Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Good News From Mary March 25, 2009

Va. Hospital Treats the Whole Person

At Fauquier Hospital in Warrenton, a patient doesn't have to worry about getting stuck with a chatty roommate: All 86 of the hospital's rooms are private. Restricted visiting hours are a thing of the past, too: Family and friends can drop by any time, day or middle of the night.

Fauquier patients can order decidedly non-institutional dishes such as breakfast burritos, brick-oven pizza, Mongolian stir fry and desserts that are to die for, although the hospital probably wouldn't care to put it that way. And if a patient is accustomed to dinner at 8 or likes to sleep until 10, the concierge will take note and try to oblige.

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Teen's Vision Brings Safe Water to Darfur

Joshua Guthrie was a troubled teen. Like many others of his generation, the high school sophomore was troubled by the needless suffering of so many people in so many places. Hunger and poverty. Wartime atrocities and sex trafficking. AIDS orphans and genocides.

It seemed so impossible for a 16-year-old in west Tennessee to make a difference.

Then Joshua read "Do Hard Things," a bestselling book by twin brothers Alex and Brett Harris, at 20 years old only barely out of their teens themselves. The book challenges young people to rebel against "the myth of adolescence" -- the notion that teens are by nature irresponsible, immature and rebellious. "By breaking the mold of what society thinks we are capable of, teens can achieve so much more than what's expected," the brothers write. "We've seen 'average' teenagers transformed from channel changers to world changers who are accomplishing incredible things."

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Shuttle Discovery undocks from space station

After eight days together, space shuttle Discovery pulled away from the international space station Wednesday, ending a successful effort to boost electrical power and science research at the orbiting outpost.

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'Miracle fruit' turns sour things sweet

The small fruit has the color of a cranberry, the shape of an almond and tastes like a flavorless gummy.

But after chewing the fruit and rubbing the pulp against the tongue, the berry, known by a promising name -- "miracle fruit" or Synsepalum dulcificum -- releases a sweetening potency that alters the taste buds.

For about 15 to 30 minutes, everything sour is sweet.

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Where 'Undo Send' and other Gmail ideas are born

Most of us have done it.

Instead of hitting "reply" to an e-mail, we accidentally push "reply all," sending a potentially embarrassing or insulting message to those we didn't intend to see it.

To address this problem, Google Inc.'s Gmail Labs has launched an experimental feature called "Undo Send" that gives users a chance to rewrite their message, correct settings or simply fix typos.

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Man survived both atomic bombings

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on 6 August 1945 when a US plane dropped the first atomic bomb.

He suffered serious burns and spent a night there before returning to his home city of Nagasaki just before it was bombed on 9 August.

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