Australia: No residency for boy with Down syndrome

YDNEY, Australia – A German doctor hoping to gain permanent residency in Australia said Friday he will fight an immigration department decision denying his application because his son has Down syndrome. Bernhard Moeller came to Australia with his family two years ago to help fill a doctor shortage in a rural area of Victoria state.

His temporary work visa is valid until 2010, but his application for permanent residency was rejected this week. The immigration department said Moeller's 13-year-old son, Lukas, "did not meet the health requirement."

"A medical officer of the Commonwealth assessed that his son's existing medical condition was likely to result in a significant and ongoing cost to the Australian community," a departmental spokesman said in a statement issued Thursday by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

"This is not discrimination. A disability in itself is not grounds for failing the health requirement — it is a question of the cost implications to the community," the statement said.

Moeller said he would appeal the decision.

"We like to live here, we have settled in well, we are welcomed by the community here and we don't want to give up just because the federal government doesn't welcome my son," he told reporters.

Moeller has powerful supporters. Victorian Premier John Brumby has pledged to support the family's appeal, and federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said Friday she would speak to the immigration minister about the case.

Roxon said the case must go through proper channels — an appeal to the Migration Review Tribunal and then the immigration minister — but that "there is a valid reason for this doctor and his family to be eligible to stay here in Australia."

"As a government, we understand the importance of having doctors working in our rural and regional communities and we support them in many ways and continue to do this," Roxon said.

Don McRae, director of clinical services at Wimmera Health Care Group, said the hospital had invested a lot of time and energy in recruiting the German specialist to Horsham, about 100 miles northwest of Melbourne.

"We were very surprised by the decision," he said of the immigration department's rejection. "It's distressing for Dr. Moeller's family and distressing for the community who have welcomed him and relied on his medical services."

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has no power to intervene in the case until the review tribunal or a court upholds the department's decision.

David Tolleson, executive director of the Atlanta-based National Down Syndrome Congress, said he was disappointed by the decision.

"What is the cost implication to the community of a doctor shortage?" Tolleson asked. "I assume the son had the same costs for the last two years and they were happy to have the family and use the dad as a doctor."

Down syndrome, caused by an extra chromosome, is characterized by mental retardation of varying degrees. Those with Down syndrome also can have other problems: Nearly half will have a heart defect, some serious enough to require surgery soon after birth.

Tolleson said that people with Down syndrome have a spectrum of abilities.

"Some need more support, some go on to graduate from college with a four-year degree, and most are somewhere in between," he said.

The immigration department said it appreciates Moeller's contribution to the community but said it must follow the relevant laws in considering residency applications.

"If we did not have a health requirement, the costs to the community and health system would not be sustainable," the statement said.

More than 150,000 migrants settled in Australia in 2007-08, the department said.

Shortages of medical practitioners in rural parts of Australia have led a number of recent government initiatives to boost the numbers of doctors and nurses nationwide.

from: Yahoo News

And of course, don't forget to stop by and watch a Ninjai Chapter today.

Windy days

I was out all day today. It was such a breath-takingly beautiful day- a sure sign of the near end of the year.. ber months are always enjoyable. Freezing crisp mornings, sunny warm days that abruptly end at 6 pm... not a cloud in the sky.. fresh and refreshing breezes.


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And of course, be sure to check out a Ninjai Chapter today. :)

Ninjai Gear

《小忍者》(The Little Ninjai)更新到Chapter.12 & II + Games + ...
If your game wins, not only will it be featured on NINJAI.COM, but you’ll also be cruisin’ in free Ninjai gear. There are two sections for this competition. ...

From:

Wtf?! Ninjai gear!! Why I never got any of this :'(

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Icanhas a chzee burger should start paying me for this!


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brrrggghhhh

It's one of those low down days for me. I just want to sleep. I've been so tired with little idea why the hell I'm so tired. It's not like I've been working or doing as much as I usually do.... I s'pose it's just that time of month. Gah

I've been reading through the Ninjai Forums, quite a lot of crazies up there. If only the forums were still kinda active I would actually have people to chat with every now and then.

Oh well.. life.. life...


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Random day musings

Icanhasacheezburger?
I love that website.


Ninjai's showing on late nights, G4??

Animal Heroes

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A dog was hailed as a hero on Sunday after it risked its life to save a litter of newborn kittens from a house fire, rescuers said.

In a case which gives the lie to the saying about 'fighting like cats and dogs', the terrier cross named Leo had to be revived with oxygen and heart massage after his ordeal. Fire broke out overnight at the house in Australia's southern city of Melbourne, where he was guarding the kittens.

Fire fighters who revived Leo said he refused to leave the building and was found by them alongside the litter of kittens, despite thick smoke.

"Leo wouldn't leave the kittens and it nearly cost him his life," fire service Commander Ken Brown told reporters.

The four kittens also survived the fire and Sunday Leo, who fire fighters nicknamed 'Smoky', was again back at the house.

From: Yahoo!

It's ironic sometimes.. how animals can be less selfish than many human beings and go out of their way- even risk their lives- to save babies that aren't even their own. Sometimes I think the human race is rather ... hopeless.

As for my daily Ninjai Clip post of the day: Metacafe is our hero

Memories

All gone. Dammit.

I just finished gardening.

I thought this was a rather interesting little short:

Why can't I remember that thing, person, task?

