The city of Detroit, USA has just filed the biggest ever US municipal bankruptcy.
Pop group sensation One Direction has had wax figures of the members unveiled in New York city.
Surface tablets hit Microsoft profits and apparently $900m charge remain unsold. The IPad 'explosion' is seen as playing a large role in this.
Meanwhile Smartphone continues to drive Vodaphone growth with a reported 23,000 new customers 'signing on' in the last quarter alone. However recent reports show that overall figures are in the decline.
The IMF urges the Irish government to adhere to E3.1 bn adjustment as Minister of Finance, Mr. Noonan indicates that there will be no easing up on austerity.
CAN YOU SOLVE THESE RIDDLES:
Did you hear the joke about the recycled paper?
How many letters are there in the alphabet?
Do you know why orange juice is so smart?
Answers tomorrow
Answers to yesterday’s stuff:
Yes, if it’s a match.
One. After that it is not empty any more.
None, all four legs are under the snooker table.
INSPIRATION: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.
- Mark Twain
WORDS TO THE WISE:
I lay in a meadow
Until the wrinkled serenity
Entered into my bones,
And made me into one
With the browsing kine,
The still greenery,
The drifting clouds,
And the swooping birds.
- Alice James (1848-1892)
I expand and live in the warm day
Like corn and melons
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1892)
SACRED SPACE:
May you feel the energy of summer rains
penetrating thirsty gardens, golf courses, lawns and farmland.
May these rains remind you that your inner thirst needs quenching.
May your inner self be refreshed, restored, and renewed.
May the God of summer give us what we need for healing.
May you enjoy the unexpected and find surprises of beauty and Happiness as you travel the roads on summer vocation.
May the God of summer lead us to amazing discoveries
As we travel the
Inner roads of our souls as well. – Joyce Rupp
SMILE A WHILE!
What’s brown and steaming and comes out of Cowes?
The Isle of Wight ferry.
Why did the teacher put the lights on?
The class was so dim.
A greengrocer is six feet tall
Has a forty inch waist and
Size eleven shoes.
What does he weigh?
Vegetables
Until next time
Valerie
Letter from the editor:
Dear Reader,
Latest news about Mr. Mandela issued by the MediClinic, Heart Hospital, Pretoria say that ‘Madiba is in a critical but stable condition. The ninety-six-year old South African icon is spending his sixth week in hospital since his admittance on June eighth.
On Sunday last, July 14th, 2013, former President Thabo Mbeki said he believed that Mr. Mandela would soon be discharged to recuperate at home. While journalistic interest may be dwindling crowds and nations pray and send warm wishes for a full recovery to a man who inspires countless people.
When Mr. Mandela was in hospital for four weeks papers began telling us that he was in a ‘vegetative state’ and that it would be kinder to ‘switch off the machines than allow him continue suffering.’
I am with the many people who wish him well and hope he returns to full health soon. However are the words ‘vegetative state’not a gross insult to every one? How could any human ever be in a ‘vegetative state?’ Certainly unconsciousness, coma, paralysis, deep shock, and trauma, are all part of human existence, but why put such an awful name on deep coma? To me it adds insult, grave insult to injury.
Mr. Bryan Jennet, wonderful Scottish neurosurgeon, coined the unfortunate, and in my opinion inadequate phrase in 1972. I first became aware of the phrase following the Hillsborough football disaster in Liverpool on April 15th 1989 when many people were left unconscious for years; some of whom are alive but in a deep coma to this day.
Am I being too touchy, or ridiculous? I honestly do not think so. All humans merit respect at every level: is it disrespectful if not downright offensive to describe someone in a coma as being in a ‘vegetative state?’
Mr. Jennet was a founder member of The Department of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, which continues to be a world leader in its field. Surely this brilliant man could have coined a better phrase to describe such a disturbing human phenomenon?
Suspecting that I misuderstand what the word ‘vegetative’ actually means I consulted the dictionary and found the word was one of a series of words beginning with ‘vegetble’ and ending with ‘vegies’ described as ‘food: another spelling of veggies.’
The word itself is described thus:
Vegetative ; adv.
1. of plants: relating to or typical of vegetation, plants, or plant growth.
2. involving growth, not sexual reproduction: relating to, involving, or typical of the growth and maintenance of an organism rather than its sexual reproduction
3. reproducing asexually: describes reproduction, especially in plants, in which individuals develop asexually from specialised structures such as bulbs, rhyzomes, or runners
4. having sedentary lifestyle: leading a physically or mentally inactive life
5. medicine: relating to persistent coma: characterised by the reduction or absence of the usual mental or physical functions, often as a result of injury to the brain.’
Being in a deep, prolonged coma has nothing to do with vegetables has it? Please doctors and medics concerned with profound brain injury, can we have another term to describe deep, long lasting coma. After all no one is a head of cabbage!
On a personal level, I find myself torn here. In April 1985 after fleeting lapses in vision and a lifetime of headaches and nausea I had some tests: a brain tumour and hydrocephalus were diagnosed, in Southern General Hospital by the wonderful Professor Graham Teasdale.
A shunt was fitted and two weeks later the brain tumour was removed. A year or so after surgery pain was significantly less and in 1987 I went to New York. I am deeply nay profoundly indebted to professor Graham Teasdale, his team, and all the staff in Ward 65 for their unfailing professionalism, caring, focus, and kindness. I cannot write enough good things about them and without them who knows where I would be? Not writing this article and that’s for sure.
This letter a plea requesting change of a term bandied about to describe a human tragedy. In no way is it an indictment against the hospital or indeed medical personnel.
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