Kansas man struck by lightning hours after buying lottery tickets

A Kansas man was struck by lightning hours after buying three Mega Millions lottery tickets on Thursday, proving in real life the old saying that a gambler is more likely to be struck down from the sky than win the jackpot. Bill Isles, 48, bought three tickets in the record $656 million lottery Thursday at a Wichita, Kansas grocery store. On the way to his car, Isles said he commented to a friend: "I've got a better chance of getting struck by lightning" than winning the lottery. Later at about 9:30 p.m., Isles was standing in the back yard of his Wichita duplex, when he saw a flash and heard a boom -- lightning. "It threw me to the ground quivering," Isles said in a telephone interview on Saturday. "It kind of scrambled my brain and gave me an irregular heartbeat." Isles, a volunteer weather spotter for the National Weather Service, had his portable ham radio with him because he was checking the skies for storm activity. He crawled on the ground to get the radio, which had been thrown from his hand. Isles had been talking to other spotters on the radio and called in about the lightning strike. One of the spotters, a local television station intern, called 911. Isles was taken by ambulance to a hospital and kept overnight for observation. Isles said doctors wanted to make sure his heartbeat was back to normal. He suffered no burns or other physical effects from the strike, which he said could have been worse because his yard has a power line pole and wires overhead. "But for the grace of God, I would have been dead," Isles said. "It was not a direct strike." Isles said he had someone buy him ten more tickets to the Mega Millions lottery on Friday night. While one of the three winning tickets was sold in Kansas, Isles was not a winner. Officials of the Mega Millions lottery, which had the largest prize in U.S. history, said that the odds of winning lottery were about 176 million to one. Americans have a much higher chance of being struck by lightning, at 775,000 to one over the course of a year, depending on the part of the country and the season, according to the National Weather Service. Isles, who is out of work after being laid off last June by a furniture store, said he did once win $2,000 in the lottery and will keep playing. "The next time I will use the radio while sitting in the car," he said

Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll murder trial

PHOTOGRAPHS of the spot where gangland figure Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll was shot dead were shown to a murder trial jury yesterday. The pictures – shown on day one of the trial – included an image of an Audi with smashed windows. The court was told the car was “subject to a significant degree of examination”. Carroll, 29, was shot in the car park of Asda in Robroyston, Glasgow, in January 2010. Ross Monaghan, 30, has been accused of Carroll’s murder. It is alleged that, while masked and acting with others, Monaghan repeatedly discharged loaded handguns at him, shooting him on the head and body. Monaghan is accused of – while acting with others – attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of a revolver, pistol and ammunition in undergrowth in Coatbridge and Airdrie. It is also claimed a car bearing false number plates was set on fire. Monaghan also faces a number of firearms charges. He denies all the charges against him at the High Court in Glasgow and has incriminated Mr X, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and seven others. The trial, before Lord Brailsford, continues.

popular Caribbean dancing style used by adults, known as 'daggering', is sexualising the dance floors of a much younger generation.

 

 Teenagers as young as 11 are modelling sex acts and rape, in the form of daggering, on the dance floor with their peers. Deputy Children's Commissioner Sue Berelowitz said: "there's not a lot separating that kind of behaviour from actual violent, coercive sex." Footage seen by Channel 4 News [see above] shows an under-18s club night in East London. As with all 'under-18s' club nights, everyone is between 11 and 16. Some of the children look much younger. The club is packed. The music: Caribbean dancehall. The dancing style: daggering. It is a style of dancing that any carnival regular will be used to. Aficionados will no doubt, have a more technical description of the style but it mainly involves women bending over and rubbing their backsides up against the men's crotches. During that August weekend in Notting Hill every adult gives it a go. But what's different about this night club is that every child is giving it a go. Spurred on by the DJ, the 'daggering' becomes more enthusiastic, some of it verging on violent. Boys and girls end up on top of each other on the floor simulating sex. Throughout the night someone employed by the club promoter (presumably an adult) is filming it all and uploading it on the club's website via YouTube.

