Relationships and Going Places

Sonya Zalubowski writes: We saw all of the 'Big Five' on our safari. I never knew exactly what they were and what the term meant, 'the five most dangerous animals to hunt on foot in Africa'. They include the Cape buffalo, the elephant, the leopard, the lion and the now rare black rhino, hunted for its horn, prized in Asia as a medicine. The Maasai tribe and the wild animals and yes, we, the tourists, manage to continue in all of our ways, though there is controversy over how long this can go on as human population grows and further encroaches on the wild animals of Africa. more »

Roberta McReynolds Updates: I rescued a fledging sparrow about a month ago. It had been attacked by a Scrub Jay and I literally snatched it away. Poor little thing was in shock and bleeding from her beak. I would have bet money that she was going to die within minutes. I wrapped her in a towel and warmed her up. After an hour she was still hanging in there. I found a box and lined it with more towels and tucked her inside, warming the outside of the box with one of those gizmos you heat in the microwave. She survived the night! more »

An evening phone call to my post-surgery friend confirms he is managing okay. The painkillers are doing their job and he is comfortable watching television. "Thanks for being there for me," he says... I had been certain my nightly routine would seal my husband in my brain. Every night before I go to sleep, I say, "Love you, Tommy" to the pillow I use as his stand-in. And I hear back, clear as if he were at my left instead of his surrogate, "Love you, too!" ...That's when I realized how much I had come to adore my new place, which has quickly become a refuge and cocoon cushioning me from the sad events that propelled me to this new life. How could I ever leave this solace? more »

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute study revealed that each cell in normal facial skin carries many thousands of mutations, mainly caused by exposure to sunlight. Around 25 per cent of skin cells in samples from people without cancer were found to carry at least one cancer-associated mutation. The mutations observed showed the patterns associated with the most common and treatable form of skin cancer linked to sun exposure, known as cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, rather than melanoma, a rarer and sometimes fatal form of skin cancer. more »