7/4

Not there because no one is in the room.

George Best dies, aged 59 Mark Oliver, Guardian Friday November 25, 2005 George Best heads in a goal for Manchester United at the 1970 fifth round FA Cup tie at Northampton George Best heads in a goal for Manchester United at the 1970 fifth round FA Cup tie at Northampton. Photograph: PA George Best, one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the history of football, died today after losing his long battle with illnesses linked to alcoholism. He was 59. Best died at 12.55pm at Cromwell hospital in Chelsea, west London, where he had been receiving treatment since October 1, a hospital spokesman said. The former Manchester United star had suffered multiple organ failure and had been on a ventilator. The hospital this morning announced that it had stopped giving him treatment to keep him alive. Doctors said he had remained sedated and not suffered pain. Article continues In the final hours, his family, including his son, Calum, 24, and his 87-year-old father, Dickie, were at his bedside. In a statement, Calum paid tribute to the medical staff who had cared for Best, and said: "Not only have I lost my dad, but we have all lost a wonderful man. "The letters, flowers and emails [from well-wishers] meant so much to all of us, and I have to say thank you very much." Best's father appealed to reporters to leave his relatives to grieve in peace, while a statement on behalf of the family also thanked those who had sent messages of support, which had been a source of "great comfort ... especially through the long hours". The former footballer's death had been anticipated today after Professor Roger Williams - the surgeon who replaced his liver three years ago in the hope that he would live beyond the age of 60 - said yesterday that he was unlikely to survive 24 hours. Early this morning, Prof Williams said he was surprised that Best had not died overnight, describing him as a "very strong man in many ways". Best was admitted to hospital last month suffering flu-like symptoms and a kidney infection after returning to drinking. His condition deteriorated last week when he also contracted a lung infection. After internal bleeding spread to his lungs on Wednesday evening, Prof Williams said there was no chance of a recovery. Former team-mates Denis Law and Sir Bobby Charlton were among those who visited Best in hospital. This morning, Law told reporters that they had been talking to him and that he could hear them, but could not respond. "We talked about all the stuff we did together," he added. In a statement issued later, he said: "This is an extremely sad day for the Best family. I think it was a matter of when, not if, things would not go right." The prime minister, Tony Blair, attending a meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Malta, said Best was "the most gifted footballer of his generation and one of the best players the UK has ever produced". Best, a Northern Ireland international whose talents and looks earned him the nickname the "fifth Beatle", made his United debut as a 17-year-old in 1963, going on to enthral crowds in the English league and in Europe with his flair on the wing. The Portuguese press dubbed him "El Beatle" after an inspirational performance when United thrashed a strong Benfica side in the European Cup in 1966. He was the outstanding talent in the United side that won the European Cup in 1968, and was named European footballer of the year. Best made a total of 466 appearances for United, scoring 178 goals, but some argue that his greatness as a player had waned by his mid-20s as he became increasingly distracted by his lifestyle. Aged just 28, he was sacked by United for excessive drinking and persistent failure to attend training. Best said he hoped he would be remembered not for his drinking or the women he had dated, but for his football. He often said: "Pele called me the greatest footballer in the world. That is the ultimate salute to my life." Today's newspapers are full of tributes to Best. The Guardian's David Lacey writes: "George Best was the outstanding British footballer of his generation and that, many would argue, is a gross understatement, for he had plausible claims to be considered the greatest of any generation." Yesterday, the current Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson described him as one of the club's greatest players. A statement on the club's website today said: "George Best was one of the greatest footballers of all time. "Naturally athletic, tough, confident and blessed with genius, his career was one of the brightest stars of its generation. His gifts were legendary." This morning, people delivered flowers to Cromwell hospital. Dave Crean, from Luton, laid a bouquet with the message: "Simply the Best."

I'll be checking Ornette Coleman out on Saturday.

That's what I thought of. It was only a matter of time.

I was wondering about that too.

I should go to DMV. I've been putting it off for weeks.

That reminds me...why do women get so upset on cold days when you look at their breasts and say "whoa...turkey's done!"

Sounds like a meltdown in time for the Holidays.

Jim. Now I'll go back to playing guitar and watching the '70s show marathon on the FX channel.

