Flotilla to shoot fireworks off Cuba

Under the Coast Guard's watchful eye, a flotilla will head from Key West to offshore Cuba to set off fireworks in a display of solidarity of opponents of the Communist government living on the island country.

Ramon Sanchez, organizer of the Miami-based nonprofit Democracy Movement said the pro-democracy and human rights group will leave the Key West Bight at 7 a.m. bound for an area 12.5 miles off Cuba.

"The purpose is to express, symbolically, our solidarity with the people who are peacefully struggling for democratic change on the island," Sanchez said Thursday. "And to protest the policies of the Cuban government." Key West resident Manuel Ruiz said he will participate in the flotilla of about 10 boats to support the people of Cuba. Ruiz left Cuba and came to Key West aboard a boat with his brother more than 30 years ago.

"I'm going because the people of Cuba should be free," Ruiz said.

Some boats are coming from Key West and Marathon as well as Miami, Sanchez said. He asked supporters to not join the flotilla if their boat is less than 30 feet in length, citing expected rough seas.

The fireworks are professional pyrotechnics, like those fired from the White Street Pier for the Fourth of July, and will be shot by a technician, Sanchez said.

The lead boat will fly a white flag to display the group's non-iolent intentions, and none of the boats will enter Cuban waters, Sanchez said.

"We will remain in international waters at all times," Sanchez said, noting that Cuban officials are aware of their mission. "If they [Cuba] come out and harass us, they will be committing an act of violence in international waters."

Rear Adm. Bill Baumgartner, commander of the Miami-based Coast Guard Seventh District, which includes Monroe County, said the agency will monitor the situation to ensure the boats are safe and that all vessels comply with the law. The details of how many cutters, ships or aircraft involved in any mission is not typically disclosed, district spokesman Nick Ameen said.

"We will be watching carefully as they exercise their right to free speech, to make sure the situation remains safe," Baumgartner said Thursday.

The flotilla organizers told the Coast Guard they had no intention of crossing into Cuban waters.

"We have no reason to believe," that anything illegal will take place, Baumgartner said.

Coast Guard Sector Key West commander Capt. Pat DeQuattro likened the Coast Guard's involvement to its monitoring of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad's recent attempts to swim from Cuba to Key West.

The flotilla is expected to return sometime Saturday, Ruiz said. 

 

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Swedes aghast over Ryanair bikini calendar

 

Sweden's advertising watchdog has been flooded with complaints concerning an advertisement for a calendar featuring scantily clad stewardesses.

 

Less than a month after the release of the 2012 edition of Ryanair’s Cabin Crew Charity Calendar, the Swedish Advertising Ombudsman (Reklamombudsmannen-RO) has received 33 complaints about adverts promoting the calendar.

“People think the advertisement is sexist and that it doesn’t belong on a website meant to sell plane tickets,” Advertising Ombudsman Elisabeth Trotzig told The Local.

The wave of complaints lands the Ryanair calendar campaign second only to an ad campaign for the Victoria Milan dating service, which encouraged marital infidelity, in terms of the number of complaints filed with the Ombudsman.

Ryanair now has two weeks to respond to the Ombudsman about the complaints, after which the watchdog will decide how to proceed with the case.

According to Trotzig, the Ombudsman isn't likely to issue a statement on the case until after Christmas.

Ryanair’s spokesperson Stephen McNamara didn’t seem the least bothered by Swedish complaints over the calendar, a project the airline has carried out annually since 2008.

"Ryanair's cabin crew calendar has raised €500,000 ($672,000) for charity in just five years and we will continue to support the right of our crew to take their clothes off to raise money for those who need it most," he told The Local.

In line with previous years, all 10,000 copies of the 2012 edition of the Ryanair swimsuit calendar have been sold.

The resulting €100,000 in proceeds are set to be donated to the organization DEBRA, which helps children with the genetic skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa, which leads to extremely sensitive and fragile skin.

 

 

 

 

 

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French lawmakers move to outlaw prostitution

French lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favour of outlawing prostitution in the country, setting the stage for the introduction of a bill that would impose fines and jail time for paying for sex.

The move comes despite France's long history of liberal attitudes toward sex and with the country gripped by coverage of a prostitution scandal involving former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has been linked with a pimping ring operating out of luxury hotels in the northern city of Lille.

The non-binding resolution on the "abolition of prostitution", drafted by a cross-party commission, was approved in a show of hands vote in the lower house National Assembly.

Lawmakers from the commission were expected to introduce a bill later on Tuesday or in the next few days to criminalise paying for sex.

The commission has recommended imposing sentences of up to six months in prison and a €3,000 ($4,000) fine on clients of prostitutes.

The resolution said France should seek "a society without prostitution" and that sex work "should in no case be designated as a professional activity".

