A 9,000-year-old mask, the oldest art object ever to be auctioned off at Christie’s, could sell for up to $600,000 when it goes up for auction in June, the auction house said today.

The extremely rare Neolithic limestone mask is one of the earliest sculptural types to survive from antiquity.

“Only very few of these masks are known,” said Molly Morse Limmer, head of Christie’s Antiquities department in New York. “All were found in the Judean desert, all were carved of limestone, and all represent the human skull.”

The Judean desert’s extreme dry conditions helped preserve the 9,000-year-old mask. It’s function is not known, but Limmer said its origins date back to a time when complex societies were first evolving.

“No doubt they represent one of the earliest human attempts to connect with the spiritual world,” she said. “Given the skeletal representation, it would be logical that they relate to death rituals or ancestor worship.”

The nine-inch 9,000-year-old mask, which is being sold by a collector in New York, will be part of Christie’s antiquities sale on June 8, when about 260 lots are expected to fetch approximately $8 million.

Other highlights of the June 8 sale include a Greek bronze mirror circa 300 to 350 B.C. which is estimated to sell for $600K – $900K, as well as two Roman works of art, each expected to sell for as much as $500,000.

Learn more about this rare 9,000-year-old mask at Christie’s official website here.

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In a project just announced, scientists from Oxford University and Lausanne Museum of Zoology are appealing to museums, scientists, and Bigfoot followers to share any hair samples they have that may be from the mythical beast, according to the Associated Press.

DNA testing will then be done on the hair samples and should be completed within a few weeks.

Even if it turns out the sample came from an unknown species, scientists should still be able to determine how closely it’s related to other species.

Bryan Sykes of Oxford University said the group of scientists has already gotten several offers of Bigfoot hair samples to test – including blood, hair, and eve a few items that were supposedly chewed on by the hairy beast. Sykes and colleagues will examine all the samples over the course of the next few months, then decide which specimens to test.

They will then publish their findings in a peer-reviewed journal.

Other experts seem to agree that new advances in DNA testing could, at least theoretically, solve the Bigfoot question once and for all.

“If the Yeti is real and somebody has found bits of their hair, you should be able to tell from the DNA in the hair if this is actually a Yeti,” said Mark Thomas, a professor of evolutionary genetics at University College London (NOT connected to the Bigfoot project).

Still, Thomas isn’t sure how likely it may be that anyone could have actual Bigfoot hair samples.  Some scientists think that Yetis are either a distinct hominid species, or a combination of homo sapiens and Neanderthals or other species.

There is already some evidence surfacing of interbreeding between homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

“If Yetis have survived for the last 30,000 years, they have probably had a pretty miserable existence and are a small population vulnerable to extinction,” Thomas said. “It’s not as insane an idea as many might think, but the chances are pretty small.”

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Jack Andraka was awarded the $75,000 first prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his dipstick sensor, which can test blood and/or urine to see if someone might have early-stage pancreatic cancer.

His patent-pending test has proved to be over 90 percent accurate, and 28 times cheaper and 1,000 times more sensitive than existing tests for the disease.

Jack received the Gordon E. Moore Award, named in honor of the Intel co-founder and retired chairman and CEO.

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The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried the unmanned Dragon capsule into space to meet up with the International Space Station during a 3:44 a.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, marking the first time a private company has sent a spacecraft to the ISS.

The mission is the first real test of NASA’s plan to outsource space missions to privately funded companies now the space shuttle fleet has been retired. SpaceX hopes to show NASA that its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are ready to haul cargo, and eventually astronauts, for the space agency.

“Today marks the beginning of a new era in exploration; a private company has launched a spacecraft to the International Space Station that will attempt to dock there for the first time,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a speech. “And while there is a lot of work ahead to successfully complete this mission, we are certainly off to good start.”

In a separate news conference, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk spoke at company headquarters in Hawthorne. It was there that SpaceX employees gathered, watched, and cheered as the Falcon 9 made its trek to the stars.

“There’s so much hope riding on that rocket,” he said. “When it worked … and they saw their handiwork in space and operating as it should, there was tremendous elation. For us, it’s like winning the Super Bowl.”

More in the video below.

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Brain tapeworms, otherwise known as Neurocysticercosis, are a parasitic disease of the nervous system, and they can attach themselves to your cranium and form large white cysts.