We're talkin' Coltrane here. I think some folks need a bit more fiber in their diets. On the other hand, we have had a lot of problems with debates on religion. It's sensitive issue.

Some recomendations for New Brunswick, NJ. http://www.oldbay.com/ http://www.deltasrestaurant.com/

Club Bene has been closed for a few years.

November 24, 2005 What's the Buzz? Sound Therapy By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM, NYT CAROL HARADA lay on her back, eyes closed, on cushions strewn across the floor of a studio in Emeryville, Calif. Several people, some clutching musical instruments, quietly gathered around. It was her turn to receive a group healing. One person held her feet. Another touched her head. Someone placed a hand on her shoulder. Ms. Harada, 40, then stated that her intention was to release the dull pain in her left shoulder. "The physical touch was important, to remind me I was safe and directly connected to people doing healing work on my behalf," she wrote in an e-mail describing her experience last spring. Then, using their voices and acoustic instruments - bowls made from crystals, an Australian didgeridoo, bells and drums - the participants gently bathed Ms. Harada in sound. When the sonic massage ended several minutes later, Ms. Harada's eyes fluttered open. She felt grateful, peaceful and when she stood up, found that the range of motion in her shoulder had increased. For decades people have relaxed and meditated to soothing sounds, including recordings of waves lapping, desktop waterfalls and wind chimes. Lately a new kind of sound therapy, often called sound healing, has begun to attract a following. Also known as vibrational medicine, the practice employs the vibrations of the human voice as well as objects that resonate - tuning forks, gongs, Tibetan singing bowls - to go beyond relaxation and stimulate healing. "It's like meditation was 20 years ago and yoga was 10 to 15 years ago," said Amrita Cottrell, the founder and director of the Healing Music Organization in Santa Cruz, Calif., and the leader of the class that Ms. Harada attended. While many people are only just discovering it, sound healing is actually a return to ancient cultural practices that used chants and singing bowls to restore health and relieve pain. It is often introduced at mind-body or wellness festivals. Thousands of healers from almost every state and many countries have created Web sites about sound healing. Schools for certification have sprung up too, though certification is hardly standardized. The healers include medical doctors, academics and people with no medical or scientific background at all. What they have in common is a belief in the potency of sound to not only promote relaxation, but relieve ailments, from common aches and pains to the anxiety that accompanies chemotherapy. People who have tried sound healing say they like it because it is noninvasive and relaxing. And lying on a cushion, exercising only the ears, is decidedly easier than stretching into the downward dog pose. But can chanting "om lam hu" or blowing into a didgeridoo really loosen a stiff neck? No controlled clinical trials have been done to show that sound healing works, said Dr. Vijay B. Vad, a sports medicine specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan and a doctor for the P.G.A. Tour. But those who try sound healing may feel their pain diminish, because pain is notoriously subjective, Dr. Vad said. Some 35 percent of people with back pain find relief from a placebo, he noted. Sound healing, like other mind-body treatments, he said, could act as a placebo, or it may distract the mind, breaking a stress cycle. "Even if it breaks your cycle for 15 minutes, that's sometimes enough to have a therapeutic effect," Dr. Vad said. Sylvia Pelcz-Larsen of Boulder, Colo., an acupuncturist who was suffering from excruciating back pain, tried a form of sound healing called Acutonics, which involves applying tuning forks to acupressure points on the body. "I got a 10-minute session, and my back was about 80 percent better," she said. "It changed my life." Ms. Pelcz-Larsen now teaches classes through the Kairos Institute of Sound Healing, which is based in New Mexico but offers classes throughout the world, and has incorporated tuning forks into her acupuncture practice, along with Tibetan singing bowls, planetary gongs and chimes. Using forks and bowls for anything other than dinner may seem to some people like New Age nonsense. But healers, sometimes called sounders, argue that sound can have physiological effects because its vibrations are not merely heard but also felt. And vibrations, they say, can lower heart rate variability, relax brain wave patterns and reduce respiratory rates. When the heart rate is relatively steady, and breathing is deep and slow, stress hormones decrease, said Dr. Mitchell L. Gaynor, an oncologist and clinical assistant professor of medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York and the author of "The Healing Power of Sound." That is significant, he said, because