his cigarette craving was so intense.
Every day, we wake up with a choice. We can choose to embrace the day as a new opportunity to learn, grow, and make a positive impact on the world, or we can let fear, doubt, and negativity hold us back. It's easy to get caught up in the challenges and obstacles we face, but it's important to remember that these challenges are what shape us into who we are. Each obstacle is a chance to learn something new, to become stronger, more resilient, and more capable than we were before. But we don't hav
Monday, December 29, 2008
Study: black on black crime is Quickly Rising Teens
The study, to be released Monday by criminologists at Northeastern University in Boston, comes as FBI data is showing that murders have leveled off nationwide.
Not so for black teens, the youngest of whom saw dramatic increases in shooting deaths, the Northeastern report concluded.
Last year, for example, 426 black males between the ages of 14 and 17 were killed in gun crimes, the study shows. That marked a 40 percent increase from 2000.
Similarly, an estimated 964 in the same age group committed fatal shootings in 2007 — a 38 percent increase from seven years earlier. The number of offenders is estimated because not all crimes are reported, said Northeastern criminologist James Alan Fox, who co-authored the study.
"Although the overall rate of homicide in the United States remains relatively low, the landscape is quite different for countless Americans living, and some dying, in violence-infested neighborhoods. more
Not so for black teens, the youngest of whom saw dramatic increases in shooting deaths, the Northeastern report concluded.
Last year, for example, 426 black males between the ages of 14 and 17 were killed in gun crimes, the study shows. That marked a 40 percent increase from 2000.
Similarly, an estimated 964 in the same age group committed fatal shootings in 2007 — a 38 percent increase from seven years earlier. The number of offenders is estimated because not all crimes are reported, said Northeastern criminologist James Alan Fox, who co-authored the study.
"Although the overall rate of homicide in the United States remains relatively low, the landscape is quite different for countless Americans living, and some dying, in violence-infested neighborhoods. more
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Boss jailed after stabbing employee in bottom with pitchfork
Michael Parker lost his temper with Mark Reene and committed five separate assaults, on one occasion attacking him with a chainsaw.
In another incident, the 51-year-old gouged at Mr Reene's eyes and punched him in the face while calling him "thick" and threatening to kill him.
The court heard that the 44-year-old put up with the abuse for six months because Parker threatened to hurt Mr Reene's family if he told anyone about the attacks.
But the final straw came when Parker punched out two of Mr Reene's front teeth and skewered his left buttock with a pitchfork.
He called police and officers arrested Parker, from Godalming, Surrey, in April. He admitted a charge of putting a person in fear of violence and was last night beginning an eight-month prison sentence.
Guildford Crown Court heard that Parker claimed he became violent when staff did not live up to his "very high expectations".
Prosecutor Gordon Ross said that Parker was cutting wood with a chainsaw when he first attacked Mr Reene.
Parker, who was managing director of gardening firm The Larger Plant in Chertsey, Surrey, lost his temper with Mr Reene because he had failed to hold a log straight while he was sawing it.
He lashed out at Mr Reene, punching him several times in the face, before hitting him in the groin with the chainsaw.
Mr Reene needed hospital treatment and a week off work to recover from the beating.
more
In another incident, the 51-year-old gouged at Mr Reene's eyes and punched him in the face while calling him "thick" and threatening to kill him.
The court heard that the 44-year-old put up with the abuse for six months because Parker threatened to hurt Mr Reene's family if he told anyone about the attacks.
But the final straw came when Parker punched out two of Mr Reene's front teeth and skewered his left buttock with a pitchfork.
He called police and officers arrested Parker, from Godalming, Surrey, in April. He admitted a charge of putting a person in fear of violence and was last night beginning an eight-month prison sentence.
Guildford Crown Court heard that Parker claimed he became violent when staff did not live up to his "very high expectations".
Prosecutor Gordon Ross said that Parker was cutting wood with a chainsaw when he first attacked Mr Reene.
