Month: July 2021

Curiositys, Media&Culture, ScienceLeave a comment

Around the World in 50,000 Years: The Genetics of Race

Fernando Kaskais

To fully understand race and genetics, we have to consider where we came from and how we got here. By: Stanley Fields and Mark Johnston The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved BiDil, a drug for the treatment of heart failure in self-identified black patients. . . . “Today’s approval of a drug to treat severe heart failure in [a] self-identified black population is a striking example of how a treatment can benefit some patients even if it does not help all patients,” said Dr. Robert Temple, FDA Associate Director of Medical Policy. “The information presented to the FDA clearly … Continue reading Around the World in 50,000 Years: The Genetics of Race

Brain, Health, Living, PsychologyLeave a comment

Burned Out? You’re Going to Need More Than a Bubble Bath to Bounce Back

Fernando Kaskais

Yoga can help you feel like yourself again.  by KAREN ASP Burnout is the new buzz word—a term that gets tossed around as if there’s a quick fix. If you can say you’re burned out, you’re probably really tired. If you’re truly burned out, you may feel too overwhelmed for words. Burnout is debilitating and destructive, not something you can solve with a long nap, a bubble bath, or even a day off. What burnout feels like Burnout has a simple definition. “It’s the cumulative effects of stress built up over time without time to recover,” says Alice Fong, N.D., a  … Continue reading Burned Out? You’re Going to Need More Than a Bubble Bath to Bounce Back

Europe, History, Literature, Media&Culture, PhilosophyLeave a comment

The divine Dante

Fernando Kaskais

Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer, and works with the research group Perspectiva. He has a PhD in ancient Greek philosophy, and degrees in theology and physics. He is the author of A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the Evolution of Consciousness (2019) and Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey (forthcoming, September 2021). He lives in London. Edited by Marina Benjamin Dante Alighieri was early in recognising that our age has a problem. He was the first writer to use the word moderno, in Italian, and the difficulty he spotted with the modern mind is its limited … Continue reading The divine Dante

Esoteric, Living, Philosophy, PsychologyLeave a comment

Richard Dawkins on the Luckiness of Death

Fernando Kaskais

“The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia.” BY MARIA POPOVA We are born into the certitude of our eventual death. Every once in a while, something — perhaps an encounter with a robin’s egg, perhaps a poem — staggers us with the awful, awe-filled wonder of aliveness, the sheer luck of it against the overwhelming cosmic odds of nonexistence. But alloyed with the awe is always the half-conscious grief that one day the light of consciousness will be extinguished. It is a … Continue reading Richard Dawkins on the Luckiness of Death

Curiositys, Health, Psychology, ScienceLeave a comment

Is Obesity A Lack Of Will, A Poor Lifestyle Choice, Or A Disease?

Fernando Kaskais

By Chuck Dinerstein, MD, MBA There is no doubt that obesity is a growing global problem, lying at one end of the spectrum from its less talked but equally malnourished polar opposite, hunger. Some argue that defining obesity as a disease will change the trajectory of the problem for the better — time for a closer examination.  What is a disease? That, of course, is the million-dollar question, and as you have come to learn, it is complicated. We are biological creatures, and to our best understanding, we are in an equilibrium internally and externally. That equipoise, let’s for the minute … Continue reading Is Obesity A Lack Of Will, A Poor Lifestyle Choice, Or A Disease?

Curiositys, Media&Culture, Photography, PsychologyLeave a comment

3 things you should NEVER say to a photographer

Fernando Kaskais

Here are 3 things that are GUARANTEED to annoy a photographer, so watch what you say! By James Artaius  If you’re a photographer, there are things people say that are guaranteed to annoy you. Whether it’s trying to get you to shoot things for free, or trying to tell you how to do your job, we’ve all heard the kinds of questions and suggestions that set alarm bells ringing.  As a working photojournalist and commercial photographer, Justin Mott has seen and shot it all – and he’s just about heard it all, too, when it comes to cheeky things that friends and clients say … Continue reading 3 things you should NEVER say to a photographer

Curiositys, Eco, Future, Health, ScienceLeave a comment

When Will It Get Too Hot for the Body to Survive?

Fernando Kaskais

Climate change is devising new ways to kill you. BY MATTHEW LEWIS There is no shortage of ways to die, and everyone has to do it, but as climate change becomes the “new normal,” the list has grown in some disturbing ways. Powerful superstorms are leveling our communities with growing frequency. Wildfires are raging through forest areas, turning entire towns to cinders. Floods are eroding and swallowing our buildings. And now we can add to the list: Deadly heat is cooking us alive. Late June’s deadly heat wave across the western half of North America killed hundreds in the Pacific Northwest and brought … Continue reading When Will It Get Too Hot for the Body to Survive?

Health, Living, Psychology, ScienceLeave a comment

Your Vaccinated Immune System Is Ready for Breakthroughs

Fernando Kaskais

Getting COVID-19 when you’re vaccinated isn’t the same as getting COVID-19 when you’re unvaccinated. By Katherine J. Wu A new dichotomy has begun dogging the pandemic discourse. With the rise of the über-transmissible Delta variant, experts are saying you’re either going to get vaccinated, or going to get the coronavirus. For some people—a decent number of us, actually—it’s going to be both. Coronavirus infections are happening among vaccinated people. They’re going to keep happening as long as the virus is with us, and we’re nowhere close to beating it. When a virus has so thoroughly infiltrated the human population, post-vaccination infections become an arithmetic inevitability. As much as we’d … Continue reading Your Vaccinated Immune System Is Ready for Breakthroughs

Brain, Health, Living, PsychologyLeave a comment

TRYING TO ‘FEEL YOUNGER’ MAY NOT MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER

Fernando Kaskais

BY MATT SHIPMAN-NC STATE “On days when the age you feel is closer to your ideal age, people tend to have a more positive mood,” says Jennifer Bellingtier. “And, on average, people who have more health complaints also had higher SAD scores.” The disconnect between how old we feel and how old we want to be can offer insights into the relationship between our views on aging and our health, according to a new study. Subjective age discordance (SAD)—the difference between how old you feel and how old you would like to be—is a fairly new concept in the psychology of aging. … Continue reading TRYING TO ‘FEEL YOUNGER’ MAY NOT MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER

Brain, Health, Philosophy, PsychologyLeave a comment

Attached

Fernando Kaskais

From cradle to grave, we are soothed and rocked by attachments – our source of joy and pain, and the essence of who we are Mostafa El-Kalliny is an MD/PhD trainee at the University of Colorado. Zoe R Donaldson is an assistant professor in psychology and neuroscience and molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. Edited byPam Weintraub The scene is a familiar one: an urban park, with young couples picnicking, dog owners playing fetch, parents chatting while their children scamper around. Marie – a young child – becomes entranced by a new wonder of her … Continue reading Attached