Facebook App Lets You Add Enemies Online

 

Forget friending. A new Facebook app allows users of the social network to identify and share people, places and things as “enemies” for all to see. The app, called EnemyGraph, lets you list anything with a Facebook presence — ranging from “friends,” to foods, to products, movies or books — as an enemy. Since the app launched March 15, it’s seemed to appeal especially to users with a liberal bent. Some of its most-selected nemeses so far include Rick Santorum, Westboro Baptist Church and Fox News. The app was developed by a professor and two students at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dean Terry, who directs the school’s emerging media program, helped conceptualize the project, while graduate student Bradley Griffith and undergraduate Harrison Massey built the app. Griffith said EnemyGraph has so far accumulated some 400 users. But more importantly, its creators say, press coverage has helped meet the team’s goal of sparking a larger conversation about the nature of social media and Facebook in particular. “One thing that has always struck me is the enforced niceness culture,” Terry told Mashable. “We wanted to give people a chance to express dissonance as well. We’re using the word enemy about as accurately as Facebook uses the word friend.” But the app has utility beyond simply sparking a philosophical debate, Terry adds. Researchers and marketers have long gathered information on social media users based on what they support, but at the expense of possibly overlooking another valuable data source. “You can actually learn a lot about people by what they’re upset about and what they don’t like,” Terry says. “And the second thing is that if you and I both don’t like something, that actually creates a social bond that hasn’t been explored in social media at all, except with Kony and some big examples like that.” Terry and Griffith teamed up last year to create Undetweetable, a service allowing Twitter users’ deleted tweets to be uncovered posthumously. That project gained some attention as well but Twitter quickly forced it to shut down. Terry wouldn’t be surprised if EnemyGraph meets a similar fate from Facebook. “My guess is it goes against their social philosophy and purpose,” he says. “It is a critique of their social philosophy for sure.” Do you like the EnemyGraph idea? Let us know in the comments.

socially disruptive narcissists More Facebook Friends You Have, the More Unhappy You Are

 

A  study has discovered a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and how much of a “socially disruptive narcissist” you are—giving us one more reason to tone down our Facebook addictions. Researchers at Western Illinois studied 294 college students and found that those with more friends on Facebook tended to score higher on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire. They tended to respond more aggressively to comments, change their profile pictures more often, and updated their news feeds more regularly than others. This may not be all that surprising, but it does provide a bit of motivation to re-evaluate what Facebook does for you, if you fit into one of these categories (and if not, at least you can stop feeling bad about not having very many Facebook friends—it’s probably a good thing). None of this is to say Facebook is inherently bad, of course. It’s still a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, especially after you’ve fixed all of its annoyances—you might just want to dial back on all the photo tagging. While you’re at it, you can also move some of those friends to your Acquaintances list using Facebook’s new tool, which will hide them from your news feed more often.

ARE YOU AN EXCHANGE ADDICT?

 

Twenty six-year-old Pooja Mishra* took one last glance at the mirror as she readied herself. Her new outfit, a deep green satin dress, draped her shoulders perfectly. She arranged her hair and turned around to see herself from behind and caught sight of the price tag sticking out from her dress. Instead of cutting it off, she dexterously tucked it in. The dress will soon find its way back to the store it was bought from — to be exchanged. Mishra, who works in an ad agency in Delhi, confesses to suffering from what she calls “compulsive exchange disorder”. “It began as a harmless prank in college while going out for parties. One couldn’t afford a new outfit every single time and I would buy something from one of the global brand stores, use it for a few hours, and then return it,” says Mishra, matter of factly. With global brands making their presence felt, the average Indian consumer is now exposed to international rights such as exchange, returns and replacement of the purchased goods. Marks and Spencer, which came to India a few years ago, has the same return and exchange policy here as in its global outlets. James Munson, head of marketing and retail , India, says, “We offer customers who have a proof of purchase, a full refund or exchange on goods returned within 35 days. But only if the goods are in re-saleable condition.” But such policies, though intended to provide shoppers hassle-free purchases, are being turned around by consumers for their own convenience. Designer stores, too, have faced their share of clients seeking to take advantage of the exchange policies. Pradeep Hirani of Kimaya, a store with several designer brands under its roof, agrees that certain clients seem to get a thrill out of exchanging their buys. “It’s mostly women who come in, wanting to swap a purchase. And it’s across categories — be it prêt, diffusion or high-end clothing,” he points out.

