Antifreeze killer Lynn Turner found dead inside her cell

Convicted Lynn Turner, who was recognized as the “Georgia Black Widow” or the “Antifreeze Killer” for murdering her husband as well as her boyfriend, died in prison.

According to the officials, the 42-year-old Turner died while serving her sentence in prison at the Metro State Prison in Atlanta, Georgia.

A statement from the officials revealed that she was discovered dead inside her cell at around 6:55 in the morning on Monday, although the emergency medical service (EMS) crews and staffs made their effort to revive her they were unable to save her life.

Autopsy has been conducted already and the coroner cannot distinguish Turner’s cause of death, and now the GBI Medical Examiner’s office will need to anticipate for the toxicology tests before determining the cause of death of the former 911 operator.

According to GBI representative John Bankhead, the toxicology testing will be conducted immediately yet it might need at least one month to conclude the results.

In 1995, she was convicted for murdering her husband, Glenn Turner who is a former Cobb County police officer and in 2001; she likewise murdered her boyfriend Randy Thompson, a former Forsyth County firefighter. Both victims died after being poisoned with antifreeze and in 2007, Turner was sentenced to life imprisonment for her boyfriend’s death.

In both instances, both victims displayed flulike indications before being rushed to the hospital. Both victims died within the same day after leaving the hospital, and a coroner had initially distinguished as heart problem.

Nevertheless, a by-product of antifreeze called ethylene glycol discovered in both victims bodies after the additional examination. Turner was named the “Georgia Black Widow” by the prosecutors of Cobb County linking the death of both victims for financial gain.

After the death of Glenn Turner, she received over $150,000 benefits as well as interest from the pension and life insurance of her husband. She as well received around $36,000 after her boyfriend died.

Apple is in the process of reinvigorating the sales of their line of portable music players via the 3rd generation iPods.

The iPods are preparing for its second coming. The next generation of iPod touch is said to sport a camera on the front, which makes this iPod Touch model seem like an iPhone minus the telephony features. A feature like Wi-Fi video calling can also attract customers ranging from executives, gadget enthusiasts, and common individuals. This version of the iPod Touch is said to be released in this year’s holiday shopping season.

Moreover, the rumored 6th generation of iPod Nano may be one of the hottest gadgets Apple will release in the near future. This version of the iPod Nano is said to be smaller than its predecessor. It is also said to be as small as the third generation iPod shuffle. Some tech aficionados also say that this iPod Nano’s front face will be touchscreen. However, Apple does not yet confirm nor deny these speculations and rumors, although tech junkies are crazy about these developments. It also creates interest to future products and devices from the said company.

In addition, the theory also denotes that this 6th generation of the Nano will feature Apple’s signature 30-pin dock connector. If this is true, it will be a big advantage to iPod dock and speaker manufacturers for the newest iPod Nano would still be used for their products. On the other hand, if the connector is not integrated to the new Nano, it will be a problem. It will surely affect the popularity and sales of this particular portable music player.

The addition of a front face touchscreen may not be ideal for watching videos and films, but it will give potential owners a pleasing user interface.

A study showed that that sports-related concussion on kids has doubled in just a decade.

The concussion rate among high-school-age athletes is higher; however, the increasing rate of concussions among younger athletes is intolerable. The study signify the first attempt to document and record the national occurrences of sports-related concussions among children in elementary and in the middle school.

The study of data from hospital emergency departments across the nation showed that between 2001 and 2005, roughly half a million visit in the ER for concussions occurred among 8 to 19 year olds. About half of that were sports-related and about 40% of sports related concussions involved children aging between 8 and 13. Football and Ice hockey contributed with the most concussion injuries being an organized sport, while snow skiing, bicycling, and playground injuries were accounted for the most concussions occurring from non-team related activities.

Although involvement in organized sports has declined slightly, team-related concussions incident doubled from 1997 to 2007 in 8 to 13 year olds and more than doubled on older teens.

“We don’t really know why this is,” said Dr. Lisa L. Bakhos, a Brown University pediatric emergency medical specialist. “We know that kids are bigger now than they were in the past, which could be contributing to this trend. And sports seem to be more competitive.”

The study appears in the September issue of Pediatrics, along with a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, examining sports-related concussions in children and adolescents.

The study also revealed that female athletes have a higher rate of concussions than boys who play the same sport. A theory suggests that girls have weaker neck muscles. That is why they are more likely to sustain head injuries.

“In my experience, girls also tend to be more aggressive in their sports than guys,” said Dr. Mark E. Halstead of Children’s Hospital St. Louis. “That may also be a factor.”

The dilemma with antibiotic resistance nearly comes to adieu with the new research on bacteria killing frog skin.

More than 6,000 genuses of frogs produced over 100 bacteria killing substances. United Arab Emirates University research team now pulls these substances making them less poisonous and appropriate for human testing.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium that is difficult to treat for humans.  These bacteria had developed resistance to both penicillin and cephalosporin.  It had caused troubles for hospital especially in areas where there are patients with open wounds.

