Good News From Mary April 3, 2009

Betrayal's Role in Holy Week

Have you ever felt betrayed by a friend or by someone you dearly loved? When it happened, were you shocked? Did it feel like that person put a knife in your back by violating your trust and revealing things that should have been kept in confidence? Did you marvel that such a trusted friend could turn out to be so disloyal? Did you wonder, How in the world could a person so dear and close be used so viciously by the devil to attack me in this way?

It’s painful when a friend betrays you. It’s even worse when the person is your best friend or someone you’ve known and trusted for many years.

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Sites For Smarter Money Management

Apparently, I am one of the few people who use the personal finance app Quicken the way its geek programmers intended: I use it to record my every financial transaction (except small cash purchases), every investment activity, and every penny I pay on interest for my mortgage into it. For some reason, I'm obsessive about keeping track of my money. My one concession to practicality and time savings in recent years: I no longer break out what I spend on sales tax for retail transactions.

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How infection may spark leukaemia

Scientists have shown how common infections might trigger childhood leukaemia.

They have identified a molecule, TGF, produced by the body in response to infection that stimulates development of the disease.

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As tax hits, smokers call 'quitlines' for help

Quit-smoking hotlines are being swamped — some as much as four times their usual volume — by smokers ready to kick the habit after the largest-ever increase in the federal tobacco tax.

We're seeing magnificent volume because of the tax," says Mary Kate Salley of Free & Clear, a Seattle company that runs "quitlines" for 17 states. She says the lines got 3,250 calls on Wednesday, the day the increase took effect, up 369% from the same day in 2008.

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Nintendo rolls out DSi to U.S. on Sunday

Nintendo is rolling out the next generation of its popular handheld gaming console in the United States on Sunday, pitching the product as more of an all-purpose social and entertainment device.

Aside from game-playing functions, the dual-screen DSi features two cameras, a microphone and a host of tools that will allow users to create content and share with others.

Click here to find out more.

Friday, April 3, 2009 Good News Now Stories

Heart Muscle Renewed Over Lifetime, Study Finds

"In a finding that may open new approaches to treating heart disease, Swedish scientists have succeeded in measuring a highly controversial property of the human heart: the rate at which its muscle cells are renewed during a person’s lifetime.

The finding upturns what has long been conventional wisdom: that the heart cannot produce new muscle cells and so people die with the same heart they were born with."

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Pulmonaria - Springtime Charmers in the Perennial Flower Border

"Most gardeners first encounter Pulmonaria with the old fashioned ‘Mrs. Moon’. This is a charming little plant with lance-shaped deep green leaves spotted with small white moons. The buds start out pink and open to a azure blue."

Click here to read about this flower.


On new cell phones, QWERTY eases out 1-2-3

"Goodbye, numeric cell phone keypads. You're going the way of the rotary dial. Touch screens and QWERTY keyboards will take over from here, thank you.

At North America's largest cell phone trade show, running this week in Las Vegas, there were few new phones for the U.S. market that had a numerical keypad instead of an alphabetic keyboard. Touch screens also were out in force."

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Muscles Sore After Exercise? Sip Caffeine

"Caffeine eases the muscle pains of exercising, new research shows, suggesting coffee might literally be a brew that promotes health.

University of Illinois researchers found that caffeine intake is associated with pain reduction in both young men who take in lots of caffeine and also in young men who don't."

Click here to read more about this study.


Another Perspective

"I attended a wonderful family wedding this past weekend and enjoyed great company and delicious food along with an eye-opening perspective worthy of Lenten reflection that came from — of all places — the restroom!

Standing at the sink, washing my hands, minding my own business — which I try to do on a fairly regular basis — I had to laugh (or else I might have cried) at the way in which I was brought into a conversation.

Next to me was an older woman — surely much older than myself — sort of reprimanding two young girls for the stiletto heels they were wearing and in which they could barely stand. The older woman concluded her words to these two young women with a harumph and this line, 'Well, you will see when you are older that you won’t choose to suffer for fashion!' at which point the woman turned, looked me squarely in the eye, and said, 'Right?'"

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Shot of the Day for April 2, 2009

Study in Color

By Flick Member Cassia