Are you sad and despondent when you’re not in love?

It’s true that a meaningful relationship can send your spirits soaring. However, when you can’t experience joyfulness or wholeness unless you’re in an affectionate union, this may indicate a serious issue. Everyone needs to love and be loved. Research alleges babies may pass away if they’re not held and rocked.    

Nevertheless, if you place a paramour’s needs before your own to the detriment of your physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological well-being, there’s trouble with a capital ‘T.’ Ignoring your interests, welfare, security, and safety to avoid being alone, is destructive behavior. 

The media continually glorifies the idea of star crossed lovers who can’t live without each other and are willing to sacrifice or undertake negative deeds to please the object of their fixation, e.g. “9 ½ Weeks,” and “Romeo & Juliet,” both the epitome of doomed, ruinous, injurious liaisons. 

Many will accept bad conduct bordering on abuse rather than split. It’s a matter of life and death for those in this category. Without a dearest, they’re unable to function. They’re constantly looking outside of themselves for happiness. They’re calm and content when connected as a couple, angry and hostile when not. 

Typically, this group consists of adults who were abandoned, neglected, or unwanted as children. They’re currently looking to fulfill the inherently, fundamental requirements that were never met and the resulting emptiness. The problem is that no human can be your alpha and omega. Disappointment, despair, and loneliness inevitably transpire.

The solution is to discover your inner power, strength, beauty, and creativity, realizing you deserve the best, precisely as you are. The unconditional love and acceptance you’re searching for is deep within, at your primal core.

Tapping that source is a challenge to embark upon, especially growing older having experienced several failed involvements/marriages. You may have exhausted years looking for love in all the wrong places with all the wrong candidates.

Generally, a love addict has extreme difficulty leaving a deleterious bond, no matter how frequently or severe the mistreatment. Confidantes and cohorts are astounded to observe their cherished companions settling for a partner who degrades, humiliates, insults, molests, beats, assaults, batters, exploits, manipulates, and/or controls. 

Quite a bit refute suggestions of a predicament and choose to cold-shoulder the pink elephant in the living room. They reunite ad infinitum after promises to reform, engaging in a dangerous dance of demise.

A preponderance lose jobs, homes, money, sanity, friends, and family, because they’re incapable of operating, focusing, showing up, assuming responsibility. Supplementary addictions, e.g. drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex might flair up as a temporary fix. Denial and defiance is part of the dilemma.  Acknowledgment and honesty is part of the cure.

Accordingly, it’s crucial to retain close links with your support system and social circle, particularly when your honey insists you spend the bulk of your time together, to the exclusion of third parties. Their objective viewpoints are vital when you’re mind is muddied and you’re strung out, intoxicated, drunk on love.

As discussed last week, your brain chemically changes when you’re smitten and hence, if you’re on cloud nine and can’t see the forest through the trees, you’re literally in a daze and blinded.

Do you have associates who disappear when they’re dating and reappear after a breakup? Are they “fair weather friends,” who put a ‘hopefully ever after’ first?  Do they cancel plans with you at the last minute to be with him/her? Is their demeanor distinctly different in the presence of an intended?

Is your sense of merit based on the amount of phone numbers collected at an event from contenders allured and intrigued by you? Do you incessantly obsess over how to get a guy/gal in the sack, to return your attention, to prevent rejection?

What can be done to satisfy that enormous bottomless pit that seems insatiable, to lift your self- esteem to a point where you won’t fall into the trap of being used and abused by your ‘happily ever after?’

