死前想有做愛經驗 修女助肌萎男圓夢

【歐洲日報／本報綜合報導】 2007.01.30 04:37 pm

天生罹患裘馨氏肌肉萎縮症的廿二歲英國青年瓦勒斯在寄居的安養院人員協助下，和一名妓女發生性關係，完成在死前擁有做愛經驗的心願。 裘馨氏肌肉萎縮症患者大多在卅歲前就死亡。瓦勒斯希望死前能和女子發展親密的愛情關係，但他因肌肉萎縮症失去行動能力，難以如願。經營安養院的修女法蘭希絲．多明尼嘉支持瓦勒斯的想法。 瓦勒斯在每日電訊報刊登的專訪中表示，他經過兩年思考才決定要實現這個心願，並和父母、照顧人員商量。 瓦勒斯表示，身體正常者視為理所當然的許多日常活動，他都無法從事。他唸大學時希望結交女友，但未如願。他明白，若要達成擁有性經驗的心願，就須拿出所有積蓄交換。他下定決心後，才向他人透露自己的想法。安養院諮詢律師、神職人員和醫療照顧專業人士的意見後，決定幫助瓦勒斯如願。 【2007/01/30 歐洲日報】

Hospice helped dying man lose his virginity

By Stewart Payne

Last Updated: 2:05am GMT 27/01/2007

	Nick Wallis: paid for prostitute

A young disabled man who receives care for his life-limiting illness at a hospice run by a nun spoke yesterday of his decision to use a prostitute to experience sex before he dies.

Sister Frances Dominica gave her support to 22-year-old Nick Wallis, who was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Sufferers usually die by their thirties.

Mr Wallis told staff at the Douglas House hospice in Oxford that he wanted to experience sexual intercourse. He explained that he had hoped to form an intimate and loving relationship with a woman, but his disability had acted as a barrier.

He told The Daily Telegraph: "It was a decision two years in the making and I discussed it with my carers and my parents. Telling my mother and father was the hardest part, but in the end they gave me their support.

"There are many aspects of life that an able-bodied person takes for granted but from which I am excluded.

"I had hoped to form a relationship when I went to university, but it didn't happen. I had to recognise that if was to experience sex I would have to pay for it out of my savings. My mind was made up before I discussed it with anyone else."

The hospice staff, after taking advice from a solicitor, the clergy and health care professionals, decided to help him.

"I found an advert from a sex worker in a magazine for the disabled," said Mr Wallis. "The initial contact was by email and then by phone."

It was arranged for the prostitute to visit his home in Northampton. "My parents went out," he said.

"It was not emotionally fulfilling, but the lady was very pleasant and very understanding. I do not know whether I would do it again. I would much rather find a girlfriend, but I have to be realistic."

Mr Wallis has decided to talk in public about his decision as part of the BBC documentary series about life inside Douglas House and its associated hospice for children, Helen House.

"I have done so in order that people may understand the issues that face people in my situation. I suppose some people may be judgmental."

He said he did not discuss his decision directly with Sister Frances, who founded the two hospices. "But I know she gave me her support."

Sister Frances described Mr Wallis as "delightful, intelligent and aware young man".

"I know that some people will say 'You are a Christian foundation. What are you thinking about?'. But we are here for all faiths and none," she said.

"It is not our job to make moral decisions for our guests. We came to the conclusion that it was our duty of care to support Nick emotionally and to help ensure his physical safety."

Mr Wallis's story can be seen on The Children of Helen House, BBC2, 10pm Tuesday.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/27/nvirgin27.xml

世界最恐怖聲音… 嘔吐

【聯合報／編譯張佑生／綜合報導】 2007.01.25 02:57 am

嬰兒啼哭、吐痰、手指甲刮黑板，哪個聲音最恐怖？歷時一年，全球一百一十萬人上網票選最恐怖的聲音結果廿三日揭曉，冠軍是某人嘔吐的聲音。麥克風回授、群嬰齊哭的聲音緊追在後。 英國史福大學音響工程教授考克斯彙整三十四種聲音，在網站上徵求意見（網址：www.sound101.org）。網友可以試聽牙醫鑽牙、打鼾、咳嗽帶痰等令人不悅的聲音，然後評比出最恐怖的聲音。 用手指甲刮黑板的聲音名列第十六，還比不上貓的嗥叫和手機答鈴聲（並列第十二）；許多人難以忍受的鼾聲，居然「只」列在第二十六名。 考克斯表示，人類對於某些聲音的厭惡反映出文化、年齡與性別的影響及差異。嘔吐排名第一，反映出石器時代老祖宗對生存遭到威脅的直覺反應。族裡有人嘔吐代表吃了不潔的食物，其他人也都有生病的危險。手指甲刮黑板的聲音有點像是猿猴尖叫示警，也是老祖宗很介意的聲音。 十歲以下、以及四十到五十歲的年齡層，將牙醫鑽牙列為最恐怖的聲音。 【2007/01/25 聯合報】