It seems the larvae often travel through a pig’s bloodstream and attach themselves to its muscles – but you eat undercooked pork, there’s a chance you could be eating undercooked tapeworm larvae.

Even though the larva is now inside your body, it still thinks it’s inside the pig. In the ensuing confusion, it travels through your bloodstream and gets stuck inside the fluid-filled cavities found in your brain. It then latches on and hides itself from your immune system.

Worse, these nasty little larvae can form vast networks within your brain and totally mangle its inner workings.

Maryland’s Dr. Theodore Nash sees patients who are suffering from the vicious side-effects caused by brain tapeworms. Some patients lapse into comas, while others lose motor function, experience violent seizures, or even go blind.

Just in case you’re not totally paranoid yet, brain tapeworms are more common than you might think. It’s hard to know exactly how many people suffer from them because they tend to thrive in parts of the world with poor sanitation. While Nash estimates that around 2,000 people have brain tapeworms in the U.S., he says that around 29 million people likely have them in Latin America.

Oh, and those adult tapeworms living in your intestines? They can lay up to 50,000 eggs – apiece.

Fortunately, the disease is treatable, but its only cure, praziquantel, can cause swelling of the brain and lead to seizures down the road.

So how can you protect yourself? The simplest way to make sure you don’t get brain tapeworms is to cook your pork (and any other meat, really) thoroughly – and wash your hands.

More in the video below.

Brain Tapeworms

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Although POM Wonderful feels as though they’re being held to the same standards as pharmaceutical companies, a judge feels that the company isn’t being entirely truthful in its marketing efforts.

D. Michael Chappell, chief administrative law judge for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, has ruled that the company misrepresented the benefits of their product in recent advertising campaigns, violating federal law. As a result, the company must stop making unsubstantiated health claims that can’t be supported via the appropriate medical research.

FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director David C. Vladeck says he’s pleased with the ruling.

“I am pleased that Judge Chappell found that all respondents including [POM Wonderful co-founders] Mr. and Mrs. Resnick violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by deceptively advertising that the POM products treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction and has entered an order against them.”

POM Wonderful is also pleased with the verdict, though, as they won’t have to have their future marketing campaigns pre-approved by the FTC.

Craig Cooper, chief legal officer for POM, expressed their happiness with the outcome.

“[The lawsuit] tried to create a new, stricter industry standard, similar to that required for pharmaceuticals, for marketing the health benefits inherent in safe food and natural food-based products. While we are still analyzing the ruling, it is clear that we will be able to continue to promote the health benefits of our safe, food products without having our advertisements, marketing or public relations efforts pre-approved.”

POM Juice Lawsuit

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Two new studies have revealed that individuals with sleep apnea, a common sleeping disorder that often causes snoring, fatigue, and dangerous pauses in breathing, have a higher risk of cancer.

This new research marks the first time that sleep apnea has been tied to cancer in humans.

Approximately 28 million Americans suffer from some form of sleep apnea, although many cases go undiagnosed.

For sleep doctors in particular, the condition is a key concern due to the fact that it can deprive the body of oxygen during sleep and frequently coincides with cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes.

“This is really big news,” said Dr. Joseph Golish, a professor of sleep medicine with the MetroHealth System in Cleveland (who was not involved in the research), according to the New York Times.

“It’s the first time this has been shown, and it looks like a very solid association,” he said.

Dr. Golish, the former chief of sleep medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, says the cancer link may not prove to be as strong as the already-well-documented relationship between sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease, “but until disproven, it would be one more reason to get your apnea treated or to get it diagnosed if you think you might have it.”

The two studies are being presented in San Francisco this week at an international conference organized by the American Thoracic Society.

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- Jury at John Edwards’ trial set to resume deliberations

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Grayson James Walker was born on February 15, 2012. He was born with Anencephaly, a rare birth defect whereby a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.  The baby lived for just eight hours.

Heather Walker posted pictures to Facebook of Grayson without his hat on.

“Not long after, Facebook deleted them because of the content” she said. “They allow people to post almost nude pictures of themselves, profanity, and so many other things but I’m not allowed to share a picture of God’s beautiful creation.”

