Friday, January 26, 2007
Sharks 'should be shown compassion' - BBC News
Conservationists are calling for compassion to be shown towards great white sharks after an Australian diver was attacked in waters south of Sydney and survived.
...
Eric Nerhus said being half-swallowed by a great white shark earlier this week was like being trapped in a "dark cave".
Veteran Australian wildlife film-maker Valerie Taylor knows what it's like to be at the mercy of a giant shark after surviving an attack off the coast of California.
"I just felt a gentle bump and I looked down and my leg was in quite a large shark's mouth - that was a startling sight," she told BBC News.
"It moved its head once and its teeth went into my leg. I knew that if it did it again I would lose my leg and I just punched it in the gills as hard as I could and it let go."
Despite this lucky escape, Ms Taylor has devoted her life to conservation. ...
Conservationists are calling for compassion to be shown towards great white sharks after an Australian diver was attacked in waters south of Sydney and survived.
...
Eric Nerhus said being half-swallowed by a great white shark earlier this week was like being trapped in a "dark cave".
Veteran Australian wildlife film-maker Valerie Taylor knows what it's like to be at the mercy of a giant shark after surviving an attack off the coast of California.
"I just felt a gentle bump and I looked down and my leg was in quite a large shark's mouth - that was a startling sight," she told BBC News.
"It moved its head once and its teeth went into my leg. I knew that if it did it again I would lose my leg and I just punched it in the gills as hard as I could and it let go."
Despite this lucky escape, Ms Taylor has devoted her life to conservation. ...
Labels: animals, compassionate people, karma
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Pig farmer admitted killing 49 women, say prosecutors - Times of London
A Canadian pig farmer on trial for killing dozens of women and feeding them to his animals told police that he was planning one final murder to bring his tally to an “even 50”, the prosecutor said.
...
Prosecutors said that he lured the women — mostly prostitutes and drug addicts from Vancouver’s red-light district — to his family’s 17-acre pig farm, nicknamed the Piggy Palace, where he threw wild parties.
[The details are gory so I haven't included them here.]
***
Related article: Jury braces itself for a horror tale of missing women and a pig farm - Times of London
... The Downtown Eastside [in Vancouver, where many of the victims were from] is the poorest postcode in Canada, where life expectancy is less than 40. Its seedy bars and dank doorways shelter the huddled forms of vagrants and junkies, creating a filthy foreground to the gleaming skyscrapers less than a mile up the road. It has the highest rate of HIV infection in North America and is the only place in the developed world where infected women outnumber men. Social workers called the prostitutes here “survival sex workers”. They are selling themselves merely to stay alive. ...
A Canadian pig farmer on trial for killing dozens of women and feeding them to his animals told police that he was planning one final murder to bring his tally to an “even 50”, the prosecutor said.
...
Prosecutors said that he lured the women — mostly prostitutes and drug addicts from Vancouver’s red-light district — to his family’s 17-acre pig farm, nicknamed the Piggy Palace, where he threw wild parties.
[The details are gory so I haven't included them here.]
***
Related article: Jury braces itself for a horror tale of missing women and a pig farm - Times of London
... The Downtown Eastside [in Vancouver, where many of the victims were from] is the poorest postcode in Canada, where life expectancy is less than 40. Its seedy bars and dank doorways shelter the huddled forms of vagrants and junkies, creating a filthy foreground to the gleaming skyscrapers less than a mile up the road. It has the highest rate of HIV infection in North America and is the only place in the developed world where infected women outnumber men. Social workers called the prostitutes here “survival sex workers”. They are selling themselves merely to stay alive. ...
Monday, January 22, 2007
Despite his grief, a Palestinian calls for peace - International Herald Tribune
Even as Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, mourns his 10- year-old daughter, killed last week during a clash between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and the Israeli police, he says he wants to talk to Israelis about making peace.
It has been a long journey for Aramin, 38, a former fighter. He spent seven years in Israeli jails, from 1986 to 1993, for weapons possession and belonging to the Fatah movement, which was then banned.
But his views gradually changed, and for the past two years, he has been an active member of Combatants for Peace, a group of former Palestinian militants and former Israeli soldiers who have teamed up to urge reconciliation to both sides.
...
"I want to keep talking to Israelis so they can understand what happened to my daughter."
His daughter, Abir, was in an upbeat mood last Tuesday after completing a math exam at the Anata Girls School. She walked out the front gate and crossed the dusty street, where she bought a small gift for her mother, Salwa, who had helped her study.
As Abir emerged from the store, a clash was erupting between stone- throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli border police. A moment later, Abir was hit in the back of the head, a blow that threw her headlong into the street, according to her sister, Areen, 12, who was with her. After three days in Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital, Abir died without regaining consciousness. ...
Even as Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, mourns his 10- year-old daughter, killed last week during a clash between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and the Israeli police, he says he wants to talk to Israelis about making peace.
