Amputee? It is Amazing what you can do!

Amputees and beauty, amputees and dance, amputees and athletics; these words seem to be incongruous. But, everywhere we look we see the exceptional, so seeing these words together should be beginning to seem normal. After all we have Heather Mills (McCartney) Dancing with the Stars with only one good leg!

Recently on NPR’s All Things Considered there was a story about Lisa Bufano, an award-winning artist. When she was 21 she developed a staph infection which caused both of her legs to be amputated along with her fingers.

Now 34 she runs, dances, and makes sexy, beautiful, movement pieces of art that bring her comfort and her audience the chance to see what real life is and should be. The link to the NPR article is http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7728628 .

You can also find many articles in your State Library’s Databases that will show life success stories from many types of amputees. Try the Thomson-Gale (InfoTrac) databases and use the search term “amputees narratives”. Using the ProQuest databases try the search term “amputees AND athletes”. SIRS has articles perfect for exploring this area with young people. Try using “athletes with disabilities” for a search term in SIRS. Your State Library brings the world to you! http://www.kslc.org/

Space and Stephen Hawking

Last week word got out that the brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking is about to take a space flight! This is remarkable in many ways. Dr. Hawking has suffered with MND (motor neuron disease) for four decades and yet has lectured and written about physics and space and our place in it all these years. His weakened body rides in a wheelchair and he needs a computer to communicate well, but he is now about to TRAVEL INTO SPACE !
The for-profit Zero Gravity Corp. will be sending him into a weightless (zero gravity) environment on April 26th this year. This flight will be a short 30,000 foot parabolic arch and will only be weightless for only about 30 seconds. But, Hawking is already making plans to fly higher and longer with Virgin Galactic in 2009.
If you want to read more about Stephen Hawking and his plans for space flight, check out the databases offered through your State Library (http://www.kslc.org/ ). If you choose the Thomson-Gale databases and type the term _Stephen Hawking space_ in the search box, you will find full text articles from magazines, journals, and newspapers! Just use the tabs at the top of the results page to read what British newspapers are saying about their most famous physicist! You can find more in other databases including SIRS for younger researchers. He has also written several provocative books such as "A Brief History of Time" that you might want to learn about. You can find it through your State Library!