Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Studies Report Inducing Out-of-Body Experience - N.Y. Times
... The research reveals that “the sense of having a body, of being in a bodily self,” is actually constructed from multiple sensory streams, said one expert on body and mind, Dr. Matthew M. Botvinick, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Princeton University.
Usually these sensory streams, which include vision, touch, balance and the sense of where one’s body is positioned in space, work together seamlessly, Dr. Botvinick said. But when the information coming from the sensory sources does not match up, the sense of being embodied as a whole comes apart. ...
... The research reveals that “the sense of having a body, of being in a bodily self,” is actually constructed from multiple sensory streams, said one expert on body and mind, Dr. Matthew M. Botvinick, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Princeton University.
Usually these sensory streams, which include vision, touch, balance and the sense of where one’s body is positioned in space, work together seamlessly, Dr. Botvinick said. But when the information coming from the sensory sources does not match up, the sense of being embodied as a whole comes apart. ...
Labels: understanding the mind
Buried brothers survive on urine, coal and humour - Times (U.K.)
Two brothers who were trapped underground survived for six days by eating coal, drinking each others’ urine and cracking jokes about their wives before digging their way out of a collapsed mine shaft with their bare hands. Rescuers had called off their search and families had burned ghost money at the entrance to the pit and left offerings of steamed buns, cakes and canned food to assist the “deceased” miners in the afterlife. But Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou emerged after more than 130 hours trapped in the illegal mine in the Fangshan district of Beijing displaying the humour that helped to keep them alive.
...
They dug through half a metre in three hours, taking turns to work because the tunnel was so narrow. “At the end, we were so hungry we ate coal and thought it tasted delicious,” Meng Xianchen said.
...
China’s coalmines claim more lives than pits anywhere else in the world, with an average of 13 deaths a day from fires, explosions and floods. News of the brothers’ escape came as rescuers in Shandong province tried to reach 181 miners trapped in two flooded mine shafts. They have been missing underground for 11 days.
Two brothers who were trapped underground survived for six days by eating coal, drinking each others’ urine and cracking jokes about their wives before digging their way out of a collapsed mine shaft with their bare hands. Rescuers had called off their search and families had burned ghost money at the entrance to the pit and left offerings of steamed buns, cakes and canned food to assist the “deceased” miners in the afterlife. But Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou emerged after more than 130 hours trapped in the illegal mine in the Fangshan district of Beijing displaying the humour that helped to keep them alive.
...
They dug through half a metre in three hours, taking turns to work because the tunnel was so narrow. “At the end, we were so hungry we ate coal and thought it tasted delicious,” Meng Xianchen said.
...
China’s coalmines claim more lives than pits anywhere else in the world, with an average of 13 deaths a day from fires, explosions and floods. News of the brothers’ escape came as rescuers in Shandong province tried to reach 181 miners trapped in two flooded mine shafts. They have been missing underground for 11 days.
Labels: suffering
Sunday, August 26, 2007
A prayer for Gloria "We're not out of the water" - Seattle Times
The 11-year-old moves in ways she could not three weeks ago. She can walk, sometimes gingerly, but she can walk. She can roll over on her swollen body. She has more energy. More life.
"I think we finally got her medicine caught up to her cancer," a hospice nurse tells Gloria's father, Doug Strauss.
"No," Doug retorts.
He prefers a divine explanation.
...
The Strausses understand pain more than most. Examine their family tree, and illness, especially cancer, hangs on both sides. They do not believe these are random acts of misfortune. This is God's plan, they say.
...
"When we're suffering, it's God kissing us," Doug says. "But sometimes we wish God would stop kissing us."
For four years, Gloria has fought neuroblastoma, an unrelenting childhood cancer. Her condition worsened in late April. She is dying, and with doctors unable to discover an elixir, the Strauss family has chosen to abandon cancer treatment and lean on God for a healing miracle.
...
