What I've Been Reading on the Web Lately

Inspired by The American Journal of Bioethics blog's "What we are reading today" entries, here's what has been interesting me the last week.

Comments welcome~~~very welcome. MORE than welcome. Please comment.

Enough groveling.

:-)

Secret Worlds: The Universe Within

"View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons."

One could watch this over and over. One, er---cough---has watched it over and over.

:-)

The CBC Network (Center for Bioethics and Culture), one of whose stated mission goals is "to defend the dignity of humankind", has a speaking avatar who introduces the site the first time you click on. Do you find this as ironic and silly as I do? There is a voting link on the right hand side, if you want to vote about it. Of course, it just occurs to me as I type that this is increasing site traffic there. Maybe the silly talking avatar has a place...maybe Moteguardian could get one.

One ponders.

Interesting essay by Tom Connors at The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine entitled "On Esthetics & Disability". One of his points:

"What I have cited merely describes the reality of a person with a disability in modern culture. I can argue that it isn't always so, in times past we have been honored deprecated, sanctified and vilified. Every possible reaction has been manifest at one time or another, but never were we unidentified. By virtue of differences in intellectual capacity, behavior, or appearance we are always identified as separate and distinct -- as the other."

"Retiring on the Edge of Poverty in Rural America": on being poor, old--and female--in hidden pockets of America today. At the NPR website.

"Learning to Savor a Full Life, Love Life Included" from the NYT:

"There, for the first time, Ms. Graham, who is mentally retarded, and Mr. Ruvolo, who has Down syndrome, will be permitted to spend time together in private.

The pair were coached in dating, romance and physical intimacy by a social service agency at the cutting edge of a new movement to promote healthy sexuality for the seven million Americans with mental retardation and related disabilities.

In what experts say is the latest frontier in disability rights, a small but growing number of psychologists, educators and researchers are promoting social opportunities and teaching the skills to enjoy them."

Read the whole article, especially the appalling statistics for the percentage of people with mental retardation who have experienced sexual abuse by their 18th birthday.

The National Nurse. A move is afoot to establish a federal office: There is a bill before the US Congress seeking to amend the Public Health Service Act and establish an office of The National Nurse:

"[W]ithin the Office of Public Health and Science an office to be known as the Office of the National Nurse, which shall be headed by an individual serving in a position to be known as the National Nurse. The Secretary shall appoint a registered nurse to serve in such position. The Secretary shall carry out this section acting through the National Nurse."

Wonder what the hours are?

:-)

Finally, I have been spending hours reading nursing blogs found on the left hand side of the page at Mediblogopathy, even though I'm not listed there yet, either! It really comes home to you how diverse nursing is, how interesting nursing can be. How many very talented writers we have among us (and some who are pretty bad!).

I'm inspired to increase my own list of links.

Maybe tomorrow.

What have you all been reading lately?

mary