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Articles, blogs, & even books I'm Reading

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I'm reading all day, from Scientific American, New Scientist, Psychology Today, Psychology Journals, Blogs from everywhere --For those who want to follow the same, this will help you do that.

Why Is it Impossible to Stop Thinking, to Render the Mind a Complete Blank? Why is it impossible to stop thinking, to render the mind a complete blank? —, via email Barry Gordon, professor of neurology and cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, replies: Forgive your mind this minor annoyance because it has worked to save your life—or more accurately, the lives of your ancestors. Most likely you have not needed to worry whether the rustling in the underbrush is a rabbit or a leopard, or had to identify the best escape route on a walk by the lake, or to wonder whether the funny pattern in the grass is a snake or dead branch. Yet these were life-or-death decisions to our ancestors. Constant thinking is what propelled us from being a favorite food on the savanna—and a species that nearly went extinct—to becoming the most accomplished life-form on this planet.

For these reasons, we benefit from having a brain that works around the clock, even if it means dealing with intrusive thoughts from time to time. Gender, Generations, and Faculty Conflict - The Chronicle Review. By Caroline Walker Bynum Bettmann, Corbis Harvard U. on April 10, 1969. Earlier that day, police had cleared University Hall of students protesting military training on the campus. "What was it about the 60s, Mom? " my daughter asked. The question made me think, for my daughter's puzzlement didn't seem like my own childhood curiosity about the 20s, when my mother learned to smoke and wore bangs, or the 30s, when the banks failed and my father had to go to graduate school on one meal a day. The time before we were born is always mysterious, known only through the stereotypes provided by others, because we were not there to observe it ourselves. Why would a woman of my generation (I was born in 1941) find the reply so difficult?

Many of those 10 years older than I are more certain. Because women were on the sidelines of this predominantly male drama, a conflict of fathers and sons, our 60s and 70s were different from theirs. In the 60s, women were not there. Mysterious Atmospheric River Soaks California, Where Megaflood May Be Overdue. An atmospheric river (thin yellow band) feeds torrential rain into northern California on Nov. 30. Image courtesy of NOAA Northern California is experiencing the first days of what weather forecasters are warning will be a long series of torrential rainstorms that could cause serious flooding across the northern one-third of the state. The relentless storms are being driven by a feature in the atmosphere you have probably never heard of: an atmospheric river. Oh, and another atmospheric river created the worst flooding since the 1960s in western England and Wales this past week, where more than 1,000 homes had to be evacuated.

An atmospheric river is a narrow conveyor belt of vapor about a mile high that extends thousands of miles from out at sea and can carry as much water as 15 Mississippi Rivers. It strikes as a series of storms that arrive for days or weeks on end. Megaflood Overdue? You may begin to hear the term “atmospheric river” more often. Global High Fructose Corn Syrup Use May Be Fueling Diabetes Increase. Image courtesy of iStockphoto/TheCrimsonMonkey It doesn’t matter where you look: the U.S., Mexico, Malaysia or Portugal, the more high fructose corn syrup consumption, on average, the more diabetes.

A new study of 43 countries in Global Public Health, published online November 27, found that adult type-2 diabetes is 20 percent higher in countries that consume large quantities of high fructose corn syrup. “The study adds to a growing body of scientific literature that indicates HFCS consumption may result in negative health consequences distinct from and more deleterious than natural sugar,” Michael Goran, of the University of Southern California Department of Preventive Medicine and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement. Countries in which per person annual high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) consumption was less than 0.5 kg had similar BMIs, daily calorie intake and total sugar intake as did countries in which HFCS was higher.

PSYCH_Social Sciences & Humanities. Coming soon ... Seasonal Mood and Behavioral Changes for Japanese Residents in the United Kingdom Yumiko Kurata, Shinobu Nomura Abstract | References Full-Text PDF Full-Text HTML ePub, Pub. DOI: 10.4236/psych.2012.329128 Google Scholar Open Access Library Downloads: 501 This article belongs to the Special Issue The Comparison of Cognitive Behavior Therapy with Psychopharmacological Intervention for Women with Anxiety Disorders (GAD, SAD & OCD) Abdollah Alizadeh, Gayane Shahverdyan, Ahmad Etemadi Abstract | References Full-Text PDF Full-Text HTML ePub, Pub.

