Sideswipe: January 05: Drinking vessel for the child-free woman

The strangest medical cases of 2020

1. A 17-year-old went to the emergency room after he experienced a sharp pain in his chest that radiated to his back. A CT scan of his chest showed there was a "linear metallic foreign" object lodged in his heart, the report said. That object turned out to be a 3.5cm sewing pin, which doctors removed through open-heart surgery. The teen revealed that he tailors his clothes and sometimes holds sewing pins in his mouth.

2. A man in Massachusetts suddenly lost consciousness after experiencing a life-threatening heart rhythm problem. His family said that he had consumed one to two large packages of black liquorice every day. Despite receiving treatment in the intensive care unit, the man died 32 hours after arriving at the hospital, the report said. Black liquorice often contains a compound called glycyrrhizin, which is derived from liquorice root and consuming too much glycyrrhizin lowers the body's potassium levels, raises blood pressure and causes abnormal heart rhythms. The FDA says that eating just 56 grams of black liquorice a day for two weeks can cause heart rhythm problems, particularly for people ages 40 and older.

3. A woman who went to the emergency room for abdominal pain and vomiting was found to have 4cm long calcified stone in her intestines. When she was six days old, she had undergone surgery for an intestinal blockage. But the surgical method that her doctors used left a dormant piece of the intestine in her body, which accumulated substances over time, and gradually led to the formation of the stone. (Via Live Science)

Did you know?

1. It's almost impossible to tickle yourself, but one exception is lightly touching the roof of your mouth with your little finger.
2. In Hong Kong, all new buildings must have at least 1.6 women's toilets for every men's toilet.
3. The Band-Aid was invented because the inventor's wife was very clumsy in the kitchen and prone to giving herself nicks and burns.

No tampon tax

In the UK, from January 1, there will be no VAT on women's sanitary products - and this picture accompanied the announcement was made on Twitter. While Adam Garrie felt the policy was good, he objected to the "obscene" image. When pressed he explained that there was an implication of body fluids and that the curvature of the illustration was suggestive. Writer and social worker Kate van Hooft tweeted: "If you find a drawing of a tampon obscene but have no problem looking at photos of toilet paper your concern is not public decency, it's misogyny."