Walker and her Facebook friends decided to re-upload Grayon’s pictures as a form of protest, and she’s on a 24-hour ban.

Facebook does have rules about photos and content people may find offensive, including bullying, hate speech, graphic violence, nudity, etc.

Walker maintains that her photos of her newborn son don’t fall into any of those categories.

“I see all kinds of stuff, women’s body parts, almost nudity, which is one of their standards, people cursing each other out, just profanity,” said Walker.

Amazed at the amount of support she’s received from all over the country, Walker says the photo is raising awareness.

“Just in two days, all these people have messaged me telling me how much God has used Grayson’s life to touch them and to work in their hearts and to make them appreciate the children they have, that they have healthy children,” she explained.

Not all the feedback has been positive, though, and Walker says those people can friend her on Facebook at their own discretion.

“If you’re my friend and you want to see the picture then look at it, but if you don’t, just like any TV show or anything else you watch, if you don’t want to see it you don’t have to,” said Walker. “But I want to share this with people just like any other person wants to share their baby or their child.”

You can see the photos Facebook deleted here and see more in the video below.

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• Posting Pictures of Her Terminally Ill Son Got Grieving Mother Banned from Facebook [Facebook] (gizmodo.com)
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• Remember Baby Grayson Walker: Mom’s Facebook account banned over “offensive” pics of anencephalic son; supporters spread word on Twitter (twitchy.com)
• Facebook Bans Mother For Posting Photos Of Terminally Ill Son (huffingtonpost.com)

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The magnitude-6.0 quake struck in the middle of the night, approximately 22 miles north of the city of Bologna.

The temblor caused “significant damage to the cultural heritage” of Emilia Romagna region, according to the local government.

This afternoon, a major 5.1-magnitude aftershock hit the region, leading to more building collapses.

The aftershock destroyed a clock tower and caused a firefighter to fall from a wall in the town of Finale Emilia.

The Sunday quake was the worst to hit Italy since the L’Aquila tremor killed almost 300 people in 2009.

The earthquake struck at about 04:00 local time (02:00 GMT) and was felt across a large portion of northern Italy, including the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Verona, and Mantua and even as far away as Milan and Venice.

The tremor forced many terrified residents into the streets.

Check out raw video of the aftermath below.

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The 2012 annular eclipse, which puts the moon directly in between Earth and the sun on Sunday, is the first of its kind since 1994.

(UPDATED: You can now WATCH the eclipse via LIVE STREAMING video on our Live Video page)

It won’t be a total eclipse, though, because the moon is closer to Earth than usual.  Instead, you’ll see a “ring of fire” around the moon. This phenomenon occurs twice per year, but is usually only visible by a small fraction of the Earth’s surface.

An annular eclipse occurs when the moon, slightly more distant from Earth than usual, moves directly between Earth and the sun, thus appearing slightly smaller to observers’ eyes. The effect creates a bright ring, or annulus of sunlight also called a “ring of fire,” around the perimeter of the moon.

This 2012 solar eclipse will be visible in China and Japan on May 21 and, for the first time in 18 years, by continental western states, California, Nevada, and Arizona.  The East Coast will miss out on the party, as the sun will have already set there.

For those of us here in the east, we’ll have to wait for the total eclipse in 2017.

If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of history, be sure to heed mom’s advice.  If you don’t have a solar filter, a pinhole projector, or some special solar-safe viewing glasses, you should refrain from staring or you might risk damaging your vision.

Here are the viewing times for the 2012 “Ring of Fire” annular solar eclipse:

Northern California 5:10 p.m. PDT
Nevada 5:18 p.m. PDT
Utah 6:22 p.m. MDT
Arizona 5:24 p.m. MST
New Mexico 5:28 p.m. MDT
Colorado (southwest portion) 6:24 p.m. MDT
Texas 7:30 p.m. CDT

More in the video below:

UPDATED: You can now WATCH the eclipse via LIVE STREAMING video on our Live Video page.

2012 “Ring of Fire” Annular Solar Eclipse

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The first foray by a private company to launch a rocket into space was grounded, and the SpaceX rocket never made it off the launch pad.

The launch was aborted just 0.5 seconds before liftoff.

It was so close, in fact, that even NASA announcer George Diller was caught off guard.

