Saturday Photo Hunt

Theme - Water

This is Lake Windermere in the Lake District, Cumbria, UK. Taken just this month and you can see the snow on the mountains in the distance, this was one of the nicer days we were there and it was still cold.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Participants

1. tnchick 2. Ma 3. Bobbie 4. incog & nito 5. Linda 6. Shoshana 7. maiylah 8. Arlene

9. Friday\'s Child 10. Biker Betty 11. Dragonheart 12. pat 13. Gewels 14. srp 15. Coffee 2 go 16. empress bee (of the high sea)

17. patti 18. Becci 19. meeyauw 20. Lynn 21. Jose

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Saturday Photo Hunt

http://www.mytopsy-turvylife.co.uk/2007/03/saturday-photo-hunt_31.html

Should apes have human rights?

Okay, I've been reading this today online, it made me smile and made me think, the link will follow at the end, I'm going to give a little summery of what the article contains.

Apes and humans have common ancestors but should they have the same rights? An international movement to give them "personhood" is gathering pace.

• Judges in Austria are considering whether a British woman, Paula Stibbe, should become legal guardian of a chimpanzee. Ms Stibbe hopes that she can persuade the court he deserves the same protection as a child.
• Spanish MPs are being urged to back a similar principle, The Great Ape Project - that apes be granted the right to life, freedom and protection from torture.
• They need greater protection in the eyes of the law, says Ian Redmond of the UN's Great Apes Survival Project, who believes welfare groups could use guardianship as a way to rescue ill-treated apes.

So here are some more titbits

• Gorillas, bonobos, orangutans and chimps are great apes

• Chimpanzees and bonobos differ from humans by only 1% of DNA and could accept a blood transfusion or a kidney

• All great apes recognise themselves in a mirror

• Elephants and dolphins show similar self-awareness

• Great apes can learn and use human languages through signs or symbols but lack the vocal anatomy to master speech

• Great apes have displayed love, fear, anxiety and jealousy

• In 1997 the UK government banned experiments on great apes but not on primates such as marmosets and macaques

Sources: Ian Redmond, Charlotte Uhlenbroek

As far as human rights go, I have to agree with Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University of London, says human rights are a construct which can't be imposed on animals. He goes on to say how mice share a mere 8% less genes with us than apes and asks if they should also be given human rights.

I see nothing wrong with upping animal rights for all animals but giving them human rights may be taking things a little too far, as the first example of this bizarre story says, Ms Stibbe hopes that she can persuade the court the ape deserves the same protection as a child. Surely even when an ape shows intelligent development it is hindered by the fact that it can not talk and can not support itself.

Only with typing that myself I'm struck by the thought of humans with learning disabilities and in describing what an ape can lack I am also describing a human with disabilities, their disabilities make them no less human yet an apes abilities make it no less of an animal.

This becomes a mess of ethical questions and is really quite bizarre, I am glad I am not the judge in Austria or the government in Spain.

Full article on the BBC Magazine website.

Should apes have human rights?

http://www.mytopsy-turvylife.co.uk/2007/03/should-apes-have-human-rights.html

Back to school

Seriously strange, today (well yesterday now) I went to a course introduction at a local college, the strange thing was having to sit next to my boyfriend in class. Now that's something I haven't done since I was 10 years old.

When I was 10 I never felt nervous that my boyfriend was sat in class with me, it never made me feel uncomfortable. Today it did.

So anyway the course is a counselling course, based on person centred counselling it won't start until September and we hope not to be here by then, it also costs £250 for 11 weeks for the introduction course, now it would be a little silly for me to do that with the job I do, what do they think I do all day when I'm having one-to-ones with my patients other than tell them "no we're not going to call an ambulance because you say you pushed Christmas tree decorations up your bum".

Obviously I'm surrounded by counsellors at work and it's true we do more psychodynamic work than person centred, we have boundaries that can not be crossed, yet saying that I would say that our methods of counselling mix both because I don't believe you can do one without the other.

I've been lucky to work with a well known psychologist who does a lot of psychotherapy, it's really quite amazing to see her work with patients, she has a brilliant way about her that really gets a lot out of people, she's also very scary with how accurate her psychoanalysis can be, I know she's done me before in staff group therapy.

So I guess the outcome of our introduction today is that we will not be attending the course, it's a shame because I would've liked to have done it, only as I said I don't believe that counselling should just be taught from one style, it takes both person centred and analytical methods to counsel a person, I also believe both can come naturally without the need for books.

