Feel good stories

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
This is really just one of those 'interesting, yet uncategorizable' stories. Though it might make you feel good if you're fluent in more than one language. :wink:

Wired, Apr. 24
To judge a risk more clearly, it may help to consider it in a foreign language.

A series of experiments on more than 300 people from the US and Korea found that thinking in a second language reduced deep-seated, misleading biases that unduly influence how risks and benefits are perceived. “Would you make the same decisions in a foreign language as you would in your native tongue?” asked psychologists led by Boaz Keysar of the University of Chicago in an April 18 Psychological Science study. “It may be intuitive that people would make the same choices regardless of the language they are using, or that the difficulty of using a foreign language would make decisions less systematic. We discovered, however, that the opposite is true: Using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases,” wrote Keysar’s team.

Psychologists say human reasoning is shaped by two distinct modes of thought: one that’s systematic, analytical and cognition-intensive, and another that’s fast, unconscious and emotionally charged. In light of this, it’s plausible that the cognitive demands of thinking in a non-native, non-automatic language would leave people with little leftover mental horsepower, ultimately increasing their reliance on quick-and-dirty cogitation. Equally plausible, however, is that communicating in a learned language forces people to be deliberate, reducing the role of potentially unreliable instinct. Research also shows that immediate emotional reactions to emotively charged words are muted in non-native languages, further hinting at deliberation.
Click to expand...
I read six languages competently (don't have spoken/written fluency in all) and while this scenario isn't covered by the linked study, one thing I do notice is that when reading in a language other than English--and especially, when reading about topics I've already read extensively on in English--I'm very aware of the way metaphors embedded in the text, often quite subtle ones, direct and thus delimit the reader's perspective on the topic. I'm not talking Captain Obvious stuff like political propaganda here, I mean philosophy, personal essays, 'straight' news reporting etc. Whereas when I'm reading in English, it takes a concerted, conscious effort to notice that level of the language. I wonder if this too is a consequence of the forced "deliberation" they're describing.
 
Last edited:
That's pretty interesting. (I am competent enough in several languages to convey clearly that I don't speak the language.:D) I did enjoy the bolded contradiction. While I don't speak any other language, I notice a little similarity when I am moving from more familiar types of prose to, say, scientific writing or legalese. It is as if the type of deliberation frees up other parts of the brain to make quick connections without baggage. Clicking.

Interesting too about the immediate emotional reactions to charged words being muted in non-native languages. I think a case can be made that it is deliberation that is muting this response. But I wonder also whether the actual native language word holds a symbolic power that the non-native word does not possess. The non-native word allows a distance more so than it requires a deliberation, frees the brain of expectation and conditioning.

This seems to fit in with the proposal of the study.
We propose that these effects arise because a foreign language provides greater cognitive and emotional distance than a native tongue does.
Click to expand...

However, I found this interesting also from your link.

Recall was compared to recognition, and a variety of types of emotion words were studied, including taboo terms, and phrases likely to be learned in childhood (reprimands). Superior memory for emotion words was obtained in both the recall and recognition tasks, but this occurred in both the first and second language and indeed was stronger, for some stimuli, in the second language. This suggests that, even for bilingual speakers who acquire their second late (after age 12), words in the second language retain rich emotional associations.
Click to expand...

Do you have a subscription to this site? I seemed to be able to only link to the abstract.
 
Yeah, sorry, I couldn't find a free source for that study. Though the Wired writer was careful to specify "immediate emotional reactions," it's still a somewhat misleading citation--that study wasn't comparing intensity of emotional response upon hearing the same words in L1 vs. L2 (though that was part of the process); rather, it was comparing the degree to which 'emotion words,' to which subjects had just been exposed, were more readily recalled/recognized afterwards than 'neutral words,' in L1 vs. L2. So, they didn't challenge earlier researchers' findings (which they summarize) that emotion words evoke a stronger response, in the moment, in L1 vs. L2. They did challenge one earlier study which had found that the memory advantage (subsequent recall/recognition) of emotion words was more pronounced for L1 than L2--they found, on the contrary, that at least for emotionally negative words, the memory advantage was more pronounced in L2; in fact, subjects actually remembered more negative words just heard in L2 than just heard in L1, so their L2 negative recall was better, period, not merely better relative to positive (about the same in both), neutral (much better in L1) or total overall word recall. They speculate that negative words may be more subject to suppression in memory in L1.

