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Treatment in rats stops, rather than masks, the problem, researchers say WEDNESDAY, Jan. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Research in rats suggests that "rebooting" the brain can help stop tinnitus, a condition characterized by persistent ringing or other noises in the ears. There is no cure for tinnitus, which can occur as a result of hearing loss. In this study, U.S. researchers stimulated the vagus nerve while simultaneously playing a variety of sound tones over an extended period of time. The goal was to increase the numbers of neurons tuned to frequencies other than the tinnitus frequency. The vagus nerve is...

Scientists have found a way to ease chronic ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus, by stimulating a neck nerve and playing sounds to reboot the brain, according to research published Wednesday. There is currently no cure for tinnitus, which can range from annoying to debilitating and affects as many as 23 million adults in the United States, including one in 10 seniors and 40 percent of military veterans. For Gloria Chepko, 66, who has suffered from tinnitus since she was four years old, the sound she describes as "like crickets... but also bell-like," gets worse when she is tired....

A British man who endured agonising earaches for 33 years says he can finally sleep easy after doctors removed a tooth from his ear canal. Stephen Hirst said he went to hospital for one final attempt to diagnose the source of the pain when the nurse made the discovery, the Daily Express reports. "The nurse put a suction tube in my ear and cleaned it, then she had a go with a microscope probe and finally used some tweezers," Mr Hirst was quoted as saying. "She said she couldn’t believe what she’d found in my ear and showed me the...

Forget fingerprints or the colour of your eyes, airport security could soon be looking at the shape of your ears when deciding whether to allow you into the country Researchers have discovered that each person's ears have a unique shape and have created a system that is able to scan them. The scans can then be compared with a database of ear shapes to identify whose they are.

Man bites off brother's earWhen you can't beat 'em, bite 'em. An Ocala man has been arrested and charged with aggravated battery after he went Mike Tyson on his brother and chewed off part of his ear during a fight. As you can imagine, the brothers had both had a few too many beers when they got into an argument over the family dog. Words soon turned to shoves and before long, the brothers were playing family feud. Authorities say a deputy arrived at the home on Wednesday and found Felipe Vega, 32, standing in the front yard. Authorities say...

Cocaine, marijuana, tobacco, alcohol -- the usual drugs and their dangers are familiar to most children and parents alike. Is sound an equally dangerous "gateway drug"? As preposterous as that idea sounds, it's precisely what the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics claims. They are warning parents of a dangerous new drug -- binaural sound. > Oklahoma officials are convinced, though, that it's just the latest way for kids to get high. They call it "i-dosing" and claim that "digital dealers" are selling children the aural equivalent of crack in their eyes. Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward...

Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith hopped back onto the ice Sunday after losing seven teeth when he was hit in the mouth with a puck. But now hear this: Hall of Famer Stan Mikita not only lost teeth playing hockey, he once returned to action after losing an ear lobe. "I got one (puck) glance off my eyeball and my nose that nailed me pretty good. I couldn't see good for two or three days," the former Blackhawks center (1958-80) recalled Monday. "I got hit three or four times with the puck. If you're skating across the line of fire and...

"When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out," 19-year-old Bibi Aisha of Afghanistan says with chilling candor. Her beauty is still stunning and her confidence inspiring. It takes a moment for the barbaric act committed against her to register in your mind and sight. "When you have ... 50 percent of a population on their knees, it's very easy for extremists, tyrants to take over a country," she adds. "They have a ready-made enslaved population."

A butterfly species equipped with tiny ears on its wings can distinguish between high and low pitch sounds, possibly as a way to listen in on nearby birds, new research suggests. Scientists thought butterflies were deaf until 1912 when the first butterfly ears were identified. Only in the past decade or so have researchers examined the anatomy and physiology of butterfly ears, which they are finding to be quite diverse and present in several butterfly species. The latest discovery was made with the blue morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides), which dazzles with its bright-blue wing coloration when it flits about in...