* Story Highlights
* Experts: Much of midlife fading memory is more about failing attention
* Middle-age brains have harder time blocking unnecessary information
* Don't agree to any appointment until you write it down
* Return important things to right place, or carry them until you can
* Next Article in Living »

By Cathryn Jakobson Ramin
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Oprah

(OPRAH.com) -- I'd barely crossed the threshold of middle age. As a journalist, I was invested in staying smart and quick, mistress of my good brain and sardonic tongue. But almost overnight, I found that I was missing critical information -- the names of people and places, the titles of books and movies.
Make one calendar your best friend and write down specifics of what, where and when, expert says.

Make one calendar your best friend and write down specifics of what, where and when, expert says.

Worse, I had the attention span of a flea. I was having trouble keeping track of my calendar, and my sense of direction had disappeared. The change was so dramatic that sometimes I felt foreign to myself.

Over the course of a few years, as friends and relatives moved into their 40s and 50s, I realized that I was part of a large group of people who were struggling to keep up. I was determined to find a plausible explanation for what was happening to my brain and, by extension, to middle-aged minds in general.

As a first step, I began to study and categorize midlife mental lapses as if they were so many butterflies. Oprah.com: Keep your memory strong as you age

• There was Colliding-Planets Syndrome, which occurs when you fail to grasp, until too late, that you've scheduled a child's orthodontist appointment in the suburbs for the same hour as a business meeting in the city.

• Quick-Who-Is-She Dysfunction surfaces when you are face-to-face with someone whose name stubbornly refuses to come to mind.

• What-Am-I-Doing-Here Paranoia leaves you standing empty-handed in a doorway, trying to figure out what you've come for.
Don't Miss

* Oprah.com: 4 ways to improve your memory
* Oprah.com: How to prevent Alzheimer's
* Oprah.com: Make your midlife years miraculous!

• The Damn-It-They-Were-Just-in-My-Hand Affliction leads to panicky moments spent looking for your favorite new sunglasses, when all the while they're on top of your head.

• And Wrong-Vessel Disorder results in placing the ice cream in the pantry rather than the freezer.

In the past decade, cognitive neuroscientists have learned that much of what we blame on fading memory in midlife can be more accurately attributed to failing attention. Physiological changes in the brain's frontal lobes make it harder to maintain attention in the face of distractions, explains Cheryl Grady, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and assistant director of the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto.

When the frontal lobes are in top form, they're adept at figuring out what's important for the job at hand and what's irrelevant blather; a sort of neural "bouncer" automatically keeps out unnecessary information. In middle age, that bouncer takes a lot of coffee breaks. Instead of focusing on the report that's due, you find yourself wondering what's for dinner. Even background noise -- the phone chatter of the co-worker in the next cubicle --can impair your ability to concentrate on the task before you. Oprah.com: The best ways to manage your time

When the neural bouncer slacks off, the cognitive scratch pad called working memory (which allows us to manipulate and prioritize information, and remember the thread of an argument) is quickly overwhelmed. You know the feeling: You can't absorb one more shred of information, so you erect a sturdy wall, neatly deflecting your husband's announcement that he'll be working late --an announcement you later swear he never made.

"Metaphorically speaking," writes social theorist David Shenk in his book "Data Smog," "we plug up our ears, pinch our noses, cover our eyes& and step into a bodysuit lined with protective padding."

As you age, you may also notice that information that once popped into your head in milliseconds now shows up in its own sweet time. Denise Park, Ph.D., a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has found that while processing speed begins to decline in your late 20s, typically you don't feel the effect until your 40s or 50s. And then you feel as though you're wading through mental Jell-O.

It's tough to acknowledge that your brain is aging right along with your abs, but in both cases you can put up a fight.

Quick-Who-Is-She Dysfunction

One type of forgetfulness is so prevalent, not to mention demoralizing, that just about everyone over 40 complains about it. I refer to the very public cognitive failure known as blocking, or blanking, when names refuse to come to mind and words dart in and out of consciousness, hiding in dark closets just when you need them.

In his landmark book, "The Seven Sins of Memory," the eminent Harvard memory expert Daniel Schacter, Ph.D., notes that the concept of blocking exists in at least 45 languages. The Cheyenne used an expression, "Navonotootse`a", which translates "I have lost it on my tongue." In Korean it is Hyeu kkedu-te mam-dol-da, which in English means "sparkling at the end of my tongue."

In midlife, resolving the "tip of the tongue" dilemma grows increasingly challenging. In the split second between your query -- "What do you call that sleek, dark purple vegetable?" -- and the response -- "eggplant" --your aging brain delivers quantities of unsolicited information.

Often, notes Schacter, "people can produce virtually everything they know about a person...nearly everything they know about a word except its label." The brain volunteers words that begin with the same letter, items that are the same color or shape, and, my favorite, words with the same number of syllables -- all of which gum up the works.

Unfortunately, blocking is most common in social situations, when anxiety and distraction combine to kidnap a chunk of your already challenged working memory. Roman aristocrats avoided the problem by always traveling with a nomenclator, an alert slave whose duty it was to supply his master with the names of acquaintances as they were encountered.

In the film "The Devil Wears Prada", magazine editor Miranda Priestly relies on her young assistant, Andy Sachs, to produce the names of party guests. Absent such a companion, Barbara Wallraff, senior editor and columnist for The Atlantic, sought suggestions from her readers on how to describe what transpires when you're introducing two people but have blocked their names. One reader suggested "whomnesia." Another proposed "mumbleduction." Oprah.com: There is hope for the scatterbrain

With planning, many instances of Quick-Who-Is-She Dysfunction can be eradicated. Before you go to see the eighth-grade play, where you will sit among people you've known since your kids were in kindergarten, take 15 minutes to look over the school directory. You may avoid the embarrassment suffered by my friend Victor, an economist, when he introduced himself to a woman at Back to School Night who reminded him that the year before, at the same event, they'd spent a pleasant hour chatting about their shared alma mater.

