ENCOURAGING: Oklahoma girls’ basketball team does the moral thing

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/15/oklahoma-girls-basketball-team-championship-return?utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=66c4b9c55d78644b3a882a4d

Oklahoma girls’ basketball team returns championship after realizing they lost

  • Scoreboard error gave Academy of Classical Christian Studies team the edge over Apache high school

José Olivares
Wed 15 Oct 2025 05.00 EDT

*** begin quote ***

A US high school girls basketball team is said to have proved “there are still good people in this world” after taking the unprecedented step of returning a championship it had won after realizing they had actually lost the title-clinching game.

The story stems from the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association, where a crucial scoreboard error early in the game gave the girls basketball team at Academy of Classical Christian Studies the edge over its Apache high school counterpart, as CBS News recently reported.

*** end quote ***

“Let us remember we are in the Holy Presence of God. For more days than I’d care to count, those words were said in my presence. Not until now do I think I begin to understand them.” — character “John” in CHURCH 10●19●62 Volume 2 Page 371

Here’s a classic case of “doing what’s right” when it would be easier to do nothing.  But forever, that coach and team would know that they did NOT win.  In essence, they would be cheating themselves out of an opportunity to grow up.  

“Your habits will determine your future.” — Jack Canfield in The Power of Focus

I hope that everyone make a big fuss and an exemplar of what “good American character” looks like.  The most comperable example is when those Japanese sports fans at the Olympics cleaned up after themselves. 

We can all learn some lessons here.

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HEALTHCARE: Amazing that Brain tumour diagnosis could be made within hours

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/may/21/brain-tumour-diagnosis-could-be-made-within-hours-say-researchers?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nautilus-newsletter

Cancer research
Brain tumour diagnosis could be made within hours, say researchers
New testing method means treatments could start sooner, possibly before patient leaves the operating table
Nicola Davis Science correspondent
Tue 20 May 2025 19.01 EDT

*** begin quote ***

A new method for diagnosing brain tumours could cut the time patients wait for treatments by weeks to hours and raise the possibility of novel types of therapy, researchers have said.

According to the Brain Tumour Charity, about 740,000 people around the world are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year, around half of which are non-cancerous. Once a brain tumour is found, a sample is taken during surgery and cells are immediately studied under a microscope by pathologists, who can often identify the type of tumour. However, genetic testing helps to make or confirm the diagnosis.

“Almost all of the samples will go for further testing anyway. But for some of them it will be absolutely crucial, because you won’t know what you’re looking at,” said Prof Matthew Loose, a co-author of the research from the University of Nottingham.

Loose noted that in the UK there could be a lag of eight weeks or longer between surgery and the full results of genetic tests, delaying the confirmation of a diagnosis and hence treatment such as chemotherapy.

*** and ***

And there are other possibilities. “If you could identify, as we think we might be able to, the specific tumour type fast enough, and drugs were available that could be administered during surgery directly to the tumour area, then you have opened up a whole new class of potential treatment options,” he said.

In addition, he said, rapid diagnoses could help ensure patients are recruited into relevant clinical trials for new treatments as quickly as possible.

Dr Matt Williams, a consultant oncologist at Imperial College healthcare NHS trust, who was not involved in the work, said while faster diagnoses were welcome and reduced the period of uncertainty for patients, the main question was how the new technology could be used to change care.

“At the moment [intra-operative treatments] don’t really exist, although several groups are working on it ,” he said. “But if [we] want to unlock these approaches, we need to be able to make those diagnoses in the operating theatre to then be able to deploy these treatments.” 

*** end quote ***

Now that’s impressive.  And, it can completely change treatment and outcomes.  At the very least, it can reassure the patients with slow tumors to be reassured and those with fast ones to be expedited. 

And, intra-operative treatments will surely soon follow.

Kudos and congrats to the team.

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VOCABULARY: Luck — “circumstantial, “resultant or outcome l”, and “constitutive”

Sunday, October 20, 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/07/the-big-idea-should-we-be-thinking-about-luck-differently?utm_placement=newsletter

The big idea: should we be thinking about luck differently?

  • We tend to focus on good or bad fortune, successes and failures. But what about the fact you’re here at all?

David Spiegelhalter
Mon 7 Oct 2024 07.30 EDT

*** begin quote ***

Luck has been called “the operation of chance, taken personally”.

Luck comes in three main flavours. Philosophers have identified “circumstantial luck”, meaning being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time – such as Stephen’s family taking that particular flight. Then there’s “resultant or outcome luck”, where in a particular situation some people have good and some have bad outcomes due to factors beyond their control. Stephen had the good resultant luck of surviving.