“Three, two, one, zero and liftoff,” said Diller, who then realized the rocket was still on the launch pad.

“We’ve had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur.”

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell blamed the failure on high combustion pressure in engine number five, one of nine engines needed for liftoff.

Onboard computers detected the problem, as they should, and shut everything down.

Engineers will now start the trouble-shooting process and hopefully fix the problem. They’ll switch out the engine if need be.

The next potential launch date is next Tuesday, May 22.

Despite everyone’s disappointment, Shotwell maintained, “This is not a failure. We aborted with purpose,” she said, “It would be a failure if we were to have lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.”

Absolutely. If the rocket had lifted off and then blown up in space, things would have been a lot worse. Today’s no-go was really for the best.

SpaceX is one of a number of private companies hoping to make it into space with the goal of eventually sending cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.

NASA has paid $396 million to SpaceX for these test flights. It also has a $1.6 billion contract with the company for 12 cargo flights to the ISS.

SpaceX is the brainchild of billionaire Elon Musk, who made his fortune founding PayPal.

More in the video below.

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She had already lost her left leg to the rare disease.

Upon hearing the news, she raised her hands, looked right at her family and said, “Let’s do this.”

Andy Copeland, Aimee’s father, posted the news on the Facebook page he created for his daughter, “Believe and pray for a miracle to happen for Aimee Copeland.”

Aimee’s dad said he knew bad news was coming as soon as he sat down with her doctor yesterday.

“‘We need to talk about Aimee’s hands and foot,’ he said as his eyes bored into mine,” Copeland wrote. “He didn’t have to say anything. We had noticed a remarkable change over the past several days in Aimee’s hands. They went from a splotchy purple color to a red tone and then to a pinkish flesh tone. Yesterday I had noticed them turning back to an angry red.”

Copeland says his daughter’s hands have now turned a “splotchy purplish” color, and there is the risk of further infection after a sore developed in the palm of her right hand.

Aimee has also lost a large amount of fascia – the layer of thick tissue under the skin – on her left side, making it more difficult for her to breathe.

The doctors said, though, that Aimee’s respiratory condition was improving after she underwent a tracheotomy on Wednesday. The improvement has given physicians a small window of opportunity to do the amputations, Copeland said.

Aimee contracted necrotizing fasciitis after falling from a zipline near a creek in Carolltown, Georgia. The bacteria entered her body through the gash she suffered during the fall, and it quickly spread throughout her body, destroying skin and muscle along the way.

Copeland said his daughter took the news about her hands and foot much better than he ever could have hoped. He said he was proud to be her father.

“In all my 53 years of existence, I have never seen such a strong display of courage,” Copeland wrote. “Aimee shed no tears, she never batted an eyelash.”

You can read Andy Copeland’s blog here and “Like” Aimee’s Facebook page here.

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You may recall that Aimee, 24, contracted the disease after falling from a zipline and sustaining a deep gash in her leg that required staples.  She has lost her left leg, part of her abdomen, and will likely lose several fingers to the disease.

Now, a South Carolina woman is undergoing treatment for the infection, and is critical but stable condition at Greenville Memorial Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Lana Kuykendall, 36, “underwent her fifth debridement surgery to remove necrotic, or dead, tissue from her lower leg,” said Sandy Dees, senior media relations coordinator for Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center.

Last Friday, Kuykendall was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.

A team of surgeons are now monitoring her condition, which is typically managed by surgery and antibiotics.

“She remains very ill but stable,” says Dr. Bill Kelly, the hospital epidemiologist.

Kuykendall was healthy when she gave birth to twins on May 7 in Atlanta, but later went to the hospital near her South Carolina home after noticing a rapidly expanding bruise on her leg, according to her husband, Darren. Doctors there removed dead tissue from her legs and she was put on a ventilator.

To add fuel to the fire, a third case of flesh-eating bacteria has emerged with ties to Georgia.

A landscaper from Cartersville is now in critical condition at Doctors Hospital in Augusta battling the disease. Interestingly enough, that’s the same place Aimee Copeland is being treated.

Bobby Vaughn was hurt at work when he fell from a tree two weeks ago and suffered a cut to his side.

“He got a cut on his side and took himself to the hospital. My son said he was throwing up…They treated him, he chose to leave. He got up the next morning it had spread,” said Amanda Nicholson, Vaughn’s ex-wife.

