Question: "He died peacefully in his sleep," people will say. But isn't this just a euphemism? Wouldn't dying normally be enough to rudely awaken a person, at least briefly?Answer: Of all the myths surrounding death, dying peacefully in one's sleep appears to be the one that nearly always is true, says University of Arizona emergency medicine specialist Kenneth V. Iserson, author of "Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies?"
Most of these deaths are from the heart failing to beat normally (cardiac arrhythmias), effectively stopping blood flow to the brain. Immediate unconsciousness follows and, since the individuals are already asleep, they would have no awareness that they have passed from sleep to coma to death.
Those found dead in bed but who may not have died "peacefully" include people who suffer painful heart attacks, awaken, and then quickly succumb to abnormal heart rhythms or other conditions that make the heart unable to pump blood effectively.
Strokes may be painless — especially if massive or immediately affecting the areas that control wakefulness and awareness — or may cause a severe headache that awakens the victim.
"Experience shows, however, that most people who 'die in their sleep' do so at least peacefully enough that their bed partners do not awaken. That seems to be as good as it gets."
Question: Can you name a set of "objects" (not zero) where there are as many items in half the set as in the whole set? Hint: You'll need infinite patience for this one.
Answer: If you don't think the concept of infinity is strange, picture the set of counting numbers 1, 2, 3 . . . , then the set of EVEN counting numbers 2, 4, 6 . . .. Both are endless sets, with the same number of members. You know this is true because you can pair up the items in the first set (1, 2, 3 . . . ) one-to-one with the items in the second set (2, 4, 6 . . . ), thus: 1 pairs up with 2, 2 with 4, 3 with 6, etc. So both sets clearly are of equal size.
Therefore, HALF of infinity can equal THE WHOLE of infinity! If you enjoy this type of thinking, thank Georg Cantor (1845-1918) on your way to mathematics class.
Question: Are there bilinguals who stutter in one language but speak normally and even fluently in the other?
Answer: Curiously, this does happen, says University of Pittsburgh stuttering clinician J. Scott Yaruss, and maybe curiouser is that it can run both ways — there are stutterers who upon learning a new language find they stutter less or not at all, until familiarity grows with the new language and then on again comes the stuttering; others reverse this and stutter more at first, until familiarity tapers it.
Yes, stuttering can be strange, echoes Auburn University fluency disorders specialist Larry Molt, reflecting the deep and abiding complexity of speech itself, as witness those folks who stutter in their everyday talk but who become fluent when they break into song! Or certain well-known actors who conquer their stuttering best when they adopt a role and "speak in character."
Nobody understands this well, but neuro-imaging research seems to indicate stuttering flows out of different brain circuitry than normal speech, adds Molt. "And since later-learned languages are handled differently by the brain, either acquisition or storage, this may be how some bilinguals keep at least one tongue stutter-free."
Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@compuserve.com