KEY POINTS:
A Chinese man's contact lenses were surgically removed after he left them in for a year. The 40-year-old started to wear contacts a year ago and never took them out because he found it difficult. When his sight appeared to be getting worse, he put in another pair
on top of the first, then some months later a third pair.
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Residents in Ponsonby have waited years for new footpaths, but was it worth the wait? Work started on December 27 at 7.30am and went on right through the holidays, including Sundays. According to an irate reader: "To date the contractors have cut gas mains, cut phone lines, cut water mains, left slurry on garage doors and walls, chipped hunks out of brick fences, concreted over water-main boxes, left dangerous gaps between paths and private properties, come on to properties to use water without asking and (this is really clever) left a 4cm ledge for people to fall over coming out of their gates. Residents are regularly tripping over these and despite numerous complaints to the council, nothing has been done. Our elderly aunty who has cancer suffered a black eye, bashed nose and a split lip from tripping over this ledge. She has been informed by the contractors that it was not their fault but that her land had dropped. Towaway signs were also attached to lamp-posts without telling residents ... Oh, and the streetlights have been off for weeks."
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Jennalee Ryan of San Antonio, Texas, last year began selling choice human embryos, ready for prospective mothers to implant after choosing from Ryan's catalogue, describing the contributors' education, attractiveness and medical history. "We're just trying to help people have babies," she told the Washington Post in January. But a bioethicist said: "It's like you're ordering a computer from Dell." Of her emphasis on well-educated, good-looking contributors of sperm and eggs, Ryan said, "Who wants an ugly, stupid kid?" (Source: News of the Weird)