Daughter is up, and Mom is down. Just the way Kristen prefers it. Throughout Gloria's struggles, her mother has offered up her woes to God. If she could, she would happily negotiate a trade.
Kristen's multiple sclerosis for Gloria's cancer.
Kristen learned six years ago she had MS, a chronic and progressive disease that turns the body's central nervous system against itself. For the past five years, however, she has relegated it to a footnote.
...
After surgery, chemo and radiation, Grandma was healthy again. It was not that hard, she says. Gloria's cancer is "10 times worse."
When Grandma is around, Gloria falls asleep in her lap. Grandma knows just the right touch for Gloria's aching legs. Gloria is unafraid to be vulnerable around Grandma.
"I actually feel I got cancer so I could help Gloria through her cancer," [Grandma says.]
---
[See the sidebar for more stories about Gloria and her family.]
The 11-year-old moves in ways she could not three weeks ago. She can walk, sometimes gingerly, but she can walk. She can roll over on her swollen body. She has more energy. More life.
"I think we finally got her medicine caught up to her cancer," a hospice nurse tells Gloria's father, Doug Strauss.
"No," Doug retorts.
He prefers a divine explanation.
...
The Strausses understand pain more than most. Examine their family tree, and illness, especially cancer, hangs on both sides. They do not believe these are random acts of misfortune. This is God's plan, they say.
...
"When we're suffering, it's God kissing us," Doug says. "But sometimes we wish God would stop kissing us."
For four years, Gloria has fought neuroblastoma, an unrelenting childhood cancer. Her condition worsened in late April. She is dying, and with doctors unable to discover an elixir, the Strauss family has chosen to abandon cancer treatment and lean on God for a healing miracle.
...
Daughter is up, and Mom is down. Just the way Kristen prefers it. Throughout Gloria's struggles, her mother has offered up her woes to God. If she could, she would happily negotiate a trade.
Kristen's multiple sclerosis for Gloria's cancer.
Kristen learned six years ago she had MS, a chronic and progressive disease that turns the body's central nervous system against itself. For the past five years, however, she has relegated it to a footnote.
...
After surgery, chemo and radiation, Grandma was healthy again. It was not that hard, she says. Gloria's cancer is "10 times worse."
When Grandma is around, Gloria falls asleep in her lap. Grandma knows just the right touch for Gloria's aching legs. Gloria is unafraid to be vulnerable around Grandma.
"I actually feel I got cancer so I could help Gloria through her cancer," [Grandma says.]
---
[See the sidebar for more stories about Gloria and her family.]
When a Kid Becomes the Caregiver - Washington Post
Like Thousands of Teens, Va. Student Looks After a Chronically Ill Relative
... Castillo, 18, is one of many teenagers across the country who are caregivers for ill or disabled relatives -- a little-known group that labors under unusual stress and with few resources. Her mother has multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disease that has left the 40-year-old in a wheelchair, unable to work, make dinner or shower without help. For the past year and a half, Castillo has bathed her, prepared her meals, emptied her catheter bag and given her two dozen kinds of medication. She helps take care of Anthony, too, getting him off to school and reminding him to take out the trash.
So when Castillo was accepted to her top-choice university, she decided she would not go alone. "I can't totally abandon my mom," she said. "She needs me." While others from the Class of 2007 at Sterling's Dominion High School were packing a few suitcases to go to college, Castillo boxed up the contents of her Middleburg home and moved the whole family. Her mother's hospital bed and medicine chest, Anthony's tennis racket and video games, her collection of karate trophies and baby pictures all were moved to Greensboro. ...
Like Thousands of Teens, Va. Student Looks After a Chronically Ill Relative
... Castillo, 18, is one of many teenagers across the country who are caregivers for ill or disabled relatives -- a little-known group that labors under unusual stress and with few resources. Her mother has multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disease that has left the 40-year-old in a wheelchair, unable to work, make dinner or shower without help. For the past year and a half, Castillo has bathed her, prepared her meals, emptied her catheter bag and given her two dozen kinds of medication. She helps take care of Anthony, too, getting him off to school and reminding him to take out the trash.
