South Florida Association of Christian Counselors - Dangers in Canada's Assisted Suicide Program; Women with AI Boyfriends; Seven Truths About Affairs that Nobody Thinks About--Until It's too Late; The Restlessness of the "Spiritual but Not Religious"; The Waning Acceptance of Transgenderism; Six Studies in 2024 that Question "Gender-Affirming Care" and other counseling articles

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Dangers in Canada's Assisted Suicide Program; Women with AI Boyfriends; Seven Truths About Affairs that Nobody Thinks About--Until It's too Late; The Restlessness of the "Spiritual but Not Religious"; The Waning Acceptance of Transgenderism; Six Studies in 2024 that Question "Gender-Affirming Care" and other counseling articles

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Friday, November 22, 2024 3:45 PM

Quote

Message # 13434119

Dr. Henry Virkler (Administrator)

Articles from the Week of November 22, 2024

Explanation: Although I scan the Internet primarily for counseling articles, in the process I run across quotes and interesting facts that I sometimes include in these first two sections. If you’re just interested in the counseling articles, you can skip these first two sections and go directly to the section called Counseling Articles. HV

Interesting Quotes

Every act of kindness is a piece of love we leave behind

Author unknown

I think that we have to realize that times of stress are also times that are signals for growth, and if we use adversity properly, we can grow through adversity.

Abraham J. Twerski

When we slow down, we are reminded of what matters most.

Julianna Poplin

Fascinating Facts

“Computers” used to be people.

“In today’s English lexicon, the word “computer” almost exclusively refers to electronic devices — but it used to be a human job. For centuries, “computer” meant “one who computes,” particularly in an astronomical observatory or as a surveyor. This definition dates all the way back to the early 1600s, long before even the most primitive digital computing machines existed.

“The role of computers was, more often than not, filled by women. Although the work required a great deal of skill and made major contributions to the field of astronomy, computing was considered clerical work. In the 1870s, the Harvard College Observatory hired several dozen women as computers, who compared photographic plates of the night sky and painstakingly measured the differences in stars’ positions. Among them were Williamina Fleming, who pioneered classifying stars by temperature; Annie Jump Cannon, who created the letter stellar classification system that scientists still use today; and Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who discovered around half of all variable stars (meaning their brightness changes when viewed from Earth) known at the time.

“Perhaps the best-known human computers were those employed by NASA to make calculations by hand during critical space missions. Katherine Johnson, one of the three African American NASA computers featured in the book and film Hidden Figures (along with Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson), performed calculations for the Mercury and Apollo missions, including the first moon landing.” (Source: HistoryFacts.com)

Achoo Syndrome

Around one in four people sneeze when they see a bright light.

“Sunlight tends to be good for us. It helps our bodies create vitamin D and mood-lifting serotonin, and even syncs our circadian rhythms. However, some people experience an unexpected side effect after glancing into the sun: sneezing. As many as one in four people have the reaction, appropriately called ACHOO syndrome (short for autosomal dominant compelling helio-ophthalmic outburst). The sun isn’t the only thing to blame—the reaction can occur when moving from dark to light settings, after seeing bright lights, or even from witnessing a camera flash.

“ACHOO syndrome — also called “photic sneeze reflex” or “sun sneezing” — isn’t an allergy. While researchers aren’t entirely sure why it happens, one theory is that it’s caused by a nervous system misfire involving the trigeminal nerve, which connects the eyes and nose with the brain. Within seconds of seeing bright light, the pupils of the eyes contract and stimulate this nerve, possibly causing the nose to accidentally sneeze. People who experience ACHOO syndrome may get a runny nose and watery eyes, too, though these symptoms tend to disappear within a few minutes. Sun sneezing also has a genetic “component; children of parents who have the photic sneeze reflex have a 50% chance of experiencing the same phenomenon.” (Source: InterestingFacts.com)

Hippo sweat is red.

“As evidenced by Moo Deng, the pygmy hippopotamus whose pint-sized appearance and big personality took the internet by storm, hippos can be adorable. They’re also highly unusual creatures for several reasons, including the fact that their sweat is red. Some biologists disagree with calling it “sweat” because it serves a different purpose, moisturizing the animals’ skin and repelling water rather than cooling them down, but no one denies the color.” (Source: InterestingFacts.com)

Counseling Articles

Unseen Dangers Lurk in Canada’s Assisted Suicide Debate

The death with dignity movement propelled Canada to legalize assisted suicide many years ago. A few years ago this was expanded to allow assisted suicide for mental illness, and then even more recently, Medical Assistance in Dying was expanded even further to allow individuals to apply for MAID for socio-economic issues. There have been concerns that this expansion has led to compliance issues about vulnerable people being pressured into making life-ending decisions for various reasons. See article for further details.