Writing down a few key phrases on an index card before putting yourself in a cognitively challenging situation can ward off word loss. Before heading to your book group, take a moment to review the names of the characters and the plot of the fat novel you finished two weeks ago and barely remember. The other members will thank you. If words go missing anyway, grab for a synonym. Staying on the trail like a bloodhound only exacerbates the problem.

Colliding-Planets Syndrome

To your distress, you discover that you agreed to attend your friend Sarah's 50th birthday party on the same night you're supposed to be at a convention in Las Vegas. Now, how did that happen? If I had to guess, I'd say that you said yes to Sarah's birthday ("Of course, I wouldn't miss it!") when you were nowhere near your calendar. If you want to eliminate Colliding-Planets Syndrome, that calendar must be your new best friend.

Don't get cocky and put off entering a date, even if it's just for coffee the following day. Mark A. McDaniel, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert in human learning and memory, found that in the face of even a brief delay, older adults have much more difficulty than younger ones keeping in mind a task to be accomplished in the future. Refuse to agree to anything, ever, without a calendar in front of you.

And don't write down cryptic things like "Starbucks," because you'll draw a blank on which café you meant, and sit for a long time in the wrong one. Where you write things down matters: Multiple calendars -- home, work, school -- can only lead to trouble.

But what about things you must remember to do in the short term, like returning the nurse-practitioner's call in 15 minutes or putting money in the parking meter in a half hour? These are what Daniel Schacter calls time-based commitments, and putting them on your calendar isn't likely to help unless you habitually check it every five minutes.

On less than an hour's notice, my most responsible friend, Jane, agreed to pick up her neighbor's son at school when she collected her own brood. Knowing she had to make it to soccer and ballet in Los Angeles traffic, she was the first in the carpool line, where she efficiently loaded her kids and took off. The neighbor's child sat waiting on a bench until teachers phoned his mother, who had nothing nice to say when she got in touch with Jane.

In midlife we have trouble remembering to do things at specific times because we're at the mercy of a million environmental distractions. One of Denise Park's studies demonstrated that elderly subjects were more likely to remember to take their medication on schedule than middle-aged subjects, because in midlife the crush of extenuating circumstances often got in the way.

To remember to make that call to the nurse practitioner, Schacter told me, you're going to need an unmistakable cue, one that will be both available and informative. An alarm clock on the desk in front of you can do the job, but under no circumstances should you permit yourself to switch off the clock and finish just one more thing before you pick up the phone. And don't count on your PDA: You've heard those bleeps and blurps so often, you've learned to ignore them.

Damn-It-They-Were-Just-in-My-Hand Affliction

Even the most meticulously managed PDA won't work if you misplace it. And as luck would have it, the items we lose most often -- keys, glasses, wallets, cell phones, planners -- are the ones that are crucial to our survival.

This abject failure to keep track of our belongings may emerge from the brain's talent for forecasting the future. The neocortex, a long-term storage facility, constantly predicts how we'll behave in specific situations, explains Jeff Hawkins in his book "On Intelligence." Instead of reinventing the wheel every time we do something familiar, the brain chooses from a library of existing patterns, based on choices we've made before. A novel event -- a man with a gun -- gets the brain's full attention, but when we're merely lugging groceries into the house, we shift into autopilot. And autopilot is the mode in which we're likely to misplace things.

The problem can be remedied, but only with a preemptive strike. Awareness is essential: When the phone rings as you're entering the house loaded down with groceries, don't drop your keys on the counter, where they will be buried in the day's mail, making you frantically late for your dinner engagement. If you can't immediately hang the keys on the hook where they belong, keep them on your person until you can; one woman I know slips them into her bra, creating a silhouette so inelegant that she can't possibly forget where she put them.

Give up your habit of tucking important items into indiscriminate pockets of your purse or briefcase. Choose one secure zone -- front, zippered -- where you always keep your boarding pass or passport, and never alter it. You'll save yourself the discomfort of searching high and low under the stern surveillance of security personnel.

Wrong-Vessel Disorder

When you lose track of what you intended to say or do, you've had what cognitive psychologists call a prospective lapse. Wrong-Vessel Disorder is a manifestation of this problem: With the best intentions, you absentmindedly place your cell phone in your briefcase, which has many of the same attributes as your purse. Saturday morning, when you reach into your bag and come up empty, you're mystified. Because you're barely conscious when it strikes, it's hard to fend off Wrong-Vessel Disorder. You just have to laugh.

But prospective failures also show up as What-Am-I-Doing-Here Paranoia: Suddenly, as if someone depressed the power button on the remote, you go blank. The minigaps, where you march purposefully to the kitchen, only to stand there and scratch your head, are irritating; the yawning caverns can really shake your confidence. Fran, the marketing director of a local bank, was bright-eyed and ready to give her quarterly presentation before the board -- until somewhere in midsentence, three out of six points eluded her, an experience that made her realize that her days of winging it were over.