So when Castillo was accepted to her top-choice university, she decided she would not go alone. "I can't totally abandon my mom," she said. "She needs me." While others from the Class of 2007 at Sterling's Dominion High School were packing a few suitcases to go to college, Castillo boxed up the contents of her Middleburg home and moved the whole family. Her mother's hospital bed and medicine chest, Anthony's tennis racket and video games, her collection of karate trophies and baby pictures all were moved to Greensboro. ...
For Mother Teresa, a Profound Darkness - A.P.
Mother Teresa's hidden faith struggle, laid bare in a new book that shows she felt alone and separated from God, is forcing a re-examination of one of the world's best known religious figures.
The depth of her doubts could be viewed by nonbelievers and skeptics as more evidence of the emptiness of religious belief. But Roman Catholic scholars and supporters of the woman who toiled in Calcutta's slums and called herself "a pencil in God's hand" argue that her struggles make her more accessible and her work all the more remarkable.
...
"She had an expression ... 'Give God permission to use you without consulting you,'" said Jeanette Petrie, who co-produced two films about Mother Teresa and traveled extensively with her. "I think she must have truly lived that."
...
The Rev. James Martin [said,] "Most of us tend to think of the saints as being in constant union with God, therefore everything they do is easier for them because of this union. This shows that not only do they have it as tough as we do, but sometimes they have it tougher," he said. ...
Mother Teresa's hidden faith struggle, laid bare in a new book that shows she felt alone and separated from God, is forcing a re-examination of one of the world's best known religious figures.
The depth of her doubts could be viewed by nonbelievers and skeptics as more evidence of the emptiness of religious belief. But Roman Catholic scholars and supporters of the woman who toiled in Calcutta's slums and called herself "a pencil in God's hand" argue that her struggles make her more accessible and her work all the more remarkable.
...
"She had an expression ... 'Give God permission to use you without consulting you,'" said Jeanette Petrie, who co-produced two films about Mother Teresa and traveled extensively with her. "I think she must have truly lived that."
...
The Rev. James Martin [said,] "Most of us tend to think of the saints as being in constant union with God, therefore everything they do is easier for them because of this union. This shows that not only do they have it as tough as we do, but sometimes they have it tougher," he said. ...
Labels: faith
Faces of the storm: how New Orleans is coping 2 years on - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
... New Orleans police officer David Hunter hung up his badge in April after 28 years, the last 20 months spent attempting to help people who were hurt and stranded by Hurricane Katrina.
Hunter also was trying to replace his home. His wife and newborn daughter became seriously ill. And he banged up his personal boat when someone shot at him while he was plucking victims from the flooding.
It got worse:
An insurance company denied Hunter's claim after learning he had damaged his party barge while using it for police work — to help people — rather than to party on.
...
It has been a rough two years for Ricky Scales and his family, ever since Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters sent them on a long journey of frustration, fright, uncertainty and joblessness.
Their troubles began even as they tried to escape the black water spilling from New Orleans' broken levees, when Ricky, wife Tamika and 10-year-old Alfrenisha were separated from the family's four other children. The parents and daughter landed on the crest of a downtown bridge as they tried to make their way to shelter in the Superdome.
As they continued on, Ricky waded into water over his head. When he re-emerged, Tamika and Alfrenisha had disappeared.
...
For nearly a month after the storm, Ricky did not know whether his wife, three children and two stepchildren had survived. He was evacuated to a military-training base in Oklahoma, while Tamika and the five children landed in a Dallas jail, which had been turned into an evacuee center.
...
When Katrina floodwaters overcame his home, swamped his neighborhood and carried away his new Lincoln, Johnnie Montgomery, then 82, decided to take a stroll in the chest-deep water, tethered to his grandchild's air-filled ball.