Since this isn't my field I'm unsure how significant this is, but--one thing that did seem a bit problematic to me was that they were comparing their subjects' responses to spoken words to an earlier study in which subjects were shown written words.
 
Last edited:
Certainly not my field, my expertise nor my competency, but I am fascinated with language and the brain and the intertwine so any kind of study like this is welcome.

OK, rereading I do see in the part I quoted that it stressed recall/recognition over emotional response. I still find it curiously intriguing that some of of the stimuli was stronger in the second language--although I will cede to those of you here who speak other languages.
 
Don Ritchie, Angel of The Gap - who helped save 500 people from suicide - dies at 85 | News.com.au

Mr Ritchie spent 50 years coaxing desperate people back from The Gap, the notorious cliff at Watsons Bay where hundreds have died or thought about taking their lives.
He helped save 500 despairing souls - usually with little more than compassion, a warm smile and a hot cuppa.
"Those who knew him knew he was a very strong person and a very capable person," Mr Ritchie's daughter Sue said today.
Federal MP Malcolm Turnbull, whose electorate includes The Gap, added: "A true hero, one of our greatest Australians. RIP."
Born in Vaucluse in 1926, Mr Ritchie died peacefully at home on Old South Head Road, Watsons Bay yesterday.
The former navy seaman turned life insurance salesman was never one to shout about his exploits.
He helped because he could.
Ms Ritchie said: "It was just something that he saw and that he had to do something about."
New South Wales Mental Health Minister Kevin Humphries recalled when Mr Ritchie was named a Local Hero in the 2011 Australian of the Year Awards.
"Upon accepting the award Mr Ritchie urged people to never be afraid to speak to those most in need," he said.
"Always remember the power of the simple smile, a helping hand, a listening ear and a kind word."
A funeral will be held in Sydney on Friday.
Click to expand...
 
Incredible

052812-news-polaroid-ghost-662w-at-1x.jpg


thedaily.com

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure — and for the Logan family, the treasure was hiding inside an old camera.

Addison Logan was browsing yard sales with his grandmother in Wichita, Kan., last week when an old Polaroid camera caught his eye. He bought it for $1 because he thought it was cool.

The surprise came later that day, when he opened the device and discovered a photo of his deceased uncle inside.

“I took the cartridge out and the photo was produced already,” he said.

Addison went downstairs to show his grandmother what he had found, and she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“I thought he found it somewhere in the house,” Lois Logan said. “He had no idea that that was his uncle.”

Her grandson never met his uncle Scott, who died in 1989, before his nephew was born.

“I was just blown away,” Addison said after realizing the man was his uncle.

Lois Logan recognized the other person in the photo, as well: It was her son’s old girlfriend, Susan Ely. She figures the picture was taken during Scott Logan’s senior year of high school or freshman year in college, 10 years before a car accident took his life.

Meanwhile, no one knows where the camera came from, who took the photo, or why it remained stuck in the camera for decades.

Lois Logan wondered if Addison, 13, had bought the camera from the Elys after a spring cleaning of their daughter’s old things.

“I thought that maybe we had stopped at her parents’ house,” she said. Her son, Blake Logan — Scott’s brother and Addison’s father — went back to the house where his son bought the camera later that day in hopes of finding some clues, but came back empty-handed.

The person who sold Addison the camera said he didn’t know Ely or Scott Logan, and couldn’t recall where the camera had come from. The seller admitted he likes to go to a lot of yard sales and he can’t remember when or where he picked it up — so it appears as though the miraculous photo will remain a mystery.

“It’s a very rare coincidence,” Lois Logan said.

Blake Logan has since shared the find with his late brother’s 26-year-old son, Dayne Logan, via Facebook.

Meanwhile, Addison is keeping the photo on his dresser, but doesn’t plan to use the camera to take any pictures of his own.

“It just looked like an old camera,” he said of the Polaroid. “I don’t even know how it works.”
 
I found this story very inspiring:

Meghan Vogel, Ohio Track Star, Carries Runner Across Finish Line At State Competition (VIDEO)

To be honest, the Rush Limbaugh "criticism" of this story is a tempest in a teapot no matter which way you look at it.

Limbaugh didn't actually criticize Vogel, just the officials who did not disqualify the two girls. The people claiming Rush is characterizing her actions as weak are wrong. But his actual criticism in itself was also misplaced and overwrought as the officials chose not to disqualify them because no advantage had been gained by the assistance Vogel lent.
 