It has been a long journey for Aramin, 38, a former fighter. He spent seven years in Israeli jails, from 1986 to 1993, for weapons possession and belonging to the Fatah movement, which was then banned.
But his views gradually changed, and for the past two years, he has been an active member of Combatants for Peace, a group of former Palestinian militants and former Israeli soldiers who have teamed up to urge reconciliation to both sides.
...
"I want to keep talking to Israelis so they can understand what happened to my daughter."
His daughter, Abir, was in an upbeat mood last Tuesday after completing a math exam at the Anata Girls School. She walked out the front gate and crossed the dusty street, where she bought a small gift for her mother, Salwa, who had helped her study.
As Abir emerged from the store, a clash was erupting between stone- throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli border police. A moment later, Abir was hit in the back of the head, a blow that threw her headlong into the street, according to her sister, Areen, 12, who was with her. After three days in Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital, Abir died without regaining consciousness. ...
Friday, January 19, 2007
The Power of Hope - Time magazine
David's head was literally stuffed with lung cancer. I was called in to take care of his hip and pelvic bones broken by the growing metastases. His seeming nonchalance about the pain and the surgery was clearly out of concern for his beautiful, young family--his wife Carol, a nurse, and his three kids, who were there every night. He couldn't keep up the carefree charade over the next two weeks, though, as his speech slurred, then became incoherent. He stopped speaking, then moving.
... Gone with that machine seemed David as well. No expression, no response to anything we did to him. As far as I could tell, he was just not there.
...
"He woke up, you know, doctor--just after you left--and said goodbye to them all. Like I'm talkin' to you right here. Like a miracle. He talked to them and patted them and smiled for about five minutes. Then he went out again, and he passed in the hour."
...
But many think the mind is only in there--existing somehow in the physical relationship of the brain's physical elements. The physical, say these materialists, is all there is. I fix bones with hardware. As physical as this might be, I cannot be a materialist. I cannot ignore the internal evidence of my own mind. It would be hypocritical. And worse, it would be cowardly to ignore those occasional appearances of the spirits of others--of minds uncloaked, in naked virtue, like David's goodbye.
David's head was literally stuffed with lung cancer. I was called in to take care of his hip and pelvic bones broken by the growing metastases. His seeming nonchalance about the pain and the surgery was clearly out of concern for his beautiful, young family--his wife Carol, a nurse, and his three kids, who were there every night. He couldn't keep up the carefree charade over the next two weeks, though, as his speech slurred, then became incoherent. He stopped speaking, then moving.
... Gone with that machine seemed David as well. No expression, no response to anything we did to him. As far as I could tell, he was just not there.
...
"He woke up, you know, doctor--just after you left--and said goodbye to them all. Like I'm talkin' to you right here. Like a miracle. He talked to them and patted them and smiled for about five minutes. Then he went out again, and he passed in the hour."
...
But many think the mind is only in there--existing somehow in the physical relationship of the brain's physical elements. The physical, say these materialists, is all there is. I fix bones with hardware. As physical as this might be, I cannot be a materialist. I cannot ignore the internal evidence of my own mind. It would be hypocritical. And worse, it would be cowardly to ignore those occasional appearances of the spirits of others--of minds uncloaked, in naked virtue, like David's goodbye.
Labels: understanding the mind
How The Brain Rewires Itself - Time magazine
... "Mental practice resulted in a similar reorganization" of the brain, Pascual-Leone later wrote. If his results hold for other forms of movement (and there is no reason to think they don't), then mentally practicing a golf swing or a forward pass or a swimming turn could lead to mastery with less physical practice. Even more profound, the discovery showed that mental training had the power to change the physical structure of the brain. ...
... "Mental practice resulted in a similar reorganization" of the brain, Pascual-Leone later wrote. If his results hold for other forms of movement (and there is no reason to think they don't), then mentally practicing a golf swing or a forward pass or a swimming turn could lead to mastery with less physical practice. Even more profound, the discovery showed that mental training had the power to change the physical structure of the brain. ...
Labels: understanding the mind
Time Travel in the Brain - Time magazine
What are you doing when you aren't doing anything at all? If you said "nothing," then you have just passed a test in logic and flunked a test in neuroscience. When people perform mental tasks--adding numbers, comparing shapes, identifying faces--different areas of their brains become active, and brain scans show these active areas as brightly colored squares on an otherwise dull gray background. But researchers have recently discovered that when these areas of our brains light up, other areas go dark. This dark network (which comprises regions in the frontal, parietal and medial temporal lobes) is off when we seem to be on, and on when we seem to be off. If you climbed into an MRI machine and lay there quietly, waiting for instructions from a technician, the dark network would be as active as a beehive. But the moment your instructions arrived and your task began, the bees would freeze and the network would fall silent. When we appear to be doing nothing, we are clearly doing something. But what? ...