Nicholson said that Vaughn spent approximately a week at Cartersville Medical Center. She says the infection quickly spread from his abdomen to his upper back. He was then taken to Doctors Hospital in Augusta.

“It was kind of scary at first because, for some reason it was like every two days, when they would go to check, it was spreading still – and so finally that was when they sent him to Augusta,” said Nicholson.

According to Nicholson, Vaughn has undergone five surgeries as doctors remove nearly two pounds of infected tissue.

A number of bacteria can cause this rare condition, which attacks and destroys healthy tissue and is fatal about 20 percent of the time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So where is this bacteria coming from? Is this the price we pay for being a nation that hands out antibiotics like candy? Are the “super-bugs” finally here and coming for us all – or are these really just “isolated” incidents?

Unfortunately, only time will tell.

More in the videos below.

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Investigators are reporting that the mysterious object did not show up on any known radar.

The FAA now acknowledges that the object could pose a serious safety hazard to planes in the area.

Radio transmissions from LiveATC.net confirm that a nervous-sounding pilot did indeed report a strange object at 5:17 p.m. local time on Monday evening.

The pilot can be heard telling air traffic control:

“A remote controlled aircraft, or what? Something just went by the other way … About 20 to 30 seconds ago. It was like a large remote-controlled aircraft.”

The corporate jet, a Cessna Citation 525 CJ1, was flying at approximately 8,000 feet above sea level when the UFO got close enough to make the pilot nervous.

“That’s an issue because now we have something in controlled airspace that poses a danger,” said former NTSB investigator Greg Feith.

Feith listened to the transmissions from the pilot and thinks the object could possibly be a military or law enforcement drone, a remote controlled aircraft, or a large bird.  Then again, it could be something else entirely.

“Was this an unmanned vehicle that was part of some sort of law enforcement operation? Was this somebody that had flown a large model aircraft inadvertently into the airspace? Or was it just [a bird that] caught the pilot’s eye so he believed it was an aircraft but could have been a very large wing span bird,” Feith said.

Check out more in the video below.

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Often referred to as “Planet X” or “Nibiru,” this mysterious planet may be responsible for everything from ancient doomsday prophecies to alien races visiting Earth – and now one astrophysicist says it might just exist.

This potential unseen planet apparently makes it presence known by disturbing the orbits of so-called Kuiper belt objects, said Rodney Gomes, an astronomer at the National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.

Kuiper belt objects are those various small icy celestial bodies that lie beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune.

The former planet known as Pluto is considered to be one of the largest Kuiper belt objects, at about 1,400 miles wide. Dozens of the other objects are hundreds of miles across, and researchers are finding more and more each year.

What’s interesting to Gomes is that about a half dozen Kuiper belt objects are in very unusual orbits compared to where they should be.

Gomes, who presented his findings last week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Timberline Lodge, Oregon, says there are a few possible explanations for this bizarre behavior.

“But I think the easiest one is a planetary-mass solar companion,” i.e. a planet that orbits extremely far away from our sun but that’s gigantic enough to affect the orbits of Kuiper belt objects.

For his new research, Gomes studied the orbits of 92 Kuiper belt objects, then compared the results to computer models that showed how the bodies should be distributed, with and without an additional “Planet X.”

If there’s no distant world affecting the distant objects, Gomes concludes, the models don’t produce the highly elongated orbits he observed for six of the objects.

How big would this mystery planet be?  Gomes says there are a lot of possibilities.

Based on his calculations, Gomes thinks a Neptune-sized world, which would be approximately four times bigger than Earth, orbiting 140 billion miles away from the sun (about 1,500 times farther than Earth) would certainly do the trick.

But, then again, so would a Mars-sized object (about half Earth’s size) in a highly elongated orbit that would occasionally bring the planet sweeping to within 5 billion miles of the sun.

Gomes believes that the “Planet X” may be a rogue planet that was booted out of its own solar system and was later caught by the sun’s gravity – or the elusive planet could have formed closer to our sun, but was then cast outward by gravitational encounters with other planets.

Finding a “Nibiru” planet could prove difficult, as the planet would likely be pretty dim, and Gomes’ research doesn’t really give astronomers any idea as to where to point their telescopes.