Obama, in op-ed, says economy should be rebuilt 'better than before'Associated Press Last update: July 12, 2009 - 9:26 AM WASHINGTON - With the economy still firmly in the grip of a tenacious recession, President Barack Obama is urging Americans to have patience and give his economic recovery plan time to work. Restating themes he laid out in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said in an op-ed posted early Sunday on The Washington Post's Web site that his $787 billion stimulus program was not expected to return the economy to full health, but to provide a boost that...

Listen up! Carbon dioxide being absorbed by the oceans is having a puzzling effect on fish — their ears get bigger. Now, that doesn't mean you're going to reel in the Mr. Spock of the sea. Fish ears are inside their bodies. But, as in humans, their ears perform a major role in sensing movement and whether the animal is upright — abilities that are important for survival.

April 02, 2009Obama bows down to Saudi KingClarice Feldman I am quite certain that this is not the protocol, and is most unbecoming a President of the United States.

Need Freeper Help. I have a 3 yr old cocker spaniel that has really bad ear infections. I knew it would probably be an issue when I got him but for the first 2 years he never had any problems. Now, however, he has had re-occurring infections and now the vet says that his ear canals have calcified to the point that they need to be “scraped out”, a procedure that will leave him deaf. Does anybody know of a better solution?

Ever since president-elect Obama mentioned that his kids are getting a puppy, dog lovers around the world have been panting with anticipation to learn what kind of dog will become first pup. Obama, who described the decision as a "major issue," is on the hunt for an allergy-free dog, since daughter Malia is allergic. Seeing that Obama is the first "global president," it's not surprising that the Fido frenzy has gone international.

11/5/2008 - SAN ANTONIO (AFNS) -- Looking in the mirror, Marine Capt. Ryan Voltin couldn't get past his ears. Not that they were strange looking, but that they were there at all. He just wasn't used to seeing them. The AH-1 Cobra pilot lost his when the helicopter he was flying erupted in flames during a training accident last year. The fire severely burned the captain's face -- to the point that his ears simply dissolved. "I was conscious the entire time," he said. "And I remember thinking that I shouldn't be alive." But, he was, because of the quick...

TALIBAN militants dragged a school teacher out of a mosque in Afghanistan and cut off his ears as a "punishment" for working for the Government, an education official said. The rebels took another dozen people, most of them elderly men, out of the mosque in the southern province of Zabul and beat them up on similar charges, provincial education chief Mohammad Nabi Khushal said overnight. The men had burst into the mosque while dozens of worshippers were in a late night prayer session Saturday and singled out primary school teacher Bismillah Khan, Mr Khushal said, blaming Taliban rebels. "They took...

It is the Internet, so Yoda the cat's four ears could easily be an optical illusion or a camera trick along the lines of those semi-animated, talking cats whose mouths move on kitty litter commercials. Or perhaps the 2-year-old feline is just a remarkable showcase of genetic mutation.

[MCCAIN HAS BEEN ON COVER TWICE]

Obama "Pivots" on the IssuesJack Kelly Tue Jul 15, 7:30 AM ET During his eight years in the Illinois state senate, Barack Obama voted "present" 130 times. That's an astounding 12-13 times a year in which he said, in effect, "I'm here, but I'm not going to take a stand on this issue." Given that record of bold leadership, I'm surprised Sen. Obama acted as he did on the legislation Congress passed July 9 to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Sen. Obama had pledged to filibuster FISA if it contained a provision to provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies...

Sooner or later, voters are going to recognize the exquisite sensitivity of the Obama campaign to ridicule as weakness. By choosing to cry foul  over the New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas as the opposition supposedly sees him, the campaign reveals the precariousness of the substance-free image-building effort to date. The irrepressible Doug Ross  dug up a New Yorker cover mocking Bush and Cheney as the gay cowboys from Brokeback Mountain, sarcastically noting the missing firestorm of protest.   Are Americans really going to want to vote for someone who holds himself to be above criticism and mockery?