Begin at the beginning. Reparent yourself. Treat yourself as you would an infant who mandates cuddling and coddling, who’s perfect, pure and an example of unfettered innocence. Imagine how you’d regard your child or a person you care about immensely and comport yourself likewise. 

You would never call a cherished child names, demean them, or convey that they’re trivial and unimportant. You would never ignore or put them down when they’re at their lowest.

Rather, you’d build them up, cheer them on, and encourage them through rough times. You’d repeatedly remind them how precious and priceless they are, how they make a difference in your world, and how grateful you are for their existence.

In addition, you’d make sure they’re clean, neatly groomed, have plenty of rest, sleep, proper nutrition, exercise, and an abundance of tenderness and fondness. You can never respect and honor a child too much. In the same vein, you can never revere and marvel at yourself too much.

You’d hold the amore you adore when they’re melancholy, laugh with them when they’re jubilant, embrace them when they’re scared, communicate words of wisdom when they’re confused, cheer them on when they’re attempting something new, offer optimism when they’re  hopeless, and profess appreciation regularly.

It sounds simple but isn’t always easy since it entails turning these principles to deeds.  Nonetheless, that’s the essence of Reparenting, imperative to heal the shame that binds you to negative, damaging actions and beliefs, keeping you tied to toxic attachments.

Although you may be uncomfortable adorning your home with positive affirmations, hugging yourself daily, and telling yourself how amazing you are, don’t fret. It’s impossible to over indulge in this manner.

Study Suggests Link Between Narcissism And Facebook

There may be a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and just how much of a “socially disruptive” narcissist you are, according to a recent study published in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences. Facebook habits of 294 students between the age of 18 and 65 were studied by researchers at Western Illinois University. They also measured two of what they describe as  ”socially disruptive” elements of narcissism- grandiose exhibitionism (GE- having to be at the center of attention), and entitlement/exploitativeness (EE-  having a sense of self entitlement/deserving of respect) of the students. The study found that those who scored highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire changed their profile pictures more often, responded more aggressively to negative comment about them on their Facebook walls, tagged themselves more often, and updated their news feeds more regularly. Carol Craig, a social scientist and chief executive of the Centre for Confidence and Well-being stated: “Facebook provides a platform for people to self-promote by changing profile pictures and showing how many hundreds of friends you have. I know of some who have more than 1,000.” According to the Guardian, Christopher Carpenter, who ran the study, said: “If Facebook is to be a place where people go to repair their damaged ego and seek social support, it is vitally important to discover the potentially negative communication one might find on Facebook and the kinds of people likely to engage in them. Ideally, people will engage in pro-social Facebooking rather than anti-social me-booking.” Are we really narcissistic? Or could it simply be we are just bored? Or maybe just really friendly and outgoing, looking to meet new people? Do you think these researchers are reading just a little too much into it?

Two police officers were injured in a shoot-out in a raid on a house in Toulouse to arrest suspects in the killings of three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in southwest France.

 

   The source said the raid began at 3am local time (2am GMT) and was ongoing, but did not provide further details.     French news channel BFM TV said the suspects were linked to an Islamist group which it identified as Forsane Alizza but it was not immediately possible to confirm this.

800 'jet-set' extras needed

 

Oscar-nominated director Danièle Thompson is looking for 800 men and women to play Saint Tropez’s jet-set elite in her new feature-length production. So if you are keen to be on the big screen, head to Cogolin next week for your chance to be in the limelight! Thompson’s up and coming film ‘People who kiss’ (Des gens qui s’embrassent) needs an extras cast made up of almost one thousand men and women between the ages of 18 and 65. “Sexy, fashionable, elegant... that’s what we’re looking for,” said Thompson, who assures that previous experience isn’t necessary. Over five days of casting, Thompson and her team will whittle down an expected 3,000 applicants to just 800, who will make up the audience of a classical music concert. To register for auditions, head to the Maurin des Maures culture centre in Cogolin from Monday 26th until Thursday 29th. The selection process will begin on Saturday at 10am. All you need to do is turn up looking fabulous! The two days of filming are scheduled to take place sometime between 21st May and 8th June this summer.

