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Hello FReepers. I have long had a problem with the cervical vertebrae in my neck -- the problem manifests as numbness, tingling, and/or pain in my left forearm and left hand. In the past, I have gotten relief from a chiropractor who had a computerized traction table for decompression. He has since sold his practice, and other local chiropractors don't have this equipment. My question: do any of you have personal experience with a home device such as this one? ComforTrac Deluxe Cervical Traction Kit If you do, I'd very much like to hear your feedback about your experience with...

Dozens of birdwatchers who travelled to a Scottish island to see an extremely rare swift have been left distraught after it was killed by a wind turbine. Around 40 people were watching the White-throated Needletail, the world's fastest flying bird, on the Isles of Harris when the tragedy happened. Sightings of the bird have only been recorded eight times in the UK in nearly 170 years, most recently in 1991, prompting around 80 ornithologists to visit the island in the hope of catching a glimpse. David Campbell, from Surrey, told BBC Scotland the incident took place late on Wednesday afternoon....

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Henry thought the tiny red dots on his skin were insect bites. But as he relaxed at a Florida beach house with a fellow pilot on a day off in 1990, he noticed he was the only one getting bitten. Henry wouldn’t learn until later that the dots were capillaries breaking under the strain of nitrogen bubbles that had formed during his latest flight in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, 10 hours earlier. He would find out the hard way how much worse it could get. Henry had been flying the U-2 since 1987, and...

June 1, 2009 No hope for 228 passengers and crew feared dead in Air France catastrophe Philippe Naughton and Charles Bremner in Paris All 228 people on board an Air France jet are feared to have been killed after the packed aircraft went missing over the Atlantic Ocean. The flight from Brazil was probably brought down by a lightning strike after hitting a fierce storm, the airline said today, as it faced up to the worst disaster in its history. Flight AF447, which had 228 people on board, took off from Rio de Janeiro at 7.03pm local time yesterday bound...

...Aviation experts were perplexed, saying it was rare for a plane to crash because of depressurization. "Although there are precedents for both pilots losing consciousness at the controls of the aircraft in the past, for it to happen on a large airliner like a Boeing 737, with all the backup systems they have there, does seem to be really quite extraordinary," said Kieran Daly, editor of Air Transport Intelligence.... Airliners are pressurized by a system that draws air from the engines, which compress air for internal use. A valve at the back of the plane determines how fast air is...

120 die as jet crashes in flames By Kate Connolly in Grammatiko (Filed: 15/08/2005) Two people made a desperate attempt to save a Boeing 737 minutes before it crashed into a Greek hillside killing all 121 people on board, it was reported last night. Many of the dead are thought to be children on their way to a sports tournament. Witnesses in villages near the crash site reported a thunderclap-like bang as the plane hit the hillside The pilots of two F16 fighters that intercepted the Cypriot airliner said that the co-pilot was slumped in his seat and the captain...