Abyssal MindMusings and Links about Mind, Psychology, Spirituality and other Curiosities.Why Comfort Food Calms You- September 30, 2003 This article discusses why eating fat and sugar-laden foods reduces feelings of stress. It turns out such foods reduce CRF (corticotropin-releasing factor), which in turn reduces levels of the "stress hormones" such as cortisol. Of course, this isn't a prescription for you to eat when you are feeling stressed out. But it may help explain the rising rates of obesity in our stress-filled society. Instead of eating calorie-rich foods, or waiting for scientists to produce CRF-combatting...http://www.psycport.com/showArticle.cfm?xmlFile=washingtonpost_2003_09_29_eng-washingtonpo... The Minimally Conscious State- September 30, 2003 The brain activity of people in comas or with major communication disorders (vegetative states) is turning out to be much more normal than previously believed. In other words, people with such problems may be in fact quite conscious, or at least in a "minimally conscious state". This great New York Times article describes the research which may be redefining what we think of as states of consciousness. The article speculates what it might be like to be minimally...http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/magazine/28VEGETAT.html?ex=1065783740&ei=1&en=1f... FeedDemon, My Favorite RSS Reader- September 30, 2003 Recently, I reevaluated a host of RSS newsreaders. FeedDemon, written by Nick Bradbury, won my little competition by far. Its unique "News Bins" feature, which allows you to save and categorize feed items, should be a standard feature of all news aggregators (RSS readers). But FeedDemon has many other great features and a fantastic interface. Currently it is in beta and is free. Highly recommended.http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/index.asp RSS Feeds for Newbies- September 30, 2003 Did you ever wonder what is that red XML icon on the bottom right of my blog and in tens of thousands of other web sites It is the link to my "RSS Feed". Many people say RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". That means you can subscribe to my site if you use software called an RSS reader. With it, you can see when I have a new post, and in my case, the post itself, without having to go to my site to check. You will be able to see what posts you have read, and which ones you...http://rss.lockergnome.com/resources/articles/quickstart.phtml Big Heads are Better- September 29, 2003 It turns out that the bigger your head, the smarter you may be when you get older, believe it or not. This Guardian Observer news link describes a study done by Southhampton University scientests that shows a sizable correlation between the size of a group old people's skulls and their performance on memory and intelligence tests. The bigger, the better. It seems humans have developed large heads, in general, and that is why birthing is so difficult. But suppose future...http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1051264,00.html Renaissance- September 29, 2003 I have a feeling that I may be getting back to blogging. But I'll believe it when I see it :) I basically took the summer off because I was busy at other things. Summers are like that. Now it is autumn again and it is getting colder out here in Calgary so I am doing less bike riding and thus have a little more free time lol. (I laughed because I've been unemployed for a while now.) I'm not sure how this blog will turn out this season. I am thinking of changing the content. I will keep...http://radio.weblogs.com/0114196/2003/09/29.html#a133 |