American Airlines flight attendant restrained after taking over PA system and screaming 'we're going to crash'

 

A flight attendant had to be restrained by passengers and crew on an American Airlines flight after she started ranting that the plane was going to crash over the PA system. According to news.com.au, she told passengers on the flight from Dallas to Chicago: "We are not taking off. We're having technical difficulties. We are heading back to the gate." First class travellers helped cabin crew subdue the woman after she started screaming things like, "I am not responsible for crashing this plane", talking about 9/11, and rambling about American Airlines' bankruptcy.

A Moroccan teenager killed herself after a judge forced her to marry her rapist.

 

The 16-year-old girl, named as Amina Filali, ate rat poison after a Tangier court which was supposed to be punishing her 26-year-old attacker decided that they should instead be wed.

This is because Moroccan laws exempt a rapist from punishment if he agrees to marry his victim.

Sentenced: A judge in Tangier (pictured) ordered the rapist to marry his victim as 'punishment'

Traumatised by the rape and the forced marriage, Moroccan newspaper al-Massae said she committed suicide at her husband's house.

 

 

 

Hafida Elbaz, director of the Women’s Solidarity Association, criticised the law and said rapists often believed they could avoid punishment by marrying their victims.

Rape victim: Gulnaz, who was pardoned by the Afghan president earlier this month, with her daughter in a Kabul jail. She was today released

The incident throws more light on the way women are treated in Islamic countries.

Last year Afghan 21-year-old Gulnaz was jailed for 'adultery by force' after she was brutally raped by her husband's cousin.

Her attacker was jailed for seven years for the crime that left her pregnant.

A global outrage saw the President of Afghanistan personally pardoning her and releasing her from Kabul's Badam Bagh jail, with no pre-conditions.

The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety

 