Parker, who was managing director of gardening firm The Larger Plant in Chertsey, Surrey, lost his temper with Mr Reene because he had failed to hold a log straight while he was sawing it.
He lashed out at Mr Reene, punching him several times in the face, before hitting him in the groin with the chainsaw.
Mr Reene needed hospital treatment and a week off work to recover from the beating.
more
Beverly Hills doctor powered his SUV using his patients' spare tires.
Liposuctioning unwanted blubber out of pampered Los Angelenos may not seem like a dream job, but it has its perks. Free fuel is one of them.
For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator.
Love handles can power a car? Frighteningly, yes. Fat--whether animal or vegetable--contains triglycerides that can be extracted and turned into diesel. Poultry companies such as Tyson are looking into powering their trucks on chicken schmaltz, and biofuel start-ups such as Nova Biosource are mixing beef tallow and pig lard with more palatable sources such as soybean oil. Mike Shook of Agri Process Innovations, a builder of biodiesel plants, says this year's batch of U.S. biodiesel was likely more than half animal-derived since the price of soybeans soared.
A gallon of grease will get you about a gallon of fuel, and drivers can get about the same amount of mileage from fat fuel as they do from regular diesel, according to Jenna Higgins of the National Biodiesel Board. Animal fats need to undergo an additional step to get rid of free fatty acids not present in vegetable oils, but otherwise, there's no difference, she says. more
A South Carolina man leaped to his death from a freeway overpass
A South Carolina man leaped to his death from a freeway overpass in San Clemente this morning and fell through the windshield of a diesel truck, but the big rig's driver was not injured, authorities said.
The 25-year-old man, whose identity was not released, jumped onto the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 at Camino de Estrella shortly after 3 a.m., crashing through the windshield on the passenger side of the truck. The driver managed to pull to the side of the freeway safely, said Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.
The unidentified driver was "badly shaken" but was uninjured, Amormino said.
If the man had landed on the driver's side, "it certainly would have caused another collision and perhaps another fatality," Amormino said.
An investigation by the California Highway Patrol and the Orange County Sheriff's Department delayed traffic on the freeway for a couple of hours.
Couple arrested for having a garage sale
NATCHEZ, Miss. -- A garage sale from a Natchez home gave a couple enough money to move to Louisiana.
One catch, they didn't own anything they sold.
Police say when Jerry and Teresa Dyess moved out of their fully furnished rental home in March, they sold everything at a garage sale. The owner of the house filed a complaint.
When Teresa Dyess was stopped Monday on a traffic violation in Bossier City, La., she was arrested on a grand larceny warrant from Natchez. Jerry Dyess was arrested when he came to bail Teresa Dyess out.
Both were being held in the Natchez jail on $7,500 bond each pending an initial court appearance.
John Costelloe's (Johnny Cakes ) died he was 47
The Brooklyn actor who played Johnny Cakes - the gay-fireman lover of a mob capo on "The Sopranos" - killed himself in a holiday tragedy that has stunned family and friends.
The front door to John Costelloe's Sunset Park home was still sealed with police stickers yesterday, more than a week after the rugged 47-year-old actor committed suicide.
Costelloe, a former FDNY firefighter, shot himself in the head in his basement bedroom on Dec. 16, cops and pals said.
"It's beyond me. This is too much for me to handle right now," the actor's dad, Michael Costelloe, 77, said yesterday.
Firefighter and former colleague Matt Dwyer couldn't believe his friend was gone. more
The front door to John Costelloe's Sunset Park home was still sealed with police stickers yesterday, more than a week after the rugged 47-year-old actor committed suicide.
Costelloe, a former FDNY firefighter, shot himself in the head in his basement bedroom on Dec. 16, cops and pals said.
"It's beyond me. This is too much for me to handle right now," the actor's dad, Michael Costelloe, 77, said yesterday.
Firefighter and former colleague Matt Dwyer couldn't believe his friend was gone. more
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