Diary, Must Know
Atul Gawande, a doctor and staff writer of the New Yorker, has already received numerous awards for this writing. Now he has penned in the New Yorker (August 2, 2010) a report on how American medicine handles the final stages of our lives. This is the most difficult story I have read in many years, perhaps ever. But I forced myself to read it all the way to the end. You owe it to youself to do the same. Gwande deserves the Pulitzer Prize for this article. Read “Modern medicine is good at staving off death with aggressive interventions—and bad at knowing when to focus, instead, on improving the days that terminal patients have left” here.Letting Go: What should medicine do when it can’t save your life?
Diary, Must Know
Here are some useful tips for middle aged people on how to get their brain to perform better. By BARBARA STRAUCH (NY Times)How to Train the Aging Brain
I LOVE reading history, and the shelves in my living room are lined with fat, fact-filled books. There’s “The Hemingses of Monticello,” about the family of Thomas Jefferson’s slave mistress; there’s “House of Cards,” about the fall of Bear Stearns; there’s “Titan,” about John D. Rockefeller Sr.
The problem is, as much as I’ve enjoyed these books, I don’t really remember reading any of them. Certainly I know the main points. But didn’t I, after underlining all those interesting parts, retain anything else? It’s maddening and, sorry to say, not all that unusual for a brain at middle age: I don’t just forget whole books, but movies I just saw, breakfasts I just ate, and the names, oh, the names are awful. Who are you?
Diary, Must Know
The NY Times published today a facinating article on how scientists have developed a new interpretatin what dreams are for. A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain (By BENEDICT CAREY)A New Interpretation of Dreams
It’s snowing heavily, and everyone in the backyard is in a swimsuit, at some kind of party: Mom, Dad, the high school principal, there’s even an ex-girlfriend. And is that Elvis, over by the pinata?
Uh-oh. Dreams are so rich and have such an authentic feeling that scientists have long assumed they must have a crucial psychological purpose. To Freud, dreaming provided a playground for the unconscious mind; to Jung, it was a stage where the psyche’s archetypes acted out primal themes. Newer theories hold that dreams help the brain to consolidate emotional memories or to work though current problems, like divorce and work frustrations. Yet what if the primary purpose of dreaming isn’t psychological at all?
Diary, Must Know
I have been waiting for a piece on the origins of music for a long time. Read this interesting report in the Economist on the scientific debates on why most of us like music so much. Biologists are addressing one of humanity’s strangest attributes, its all-singing, all-dancing culture. “IF MUSIC be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it.” And if not? Well, what exactly is it for? The production and consumption of music is a big part of the economy. The first use to which commercial recording, in the form of Edison’s phonographs, was to bring music to the living rooms and picnic tables of those who could not afford to pay live musicians.Human evolution: Why we love Music?
Diary, Must Know
One of the reason John F. Kennedy was so popular were his great looks. I can understand why evangelical Republicans are ecstatic about the nomination of Palin. But why she is popular in the entire Republican party cannot be explained by her record. I suspect her good looks and her outgoing personality are an important factor. But now the vetting of Sarah Palin has started in earnest. The New York Times sent a number of reporters to Alaska to find out about her history as a mayor and governor. (Click on “More” to read the story “In Office, Palin Hired Friends and Hit Critics.”)The American people have re-elected George Bush after it was very clear what kind of administration he was running. It will be interesting to see whether they will elect someone to be a heartbeat away from the presidency who has so similar instincts as George Bush junior.Meet the real Sarah Palin
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