Soulhaven

CC: Richard Dawkins. An idea, feel free to mention it in an article or send it on to someone. Just thought it would be kinda fun, and could debunk a whole lot of myths as well.

What do you believe.

A weekly gameshow with small prices, the questions span various categories, including evolution, astronomy, biotech, the “alternative” and focusing heavily on so-called “Controversial” questions. Growing steadily more difficult factually, answer are in the form of “I believe that…”

Starting out with incredibly easy questions, you get:
“Do you believe psychic healing can measurably affect human health.”
Every so slightly more difficult
“Do you believe humans and dolphins share a common ancestor.”

And so on…

The jury consists solely of trained scientists. Formal protests to their judgements can be logged. If the jury is overturned, said contestant gets to return and continue with the next questions.

Try to have one guest that’s a well-known scientist, and one well-known alternative practitioner/scientologist/other science-denying faith or creed, and some “random” people.

On July third, the pain in my head and neck had gotten bad enough I wanted to see a doctor, so I got to spend 1 1/2 hours in the ER’s waiting room.

Well, I was bad enough I was wanting a doctor when I got there. When they finally let me in everytime the doctor touched me it hurt so much I cried out, and when she asked me to lie down on the bench lying down hurt so much I *really* wanted to pass out. My head and neck were in total agony. When I was moved to the lab to take blood samples, I threw up, and felt a little better. Know how it’s to feel a *little* better when you’re still hurting like hell? Someone turning the knob of your pain volume from 9 to 8? It’s relieving, in a way, your mind clears a little. All sorts of emotions run through your head, although the “oh please, make it stop hurting”-kind of feeling is still firmly at the top of your mind. What you *want* to happen.

I got some painkillers and were sent home with a hospital appointment the next day. With the order that if it got any worse, call an ambulance.

Got home, got downstairs, sat down to try to have a cigarette, found out this wasn’t possible (hurt too much to inhale the smoke). Lay down in my bed. Groaned for a while, managed to find a position where it was possible to be relaxed enough to even sleep, for 5-20 minute spurts for 2 hours. By then, the pain had increased to the point where I had to sit up in bed. Then I lay down, then I tried to move differently. But everything I did hurt, sitting still, trying to stretch my neck (which was stiff as a board by then), it hurt more. Felt like it hurt more every time I moved an inch, and if I tried to sit still that was even worse.

So they called an ambulance. A car was parked so they couldn’t place me on the stretcher (by then the very thought of a stretcher filled me with deep terror after lying down on the benches at the ER for “rest” first. (30 seconds until I couldn’t take it anymore and had to sit up) and at the doctor.s table… Well, suffice to say I was grateful, yet still terrified, at the thought of moving my body out the door and up a little hill to the ambulance. Every step I took hurt much more, especially up the hill, although they were supporting me. By the time I reached the ambulance, I threw up again. For a long time.
By the time they helped me onto the stretched, I was so exhausted lying down was significantly less terrifying.

The first thing they did was put me on oxygen, and I looked up and saw this cute, kinda young, blonde girl dressed in red, looking like a mixture of the girls from my days in the Red Cross and the nurses I’ve seen on TV. I was being taken care of now. There is a warm, deeply relaxing feeling to knowing you’re being taken care of. The world sorta tells you “You matter, we’re gonna help you”. And it’s a deeply warm feeling, I hope it’s like that for everyone. A “You’re gonna help me take away my pain”-kind of feeling. I can readily imagine it’s easy to bond deeply at that point. Sorta a mini-version of every woman falling in love with the doctor who delivers her first baby. (I wonder if there’s a deep Oxytocin release at birth. Seems likely.)

Anyhow, with hers and the driver’s help. (Tall young guy who seemed very efficient) I was brought into the hospital reception room. Four people constantly clipping things onto me and measuring everything at a time while constantly asking me questions. At one point it got *really* hard to find the words. It was like, I was trying to explain it was like this, and I’ve got the picture, and am trying to explain to you that I was … I felt… For all kinds of simple words in sentences, like.. And then trying to apologize for that, and not being able to find the words for that either. Disturbing. Anyhow, they stuck me with stuff I think and hooked me up to an EEG, I remember. And then it came out and was shown around and then they kept doing stuff for some minutes and then someone said the EEG was a little abnormal and then they did lots of other stuff… It’s confused, a bit. Driven to an CT-scan, (that bench looked so painful, but wasn’t quite as bad as the others), a slightly nervous-sounding doctor coming out of the shielded room and telling me they thought I’d had a little brain stroke. I thought “Oh, right. Worst case, I’m losing my brain.” with an almost apathic feeling. Although with a little hopeful feeling (”little”) I was eventually driven to a room and put in there, it had various equipment in it and looked strange, and they left me alone for a little while. Then there were two nurses there, coming and going, and one said this was morphine, and kept asking me if it hurt still. I kept going “yes”.

Woke up next morning. July 04. Feeling *way* better. I mean, not that I remember how I felt really on that day. I think I was *really* exhausted, and probably all weird up because of morphine, and.. But it seems to me on recollection to be a good day.
Lying in a different cozy room, sun filling the window, 50-something nurse at the bedside smiling at me. She was there all the time over the next day, bringing me food, stuff to drink, putting that thing on my finger, measuring by blood pressure, changing the bag hanging besides the bed (14 times that day), talking to me. (Not that I remember about what). She was a very good nurse, I feel. I felt a lot better as I recall. Then the doctor came and told me that I had some things in my head, and they thought I had brain cancer or HIV.

Well, that’s what I remember anyway, I wasn’t at a normal state of mind, and phrases those two kinda stick out. Then later that day, after MR, they said those spots were infections. Next evening they put me on an ambulance for the airport, and I was moved to a small propeller airplane with 3 or 4 other people aboard. I was the only passenger. As it took off I fell asleep, and woke up just at it was landing.

Writing more tomorrow, it’s sleep time for me.

Due to a case of serious congestion of the tubes, the ICAC (Internet Cleaning Act Committee) has concluded a Cleaning Session is again in order.
Youtube, et.al. have experienced unprecedented growth in bandwidth usage in 2008, and as such the levels of plaque in network cables has become intolerable. If the internet is to stay fast, a thorough physical cleaning is neccessary. Experienced Internet users may remember the Cleaning of ‘99, and the damage caused to the hardware of those who chose not to heed the warnings then. Do not hesitate - unplug your network cable.

To effect this cleaning highly compressed air will be blown into the Internet tubes at most routing stations throughout the world.

If you fail to unplug your network cable during the cleaning session, the compressed air and particles stuck in the tube systems may cause serious damage to your computer systems.

The cleaning session will commence at 11 PM UTC on April 1. 2008, and is expected to last until 8AM April 2nd. As a safety margin, it is recommended you do not plug your network cables back in until 10AM.