Well, I’ve done it.  I’ve shook off the winter blahs long enough to find all that is praiseworthy and of good report in the blogosphere specifically as it pertains to the mind, soul, and body.  I am excited to announce I have a real doctor job this summer, but I am afraid this has meant I just can’t seem to focus on blogging.  At the very least you can count on me to find elsewhere to focus on for you, the reader.

Regarding the Mind-

At Frontal Cortex, Jonah Lehrer shares the irony of metacognition, which tranlasted means the drawbacks of having a mind so powerful that it thinks about thinking.

     The Situationist reports on a provokative study that found listening to President Obama’s inauguration speech substantially improved the test scores of black students, showing the power of self image, expectations, and internalized stereotypes.

At the Eide Neurolearning Blog, the physician power couple ponders twice exceptional students, who are both blessed and cursed with intellectual gifts and learning disabilities, sometimes one as the result of the other.  They reveal a brain based way that their obstacles may be overcome.

At NeuroNarrative, David DiSalvo questions if there may be a relationship between procrastination and genius, taking a look at the largely unfinished life of none other than Leonardo da Vinci.  It’s nice to know I’m in good company.

Regarding the Soul-

 At Fruitful Faith, Dale takes firm middle ground in the abortion debate, heeding Barack Obama’s call to take an in depth look at the causes of unintended pregnancy, arguing that in the end the law is the least effective instrument for addressing this, and most importantly, gives a prescription that if universally applied would make the world a much better place.

At Get Religion, tmatt uncovers a religious sports story that shows unusual depth and power, as they chronicle the struggles of O.J. Brigance, a former Baltimore Ravens special teams star now paralyzed, but still part of the team.

Regarding the Body-

      At Normal Mormon Husbands, the blogs namesake describes in his own very special and entertaining way, what a herniated disc is and the procedure he had to reduce the pain.

At Musings of a Distractible Mind, Dr. Rob sounds the public health alarm as a new report shows a deadly, vaccine preventable disease has made a comeback in Minnesota.

    For those interested in brushing up on their anatomy, or learning it for the first time, here is an awesome site that uses video games, the anatomy arcade.  You can do a brain jigsaw, whack a bone, or poke a muscle, whatever strikes your fancy.

or All the Above-

At New Nurse Insantity: Fundus Chop, shrtstormtrooper (careful with the spelling) gives a salient review of the Diving Bell and the Butterfly, an autobiography of a patient with locked in syndrome, and the answers it doesn’t give about life and death.

At Dr. Gwenn is in, a nine year old boy via YouTube eloquently and succinctly educates us poor adults on everything that is wrong with youth sports today, revealing the magic of the hockey helmet, which turns out to be dark and unwanted.

At Survive the Journey, Robin takes a deep look at our healthcare system from the wide eyes of a patient who needs the system and is, in fact, the reason for its existence, a fact that, ironically, is often is lost in the debates.  She offers some gentle but insightful suggestions for ways the system needs reformed.

At World of Psychology, In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr Day, Therese Borchard illucidates her dream for our society in a  wonderful, impassioned essay.  She envisions a world in which mental illness is taken seriously and loses the stigma that currently taints it.

and just because I Liked it-

At Musings of a Distractible Mind, Dr. Rob reaches way back into his memory of physics and uses the laws of Thermodynamics to explain why doctor exam rooms anre so cold.  He gives an explanation guaranteed to leave you both confused and laughing, and probably less knowledgable about medicine and science than you were to begin with.  It’s Dr. Rob at his finest.

At Why am I Still Here, Tiny Shrink comes up with a brilliant suggestion for a new diagnosis to be included in the upcoming revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that I now realize I have been suffering from for years, Pager PTSD, in a post that any resident or physician can identify with.

In a post that reveals years of real life experience, Edwin Leap, MD shares a brilliant tool for assessing the relative seriousness of a patient’s condition in the Emergency Room based upon their ability to be profane.

  So there you go, something for everyone.  I hope you laughed, I hope you cried, Most of all, I hope you will come back for more.  Thanks. C ya.

Tagged: abortion, anatomy, back pain, childhood, death, DSM-V, epiglottitis, faith, genius, gifted, God, herniated disc, Hib, humor, learning, learning disability, life, locked in syndrome, metacognition, morality, pagers, paralysis, patients, physics, prejudice, procrastination, profanity, PTSD, religion, residency, sports, stereotyping, stigma, testing, thinking, thought, tragedy, vaccination