"The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety" by Bill W I think that many oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA -- the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God. Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance -- urges quite appropriate to age seventeen -- prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven. Since AA began, I've taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually. My God, how painful it is to keep demanding the impossible, and how very painful to discover finally, that all along we have had the cart before the horse! Then comes the final agony of seeing how awfully wrong we have been, but still finding ourselves unable to get off the emotional merry-go-round. How to translate a right mental conviction into a right emotional result, and so into easy, happy, and good living -- well, that's not only the neurotic's problem, it's the problem of life itself for all of us who have got to the point of real willingness to hew to right principles in all our affairs. Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy may still elude us. That's the place so many of us AA oldsters have come to. And it's a hell of a spot, literally. How shall our unconscious -- from which so many of our fears, compulsions and phony aspirations still stream -- be brought into line with what we actually believe, know and want! How to convince our dumb, raging and hidden "Mr. Hyde" becomes our main task. I've recently come to believe that this can be achieved. I believe so because I begin to see many benighted ones -- folks like you and me -- commencing to get results. Last autumn [several years back -- ed.] depression, having no really rational cause at all, almost took me to the cleaners. I began to be scared that I was in for another long chronic spell. Considering the grief I've had with depressions, it wasn't a bright prospect. I kept asking myself, "Why can't the Twelve Steps work to release depression?" By the hour, I stared at the St. Francis Prayer..."It's better to comfort than to be the comforted." Here was the formula, all right. But why didn't it work? Suddenly I realized what the matter was. My basic flaw had always been dependence -- almost absolute dependence - on people or circumstances to supply me with prestige, security, and the like. Failing to get these things according to my perfectionist dreams and specifications, I had fought for them. And when defeat came, so did my depression. There wasn't a chance of making the outgoing love of St. Francis a workable and joyous way of life until these fatal and almost absolute dependencies were cut away. Because I had over the years undergone a little spiritual development, the absolute quality of these frightful dependencies had never before been so starkly revealed. Reinforced by what Grace I could secure in prayer, I found I had to exert every ounce of will and action to cut off these faulty emotional dependencies upon people, upon AA, indeed, upon any set of circumstances whatsoever. Then only could I be free to love as Francis had. Emotional and instinctual satisfactions, I saw, were really the extra dividends of having love, offering love, and expressing a love appropriate to each relation of life. Plainly, I could not avail myself of God's love until I was able to offer it back to Him by loving others as He would have me. And I couldn't possibly do that so long as I was victimized by false dependencies. For my dependency meant demand -- a demand for the possession and control of the people and the conditions surrounding me. While those words "absolute demand" may look like a gimmick, they were the ones that helped to trigger my release into my present degree of stability and quietness of mind, qualities which I am now trying to consolidate by offering love to others regardless of the return to me. This seems to be the primary healing circuit: an outgoing love of God's creation and His people, by means of which we avail ourselves of His love for us. It is most clear that the current can't flow until our paralyzing dependencies are broken, and broken at depth. Only then can we possibly have a glimmer of what adult love really is. Spiritual calculus, you say? Not a bit of it. Watch any AA of six months working with a new Twelfth Step case. If the case says "To the devil with you," the Twelfth Stepper only smiles and turns to another case. He doesn't feel frustrated or rejected. If his next case responds, and in turn starts to give love and attention to other alcoholics, yet gives none back to him, the sponsor is happy about it anyway. He still doesn't feel rejected; instead he rejoices that his one-time prospect is sober and happy. And if his next following case turns out in later time to be his best friend (or romance) then the sponsor is most joyful. But he well knows that his happiness is a by-product -- the extra dividend of giving without any demand for a return. The really stabilizing thing for him was having and offering love to that strange drunk on his doorstep. That was Francis at work, powerful and practical, minus dependency and minus demand. In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me sober. It wasn't a question of those alcoholics giving me anything. My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive. Thus I think it can work out with emotional sobriety. If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small, we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependency and its consequent unhealthy demand. Let us, with God's help, continually surrender these hobbling demands. Then we can be set free to live and love; we may then be able to Twelfth Step ourselves and others into emotional sobriety. Of course I haven't offered you a really new idea -- only a gimmick that has started to unhook several of my own "hexes" at depth. Nowadays my brain no longer races compulsively in either elation, grandiosity or depression. I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine.

There is something beautiful about the essence of Step 12 in recovery

 There is something beautiful about the essence of Step 12 in recovery. It is about the "joy of living" and talks about how working the previous 11 steps now gives the person in recovery a new compass in which to live by: their spiritual beliefs and principles. One moves from the experience of being driven, to more consciousness about who they are, what they are doing, and why they are doing it. If taken directly from the program, the spiritual principles that correspond to each step, and that serve as a guide are as follows:

1. Honesty

2. Hope

3. Faith

4. Courage

5. Integrity

6. Willingness

7. Humility

8. Brotherly Love

9. Justice

10. Perseverance

11. Unity and Spirituality

12. Service and Gratitude

One of the gifts of living according to principles is that they can support us no matter what our history, our patterning, or our circumstances. They can orient us when objective realities have lost their command. Spiritual principles become the ultimate navigation system. You may have lost a job or a promotion, you might be in an argument with a friend or partner, but you can always turn to the principles for a soft place to land, to serve as a guide, and to put your current position in context.

Step 1 for example, "Admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable," starts with the poignant word, "admit." I've always appreciated the double meaning—it implies that we have to be honest but it additionally signals admittance, as in "admit one." So, right off the bat, the navigation system orients the person in recovery over a threshold that had been previously impassable. Denial begins to be shed and honesty becomes something to strive for.

Each of the principles are not only guides, but anchors, allowing for an experience of grounding in what can often be a challenging and chaotic ride. The spiritual path becomes the perfect container for the ups and downs we all experience. This means that sometimes, the direction we are given is to stay put. In times of loss, doubt, and uncertainty—courage allows us to lean in to such experiences, to face our fears and our demons when all we want to do is flee. Hope and faith provide additional support by reminding us that the dark places aren't static states and that we will survive the ride.

