Penis enlargement operations on the rise

 

Doctors say increasing numbers of German men are paying for surgery to their genitals, surprising even plastic surgeons with their demand for enlargement operations.

“Penis enlargements are now in seventh place among aesthetic surgery procedures for men,” said Sven von Saldern, the president of the German Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. “That surprised even us.”

Yet he was at pains to emphasis that the operation increases size but does not necessarily improve function. “It is a purely aesthetic procedure,” he said.

The most popular procedure for men remains liposuction, he said, referring to a survey of 1,100 plastic surgery patients.

Although genital operations have not yet reached the top ten among German women, demand has been increasing among them too, von Saldern said.

“It must have something to do with the trend toward intimate shaving,” he said, although he said that in contrast to the men, women often opt for surgery to correct functional problems rather than for aesthetic reasons.

“For men, there is only the desire for more volume,” he said. “It’s an especially sensitive subject because high expectations may not always be fulfilled.”

Botox injections to remove wrinkles remain popular among both sexes, and while men have a particular interest in liposuction to make them thinner, women are also still plumping for breast enlargement operations.

But though cosmetic procedures can make people feel more confident, they also carry risks.

Penis enlargement surgeries – which may involve the injection of silicone into the penis and scrotum or the cutting of ligaments – can result in impotence and nerve damage.

Vaginoplasty, in which a women’s vaginal region is reconstructed, carries risks of bleeding, infection and scarring.

Reliable numbers on the number of cosmetic surgeries done each year in Germany are not available and von Saldern said the number of patients fluctuates from year to year.

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American professional thrill seeker, Jeb Corliss flies from the peak of China's Tianmen Mountain wearing a special jumpsuit fitted with wings. 

American professional wingsuit flier Jeb Corliss has completed a trial jump from a 1,500 meter high mountain peak in central China.

It is a rehearsal before his latest challenge to fly through a cave in a Chinese mountain.

He said: "There's a little tear in my suit but it's not bad. The landing area is vey jagged and a bit like sand paper. When you land you go down and slide, so it can be a bit rough."

He has become the first wingsuit stuntman to fly in China.

In his latest challenge on September 24, the 35-year-old skydiver is to rocket through a hole in a 1,300 meter high cliff by jumping from a helicopter hovering around 6,000 feet above the cave and flying towards it.

He will attempt to glide through it at a speed of more than 120 kilometers per hour, while fighting air turbulence.

 

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Carving Out a Victory in a Maine Pumpkin Regatta

 

The annual Pumpkinfest in Damariscotta, ME draws a large crowd every year. The basis of the regatta is fairly simple: Carve out a giant pumpkin, get inside and paddle around a course faster than anyone else. (Oct. 11)

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 Angry Birds themed Finnair lands in Singapore

 

Finnair's customized Airbus A340 arrived at Changi Airport in Singapore from Helsinki Wednesday carrying the participants for the Angry Birds Asian Challenge that was held at Changi Airport.

Finnair in cooperation with the game's developer Rovio Mobile conducted an online competition wherein participants could tweet why they are Singapore's most avid Angry Birds fan. The top five most popular fans and two to three participants who were chosen by a jury to take a free flight to Helsinki, including a tour of Rovio HQ and return flight to Singapore with other winners.

Two of the eight were Shirley Tan, 46, Singaporean trainer and blogger and Karen Tang, 40, Singapore National Heart Center executive.

During the flight, the Angry Birds fans and other passengers were given the chance to join in the competition on games consoles. The winner has been titled as first Angry Birds Asian Challenge champion.

Finnair's Airbus A340 has been themed with Angry Birds motif. The staff were dressed in Angry Birds uniform, items from Angry Birds' menu were also served to the passengers.

“We want to be able to always delight and surprise Finnair fans and customers with fresh ideas that engage their imagination, ideas that they don’t normally expect from an airline such as this Angry Birds Asian Challenge which will be played at 10,000 meters in the air, " said by Petteri Kostermaa, Finnair’s sales director for Singapore and South East Asia.

“We hope that with this Challenge, we will be able to make fans of Angry Birds in Singapore and around the world into friends of Finnair as well.”

The specially themed flight is the first Finnair direct flight to Singapore and is considered the airline's longest flight ever.

 

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Track NASA's Falling, 6.5-Ton Satellite in Real-Time

An artist's concept of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) satellite in space. The 6 1/2-ton satellite was deployed from space shuttle Discovery in 1991 and decommissioned in December 2005.

In a matter of days, the sky will actually be falling. 

 

A defunct NASA atmosphere-monitoring satellite the size of a small bus is set to plunge to Earth somewhere between Thursday and Saturday -- and the space agency's scientists say there's no way to precisely determine where it will crash, be it Africa or America, the Pacific Ocean or Pacific Heights.

