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June 1,
2005
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Newsletter |
Vol. 04 No. 06 Ed. 1 |
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Archive of NDEs in the News
- Read all the major news articles
concerning the NDE and related phenomena
from 1995 to current. This is a
permanent archive to ensure that these
news articles will always be available
on the internet. The Near-Death News
section of this Near-Death Newsletter
will soon be available in syndication so
stay tuned! |
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(June 1, 2005) |
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P.M.H. Gives
Presentation in Istanbul, Turkey:
Read all about her participation in the 1st Annual Parapsychology Conference
which she describes in her Column in this newsletter.
New Book "Beyond the
Indigo Children" Coming Soon:
Contact P.M.H.'s publisher Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT at the link
provided above or phone customer service at 800-246-8648 if you would
like to backorder P.M.H.'s forthcoming book. The estimated publication date is
September 15, 2005. Also, check out her
Beyond the Indigo Children
web page.
Sacred
Journey Cruise Cancelled:
P.M.H. explains: "Our to the Caribbean this
September has been cancelled by VanGuard Tours. Apparently, a certain number of
people had to sign up for this Cruise by June 5th. We did not know this
originally, and proceeded promoting it with the idea that signups could continue
until early September. Although we would love to have done this, and had big
plans for the Cruise, maybe the energy switched and we are needed elsewhere.
Both Terry and I affirm Divine Order in this regard, and are grateful to
VanGuard Tours for giving us this opportunity and to all of you for helping us
promote it! Thank you."
New Talk by PMH
Available:
Any
individual or group may sponsor this talk by P.M.H entitled "Beyond the Indigo
Children". This new talk centers around the New Children, Root Races (the
genetic stock of humankind), and the march of generations. Through the
traditions of prophesy and mystical revelation, social sciences, and the
in-depth research of children's near-death experiences and children in general,
we are able to recognize that what is now emerging throughout the human family
and across our planet, challenges the glitzy promotions of Doomsday Raptures and
the exclusivity of specialness promoted by labels such as indigo, crystal, sky,
or star children. What comes into focus if we look deeper than the glitz is a
picture of ascension energy, what it means and how it affects humankind, along
with a better understanding of root races and generational markers. By using the
neutral term, "new," P.M.H. Atwater examines the full range of characteristics
exhibited by our young people. The new children are powerful and they are
powerfully motivated to change things - if - we can help them defuse and
redirect their anger, a peculiar impatience with anything false, overly
exaggerated, or inauthentic. The new children are not like any other generation
of record. How they differ is nothing short of amazing!
New Online Archive of
Interviews With P.M.H. Atwater:
Listen any time to these interviews with P.M.H. Atwater from internet radio
programs such as The Shirley MacLaine Show, Whitley Strieber's Dreamland
Program, The 'X' Zone Radio Show with Rob McConnell, and many more. Also, check
out her archive of past
internet radio interviews. |
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(June 1, 2005) |
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IANDS
President Jan Holden, Secretary Diane Corcoran, and Board member Debbie James
will deliver a day-long continuing education workshop on NDEs on June 10 in the
San Francisco area ... This year's Association for Transpersonal Psychology
conference focuses on the spiritual dimensions of dying ... Continuing education
will be available for psychologists, LCSWs, MFTs and nurses. June 10-12, 2005,
Grace North Church of Berkeley, CA. Phone: 650-424-8764. [Read
more] |
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(June 1, 2005) |
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If
you have had a near-death experience or other unexplained experience, you are
invited to be in communication with Dr. Bruce Greyson and his team of
researchers. Dr. Greyson would like to correspond with as many NDErs as
possible. The other researchers and their specialties are listed below. When you
respond, please send your name and postal address and/or e-mail address.