Guy Geoffroy of the ruling UMP party, a member of the commission, said earlier that passing the resolution would be "an important, symbolic and solemn step" in fighting prostitution.

"Nine prostitutes out of ten are victims of human trafficking," he said.

Prostitution is not illegal in France though several linked activities are, including soliciting, procuring and operating a brothel, while paying for sex with someone under the age of 18 is banned.

Yves Charpenel, the head of the Fondation Scelles, a group that fights human trafficking and is among those demanding criminalisation, said it was unclear whether the bill on criminalisation would eventually be adopted.

"There is no consensus yet on this subject," Charpenel said. "Will the deputies who vote for the abolitionist resolution then vote for its concrete application?"

"More than ever, it is necessary to clarify the French position" on prostitution, he said.

Sex workers' groups have denounced the proposal as an attack on their rights and protested against the resolution near the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Several dozen prostitutes and supporters rallied carrying signs reading "Sex Work is Work" and "Prostitution -- No Repression -- No Punishment -- Rights!"

Punishing clients will "deprive prostitutes of work that provides them with a living, give clients more power over them and push prostitutes to turn to intermediaries to be able to work," said Sarah-Marie Maffesoli, a lawyer for sex workers' group Strass.

In a letter to lawmakers, the group called for the resolution to be voted down, saying it threatens sex workers' "health, security and livelihoods".

An estimated 20,000 people work as prostitutes in France.

Prostitution has been thrown into the spotlight in France in recent weeks as media devoted widespread coverage to the case of eight leading members of Lille society charged with operating a ring that provided sex workers to clients including, allegedly, Strauss-Kahn.

The one-time top contender for the French presidency resigned as International Monetary Fund chief in May after he was accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid, though the charges against him were later dropped.

He denies any criminal wrongdoing.

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Assange appeal ruling expected by Christmas

 The British Supreme Court will decide by Christmas whether to hear the appeal of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange against the earlier decision to extradite him to Sweden, a court spokeswoman revealed.

 

On Monday judges at the High Court in London said that his fight against deportation to face rape allegations in Sweden raised an issue of public importance, and ruled that he could ask the Supreme Court to consider the case.

The 40-year-old Australian now has until December 19 to lodge his application with the Supreme Court -- although there is no guarantee that they will agree to take on the case.

"We have informed the parties that if they get the papers in by the 19th then we will make a decision before Christmas," Supreme Court spokeswoman Sian Lewis told AFP.

She said there would not be a hearing but that a panel of three Supreme Court judges would examine Assange's application on paper, before deciding whether to formally listen to his appeal at a later date.

If they refuse to hear the case then he will be extradited within 10 days.

Assange was arrested exactly one year ago on a European arrest warrant issued by Sweden after allegations by two women of sexual assault and rape.

At the brief High Court hearing on Monday, two judges said there was a case of "general public importance" raised by Assange's lawyers about whether a Swedish prosecutor was a proper judicial authority to sign the warrant.

Assange, who is living at a friend's mansion in eastern England under strict bail conditions, strongly denies any wrongdoing and says the sex with the women in Sweden was consensual.

He has said the allegations are politically motivated and linked to WikiLeaks' release of hundreds of thousands of classified US files about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We Put Three Hangover Cures To The Test

 

Hangovers keep you lean, mean, and honest. They punish you for your hubris and force the necessary introspection that comes after a night of self-abuse. The worst hangovers steel you for your next worst hangover—and for New Yorkers who have two or more drinks on a given evening, they're part of life [pdf]. Given that there is medicine to keep you studying, copulating, and growing hair, why not a potion for hangovers? If only it were that simple. In the interest of the most august journalism, we tested several different hangover "cures" so that you may be better prepared.

It's important to know thy enemy, so what exactly happens to the human body when it's experiencing a hangover? How can all those cute little Tooters be responsible for such splitting pain? We asked Dr. Jason Rosenberg, assistant professor of neurology and the director of the Johns Hopkins Headache Center for the big picture. "You're basically poisoning yourself when you drink alcohol to excess and there's not a great antidote for it."

"Nerves that are normally quiet that don't respond to light, noise, movements, your own heartbeat—they get revved up," says Rosenberg. "They're firing pain signals, so that you can feel every beat of your heart. Boom. Boom. Boom." Dr. Rosenberg posits that these nerves are largely responsible for the torture. "Nearby systems kind of get kicked off either reflexively or directly from the alcohol's toxins that cause nausea." And what about profuse sweating and piercing hatred of the sun? "A whole variety of reflexes might get kicked up too: light sensitivity, sweating, other non-specific responses." 

