The world’s first full face transplant will be done on a 16 year old Irish girl who was horribly burned as a baby in a car explosion.

The surgery involves “degloving” the donor’s face from a four-hour-old corpse, severing the top layer of skin and then grafting it onto the recipient’s face.

It will be carried out by Peter Butler, a surgeon at the Royal Free, who has yet to meet Lena. He said she will undergo psychiatric and psychological assessment.

The British Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has appoved kidney transplants for cats, following the lead of the US.

In the United States, cat kidney transplants have cost between $7,000 and $10,000, and vets estimate the cost in Britain at between 8,000 and 10,000 pounds.

Even so, the procedure will extend a cat’s life by an average of only two years and in most cases the cat will remain on medication for the rest of its life.

Bali
In a quiet ceremony, most of the remains of the victims in the October Bali bombing were cremated in a solemn ceremony on the Indonesian island.

In a sign of respect for the victims, simple offerings of flowers and bamboo leaves were burnt along with the body parts.

The relatives of those killed had given permission for the cremation and in accordance with local Hindu customs the ashes will be scattered on the sea at nearby Sanur beach later on Saturday.

Despite extensive forensic efforts to identify the 185 body parts, the majority were too badly burnt or too small to be successfully identified - even using DNA techniques.

Australian Federal Police chaplain David Cockram attended to ensure there was a christian presence at the ceremony. Consul representatives from the US and Australia also attended.

Rio de Janario
The Brazilian government has sent armed troops into the streets for the famous pre-lent carnival in Rio after violent clashes between drug gangs and the police on the eve of the event.

St. David’s Day
March 1st is a day of celebration in Wales and it is being shared by a Welsh counterpart in the US. Head over to connexions for the festivities.

Ants I’d Avoid
The Blue Coyote Lounge has a post on Australia yellow ants which escaped from an Australian military installation in the 1940’s. They spit, or spray, blinding animals and potentially humans. Yuck.

Canadian PM
Dashouse is questioning the ability of Jean Chretien to continue in office.
He wouldn’t be the first PM we’ve had that for health reasons was not fit to lead. In todays media world it is less possible for others to protect him from himself and whatever is ailing him.

Consumerism and Smorgasbord Christianity
Bloggedy Blog has been surfing and has come up with some interesting links and thoughts about western Christianity and culture. Shoot, that song is stuck in my head now.

Shamans and the Cross
Martin Roth has an interesting entry of the power of shamans and the power of the cross.

When she was 24, and wanting to find a Westerner to marry, my wife consulted a shaman. He told her that when she was 27 she would marry someone from America or Japan. This was a shock, as she had no desire for a Japanese husband.

I have always refused to do talk shows with western psychics. First of all 98% percent of them are cranks as far as I’m concerned, but that 2% that aren’t immediately recognize me as a follower of Jesus Christ, and are unable to use their occultic power or access their ’spirit guides.’ All the station managers I have worked with have respected my decision.

Martin ends on a thoughtful note.

Is there a connection between shamans and Christianity? Does God perhaps use shamans to build a relationship with those of His people who have yet to hear of Jesus? And shouldn’t Christians recognise the great good done by many shamans, instead of too often demonising them?

Spambots
I’ve noticed a fair number of spambots crawling through my log. If you have tech skills and can go into your edit templates dive into mark has a good list of them and how to block them.

And since that URL above is two lines long, I used Tiny URL to shorten it.