Apologies once again for the leave of absence, I hope y'all missed me. Things for me are going somewhat strangely. Bad news is basically that Emma may have glandular fever. We're currently waiting on the results from her blood tests coming back to find out exactly what's up, but in the interim I've been worrying about her far too much, which is probably pissing her off. Ah well, she knows what I'm like.
EDIT: turns out she doesn't have glandular fever, so now we're confused. Here's hoping the holiday helps a bit.
On the plus side I have a flat sorted out! It's in Dennistoun, Glasgow, and it's relatively large for a single bedroom flat. So yup, Emma & I shall be living together soon (early October, to be precise). I'll show you guys what it looks like once I get moved in. Also, off to Budapest on Tuesday!
In a similar vein to last week, here's a couple of stories I discovered recently. If anyone reads Three Panel Soul, they may be familiar with the first story:
Irukandji syndrome is a condition which is caused by the stings of several species of jellyfish, and its symptoms include headache, backache, muscle pains, chest and abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, sweating, anxiety, hypertension, and pulmonary edema. Those who have been stung are usually hospitalised and left writhing in agony for hours.
In 1964, Dr Jack Barnes discovered that the Irukandji jellyfish (Carukia barnesi) was one source of this affliction. How did he discover this? Simple. He lay in the water at Cairns, Australia for several hours until what he thought was the likely culprit appeared and promptly captured it. To test that its sting caused Irukandji syndrome, he then stung himself, a nearby lifeguard and HIS 9 YEAR OLD SON! All were quickly hospitalised. For his "dedication", he had a jellyfish named after him. His son and the lifeguard got bugger all.
Rosemary Kennedy was the younger sister of former US President John F Kennedy, which surely would mean a pretty comfortable life, no? Wrong! Early IQ tests showed a mild level of mental retardation, but nonetheless she was happy. She did, however, become more "difficult" in later life, presumably due to hormonal changes in puberty. The recommended solution? Prefrontal lobotomy. I won't detail the procedure as it still makes me shudder, but at this time the procedure was in its infancy, and as such left her completely unintelligible and incapacitated.
Officially, the Kennedy family claimed that she was merely mentally handicapped, which was seen to be more publicly acceptable than the fact that they effectively destroyed their daughter's life. Rosemary spent her adult life in care homes and died of natural causes in 2005.
I don't quite know why these stories caught my eye but they say a lot about how people can abandon their own codes of ethics, either for curiosity or for a quick fix. Pretty pathetic, really.
EDIT: turns out she doesn't have glandular fever, so now we're confused. Here's hoping the holiday helps a bit.
On the plus side I have a flat sorted out! It's in Dennistoun, Glasgow, and it's relatively large for a single bedroom flat. So yup, Emma & I shall be living together soon (early October, to be precise). I'll show you guys what it looks like once I get moved in. Also, off to Budapest on Tuesday!
In a similar vein to last week, here's a couple of stories I discovered recently. If anyone reads Three Panel Soul, they may be familiar with the first story:
Irukandji syndrome is a condition which is caused by the stings of several species of jellyfish, and its symptoms include headache, backache, muscle pains, chest and abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, sweating, anxiety, hypertension, and pulmonary edema. Those who have been stung are usually hospitalised and left writhing in agony for hours.
In 1964, Dr Jack Barnes discovered that the Irukandji jellyfish (Carukia barnesi) was one source of this affliction. How did he discover this? Simple. He lay in the water at Cairns, Australia for several hours until what he thought was the likely culprit appeared and promptly captured it. To test that its sting caused Irukandji syndrome, he then stung himself, a nearby lifeguard and HIS 9 YEAR OLD SON! All were quickly hospitalised. For his "dedication", he had a jellyfish named after him. His son and the lifeguard got bugger all.
Rosemary Kennedy was the younger sister of former US President John F Kennedy, which surely would mean a pretty comfortable life, no? Wrong! Early IQ tests showed a mild level of mental retardation, but nonetheless she was happy. She did, however, become more "difficult" in later life, presumably due to hormonal changes in puberty. The recommended solution? Prefrontal lobotomy. I won't detail the procedure as it still makes me shudder, but at this time the procedure was in its infancy, and as such left her completely unintelligible and incapacitated.
Officially, the Kennedy family claimed that she was merely mentally handicapped, which was seen to be more publicly acceptable than the fact that they effectively destroyed their daughter's life. Rosemary spent her adult life in care homes and died of natural causes in 2005.
I don't quite know why these stories caught my eye but they say a lot about how people can abandon their own codes of ethics, either for curiosity or for a quick fix. Pretty pathetic, really.
VIEW 17 of 17 COMMENTS
almost. actually, their integrity isn't so much in question, as their beauracracy.
although I'm sure there's not much in it really.
hope Budapest is/was treating you well!