Dr. Rosenberg noted that there wasn't a whole lot that can be done to immediately alleviate the symptoms of a hangover—when you've got it, you've got it. It's easier to prevent one, presumably by not drinking as much. But Bytox, a patch you apply to "a dry, hairless" part of your body, promises you can have your tequila and body-shot it too. "How to cure a hangover? Prevent one with Bytox!" its website crows. Dr. Leonard Grossman, a plastic surgeon and Bytox-backer, explained to us how it's supposed to work.

"The more you drink, the more vitamins you wash out of your body. What this patch does, is give you a continuous infusion of the same vitamins that you're losing out on." We were skeptical. Isn't this Nicoderm-inspired snake-oil? "Try it. If you're a reasonable drinker, or even unreasonable drinker, it works…the next morning say you have a business meeting or presentation to be at, you'll have a clear head."

We slapped on a Bytox patch 45 minutes before drinking, as directed, and hit the town. After the smugness that comes with invincibility wore off, we noticed something wasn't right. Why were we smelling Fred Flintstone in our Jameson? Our favorite bartender David confirmed our fears: "Dude, your arm smells like vitamins." Eight drinks and a fitful night's rest later, our head felt like a gaggle of feral weasels stuck in a timpani drum.

An attempt to lower the booze intake (five drinks) and increase the dosage (two patches!) was equally as unsuccessful. However, Bytox's adhesive did an excellent job of resisting repeated showering.

Dr. Rosenberg points out what might be Bytox's fatal flaw: "Drug companies who've been interested in patches have had a horrendous time designing patches to get larger molecules across the skin or let alone any molecules." So these vitamin molecules are too big to even enter our skin? "To get that to work would be a major pharmaceutical Holy Grail." One that's probably worth more than $3 a dose.

After seeing an article on Blowfish, a new effervescent tablet is "FDA-approved," we were intrigued. Brenna Haysom, Blowfish's creator, tells us the idea for the product was born from her own experiences. "A lot of people think of a hangover as an embarrassing thing. People just don't feel sorry for you when you have a hangover. But I really do think of them as a fact of life. Haysom says, "I wouldn't say I'm a super-heavy drinker, but I certainly drink…and the more research I did, I saw there was a gap in the market. You don't want to condone over-drinking, but it is something that happens." 

We dropped the fizzy tablets in a mug of water and greedily gulped it all down. Unlike Alka-Seltzer, Blowfish has a pleasant citrus taste, and there is something deeply gratifying about drinking water that you yourself made fizzy. Though it didn't completely wipe our hangover out, we certainly felt the vise around our temples loosening, and our disposition was markedly cheerier. Perhaps that's because Blowfish contains aspirin and caffeine, two products that the FDA acknowledges as effective. "Our product is not any special voodoo magic," Haysom says.

Dr. Rosenberg agrees: "It's a very reasonable product. No crazy claims, other agents in it are inactive, and effervescent aspirin is popular in Europe." He also points out that Bayer Back & Body has the same amount of aspirin, and half as much caffeine. BC Headache Powder is also very similar, and considerably cheaper.

But marketing makes a difference, and Blowfish, made by NYC-based Rally Labs, will be sold in Duane Reades in the new year. Haysom plans on offering a 60-minute courier service for those who need immediate relief. "In my opinion, it should be next to the coffee and every employer should stock it. But I understand that people are more sensitive to the issue. We did just change the packaging to a plain manilla envelope."

Ibuprofen and water: this is the method with which we are most familiar, and where we will continue to place our trust. Not to mention the cheapest. "Rehydration is the most important thing," Dr. Rosenberg says. "Drinking half-strength Gatorade or Pedialyte may help too." Everyone has their weird rituals, and ours is to chug 60 seconds worth of water before bed, and another 60 when waking. Don't take Tylenol or anything containing acetaminophen to prevent (more) damage to your liver.

"Know your limits, stay hydrated, eat while you're drinking. Do it responsibly and make sure you get some sleep," Dr. Rosenberg advises. Will there ever be a "Holy Grail" hangover drug? "There have been some designer drugs for migraines that I suspect might help substantially. But the odds of getting those FDA-approved for hangovers are pretty low."

So until Big Pharma stops holding out on us, the best way to alleviate a hangover is age-old method of downing a glass of water for every drink. Also, try to avoid drinking on an empty stomach. Of course, you could consider cutting back on your drinking ha ha, but then you'd be so much less funny and attractive. And let's face it; that vodka-infused tampon isn't going anywhere. 

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Smoking can make your nipples fall off

 

I cringe every time I see a patient for a breast lift who is a smoker. I’m deathly afraid that despite my warnings, she will smoke before or after surgery and cause her nipples to turn black and fall off.

Yes. Smokers who undergo breast lifts are at great risk of losing their nipples.

I’ve seen it before.

The nicotine in cigarettes and the carbon monoxide contained in cigarette smoke can diminish blood flow to various parts of the body. These toxins act as a virtual tourniquet. If the blood flow to a particular body part becomes greatly reduced or halted, that body part dies.