Accounts can be sent as well. If not, they will ask for them later. You can read
about the research Dr. Greyson's team is doing on their website (click on the
link provided above). This research includes not only NDEs, but deathbed
visions, and other phenomena that suggest we may survive bodily death. Visit the
website and click on "Types
of Experiences We Study" for an interesting read. Then you can respond by
contacting Dr. Greyson at (cbg4d@virginia.edu)
to report near-death experiences, or Dr. Jim Tucker (jbt8n@virginia.edu)
to report children with memories of previous lives, or Dr. Emily Kelly (ewc2r@virginia.edu)
to report any other experiences, such as apparitions, deathbed visions, and
communications from deceased loves ones. [Read
more] |
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June 10 - 12, 2005:
Association for Transpersonal Psychology Conference, "Spirit in Dying", at
the historic Grace North Church of Berkeley, CA, U.S.A. Includes an IANDS
workshop. |
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June 24 - 27, 2005:
Association
for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) 9th Annual Meeting,
"Problems of Space and Time in Perception and Action". California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, California, U.S.A. |
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July 1 - 3, 2005:
"What The Bleep Do We
Know" Prophets Conference Series, The Benson Hotel, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. |
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July 6 - 11, 2005:
Institute of
Noetic Sciences International Conference, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, 2799
Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A. |
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July 7 - 10, 2005:
The
Scientific & Medical Network Annual Gathering, "Science, Consciousness, and
Healing in the 21st Century, Haus Altenberg, Odenthal-Altenberg, Germany. |
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July 23 - 24, 2005:
"Altered
States: Transformations of Perceptions, Place and Performance", a
Transdisciplinary Conference, Portland Square, University of Plymouth, U.K. |
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Aug. 11 - 15, 2005:
Parapsychological Association 48th Annual Convention, IONS Retreat Center,
101 San Antonio Rd, Petaluma, California, U.S.A. |
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Aug. 12 - 14, 2005:
"What The Bleep Do We
Know" Prophets Conference Series, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC,
Canada. |
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Aug. 17 - 20, 2005:
Toward a
Science of Consciousness Annual Conference, "Methodological and Conceptual
Issues", Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. |
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Aug. 26 - 28, 2005:
"Beyond the
Brain VI: Memory Beyond the Brain" , sponsored by The Scientific and Medical
Network, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK. |
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Sept. 4, 2005:
Society for Psychical
Research 29th International Annual Conference, University of Bath, Bath, UK. |
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Sept. 8 - 10, 2005:
International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) North American
Conference, "Message and Meaning: Using the Near-Death Experience as a Tool
for Living", Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S.A. |
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(June 5, 2005) |
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This weekly column is intended to entertain you by
exposing some of the more glaring scientific and historical anomalies which have
been bypassed by our educational system. “Anomalies” also wants to challenge our
readers to take a fresh look at our changing world and perhaps consider whether
our established belief system is adequate ... What if you were to leave this
dimension, experience the “other side,” and return? How long do you think our
contemporary scientific paradigm would continue to exist if the concepts of
“life after death,” “reincarnation” and an “immortal spirit” were commonly
accepted in our culture? [Read
more] |
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(May 23, 2005) |
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 Ten
years ago, Christian Andreason died as a result of an interaction between
prescription pain pills and dental surgery. "I felt myself being lifted up and
surrounded by this light," he said. In real time, he was only gone for two
minutes, but what he saw felt like it lasted a lifetime. "I was walking through
this garden, looking at all these colorful flowers that are alive, and there's
all this beautiful beyond blue water that is sparkling and tingling and it
sings," Andreason said. He believes the garden was heaven. While there, he said
he was shown his life's review. "All of a sudden, I found myself in a long
hallway of doors," he said. "One was this beautiful gothic-looking wood door and
as I would peer thru the door, I would literally see an existence I was
participating in." [Read
more] |
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(May 23, 2005) |
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"I
was looking down at my body. I was looking down. I saw this man screaming,
yelling, "emergency, emergency!" I was now rolled over, I was half-naked. I had
two huge syringes in my backside, and I was watching from the corner of the
room. And I saw this white light. I had no pain, I had no tension, I just kind
of looked, and then went, "that's very strange. That's me. But that can't be me
