Former member of the Manson family and convicted murderer Susan Atkins, aka Sadie Mae Glutz, has requested a “compassionate release” from her home of the last 37 years, a state prison in Corona, CA.

Atkins, now 60, has little time to live as she is dying from terminal brain cancer. A supervising board will look over the request, though no timetable has been set. The sister of deceased actress Sharon Tate (whom Atkins held down while being stabbed and later wrote “PIG” on a door in Tate’s blood) had this to say:

“I don’t want to seem like a heartless creature, but in all my years, I never considered this could happen. She showed no compassion. She told my sister as she slit her throat that she didn’t (care) for her or her unborn baby.”

Atkins, who is apparently now a born-again Christian, has an estimated one month to live.

Senator Edward Kennedy had a successful operation at Duke University Medical Center today for a brain tumor. Kennedy, 76, was diagnosed with having a malignant glioma in the left side of his brain after suffering a seizure two weeks ago. After recovering from surgery, Kennedy will undergo radiation and chemotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Malignant glioma is the most common form of brain cancer. This type of tumor is very difficult to remove because it travels quickly and can migrate to other parts of the brain. Kennedy’s surgery was to partially remove the tumor to reduce its size. Prognosis varies but patients typically live between one and four years. Kennedy is aggressively dealing with his tumor and plans to return to the U.S. Senate and continue support for Barack Obama to be elected as the next president.  

Research in Britain has shown that up to 53% of mobile phone users suffer from “no mobile phobia,” or nomophobia, the fear of being without cell phone service for any reason:

They have become so dependent on their mobile that discovering it is out of charge or simply misplacing it sends stress levels soaring. More than one in two said this is why they never switch it off. One in ten said they needed to be contactable at all times because of their jobs, while 9 per cent said that having their phone switched off made them anxious.

Experts say nomophobia could affect up to 53 per cent of mobile phone users, with 48 per cent of women and 58 per cent of men questioned admitting to experiencing feelings of anxiety when they run out of battery or credit, lose their phone or have no network coverage.

However, perhaps people should be a little more afraid of the cell phones themselves.  Another British study claims that longterm cell phone use is worse for your health than “smoking and asbestos”:

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks. It draws on growing evidence that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Noting that malignant brain tumours represent “a life-ending diagnosis”, he adds: “We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation.” He fears that “unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps”, the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, I guess.