In my memoir “ In Stitches,” I told the story of a smoker whose nipples turned purple while undergoing a breast lift surgery. Purple is the precursor to black. Black is the precursor to falling off. To save the patient—and her nipples - we turned to the only treatment available.

We went medieval.

We used leeches.

Because of the mechanics of blood flow, when the blood supply is inadequate, which occurs with smoking, the tiniest veins often fail. This insufficiency results in a backup of old (venous) blood in the body part, causing it to turn purple. If the backup of old blood is serious enough, the purple color may eventually turn black. That’s when we know the body part - toe, finger, or nipple - is dead.

We use leeches to literally suck out the excess venous blood from the body part, acting as an attachable vein. The leech drains the old blood, causing it to turn from unhealthy purple back to healthy pink. We place leeches intermittently until the body part grows new blood vessels to do the leeches’ work. This can take several days.

Not long ago, during a consultation for a breast lift, a patient, Susan, admitted to being a pack-a-day smoker. I informed her that smoking can cause difficulty in healing and instructed her to quit smoking at least one month before surgery and to stay off cigarettes for at least a month afterward. Several months later, when she arrived at the hospital for her breast lift, she smelled like an ashtray.

“Susan, I thought you quit smoking.”

“I did. OK. For a while. It’s really hard to quit, Dr. Youn.”

“I know,” I said. “But this is a big deal. There could be major healing problems if you smoke before or after surgery.”

“I understand. But I want to go ahead with the surgery anyway. It’ll be fine.”

She wasn’t hearing me. I needed to get through to her. “Susan, listen to me. If I operate on you, your nipples could turn black and fall off.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean… I’d have no nipples?”

“No nipples. That’s what smoking can do.”

Susan flushed. She raised her voice. “Dr. Youn, I took a week off work for this surgery. I had to put my whole life on hold for an entire week. If you told me I’d lose my nipples from smoking, I would’ve quit for good. This is your fault.”

Yes. Seriously. Susan blamed me for the inconvenience.

Thanks to her, I’ve changed my policy. In addition to the Surgeon General’s Warning that appears on cigarette packages, I now offer the Plastic Surgeon’s Warning to all my patients who smoke: If you are having a breast lift or reduction and you smoke, your nipples could turn black and fall off. If you are having a tummy tuck and you smoke, you may get an infection resulting in a big gross open wound that will take three months to heal. If you are having a facelift and you smoke, the skin of your cheek could turn black and slough off, leaving exposed fat.

Imagine yourself looking like “Two-Face” from “Batman: The Dark Knight.”

And do you really want me to reach for the jar of leeches?

Smokers, you have been warned.

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Cheers! FDA-approved hangover pill promises to take edge off holiday partying  

Blowfish tablets contain aspirin, caffeine and antacid and, once dissolved in water, are said to remedy multiple hangover symptoms.

This pill is the ultimate buzzkill.

A new FDA-approved hangover cure has hit the market just in time for holiday party season.

“So many people see hangovers as a shameful or embarrassing thing. I think of them as just a fact of life,” said Brenna Haysom, the creator of Blowfish through the West Village-based Rally Labs LLC.

The over-the-counter drug cocktail combines 1,000 milligrams of aspirin, 120 milligrams of caffeine and a stomach-soothing agent into two effervescent tablets taken the morning after a night of heavy drinking.

Once dissolved in water, the remedy claims to knock out multiple hangover symptoms in just 15 to 30 minutes.

“The magic of the effervescent tablet is that it hits your system much faster than getting a cup of coffee, taking an antacid and taking some aspirin separately,” she said.

The remedy doesn’t give free reign to binge, however. “I definitely don’t encourage people to get obliterated,” warned Haysom, who has been hung up on hangovers since college.

“This is a really effective product for people who have a couple too many: A happy hour that goes a little long, or holiday parties are a perfect example ... and they wake up feeling terrible. This gets you functioning again quickly.”

Haysom drafted the business model while earning undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard, but shelved it to spend seven years at a private equity firm in Manhattan.

It wasn’t long before her hard working (and hard partying) lifestyle drew her back to making the magic bullet.

“This product comes from personal experience,” she laughed, recalling a particularly boozy business dinner the night before she had to make a major presentation.

“The headache, being so tired, and then the upset stomach ... it definitely was a moment where I was like, there has got to be a better way.”

Blowfish runs $2.99 for a single dose, or $11.99 for a six-pack. It is currently available in Ricky’s NYC stores or online at ForHangovers.com, which offers free shipping and 24-hour courier service in Manhattan. The tablets will hit Duane Reade shelves in January.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll get there before New Year’s Eve,” Haysom said.

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