if I'm here. And then I realized that I was out of my body and that I was, you
know, going to die ... all of a sudden I just looked, and I went, no, no, I'm
not ready to go away. I want to get back in that body. I have children I want to
raise. And there's so much I want to do, I want to give back, I want to do so
much in the world, and I'm just -- I'm not ready to go." [Read
more] |
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(May 24, 2005) |
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Arjun died at age 5. The gist of his story: At six
o'clock on an April evening in 2001, Arjun was accidentally electrocuted by
220-volt wires touching his head. His parents took him to a medical clinic where
they worked on his body for two hours without success. They tried CPR,
electroshock paddles, adrenaline shots – all the usual. But they couldn't get
him off flatline. So the doctor charged them 5,000 rupees (about $110) and told
them to call an undertaker. But they didn't. Instead they called Rod at the
nearby Deliverance Church. He then called upon Savitri, one of his staff
members. Savitri brought two other Christians to Arjun's home, and the five of
them began praying over the dead body about 10:00 p.m. They prayed their hearts
out for six hours with pleading and tears. Then, at 4:00 a.m. the next morning,
Arjun snapped back to life with no brain damage, no physical problems. [Read
more] |
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(May 23, 2005) |
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Death
could become a thing of the past by the mid-21st century as computer technology
becomes sophisticated enough for the contents of a brain to be "downloaded" on
to a supercomputer, according to a leading British futurologist ,,, Among other
eyebrow-raising predictions by Ian Pearson, head of the futurology unit at
British telecommunications giant BT, is the prospect of computer systems being
able to feel emotions ... While the predictions might sound outlandish, they
were merely the product of extrapolations drawn from the existing rate at which
computers are evolving, Mr. Pearson said in an interview. [Read
more] |
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(June 1, 2005) |
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Lisa Randall, one of the world's most influential
physicists, explains why we need more than three dimensions to understand the
cosmos ... Perhaps the best way to understand what these extra dimensions would
be is the way Edwin Abbott described them in his book Flatland, written in the
late 19th century. Suppose there was a society that, unlike ours, could detect
and experience a world with only two dimensions: the Flatland of the title. Its
inhabitants wouldn't perceive a third dimension, even though the dimension
really did exist. If an object like a sphere were to pass through their
universe, Flatlanders would never perceive it in its entirety; instead, they
would see a succession of disks that grew in size and then became smaller.
Because they register only two dimensions, Flatlanders could only mathematically
piece together the fact that the object they had seen was the analogue of their
disk, but in one higher dimension. Similarly, the fact that we see only three
dimensions doesn't mean there might not be more. [Read
more] |
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(June 2, 2005) |
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Michael Nolte sometimes made jurors cry when he
testified for three hours Wednesday about despair, loss and pain he suffered
from a fiery interstate crash involving a trooper's car. He recounted a
near-death experience floating above his body and told of guilt felt because he
lived two years ago, while Missouri Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Newton died
... During the helicopter ride to a Columbia hospital, he said he ascended into
what he described as a kind of warm tunnel and watched from above as medics
worked on him. “It was a soft, pleasant and really good place you want to go —
I could hear laughter around the corners.” But then he was back in his body.
Someone on the helicopter asked him the level of his pain, on a scale of 1 to
10. “It was higher than a 10, but a 10 was all they gave me.” [Read
more] |
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(June 2005) |
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In the underworld of assisted suicide and
euthanasia, Russel Ogden examines the means and methods -- even as he is shunned
by academia and chased by the law ... In 1994 Ogden published his master's
thesis, which documented the inner workings of this illicit network ...He wants
to know who asks for assisted death, who provides it and how it is done. Such
grisly details were revealed in Ogden's first study, in which 17 individuals,
including doctors, nurses, counselors, social workers and two priests, told him
precisely how they had helped AIDS patients kill themselves ... These people
were first- or second-timers, "not serial death providers," Ogden remarks. "They
weren't sure what they were doing." He concluded that the lack of medical
knowledge, as well as the unavailability of suitable drugs and ignorance of
lethal doses, contributed to the additional suffering. "This study showed that
without medical supervision and formal regulations, euthanasia is happening in
horrific circumstances, similar to back-alley abortions," he declares. [Read
more] |
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(May 23, 2005) |
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Procedure appears to limit damage. For 24 hours,
Hamilton Loeb lay unconscious inside a cold blue suit that put his brain on ice.
