Free Republic

VIDEOWhile watching this video of an out of control chairlift with skiers, the scene might seem eerily familiar. If so, that is because you are conjuring up memories of the spinning out of control carousel in Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train."

An engineer has come up with macabre rollercoaster concept where passengers are thrilled and then ‘killed’. The chilling Euthanasia Coaster is a theoretical machine engineered to ‘humanely, with elegance and euphoria, take the life of a human being’. It is designed to subject the rider to a series of unique experiences from euphoria to thrill and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness. When travelling at 100m/s, the passenger would then pass away following a lack of oxygen reaching the brain. The surreal structure is the brainchild of Lithuanian engineer Julijonas Urbonas.

MAXEYS - People have come from as far away as Africa to see the cow carousel at Cabaniss Dairy, on the southern edge of Oglethorpe County. Don't laugh. The machine that makes cows go round and round enabled the Cabaniss family to milk cows so much faster than with traditional machines, they more than doubled their herd of dairy cows, making it into one of the state's larger dairy operations. "This is the most efficient way in the world to milk cows," said Jon Cabaniss, 33, who operates the family farm with his brother, Jim Cabaniss, 35. The carousel is...

Last year a primary care trust announced it would take smokers off waiting lists for surgery in an attempt to contain costs. In this week's British Medical Journal, two experts go head to head over whether smokers should be refused surgery. Denying operations is justified for specific conditions, argues Professor Matthew Peters from the Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Australia. Professor Peters says that smoking up to the time of any surgery increases cardiac and pulmonary complications, impairs tissue healing, and is associated with more infections. These effects increase the costs of care and also mean less opportunity to treat...