I don't even think that Rush could walk two miles, let alone run the distance. That's really all I thought about his comments when I read the story.
 
He's got his problems, but regardless..good for him. The show probably won't last but I assume they'll still get the money.

By Tim Kenneally

The Wrap -- Forget winning; Charlie Sheen is all about giving at the moment.

The "Anger Management" star announced Monday that he will donate $1 million to the United Service Organizations (USO), which will go toward an entertainment facility for injured troops in Bethesda, Md. The donation will mark the largest single contribution from an individual in the organization's history.

"It's an honor for me to be able to give back to these men and women of the military who have done so much for all of us,” Sheen said of the donation. “They put their lives on the line for us every day, and I'm just happy that my work on 'Anger Management' can bring a little bit of relief to the troops and their families."

The actor has pledged to donate 1 percent of the profits from his FX comedy "Anger Management" to the USO, with a guaranteed $1 million minimum. The first installment of $250,000 will be donated in a private ceremony next week.
 
yahoo.com

A woman who helped a lost man ended up with a surprise $20,000 gift.

That's what happened last month when Jennifer Vasilakos guided Ty Warner when he stopped and asked for driving directions in Santa Barbara, Calif.

While Warner didn't know exactly how to get to where he was going, Vasilakos didn't realize who she was helping.

Warner is the billionaire founder of Ty Inc., the Beanie Baby company.

Vasilakos was at the intersection trying to raise $20,000 for a stem cell procedure she needs to help save her life because she suffers from kidney failure and does not qualify for a transplant.

She describes their encounter in her blog:

I often get asked by random strangers for directions. Not one to miss an opportunity, I handed him my flyer and he made a fifty dollar donation. As he drove off, I thought that was the end of our encounter... He'd returned after an hour or so. Rolling down his window, he reached out his hand and introduced himself. I immediately recognized his name. He was kind and sincere as he looked directly into my eyes... I listened as he repeated over and over that he was going to help me. That my fundraising was done. That I didn't need to worry any longer. He said he would send a check after he returned to his offices during the week.

He was true to his word. Vasilakos, an herbalist and Reiki teacher, received a package on July 16 with a $20,000 check and with a handwritten note from Warner. The note read in part, "Someone up there loves you because I was guided to meet you Saturday. I never lose my way, but fate had me lost and ask you for directions. The rest of the story I hope will be a wonderful new life for you."

"Of course I started crying, because that's what girls do," Vasilakos said. "I'm incredibly thankful to Ty Warner and to everyone who has supported me with love and prayer."

The check cleared a few weeks later and she booked a surgical procedure at an undisclosed foreign hospital to begin hematopoietic stem cell treatment. Hematopietic treatment takes a cell from the blood or bone marrow that can renew itself and develop into a variety of specialized cells.

"After I serendipitously met Jennifer, I further educated myself on her stem cell needs. I was shocked that this particular type of treatment wasn't available to her in the U.S.," Warner said in a media release. "My hope is that we can bring this lifesaving treatment to the forefront so that it can become more readily available and provide alternatives for people like Jennifer."


letter.jpg
 
Martin Naughton’s far-reaching passions include Irish-America, the values that kept Glen Dimplex out of the global financial mire, and the value of bringing 35,000 fans of American football to Dublin, in league with Don Keough

WE NEVER quite understood them, those Irish-Americans. Giddy as toddlers while touring “God’s own country”, with their guileless questions, their insatiable thirst for the land of The Quiet Man, the search for roots that inevitably led them up some godforsaken boreen and to bemused cousins 10 times removed
Click to expand...
.

An interview he gave The Irish Times in late 2010, a week after the troika entered Ireland, elicited some trenchant views from him that produced “a huge postbag”, he says now. “And not all of them were positive. But they mostly were.” Back then, he suggested the Dáil should be halved in size and that questions should be asked about the need for a Senate and a standing army. He believed that Ireland had “plenty of politicians and very few statesmen”.

He also had a lash at ordinary people and their sense of “entitlement to everything”, unlike his parents’ generation with their self-reliance and enormous sacrifices.

Two years on, he seems a lot more sanguine, or perhaps just more determined to be positive. “I think we’re much harder on ourselves than other people are. This is not a unique situation here . . . But I never liked the ‘Celtic Tiger’ as a phrase. I thought it was arrogant and I used to go mad when I heard ‘We’re the richest country in the world, therefore we can do this or that’.”