But perhaps the most important is “constitutive luck”, which covers all the fortunate or unfortunate circumstances of your very existence; the period of history in which you were born, your parents, background, genes and character traits. So where was Stephen’s constitutive luck? He told me that his father’s experiences in the RAF led him to insist that the family sat at the back of the plane – and the only survivors were seated at the back. He had the right parents.

*** end quote ***

A very philosophical view of luck.  

How does that jibe with my experience?

My sainted passed wife of 40 years was always “lucky”.  Especially in things with wheels or balls.  I, otoh, was always “unlucky”.  She used to tell me to “Go away and take your bad luck with you”!  And, I did.  She’d hit more often than not.

I always felt she had “precognition”.  She would get upset before bad things happened (i.e., father’s death; car accident; my trip ’n’ fall).

So, I’m not sure how to define “luck” but I know I don’t have that “magic touch”

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ECONOMICS: Only the Gooferment could try to manage beavers

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/28/conservationists-warn-unauthorised-releases-beavers-english-rivers?ICID=ref_fark

Beaver-bombing’: unauthorised rodent releases on the rise in English rivers
Experts say trend is because of failure by successive governments to approve releases despite promises
Patrick Barkham
Wed 28 Aug 2024 07.05 EDT

*** begin quote ***

Debbie Tann, the chief executive of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, said: “We’ve got beavers living wild quite happily and quietly [across southern England] and yet to get a licence to release a native animal back into its natural habitat we’ve got to do this 100,000-word application to assess its impact on every single aspect of everything.”

*** end quote ***

Only the Gooferment could try to manage beavers … … with a 100,000-word application.

Hey, here’s a thought, deregulate anything to do with the beaver.  No forms, no bureaucrats, no beavers constrained and fighting to the death for their space.

Especially no “red tape” and all the people to shuffle paper.

Frankly I’d bet “Mother Nature” can control the beavers and provide for all the predators to feed off them with a meal.

Now if we could just find a predator to control all the politicians and bureaucrats!

Sigh!

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INNOVATION: Writing negative reactions on paper … …

Friday, April 19, 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/09/write-down-your-thoughts-and-shred-them-to-relieve-anger-researchers-say

Psychology

Write down your thoughts and shred them to relieve anger, researchers say

  • Writing negative reactions on paper and shredding it or scrunching and throwing in the bin eliminates angry feelings, study finds

Caroline Davies  — Tue 9 Apr 2024 09.40 EDT

*** begin quote ***

Since time immemorial humans have tried to devise anger management techniques.

In ancient Rome, the Stoic philosopher Seneca believed “my anger is likely to do me more harm than your wrong” and offered avoidance tips in his AD45 work De Ira (On Anger).

More modern methods include a workout on the gym punchbag or exercise bike. But the humble paper shredder may be a more effective – and accessible – way to decompress, according to research.

A study in Japan has found that writing down your reaction to a negative incident on a piece of paper and then shredding it, or scrunching it into a ball and throwing it in the bin, gets rid of anger.

“We expected that our method would suppress anger to some extent,” said Nobuyuki Kawai, lead researcher of the study at Nagoya University. “However, we were amazed that anger was eliminated almost entirely.”

*** end quote ***

Have to try this and see if it helps.

“Income tax”.

Printed and shredded!

Didn’t help!!!

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INSPIRATIONAL: Will the local Gooferment have the stones to have it torn down?

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/sep/27/london-apartment-block-that-deviates-from-plans-must-be-torn-down-says-council?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

London apartment block that deviates from plans must be torn down, says council

  • ‘Blight on the landscape’ in Greenwich lacks promised gardens, children’s play areas and accessibility for wheelchair users

Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent
Wed 27 Sep 2023 04.19 EDT
First published on Wed 27 Sep 2023 02.00 EDT

*** begin quote ***

Buildings rarely look as good as the airbrushed architects’ visualisations produced to persuade planners to grant permission. Extra sharp highlights, implausibly blue skies and deeper colours are all part of the dark arts of the computer-generated rendering.

But the gulf between what was proposed for an apartment complex rising 23 storeys above the Thames in south-east London and what was actually built has finally proved too much.

After counting 26 major deviations from the original planning permission that it granted, the Royal Borough of Greenwich has taken the extraordinary move – “unprecedented”, it said – of ordering the developers of the Mast Quay II development to pull it down. It means tenants in 204 flats now face the prospect of finding somewhere else to live.

*** end quote ***

Well clearly the correct politicians and bureaucrats didn’t have their pockets lined right!

Now will the politicians and bureaucrats have the courage to have it torn down?

Seems like a waste, but if they don’t, it sends the wrong message.  I can imagine the lawsuits and pity parties that will ensue.

Perhaps if the “profit” and then a little extra is removed from all involved, a more economic result MIGHT be achieved.  But only if all involved are equally screwed.

Seems a waste of prefectly good building to send a message to the “marketplace”.

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