One substance found on frog’s skin is believed to have answer with the MRSA problem. Researchers claimed that the study on frog skin is not a new one.  However, their study using it with humans raise up queries on whether or not these substances are toxic to the body.

Frogs are amphibians consisting of 5,500 species.  Its skin absorbs water and oxygen.  Chemical toxins found in frogs include hallucinogens, convulsants, nerve poisons, and vasoconstrictors where humans can be severely affected.

Researchers after finding out substances had altered molecular formation to make them suitable for human use.  They aim to make use of their work in a span of five years. Because there are instances that substances are dissolving in the bloodstream before it is utilized, researchers investigate on how to resist chemical breakdown.

Frogs have been around for 300 million years who sure knows its way around in this environment study leader Michael Conlon said. The poisons found in frogs are extraordinarily different, thereby drug manufacturers labeled them as “natural pharmacy”.

The study emphasizes on preserving frog’s species because some of their kinds are in danger due to loss of habitation, pollution and other environmental problems. Researchers presented their work at the American Chemical Society meeting.

Mount Sinabung, a volcano located in Sumatra, Indonesia, erupted for the second consecutive day on Monday, endangering the lives of nearby villagers.

This volcano has been inactive since 1600 but experienced a minor eruption on Sunday after several days of rumbling. It released clouds of ash 1.5 kilometers up into the atmosphere. Priyadi Kardono, spokesperson for Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, said that nearby residents along the slopes of the volcano have been evacuated to ensure their safety and wellbeing. They were relocated to churches, mosques and emergency shelters. On its initial eruption, four people were missing and a person died due to inhalation of the ash.

Areas of grey ash and dust covered the surrounding villages and the crops that they planted. Experts closely monitor the volcano’s activities and study its situation. A government volcanologist named Sorono stated that their problem is that they cannot anticipate what the volcano’s activities will be in the succeeding days. He also added that they do not know what caused the eruption, how long will the eruption last, and would the volcano spew out pyroclastic materials.

According to Sorono, he and his fellow volcanologist suggest that the villagers living in the radius of 6 kilometers from Mount Sinabung to leave the area for the meantime and go to the evacuation area as soon as possible.

Spokesperson Kardono said that due to the second eruption, the number of evacuees rose from 10,000 on Sunday to 12,000 on Monday. Additional supplies of food, emergency shelters and tents, medical assistance, and medicines were on their way to accommodate to the people’s needs, according to the spokesperson. The Indonesian government also provided public kiosks to give away 17,000 respiratory masks.

On the other hand, Transport ministry spokesperson Bambang Ervan said that Sinabung’s eruption did not disturb flights at the main airport in the area.

The number of young athletes who visits the emergency room (ER) because of concussions doubles in the last five years according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Figures of those who suffer head injury not only came from high school students but more from middle age school and elementary student.  Roughly, 40% of pediatric concussion cases involve children 8 to 13 years old.

Hospital ERs has combined the number of children rushed because of head injury sums up to 502,000 cases from 2001 to 2005.  Half of the numbers were sport’s related and due to recreational activities.

Research team from the Rhode Island noted that the spike in the number of sport related head trauma go against the backdrop decline of the participation in organized sports amid youth for those years.

The World Health Organization classifies concussion as mild traumatic brain injury.

Christopher Giza, a pediatric neurology from UCLA sated that the numbers given by the research was not actually the true number of incident but is the only count made in the hospital.

In this regard, the American Academy of Pediatrics published the updated version of “clinical report” where the care for concussion in adolescents and adults were provided.

CDC estimated a number of 3.8 million sports and recreation related head injuries per year in US.

Giza said that the piling numbers of cases of concussions would prompt coaches and other concerns to address a more conservative approach to manage and control cases like this.

Parents, coaches, and physicians should be provided with guidelines to evaluate cases of concussions in younger ages to manage cases such cases better as added by the Rhode Island researchers.

The state of Washington was the first to past legislature requiring any young athlete who is suspected to suffer from head concussion be taken out from the game not until cleared by a license practitioner.

Sluggish fall on the numbers of youth smoking alerts government for the need to boost programs on tobacco prevention.

US government aims to minimize if not eradicate the quantity of youth who are smoking.

There has been a decline on the number of middle and high school students since 2000 until 2009.  An estimated value of 17.2 percent from 28 percent among high school student, and 5.2 from 11 percent decline on middle stage students according to the researchers of Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

However, CDC added that the decline on the numbers from the year 2006 up to 2009 is not statistically considerable because it only have an estimated 19.8 to 17.2 percent for high school and 6.3 to 5.2 percent for students in middle stage.

National Youth Tobacco Survey analyzed data and found out that 8.2 percent of students from middle stage and 23.9 percent high school students smoke cigarettes.

