Let’s see what’s out there this evening. Just finished supper.
U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel)
US military struggling to stop suicide epidemic among war veterans
For William Nash, a retired Navy psychiatrist who directed the marine corps’ combat stress control programme, William Busbee’s expressions of torment are all too familiar. He has worked with hundreds of service members who have been grappling with suicidal thoughts, not least when he was posted to Fallujah in Iraq during the height of the fighting in 2004.
He and colleagues in military psychiatry have developed the concept of “moral injury” to help understand the current wave of self-harm. He defines that as “damage to your deeply held beliefs about right and wrong. It might be caused by something that you do or fail to do, or by something that is done to you – but either way it breaks that sense of moral certainty.”
Contrary to widely held assumptions, it is not the fear and the terror that service members endure in the battlefield that inflicts most psychological damage, Nash has concluded, but feelings of shame and guilt related to the moral injuries they suffer. Top of the list of such injuries, by a long shot, is when one of their own people is killed.
“I have heard it over and over again from marines – the most common source of anguish for them was failing to protect their ‘brothers’. The significance of that is unfathomable, it’s comparable to the feelings I’ve heard from parents who have lost a child.”
Too bad the House Republicans can’t investigate this.
Saudi preacher spared after raping, killing daughter
A Saudi preacher who raped his five-year-old daughter and tortured her to death has been sentenced to pay “blood money” to the mother after having served a short jail term, activists said on Saturday.
Lamia al-Ghamdi was admitted to hospital on December 25, 2011 with multiple injuries, including a crushed skull, broken ribs and left arm, extensive bruising and burns, the activists said. She died last October 22.
Fayhan al-Ghamdi, an Islamic preacher and regular guest on Muslim television networks, confessed to having used cables and a cane to inflict the injuries, the activists from the group “Women to Drive” said in a statement.
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The ruling is based on Islamic laws that a father cannot be executed for murdering his children, nor can husbands be executed for murdering their wives, activists said.
I thought Saudi Arabia had rather harsh penalties for seemingly minor offenses sometimes. Great Islamic ruling there . . . also, h/t to plf515 for the retweet of this.
Young Afghans Face Backlash Over Music
Laila Nabizadeh, a 13-year-old Afghan drummer, will be performing in New York’s Carnegie Hall this month, as part of Afghanistan’s only national orchestra, which has been touted as a symbol of the country’s progress since the Taliban’s downfall.
But when she returns from her U.S. tour, the new, more conservative winds blowing in Kabul are threatening her budding music career.
Ms. Nabizadeh and 10 other members of the youth orchestra are residents of a charity-run girls’ shelter in Kabul. She was sent here to get an education by her parents, who live in the remote eastern province of Nuristan, much of which is under Taliban control.
Gregg Mortenson, author, tweeted this story.
As Midland City standoff drags on, town grieves bus driver
As the standoff with a man accused of holding a 5-year-old boy hostage continued Saturday, a nearby community prepared to bury the beloved bus driver who was shot to death when the episode started to unfold five days ago.
Charles Albert Poland Jr., a 66-year-old man known around his town as Chuck, was described by folks in his hometown of Newton as a humble hero who gave his life Tuesday to protect the children on his bus. Visitations services for Poland were scheduled for Saturday evening, and his funeral was set for Sunday afternoon.
As the mother of a special needs son, this story breaks my heart.
Trent Nelson for the Salt Lake Tribune
Utes honor late Rick Majerus by raising replica of his sweater
For William Nash, a retired Navy psychiatrist who directed the marine corps’ combat stress control programme, William Busbee’s expressions of torment are all too familiar. He has worked with hundreds of service members who have been grappling with suicidal thoughts, not least when he was posted to Fallujah in Iraq during the height of the fighting in 2004.
He and colleagues in military psychiatry have developed the concept of “moral injury” to help understand the current wave of self-harm. He defines that as “damage to your deeply held beliefs about right and wrong. It might be caused by something that you do or fail to do, or by something that is done to you – but either way it breaks that sense of moral certainty.”
Contrary to widely held assumptions, it is not the fear and the terror that service members endure in the battlefield that inflicts most psychological damage, Nash has concluded, but feelings of shame and guilt related to the moral injuries they suffer. Top of the list of such injuries, by a long shot, is when one of their own people is killed.
“I have heard it over and over again from marines – the most common source of anguish for them was failing to protect their ‘brothers’. The significance of that is unfathomable, it’s comparable to the feelings I’ve heard from parents who have lost a child.”
Wonderful Life With the Elements Imagines the Periodic Table as People
Let’s be honest: Sometimes, the periodic table can seem a little daunting. There are so many elements – and more getting added all the time – and only a couple of letters to tell them apart, making it difficult to tell your Copernicium (Symbol: Cn) from your Cerium (Symbol: Ce). Thanks to a book by Japanese artist Benpei Yorifuji, there’s now a much easier way to identify the elements: Check out their hair and fashion sense.
In Wonderful Life With the Elements: The Periodic Table Personified, Yorifuji makes the many elements seem a little more individual by illustrating each one as as an anthropomorphic cartoon character, with distinctive hairstyles and clothes to help readers tell them apart. Nitrogens have mohawks because they “hate normal,” for example, while noble gases have afros because they are “too cool” to react to extreme heat or cold. Man-made elements are depicted in robot suits, while elements used in industrial application wear business attire.
This came in a tweet, too. I wonder about Marie Curie.
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