The Only New Year’s Resolution that Worked
January 19, 2012 by admin · View Comments
To Touch You More
My New Year’s resolution made over a decade ago was to touch people more. To break that social wall that keeps our hands and bodies a safe distance from one other. To connect more physically.
I’m speaking of the non-sexual variety of contact. We all know when someone is touching us with sexual undertones. That may or may not be welcome. I wanted to offer the kind of touch that wouldn’t be misconstrued.
This was not easy at first. Not because people weren’t receptive; they were. People generally love touch. They bask in it. They appreciate it on a cellular level.
It was a challenge because I wasn’t sure how to do it. My German family is not the touchy-feely sort. Stiff, awkward hugs. Overly firm pats on the back. Touching others freely hadn’t been habituated into me, so it took some training.
But soon, my hands and body reached out to anyone in my world, whether it was via handholding or a quick massage or a touch on the cheek or a full-body hug or a head on a shoulder. Or I’d simply stand closer to people, trying not to invade, but simply enter, their space. I even began kissing some of my closest friends on the lips, which is incredibly sweet and rewarding.
How did people react? Shoulders would drop, breathing would deepen, gentle smiles would appear - people relaxed almost instantly. We so desperately crave human contact, but often aren’t even aware how hungry we are for it. And giving touch is akin to receiving it. I feel touched as well. Cosmic win/win.
Last month, while taking a bus from the Jersey shore to New York City, an older, fragile Indian man sitting across the aisle from me suddenly handed me his cellphone. I accepted it, confused and slightly nervous.
“Um…hello?”
“Hello, my uncle may be having a heart attack. He needs help. He doesn’t speak any English.”
I looked over at the older gentleman and he was grasping his chest and moaning. I went to the bus driver and explained what was happening. As I returned to my seat, the man had fallen to the floor, in the aisle.
The bus pulled over. Emergency help was contacted. Several passengers made suggestions but few had any medical training, myself included. So I resorted to my New Year’s resolution. I placed both of my hands gently on his face and began whispering in his ear, “Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.”
I then unbuttoned his shirt and placed my hands on his chest. He was very agitated and his heartbeat was frighteningly rapid, so it took some time, but finally his breathing resumed to somewhat normal. At one point, he opened his eyes to look at me and they were filled with gratitude. No clumsy words needed.
When the police finally arrived, they instructed everyone off of the bus. (Another was waiting to take us to our destination.) I was afraid if my hands left his body, he would become unwell again. The cop didn’t really want to hear my spiritual take on the situation, so I got up to leave.
Almost immediately, the man’s breathing became erratic and his eyes glazed over and looked filmy. I left the bus feeling a sense of peace regardless. Strangely, I could feel his essence on me for quite some time, like an energetic imprint of some sort.
Fortunately, the man was fine. (His relatives left me a lovely message the next day.) But it was then I realized that touching was something beyond “feel good.” We live for it. I live for it.
So that is my first (and only) working New Year’s resolution - one that would change my life on a level beyond words.
Beth
Marcel Gleffe Saves Lives during Norway Massacre
August 9, 2011 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
On Friday, a gunman took the lives of 86 people on Norway’s Utoya Island. It’s an unspeakable tragedy—yet the damage may have been far worse if not for the heroic acts of Marcel Gleffe, a German tourist who was camping on the mainland nearby when the shots began to ring out.
At first, he thought the sounds might have been fireworks—but when he saw the plumes of smoke from the gunfire, he knew that the situation was deadly. Even so, he didn’t hesitate to get involved.
Gleffe raced his motorboat over to the island, where he found a group of people in the water. Some of them had already been shot, and were in serious condition. He threw out life jackets, and helped as many of them as possible climb into his boat to return to the mainland, taking those with the worst injuries first.
Police hadn’t responded yet, so Gleffe was the first rescuer on the scene. He made four or five trips before the police arrived and told him they no longer required assistance.
Gleffe knew that the gunman was still roaming the island when he made his rescue missions, but he was prepared to risk his own life to save as many people as he could. Altogether, he rescued 30 people.
