Fat Solution

The Japan Sumo Association is distributing about 60 iPads among all the 51 training stables and top association officials from this week to help improve communication.

"It seems rather easy to use," association chief Hanaregoma. "Sending emails was very easy." 

The 62-year-old former wrestler admitted that while he can read incoming text messages on his mobile phone, he does not know how to write replies and does not usually use a computer.
But "time flies if you play with this", he said of the Apple gadget.
The iPad was chosen because the sumo association believed the device was big enough to cater to wrestler's fat fingers, unlike the smaller keys on mobile phones, according to reports.
Sumo officials decided to go digital and buy iPads as the ancient sport attempts to mend its ways after scandals over wrestlers' ties with gangsters and illegal gambling, match-fixing and brutal hazing of apprentices.
The sport's authorities faced loud public criticism for their clumsy efforts to investigate the scandals, in part due to insufficient sharing of information among sumo leaders.
With a reliance on faxes and phone calls, the sumo association has occasionally failed to distribute urgent messages to its officers and stable masters.
"If we place this (iPad) in all the stables, we should be able to contact them anytime," the association's spokesman Nishonoseki has said.

Crushing Fall

In a truly bizarre turn of events, a Hong Kong-based widow from the Ma On Shan district ended up killing a passing pedestrian when she lost her footing and fell from outside her high-rise flat. The elderly and considerably larger woman, Lam, was picking up her washing when she slipped and plunged down from the 27th floor and landed on Chan Kwai-mui, a 51 year old cleaner, who was on her way from work. Kwai-mui was crushed to death under the weight of Lam.

It was a security guard who discovered the aftermath at the bottom of the block where both women were “in a heap”.

Ambulance for the Obese

Britain’s first specially adapted ambulance for carrying obese patients hit the road a few days back and is capable of transporting people weighing more than 400 kg.

South Central Ambulance Service built the vehicle specifically to tackle the demands of a sharp rise in call-outs to overweight patients. Its cavernous interior is more akin to a hospital ward than the back of an ambulance, with room enough for four beds and is fitted with all the latest life-saving equipment.

While a standard ambulance can only carry a person weighing up to 120 kg, the adapted mini-truck can carry patients as heavy as 250kg stone including their trolley. The vehicle can take a single person weighing up to 420 kg as well as the ambulance's two dedicated members of support staff.
Its most significant modification is a heavy-duty tail lift which can be lowered to the ground allowing even the heaviest patients to be raised into the ambulance at the push of a button.
James Keating-Wilkes, a spokesman for the trust, said it had resolved to create the ambulance after a rise in injuries sustained by staff trying to lift obese patients into ordinary ambulances.He said: “In recent years we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of calls to transport obese patients to hospital. We also struggled in many situations because our ambulances were not capable of carrying some very heavy patients and there were also a lot of injuries sustained trying to lift them.
He added that trust already owned the vehicle – originally intended to transport emergency heart patients – but decided to modify it at a cost of £5,000 as it was rarely being used.
As it is capable of carrying up to four ordinary sized patients, the vehicle can also now be used for attending major incidents where there are multiple casualties.

Fat Free burger

A restaurant in Dubai has begun offering camel burgers as a healthier alternative to hamburgers. The Local House, a traditional Emirati restaurant, says the camel burger is a fat-free delicacy for health-conscious diners. Ali Ahmad Esmail, Local House assistant manager, told the Xpress weekly newspaper that the burger patties were cooked in a secret mix of spices and were fat and cholesterol free. But he declined to say how the outlet tenderized the tough camel meat. "It's a trade secret," he said. They are also considering opening a branch in the Burj Khalifa.

Camel meat is widely eaten in some Arab countries, but is not typically sold in supermarkets or served in restaurants.

Fat Kill

A jury on Friday convicted a man of murdering his former son-in-law, rejecting the man's defence that he was too fat to have run up and down a flight of stairs to commit the crime and make a quick getaway.
Edward Ates was found guilty of murder and weapons counts for killing Paul Duncsak, who was shot six times at his home in Ramsey, about 25 miles north-west of New York.
Ates had argued he did not have the energy to accurately shoot Duncsak from a perch on the staircase at Duncsak's home in August 2006. He was 62 years old and 285 pounds at the time of the murder. Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor termed Ates' defense "nonsense."