Sound of vomiting tops poll

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

Last Updated: 2:30am GMT 26/01/2007

Hear the sounds For some, it is the sound of a crying baby. For others, it is spitting or the scrape of fingernails on a blackboard. But today, the sound of someone throwing up is officially declared the world's most horrible sound. advertisement The worst sound was identified after more than one million votes were cast worldwide in a mass online science experiment called the BadVibes project. The quest to find the world's least favourite sound was launched a year ago by Prof Trevor Cox of the University of Salford to help shed light on how Stone Age sonic likes and dislikes shaped modern sound preferences, along with modern cultural influences. International visitors to the BadVibes website listened to irritating sounds such as a dentist's drill, snores, flatulent outbursts, rows and phlegmy coughs or low flying aircraft before rating them in terms of their unpleasantness. A pioneering study conducted in the 1980s found the worst sound was a garden tool scraped across slate. But although the similar-sounding fingernails scraping down a blackboard is said to be the worst sound by many people, the actual recording of this sound only came 16th out of 34 sounds auditioned. Microphone feedback came a close second in the 'horribleness ranking', with many babies crying coming joint third. But vomiting came top, echoing how it evolved as a survival mechanism among our ancestors long ago: if one of your tribe is being sick, you have probably eaten the same poisoned food and it is in your interests to be sick too. Although this aversion to the sound of vomiting is hard wired into our brains, Prof Cox said that cultural influences are important too, since the sound did not trigger disgust. "We are pre-programmed to be repulsed by horrible things such as vomiting, as it is fundamental to staying alive to avoid nasty stuff but, interestingly, the voting patterns from the sound did not match expectation for a pure 'disgust' reaction. "Similarly, the sound of fingernails down a blackboard has been compared to the warning cries of monkeys – again, something that humans might instinctively respond to because of our ancestry. So we examined whether the voting patterns for the scraping sounds were consistent with an evolved response. But only for the worst scraping sound were the results consistent with the hypothesis of an evolved response." Other evidence that we perceive sounds differently, depending on where we were brought up, emerged in the survey. "People scored the sound of vomiting differently in different places," he said. "Australia, Rest of Europe and South America rated the sound less horrible than the UK, and North America rated the sound more horrible than the Rest of Europe." For people over 10 years old, the team found the sound of arguments became more horrible as we age and, with respondents over 65, twice as likely to choose a higher rating. But Australians were only 1.5 times more likely to rate this more horrible than all other places. "Maybe this is why Australian soap operas are so tame," said Prof Cox. Another insight into awful sounds was that females rated 25 out of the 34 sounds more horrible than males. However, baby cries were one of the few sounds men found worse. "This may be because women play a role in protecting both themselves and their offspring from attack," he said. "It could be that females have become habituated to the sound of babies crying." Over 1.1m votes have been statistically analysed by Prof Cox of the University's Acoustic Research Centre since the project was launched, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). "I am driven by a scientific curiosity about why people shudder at certain sounds and not others," he said. Prof Cox hopes that ultimately the project will help the acoustics industry to make the world a better-sounding and less stressful place. Prof Cox, who is now planning a similar experiment to rate the most pleasant sound in the world, is hoping to use the results of the BadVibes project to help inform industry about how to engineer sounds which are nicer. "This research has been fascinating in gaining an insight into why people are repulsed by certain sounds – and how this differs by gender, age and nationality. This is so important because noise significantly affects our quality of life." This is the British top ten, hot of the press: 1 Vomiting 2 Microphone feedback 3 Multiple babies 4 Scrape/squeak (like train wheels) 5 Baby Cry 6 Squeak (sounds like a seesaw) 7 Bad violin playing 8 Whoopee cushion 9 Soap opera argument 10 Mains hum

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/24/nsounds24.xml

Princeton Student Paper Stirs Racial Controversy

破英文罵普大 引發種族爭議

【聯合報／編譯組／美聯社新澤西州普林斯頓二十日電】 2007.01.22 04:29 am

華裔學生李簡控普林斯頓大學招生歧視亞裔，該校學生報卻就此撰文開玩笑，引發種族偏見指控。 現就讀耶魯大學的李簡（Jian Li）曾申請普林斯頓被拒，去年夏天向美國教育部民權辦公室指控普大歧視亞裔學生。普大學生報「普林斯頓人日報」十七日刊出由紀連（Lian Ji，顯然是把李簡的姓名字首對調）署名的文章，用破英文和刻板的偏激論調痛罵普大有眼無珠。 文章故意用錯誤百出的英文說：「嗨，普林斯頓！記得我嗎？我很好在數學和科學。學業測驗滿分兩千四。想到了嗎？如果想不起來，讓我幫你的記憶想起來。我是那超級聰明亞洲人。普林斯頓超級笨蛋大學，不接受我。」這篇文章特別聲明這是一年一度的玩笑專刊，可是學生和校友仍指責作者有種族偏見。 一九九一年從普林斯頓大學畢業的安德魯‧劉寫信給學生報主編說：「這篇文章正像野火一樣在許多憤怒的亞裔校友之間流傳。這篇文章甚至沒有嘗試用幽默掩飾潛在的仇恨。」 「普林斯頓人日報」十九日發表小啟，表示「很抱歉讓一些讀者感到不快」，可是仍為他們的用意辯護。 啟事中說：「我們希望利用誇大和荒唐的連串刻板印象，顯示種族主義最荒謬的層面，藉此消遣種族偏見。我們利用種族字眼對付種族主義。從最壞的角度看，這篇專欄開了不該開的玩笑；從最好的角度看，這會讓人思考種族、公平和多元問題。」 【2007/01/22 聯合報】

Posted: Sunday, 21 January 2007 3:30PM Princeton Student Paper Stirs Racial Controversy

PRINCETON BOROUGH, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- The annual joke issue of Princeton University's student newspaper has left some people accusing its staff of racism. The Daily Princetonian issue published Wednesday included a column with a byline that closely resembles the name of Jian Li, an 18-year-old Livingston man who filed a civil rights complaint against the university last summer after he was denied admission, accusing it of bias against Asian students. Li, who now attends Yale University, said his complaint against Princeton remains under investigation. "I think the article was extremely distasteful," Li told The Associated Press on Saturday night. "Whoever decided to publish it showed an extreme lapse of judgment." Under a byline of Lian Ji, the article used broken English and spouted racial stereotypes to bash the school for his rejection. "Hi Princeton! Remember me? I so good at math and science. Perfect 2400 SAT score. Ring Bells?" the article begins. "Just in case, let me refresh your memories. I the super smart Asian. Princeton the super dumb college, not accept me." The article ran with a disclaimer informing readers that it was part of the joke issue, but that did not stop students and alumni of the Ivy League school from accusing those who wrote it of racism. "Many angry Asian-American alums are circulating this article like wildfire. I consider myself an easygoing person, but guys — this article doesn't even try to use humor to hide the underlying hate," Andre Liu, who identified himself as a 1991 graduate, wrote in a letter to the editor. "Real bad call." An article on the controversy was published in Friday's editions, as was a note from The Daily Princetonian's managing board that stated its members "sincerely regret having upset some of our readers," but defended their intentions. "Using hyperbole and an unbelievable string of stereotypes, we hoped to lampoon racism by showing it at its most outrageous," the note said. "We embraced racist language in order to strangle it. At its worst, the column was a bad joke; at its best, it provoked serious thought about issues of race, fairness and diversity." Members of the newspaper's managing board did not immediately return a call seeking comment Saturday night. Li said he quickly recognized that the article was satire, but said it wasn't an excuse. "It's so outlandish that it can't be anything but satire," he said. "But I think in any case, this shouldn't have been published." In a letter to the editor that appeared in The Daily Princetonian, Princeton's Asian American Studies Association said the column was "offensive to Asian American students" and "reflects poorly on Princeton's reputation as a diverse and informed university." Meanwhile, Janet S. Dickerson, vice president for Campus Life at Princeton, told The Times of Trenton that the controversy had become an "opportunity for an educable moment on campus." "The Prince exercised poor judgment in including offensive material in this year's joke issue," she added. "Its student board has apologized and in doing so, recognized its responsibility to the campus." At least one student, though, said he was not offended by the article. "I thought it was sad that people were so offended by it, because it shows that racism still exists," Felix Huang, a senior from Texas whose parents are from Taiwan, told The Times. "But I think the column was a joke and I took it for the satire that it was meant to be." Source: http://1010wins.com/pages/187530.php?contentType=4&contentId=293048

巴黎架鄉親網站 鄰居網路相見歡

巴黎架鄉親網站 鄰居網路相見歡

【聯合晚報／編譯朱小明/綜合報導】 2007.01.07 02:24 pm

現代社會的人際關係疏離，都市裡也許擠得像年節時的超市，彼此卻無交集，巴黎市最近有一個鄉親網站，成功打破鄰居老死不相往來的冷漠。 英國廣播公司（BBC）網站報導，這個網站Peuplade是出自社會學實驗，宗旨是讓不同社會背景的人有機會結識。人往往貴遠賤近，就像巴黎人不屑參觀艾菲爾鐵塔一樣，往往也不會和左鄰右舍打交道，現在繞一個彎，網路打破了鄰居如陌路的現象。 Peuplade由巴黎市第17區首先試辦，獲得熱烈迴響後已擴大到全市。這個網站有如社區布告欄，除了把各項活動公告周知之外，居民也可以彼此連繫，會見住家附近兩分鐘路程內的任何人。 網站創辦人之一的律師裘拉奎說：「現代人交往範圍多半局限在同學、同事、和親戚等層面，經由Peuplade，你可以認識平常不大有機會結識的人，有各種年齡、有不同背景，相同的是大家都住在同一社區。」 Peuplade打破交朋友的界線，在網站登記時就得把成見拋掉。負責網站維護的社會學家拉格斐說：「登記為會員時有一個資料頁，但我們不會詢問對方的年齡、性別、職業，免得造成先入為主印象。我們會請對方提供一張讓他感動的照片，而非他本人的照片。」 社會學家發現，鄰居也許不會打招呼，在網上卻很容易突破鴻溝。 【2007/01/07 聯合晚報】

Parisian neighbours meet online

By David Reid Reporter, BBC Click

Cities may cram people together like sardines in a supermarket, but many of those living an urban life can end up feeling more lonely than on a picnic on Pluto. But one French networking website is trying to change all that.

Parisians are using the web to meet their neighbours

Just as most Parisians are too cool to visit the Eiffel Tower, most of us ignore the possibilities for friendships immediately outside our front door.

French social networking website Peuplade aims to bridge that small but often insurmountable gap by putting neighbours in touch with each other. It also wants you to meet people different from your usual crowd.

"In life today we get to meet people in a very specific situation and social background. You meet people from your school, from your family or from your work," said Jérémie Chouraqui, a lawyer and one of the founders of Peuplade.

"With Peuplade you will meet people that you will usually not get to meet in cities: people with different ages and social backgrounds, but they all live in the same neighbourhood."

The site is effectively a neighbourhood notice-board which started life in Paris's 17th arrondisement and is now spreading to the rest of the city.

It carries a variety of information on upcoming events, but visitors can also make contact and meet up with people who live within a two-minute walk.

Social experiment

Peuplade aims to change the way we make friends and the sort of people we make friends with - when you sign up you leave your prejudices at the door.

The idea from the start was to create links between people who shouldn't really meet, who don't really have an affinity, who aren't part of the same group or network Nathan Stern, Peuplade

"We have a profile page in which we ask you a series of questions. We don't ask your age, sex or job because that can lead to discrimination. We encourage you to leave a photo or image that moves you, rather than a photo of yourself," said Stephane Legouffe, a sociologist and one of the co-ordinators of the site.

Log on and enter your details, scan your neighbourhood and there you go: someone to hook up with.

But it is not all one-on-one. Regular small meetings, called Apero de quartier, give the denizens of the cyber world a chance to gather at a neighbourhood watering hole.

Peuplade was born out of a sociological experiment which aimed to turn on its head the way we meet.

Founder Nathan Stern said: "The idea from the start was to create links between people who shouldn't really meet, who don't really have an affinity, who aren't part of the same group or network.

"How do we do that? We go beyond group status and membership and create accidents, chaos. And when you come to these Apero de quartier for a while you develop a familiarity among people who you previously not think of belonging to your world."

Rules of engagement

Apparently there is a science to this sort of social engineering.

One rule is that breaking the ice is often easier on the net. Another is if you are hosting a party of people who have never met, choose a tiny venue.

It seems elbow-to-elbow people are forced to get along.

As a spoon to stir the melting pot Peuplade is admirable, but it has not really caught on in Paris's really rich neighbourhoods, and the Apero de quartier visited by Click was mighty white.

But who said this novel website and pillar of the community has to cure all of society's ills in one night?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6233429.stm