Four times, his heart had stopped beating and he was shocked back to life. Then
doctors essentially refrigerated him, in a bid to avert the brain damage that
too often cripples survivors of cardiac arrest. Today, the 53-year-old
Washington lawyer is back to normal, and he credits the cold with protecting his
brain. Chilling the sick may sound counterintuitive, but research shows mild
hypothermia cooling the body just a few degrees can significantly improve the
odds of a full recovery after cardiac arrest. Now scientists are trying to prove
whether a cool-down can protect against some of the damage from other disorders,
too: [Read
more] |
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(May 5, 2005) |
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After a New York fireman who barely said a word for
a decade began talking profusely, what are the experiences of people who wake up
from comas and vegetative states after long periods? "I want to talk to my
wife," was Donald Herbert's first sentence in a decade. The 43-year-old then
began speaking at length to loved ones, who feared he would never recover after
a roof collapsed on him in 1995. He was initially in a coma, then he regained
consciousness, but his speech was slurred and his vision unclear, with no memory
of relatives. Another American, Terry Wallis, who came round in 2003 after a
19-year coma, still thinks it is 1984 and has severe memory problems. There is a
fascination with this deep state of unconscious, a "twilight zone" between life
and death and a place few of us ever explore. [Read
more] |
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(May 19, 2005) |
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A scientist investigating one of the UK's "most
haunted" locations has said "something quite odd" was going on. Professor
Richard Wiseman used 200 volunteers to carry out a study of Mary King's Close in
Edinburgh. It yielded reports of apparitions, phantom footsteps, unexplained
cold spots and unseen hands ... Prof. Wisemen sent groups of volunteers to four
locations, without telling them that only two sites had a strong reputation for
being haunted. The aim was to compare reports from the different sites. About
70% of those visiting the "haunted" locations reported unusual phenomena. In
contrast, only 48% of people exploring the locations not reputed to be haunted
had spooky experiences. [Read
more] |
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(May 30, 2005) |
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While
visiting the grave site of his son, a 70-year-old Tucson man was struck by
lightning Saturday night. His body was found early Sunday at East Lawn Palms
Cemetery. Joseph Cooper's body was found under a tree at the cemetery, 5801 E.
Grant Road. His son, Oscar, died on Sept. 15, 1996, at the age of 30. A family
representative said relatives were in shock Sunday and declined comment until
later. Maintenance employees at East Lawn found Cooper's body and called Tucson
police at 6:28 a.m., said Sgt. Kerry Fuller, a police spokeswoman. Homicide
detectives and a doctor from the Medical Examiner's Office confirmed significant
evidence that lightning was the cause of death, Fuller said. Entry and exit
wounds, bruises and other injuries were found on the body, Fuller said, but an
autopsy will be performed to confirm the cause. Fuller said deaths caused by
lightning strikes are unusual in Tucson, even during severe storms. Local
statistics weren't available Sunday, but the National Lightning Safety Institute
reported 17 deaths in Arizona from 1990 to 2003, according to its Web site. [Read
more] |
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(May 26, 2005) |
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A
recently developed method for treating complicated grief, which includes
discussing certain aspects of the death of a loved one, was found more effective
than a standard therapy for depression, according to a study in the June 1 issue
of JAMA ... Bereavement-related major depressive disorder (MDD) is a
well-recognized consequence of loss. Complicated grief also occurs in the
aftermath of loss but is different from depression. Key features of complicated
grief, persisting more than 6 months after the death of a loved one, include (1)
a sense of disbelief regarding the death; (2) anger and bitterness over the
death; (3) recurrent pangs of painful emotions, with intense yearning and
longing for the deceased; and (4) preoccupation with thoughts of the loved one,
often including distressing intrusive thoughts related to the death. [Read
more] |
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(May 24, 2005) |
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Patients approaching the end of life can
significantly reduce their depression symptoms and improve their sense of
spiritual well-being according to a study published in the current issue of the
Journal of Palliative Medicine ... Some were randomly assigned to support
groups, which met monthly progressively discussing more difficult and
challenging issues. They addressed topics such as recognizing and asserting
needs, feelings and emotions, symptom control, living well while sick, intimate
relationships, spiritual needs, end-of-life planning and decision making, hope
and gratitude, and legacy. Other patients received what is called “usual care,”
and received mailings of standard support materials related to their disease,
many of which could be found in their doctors' offices. “We were able to improve
depression symptoms and lessen death anxiety, which led to better spiritual
well-being,” says Dr. Miller. “We consider this pilot work as a promising
approach, but a lot of work needs to be done to fully meet patients' needs at
this most difficult time in their lives.” [Read
more] |
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(May 31, 2005) |
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Researchers
analyzed love-crazed brains. New love can look for all the world like mental
illness, a blend of mania, dementia and obsession that cuts people off from
friends and family and prompts out-of-character behavior - compulsive phone
calling, serenades, yelling from rooftops - that could almost be mistaken for
psychosis. Now for the first time, neuroscientists have produced brain scan
images of this fevered activity, before it settles into the wine and roses phase
of romance or the joint holiday card routines of long-term commitment. In an
analysis of the images appearing in The Journal of Neurophysiology, researchers
in New York and New Jersey argue that romantic love is a biological urge
distinct from sexual arousal ... "When you're in the throes of this romantic
love it's overwhelming, you're out of control, you're irrational, you're going
to the gym at 6 a.m. every day - why? Because she's there," said Dr. Helen
Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and the co-author of the
analysis. "And when rejected, some people contemplate stalking, homicide,
suicide. This drive for romantic love can be stronger than the will to live." [Read
more] |
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(Feb. 12, 2005) |
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Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform
mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other
savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it ...