But thanks to a neat widget built exclusively for FoxNews.com by the satellite-tracking website N2YO.com, you can watch the UARS satellite as it courses through the heavens -- see the embedded module below

Pinpointing where and when hurtling space debris will strike is an imprecise science. To calculate the orbit, N2YO.com runs information from the U.S. Air Force Space Command through a series of algorithms, and overlays it on mapping data from Google. 

For now, scientists predict the earliest it will hit is Thursday U.S. time, the latest Saturday. The strike zone covers most of Earth.

Not that citizens need to take cover. The satellite will break into pieces, and NASA put the chances that somebody somewhere will get hurt at just 1-in-3,200 -- low enough that some people are making a game of the whole thing.

One Irish company is even allowing people to gamble on the crash site. Paddy Power, Ireland's largest bookmaker, has placed the odds that the satellite will crash in the Pacific Ocean at 8/11, followed by the Atlantic at 2/1.

“This is an absolute lottery," a spokesman for the site said. "It really could land anywhere, but I think it would be best for everyone if the satellite went for a dip.”

As far as anyone knows, falling space debris has never injured anyone. Nor has significant property damage been reported. That's because most of the planet is covered in water and there are vast regions of empty land.

If you do come across what you suspect is a satellite piece, NASA doesn't want you to pick it up. The space agency says there are no toxic chemicals present, but there could be sharp edges. Also, it's government property. It's against the law to keep it as a souvenir or sell it on eBay. NASA's advice is to report it to the police.

The 20-year-old research satellite is expected to break into more than 100 pieces as it enters the atmosphere, most of it burning up. Twenty-six of the heaviest metal parts are expected to reach Earth, the biggest chunk weighing about 300 pounds (136 kilograms). The debris could be scattered over an area about 500 miles (800 kilometers) long.

Due to heavy demand, the may take several minutes to load. 

Jonathan McDowell, for one, isn't worried. He is in the potential strike zone -- along with most of the world's 7 billion citizens. McDowell is with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"There's stuff that's heavy that falls out of the sky almost every year," McDowell says. So far this year, he noted, two massive Russian rocket stages have taken the plunge.

As for the odds of the satellite hitting someone, "it's a small chance. We take much bigger chances all the time in our lives," McDowell says. "So I'm not putting my tin helmet on or hiding under a rock."

All told, 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of wreckage is expected to smack down -- the heaviest pieces made of titanium, stainless steel or beryllium. That represents just one-tenth the mass of the satellite, which stretches 35 feet (10.7 meters) long and 15 feet (4.6 meters) in diameter.

The strike zone straddles all points between latitudes 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south. That's as far north as Edmonton and Alberta, Canada, and Aberdeen, Scotland, and as far south as Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America. Every continent but Antarctica is in the crosshairs.

Back when UARS, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, was launched to study the ozone layer in 1991, NASA didn't always pay attention to the "what goes up must come down" rule. Nowadays, satellites must be designed either to burn up on re-entering the atmosphere or to have enough fuel to be steered into a watery grave or up into a higher, long-term orbit.

The $740 million UARS was decommissioned in 2005, after NASA lowered its orbit with the little remaining fuel on board. NASA didn't want to keep it up longer than necessary, for fear of a collision or an exploding fuel tank, either of which would have left a lot of space litter.

If it happens in darkness, it should be visible.

"If someone is lucky enough to be near the re-entry at nighttime, they'll get quite a show," says Matney, who works at Johnson Space Center in Houston, also in the potential strike zone.

Space junk in general is on the rise, much of it destroyed or broken satellites and chunks of used rockets. More than 20,000 manmade objects at least 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) in diameter are being tracked in orbit.

It's mostly a threat to astronauts in space, rather than people on Earth. In June, the six residents of the International Space Station took shelter in their docked Soyuz lifeboats because of passing debris. The unidentified object came within 1,100 feet (335.2 meters) of the complex, the closest call yet.

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Early World Cup decision: Schumi Vettel on track

 

Eight wins, four second places, in fourth place on the podium not once - Sebastian Vettel Formula 1 - .'s World Cup 2011 so far dominated way rarely seen before

The 24 - year-old Red Bull Driver Could his second World Cup title on Sunday (14.00 clock / live one ORF, RTL and Sky) in Singapore in the 14th making of 19 season races perfectly.

Schumacher sets Record

Were five races to go in Formula 1 - story so far been established only two pilots as World Champion - Nigel Mansell at Williams in 1992 and Best Champion Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari 2002nd Deutsch compatriot Vettel was the feat nine years ago, even for the eleventh season of 17 races on 21 July in Magny- Cours succeeded record, this is an absolute.

Vettel is close to Schumacher

Vettel's actually reminiscent of Schumacher dominance. The seven-time champion had the World Cup title three times already the beginning of the millennium, four or more races before the end finally in the bag - 2001, 2002 and 2004th Three Grand Prix before the season was over twice the previously Achieved in each case the British Jim Clark (1963, 1965) and Jackie Stewart (1969, 1971). 

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Call For Anonymous & LulzSec Hackers To Help With Occupy Wall Street

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