Morbidity and Mortality Week Report published by CDC reported that in the year 2000, 15.1 percent of middle stage students and 34.5 percent of high school students smokes tobacco.

Researchers stated that 80 percent of adult who smoke began trying cigarette even before they reach the age of 18.

Nicotine contained in the tobacco has addictive properties thus users develop tolerance and dependence with prolonged use.   Smoking is associated with major lung diseases like COPD, emphysema, and probable lung cancer.  Prolonged users of tobacco can also acquire cardiovascular diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 100 million tobacco related deaths in the 20th century.

Likewise, CDC labeled smoking as the reason for premature deaths worldwide.

The author of the study strongly suggests the limitations on advertisements, promotions and accessibility of tobacco in the market.

People and government must join force to control and restrict the young ones on the use of tobacco as recommended by the researcher.

The company owned by the co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, filed a lawsuit against Google, Apple and nine other companies on Friday.

According to Paul Allen, Google, Apple and nine other companies use patented inventions that are created by his research firm. He said that these companies are illegally using his inventions in their online navigation and viewing technology.

The lawsuit that Allen filed against the 11 companies includes 4 patents from the research done by Interval Research, a Silicon Valley research organization that is established in 1992 and shut down in the year 2000. The organization is funded by Allen and it is led by David E. Liddle, a former research scientist in the Xerox Palo Alto Research that is established in the 70’s. When the organization shut down in 2000, what remains on the organization is a licensing arm, which is filing the suit against the 11 companies.

The patents are issued from 2000 to 2004. It has appeared to be very useful in their application to web viewing and Internet commerce. According to the experts, the strength of the potent claims is still not clear as of now. They said that the patents are developed by a firm that invested on the research and not a patent-buying and licensing firm.

According to Josh Lerner, an intellectual property expert at the Harvard Business School, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will have a hard time deciding on this issue because of the date when these patents were granted. He said that the patents were approved during the time that the patent office was inundated with process patents and business method. He said that these kinds of patents on ideas are not new even if they are not patented previously.

According to Mexican Authorities, Grupo Mexicana, one of the largest airline groups in the country, will suspend all its operations because the investors failed to accomplish a cost-cutting agreement to the unions.

According to the company, the investor who pledged to help the failing carrier did not succeed to accomplish a cost-cutting agreement to the unions. According to Juan Molinar Horcasitas, transport and communications minister of Mexico, the suspension of all the operations will take effect at midnight. The suspension will affect the extensive domestic routes of the carrier and the 15 routes that are serving the United States. It includes Los Angeles and New York.

According to the statement of Molinar in a news conference, the government will not bail out the airline because it did not help the airlines in the past when it had faced a financial crisis. He said that the company will have its restructuring with the help of its shareholders, new shareholders, creditors, unions, and other parties having a legal interest in the process.

The company required bankruptcy protection in the American and Mexican courts earlier this month when the two planes of the company were seized in Canada because of leasing payment issues. According to the company, it is trying to make an agreement with its unions. The unions offered flexibility on work rules but it has declined to help on salary cuts and jobs.

A group of Mexican investors purchased the airline for a symbolic price and began to negotiate with the unions last week. Based on the plan of the Mexican investors, the new owners need to fire all the flight attendants and they will rehire a quarter of them. The plan of the new owners was blocked by the government because it may increase unemployment rate.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released its most recent list of probable drug safety issues, referring to Roche’s breast cancer medication Herceptin and Sanofi Aventis’ drug for heart disease Multaq, amid others.

The list that comes out every quarter of the year envelops safety concerns that the FDA wilted between April and June and was propagated on the website of the agency on Friday.

Among the drugs included are Merck & Co Inc’s birth control medication Implanon, Novartis’ Afinitor and Pfizer’s antibiotic Cleocin.

Also associated are Takeda Pharmaceutical’s gout control drug Uloric, AMAG Pharmaceutical’s anemia drug Feraheme and Shire Plc’s phosphate binder Fosrenol were also incorporated, among the drugs involved.

In most of the instances, the FDA presented some clues into what the issues were and plainly stated that the agency is maintaining to weigh up the concern to know if there is a need for any regulatory measures.

The drugs that also listed were a variety of GnRH agonists’ drugs, HIV drug Invirase and Merck’s cholesterol drug Zocor.  However, the health agency has presently issued more comprehensive safety alerts on those drugs involved. Moreover, Genentech is a unit of Roche.

Nucynta, a treatment to pain by Johnson & Johnson’s, was also listed as containing a danger of convulsions, hallucinations and syndrome of serotonin.

Furthermore, the health agency also named products such as omeprazole, which is taken to treat patients with ulcer, stating that there is a hazard in talking the drug for it could cause magnesium in the blood to decrease in levels.

However, the drug makers were not instantly available to make any comment for their products. With the coming days, it is expected that representatives from the respective drug manufacturers will going to make a statement for the said safety concerns over their products.