Resting EEG Activity and Ovarian Hormones as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in Postmenopausal Women without a Diagnosis of Major Depression Silvia Solís-Ortiz, Elva Pérez-Luque, Maria del Pilar Pacheco-Zavala Abstract | References Full-Text PDF Full-Text HTML ePub, Pub. DOI: 10.4236/psych.2012.329126 Google Scholar Open Access Library Downloads: 472 The Muscle Immobility of Depression—The Weightlessness Within “Smile through It!” DoctorKlaper.com - Michael A. Klaper, M.D.

Table of Contents — November 2012, 7 (6) Hurricane Sandy Hints At The Perils Of Global Catastrophe | Guest Blog. It takes a lot to bump the United States election out of the national spotlight one week before election day. Hurricane Sandy was that big, a direct blow to the most heavily populated region of the country. But all the attention going to the northeastern U.S. has a sad consequence: we’re overlooking the devastation Sandy caused in Haiti.

This situation offers an ominous warning of what could happen if catastrophe were to affect the entire planet. Candlelit bar in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Photo credit: Seth Baum This story is very personal for me. I live in New York City, and I do research on global catastrophes. Meanwhile in Haiti, things may be worse. Flooding in Haiti caused by Hurricane Sandy. Despite the dire situation in Haiti, U.S. aid efforts are concentrated on the U.S. side of the storm. Haiti should get the aid it needs. But a global catastrophe could thwart the international assistance paradigm. In the event of a global catastrophe, each region could be left on its own. Superstorm Sandy May Have Long-Term Public Health Impacts. A week after Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast, parts of the Northeast are still reeling from the wind, rain and flooding. Though the darkened Manhattan skyline may be the hurricane's most obvious consequence, the storm's health impacts may be the more significant and longest-lasting.

The hurricane's death toll in the United States climbed to 113 over the weekend, with 48 fatalities in New York and 24 in New Jersey, the Los Angeles Times reported. Thousands still lack power as temperatures drop further and a brewing nor'easter threatens to pour over the area later this week. Relief workers now have to contend with a variety of health issues stemming from the late-season storm.

"Typically, we usually are dealing with these types of disasters when it's warmer out," said Melanie Pipkin, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross. At St. "We've set up a medical dispatch. "We stay out of that debate. However, he said there are likely patterns based on previous storms. Support for Massachusetts Death with Dignity: what 14 years of data show us | Unofficial Prognosis. On Tuesday, Massachusetts voters will face the Death with Dignity Act and decide whether they are comfortable with the idea of a physician being able to provide medication that a terminally ill patient can self-administer to end his or her life.

If the act passes, Massachusetts will join Oregon, Washington, and Montana in being one of the few states that legally allows physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Many point to the Massachusetts outcome as a critical turning point in the nationwide debate. Lewis M. Cohen at Slate, for example, called it a “crucial milestone” because “if the act passes… other states that have previously had unsuccessful campaigns will certainly be emboldened to revisit this subject.”

In the past few weeks before the vote, bioethicists, physicians, patients, and others have become more vocal – with those in opposition coming forward particularly strong. Physical pain versus suffering Dr. But I’m not so sure that is the fundamental claim. Evidence for safeguards Dr. No rats in Ryder Alley | A Blog Around The Clock. Last week, in the wake of superstorm Sandy, I saw a number of people asking questions on social media (and some traditional media picking up on it) about a potential for ratpocalypse, i.e,. the possibility that hordes of rats will come out of the sewers and subway tunnels and flood the streets of New York City in a Pied Piper style. So I wrote a blog post debunking this and explaining why this will not happen, which made me a temporary expert on behavior of rats in storms, so I got interviewed in various places, etc.

As I noted at the very end of the post, my main source of information, at least initially, was a book, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan. I read it several years ago, when it first came out, and loved it. Reading it provoked me to read more on the topic, so when these questions came up, I already knew most of the answers, and knew where to look for additional information. My wife and I hailed a cab. How Psychology, Psychiatry Discriminate Against People with Mental Illness. While attending the 28th Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy at The Carter Center last week, it occurred to me that mental health professionals are some of the worst when it comes to discriminating against people with mental illness.

They do this in insidious and subtle ways, suggesting a patient can’t do the things others without mental illness can do. Like hold down a job, get into independent housing, interact in social situations or even just go back to school and get a degree. They also do this in more direct ways, by suggesting to their patients applying for a job or going back to school that, “If they don’t ask about mental illness, don’t volunteer that information.” Why not? Why are mental health professionals helping to contribute to discrimination and stigma about mental illness by making these suggestions? I had this insight while Graham Thornicroft, Ph.D., a professor of Community Psychiatry at King’s College London, was giving his keynote.

