Joplin tornado photos show devastation as 232 still missing

  • The Joplin tornado has already killed at least 125 people, now officials say that 232 remain unaccounted for

Following the devastating tornado which ripped though Joplin at the weekend, these satellite images show the extent of the damage.

Before and after aerial photos show the shocking extent of the damage caused by the twister in the Missouri city – this image shows a six-block path of destruction.

Authorities say it’s the deadliest single tornado in America since modern record-keeping began over 60 years ago. It’s claimed the lives of at least 125 people and reports now say that 232 people are still missing.

Devastation: The satellite image on the left shows where the tornado ripped through Joplin and left the six-block scar across the city - and on the right was the Missouri city as it was before the tragedy

Devastation: The satellite image on the left shows where the tornado ripped through Joplin and left the six-block scar across the city – and on the right was the Missouri city as it was before the tragedy

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Religion and sport: Do prayers help players?

Atheists will regard the idea that religion can make a difference to outcomes in sport as fanciful. But it is possible to put aside the issue of whether or not God exists and just examine the impact of faith on performance.

This is what Jeong-Keun Park of Seoul University did in 2000 by studying the performances of Korean athletes. He found that prayer was not only a key factor in coping with anxiety but also in attaining peak performance.

A quote from a participant in Park’s study encapsulates the findings: “I always prepared my game with prayer. I committed all things to God, without worry. These prayers make me calmer and more secure and I forget the fear of losing. It resulted in good play.”

This echoes extraordinary research about the power of faith from the world of medicine. In the 1960s, a series of studies found that heart disease is far less common among the religious than in the general population, even after controlling for different lifestyles. Later studies extended this finding, including a paper in 1996 which found that mortality rates in secular kibbutzim are nearly twice that of their religious counterparts.

It seemed that religious beliefs conferred real health benefits.

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