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Neuroscientist’s Life as a Nonviolent Psychopath

The evidence mounts for an epigenetic path that connects violence experienced in childhood with violence perpetrated as an adult. This is the the main conclusion of Molyneux’s Bomb in the Brain series. Want to feel like a hero who saves the world? Practice peace towards all children.

Life as a Nonviolent Psychopath – Judith Ohikuare – The Atlantic

Neuroscientist James Fallon discovered through his work that he has the brain of a psychopath, and subsequently learned a lot about the role of genes in personality and how his brain affects his life.

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Meditation Effective Treatment for Depression

Here’s a good summary of a study in JAMA about the usefulness of mediation. Remember how I pointed to the release from Sam Harris of some guided meditations? Since then, my family has been spotty about practicing, but we’ll keep at it because I really want my kids to learn this essential life skill.

Meditation is an Effective Treatment for Depression, Anxiety and Pain | PsyBlog – Understand Your Mind

Data from 47 different clinical trials finds meditation is as effective as antidepressants.

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Unregulated dinner parties

This happened to me just tonight! My wife prepared dinner for the family, and although she has taken cooking classes in the past, I don’t think any government official ever issued her a license. Help! Help! Does anyone have a license for determining if I might suffer adverse health effects? I’d do it myself, but I’ve let my thinking license expire. Oh, man, I hope I’m not breaking some law by just asking for help.

New York City Overwhelmed by Scourge of Illegal, Underground Dinner Parties

Folks in the Big Apple are illegally eating things! The CBS affiliate in New York City today uncovered the scary, secret world of illegal, underground dinner parties.

No, this is not a joke or a parody, though it will really feel like one for the first few seconds of the clip. The news casters treat this situation with the same slightly amazed and shocked tone that they use when they cover the “underground world of raves.” You know which story I’m talking about. Every local news affiliate runs one every sweeps period.

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Half-life city scanner drops in on German chancellor

I’ve just finished playing through all the single-player Half-Life content, which offers a deeply dystopian world littered with hoving drones called City Scanners. Sounds like they are real now. How long until something like HL2’s Manhacks are flying around after “criminals”?

German chancellor’s drone “attack” shows the threat of weaponized UAVs | Ars Technica

At a campaign rally in Dresden on September 15, a small quadrocopter flew within feet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere, hovering briefly in front of them before crashing into the stage practically at Merkel’s feet. Merkel appeared to be amused by the “drone attack,” but de Maiziere and others on the stage seemed a bit more unsettled by the robo-kamikaze.

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News Philosophy Psychology

Fiber is Bad for Sex

The idea of eating more fiber was invented to give you constipation so you wouldn’t enjoy sex. Just one of Kellogg’s sadistic ideas that also included circumcision for the prevention of masturbation and Prussian-style schools for transforming curious kids into mindless factory drones.

Dietary Fiber Is Bad for Sex – That’s the Only Claim About It That Isn’t a Myth | Mark’s Daily Apple

Does dietary fiber contain anything of nutritional value? No, it doesn’t. Zero vitamins… Zero minerals… Zero protein… Zero fat… Nothing, zilch, not even digestible carbohydrates. Why, then, is it considered a healthy nutrient? As the story goes, you can thank Dr. John Harvey Kellogg for that:

“Dr. Kellogg was obsessed with chastity and constipation. True to principle, he never made love to his wife. To “remedy” the sin of masturbation, he advocated circumcision without anesthetic for boys, and mutilation of the clitoris with carbolic acid for girls. He blamed constipation for “nymphomania” in women, and lust in men, because, according to Kellogg, impacted stools inside one’s rectum were stimulating the prostate gland and the female vagina into sexual proclivity.” [link]