“I just did it on instinct,” he told the Telegraph. “You don’t get scared in a situation like that, you just do what it takes. I know the difference between fireworks and gunfire. I knew what it was about, and that it wasn’t just nonsense.”
Source: Gimundo
Beth
Tech-Savvy Kid Tracks Down his Computer Thief
March 28, 2011 by admin · View Comments
When Mark Bao’s laptop was stolen a few months ago, he took the matter to the police, of course. But the tech-savvy 18-year-old college student also had a few tricks up his sleeve—and ultimately tracked down the thief single-handedly, using nothing but software, social media, and old-fashioned smarts.
Bao, who studies at Bentley University in Massachusetts, returned to his dorm room one day in February to discover that his room had been broken into, and his laptop was gone. There weren’t any obvious clues to who the culprit was. However, Bao used a service called Backblaze to back-up his computer’s data. The program allows remote access, so that users can log in to see what has been recently saved to the computer. As it so happened, the thief had snapped a picture of himself on Photo Booth—and, obviously not one to shy away from the spotlight, he’d even recorded a video of himself dancing.
Bao sent out the video to his friends, and likely could have made a positive identification through his contacts, but it turned out, he didn’t need to wait: The software program also allowed him to see the computer’s recent history, which included the thief’s Facebook page. From there, Bao was able to see his name and contact details. As it turned out, they even had mutual friends.
Bao gave all of the evidence he’d collected to the police, and let them handle the matter. The thief returned the laptop the following day, and sent Bao a Facebook message saying how sorry he was.
Bao has since bought a new laptop, so he plans to sell his old one and donate the proceeds to a fund for relief in Japan. And he’s not angry at the thief.
“I don’t hold grudges because I don’t have time nor patience to,” he told the Daily Mail. “There are more important things in life.”
Smart Tech Savvy Dude!
Beth
7 New Bizarre & Amazing Animal News Stories
August 16, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Steph in Animals & Habitats, History & Trivia, Nature & Ecosystems, News & Politics. ]
It’s hard not to be totally captivated by the animal kingdom even when they’re just up to their normal activities. But when animals interact with the human world in unexpected ways, they have our full attention – whether by crashing a car in search of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, giving us clues to ancient history or even helping us evolve.
Sandwich-Seeking Bear Crashes Car
The Story family of Colorado got the surprise of their lives in July when the police called at 3:30am to inform them that a bear had taken their teenage son’s car on a joyride down the street before crashing it into some trees, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and proceeding to completely destroy the interior.
“So this bear opened the door on his own. Somehow the door closed behind him. He panicked and started thrashing around, hit the shifter and put the car, took it out of park,” Ralph Story told The Denver Channel. “It rolled back, down over the hill, and down into here, and stopped. The four way flashers were on. It’s like he knew what was going on, and kept hitting the horn.”
Sheriff’s deputies had to tie a rope around the car door handle and open it from afar. Eventually, the bear came out on its own and wandered off into the woods.
Oil Spill Turtles Get Disney Vacation
(image via: usfws/southeast)
For turtles, this year’s voyage to the Gulf of Mexico has been less than successful, with massive amounts of oil making it difficult to survive, let alone procreate. But 32 of the turtles rescued from the Gulf area are getting a treat that is decidedly rare among their kind: a trip to Disney World. Disney’s Animal Kingdom has taken in the turtles to treat and care for them while the spill is cleaned up.
“We actually swim test them, we will look at their general condition, we take body weights, and from there we will actually start a regiment to get them back into healthy condition to be released back into the wild,” Andy Daneault told WDBO Local News.
The turtles, which experienced ill health effects from the spill including abrasions and irritation, will be released back into the Gulf once the spill area is declared fully safe for wildlife.
Beer Bottled in Dead Animals
(image via: msnbc)
Some beer lovers will dish out a lot of dough for a bottle of high-gravity brew – but what makes BrewDog’s bottles clock in at $765 per bottle? Well, taxidermied squirrels and weasels don’t come cheap. The Scottish brewery has bottled its “The End of History” ale in the preserved carcasses of roadkill.