What is stigma? The Death of Natural Selection | Guest Blog. My evening plan to read Harry Potter for the first time (I know!) Was thwarted by Linton Weeks’s thought-provoking post on the right of plants to evolve. The post reports on the work of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit that helps communities develop laws that recognize ecosystems as rights-bearing entities.

The CELDF’s work is not unprecedented; in 2008 Ecuador granted nature the constitutional right to the maintenance and regeneration of its evolutionary processes. The associate director of CELDF explained: “fish and other species in a river may be recognized as having the right to exist and evolve.” These are not the only efforts to protect species’ abilities to evolve.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), for example, defines wilderness areas as “protecting large mainly untouched areas where ecosystem processes, including evolution, can continue unhindered by human[s], including development or mass tourism.” This sounds fine. World’s rarest whale seen for first time: Spade-toothed whale | Running Ponies. Illustration of the spade-toothed whale's general external morphology. Credit: Current Biology We’ve got an actual photograph of it too, but it’s not pretty, so you might want to stop eating before you scroll down… Considered the least known and rarest species of whale, and one of the world’s rarest living mammals, the spade-toothed whale (Mesoplodon traversii) has been seen for the first time after a mother and her male calf beached and died on a New Zealand beach. Not only are beaked whales of the family Ziphiidae rare, their ability to dive down to exceptionally deep areas of the ocean in search of squid and other deep-sea fish means they are also very elusive.

They can reportedly dive to more than 800m below the surface and dives can last up to 87 minutes. Superficially, beaked whale species look pretty similar, and for many of the 21 known species, we have frustratingly few records. Order my new book, Zombie Tits, Astronaut Fish and Other Weird Animals, here. Former Climate Scientist Turns Pickle-Maker. GREENFIELD, Mass. – Over the top of her computer screen, Addie Rose Holland eyes a stainless steel assembly line, where shredded pickled carrots get scooped from buckets and packed tightly into 15-ounce Mason jars. Three years ago, Holland looked out on a vastly different view – the frozen surface of Siberia's Lake El'gygytgyn.

She was there as a paleoclimatologist, probing lake sediment for clues on how past climate changes impacted the Arctic. The research and panoramas were eye-opening. But the world of science ultimately proved too remote and abstract. Driven by a desire to spur change in her own backyard, Holland swapped her parka for a hairnet: She's incorporating her world of science into her world of pickles. "We're not solving global warming by making pickles," said Holland, 33, who today co-owns Real Pickles, a Greenfield-based organic food company. But her company can, she hopes, help nudge the corporate world toward a more sustainable, healthier, less energy-intensive model.

Is Global Warming Happening Faster Than Expected? Over the past decade scientists thought they had figured out how to protect humanity from the worst dangers of climate change. Keeping planetary warming below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) would, it was thought, avoid such perils as catastrophic sea-level rise and searing droughts. Staying below two degrees C would require limiting the level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million (ppm), up from today's 395 ppm and the preindustrial era's 280 ppm. Now it appears that the assessment was too optimistic.

The latest data from across the globe show that the planet is changing faster than expected. Select an option below: Customer Sign In *You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content. Humans Think Like Quantum Particles. An American election season seems like a bad time to sing the praises of human rationality. Candidates make promises that will never be kept yet voters somehow accept; thoughtful arguments hold no sway, while sound bites carry the day. What a comedown from the Enlightenment ideals, the faith in rationality, that inspired the founding of the republic. And it is even worse than you might think. Some things you think should be possible to figure out rationally if only you exerted yourself aren't.

If you actually succeeded in living a life of reason—never voting without weighing each candidate's record carefully, never buying an appliance without consulting Consumer Reports, never begging the question, never erecting straw men, never falling into any of the other traps that flesh is heir to—you still would find yourself doing things that made no sense, not because you had failed but because reason itself is a saw blade missing a few teeth. Select an option below: Customer Sign In. The Science behind Superstorm Sandy’s Crippling Storm Surge. Romney Avoids Taxes via Loophole Cutting Mormon Donations.

Pennsylvania Omitted Poison Data in Water Report. New York City Planning Ahead of Actual Adaptation. People in Poor Neighborhoods Breathe More Hazardous Particles. Did NYC rats survive hurricane Sandy? | A Blog Around The Clock. Hurricane Sandy Spins Up Climate Discussion. Scientists Dissect the Psychology of 'Truthiness" Alcoholism and Social Exclusion | The Scicurious Brain. Did Climate Change Cause Hurricane Sandy? Can Cities Be Both “Resilient” and “Sustainable”? Habitat Loss, Misinformation Spur Chimpanzee Aggression | Extinction Countdown. Caveman Diet Secret: Less Red Meat, More Plants. Will People Really Be Forced to Stop Eating Meat? | Vegetarianism. Potent "Frankenstorm" Menaces U.S. East Coast. Contaminated Culture: Native People Struggle with Tainted Resources.