Mark McDaniel observes that younger adults make use of robust working memory, relying on a little voice that automatically whispers "get milk, get milk, get milk," all the way home. In midlife that voice is easily interrupted ("Oh, look, it's raining! Now, where did I put that umbrella?") -- at least until you're in the driveway. If you can send the voice back into the game, you'll avoid a lot of extra trips to the store. I've stuck Post-it notes on the steering wheel, which makes driving awkward, but at least I don't return home with the FedEx package still beside me on the front seat.

What-Am-I-Doing-Here Paranoia

When what you forget is not a grocery item but an idea, you've no alternative but to backtrack mentally. It's vaguely amusing to do this with a friend at lunch -- "What on earth were we talking about?" -- but in a professional situation it hurts. With a little digging, you can often extract a key idea that lingers in your working memory and, from there, reconstruct the context of the discussion. In such cases, it is helpful to have a stockpile of useful phrases, conversation fillers that buy you time. "Do you see what I mean?" works well, as does my friend Jeff's old standby, delivered with the greatest sincerity: "Now that's very interesting," even when it isn't.

When a colleague stood me up for breakfast, after exchanging no fewer than nine e-mails about where and when earlier in the week, I wasn't upset -- I was as curious as a botanist who has come upon a valuable specimen. How had it happened? Had planets collided yet again? In a classic demonstration of autopilot, he'd exited the commuter train, jumped on the subway, and gone straight to work, failing to stop at the café across the street from the station where we'd planned to meet. When I phoned his cell, it took him several seconds to realize his mistake, at which point he howled in dismay.

He didn't want to talk about it, but nevertheless I probed. "Wait," I said, "let's dissect it. How did it start?"

As was his habit, he had carefully printed out his schedule the previous night before leaving work, he explained. Then he packed up his briefcase and departed, leaving the piece of paper in the printer. From that moment on, our breakfast appointment never crossed his mind. "Is this normal?" he asked. It was normal, I assured him, in that it happened regularly to people in midlife. But that didn't mean he had to sit back and take it. It was time to make a stand.

From: CNN Personals

Warm Hands- Warm Hearts

I knew it all along!

Study: Warm hands do make warm hearts

* Story Highlights
* Research: Touching something warm can make you feel more warmly toward others
* Yale University scientists recruit 41 college students for sneaky research study
* Students holding warm cups of coffee showed more psychological warmth
* Students holding an ice pad were more likely to be less generous to others

* Next Article in Technology »

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Time to update that old saying "cold hands, warm heart." New research shows touching something warm can make you feel and act more warmly toward others.
A study by Yale University scientists found that physical warmth can promote psychological warmth.

A study by Yale University scientists found that physical warmth can promote psychological warmth.

Whether someone is deemed to have a "warm" or "cold" personality makes a powerful first impression. That led Yale University scientists to wonder if physical warmth could promote psychological warmth, by subconsciously priming people to think better of others.

It took a sneaky study to find out: Scientists recruited 41 college students for what they thought was personality research. A lab worker escorted each participant up the elevator of Yale's psychology building and casually asked for help holding her cup of coffee -- either hot or iced -- while she recorded the student's name on a clipboard.

Inside the lab, the students were given a description of a fictitious person described as industrious, cautious and determined, and then rated that person's presumed personality traits.

Students who had held the hot cup saw the person as more generous, sociable and good-natured than those who had held the cold cup -- all traits that psychologists consider part of a "warm" personality, the researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science. Yet there were no differences between the two groups on ratings of honesty, attractiveness or strength, traits not associated with either warm or cold personalities.

Then researchers recruited 53 different students for a second study, having them briefly hold one of those heat or ice pads sold in drugstores for pain, allegedly as part of product-testing. Really the test was which trinket the students chose as a thank you for participating: An ice-cream coupon or bottled drink for themselves, or one for a friend.

Students who held the hot pad were more likely to choose a reward for a friend, while those who held the ice pad were more likely to choose a reward for themselves.

So is the moral of the story to hand out hot drinks when you want to make a good first impression?

Not quite. The bigger message is that very subtle cues from our environment can significantly influence behavior and feelings, said lead researcher Dr. Lawrence Williams, who conducted the study while completing his psychology graduate degree at Yale.

Physical and psychological concepts "are much more closely aligned in the mind than we have previously appreciated," said Williams, now at the University of Colorado.

Indeed, other research has found that the same brain region that processes physical temperature changes, called the insula, also processes feelings of trust and empathy associated with social warmth.

"Parts of the brain that we know process physical attributes, whether it's motor movements or physical pain -- the same circuitry more and more is seen with more mental qualities," said Dr. Caroline Zink of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the new research. "It's very interesting from a neuroscientist's perspective that there are those similarities."

The whole concept of social warmth is learned in infancy, Williams said. He pointed to a classic psychology study that found attachment and affection were more dependent on hugs and cuddles that happen to be physically warm than on merely ensuring a baby is fed.

As for a practical use for the finding: Those free food samples distributed in grocery stores probably entice more shoppers if they're warm, advises Williams, now an assistant marketing professor.

From: CNN

With a bunch of people I know I knew this was the case because well.. all the people I know with cold hands are quite difficult to deal with. Of course not all of them are the same way, but a lot of them sure are!

As for my daily Ninjai posting: Ninjai International Hmm. . seeing all these sites which are like, Brazillian sites, Chinese sites- etc with Ninjai on it. It makes me quite interested.