Back to school

http://www.mytopsy-turvylife.co.uk/2007/03/back-to-school.html

Wordless Wednesday

Dream in black by Ladyofspira

Wordless Wednesday Participants

1. jams o donnell 2. Autofocused 3. Donna 4. Comedy Plus 5. Brian aka hummingbunny 6. Rav`N

7. Celeste 8. jenny 9. Janet 10. Dragonheart 11. Dariana 12. TorAa

13. Michelle in Mx 14. da devil 15. Jottings From Jersey 16. Raising Contentment

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Wordless Wednesday

http://www.mytopsy-turvylife.co.uk/2007/03/wordless-wednesday_28.html

To watch someone die

Recently the UK has been unlucky enough to see its first chat room suicide or 'cyber suicide' as the press dubbed it . This happened in a webcam based chat room and people sat and watched a guy smash his ceiling and hang himself with rope.

The reports say that some in the chat room egged him on and I'm not even going to quote any of that. People say they thought it was a joke, but at what point would you stop thinking that in their situation, it's a very difficult question.

I've sat thinking about it, I know where I work gives me a little more insight to this but wouldn't most people start questioning at the point where you see someone smashing through their cieling to get a decent ligature point?

Then there's the question of what do you do when you realise this isn't a joke and it's real. The internet is mainly anonymous, of all the people I chat to I only know where 3 live, their full address that is. How do you alert the police that someone is about to hang their self when all you can tell them is the general area they live in and that it's currently happening live on-line right now?

The fact that the press dubbed it 'cyber suicide' makes it sound unreal, it sounds more like political suicide only you'd expect it happens in a chat room rather than on a political stage ending a career.

You'll notice I haven't put any links or any references in this post, the whole story is quite sad really, someone killing themselves online with others watching, use Google if you want to read the press about it.

To watch someone die

http://www.mytopsy-turvylife.co.uk/2007/03/to-watch-someone-die.html

Crazy rambles

Things are a little strange at the moment, I'm feeling slightly spaced out and some how I feel like I've been left behind somewhere suddenly caught in a tidal wave.

The reserved practical part of my brain is saying hang on, think this through first. The less reserved part that always lands me in trouble (although that may just be the phenomenon that we tend to remember bad things easier than we do good things) is saying just do it don't worry about anything, it's also a little excited.

It's like my whole understanding of my relationship has been turned upside down and truthfully I have to say I'm a little mistrusting of this whole change. If I try to get this straight, one minute 'we're on a break' (always think Ross and Rachel when I hear that), then we're together again, we go away have a great time and now we're talking mortgages.

Okay panic is setting in, one day you have to take that step but I keep thinking look what's happened in the past.

Guess this is one of my posts that won't make any sense to people because I'm not explaining, I also don't intend to, this is one of my abstract type whatever comes out posts ... Main thing is when I read it back I will understand hopefully with a clearer view than when I typed it, then again I should be asleep and this could all just be mumbo jumbo.

Crazy rambles

http://www.mytopsy-turvylife.co.uk/2007/03/crazy-rambles.html

End of my night shifts

My night shifts for last week have come to an end this morning and I am aching.

Last night I wrote a ward round summery for one of my patients, sorted out money requests, and organised our wards files on the computer. The last took me ten minutes just to give each patient their own folder with sub folders and put all the saved work in the relevant folders, why it had been done so strangely in the first place is beyond me.

Today I am filling in job applications, waiting for my fresh fruit and veg delivery and with any luck my new trainers (I need to wash my other pair).

I'll also be looking into something that has just recently need to be thought about ... Moving out of London, up North and sharing a mortgage. All very scary things to think about.

End of my night shifts

http://www.mytopsy-turvylife.co.uk/2007/03/end-of-my-night-shifts.html

Photo Hunt Saturday

Theme - Empty

Click images to enlarge

This is the chapel in Abney Park, Hackney, East London. The cemetery was opened in 1840 and as you can see from the photo's above the chapel is empty and disused, the cemetery itself is now used as a place of reflection, I find it a very peaceful and beautiful place to walk. It amazes me how something so beautiful and serene is hidden in the middle of so much concrete and bustle (the city).

Some history from the Abney Park Trust website;

All denominations with an emphasis on Nonconformists

Abney Park Cemetery was established on uniquely non-denominational or ecumenical principles for everyone to share a single chapel and to be buried side by side.

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