And we’re back.  It is time once again for my semi-regular offering of the choicest gems I found scouring the internet for all things mind, soul, and body.  Today I have virtual reality, depression, doctors, some crucial playing around, the endowment of power, medicinal goats milk, courage, one ton snakes, how one can actually buy happiness, and child brought into an alternate reality by his neighborhood dentist, to name just a very few.  So dig in and enjoy the very best of the internets-

Regarding the Mind-

Neurotopia has a promising start to a series on the important, common, and so often misunderstood condition that is clinical depression, giving a cogent explanation of what the condition is and is not.

At the Eide Neurolearning Blog, Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Eide share the results of a functional MRI study that suggests that children are less able to filter and check responses to visual stimuli in a virtual environment than adults.

Staying with the fascinating minds of  children meme, at the Scientific American, Melinda Winner explains the myriad of benefits children recieve from completely unstructured play, which turns out to be crucial to normal adjustment and development.

Regarding the Soul-

At Mormon Third Eye, Richard Tait shares his own rather touching experience with miracles, pointing out that they abound today for those whose eyes are open to them.

At Mormon Organon, Steve shares a beautiful, scriptural essay on life, creation, and God’s purposes in a thoughtful critique of the intelligent design movement.

At Believe All Things, Greg gives a nice summary for Mormons and Non-Mormons alike, explaining what exactly an endowment is in Mormon Doctrine.

At SOF observed, Trent Gillis, the online editor of Speaking of Faithshares a sparkling insight from Sharon Salzberg, Buddhist teacher, into the ways US culture magnifies the suffering in an economic downturn like the one we are now experiencing.

At Mormon Matters, Andrew Ainsworth talks about a subject  that often seems overdone in liberal circles, the subject of faith and doubt.  I was amazed when I read it anyway, and found a doctrinally sound and refreshing point of view that sheds light on faith itself, avoiding the usual self congratulatory pitfalls.

Regarding the Body-

At the New York Times, Andrew Pollack reports about goats genetically engineered to produce human blood clotting factors in their milk, which has now been approved by the FDA.  Now there is some feta that will make your blood curdle. (HT- Bioethics blog)

At Brass and Ivory, Lisa Emrich answers the question of why numb fingers warrant a visit to the doctor, with an overview of many different causes of the malady, which may be a simple as carpal tunnel or serious as Multiple Sclerosis.

physiologists and computer geeks alike will be delighted by this post by Mo, at Neurophilosophy, wherein he reports a cellular mechanism in the neuron that allows the cells to function like RAM in a computer, presenting a solution to the mystery of working memory.

or All the Above-

At Everything Health, Dr. Toni Brayer examines the devastating effects of depression in the lives of those ironically charged with professionally treating it, we physicians.  She then points to efforts being made to address the problems with medical students.

Dr. Pauline Chen writes an article for the New York Times that may explain some of the forementioned depression in modern physicians, as she examines a phenomenon she dubs “moral distress” in which the doctor wants to do the right thing, but can’t.

James at Finding Optimism delves into a study that purports that money actually can buy happiness, in certain instances when spent the right way.

At Mormon Mentality, Devyn S. shares the experience of a surgeon who comes full circle in the midst of his training, getting an all to rare glimpse at both the beginning and end result of a horrible tragedy that speaks volumes about the meaning of life, purpose, and suffering.

At the Art of Manliness, Brett has a wonderful treatment of courage in all its varieties, physical, intellectual, and moral, which taken together make the blueprint of the true renaissance man and ideal hero.

At World of Psychology, overcome with emotion, Therese Borchard finds herself unable to type, and verbally tells her story in front of the camera of a shocking personal lesson on the fragility of each of our lives and reality of death that hangs above us all.

and just because I Liked it-

At Not Exactly Rocket Science, Ed Yong presents a recently unearthed vertebrae from titanoboa, the largest snake fossil ever found, with estimates of the snakes length at 42 feet and weight at one metric ton.

Frontal Cortexauthor, Jonah Lehrer, shares footage of his appearance on the Stephen Colbert Show, were he promotes his new book, and tries to describe how the emotional and rational minds work together in the face of Colbert being Colbert.

I laughed so hard I about fell off my chair when I saw  the following youtube video, in which a little boy discovers what it’s like to be high on meds after visiting the dentist.  My favorite quote, “Is this real life?” (HT- Toni Brayer, MD)

That’s all I got for you this time.  Of course, the internet is filled with ever so much more.  In the blog carnival realm alone, this week marked the launch of the first ever Palliative care Grand Roundsl which gives a veritable feast on the tough subject of medicine and end of life care.  The Health Wonk Review gives a potpourri of thought from the movers and shakers in health care reform, the latest Brainblogging Carnival shares the “human and multidimensional” side of the mind, while a belated encephalon neuroscience carnival proves worth the wait at Of Two Minds.

You would think that would be enough for me never to have to do this review again, but you must know me better than that by now.   I am so much, much more compulsive than that.  You can count on me to continue to tirelessly search every corner of the ethernet for every little bit I find worthy of sharing.  See you then.

Tagged: anesthesia, blog carnivals, buddhism, burn victims, children, clotting factors, Colbert, courage, death, dentistry, development, doubt, dying, emotionality, endowment, evolution, faith, fossil, genetic engineering, goats, happiness, intelligent design, life, memory, milk, miracles, money, morality, neurons, numbness, physicians, play, RAM, rationality, recession, snakes, suffering, tragedy, trauma, virtual reality