Girls Brains are Better

His Brain, Her Brain
Men and women really think differently.
By Rich Maloof for MSN Health & Fitness
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An old joke circulates among neurologists, and it goes something like this: A patient must undergo brain-replacement surgery, and the patient's family asks how much a brain will cost. "Well, it's $5,000 for a male brain and $250 for a female brain," says the surgeon. Just as the men of the family start to snicker, the surgeon clarifies: "We mark down the price of the female brains because they've actually been used."

While surely more popular among female neuroscientists, the joke begs significant questions about gender and the brain. Do women and men share the same mental potential, and are our brains identically equipped?

We've been poking around under the cranial hood for centuries now, and the brain remains by far the least understood organ in the body. However, research has revealed a few intriguing distinctions between the sexes.

For years it was assumed that gender differences in brain functionality were controlled by sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen. Now we understand that every one of the brain's four lobes differs between men and women in size, neurochemical makeup and function.

Superhighways and country roads

The female predisposition for empathy and social grace, for example, has been linked to a part of the brain called the isthmus. The isthmus is a narrow stretch of the corpus callosum, a band of tissue that connects the left and right sides of the brain, and in women it is pronouncedly thicker. Greater connectivity between the brain's two hemispheres may explain why women are typically better at linking emotion with language.

In general, the left hemisphere is in charge of functions of precision and logic; science, reading and writing, analysis, and fact management are all characteristic. The right hemisphere is in charge of nonlinear, imaginative thinking, as used in creativity, perception and humor. Even in scientific circles these right-side aspects were long undervalued—for years, the right brain was known as the "minor" hemisphere.

You can see, then, why a strong link between sides is assumed to come with certain benefits. For instance, the left side can more easily assign the appropriate expression to a feeling that the right side has processed.

This doesn't mean men have any less right- or left-brain capacity—just less connectivity between the two. When the isthmus is thicker (say that 10 times fast), the brain stands to operate more holistically. "Women have a superhighway going on there," the poet Robert Bly once told The New York Times, while men "have a country road."

His Brain, Her Brain
(continued)
< Previous | 1 | 2

What's the matter?

Also, while men tend to have physically bigger brains—because brain size is related to body size—women's brains have a cortex that is 15 to 20 percent more developed. Commonly referred to as gray matter, the cortex is that top layer full of folds that's responsible for primary functions like speech, movement and perception. It's actually not gray but a girly pink color—coincidence?

Despite these evolutionary advantages, and the claims of wives and girlfriends everywhere, the male brain is not an entirely lost cause. Men counter all of that gray matter with proportionally more white matter. This is where the brain's interconnections are made. An elaborate system of nerve fibers provides conduits among everything the brain learns; the more connections made in your white matter, the smarter you get.

The components of knowledge—memories, sensations, skills—are all stored in different parts of the brain, and they're only put to good use when they're put in touch with one another. Each is like a light bulb that can't shine any light until it becomes part of the circuit. It's due to an abundance of white-matter connectivity that men are sometimes advantaged with organization, attention to detail, spatial relations and problem solving. At a young age, males' ability to think systematically is evident at play with toys like Legos, which call on strengths like visualization and understanding of a geometric system. Grown men often show similar acuity with navigation and engineering.

Life outside the brain

The differences between male and female brains shouldn't be overemphasized. As most researchers will tell you, there are far greater neurological differences between individuals than there are between men and women at large. The number of nerve fibers in the corpus callosum, for example, can vary from one person to the next by threefold. Back in the 1960s, surgeons even cut the corpus callosum clean through as a last-ditch effort to treat uncontrolled epilepsy. They found that these patients could carry on most functions quite well.

Still, we're inclined toward generalizations. Women are sympathizers and men are systemizers. Left-brained people are calculating and right-brainers are dreamers. We like sweeping ideas like these because they promise to explain clashes, when true peace of mind—and peace among the sexes—is in managing a balance between two perfectly matched halves of a whole.

From: MSN

I knew it all along. :D

And of course, the daily Ninjai Chapter

Allergies? Here's some new ways to get rid of them

First of all, my Ninjai chapter promise, but god, this guy's quite a goofy!

12 Home Remedies for Allergies
Tips to help you breathe easier, and minimize the itching and scratchingNext >
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Slow Fast12 Home Remedies for Allergies
12 Home Remedies for Allergies // Man in cluttered house (© Bigshots/Getty Images)
Allergies are the result of an immune system run amok. They develop when your immune system overreacts to a normally harmless substance, such as pollen, cat dander or dust. These medication-free remedies will help you get on the path to easier breathing and less itching and scratching.



Minimize clutter


Dried flowers, books, stuffed animals, and other homey touches collect dust and allergens. Try to keep knickknacks in closets or drawers or rid your home of them entirely.

Well that's the first one. If you really want to read more, MSN's got the rest of it.

Not again...

Pretty odd stuff isn't it?

I just got back from swimming. I went surfing for a bit.. or at least I TRIED to. It was better than the last time I went, at least it's still shallow but bit deeper than it was last time. It meant less pain when falling of the board!

Political stuff... again!

Palin on SNL
Haha.. well.. got to give her a bit of credit for having a sense of humor.

Nothing much interesting happening for me. I've just been enjoying myself at the beach. Good waves, awesome clean water, it's warm, can swim all day, and the sharks haven't been showing themselves. *knocks wood*

I find it rather funny that Ninjai is on Askmen.com. It makes me wonder if the Ninjai Gang members are members at that site.



Damn.. I wish I could've gotten my hands on this. Anyway, they've got a good enough almost real version of it on Ninjai Journal.

