Category: News

Self-help books treat depression

Post author By Leon
Post date January 29, 2013

This data threatens those who consider depression to be solely biological and treatable by drugs only.

BBC News – Self-help books ‘treat depression’

Prescribing self-help books on the NHS is an effective treatment for depression, a study suggests.

Patients offered books, plus sessions guiding them in how to use them, had lower levels of depression a year later than those offered usual GP care.

The effect was seen in addition to the benefits of other treatments such as antidepressants, Scottish researchers report in the journal Plos One.

Such an approach may help the NHS tackle demand for therapy, they said.

Tags Mental health

Entertainment News

Half-Life on Steam for Linux

Post author By Leon
Post date January 28, 2013

More good news from Valve.

Half-Life now runs on Mac OS X and Linux, we assure you

Now with a Steam page that doesn’t expressly list Mac as a supported platform, we understand your skepticism regarding the headline to this very post. Indeed Half-Life has been ported to both OS X and Linux today.

Tags Linux, Steam

News Philosophy

Mega launches

Post author By Leon
Post date January 28, 2013

The battle over freedom of use of digital files sure is dramatic. Kim Dotcom is back, but will he win in the end? It scares me to think about these battles being the start of a global war in cyberspace. If it’s Dotcom, Assange and Anonymous on one side versus the RIAA, MPAA and FBI on the other, who will win and who will be collateral damage?

Dotcom’s Mega Launches To Unprecedented Demand | TorrentFreak

The much anticipated rebirth of Megaupload took place in the last few hours with interest living up to expectations. In less than one hour the site picked up 100,000 new registrations, going on to 500,000 and beyond just a few hours later. As the site struggled to cope with demand it became unresponsive in the face of an unprecedented flood of users eager to test out the new file-hosting site. Just a few minutes ago the launch party at Kim Dotcom’s mansion began, with some interesting reveals.

Everything You Need to Know About Kim Dotcom’s Mega

Entertainment News

Secret messages in game ROMs

Post author By Leon
Post date January 28, 2013

Great read, and a gold star for mentioning Dani Bunten.

Message in a Binary Bottle | cabel.me

It’s 20 or 30 years ago. You’re working on a videogame. You don’t get any credit for your work, blogs don’t exist, there’s no internet and no fanboys. It’s just you, a crusty old terminal, and got a few spare bytes left in the ROM. What now?

> Type Secret Message

OK. You’ve hidden a secret message in the ROM, to be uncovered many, many years later, and posted on the incredible website, The Cutting Room Floor.

News Psychology Science

ADD Drugs Don’t Work Long-Term

Post author By Leon
Post date January 28, 2013

This lines up with Whitaker’s investigative reporting in Anatomy of an Epidemic.

Children’s A.D.D. Drugs Don’t Work Long-Term – NYTimes.com

THREE million children in this country take drugs for problems in focusing. Toward the end of last year, many of their parents were deeply alarmed because there was a shortage of drugs like Ritalin and Adderall that they considered absolutely essential to their children’s functioning.

But are these drugs really helping children? Should we really keep expanding the number of prescriptions filled?

In 30 years there has been a twentyfold increase in the consumption of drugs for attention-deficit disorder.

As a psychologist who has been studying the development of troubled children for more than 40 years, I believe we should be asking why we rely so heavily on these drugs.

It reminds me of this comic. There’s a follow-up if it makes you too sad.

Related articles