Salton Sea Volcano Mystery Solved. Men and Women Can't Be "Just Friends" Ethicist Peter Singer Critiques Roe v. Wade, Obamacare, Romney | Cross-Check. Deadly Dancing: Could a Nocebo Effect Explain Medieval Europe's Dancing Plagues? [Excerpt] Try This "Recipe" to Increase Productivity Over the Next Week. Finally, a Proper Study to Scientifically Show Telecommuting is More Productive. Why Working Longer Can Become the New Normal. Troubles in the Branding of Psychotherapies as “Evidence Supported” | Mind the Brain. Popular antidepressants may raise stroke risk. The Power of Music: Mind Control by Rhythmic Sound | Guest Blog. How Do You Spot A Genius? | Streams of Consciousness. Smart Health Choices - NCBI Bookshelf. Understanding research results - PubMed Health. #NIHMiM12 – The spreading shadow of cancer angst: 3 things you need to know to meet it rationally | Guest Blog.

Study links hippocampus with unconscious bias. 10 Awesome Free Tools To Make Infographics. Mathematics and What It Means to Be Human, Part 1 - Do Your Job Better. Roots of Post-Trauma Resilience Sought in Genetics and Brain Changes. Roots of Post-Trauma Resilience Sought in Genetics and Brain Changes. YouTube Exposure Means Network Knows Cats. Elyn Saks: A tale of mental illness -- from the inside. Vikram Patel: Mental health for all by involving all. Why moderate beliefs rarely prevail. Scientists explain how ketamine vanquishes depression within hours. A study in adaptability: Why do we change our beliefs? Number of Animals Killed to Produce One Million Calories in Eight Food Categories :: AnimalVisuals.org :: Visual Resources For Animals. Worrying Trends Confronted in Prescription Drug Abuse. Nobel laureate challenges psychologists to clean up their act. 16-Month-Olds Rationally Infer Causes of Failed Actions.

Kids Scientific Method Is Just Like The Pros. The WEIRD Psychology of Elephants | The Thoughtful Animal. Gender bias: ethical implications of an empirical finding. | Doing Good Science. Pets Share Owners' Diseases. Ten Reasons People Resist Change - Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Will Humanity Face a Carbohydrate Shortage? Novel Food Labels and Dinner Plates Could Improve Our Diets. Arctic Sea Ice: What, Why, and What Next | Guest Blog. Sectoral shifts in the U.S. economy: More waitresses & nurses, fewer teachers and factory workers. Study says people are inclined to help others. Crows have human-like cognitive ability. The intricate lives of bottlenose dolphins. Are All Psychotherapies Created Equal? Mating system affects population performance and extinction risk under environmental challenge. Cholesterol Confusion: Researchers Closer to Understanding Which Forms of Cholesterol Can Really Hurt Us.

People.csail.mit.edu/emax/papers/TOIS-a24-bernstein-vankleek.pdf. Anti-Inflammatory Drug Proves Effective For Treating Severe Depression. Satellites Used to Predict Infectious Disease Outbreaks. What Caused the Yosemite Hantavirus Outbreak? Every Worker Is a Knowledge Worker. Theories, models and the future of science | The Curious Wavefunction.

Llama Llama Get With Mama: The Magical Semen Ingredient that Makes the Ladies Swoon (Then Ovulate) | Context and Variation. What Makes Humans Unique? [Video] Aspiration Makes Us Human. Brain Parasites, California’s Hidden Health Problem | Guest Blog. Northern Lights Blaze Up after Big Sun Storm. Revisiting Robbers Cave: The easy spontaneity of intergroup conflict | Literally Psyched. The Lizard Project: why scientists and teachers should work together for science outreach | Guest Blog. Are assessments of scientific intelligence biased toward mathematically oriented fields? | The Curious Wavefunction. The Neuroscience of 20-Somethings | Brainwaves. Do moral vegetarians feel more disgust? | The Scicurious Brain.

Sacrifice on the Serengeti: Life History, Genetic Relatedness, and the Evolution of Menopause | The Primate Diaries. A Grimm Tale of Reproductive Conflict | The Primate Diaries. Biomarker Predicts Recovery from a Type of Depression. Memory in older men saved by 'Ram'