| Save your life, have a health check
READING about preventing catastrophic illness is as unpleasant as reading the fine print on a will, power of attorney or a life insurance policy. Facing our mortality and learning about preventing heart, lung or kidney failure, strokes, amputations, dementia and hip replacements, is not easy, but we should do it as a necessary part of protecting those we love. As medical technologies keep our ageing population alive longer, the over-50s age group will become a heavy burden on the young. The escalating costs of healthcare and private health insurance; the increasing strain on accident and emergency departments, hospitals and nursing homes and the worsening medical and nursing shortage have been identified by the new federal Labor Government as a first-order economic challenge.
From the Editor :
Sorry to see Shaun Pollock go. I hate to think he was pushed as has been suggested by some commentators. I was lucky enough to see him almost take the match away from Australia in Adelaide in 1998 during an amazing day of bowling in typical Adelaide summer weather (bloody hot). He toiled all day (Donald was injured) and took a bunch of wickets on a heart-breaking pitch in Australia's first innings to give South Africa a big lead - the innings was also notable for Mark Taylor carrying his bat, which was probably the difference in the end between a South African win and the eventual draw. South Africa came within three Aussie wickets of winning that match. Shaun Pollock has done his gene pool proud, and that's not an easy feat considering who's in that gene pool. .
Man falls from skyscraper, lives to tell the horror
Doctors say they have never seen anything like it: A window washer who fell 47 stories from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper is now awake, talking to his family and expected to walk again. Alcides Moreno, 37, plummeted almost 500 feet in a December 7 scaffolding collapse that killed his brother. Somehow, Moreno lived, and doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center announced Thursday that his recovery has been astonishing. He has movement in all his limbs. He is breathing on his own. And on Christmas Day, he opened his mouth and spoke for the first time since the accident. His wife, Rosario Moreno, cried as she thanked the doctors and nurses who kept him alive. "Thank God for the miracle that we had," she said.
Pop Tarts: Top Ten Celebrity Meltdowns: Who Went Mad and Made a Mess ...
And while Britney Spears won't be winning any awards for her VMA performance, she does (surprise, surprise) take the gold for the greatest meltdown of the year, topping Pop Tarts' list of Tinseltown's most troubled. "2007 has probably been the worst year of Britney's life, with so many bizarre behaviors — fights with the paparazzi and her mother, custody battles, binge drinking and car accidents. However, the number one meltdown is the shaving of her head," said Patrick Wanis, a psychologist and celebrity behavior expert who worked with Pop Tarts to compile the Top Ten. "Few people realized how serious this incident was and what it signified. Although in some cultures shaving the head can represent cleansing or letting go of the old self, in Britney's case it was really more about self-mutilation and self-loathing than a spiritual ritual." But Brit is in close company with her former panty-free party pals Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, who take second and third place respectively.
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