Resourceful inmates use pancake batter and toothpaste as mortar
Steel plates are being installed to the interior walls of Scott City Jail after it was discovered that inmates had used a combination of pancake batter and toothpaste to cover a hole they had made in a cell wall.
The hole was discovered at the Missouri jail last weekend, police Chief Don Cobb told press. He said that the inmates had removed a block from the wall using a nail, a wire from a light fixture, and a toothbrush, so that a female inmate could visit a male inmate in the next cell over.
The mixture of pancake batter and toothpaste looked like mortar, the Chief said.
But despite the relative ease with which the inmates were able to arrange these conjugal visits, it would be a lot harder for them to chisel a hole through the exterior walls, which are reinforced with steel.
"Unless they can smuggle in an arc welder, they aren't getting through that," said Chief Cobb.
Steel workers save dog's life
The life of Dirty Harry, a scruffy steel yard dog, was pardoned recently after steel workers banded together to get him out of the pound.
Dirty Harry, who got his moniker because he was always covered in dirt, grease and oil, lived in the rail yard at Newport Steel, now IPSCO, for seven years, surviving off leftover scraps the workers would bring him, splitting his time between the 8-inch pipe mill and the 16-inch pipe mill depending on who was serving the best lunch.
Despite the workers' affection for the dog, due to workplace regulations, authorities got involved, calling the pound who picked him up as a stray.
But Dirty Harry's friends did not give up on him so easily. The IPSCO workers collected $168 for the Save Dirty Harry Defense Fund, visited him regularly, and urged pound officials to let someone adopt him. However, they were told that adoption was out of the question.
Luckily, the workers' persistence payed off, with Judge-executive Steve Pendery signing a Dirty Harry reprieve, releasing him to Keith Baumann, an 18-year veteran at Newport Steel.
Mr. Baumann took Dirty Harry home to his house in Melbourne, Kentucky, where it was discovered that Dirty Harry, who everyone thought had black fur, actually had white fur underneath all of the dirt and grime. Although Dirty Harry isn't so dirty anymore, he still enjoys one perk from his steel yard days; his friends from the mill stop by occasionally to bring him a nice steak.
Click here to see a picture of the lucky dog
New U.S. Steel Tower logo - Sign of progress or skyline pollution?
This week, Pittsburgh's city planning committee approved a request from health care giant UPMC to put a 20-ft tall sign bearing the company's initials atop the U.S. Steel Tower in downtown Pittsburgh. However, some residents are not too pleased about the decision.
Barbara Ernsberger, a member of the city planning board who voted against the proposal said that her informal survey with other residents found no support for the sign, telling press, "They all thought the U.S. Steel building represented U.S. Steel and the history of Pittsburgh. I do feel this sign does counteract the historic presence of what used to be the U.S. Steel Building, which was certainly significant in our Pittsburgh history and also to some extent in our national history."
Despite of the lack of community support for the change to the city's skyline, a member of the committee who voted for the sign said that while he's not crazy about the sign, it met all of the legal requirements in the city zoning code.
In a statement, UPMC said, "The UPMC logo will be a visible indication of Pittsburgh's re-emergence as a national and international leader. No longer reliant on the steel industry, Pittsburgh's new renaissance is built on science, medicine and technology."
UPMC, who plans to lease 5 floors of the building, says it plans to have the sign up by 2008.
Students design metal detector for the human body
Johns Hopkins undergraduates have invented a small hand-held metal detector to help doctors locate orthopedic screws that have been "lost" in patients' bodies, a device not unlike the one used to find lost coins in the sand.
Surgical screws, usually made of stainless steel or titanium alloy, are often used to hold broken bone fragments together for healing, but they sometimes shift position and need to be removed. However, scar tissue often makes the screws hard to find, even with an X-ray.
The device invented to help find these "loose screws" emits a tone that rises in pitch as the surgeon moves closer to the metal screw. This new invention also serves as a surgical tool to guide the removal of the screws. After the screw is found, a small incision is made, the device's hollow probe is positioned, and the surgeon then inserts a screw driver through the tube section, which remains perfectly positioned for removal of the screw. (Makes a root canal sound delightful in comparison, doesn't it?)
Malcolm M. Lloyd, a physician and chief executive officer of Surgical Transformations, the Manhattan-based company that sponsored the project, told press, "Orthopedic surgeons felt that expensive, time-consuming and more invasive surgical procedures could be avoided if a metal detection tool was readily available. We presented that challenge to the Johns Hopkins students last summer and gave them a set of requirements for this tool . . . Their solution is very simple, elegant and more advanced than I expected."
Surgical Transformations plans to perform market research with orthopedic surgeons to gauge their interest and determine whether enhancements are needed.