I am sad to announce that MInd, Soul, and Body will be on hiatus for the next week as I will be out of town. Okay, I’m not really sad, I am taking a much needed vacation and will get some lovely regenerative time.

Don’t despair, it turns out the interweb goes on without me. In fact, the past week had a plethora of wonderful posts, perhaps even enough keep you the reader, so busy that you will forget who I am. So, in a selfless exercise in true sacrifice I present you with what just may be the finest points of interest to date.

Regarding the Mind-

It turns out that due to a logical fallacy almost everyone falls for, Cognitive dissonance does not exist.

BrainBlogger has a piece by Patti Wilson-Herndon arguing that Compassion is different than empathy and how we process the emotion of empathy makes a critical difference in how we act.

At Mind Hacks, Vaughan has a fascinating report on how the havoc wreaked by Alzheimer’s disease on the brain can lead disinhibition of creativity and the unlocking of artistic talent not seen before.

Regarding the Soul-

At By Common Consent, Natalie has an excellent essay on perspective, and what it is God wants us to learn with our limited time here on Earth.

At Intueri, Maria has a wonderful post on the interconnectedness of all things as she explains how you can find the universe in a cookie.

At the Waters of Mormon, Starfoxy has a wonderful story about how sometimes the underappreciated, genuinely nice guy can in fact save someone (herself) from making a horrible mistake. I was touched by an amazing story about the power of a simple kind word to rescue someone from a lifetime of misery.

Regarding the Body-

Lists are always fun. The honest Doctor (what is he implying about the rest of us?) has a nice summary of ways to reduce the top causes of mortality in the young, or How to survive to thirty-five.

I stumbled upon Eyescapes, a stunning photography collection by an artist named Rankin of the that consists entirely of round., enlarged photos of human iris. Truly beautiful and mesmerizing. The human body is an amazing thing.

At Dr. Val and the Voice of Reason, the good doctor reports the potential of your 3 year old boy fascinated with the wrecked, smushed, and crunched stuff, playing with his toys to figure how fix the stuff up. They become orthopedic surgeons, of course. They don’t change much in the interim apparently. Is it friggin’ awesome or disturbing, you decide.

Or All the Above-

Maria, at the exponent bares her soul and relates her life experience about what it is like to grow up with a disabled sibling, and the formative effect it had on her.

At Pearls and Dreams, a beautiful post about what it is like to have your life turned upside down learning you have a chronic, yet treatable disease, the paradox of Myasthenia Gravis.

Dr. Bob at The Doctor is In has a beautiful piece on life, our endless quest to extend longevity and its cost, pondering what it means to be human.

and just because I Liked it-

At the Book of Joe, a report on the Top 25 guitar riffs of all time, as selected in a poll by London Tech Music School, training ground for such legends as the Kinks, the Cure, and Radiohead.

At Timothy McSweeney, We have some serious in depth self analysis Sesame Street style, where Cookie Monster asks, “Is me really a monster?”

At long last, for those enquiring minds who have always wanted to know the worst baby name of all time, the NYTimes has the answer.

I will be back in the saddle in a week or two, having delved deeply into many fabulous guitar riffs, kicked back, relaxed, with my muse in tow, until then happy surfing. Have a wonderful life.