Word: spined
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When bunnies are killed in the class, students are taught to press their thumbs into the back of the rabbit's spine to kill the creature as humanely as possible, according to Edgar Young, animal science department chairman. "If slaughter can be humane, this is the most humane way to do it," he added...
...Spine-straightening electricity...
...decades, the standard way to straighten out a child's curved spine was with a bulky back brace. Worn for up to eight years, it was not a pleasant prospect for the 25 out of 1,000 American teen-agers (90% girls) afflicted with spinal curvatures, or scoliosis. For those with severe curves, surgery often was required. It too had its unpleasant consequences, sometimes including nine months' confinement in a hip-to-chin plaster body cast...
...patient's back over the convex side of the spinal curve. An implantable model has three electrodes that are buried under the skin. A bedside transmitter is used to trigger a pulsing current five or six times a minute. This stimulates muscle contractions that gradually pull the spine into line. Though the devices are still experimental, they appear to be as effective as bracing. Reports Boston Orthopedist John Emans: "Patients are delighted because they can look and act like other youngsters during the day." Some are so enthusiastic, in fact, that they flaunt their hardware. Notes Dr. Walter Bobechko...
...especially heartbreaking because one knows how ephemeral ideas and images are, what vast effort it takes to dust off the confusions, tune out the noise, and create those books that, for whatever inadequacies they may display, still set the mind in order for a time, giving it a spine and a binding. There may be no more pleasing picture in the world than that of a child peering into a book-the past and the future entrancing each other. Nor does anyone look quite so attractive as with a book in hand. How many people have fallen in love merely...