Firm rubber

LOS ANGELES: Darlene Coker knew she was dying. She just wanted to know why. She knew that her cancer, mesothelioma, arose in the delicate membrane surrounding her lungs and other organs. She knew it was as rare as it was deadly, a signature of exposure to asbestos. And she knew it afflicted mostly men who inhaled asbestos dust in mines and industries such as shipbuilding that used the carcinogen before its risks were understood. Coker, 52 years old, had raised two daughters and was running a massage school in Lumberton, a small town in eastern Texas. How had she been exposed to asbestos? “She wanted answers,” her daughter Cady Evans said. Fighting for every breath and in crippling pain, Coker hired Herschel Hobson, a personal-injury lawyer. He homed in on a suspect: the Johnson’s Baby Powder that Coker had used on her infant children and sprinkled on herself all her life. Hobson knew that talc and asbestos often occurred together in the earth, and that mined talc could be … [Read more...] about Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its baby powder

PARIS: Olympiakos dumped AC Milan out of the Europa League on Thursday (Dec 13) after beating the seven-time European champions 3-1 in a pulsating clash in Greece, while Eintracht Frankfurt fans ran riot during the German side's win at Lazio and Celtic made the knockout stages despite losing to Salzburg at Celtic Park. Captain Kostas Fortounis' penalty nine minutes from time saw the Greeks move into second place in Group F ahead of Gennaro Gattuso's Milan, who thought they had squeaked through when Cristian Zapata had pulled a goal back less than two minutes after putting the hosts 2-0 up with a comical own goal. Olympiakos finished level on 10 points with Milan but qualified ahead of the Italians thanks to their superior goal difference following Milan's 3-1 win over the Greeks in October, and they end the group stage two points behind group winners Real Betis, who drew 0-0 at Dudelange. "It's a bitter night ... We shouldn't have conceded the first goal and it all went south … [Read more...] about Football: AC Milan out of Europe as Eintracht fans run riot at Lazio

The Ninja 300 is now an old motorcycle and India is one of the last few markets it was sold in; a BS6 version of the bike has just been revealed. In its time though, the baby Ninja was a rather versatile specimen even right out of a showroom. But in its stock form, it wasn’t ideal for the racetrack. The team at Rajini Academy of Competitive Racing (RACR) has done an impressive job in turning it into an exciting on-track machine. This race-spec Ninja is a quick little thing, certainly quicker than the stock bike. Firstly, there is a notable chunk of weight that has been shaved off. Anything that is not required on a racetrack — the lights, pillion seat and that large, eye-sore of a grab rail from the stock bike — has been stripped away. As a result, the bike feels extremely easy to tip into a corner. The added agility is also due to a recalibrated suspension set-up. The bike retains essentially the same suspension hardware, but a higher-viscosity oil and altered internals in … [Read more...] about Ace your race with the Kawasaki Ninja 300