Ever since the age of three, when he suffered an epileptic fit, Tammet has been
obsessed with counting. Now he is 26, and a mathematical genius who can figure
out cube roots quicker than a calculator and recall pi to 22,514 decimal places.
He also happens to be autistic, which is why he can't drive a car, wire a plug,
or tell right from left. He lives with extraordinary ability and disability.
Tammet is calculating 377 multiplied by 795. Actually, he isn't "calculating":
there is nothing conscious about what he is doing. He arrives at the answer
instantly. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see numbers as shapes,
colours and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a
clap of thunder. "When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image
starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's
mental imagery. It's like math without having to think." [Read
more] |
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(May 20, 2005) |
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The sixth man to walk on the moon spoke about his
experience with unexplainable phenomena Thursday to a skeptical audience of
about 100 scientists. Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut on Apollo 14, talked of the
experiences that led him to research the unexplainable at the 24th annual
meeting of the
Society for Scientific Exploration at the Best Western Gateway Grand Hotel
in Gainesville. "It isn't science, but personal experience, that stimulates you
to do good science," he said. Mitchell, who holds a doctorate in aeronautics and
astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked on the first
extended research trip to the moon in 1971. He founded the
Institute of Noetic Sciences to sponsor the
study of unconventional scientific models, such as intuition and feeling, and he
was inducted into the Space Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Astronaut Hall of Fame
in 1998. His interest in the unexplainable began on his way back to Earth aboard
Apollo 14. He gazed out the window and realized he was connected to the stars,
his colleagues and the planet through his own molecules, he said. "You could see
the Earth, the moon and the stars with each rotation of the spacecraft,"
Mitchell said. "The stars were literally brighter for me. It was an awesome,
awe-inspiring view of the heavens." [Read
more] |
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(June 2, 2005) |
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Physicists have problems with their belief systems
and the field of physics is in crisis because of it, said Nobel Prize-winner
Robert Laughlin at a recent Boston University lecture ... Laughlin, co-recipient
of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1998, compared physicists to monotheists who
hold one belief and defend it even when presented with contradictory evidence.
Instead of questioning their original belief, he said, they would question the
validity of the evidence challenging it ... “Physics is now in the midst of a
crisis, an ideological battle,” he said. “The most fundamental things you know
may not be fundamental" ... Laughlin also argued that, for mysteries like why
atoms are so uniform throughout the galaxy, physicists form creation myths to
explain away these quandaries. Inflationary cosmology, he said, is the “myth”
created to solve this problem by saying that during the expansion after the big
bang, matter became uniform ... The best chance at solving some of these
mysteries of the universe, Laughlin suggests in "A Different Universe," is to
avoid the reductionist approach of studying particles too minute to measure, and
to look at the basic realities of the natural world. The exact characteristics
of substances like ice or salt is not fully understood, he said, but may reveal
more about the universe than the far reaches of space or the first nanofraction
of a second after the big bang. [Read
more] |
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(June 1, 2005) |
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Astronomers have used supercomputers to re-create
how the Universe evolved into the shape it is today. The simulation by an
international team is the biggest ever attempted and shows how structures in the
Universe changed and grew over billions of years. The Millennium Run, as it is
dubbed, could help explain observations made by astronomers and shed more light
on the Universe's elusive dark energy field. Details of the study appear in the
latest issue of Nature magazine. "We have learned more about the Universe in the
last 10 or 20 years than in the whole of human civilisation," said Professor
Carlos Frenk, Ogden professor of fundamental physics at the University of Durham
and co-author on the Nature report. "We are now able, using the biggest, fastest
supercomputers in the world, to recreate the whole of cosmic history," he told
the BBC. The researchers looked at how the Universe evolved under the influence
of the mysterious material called dark matter. [Read
more] |
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(May 19, 2005) |
