Welcome, welcome one and all to the very best of the stuff I found laying around in cyberspace this week.  It may be a day late, but better late than never, I always say.  So without delay I present the very best I found on the Internet-

Regarding the Mind-

At World of Psychology, Samuel Lopez de Victoria gives an in depth look at Narcisism, what it is, what problems it causes, and how psychologists can help.

At Mind Hacks, Vaughan reports a fascinating study that showed that for amputees, imagining your missing limb relieves phantom limb pain and structurally reorganizes the brain at the same time,

At Finding Optimism, James shares a quick overview into the difference between healthy striving to achieve and unhealthy perfectionism, with links to websites that evaluate where you fall in the perfectionist scale.

Regarding the Soul-

At Heavenly Ascents, David Larsen shares some fascinating stories of the phenomenon of  pre-birth experiences, where the spirits of children not as yet born, or even conceived, come in contact with their future parents, as collected and researched by Sarah Hinze, of the International Association for Near Death Studies.

At Edwin Leap, MD, the good doctor reveals that he is also and excellent parent as he muses on the habit of cursing, how children are the cure for their parents, and how replacing cursings with blessings would make the world a much better place.

Ah, the joys of faith and politics.  It turns out that Mitt Romney wasn’t the only politician who others feel has to prove he is a Christian. Barack Obama is now being criticised the same way.  Christine Falsani bemoans the trend of testing politicians for “true” Christianity at the Chicago Sun Times.

At Latter-Day Saint Philosopher, Nathan Richardson looks further into the two prevailing theories of Morality, self and other based, in what has been a fantastic series.  He makes a marvelous point about the absurdity of relativism, likening it to someone believing antifreeze only harms those who don’t like the taste.

Regarding the Body-

Dr. Val and the Voice of Reason reveals unpublished research at the University of Utah, showing people in densely populated areas are have less obesity.  Moving out of the suburbs into a more “walkable” neighborhood will generally lose you 6 to 10 pound on average, suggesting that our cars just may be killing us..

Zooillogix reports the discovery of a mollusk that glows in the dark when exposed to human white blood cells, allowing it to tell you if you have an infection or not.

Medgadget presents a newly developed contact lense that can continuously monitor the pressure inside the eye in people with glaucoma, allowing the disease to be much better controlled and blindness prevented.

Or All the Above-

Shadowfax, an ER Doc who blogs solo at sardonically named Movin’ Meat reflects on life and death in a poignant post about a patient who came into the ER, never to come out, in a way that was all any of us could hope for.

At Mormon Organon, Steve Peck shares the rather frightening personal experience of how a virus attacking the brain completely altered his reality and fix beliefs and delusions you never had before, pondering what the experience taught him about agency, accountability and mental illness.

The Neurocritic reports a new study that compares and contrasts the brains and the eyes of patients with Williams Syndrome versus those with Autism, with fascinating insights into the differences between those with poor eye contact and sociality and the Williams patient, known to be super friendly, sociable and extra likely to look you in the eye.   .

and Just because I Liked it-

At The Chronicle of Higher Education, Peter Wood ponders the way our society drives away those who would be scientists, leading us to import heavily.   I might add that Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and others are doing science no favors as well, but that’s another story.

MedGadget presents what happens when you cross stained glass fine art with X-rays, in a striking, if slightly macabre display that really grabbed my attention.

At the Art of Manliness, Schaefer shares a wonderful collection of the greatest workout songs of all time, sure to include some gem you download onto your mp3 and get to work in the gym.

That’s all I got for right now.  I’ll keep my eyes out for more.  In the meantime, happy surfing.