"It was hot, and I was trying to stay cool," said Montgomery, an old-fashioned preacher, retired longshoreman and World War II veteran.
Montgomery still is keeping his cool, in a city still reeling with despair, with a determination to overcome his losses by keeping his faith. ...
... New Orleans police officer David Hunter hung up his badge in April after 28 years, the last 20 months spent attempting to help people who were hurt and stranded by Hurricane Katrina.
Hunter also was trying to replace his home. His wife and newborn daughter became seriously ill. And he banged up his personal boat when someone shot at him while he was plucking victims from the flooding.
It got worse:
An insurance company denied Hunter's claim after learning he had damaged his party barge while using it for police work — to help people — rather than to party on.
...
It has been a rough two years for Ricky Scales and his family, ever since Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters sent them on a long journey of frustration, fright, uncertainty and joblessness.
Their troubles began even as they tried to escape the black water spilling from New Orleans' broken levees, when Ricky, wife Tamika and 10-year-old Alfrenisha were separated from the family's four other children. The parents and daughter landed on the crest of a downtown bridge as they tried to make their way to shelter in the Superdome.
As they continued on, Ricky waded into water over his head. When he re-emerged, Tamika and Alfrenisha had disappeared.
...
For nearly a month after the storm, Ricky did not know whether his wife, three children and two stepchildren had survived. He was evacuated to a military-training base in Oklahoma, while Tamika and the five children landed in a Dallas jail, which had been turned into an evacuee center.
...
When Katrina floodwaters overcame his home, swamped his neighborhood and carried away his new Lincoln, Johnnie Montgomery, then 82, decided to take a stroll in the chest-deep water, tethered to his grandchild's air-filled ball.
"It was hot, and I was trying to stay cool," said Montgomery, an old-fashioned preacher, retired longshoreman and World War II veteran.
Montgomery still is keeping his cool, in a city still reeling with despair, with a determination to overcome his losses by keeping his faith. ...
Labels: suffering
Former Uganda child soldier is building a future - A.P.
At 12, Lucy Aol was clutching an assault rifle and preparing to ambush government soldiers. At 13, a rebel commander a decade older made her his wife. At 16, she was a mother.
At 21, fresh-faced and beaming in a clean T-shirt and neatly braided hair, Aol is studying environmental health at college in Uganda's capital, and planning to use her knowledge to improve the health of her war-battered nation.
...
Aol was 12 when she was abducted by a feared Ugandan rebel group, forced to walk hundreds of miles to a base in neighboring southern Sudan and taught to use a gun.
"We were used like slaves," Aol said, staring at the wall of the cramped student dormitory at Kampala's Mulago Medical College. "We used to work in the fields or collect firewood from 7 in the morning until 5 in the evening and we were given no food. If you made a mistake or refused, they would beat us ... the three girls who were taken from my village with me were beaten to death."
...
Children are easily manipulated and can be groomed to obey instructions unquestioningly. Child-protection workers cite numerous tactics used by ruthless commanders to coerce their young captives into obedience. For example, in Sierra Leone, child soldiers were given a cocktail of gunpowder and cocaine before battle. ... [They] tell of oil being smeared on young fighters to make them believe they are bulletproof.
...
At 13 Aol was made the third wife of an LRA commander. She says she suffered "sexual abuse" and was regularly beaten by her older cowives. ...
At 12, Lucy Aol was clutching an assault rifle and preparing to ambush government soldiers. At 13, a rebel commander a decade older made her his wife. At 16, she was a mother.
At 21, fresh-faced and beaming in a clean T-shirt and neatly braided hair, Aol is studying environmental health at college in Uganda's capital, and planning to use her knowledge to improve the health of her war-battered nation.
...
Aol was 12 when she was abducted by a feared Ugandan rebel group, forced to walk hundreds of miles to a base in neighboring southern Sudan and taught to use a gun.