What are you doing when you aren't doing anything at all? If you said "nothing," then you have just passed a test in logic and flunked a test in neuroscience. When people perform mental tasks--adding numbers, comparing shapes, identifying faces--different areas of their brains become active, and brain scans show these active areas as brightly colored squares on an otherwise dull gray background. But researchers have recently discovered that when these areas of our brains light up, other areas go dark. This dark network (which comprises regions in the frontal, parietal and medial temporal lobes) is off when we seem to be on, and on when we seem to be off. If you climbed into an MRI machine and lay there quietly, waiting for instructions from a technician, the dark network would be as active as a beehive. But the moment your instructions arrived and your task began, the bees would freeze and the network would fall silent. When we appear to be doing nothing, we are clearly doing something. But what? ...
Labels: understanding the mind
6 Lessons for Handling Stress - Time magazine
Take a deep breath. Now exhale slowly. You're probably not aware of it, but your heart has just slowed down a bit. Not to worry; it will speed up again when you inhale. This regular-irregular beat is a sign of a healthy interaction between heart and head. Each time you exhale, your brain sends a signal down the vagus nerve to slow the cardiac muscle. With each inhale, the signal gets weaker and your heart revs up. Inhale, beat faster. Exhale, beat slower. It's an ancient rhythm that helps your heart last a lifetime. And it leads to lesson No. 1 in how to manage stress and avoid burnout. ...
Take a deep breath. Now exhale slowly. You're probably not aware of it, but your heart has just slowed down a bit. Not to worry; it will speed up again when you inhale. This regular-irregular beat is a sign of a healthy interaction between heart and head. Each time you exhale, your brain sends a signal down the vagus nerve to slow the cardiac muscle. With each inhale, the signal gets weaker and your heart revs up. Inhale, beat faster. Exhale, beat slower. It's an ancient rhythm that helps your heart last a lifetime. And it leads to lesson No. 1 in how to manage stress and avoid burnout. ...
Labels: understanding the mind
Mystery of Consciousness - Time magazine
The young women had survived the car crash, after a fashion. In the five months since parts of her brain had been crushed, she could open her eyes but didn't respond to sights, sounds or jabs. In the jargon of neurology, she was judged to be in a persistent vegetative state. In crueler everyday language, she was a vegetable.
So picture the astonishment of British and Belgian scientists as they scanned her brain using a kind of MRI that detects blood flow to active parts of the brain. When they recited sentences, the parts involved in language lit up. When they asked her to imagine visiting the rooms of her house, the parts involved in navigating space and recognizing places ramped up. And when they asked her to imagine playing tennis, the regions that trigger motion joined in. Indeed, her scans were barely different from those of healthy volunteers. The woman, it appears, had glimmerings of consciousness. ...
The young women had survived the car crash, after a fashion. In the five months since parts of her brain had been crushed, she could open her eyes but didn't respond to sights, sounds or jabs. In the jargon of neurology, she was judged to be in a persistent vegetative state. In crueler everyday language, she was a vegetable.
So picture the astonishment of British and Belgian scientists as they scanned her brain using a kind of MRI that detects blood flow to active parts of the brain. When they recited sentences, the parts involved in language lit up. When they asked her to imagine visiting the rooms of her house, the parts involved in navigating space and recognizing places ramped up. And when they asked her to imagine playing tennis, the regions that trigger motion joined in. Indeed, her scans were barely different from those of healthy volunteers. The woman, it appears, had glimmerings of consciousness. ...
Labels: understanding the mind
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
A Man Down, a Train Arriving, and a Stranger Makes a Choice - N.Y. Times
... Nearby, a man collapsed, his body convulsing. [Mr. Hollopeter] stumbled to the platform edge and fell to the tracks, between the two rails.
The headlights of the No. 1 train appeared. “I had to make a split decision,” Mr. Autrey said.
So he made one, and leapt.
Mr. Autrey lay on Mr. Hollopeter, his heart pounding, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep. The train’s brakes screeched, but it could not stop in time.
Five cars rolled overhead before the train stopped, the cars passing inches from his head, smudging his blue knit cap with grease. Mr. Autrey heard onlookers’ screams. “We’re O.K. down here,” he yelled, “but I’ve got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s O.K.” He heard cries of wonder, and applause. ...
“I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Mr. Autrey said. “I did what I felt was right.”
... Nearby, a man collapsed, his body convulsing. [Mr. Hollopeter] stumbled to the platform edge and fell to the tracks, between the two rails.
The headlights of the No. 1 train appeared. “I had to make a split decision,” Mr. Autrey said.
So he made one, and leapt.
Mr. Autrey lay on Mr. Hollopeter, his heart pounding, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep. The train’s brakes screeched, but it could not stop in time.
Five cars rolled overhead before the train stopped, the cars passing inches from his head, smudging his blue knit cap with grease. Mr. Autrey heard onlookers’ screams. “We’re O.K. down here,” he yelled, “but I’ve got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s O.K.” He heard cries of wonder, and applause. ...
“I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Mr. Autrey said. “I did what I felt was right.”
Labels: compassionate people
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