stress can depress every aspect of the immune system, "including those that protect us against flu and against cancer." Ms. Cottrell pointed out that ultrasound, which employs vibrations in frequencies above the range of human hearing, has been used therapeutically. "When the body is sick - it could be a cold, a broken bone, an ulcer, a tumor, or an emotional or mental illness - it's all a matter of the frequencies of the body being out of tune, off balance, out of synch," she said. "Vibration can help bring that back into balance." Sound healing works like the cry you make when you stub your toe, said Jonathan Goldman, the director of the Sound Healers Association in Boulder, and the author of "Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics." "Have you ever been able to stub your toe and not make a sound?" he asked. "It hurts a lot more." The cry, he suggested, may stimulate endorphins or create resonance with the part of the body that is in pain and lessen it. Or, he said, the cry you emit may simply distract you from the pain. Dr. Gaynor distinguishes between curing and healing. To "cure" means physically to fix something, whereas "healing" refers to wholeness, a union of the mind, body and spirit, he said. Dr. Gaynor, who has an oncology practice in Manhattan, considers sound healing integrative medicine: not an alternative to science but a complement to it. He leads free biweekly support groups for his patients that involve chanting and playing Tibetan singing bowls. The bowls are made of several kinds of metal; when struck gently on the rim with a wood baton, they vibrate at different frequencies, making sounds not unlike church bells. When Marisa Harris of Manhattan first saw Dr. Gaynor with one of his Tibetan bowls she thought he was going to prepare pasta. But when he began to play them, she said, it was the first time since she had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer that she could hear something other than the words "you're going to die." "It was as if all of a sudden there was room for possibility," she said. The sound, Ms. Harris said, penetrated her body and made her feel as if it were not only her thoughts about death that were breaking up, "but these poisonous cells, these cancer cells, were breaking up and I experienced something very healing." More than seven years later she plays her own singing bowls every day, often chanting the names of her three children, her husband and other loved ones. The bowls, she said, helped her express feelings she had bottled up inside. Sometimes, she said, she talks to the bowls about her fears. "The sound would take them away," she said, "out of my being, out of my existence." Mr. Goldman draws an analogy between sound healing and prayer. Many cultures, he said, believe that vocalizing a prayer amplifies it. By the same token, he said, expressing what you want a sound to accomplish (Ms. Harada's wish to release the pain in her left shoulder, for example), can help you heal yourself - or someone else. Dr. Gaynor likens sound healing to music therapy. In "The Healing Power of Sound" he cites studies indicating that music can lower blood pressure, reduce cardiac complications among patients who have recently suffered heart attacks, reduce stress hormones during medical testing and boost natural opiates. But not everyone who partakes in sound healing is in need of medical treatment. Ms. Harada's husband, Greg Bergere, attended the sound healing classes in Emeryville even though he had no physical ailments. They left him feeling refreshed. "It felt like I just had a really relaxing night's sleep," he said. For some people, that alone may be worth the price of a singing bowl.

I think all that energy expended in the chat room could be directed in more posts to the forum. But that's just me. Couw? Brownie? Chuck? Ping ping ping...

I'm sorry. What were we talking about?

Mine came today!

I think the + format records at a faster speed than the -.

Maybe it's your browser? I'm using Firefox and it works.

I didn't make a buck at until I was 39.

I knew it would get to this. Is 7/4 awake yet? Let him sleep. He'll come with enough of his useless posts when he wakes up. Yesterday, he's had another busy day of trying to set posts records! Obviously the only thing he really cares about Wise guy.

At least he's consistant. After I left high school I worked at the Matell plastic injection factory down the street. A couple of the old timers were missing fingers. I stopped working in factorys after a bad burn and a cut that required a few stiches.

Avoiding helicopters might also be a good idea. = :bwallace2: Maybe he should just stay in bed. With his luck, he'd get hurt there too.

Ah...no. That's OK, stick with what you're using now.

They are very nice, but I'm looking forward to some of the other special effects. In one episode, a boat got sucked into a massive whirlpool. What was that all about? Keeps me tuning in.

If you see him, you have crossed over to the other side. I see all sorts of things. I don't always talk about 'em.