"We were used like slaves," Aol said, staring at the wall of the cramped student dormitory at Kampala's Mulago Medical College. "We used to work in the fields or collect firewood from 7 in the morning until 5 in the evening and we were given no food. If you made a mistake or refused, they would beat us ... the three girls who were taken from my village with me were beaten to death."
...
Children are easily manipulated and can be groomed to obey instructions unquestioningly. Child-protection workers cite numerous tactics used by ruthless commanders to coerce their young captives into obedience. For example, in Sierra Leone, child soldiers were given a cocktail of gunpowder and cocaine before battle. ... [They] tell of oil being smeared on young fighters to make them believe they are bulletproof.
...
At 13 Aol was made the third wife of an LRA commander. She says she suffered "sexual abuse" and was regularly beaten by her older cowives. ...
Labels: war
N.Y. Workers Gain Allies in Protest of Wages, Conditions - Washington Post
The deliverymen of Saigon Grill labored for years at the bottom of Manhattan's food chain. Biking swiftly down the avenues in biting cold and searing heat, they schlepped up high-rises and walk-ups with bags of steaming noodles and shrimp fried rice.
The 30 men -- all immigrants, including undocumented workers frustrated with the poor conditions and low wages that are often a fact of life in America's underground economy -- banded together in an effort to unionize. They demanded an end to what they say were salaries less than half the minimum wage, and to penalties that included $20 fines for late deliveries and $50 for shutting the restaurant's glass doors with a bang.
...
When the restaurant's owner, Simon Nget, an ethnic Chinese Cambodian who had fled the Khmer Rouge and came to New York in the 1980s, discovered their plan, the deliverymen say he offered to increase wages from $1.60 to $4 an hour. But only if they dropped their unionization bid. When they refused, they said, he fired them. ...
The deliverymen of Saigon Grill labored for years at the bottom of Manhattan's food chain. Biking swiftly down the avenues in biting cold and searing heat, they schlepped up high-rises and walk-ups with bags of steaming noodles and shrimp fried rice.
The 30 men -- all immigrants, including undocumented workers frustrated with the poor conditions and low wages that are often a fact of life in America's underground economy -- banded together in an effort to unionize. They demanded an end to what they say were salaries less than half the minimum wage, and to penalties that included $20 fines for late deliveries and $50 for shutting the restaurant's glass doors with a bang.
...
When the restaurant's owner, Simon Nget, an ethnic Chinese Cambodian who had fled the Khmer Rouge and came to New York in the 1980s, discovered their plan, the deliverymen say he offered to increase wages from $1.60 to $4 an hour. But only if they dropped their unionization bid. When they refused, they said, he fired them. ...
Labels: suffering
Students strangle boys for a day off, India police say - A.P.
Three boarding-school students are accused of strangling two young boys in the hope that classes would be suspended after the deaths, police said Saturday.
The students, ages 12 and 13, confessed to strangling an 8-year-old boy and his 5-year-old brother so their school would close down, said S. Sethi, a policeman in the Jalna district, 200 miles east of Mumbai, also known as Bombay.
"When questioned, the boys said they knew this school gave a holiday when a child had died last year and thought they could get another holiday this year," Sethi said.
Sethi said the three dragged their victims' bodies into an unused restroom.
Authorities found the boys' bodies after their 9-year-old sister reported them missing. Sethi said an autopsy confirmed the children were strangled. [end]
Three boarding-school students are accused of strangling two young boys in the hope that classes would be suspended after the deaths, police said Saturday.
The students, ages 12 and 13, confessed to strangling an 8-year-old boy and his 5-year-old brother so their school would close down, said S. Sethi, a policeman in the Jalna district, 200 miles east of Mumbai, also known as Bombay.
"When questioned, the boys said they knew this school gave a holiday when a child had died last year and thought they could get another holiday this year," Sethi said.
Sethi said the three dragged their victims' bodies into an unused restroom.
Authorities found the boys' bodies after their 9-year-old sister reported them missing. Sethi said an autopsy confirmed the children were strangled. [end]
Labels: murder
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