I think I may be hitting the three month blogger’s wall. I don’t want to write stuff just to write stuff. I would like for it to actually be good and worth reading, and yet I feel a compulsion to blog, blog, blog. Work is getting busy, busy, busy. Lack of time and perfectionism seem to have buried my muse. So I am slowing down to regroup. Thankfully, I can always score points on all the stuff I wish I wrote. Here is the very best of the internet to have crossed my eyes this past week.

Regarding the Mind-

Jonah, at the Frontal Cortex, ponders why people choke under pressure with tasks they normally are proficient at. It seems thinking is a burden once we’ve already learned something.

Here is a fun little attention test/public safety announcement, showing how it is all too easy to miss the obvious when our mind is elsewhere. Nice use of the way we process information. Too much focus of trees truly loses the forest.

In a pretty strong defense for studying of the mind to complement study of the brain, Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily argues how taking high tech neuroimaging studies and invoking neural mechanisms often trips up our understanding of what is going on.

Regarding the Soul-

Jonathan Green at Times & Seasons writes one of the deepest pieces of Book of Mormon literary analysis I have ever read. Amazing. Who would a thunk this fraud vs. revelation on Gold plates could say so much about society, civilization, literacy, present and past and our relationship to it.

At By Common Consent, Norbert tells the heartwarming story of how he befriended the local Catholic Priest while serving as an LDS Missionary, and yet, sadly, feels he has to apologize for mixing ecumenism and proselyting, which are admittedly an odd couple.
At Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good, the good chaplain Palwick reports on faith, doubt, and gathering strength from God and those around us for families in the Hospital ICU in her heart rending post, Only Two Prayers.

At Mixing Memory, a neuroscientist, Chris reveals an Earth shaking concept, that whether a person’s beliefs are true or not is a very poor basis for according someone respect, as we all have “untrue” beliefs. Instead he suggests we all ask, “Do they behave in a way that’s consistent with my own core values?” All this from an atheist agnostic unbeliever, fellow child of God.

Regarding the Body-

In honor of my long, lost hour of sleep I give you the science blog article on how Daylight savings time is bad for our circadian rhythms. While neither science nor getting in tune with nature are particularly persuasive with our current President, I urge you to write your congressman anyway, for me.

Speaking of Circadian Rhythms, The Health Skills Weblog has some very useful tips for DST sufferers, insomniacs, or pretty much anyone for improving the quality of your sleep.

For the Medical Image of the Day, check out this rockin’ picture of an infants blood vessels developed a little haywire in a relatively harmless condition pediatricians see from time to time, Infantile Hemangioma.

Or All the Above-

At Over My Med Body, Graham defends EMTALA, a law without which our healthcare system completely loses its soul, and argues about some strategies for fixing it.

Dr. Gwenn, a marvelous blogging pediatrician, explores the cause and effects of bullying, both among the Young and Old. She comes up with some great strategies to fight bullying in the workplace. I recognized our troubled medical education system in her words, “Throughout my career, I’ve had snippets of superiors who found that public humiliation was the way to wield their power.”

Addy, at All That I am, All That I ever was, has put his struggle with depression and thoughts to music in an amazing, profoundly moving, life affirming video, A true must see.

Just because I Liked it-

Here is a stirring musical piece about the life of an anesthetist. Apparently, they write music in the hours of boredom in between minutes of sheer terror.

Speaking of Singing, All Encompassing has a hilarious spoof of American Idol,with Mike Huckabee joining the fray. This is tongue in cheek, and likely says more about us Mormons than Huckabee or anyone else, but I liked it.

On a more serious note, Apollo, MD reports on a disturbing case of a pharmaceutical giant trying to strongarm the peer reviewers of their research at scholarly journals. One more example of how consumerism, business and medicine are a scary combination that poisons the well of our health care system.

That is it for this week. I will try to get back on my blogging horse for the next week. Until then, happy surfing.