The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Robot seals help heal Japan’s tsunami victims Posted: 01 Aug 2011 07:08 AM PDT  An elderly resident strokes a therapeutic robot named Paro at the Suisyoen retirement home, about 30km south of the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, July 28, 2011. – Reuters pic Sitting only 27km south of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant on a hill above an area ravaged by the tsunami, the Suisyoen retirement home is located in the middle of Japan's triple crises. While the retirement home structure was spared major damage by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, fears of radiation contamination from the nearby nuclear plant led officials to evacuate Suisyoen for two months until Mid-may. A week after they returned, the robotics division of Japanese company Daiwa House offered to lend Suisyoen two of its seal robots coated with anti-bacterial fur, now nicknamed Love and Peace for two years. The robots normally cost around 12,000 yen (RM455.62) a month to lease. The furry friends are now treated as pets by the residents, with many of them still dealing with memories of the quake. Some residents hold onto the seals for longer than others. "If I hold onto this, it doesn't matter if there's a typhoon outside, I still feel safe," said 85-year-old Satsuko Yatsuzaka after she had been hugging one of the seals for about half an hour. While some retirement homes have used animals to help with therapy for residents, Suisyoen's General Manager Taku Katoono said that using this sort of therapeutic robot lowered many of the barriers that would normally be in the way of using live animals. "First of all it's necessary to have a live animal to raise for animal therapy. That however is rather difficult in certain situations and so in this case we use a doll, albeit a robotic one, as an alternative method to help them recover," Katoono said. As the robots can only hold a charge for an hour and a half, they are normally used in the morning and then charged over lunch to be used again in the afternoon. The robots even take in the daily exercises, with residents help the seals clap and sing along. Ayako Shizo, who lost her house in the tsunami and is now living at Suisyoen said she liked playing with the seal, despite not previously having pets. "It's just as cute a little living creature and so everyone is looking after it every day. It does sometimes runs out of batteries and stop. But when it's got its eyes open everyone stands around talking to it, asking it how it's doing and such," Shizo said. Local media have reported that more than half of the victims of the tsunami were over 65 years old, with survivors still attempting to heal their mental scars. Suisyoen said that currently they don't plan on getting any more Paros, but if one resident becomes especially attached to one of them they may increase the number of furry companions for the residents. – Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| Who let the dogs in the yoga class? Posted: 01 Aug 2011 03:31 AM PDT  Doga instructor Suzi Teitelman and dog Roxy are pictured in a cross-legged pose at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida in this picture taken 2009. And while doga may not measure up, fitness-wise, to a game of fetch or a run on the beach, experts say practising yoga with your pet can soothe the not-so-savage breasts of both person and pooch. – Reuters pic And while doga may not measure up, fitness-wise, to a game of fetch or a run on the beach, experts say practising yoga with your pet can soothe the not-so-savage breasts of both person and pooch. "I consider it partner yoga," said Suzi Teitelman, a Florida-based instructor who has been teaching doga to man, woman and beast since 2002. "It's my lifelong passion." Teitelman stumbled upon doga because her dog liked to lie under her while she practised. "When you feel good, they feel good," she said. "They want to be around your goodness." Classes, DVDs and a training manual followed. Teitelman said she's trained more than 100 people around the world in doga, some from as far away as China and Japan. Disco yoga, kid yoga, beach yoga, spin yoga and yogalites are but a few of the trendy hybrids saluting the sun at fitness centres these days, all takeoffs on the 5,000-year-old practice that coordinates movement and breath. But Teitelman insists she teaches a traditional yoga class, even if the downward facing dog is flesh and blood. "We chant together to feel the vibrations, then we start moving into twists and turns," she said. Traditional poses such as warriors, triangles and backbends follow, possibly enhanced by a little dog balanced at the belly or waist. "The person takes dog deeper into a stretch, and the dog takes the person deeper," she said. "If you have a dog on your arm in a standing posture it helps balance and strength." Teitelman believes the rewards of yoga accrue to human and animal alike. "You're moving their body. They're getting touched, they're getting love," she explained, "and everybody needs to be hanging upside down." Dr Robin Brennen, a New York City veterinarian, was skeptical of the hugely popular doga classes at the Bideawee animal shelter and learning centre where she works. Then she attended one. "I witnessed the demeanor of the animals changing during the class," she said. "They'll come in barking, seven, eight, nine dogs in room, but by the end of the session, they're sleeping. They're in savasana (the final resting pose)." Brennen said unlike running or jogging, doga is not physically strenuous for the dog. "It's a level one yoga class and with this big dog in front of you it's hard to do poses," she said. "It's basically stopping and starting." But then doga isn't about dogs doing yoga, but about owners interacting with their dogs. "It really highlights the human-animal bond," she said. "For me, being in animal rescue, and seeing so many homeless pets, and people who very easily discard animals, I like these activities on the other side of the spectrum." But she is doubtful about the spiritual side. "It's hard to think of a centering practice like yoga being centering to an animal, because it's hard to know what centers them," she said. Teitelman believes doga can embrace other domesticated creatures. "It definitely works with cats," she said, "and when I do downward dog my bird comes over." But Brennen has her doubts. "Cats? Obviously you'd have to change the format. They want their feet on the ground. Then there's the scratching and clawing factor." – Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
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