Among the big hitters in corporate Irish-America, he says, “the attitude to Ireland is that we dropped the ball, but it’s always said in a way of regret more than anything else . . . And I think genuinely there’s now a sense of respect that we’re getting our act together, taking the medicine without rioting in the streets and burning down buildings. I think we’d be regarded as very mature about how we voted in the last referendum, ie to carry on doing what we’re doing. But we’ve gone down the greasy pole a fair old bit all the same. I would like a faster pace of action, but we are on the right track.”

HE HEAPS PRAISE on the Irish business-manager class, recalling a time when any company coming to Ireland “had to bring everyone in, from supervisors up; when all we had was cheap labour, nothing else. I think the future for Ireland is bright, but we’ve got to balance the books, sort it out.”

He produces a graphic that shows people’s average earnings in eurozone countries over the past 10 years. This demonstrates, as he puts it, that Ireland has “done better than anyone else in the action we’ve taken”. It shows the mountainous earnings spike of Greece, Ireland and Italy around 2009, followed by a vertiginous drop in Ireland. Proof positive that the medicine has been taken.
Click to expand...


Bringing home the 'fighting Irish' - The Irish Times - Sat, Aug 25, 2012
 
Will have to take a better look at those on my laptop. Nice to see that photo of the gay soldiers that I had posted here before.

Paul Newman was so sexy. Everything about him, especially his charitable heart.
 
Feel absolutely disgusted, that those kids did that to her. Feel good that she's having the last laugh, and that people are reaching out to her like that. God high school is still so awful. I can't wait until they have to face the reality that they're not hot shit and never were. Some people never outgrow it though.

detroitnews.com

September 24, 2012 at 8:07 pm

Town turns tables on school prank

Whitney Kropp, a free spirit with few friends, was named to the homecoming court as a joke by her classmates, but the tiny farm town of West Branch has rallied around her.

West Branch, Mich. — High school student Whitney Kropp was shocked earlier this month when she was named to the homecoming court.

Her happy surprise turned to humiliation when she learned the reason. The students thought it would be funny if the popularity contest was won by someone who was unpopular.

Kids pointed at her in the hallways and laughed. The boy who was picked with her withdrew.

Students told her that, in case she was wondering why the boy had dropped out, he was uncomfortable being linked with her.

"I thought I wasn't worthy," said Kropp, 16. "I was this big old joke."

Her embarrassment was complete, but it didn't last long.

This tiny farm town an hour north of Saginaw quickly rallied around her.

For the homecoming dance Saturday, businesses will buy her dinner, take her photo, fix her hair and nails, and dress her in a gown, shoes and a tiara.

For the homecoming game Friday, residents will pack the football stadium so they can cheer when she is introduced at halftime.

They will be wearing her favorite color (orange) and T-shirts with messages of support. A 68-year-old grandmother offered to be her escort.

"I am in awe, overwhelmed at the amount of support," said Jamie Kline, 35, who began a Facebook support page. "I never expected it to spread as far as it has."

For Kropp, a sophomore at Ogemaw Heights High, it's been a remarkable transformation.

Before the homecoming vote, she was either ignored or scorned by classmates.

Now, when she isn't fielding yet another free offer from a business, she's being lauded by hundreds of strangers on the support page.

Cast in an unlikely role, she has embraced it. She vowed to continue representing the sophomore class, even if she has to do it alone.

I'm 'a beautiful person'

Kropp was sitting in her geometry class Sept. 13 when the results of the homecoming vote were announced over the school PA system.

Most of the students picked as class reps that day were among the most popular kids in the 800-student school. Then, out of the blue, Kropp heard her name.

She hadn't sought the position. Students were free to vote for anyone in the class.

Perhaps her selection should have made her suspicious. She is a free spirit with few friends. Her black outfits and strange hair colors don't mesh well with other kids in the rural community.

But she has a guilelessness that doesn't see the bad in people, said her mom, Bernice. Her reaction to winning was simple: She was happy.

"The first thing is softhearted," Bernice Kropp said when asked to describe her daughter. "She's just sweet. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body."

Kropp heard that other classrooms had laughed when her name was announced. And then Josh Awrey, a popular football player, quickly withdrew as the other sophomore rep.

Despite all that, she was still excited.

"In the Homecoming Court! " she wrote on her Facebook page. "Little nervous but this is going to be fun :D"

"Probably not with Josh though," wrote back a sophomore girl.