Assisted Suicide

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police have launched an investigation after a young disabled sportsman traveled to Switzerland to commit suicide, UK media report.
Daniel James, who played rugby for England under-16s, was paralyzed during match practice last year.

Daniel James, who played rugby for England under-16s, was paralyzed during match practice last year.
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Daniel James, 23, from Sinton Green in western England was paralyzed from the chest down in March 2007 when a rugby scrum collapsed on top of him during match practice, dislocating his spine, the UK's Press Association has reported.

Worcestershire Coroner's Service, which is conducing an inquest into the circumstances of his death, states on its Web site that James died on September 12 after he "traveled to Switzerland with a view to ending his own life. He was admitted to a clinic where he died."

The inquest was adjourned on September 19 for reports.

West Mercia police say that a man and a woman are helping the force with their enquiries. Assisting someone to commit suicide is illegal in the UK, as it is in most other European countries. What do you think of assisted suicide?

James, who played rugby for England under-16s, was a university student at the time of his injury last year. He is believed to be the youngest person from the UK to have traveled to Switzerland to commit suicide.

In a statement Friday, reported by PA, James' parents said that he had attempted to kill himself several times already. Video Watch why James opted for suicide »

"His death was an extremely sad loss for his family, friends and all those that care for him but no doubt a welcome relief from the 'prison' he felt his body had become and the day-to-day fear and loathing of his living existence, as a result of which he took his own life.

"This is the last way that the family wanted Dan's life to end but he was, as those who know him are aware, an intelligent, strong-willed and some say determined young man," PA reported James' parents as saying.

"The family suffered considerably over the last few months and do wish to be left in peace to allow them to grieve appropriately."

James' parents added that their son, "an intelligent young man of sound mind," had never come to terms with his condition and was "not prepared to live what he felt was a second-class existence".

Adrian Harling, the family solicitor, would not comment on the investigation, PA reported.
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More than 100 people from the UK who have committed suicide in Switzerland have traveled to the Dignitas Clinic in Forch. It is not know if James attended the clinic.

Switzerland, along with Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, are the only European countries where authorities will not prosecute those who assist with suicide.

from:

While I would rather die than being paralyzed, I really don't like the whole idea of assisted suicide. There's got to be better ways of doing things. It's just ... this is just one of the really bad things that happens when people want church and state totally separated.

And of course.. today's Ninjai Chapter being featured is Ninjai Chapter 4

Math mistake sees hundreds of teachers laid off

Ooohhmmmmyyyygoddd I love puppies !!!


mrhpf. I've always hated math ... but I feel sorry for the math teachers who got laid off.

Math mistake sees hundreds of teachers laid off
(CNN) -- The Dallas, Texas, school district laid off hundreds of teachers Thursday to avoid a projected $84 million deficit.
Second-grade teacher Sandy Keaton says her students lose with the Dallas schools job cuts.

Second-grade teacher Sandy Keaton says her students lose with the Dallas schools job cuts.

"Today is a day of tremendous sadness throughout the district," Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said in a written statement.

"These teachers and counselors are people who devoted themselves to helping Dallas students, and we will do everything within our power to help them find new jobs."

The district laid off 375 teachers and 40 counselors and assistant principals Thursday, and transferred 460 teachers to other schools within the district.

The deficit was caused by a massive miscalculation in the budget, CNN affiliate WFAA-TV reported.

Children, one crying, crowded Thursday around Mary Crose, a music teacher at San Jacinto Elementary School.

"I've had them since they were in kindergarten," she told The Dallas Morning News, as she wrapped her arms around two of the children. "We've been through a lot at our school, and it's going to be so hard. We need the prayers and support of everyone in Dallas."

"Why do you have to leave?" a girl wailed, through her tears.
Don't Miss

* WFAA: Dallas loses 'some of the best teachers'
* Teachers want to flunk new grading policy

"I've been looking at some of the notes they've already written," Crose said, unfolding several pieces of notebook paper. A pink heart had been drawn on one. Words were scrawled on others in crayon.

"My kids are going to lose out because I'm a very good teacher, and so they're going to lose out because they won't have me," a tearful Sandy Keaton, a second-grade teacher at San Jacinto Elementary, told WFAA. Video Watch teacher's tearful lament »

The 375 teachers represent about 3 percent of the district's more than 11,500 teachers. Last week, 152 employees -- including clerks, office managers and teacher assistants -- voluntarily left their jobs, the district said. On September 29, 62 central staff members lost their jobs.

Voluntarily resignations and transfers spared 88 jobs, WFAA reported.

The district estimates that the job cuts and unfilled vacancies will save $30 million. An additional $38 million will be saved by cutting various programs throughout the district.

The Dallas Independent School District is the nation's 12th largest, with more than 160,000 students.

"The children are going to suffer," Karina Colon, a prekindergarten bilingual teacher at San Jacinto Elementary, told The Dallas Morning News.
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Colon kept her job, but was crying for her colleagues. "I should feel happy," she said.

The Dallas Independent School District will hold a job fair Tuesday for all employees who were given notice. More than 110 employers will attend the fair, which was put together by the district, the United Way and the Dallas Regional Chamber.

cutie pie

He is growing up without a mother's love. But this tiny muntjac fawn appears to have a lucky streak nonetheless.

He was born three weeks early after his mother was hit by a car.

Vets battled to save her but she died soon afterwards. The little orphan, delivered by Caesarean section, was just six inches tall and, at 500 grams, weighed little more than a bag of sugar.
It looked like he, too, would face a tough fight for survival.

