Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/229608
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD n November, barely two weeks after a small plane carrying 10 skydivers left no survivors when it crashed on the way to an exhibition near Brussels, Belgium, nine skydivers were able to dive for safety when two planes headed for a tandem jump collided near Superior, Wis. News stories did not address how experienced skydivers escaped one plane but not the other. [WCCO-TV (Minneapolis), 11-22013; CNN, 10-19-2013] Recurring Themes! Animal Sacrifice -- in America: In September, Orthodox Jewish communities once again staged traditional kaparot, in which chickens are killed in a prescribed way Chuck Sheppard for the purpose of "transferring" a believer's latest sins over to the chicken (whose death banishes the sins). (In many such ceremonies, the chickens are donated for food, but protesters in Los Angeles criticized rogue practitioners who simply tossed carcasses into the trash.) In November, Miami-Dade County animal services found a severely injured chicken with a family's 4-by-6 photograph protruding from its chest, having been haphazardly "implanted," along with a note containing several hand-written names, apparently a casualty of local Santeria services. [Los Angeles Times, 9-11-2013] [WSVNTV (Miami), 11-18-2013] Some Americans still believe that stock market sales are typically made human-to-human, but the vast majority of buys and sells now are made automatically by computers, running pattern-detecting programs designed to execute millions of trades, in some cases, less than one second before rival computer programs attempt the same trades. In September, a Federal Reserve Board crisis involved, at most, seven milliseconds' time. The Fed releases market-crucial news typically at exactly 2 p.m. Washington, D.C., time, tightly controlled, transmitted by designated news agents via fiber optic cable. On Sept. 18, somehow, traders in Chicago reportedly beat traders elsewhere to deal an estimated $600 million worth of assets -- when theoretically, access to the Fed's news should have been random. (In other words, the drive to shave milliseconds off the "speed of light" has become quite profitable.) [CNBC, 9-24-2013; Mother Jones, 9-24-2013] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of December 18, 2013 ARIES (March 21-April 19) You are impressionable, but be careful not to put anyone else on a level above you. If you can see beauty, it's because there is beauty in you. The same goes for talent, intelligence, kindness and humor. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Just because another person isn't giving you what you want doesn't mean it's all a waste of time. You'll pay attention and learn, and no matter what happens, you'll make precious use of your time. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) It's hard to connect with seemingly perfect people, because people connect through their flaws. Luckily, no one you know is perfect! You'll help someone feel loved, flaws and all. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You sometimes abandon plans too early, but something will compel you to stick with the job beyond the point of boredom. On the other side, there are rich rewards. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) You're being prevented from moving forward in some way. Now the question is: Are you dealing with a block or a hurdle? They both can be overcome, but the hurdle was made for getting over. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Onward and upward isn't the easiest route. It takes more energy to climb toward the sun than it does to coast downhill. By the end of the day, you may feel spiritually out of breath and at the same time exhilarated. CANCER (June 22-July 22) You see what the problem is and respond to it before others even seem to notice something is off. They are just ignoring the issues they are powerless to change. You notice because you can do something about it. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)You'll gain insight and perspective through conversation, and as long as you don't believe everything you hear, you'll be better for it. Enjoy the chat in the moment, and you can check the facts later. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You cannot worry properly if you're not able to focus on the things that could go wrong. That's why filling your mind with hopeful dreams of exciting possibilities makes it nearly impossible to stay worried. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) It happens nearly every day: You're kind to someone and wind up helping yourself. Today is different, though. The circle of karma won't swing back around for a while, and you feel truly generous. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Your current social circumstance is a game. You're merely playing a role in it. An Italian proverb suggests that once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) hanging another person's world makes you responsible for it in some way, even if the change is for the better. That's why you're not sure whether you should intervene or keep minding your own business. IN THE MORNING Weekdays 5:30AM to 10:00AM ADVICE GODDESS Wimp Daddy A woman wrote you about flirting relentlessly with a male classmate who seemed interested in her but may have been too timid to ask her out. You asked her, "If a man can't endure a possible 10 seconds of rejection, is he the man you want with you when danger rears its head?" Absent a link between shyness and an inability to defend a woman in danger, I think you're being unfair to shy guys. — Irked If timidity were useful in defending people in danger, police sergeants would announce to their Amy Alkon beat cops, "Okay, everybody, go out there and hide in the back seat of your patrol car!" You're right that physical courage — willingness to risk physical pain — is different from emotional courage: willingness to risk rejection or other social pain. But they're more related than you think. Brain imaging research by UCLA's Naomi Eisenberger and Matthew Lieberman finds that the same regions of the brain that are activated by physical pain are activated by social pain, and Eisenberger reports that "individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain are also more sensitive to the other." Further pointing to a connection, what's good for a sprained ankle seems good for a sprained ego. In research Eisenberger collaborated on, 500 milligrams of acetaminophen (think Tylenol) taken twice daily was actually found to diminish emotional pain. There's this notion that the shy guy approaches "the chase" like it's the "lie there like cold salmon," simply because he isn't a people person. That actually describes an introvert — somebody energized by being alone and easily overstimulated in a crowd but who isn't necessarily afraid to hit on a girl he's interested in. But a shy person, instead of having self-esteem, has "what other people think of me"-esteem. This means a woman's rejection isn't just a bummer; it's a crushing confirmation of his worthlessness as anything more than a container of salable plasma. A guy desperate for approval is a guy a woman can never count on — to show her who he really is, to stand up for what he believes in, or, maybe, to even know what he believes. A guy like this isn't someone a woman can respect and admire. That's essential, because real love involves having a crush on a person as a human being, not taking pity on him for his shortcomings. This tells her something about her and something about him: that he has the qualities women look for in a man -courage and character and not just the really basic stuff like a Y chromosome. Amy Alkon all rights reserved DEC. 18-24, 2013 UCW 23