Heaven on Earth

A Catholic priest in Maryland has decided to take peoples confessions from the safety of their cars. Father Scott Holmer, a pastor at St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Bowie has provided his listening’s in the car park of the church, allowing parishioners to confess drive-thru style. The pastor became worried about people touching door handles, bench seats and chairs within the church so came up with the idea to have confessions outside instead. In a statement to Catholic Standard Father Scott Holmer said that, "This is where we priests have to be creative about how to bring Christ to people when we can't do that in our church buildings… We need to bring Christ to people now, to bring him to others in a safe way that won't increase infection." As the Catholic season of Lent is currently in force until Easter on April 12 th , Holmer has been blessing people’s homes from the outside – working like a blessing delivery service too! Father Holme...

The coronavirus has been a topic that has caused anxiety in a lot of people. The strain of panic-buying on the average consumer has caused a lot of us to believe humans are greedy. So, it is hard to notice all the positive and community driven individuals that have shown us just what humanity means. 1.       1.   Scottish Corner Store Owner Gives Away £5,000 Worth of Produce to the Elderly Under Quarantine Shop owner, Zahid Iqbal, has prepared over 1,000 “coronavirus kits” containing toilet roll, hand wash, tissues and anti-inflammatories to give to elderly people in this time of crisis. The kits are available to people over the age of 65 or those with mobility issues. They can either pick them up from the convenience store, Day-Today, or can have them delivered to their door for free by Mr. Iqbal himself. Mr Iqbal thought of the idea whilst shopping with his parents, where he encountered a shop full of empty shelves. In an article with The Scotsm...

Nightclubs, events and bars are popular amongst British citizens – not only for the booze but also for the social unity everyone experiences whilst listening to music and dancing. Dancing is something that has been in the human experience since the birth of music. Dancing figures can be found in cave paintings, ancient journals and more recent film. The question is why? Why do we dance? Unlike other animals that have similar social structures we seem to be the only species that dances – aside from Snowball the dancing Parrot ( https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/04/01/297686709/the-list-of-animals-who-can-truly-really-dance-is-very-short-who-s-on-it?t=1583936840046 ) who is the only known non-human ‘dancer’. According to Dr Peter Lovatt, “You appear to get a much bigger release of endorphins when you dance than during other forms of exercise; it also connects with the emotional centres in the brain.” ( https://www.telegraph.co.uk/good-news/seven-seas/why-dancing-...

Despite the Indian government saying that women soldiers are unfit for military combat, on the 17 th of February the Indian Supreme Court have ruled that women will be getting equal rights within the army. This ruling allows women to be act as colonel, brigadier, major general, lieutenant general, and chief of army staff. They will also reap the same benefits and pensions that their male counterparts. Just 2 weeks before this ruling the Indian government had given little hope to the possibility of equal treatment after lawyers told the top court that male soldiers are not "yet mentally schooled to accept women officers in command" and that there were "challenges of confinement, motherhood and childcare". Currently, women are employed under the Short Service Commission (SSC) and don’t qualify for a permanent commission, which grants an officer to serve a full tenure. This means that women will serve for five years and have the option of extending the...

A video captured at Kings College Hospital in London shows a woman playing a violin whilst surgeons remove her brain tumour. 53-year-old Dagmar Turner had done this to protect areas of the brain that allows her to play the violin. The tumour had affected the part of her brain that involves delicate hand movements, in the right frontal lobe. These areas are incredibly close to the area that helps her play the violin, some parts of the tumour being as far away as a slither of a bank card.  Turner had a seizure during a performance, in 2013, and was diagnosed with a large grade 2 (slow growing) glioma. She had undergone biopsy and radiotherapy to reduce her tumour, but in 2019 it became apparent that the tumour had grown and become more aggressive. The violinist plays in the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra and explains, on an NHS news release , how, “The violin is my passion; I’ve been playing since I was 10 years old. The thought of losing my ability to play was h...

Dutch supermarket chain, Jumbo, has implemented a ‘chat checkout’ which allows shoppers to talk with a friendly server whilst they are paying for their groceries. This coincides with their ‘All Together Coffee Corner’, where shoppers can sit and have a coffee together. These features are an attempt to beat the epidemic of loneliness that has swept many nations. According to Ouderenfonds , In the Netherlands ¼ of elderly people feel lonely. Part of their ‘All Together Coffee Corner’ includes being able to talk to volunteers the "Alles voor Mekaar" Foundation. This is a foundation aiming to tackle loneliness by making contact between volunteers and elderly people, who live locally to each other, where they can spend time together or run errands.  Self-service checkouts have become a usual sight in supermarkets around the UK, with global numbers of 191,000 units in 2013 and 325,000 units in 2019. Although there are many advantages to self-service checkouts f...