But staff at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Buckinghamshire believe Rupert, as he has been named, will make a full recovery after his dramatic arrival.

At five days old, he is being kept in an incubator and has just opened his eyes.
Les Stocker, founder of Tiggywinkles, said: 'Rupert's mother had very severe injuries. We brought him out and got him breathing and then he went into an incubator on oxygen. He is now being fed by a tube.'
'Deer are very, very tricky but this one has spirit. He's an extremely feisty little guy and quite pushy,' he added.

Far Cry 2?

New games? Wii 2? What do you think? Is it worth it?

Huge thunderstorm here now. I'm feeling really tired. I slept before 8 last night. I'm just.. tired. I seem to have hit a wall or something. Anyway, I should get back to it soon enough.

Technology and our brains

SCIENCE
Reading This Will Change Your Brain

A leading neuroscientist says processing digital information can rewire your circuits. But is it evolution?
By Jeneen Interlandi | NEWSWEEK
Published Oct 14, 2008


* From the Editors (2)
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* Gary Small

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Is technology changing our brains? A new study by UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small adds to a growing body of research that says it is. And according to Small's new book, "iBRAIN: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind," a dramatic shift in how we gather information and communicate with one another has touched off an era of rapid evolution that may ultimately change the human brain as we know it. "Perhaps not since early man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically," he writes. "As the brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills."

The impact of technology on our circuitry should not come as a surprise. The brain's plasticity—it's ability to change in response to different stimuli—is well known. Professional musicians have more gray matter in brain regions responsible for planning finger movements. And athletes' brains are bulkier in areas that control hand-eye coordination. That's because the more time you devote to a specific activity, the stronger the neural pathways responsible for executing that activity become. So it makes sense that people who process a constant stream of digital information would have more neurons dedicated to filtering that information. Still, that's not the same thing as evolution.

To see how the Internet might be rewiring us, Small and colleagues monitored the brains of 24 adults as they performed a simulated Web search, and again as they read a page of text. During the Web search, those who reported using the Internet regularly in their everyday lives showed twice as much signaling in brain regions responsible for decision-making and complex reasoning, compared with those who had limited Internet exposure. The findings, to be published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, suggest that Internet use enhances the brain's capacity to be stimulated, and that Internet reading activates more brain regions than printed words. The research adds to previous studies that have shown that the tech-savvy among us possess greater working memory (meaning they can store and retrieve more bits of information in the short term), are more adept at perceptual learning (that is, adjusting their perception of the world in response to changing information), and have better motor skills.

Small says these differences are likely to be even more profound across generations, because younger people are exposed to more technology from an earlier age than older people. He refers to this as the brain gap. On one side, what he calls digital natives—those who have never known a world without e-mail and text messaging—use their superior cognitive abilities to make snap decisions and juggle multiple sources of sensory input. On the other side, digital immigrants—those who witnessed the advent of modern technology long after their brains had been hardwired—are better at reading facial expressions than they are at navigating cyberspace. "The typical immigrant's brain was trained in completely different ways of socializing and learning, taking things step-by-step and addressing one task at a time," he says. "Immigrants learn more methodically and tend to execute tasks more precisely."

But whether natural selection will favor one skill set over the other remains to be seen. For starters, there's no reason to believe the two behaviors are mutually exclusive. In fact, a 2005 Kaiser study found that young people who spent the most time engaged with high-technology also spent the most time interacting face-to-face, with friends and family. And as Small himself points out, digital natives and digital immigrants can direct their own neural circuitry—reaping the cognitive benefits of modern technology while preserving traditional social skills—simply by making time for both.

In the meantime, modern technology, and the skills it fosters, is evolving even faster than we are. There's no telling whether future iterations of computer games, online communities and the like will require more or less of the traditional social skills and learning strategies that we've spent so many eons cultivating. "Too many people write about this as if kids are in one country and adults are in another," says James Gee, a linguistics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. What the future brain will look like is still anybody's guess.

© 2008

From Newsweek

I don't agree with the evolution thing. I think it may even be a reversal. A lot of people today are a lot less analytical, and well rounded in a sense that they have more skills than less.

New day

I went to the pet store today. There were so many uber uber cute puppies and bunnies. Just one hamster. I wanted to get all of them. I'm a sucker for animals. :(
My dog is pregnant for sure. Her teats are getting so much bigger now.

Icanhasacheezburger.com is one of the websites that just totally gets my mood much better.

Chapter 6

Ninjai Chapter 6- well.. this was the chapter when the Ninjai Gang's style took a big change. Took a bit for this to come out..but well worth the wait of course.



Ooohhh.. aren't these guys such darlings?

The Members of the Ninjai Gang

Hmm... I wonder if this is a member of the Ninjai Gang.


They are just so... soo intruiging.



It drives me nuts. They're really mean it's like they say something, get interest in themselves, and in their projects like Ninjai and Karma Kula, but don't actually give anything... or not yet anyway. It's driving me batty!

Languages

I'm a cross breed, so to speak .. but I don't know how to speak Japanese. Minus points for my mom on that one. Hrmpf. Makes me wonder a bit.

Chapter 7- Little bird saves Ninjai!

funny stuff

Taken from John Perlow's blog

New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret
Monday, October 06, 2008 6:25 PM
Posted by Jon Perlow, Gmail engineer

Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?

By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it's active in the General settings.

Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't. Like that late night memo -- I mean mission statement -- to the entire firm.

