Is It All in Your Head?: True Stories of Imaginary Illness (book review)
by Suzanne O’Sullivan
A neurologist’s insightful and compassionate look into the misunderstood world of psychosomatic disorders, told through individual case histories
It’s happened to all of us: our cheeks flush red when we say the wrong thing, or our hearts skip a beat when a certain someone walks by. But few of us realize how much more dramatic and extreme our bodies’ reactions to emotions can be. Many people who see their doctor have medically unexplained symptoms, and in the vast majority of these cases, a psychosomatic cause is suspected. And yet, the diagnosis of a psychosomatic disorder can make a patient feel dismissed as a hypochondriac, a faker, or just plain crazy.
In IS IT ALL IN YOUR HEAD? neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan, MD, takes us on a journey through the world of psychosomatic illness, where we meet patients such as Rachel, a promising young dancer now housebound by chronic fatigue syndrome, and Mary, whose memory loss may be her mind’s way of protecting her from remembering her husband’s abuse. O’Sullivan reveals the hidden stresses behind their mysterious symptoms, approaching a sensitive topic with patience and understanding. She addresses the taboos surrounding psychosomatic disorders, teaching us that “it’s all in your […]
Flood Tsunamis Transported Trees and Amber
A recent study published in Scientific Reports found strange globs of tree resin (amber) mixed within claimed ancient (Cretaceous) deep-water sediments on Hokkaido Island in northern Japan.1 This is the first reported instance of amber in what’s interpreted as a deep ocean setting.
The research team, led by Aya Kubota from the Research Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment and on faculty at Chuo University, Tokyo, found amber in 30 separate layers with thicknesses varying from 0.75–106 inches within sandstone.1 Most of the amber was highly deformed and the sediments it was mixed with showed signs of soft-sediment deformation, including sand injections and flow and slump structures.1 These features are indicative of rapid deposition.
The New York Times’ Big Lie About the Atmosphere Being ‘Thirstier’
The New York Times (NYT) claims in its recent article, by Rebecca Dzombak, “It’s Not Just Poor Rains Causing Drought. The Atmosphere Is ‘Thirstier,’” that global warming is intensifying droughts by creating a “thirstier atmosphere” that sucks more moisture from the land. This assertion is false, clearly debunked by real-world data. The idea that a warming atmosphere is increasingly “demanding” water anthropomorphizes a complex physical process, and worse, ignores major natural variables—like volcanic activity and regional climate drivers—that actually influence drought more directly. Evidence suggests there is a record amount of water vapor in the atmosphere now, that droughts are regional, not global, and that “atmospheric thirst” is more rhetorical flourish than scientific fact.
The refuation of “Thirstier” continues HERE…
Enlightenment or Endarkenment? Two Philosophies That Impact Issues Today
(Ed’s note: The following article is amazing for its comprehensiveness, yet brief overview of two divergent philosphies that war against each other today. A MUST read.)
An electoral shift to the right, or “right-wing” influence in media, education, entertainment, business, law enforcement, the military, or medicine might be deplored as a return to the Dark Ages of superstition and repression, and a rejection of the Enlightenment, which brought science, prosperity, and freedom.
It is popularly believed that, during this dark era and the “Middle Ages,” obscurantist Christians deliberately rounded up classical texts to destroy them, everyone thought the earth was flat, and scientific and technological advancement was virtually nonexistent (tinyurl.com/yf6azpsj).
The phrase “Dark Ages” was first used to describe the Middle Ages by the Italian scholar Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374 AD). He thought that classical antiquity was the Golden Age, and that he lived in an age of decline. Some historians use the term to refer more specifically to the Early Middle Ages (c. 475–c. 800 AD), from the collapse of the western Roman Empire until the rise of the Carolingian Empire, sometimes considered the first phase of the Holy Roman Empire, in the late eighth century A.D.
Our Own Disaster from Helene in the South
Readers may have noticed the gap in the last two posts. Well, hurricane Helene devasted my area (East Central Georgia), and I have been pre-occupied with personal damage from that event. Just now getting back into the sadde.
If interested, you may want to check out this video.
Just a reminder… history lessons added weekly
Yes, we have weekly history lessons added weekly of which you may not have been aware.
Review them here…
or Click on Updated History Lessons in the column to the left on this screen.
Chimp Chat Study Confirms Language is Human
Chimp Chat Study Confirms Language is Human
by Brian Thomas
Animals communicate but not with language. Where did language come from and why do we humans all use it? Evolution-based answers are restricted to options that leave out a Creator, even when evidence points right to Him. Conventional researchers have long grasped at any skinny straw that might bolster the belief that language evolved. The latest such straw seems skinnier than ever, and it comes with an inadvertent admission of a creation-friendly answer.
A team of researchers from mostly European universities found a “correspondence between human and chimpanzee face-to-face communication.”1 Their research was published in Current Biology.2 Chimps and many other animals take turns when exchanging gestures. We humans, too, take turns when we talk. This team discovered that the short moments between turns last just about as long between chimps and humans.