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The
asteroid, named 2004 MN4, was found last year. It orbits the Sun but crosses the
path of Earth. In December, preliminary observations showed it might strike in
2029, according to NASA scientists. It briefly had the highest odds ever
assigned to a possible collision. Further investigation ruled out the 2029
impact scenario, but scientists cannot yet rule out an impact in 2036. The odds
of a collision in 2036 are about 1-in-10,000, Schweickart says. In fact, there
are several scenarios between 2034 and 2065 in which 2004 MN4 has even smaller
odds of striking. Schweickart and other scientists stress, however, that future
observations are likely to reduce all these odds to zero. [Read
more] |
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(June 2, 2005) |
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There are an estimated 6,000 intensive care units in
the United States caring for approximately 55,000 patients daily. Between 60
percent to 80 percent of these patients develop a brain dysfunction known as
delirium, which according to a group of physicians at Vanderbilt Medical Center
is an independent predictor of mortality ... "The dilemma in critical care is
that people often develop brain dysfunction or delirium in the ICU setting which
is thought to be of no real importance to survival or long-term quality of
life," Ely said. "Frankly, it's been overlooked by medical teams for years and
is simply called 'ICU psychosis ... Five years ago, we began studying delirium
in the ICU at Vanderbilt, after realizing that older people are more frequently
going to ICUs and the added risk of developing brain dysfunction was present"
... Ely said the first problem with delirium is the mortality rate. The second
is cost. The estimated cost of treating delirium in the ICU ranges from $4
billion to more than $20 billion nationwide. Third, Ely and his team assert, is
the impact the duration and severity of delirium will likely have on the
neuropsychological deficits of these patients. [Read
more] |
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(May 26, 2005) |
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A bill to make California the second state in the
nation to allow physician-assisted suicide cleared a key committee Wednesday,
setting up a first-ever state Assembly vote on the issue ... If signed into law,
certain terminally ill Californians would be able to obtain a lethal dose of
medication from physicians after a waiting period and multiple medical
evaluations ... Despite physician-assisted suicide consistently polling well,
California voters turned down a ballot measure on the issue in 1992. Also
Wednesday, the committee passed legislation that would legalize same-sex
marriage in California on a 13-5 party line vote, ensuring that measure, too,
will face a full Assembly floor vote. [Read
more] |
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(May 19, 2005) |
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OPINION: If the new Spanish film "The
Sea Inside" teaches us anything, it is that no amount of law and legislation
can prevent a person who wants to die from devising the ways and means to take
their own life ... The life and death of lead character and real-life person,
Ramon Sampedro, has long been a cause celebre in Spain. Paralysed from the
neck down from a diving accident at 26, Sampedro spent his next 28 years as, in
his words, a head attached to a corpse. Deeply resentful of being forced to live
a life that he defined as having little quality, Sampedro repeatedly petitioned
the Spanish and European courts. Repeatedly, Sampedro was denied permission to
ask for assistance to die, a request he believed he had the right to make. The
law disagreed. Most people believe in death with dignity. In this, Sampedro was
not exceptional. At the end of the day it is of little importance that he was
not terminally ill. Rather, what mattered to him was that his life had so little
dignity, that death was a preferable option. [Read
more] |
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(June 1, 2005) |
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OPINION:
The notion that an embryo, or a fertilised egg, should be considered human is
certainly open for debate. As reported in Science magazine, "zygotic
personhood" - the idea that a fertilised egg is a person - is a recent
concept. Before 1869, for example, the Catholic church believed that the embryo
was not a person until it was 40 days old, at which time the soul entered.
Aristotle also presumed this 40-day threshold. If the early embryo was soulless,
then perhaps early abortion was not murder. Pope Innocent III determined, in
1211, that the time of ensoulment was anywhere from three to four months. In
Jewish law, the fetus becomes a full-fledged human being when its head exits the
womb. According to the Talmud, before the embryo is 40 days old, it is 'maya
b'alma' or 'mere water'. [Read
more] |
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(May 9, 2005) |
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Summer sunlight help | | | | |