Jonny Bowden tells us to stop believing everything you’ve heard about aging. Like many other things in life, the way you think about aging has profound effects how it actually functions.
January 2011
The press are often guilty for their stereotyping of mental illness following tragic events. We do not know yet what provoked this act. Its refreshing then to read Vaughan Bell’s piece in Slate following the Gifford shootings.
This presumed link between psychiatric disorders and violence has become so entrenched in the public consciousness that the entire weight of the medical evidence is unable to shift it. Severe mental illness, on its own, is not an explanation for violence, but don’t expect to hear that from the media in the coming weeks.
Of course, like the rest of the population, some people with mental illness do become violent, and some may be riskier when they’re experiencing delusions and hallucinations. But these infrequent cases do not make “schizophrenia” or “bipolar” a helpful general-purpose explanation for criminal behavior.
The fact that mental illness is so often used to explain violent acts despite the evidence to the contrary almost certainly flows from how such cases are handled in the media. Numerous studies show that crimes by people with psychiatric problems are over-reported, usually with gross inaccuracies that give a false impression of risk.
Link to read Vaughan excellent analysis in the aftermath of the Gifford shootings.
Source: Slate
What effect has the internet had on healthcare? Aleks Krotoski in this Sunday’s Observer writes a brilliant piece in the series Untangling the web
The web is having a profound effect on how we understand and how we do health.Last week, Bupa and the London School of Economics released the results of an international healthcare survey. More than 12,000 people across 12 different countries were asked about their attitudes towards ageing, chronic diseases and health and wellbeing. The report, Health Pulse 2010, made headlines around the world, not just because it coincided with people kickstarting the new year by logging on to fitness websites or checking their flu symptoms, but also because it fed our concerns about the web: it condemned online health information and us for believing in it.
Watch this inspirational and humorous video from Neil Pasricha who uses the power of blogging to spread a little optimism each day about the awesome things that make life worth living. I love it! Raindrop on roses and whiskers on kittens…… This is a great presentation and Neil nails what’s important, yes—- we only have one life to live. Look around you, savour and value what is truly awesome!
Neil Pasricha never imagined that writing about the smell of gasoline, thinking it’s Thursday when it’s really Friday, or wearing underwear just out of the dryer would amount to anything. A self-described “average guy” with a typical 9-to-5 job in the suburbs, Neil started his blog 1000 Awesome Things, as a small reminder — in a world of rising sea levels, global conflict, and a troubled economy — of the free, easy little joys that make life sweet.
He certainly didn’t anticipate that his site would gain a readership of millions of people, win two Webby Awards (“the Internet’s highest honor” according to The New York Times), be named one of PC Magazine’s Top 100 Sites On the Internet, or become a place where people from around the world would come to celebrate the simple pleasures of daily life. His just released first book The Book of Awesome has become a #1 International Bestseller and The Book of Awesome 2 comes out in Spring, 2011.
Source: TED