“We were making such a tiny amount that we wanted to do something epic,” BrewDog co-founder James Watt told msnbc.com. “We wanted to challenge people’s perceptions about how beer can be packaged; taxidermy helps open people’s eyes to the fact that beer doesn’t have to be made by a multi-national organization.”
Of course, animal activists aren’t thrilled about the decision, with some calling the packaging “terribly degrading” for the animals.
But bizarre and perhaps vomit-inducing packaging aside, the beer is special too – it’s 55% alcohol, with hints of cinnamon and juniper and the slightest tinge of musty fur.
Cat-Like Crocodile Hunted Dragonflies
(image via: the telegraph)
A newly-discovered ancient reptile seems to have more in common with today’s domesticated cats than with its own descendents, according to scientists studying remains of the “Paksuchus”. A precursor of crocodiles, this bizarre creature lived on land and had mammal-like teeth and a small, short skull.
“At first glance, this croc is trying very hard to be a mammal. Its head would fit in the palm of your hand,” Patrick O’Connor told The Telegraph.
“If you only looked at the teeth, you wouldn’t think this was a crocodile. You would wonder what kind of strange mammal or mammal-like reptile it is. This gives us a number of interesting evolutionary-developmental research questions to begin addressing using living crocodiles as models.”
Giant Jellyfish Attacks 150 People
How can one jellyfish sting 150 people almost simultaneously? By dying and decomposing into hundreds of tiny pieces. That’s exactly what happened in July at New Hampshire’s Wallis Sands State Park. So many people reported itching and burning that the fire department had to call in backup from five other nearby departments to pick up all the sticky, gelatinous pieces with pitchforks.
The responsible party was a lion’s mane jellyfish, known as one of the largest jellyfish in the world. With bodies that reach 3 feet across and 150 tentacles that can each be as long as 32 feet, this billowy creature wouldn’t have too much trouble harming a lot of people. This species was far outside its usual range in the cooler areas of the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea and North Sea.
“In terms of a large lion’s mane being able to sting so many people, I know from smaller ones say ones that are only 6 inches [15 centimeters] in diameter, those little ones the might have tentacles that are trailing 5 or 10 feet [1.5 to 3 meters] behind them. So if you’ve got one much larger than that you can imagine how long the tentacles could be trailing,” marine biologist Sean Colin told MSNBC.
Dogs, Cats & Cows Helped Humans Evolve
(image via: wikimedia commons)
It may not be too surprising to learn that early humans experienced a huge uptick in intelligence after our formerly vegetarian species began eating brain-enriching meat. But it’s the way in which we managed that – and the role that domesticated animals played – that is truly incredible. Paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman of Penn State University believes that taking in animals and giving them work to do made humans more adept at hunting prey for food.
“On the face of it, you are wasting your resources. So this is a very weird behavior,” Shipman told Discovery News.
But, Shipman says, managing all these animals forced humans to develop tools and technology that spurred growth in other areas as well – like compassion. Humans that were caring enough to keep dogs healthy might have prospered more than others, and passed this compassion down to their offspring.
Rodent Poop the Key to Discovering Ancient Climates
(image via: greencolander)
How much rain did Chile’s Atacama Desert get thousands of years ago? We might never have known, if it weren’t for big pits full of fossilized rodent feces. Paleoecologists at Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago believe they can tell just by the size of these poop pellets whether a particular period of history experienced lush rainfall or parched drought.
Ancient rodent latrines – made up of lots of these pellets, cemented together with crystallized urine – provide a trove of data, not just about the animals that excreted the waste, but about the climate of the region. The scientists studied chinchilla waste pits; radio carbon dating provided an approximate age. Other known gauges of approximate rainfall were used to back up the results.
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Sing, it’s Friday!
July 30, 2010 by admin · View Comments
When was the last time you sang? Maybe it was this morning in the shower. Or maybe it was in 9th grade choir, 15 years ago. Singing is therapeutic. It has an emotional purging quality and improves your overall breathing. Not only that, but it makes your speaking voice sound better, more resonant.
So stop reading this blog and go find a song and sing for 5 minutes. It’s an order. I’ll do the same. This is what I’ll be singing:
Voices inside my Head - The Police
Beth