"He couldnt do it cause of football plus he never goes to homecoming," said Kropp.

"That's not what he told everybody," said the girl.

"what did he say?" asked Kropp.

The other girl didn't respond.

"Oh. Well it don't matter to me anyways," Kropp wrote four minutes later. "I thought it would be awkward anyways."

That night, Kropp's mom found her crying in her bedroom. She no longer wanted to do it.

As a member of the homecoming court, she and other class representatives are dressed formally as they're introduced during halftime of the football game.

Kropp's mom, sister and grandmother told her that she should show up the bullies by going to the game and having a great time. Several friends said the same thing.

Before going to bed, she decided they were right.

"Going to homecoming to show them that I'm not a joke," she wrote on Facebook. "Im a beautiful person and you shouldn't mess with me!"

The school district said it's investigating the incident.

'Team Whitney'

Word of the prank quickly spread through this small town, whose water tower is a yellow smiley face.

Kropp's sister told her friends, who told their parents, who told their friends.

The Facebook support page was created, quickly drawing hundreds of messages of encouragement. The page has more likes (more than 3,500) than the town has people (2,100).

A bank account was opened for Kropp's homecoming expenses but wasn't needed. So many businesses donated services that everything was covered.

Shannon Champagne and another beauty salon worker offered their services and asked other businesses to do the same.

"It really touched me. I can't believe that kids can be so mean and ruthless," said Champagne, 28, a nail tech at Whit's End Hair Studio. "In high school, everything means everything to you. You don't realize that none of it will matter after you leave."

The issue resonated far beyond the town.

It seemed to touch a chord with anyone who had a tortuous experience in high school, which is just about anyone who ever went to high school.

Hundreds of people talked about their own experiences. A 60-year-old Wyandotte man talked about a 1966 bullying incident like it happened a day earlier.

After the uproar in town and on the Web, Awrey, the football player elected with Kropp, changed his mind and decided to remain a class rep.

He said on his Facebook page that he had never wanted to be part of homecoming.

"Im sick of everyone blaming me. I had nothing to do with this," he wrote. "I think what they (students) did is rlly rude and immature."

It's hard to eclipse high school football in a small town but, this Friday, West Branch will give it a try.

Residents will fill the concrete stands behind the high school for the homecoming game against Cadillac High. Some are grads who haven't been to a game in decades.

"We want to make this the best homecoming ever," said Rebecka Vigus, 58, a longtime resident who taught for 22 years in elementary and middle schools.

Like Vigus, many won't be there for the football.

Clutching posters and wearing T-shirts that say "Team Whitney," they will cheer heartily at halftime as a slightly awkward teenage girl in a stunning red dress circles the field in a convertible.

A pariah in the harshest social system in the world — high school — she will be the center of attention on one of its most prominent stages.

Under the Friday night lights.
 
Well, if the kids who mocked her don't have the biggest egg on their faces right now! I hope they're feeling deeply embarrassed and ashamed, they deserve to be.

That is great to see people showed such support for the girl like that. Very cool :up: :). May she have a good time at her dance, and hopefully some of those kids who treated her badly will wise up and learn from this.
 
The guy who emailed her must be one miserable a*hole to send that to her. I can't fathom why else he'd do that.
 
Pearl said:
The guy who emailed her must be one miserable a*hole to send that to her. I can't fathom why else he'd do that.
Click to expand...

Oh he's just a fitness buff, have you seen his photo? On my phone now or I'd post it for you. He thinks everyone should look as good as he does, he's just being altruistic.
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
Oh he's just a fitness buff, have you seen his photo? On my phone now or I'd post it for you. He thinks everyone should look as good as he does, he's just being altruistic.
Click to expand...

LOL!

I've been clicking around, but can't find his pick. Yes, I'd like to see him.

But either way, he's a miserable prick or just plain arrogant to do something like that. Get a life, dude.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MrsSpringsteen
Gilead States Of America
Replies
16
Views
893
MrsSpringsteen
MrsSpringsteen
U
Hey there! I finally made an account here!
Replies
2
Views
271
U2_family365
U
M
Ticketmaster app
Replies
3
Views
492
rosephile
R
Miroslava
Friday, February 23, 2024 - MSG Sphere - Las Vegas, NV
Replies
2
Views
499
Miroslava
Miroslava
O
Better late than never “they” say…
Replies
1
Views
285
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom