A recent study to find out the effect of praying for people undergoing a heart surgery is very surprising. The patients were split into three groups. The first group was told that devoted people would pray for a successful surgery and a recovery without troubles. All of them received the prayers. The second group was told that they could receive the prayers and in fact they were included in the group which received the prayers. The third group were also told that they could receive the prayers but they were not included among those who received the prayers. When the surgery was performed and for 14 days after that, the patient names selected to be prayed for were given to three churches, one Protestant and two Catholics, and were cited during the religious ceremony.
The result? All patients were followed for 30 days and all surgery complications were documented. Among the patients of the third group, those who did not receive any prayer, 51% had minor complications. In the second group 52% also had some minor complications. But among those of the first group, which were sure that people prayed for them, 59% had minor complications! The authors of the study propose that the first group got upset by knowing that people would pray for them so they were under more stress than the other two groups. Well, well...
More details can be found in "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in Cardiac Bypass Patients", Am. Heart J.,151, 762 (2006). Some comments appeared in the Brazilian newspaper Estadão (in Portuguese only).
31 May 2006
Quotes...
I found some interesting quotes in Lemniscatas 2:
-God is real, unless declared integer.
-All models are wrong. Some are useful.
-Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.
-War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
-Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.
-In science as in love, too much concentration on technique can often lead to impotence.
-If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.
-God is real, unless declared integer.
-All models are wrong. Some are useful.
-Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.
-War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
-Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.
-In science as in love, too much concentration on technique can often lead to impotence.
-If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.
Textos de física on-line
Vários textos sobre relatividade, teoria de campos, cordas e matemática que estão disponíveis on-line foram coletados por Dimitri Terryn. Vale a pena coloca-los no seu bookmarks.
30 May 2006
Statements made by a soul accepted in court
As in any other country most Brazilians believe in some form of religion. One of them is called "espiritismo" from the French "spiritisme". It started with Allan Kardec in France around 1850 and it is now spread all over Brazil and only in Brazil I think. Kardec followers usually are Catholics which believe in life after death. More than that you can communicate with the dead. One of the most common forms of communication is through a medium which writes in a piece of paper what the spirits tell him(her). Usually you go to a séance, tell the name of the dead and the death date, and then receives a sheet of paper with a message. Some years ago some reporters went to a séance and gave the name of living people and of course the medium wrote some messages showing that is all fake. Now you have to present a death certificate before asking for messages so they are becoming smarter.
Today one of the main Brazilian newspaper published a note saying that two such letters were presented in court. The article is here (only in Portuguese). It all started in 2003 when a man called Ercy aged 71 was shot dead. A woman called Iara, which had an affective relationship with Ercy, hired Ercy's housekeeper with a plan to scare Ercy to death. And that was what happened. Ercy died, the housekeeper was convicted and Iara was tried this week. The oddity is that a medium was asked by Ercy to deliver two letters, one to Iara and another to her husband. The letters say that Iara is innocent of his killing and that all is happening because of evil people like those who killed him. The letters were read in court and at the end she got free by the jury by 5 to 2. Do not ask me why Ercy did not tell in the letters who killed him !!!
Today one of the main Brazilian newspaper published a note saying that two such letters were presented in court. The article is here (only in Portuguese). It all started in 2003 when a man called Ercy aged 71 was shot dead. A woman called Iara, which had an affective relationship with Ercy, hired Ercy's housekeeper with a plan to scare Ercy to death. And that was what happened. Ercy died, the housekeeper was convicted and Iara was tried this week. The oddity is that a medium was asked by Ercy to deliver two letters, one to Iara and another to her husband. The letters say that Iara is innocent of his killing and that all is happening because of evil people like those who killed him. The letters were read in court and at the end she got free by the jury by 5 to 2. Do not ask me why Ercy did not tell in the letters who killed him !!!
27 May 2006
Gravitational lens picture
A new picture of Hubble Space Telescope shows a nice collection of images from a quasar and a galaxy due to the gravitational lens effect. For an explanation see the article in
New Scientist.
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