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The dreaded vuvuzela claims its first victim: Woman bursts her windpipe 'by blowing too hard'

Insurance saleswoman Yvonne Mayer, 29, was unable to speak or eat for two days after ripping her windpipe when she blew the three foot horn during a street party in Cape Town.

The next day shocked doctors diagnosed her with a ruptured throat and ordered her to rest it completely to allow it to heal.

The bizarre injury is the first known vuvuzela-related accident since the World Cup kicked off last week.

Yvonne, from Cape Town, said: 'I had never blown a vuvuzela before but was given one at work and was going to watch the first South Africa match so thought I'd take it along.

'I was walking towards the Fan Park in Cape Town and blowing it as hard as I could when suddenly my throat started to hurt.

'At first I thought I'd gone down with a bug but the next day it was worse.

'When I went to the doctor he took a look and then laughed.

'He said I'd ruptured my throat by blowing too hard, and that perhaps I had been doing it all wrong.

'After that I was told to go home and relax the whole area.

'It meant I wasn't allowed to eat or speak at all for almost two days.

'I was starving by the time I could finally eat some soup and yogurt on Monday.'

Yvonne was given a check-up after the incident at the Medi-Cross Hospital in Cape Town's Table Bay suburb.

Specialists said an initial tear in her throat caused by air pressure had grown into a wound due to her constant blowing.

Yvonne added: 'They said it would heal by itself given time but were worried that it could get infected.

'That's why they told me not to eat or speak while it was healing.' A medical report on the injury confirmed Yvonne had ruptured her throat.

It said: 'Extensive surgical emphysema is present in the retrophayngal prevertrebal space.

'This extends from the base of the skull to the supraclavicular regions on both sides and is probably due to a traumatic rupture of the pharynx.'

Dr Scott Barker, who treated Yvonne, said: 'She simply overdid it. We had to keep a check on her for potential infection after the initial tear caused damage to soft tissue.

England fan Caylin Groenewald blows her vuvuzela with Table Mountain in the backgound

'I checked with our ear nose and throat specialist who did not seem to be worried about any long-term damage. It was the first time we'd seen anything like this.

'I would urge other fans not to go over the top while blowing, and just follow what your body tells you. If it hurts, stop.

'The worst health risk with the vuvuzela is still the high volume your ears are subjected to. The best health advice I can give for England fans is to take a pair of earplugs to the game.'

Today Yvonne warned other football fans to take care when blasting their plastic trumpets.

She said: 'This happened to me on my first time.

'I thought I was blowing it right but perhaps I was trying too hard.

'They're fantastic fun and really bring people together during the soccer, but my experience has proven they can be dangerous if underestimated.

'I don't think I'd ever blow one again, because it wasn't much fun.

A broker at the German stock exchange in Frankfurt blows a vuvuzela prior to the start of the World Cup soccer match Germany versus Serbia

A fan blows a vuvuzela before the 2010 World Cup Group C soccer match between the US and Slovenia at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg

'Apparently they sell smaller ones these days too so perhaps I'll pick one of those up instead for the rest of the tournament.'

Her injury came as it was revealed a German fan had been diagnosed with severe tinnitus after watching his team's 4-0 over Australia.

Sven Wipperfurth, 27, of Rommerskirchen, Germany, said: 'We were watching it on TV and then suddenly someone let rip with an ear splitting blast right next to me.

'It was so loud that I passed out. When I came round I couldn't hear properly in one ear - it was just a permanent ringing.'

Now fans in Germany have been given the option by BskyB bosses to select a special filter to remove the blaring drone of vuvuzelas from their World Cup coverage.

A test by local media described the results as 'impressive'.

And internet antivuvuzelafilter.com has designed an independent filter for just 3 GBP which they claim can remove the sound of the horns from all commentary.

How to Create Movie Star Skin

One thing we all dream about having is porcelain smooth skin. That is, for the models on our design layouts! Here is a great technique for giving any model that “movie star skin” makeover that doesn‘t require hours with the clone stamp and healing brush.

Here is an example of an image for an ad layout. Although the model looks good, we are looking to give the model a smoother complexion.

The first thing to do is duplicate the background layer. Run a filter on the newly created layer – Filter -> Blur -> Surface Blur. The settings you choose will depend on the resolution of your image, but you‘ll want to blur the image until you can no longer see the individual pores and inconsistencies in the skin texture. In this case, I used a radius of 11 pixels and a threshold of 10 levels. Click OK.



You will notice that we now have blurred the entire image -- not just the model‘s skin -- so it looks pretty bad. A simple layer mask will help here.

Open up the channels palette. Click through the Red, Green and Blue channels and find the channel which offers the greatest contrast between the background and the face‘s skin. In this image, the Red channel gives us the best contrast. Holding CTRL (PC) or CMD (Mac), click on the thumbnail of the chosen channel, and you will load the luminosity of that channel. We will use that selection to create our layer mask.

Head back over to the layers palette and select the blurred layer. Click the “Add a layer mask” icon.



This will create a new layer mask that looks like a black and white version of the image. If you hold ALT while clicking on the thumbnail of the layer mask, you will view the layer mask. Now, press CTRL + L (PC) or CMD + L (Mac) to make a levels adjustment to the layer mask. You will want to adjust the levels until you get a good definition between the face and the background, as in the example shown. Keep in mind that whatever is in white will be blurred and everything that is in black will not.



With a brush, black out all the other areas that you don‘t want blurred, such as the hair, shirt and anything else in the background. You‘ll want to make sure the eyes, mouth and edges of the nose stay black so those areas aren‘t blurry. The layer mask should look something like this:



By ALT clicking on the layer mask, you‘ll hide the mask and show the blurred layer again. At this point, you‘re done!



You may choose to go back and do a little more painting on the layer mask to touch up the blurred areas around the eyes, mouth or edges of the face if they look like they need it. Also, if the effect seems a little too strong, reduce the opacity of the blurry layer and allow some of the background layer to show through. Going back down to 70% opacity still gives a nice, smooth look to the skin without making the skin appear porcelain.

This process might sound complicated at first, but once you have done it once or twice, you will find it is a very easy method of giving skin a complexion anyone would be proud of.

Wired

The Human Copyright

An additional safeguard is now required to escape the legal loopholes threatening your integrity in the name of national security, media campaigns, marketing proposals, etc. It has become critically important to defend your future identity from subliminal influences, federal propaganda, and all other forms of ulterior or blatant mental control.

The Human Copyright is designed to protect one's inalienable right not to be cloned. It may also aid in legal protection against subliminal advertising, media brainwashing, or other types of blanket identity control.

Print the page below. Sign on the dotted line. Insert your thumb print within the perimeters of the blank square. For added protection, glue or tape a fingernail clipping for additional DNA proof of your identity.

The Human Copyright should be co-signed by a notary public and stored in a safe place.

Your Human Copyright will show proof that you are not in the Public Domain, and it will help you to fight the "fair use" of your personality.


The Human Copyright

I, the undersigned, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , hereby affirm that I am a work-in-progress. As such, I refuse to permit my DNA, conscious or unconscious mind, or my personal identity to be used in any way, for any means, by anyone else without my express and written permission.

I REFUSE:

to be cloned;

to be subliminally influenced;

to be lied to;

to be spied upon;

to be mentally compromised.

Co-signed: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . Date: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .