Asking for one last Christmas...

Someone I love dearly is going to depart this world sometime in the very near future. She has battled mightily, fought every step of the way despite the pain and misery... She has defied the doctor's predictions. Even now, knowing the end is inevitable our girl is still in control, making tough decisions and making war on the disease that is claiming her life.

I have been asking for one last Christmas together but am not sure that isn't a totally selfish request.

We all love her and don't want her to suffer. We all love her and don't want her to go.

I am one step removed and thus don't see her daily, continual suffering. Her immediate family are there to comfort, take care of her, suffer as they see her suffer.

I want to help but the best help I can give is to just listen and be there for her immediate family...but dang if I don't manage to say stupid things. I agonize over how to respond, what to say. When texting I write, erase, write, erase... I know that whatever I say or do it can be the wrong thing, can aggravate, irritate, make things worse, cause eye rolls 'cause they've heard it so many times from so many or I just don't know exactly how serious something is at the moment.

Christmas? Trying to move ahead, buy gifts, somewhat do the "normal things"...but she's always there on my mind, in my thoughts and I know I'm buying things she may never see...and that none of us are going to give a flying flip about gifts...but if she's there I want it to be as normal as possible. So I'm plodding ahead, probably spending more than I normally do, agonizing more over what to give than normal. If I can bring a few smiles it'll be worth it all.

Anger. I have a lot of anger. To know that a young girl, barely out of school, with a whole wonderful vibrant life ahead, will be taken, will not get that life is so wrong. And, if one more person says "it's in God's hands" or "God must want her to be with Him" or some other inane thing I may scream. Yes, I know...just like the things I say that are hurtful or wrong but said from a heart of love...they mean well. And I'm not saying it isn't true...it is just NOT what one wants to hear when a child is suffering. God does not want His children to suffer.

Prayer. So many across the world praying for our girl. Strong, strong believers. Sometimes I think a merciful God would have taken her earlier, spared her all the pain. Sometimes I think it's good that she had good times in the midst of it all, that all of her loved ones got to see a smile, to see her having a good time. Things like this make you wonder about the efficacy of prayer. Even if you don't believe in prayer most believe that all those thoughts and wishes and heartfelt prayers have an impact, that they can do something.

As usual, I'm rambling. There is something cathartic about writing down thoughts, putting the frustration into words...even if they don't flow, aren't English-school-teacher worthy :-)

NASA Researchers Find Clues to a Secret of Life

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA scientists analyzing the dust of meteorites have discovered new clues to a long-standing mystery about how life works on its most basic, molecular level.

"We found more support for the idea that biological molecules, like amino acids, created in space and brought to Earth by meteorite impacts help explain why life is left-handed," said Dr. Daniel Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "By that I mean why all known life uses only left-handed versions of amino acids to build proteins." Glavin is lead author of a paper on this research appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences March 16.

Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes, the catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions. Just as the 26 letters of the alphabet are arranged in limitless combinations to make words, life uses 20 different amino acids in a huge variety of arrangements to build millions of different proteins. Amino acid molecules can be built in two ways that are mirror images of each other, like your hands. Although life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, "you can't mix them," says Dr. Jason Dworkin of NASA Goddard, co-author of the study. "If you do, life turns to something resembling scrambled eggs -- it's a mess. Since life doesn't work with a mixture of left-handed and right-handed amino acids, the mystery is: how did life decide -- what made life choose left-handed amino acids over right-handed ones?"

Over the last four years, the team carefully analyzed samples of meteorites with an abundance of carbon, called carbonaceous chondrites. The researchers looked for the amino acid isovaline and discovered that three types of carbonaceous meteorites had more of the left-handed version than the right-handed variety -- as much as a record 18 percent more in the often-studied Murchison meteorite. "Finding more left-handed isovaline in a variety of meteorites supports the theory that amino acids brought to the early Earth by asteroids and comets contributed to the origin of only left-handed based protein life on Earth," said Glavin.

All amino acids can switch from left-handed to right, or the reverse, by chemical reactions energized with radiation or temperature, according to the team. The scientists looked for isovaline because it has the ability to preserve its handedness for billions of years, and it is extremely rarely used by life, so its presence in meteorites is unlikely to be from contamination by terrestrial life. "The meteorites we studied are from before Earth formed, over 4.5 billion years ago," said Glavin. "We believe the same process that created extra left-handed isovaline would have created more left-handed versions of the other amino acids found in these meteorites, but the bias toward left-handed versions has been mostly erased after all this time."

The team's discovery validates and extends the research first reported a decade ago by Drs. John Cronin and Sandra Pizzarello of Arizona State University, who were first to discover excess isovaline in the Murchison meteorite, believed to be a piece of an asteroid. "We used a different technique to find the excess, and discovered it for the first time in the Orgueil meteorite, which belongs to another meteorite group believed to be from an extinct comet," said Glavin.

The team also found a pattern to the excess. Different types of meteorites had different amounts of water, as determined by the clays and water-bearing minerals found in the meteorites. The team discovered meteorites with more water also had greater amounts of left-handed isovaline. "This gives us a hint that the creation of extra left-handed amino acids had something to do with alteration by water," said Dworkin. "Since there are many ways to make extra left-handed amino acids, this discovery considerably narrows down the search."

If the bias toward left-handedness originated in space, it makes the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system more difficult, while also making its origin a bit more likely, according to the team. "If we find life anywhere else in our solar system, it will probably be microscopic, since microbes can survive in extreme environments," said Dworkin. "One of the biggest problems in determining if microscopic life is truly extra-terrestrial is making sure the sample wasn't contaminated by microbes brought from Earth. If we find the life is based on right-handed amino acids, then we know for sure it isn't from Earth. However, if the bias toward left-handed amino acids began in space, it likely extends across the solar system, so any life we may find on Mars, for example, will also be left-handed. On the other hand, if there is a mechanism to choose handedness before life emerges, it is one less problem prebiotic chemistry has to solve before making life. If it was solved for Earth, it probably has been solved for the other places in our solar system where the recipe for life might exist, such as beneath the surface of Mars, or in potential oceans under the icy crust of Europa and Enceladus, or on Titan."

The research was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the NASA Cosmochemistry program, and the NASA Astrobiology: Exobiology, and Evolutionary Biology program.

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Over 10 Million Images from the LIFE Photo Archive to be Made Available on Google

PRNewswire/ -- Access to LIFE's Photo Archive -- over 10 million images in total -- will soon be available on a new hosted image service from Google, Time Inc. has announced. Ninety-seven percent of the photographs have never been seen by the public. The collection contains some of the most iconic images of the 20th century, including works from great photojournalists Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith.

These images can be found when conducting a search on Google.com or on Google Image Search. Users can also search through the LIFE Collection directly by visiting http://images.google.com/hosted/life.

The LIFE Photo Archive featured on Google will be among the largest professional photography collections on the Web and one of the largest scanning projects ever undertaken. Millions of images have been scanned and made available on Google Image Search today with all 10 million images to be available in the coming months.

"For 70 years, LIFE has been about one thing, and that's the power of photography to tell a story," says Andy Blau, LIFE's President. "LIFE will now reach a broader audience and engage them online with the incredible depth and breadth of the LIFE Photo Archive from serious world events, to Hollywood celebrities to whimsical photographs." Time Inc. EVP, John Squires adds: "We're delighted Google recognized the rich value of our photo archive and worked with us to bring it to millions of consumers. Consistent with the launch of the TIME Archive, PEOPLE Archive and the SI Vault, this initiative continues our efforts to build valuable new revenue opportunities from our rich heritage."

All keywords are translated into 16 different languages. LIFE's Photo Archive will be scanned and available on Google Image Search free for personal and research purposes. Copyright and ownership of all images will remain with Time Inc.

"Bringing millions of never-before-seen offline images online aligns with Google's mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," said R.J. Pittman, Director of Product Management at Google. "The LIFE Photo Archive captures some of the most compelling events, people and places of the past two hundred years. We have enhanced Google Image Search to provide our users with a rich search and browse experience to explore these high quality historical images."

In addition to housing some of the most important images taken by LIFE photographers, the LIFE Photo Archive also includes: The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880's; Hugo Jaeger Nazi-era Germany 1937-1944; DMI red-carpet celebrity shots; Pix Inc. personalities; the entire works left to the Collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen.

LIFE also announces the most comprehensive offering to date to purchase fine art photographic prints online. The general public will now have access to buy LIFE's famous photography through QOOP.com, a leader in online art sales.

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Falling 47 stories and living to talk about it

If I weren't a praying person, I'd be one if I were in this guys shoes! Alcides Moreno fell close to 500 ft (47 stories) and from what I read in the story below, he's going to be fine. I'll let you read the story to see the condition he was in as a result of the fall, and the miraculous condition he's in now. Sadly, the fall killed his brother.

We have all read about quirky things like this. Horrible car accidents where someone walks away with barely a scratch. Accidents with unbelievable survival stories.

My ex-husband was involved in something like that many years back. He was in the passenger seat when a tire blew, the car spun out and hit concrete pillars. The driver, not wearing a seat belt, was thrown through the BACK window of the car. He had a few minor scrapes. a headache that passed, and a not-too-badly broken arm.

My ex lived, but barely and with life-time serious damage. It was a miracle that he lived at all, but the driver is the one who I'd put in the miracle category.

One thing that I noted when I saw the car was that if the driver had NOT been ousted from the driver's seat, neither would have survived. The only un-squashed part of the auto was the driver's seat space. My ex was pushed from the passenger seat into the driver's area, breaking the gear shift when he did (which gives you an idea of the force involved... they were on the express-way going over the speed limit as usual for the pair).

I don't know what happened to the driver. I don't know if he changed his ways, felt that he'd been spared for a reason or whether he just went on his merry way as normal. We completely lost touch afterwards, and while all the recovery was going on I didn't try to talk with him. None of the thoughts I'm expressing now were on my mind as my ex went through his trauma.

Life throws some kickers at you sometimes. Whether it's the result of a miraculous happening like the one our 47-story falling guy lived through, surviving a car accident or some other large or small trauma, it's never a bad idea to take stock and think about the miracle of life and existence.

NYC Window Washer Who Fell 47 Stories Awake, Talking
New York — Doctors say they have never seen anything like it: A window washer who fell 47 stories from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper is now awake, talking to his family and expected to walk again. Alcides Moreno, 37, plummeted almost 500 feet in a Dec. 7 scaffolding collapse that killed his brother.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319991,00.html