Good fun!

Danny Way

Woohoo!!

Check out this awesome video of Danny Way

Check that out. That's pretty awesome stuff, I'd say. :)

Puppies!!

Hey. My dog really is pregnant. I checked her teats today and they're getting bigger!! woohooo :) puppies!! She'll be giving birth around November 20th or so.

Ninjai Chapters!!


A member of the Ninjai Gang
Isn't she pretty? :)

Satchi Gallery

Well.. no.. almost! :(

Saatchi Gallery, London

RIP

Big crowd farewells surfing pioneer Troy

Posted 4 hours 51 minutes ago

* Map: Nambour 4560

Mourners flew in from around Australia and the world to attend the funeral of one of Australia's most respected surfing identities, Peter Troy, on the Sunshine Coast today.

Hawaiian shirts and colourful prints were worn by almost everyone who turned out for Troy's funeral at Nambour.

The 70-year-old died from a blood clot last week at his home in Mudjimba.

There was standing room only, with an estimated 250 people attending the funeral.

The vice-president of the International Surfing Association, Alan Atkins, delivered the eulogy and says Troy was an icon.

"Peter sort of broke the new ground, rode the big waves. He was recognised as the founder of surfing in Europe and France and also in Peru," he said.

Friends are also planning a 'paddle out' to scatter the ashes at a future date.

Ninjai Chapter 11

Death take 3

People must think I'm like .. morbid by now. All I think about is death. I just figure that .. it's something that needs to be thought about... and with all the deaths around me recently I can't help but think about it, and I think it's a good thing to be thinking of it, really.

Anyway. I'm kinda just spacing out right now trying to think of what to put in my reflection paper for school. It's my last one. bggzzzz

Longest Ninjai Gang Chapter

Man takes 50 years to hear his consience

Man returns stolen plaque after 50 years
Guilty conscience over childhood prank finally caught up with him

updated 6:40 a.m. PT, Sat., Oct. 4, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Tim Haney of Normal, Ill., finally had enough of his conscience nagging him about a Halloween prank he once participated in.

Haney said he and a couple of his young friends took a historical plaque from a tree at the Vrooman Mansion in Bloomington. He was about 12 at the time.

He's 62 now.
So, 50 years after the event, he recently took the plaque back to the Vrooman Mansion and told innkeeper Theora Stark there about his long-ago misdeed.

Stark says the 12-by-15-inch plaque is now in a vault at the mansion, but she expects it will go back on display.

The plaque made reference to Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas giving speeches under the tree.

From MSN.com

Can you say slow?

Death again

A good friend of my dad's just died a couple days ago. It's quite a shock. A shock to everyone. He was perfectly fine, was a health nut, and one morning.. BAM! Just like that, he's gone. His wife woke up, went to cuddle and realized he was gone. I'm sure she's utterly heart broken now.. this world's a bitch.

This always cracks me up.. it's kinda crude, but it's still funny

Normalicy

Well.. things looked better this morning. I'm embarrassed about my rant yesterday. At least I got it out right?

I realized that it really doesn't make much sense to just wallow on the problem. Got to just .. do something else, think of something else- get engrossed with some other things and it just fixes up the whole problem. Can't see it, can't feel it.

Right?

I'm thinking of getting some hamsters.. oh.. I never got to talk about my pets again anytime recently.

I'll talk about the very first puppy I got- his name was Dunlop (my unlce gave him to me) he was an extremely ugly puppy -oh my god.. and this guy, all he did was have the runs, and well... way back then my dad had told us that if we wanted pets, we had to clean up after them and etc. So there I was I happened to be given the ugliest puppy my uncle sent (he sent one for each of us kids) because my sisters woke up earlier.. yeah yeah.. early bird gets the best dog. Anyway.. he died soon after. He had a bad case of worms and frothing in the mouth from what I can remember.. so .. there went my first puppy.

My second puppy was another ugly ugly dog, we named him... "kamote" because he was so ugly. Poor guy got poisoned. After these two dogs (mix breed/cross breeds), I got my first purebred dog from the same uncle who sent me Dunlop. This time it was a labrador.
Speaking of which, I LOVE HUGS- from people I like that is. My labrador changed everything. I loved him so much. He and I spent endless hours playing everyday. I had him from the time I was 9-15.. well, nearly 16, like, two months off. My poor friend died of some weird disease that the vets couldn't even figure out either. He had all these huge sores on his legs that stank like his body was rotting away. I would clean them for him and one day I saw the bone when I was cleaning his wounds... be back..


Ninjai Gang ... where are our goodies? Chapters?

What a world

This world is such a miserable place. I've been listening to our neighbors yelling at each other all day- and not just any yelling, I mean like.. SERIOUS yelling. What a world. It always makes me wonder why the hell I have to go through all these different things- relationships.. schooling.. it's all such a trip. There's so much pain, and in the end all that's going to happen is I'm going to be left alone. I can take no one, - I can take nothing that I will have in this world with me... I mean, check out all the people who die- all the billions of dollars that fattened their bank accounts- left on earth for their grateful relatives to fight over. The beautiful family they had? Well.. did I mention fighting over the left over stuff?
Cars? Guns? Yummy food? Left in the garage or rotting in the fridge. What gives? Why is it like this? Why do we have to do all this? I used to hope Ninjai would help me answer my questions.. but it never finished... things are just going to go the same old way. I'm a weary traveller already.. when will my journey finally end? When will I find home, when will I find love, when will I be happy? I hate it all.