Integrity is something I talk about a great deal in Recovering Spirituality. To me, it is about embracing the fullness of the human condition, being intimately and integrally connected to the whole. It allows for greater compassion for ourselves and others because we understand that we will never overcome our humanness, which means that we are all perfectly flawed.

So, when life steers you in a direction that you never imagined going, or when you feel like you can't find the purpose or meaning in your life, see if you can find some grounding and direction in the principles. They are perfect when our lives are not—the ideal GPS (Global Positioning System). Maybe the task at hand is to orient yourself towards service to others, or perhaps the unity of the fellowship can provide some laughterright when you thought it was impossible to smile. No matter the challenge, there is a guiding principle that can shine some light on the darkened path. 

And if all is going well, don't let this discourage you from leaning in even further to the principle driven life. Pain may be the touchstone to spiritual growth, but the path is always available to us.

Ice cream as 'addictive as drugs' says new study

 

Researchers concluded that cravings for the dessert were similar to those experienced by drug addicts. They found that the brain was left wanting more while eating ice cream in the same way as a person who regularly uses cocaine. Their study, published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, appears to add weight to previous studies that people can be left feeling "addicted" to some foods. Dr Kyle Burger, from the Oregon Research Institute, in Eugene, about 110 miles south of Portland, said overeating "high-fat" or "high-sugar" foods appeared to change how the brain responded and in turn downgraded the mental "reward". "This down-regulation pattern is seen with frequent drug use, where the more an individual uses the drug, the less reward they receive from using it," said Dr Burger, the study's co-author.

Online porn increases sex addiction risk says expert

THE prevalence of internet pornography is turning more Australians into sex addicts, an SA rehabilitation expert says. "The amount of porn that is readily available to anyone, especially on the internet, will lead to a serious public health problem," said Robert Mittiga, who runs the GATS Counselling centre on Hackney Rd, one of only two clinics in Australia that treats sex addiction. Mr Mittiga said he treated up to 40 sex addicts a year but expected the number to grow as more people learned about the condition. "Research has shown that about 10 per cent of any population are addicted to sex," he said. Mr Mittiga conservatively estimated up to one million Australians could have the problem. He said the internet - and young people's access to it - exacerbated the problem. He likened its wide array of pornography to marijuana, which he said was a gateway to harder and harder drugs. "Many sex addicts were exposed to pornography at a very young age, before their minds could properly process it. It could've been their father's magazines under the bed, but these days it is readily available on the internet," he said. "Sex addicts on the internet often experience a rapid progression of their addiction as they trawl deeper and deeper into hard-core porn to get their fix." He acknowledged there was a debate over whether it could really be classified as an addiction but said he treated it as an addiction because it met all the criteria. "Sex addicts have the same mood alterations as people addicted to substances like drugs or alcohol," he said. "Most importantly, they continue their behaviour despite the serious life-changing consequences, such as lost relationships, STDs and legal problems." Mr Mittiga said he was treating younger people, including women, and had one client who had begun stealing to pay the $90,000 he spent on prostitutes. He said the movie Shame, about an addict who pursues sex even though he gets no real pleasure out of it, was an excellent representation of the problem.

TRIBUTE TO VIKTOR FRANKL

 