“It can be anywhere,” he said.

Indeed, we may never know – until the mystery planet, if it exists, swings closer to Earth.  If that happens, things could get interesting in a hurry.

More in the video below.

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“Aimee will suffer the loss of her fingers, however physicians have hope of bringing life back to the palms of her hands, which could allow her the muscle control to use helpful prosthetics. They are awaiting a safe time before embarking on surgery for this,” said a post on the University of West Georgia Psychology official website.

Copeland, a 24-year-old grad student, has already lost her left leg and may also lose her remaining foot, according to her family. Copeland’s family said that, despite being on a ventilator and unable to speak, she’s showing signs of improvement.

“Aimee appears to have normal brain function at this time, which is something I’m celebrating because within Aimee we have a very compassionate heart and an incredible mind of intellect,” said Copeland’s father, Andy Copeland.

Aimee Copeland was riding a homemade zip line near the Little Tallapoosa River on May 1 when the line snapped, causing her to fall and cut her left calf.

Doctors cleaned out the gash and closed it with 22 staples, but bacteria then burrowed deep into the wound caused necrotizing fasciitis, a rare but deadly infection that claimed her leg.

Aimee’s family says she’s coherent and can now nod and shake her head, a gesture she used to pick the Grateful Dead over the Rolling Stones last week, according to her sister Paige Copeland.

“I just told her if she keeps improving like this, she’ll be out of here in no time,” said Paige.

It’s not yet known how much of the ordeal Aimee remembers.  She hasd mouthed, “What happened?” and “Where am I?” and her family has started to provide answers, but they have not yet told her she’s lost her leg.

The bacteria that caused the infection, Aeromonas hydrophila, thrives in warm climates and fresh water, such as the river where Copeland was having fun with her friends – but experts say the germ rarely causes flesh-eating disease.

“This was a perfect storm,” said ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser. “She had an injury to her leg, she was exposed to water then had this germ, and she was one of those people where the germ just took off.”

More in the video below.

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While exploring the classic Mayan site Xultun, embedded deep within the nooks and crannies of the Guatemalan rain forest, scientists have found what looks to be the earliest known Mayan calendar and ancient murals, and it looks like there is no doomsday on the horizon.

Mayan experts have known for a long time that this calendar is not a countdown to the end of the world on December 21, 2012, the researchers said.

The Mayans used a series of cycles to track time in which there were 13 baktuns each representing a 400-year chunk.

Researchers say that rumors of an apocalypse in December of this year are a huge misconception. That merely represents the benchmark when a cycle of 13 baktuns will be end and a new cycle will begin.

“There was a lot more to the Mayan calendar than just 13 baktuns,” said archaeologist David Stuart of the University of Texas, who helped decipher the hieroglyphics found on the walls of a house dating back to the early part of the 9th century.

“The Mayan calendar is going to keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future,” added Stuart.

Archaeologists say these artifacts were well preserved in a house-like structure.

“It was actually my student, Max Chamberlain, who discovered to the Mayan house, while poking around a looters’ trench,” said William Saturno, lead author and archeologist at Boston University.

At first, Saturno didn’t think the findings would amount to much.

“Initially, when we went to verify this as a Mayan painting, all we could see at the time was a single red line on a really moldy, dilapidated piece of stucco that had been uncovered by looters about 30 years earlier,” said Saturno.

“In order to gain a better understanding of the dimensions of the house, I began excavating the looters’ trench to the back wall, I was shocked to find a beautifully preserved image of a Mayan king on his thrown, with a great blue feathered head dress streaming off his head,” added Saturno.

The newly discovered calendar features bars and dots recording lunar cycles in six-month increments of time. The markings are what made researchers realize they were actually looking at an ancient calendar.

“All around us were paintings, we saw many life-size human figures painted in black and red hieroglyphs,” said Saturno.

Even more exciting, the scientists say they’ve barely scratched the surface.

“We have 99.9 percent of Xultun left to explore,” said David Stuart.

“Its actual boundaries have yet to determined and we are going to be working on it for many decades to come,” said Stuart.

The findings, supported by the National Geographic Society, are set to be published in a forthcoming article in the journal Science on Friday.

Either way, it looks like it’s safe to make plans for 2013.  No doom here.  Please move along.

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