Fort Hood,Texas Shooting & Loneliness, Failed Immigration Ideals

     The events related to the shootings in Killeen, Texas this week are getting the usual and bleak news coverage that a story of this magnitude indeed tends to receive.  Such a major...

The Story of the Old and Lonely Man....

I knew an old man who lived in the same apartment building as me, here in Lyon. He had no money and he had no friends and he had no family,and he had no food.He was polite and discreet.Every night he would go down...

Sad and Afraid, Young and Lonely....And Suicidal

Around 5% of French students try to commit suicide each year, and hundreds of them succeed. I was on a bus a short while ago. A sad looking young woman got on and sat down next to me. After a few moments she asked...

For Hire: Husband, Mother or Companion, Lonely in Japan

I am not sure I agree with Duncan Bartlett byline for Rent-a-friend in Japan (BBC, January 12) that 'Japanese still like to use their money to have fun'. This segment of From our own correspondent starts with a visit to Cat Cafes where for a fee time pressed Japanese can...

Loneliness 'makes you cold'

"     Loneliness and coldness are often associated in everyday language, but psychologists have found that social isolation does make people feel cold. The University of Toronto team found people feeling excluded said a room was colder than those...

Garfield the existentialist

This really creeped me out this morning. Someone figured out that if you remove Garfield from a Garfield comic strip, the result often becomes a dark statement about the 'empty desperation of modern life.' It's...

Individuals Don't Matter

Look at the news... here... on television... Ever ask yourself "What makes news?"Earthquakes, fires, crashed luxury jets/boats, school-ground killings, explosions, bombs, gunfire (especially when leading to wounds or death), mass murder/destruction war, politicians receiving...

Nottinghamshire Notes: Gormley's 'Another Place' Liverpool

Antony Gormley's installation 'Another Place' is currently on a beach just outside Liverpool.  It consists of 100 cast-iron figures based on the artists' own body, and they cover a 3 kilometre area, each gazing out to sea.  They are due to be moved...

Donors get web wish lists from homeless

"VANCOUVER, CALGARY -- The simply written, personal biographies hint at the terrible loneliness and longing that visit the homeless each Christmas. Heartbreaking, too, are the humble requests penned by those who live and sleep on the streets of two of Canada's most prosperous...

Lonely artist crawls 60 miles

"An art teacher from London, England, has crawled 96km on his hands and knees to draw attention to the plight of single people spending Christmas alone. Mark McGowan, 37, was pulling 18...

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