MEANING OF LIFE: The meaning of life differs from person to person, from day to day, and from hour to hour. What matters it not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment. Everyone has his own specific mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Each person's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it. It is the individual's responsibility to come to an understanding of the meaning of his or her life. This emphasis on responsibleness is reflected in this saying, "So live as if your were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as your are about to ace now." This invites man to imagine first that the present is past and second that as the present is changed so is the past. Such a precept confronts the individual with life's finiteness and the finality of what he makes out of both his life and himself. Logotherapy attempts to make the individual fully aware of his own responsibility, but must leave to him the option for what, to what or to whom he understands to be responsible. The Logotherapist's role consists in widening and broadening the visual field of the patient so that the spectrum of meaning and values becomes conscious and visible to him. Meaning of life may change, but it never ceases to be. We can discover the meaning of life through CREATIVE VALUES, EXPERIENCE VALUES, AND ATTITUDINAL VALUES. To put this in different words, meaning can come through what we give to life (creative values), by what we take from the world (experience values) such as listening to music, reading a book, etc., and through the stand we take toward a fate we no longer can change (attitudinal values) such as the lose of a loved one to death, the lose of an arm, etc. Even when one's activities are very limited because of an illness or injury, life still offers an opportunity for the realization of attitudinal values. What is the significant is the person's attitude toward his unalterable fate. The way in which he accepts, what courage he manifest in suffering and the dignity he displays in doom and disaster is the measure of his human fulfillment. A person's life retains its meaning up to the last, until he draws his last breath. As long as a person remains conscious, he is under obligations to realize values, even if those are only be attitudinal values. An individual needs some content for their lives and Frankl said, "If we can help them find an aim and a purpose in their existence, in other words, if they can be shown the task before them. 'Whoever has a reason for living endures almost any mode of life.' says Nietzsche. The conviction that one has a task before him has enormous psychotherapeutic values." Frankl does not claim to have an answer for the individual's meaning to life. Meaning must be found but it cannot be given. The individual must find it spontaneously. The Logotherapist is convinced, and if need be persuades his patients, which there is a meaning to fulfill, but he does not pretend to know what the meaning is. Along with the freedom of will and the will to meaning, there is meaning to life: a meaning for which man has been in search all along and also that man has the freedom to embark on the fulfillment of that meaning.

Quote Details: A. J. Liebling: People everywhere confuse what... - The Quotations Page

People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963)

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.

 

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” Victor Emil Frankl (1905 – 1997), Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, devoted his life to studying, understanding and promoting “meaning.” His famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, tells the story of how he survived the Holocaust by finding personal meaning in the experience, which gave him the will to live through it. He went on to later establish a new school of existential therapy called logotherapy, based in the premise that man’s underlying motivator in life is a “will to meaning,” even in the most difficult of circumstances. Frankl pointed to research indicating a strong relationship between “meaninglessness” and criminal behaviors, addictions and depression. Without meaning, people fill the void with hedonistic pleasures, power, materialism, hatred, boredom, or neurotic obsessions and compulsions. Some may also strive for Suprameaning, the ultimate meaning in life, a spiritual kind of meaning that depends solely on a greater power outside of personal or external control.

Three Irish women proposed on Leap Year according to old Irish tradition

A Dublin woman availed of an ancient Irish tradition and proposed to her boyfriend on February 29th – in front of 37,700 fans at an Ireland football match. Martina Connolly asked her partner of 22 years to marry her at half-time during the Ireland-Czech Republic game at the Aviva Stadium. Surprised supporters cheered loudly as Martina got down on one knee to propose to the father of her two children. Derek McGill (42) received a huge cheer when he said ‘yes’ to the 38-year-old special needs assistant. “I’ve been thinking about it for the past year,” said Connolly as she availed of the ancient Irish tradition in which it is acceptable for a woman to propose on February 29. “We did sit down and have a chat about it before but we put it off, mainly due to finances,” added Connolly whose children are 20 and 11. “Maybe he needs a kick up the bum, so this is the kick. I thought he was going to kill me.” Connolly and McGill celebrated by watching the rest of the game which Ireland drew 1-1. “I’m lost for words,” said McGill after Martina enlisted the help of Dublin’s 98FM radio station to enact her proposal. Meanwhile Niamh Murphy (21) also proposed to her boyfriend, Declan Gardiner, (41), in  Wexford yesterday. "Well you always said if you won the Lotto would you marry me, so now I'm asking?" she asked He replied  "Ah sure, go on then." Their exchange was heard live on radio where a competition to ask boyfriends to marry was sponsored. Meanwhile in Louth, Teacher Maeve Jordan (26), from Co Louth, got her boyfriend to say yes. "I'm sick of waiting for him to ask me," she said.