A few years ago NPR did a story called “The Sights and Sounds of Schizophrenia” which tells about a training program created by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a pharmaceutical company that specializes in treatment for Schizophrenia.

I watched the 5 minute video just one time 5 years ago and it literally changed me. It was such a powerful and moving experience that I cannot forget it and it altered my perception of mental illness forever.

I’ve tried to tell people about it over the years, but it’s just something you have to see, so finally I searched and searched until I found it again so I could put it on the blog. The only problem is that the original was a crappy RealMedia recording. So… I had to convert it to a format that could be uploaded and embedded here so you can watch it without having to install the RealPlayer.
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Daniel Martin from the UK’s Daily Mail brings us this interesting little scientific discovery:

If you’re facing a problem you can’t get your head around, you might be told to sleep on it. Now scientists have shown that the advice is more than just an old wives’ tale.

Apparently sleep strengthens the memory and helps the brain extract themes and rules from the masses of information we soak up during the day.

Lead researcher Bob Stickgold, professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, said: “We’re not just stabilizing memories during sleep. We’re extracting the meaning.

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A new study due out in June is going to show that North Americans are suffering from a huge Vitamin D deficiency and that it may be contributing to cancer rates as well as a number of other diseases.

The data suggests that hiding from the sun, or constantly wearing sunscreen could actually bring on really harmful forms of cancer such as breast, prostate, etc. as opposed to the relatively mild risk associated with skin cancer.
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I came across the following article on Wired today.

Light Therapy Spares the Scalpel and the Chemo
Cyrus Farivar 04.02.07 | 5:00 AM
Imagine you could treat cancer by taking a pill, then directing a laser light toward the location of the tumor. The growth would dissolve with no chemotherapy, and no harm to healthy tissue.

It might sound futuristic, but a select number of cancer patients already benefit from the method, called photodynamic therapy. An upgrade for the procedure could save thousands more cancer patients from the horrors of chemotherapy.
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I recently acquired a bad ass treadmill as part of an effort to get back in shape (more on that later), and I went searching for some USMC cadence recordings to listen to while I run on it. They were harder to find than I thought they would be, so I figured I would share them here in case anyone would like to hear them.

These work songs are sung while a platoon is running in formation and let me tell you - they are motivational. When you hear 80 sets of boots pounding the ground in unison while 80 Marines sing cadence it is a site to behold.
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There are a lot of people out there right now hoping for some good hard evidence (no pun intended) linking sexual activity with long life. Well, if this article doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will.

Before we get started though, it should first be stated that the benefits derived from sexual activity are more than offset by the risks associated with a promiscuous lifestyle.

That is to say that researchers almost universally agree that a healthy sex life is normally only beneficial in terms of monogamous relationships. Studies have shown that a promiscuous lifestyle can increase risks of disease by 40% due to increased risk of STDs.
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Prescription medication often comes with a hefty price tag and a built in bonus on the back end for the pharmaceutical company in the form of an overly aggressive expiration date.

A program called SLEP, the Shelf Life Extension Program, which has been administered by the Food and Drug Administration for the Department of Defense for 20 years has proven that 90% of medications maintain their potency even 15 years later.
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Six months ago I blogged about Gapminder - a non-profit site funded by Google that shows some of the most interesting statistical analysis on the planet. Well, I just discovered that Hans Rosling, founder of Gapminder, gave an awesome demonstration of its use at the TED conference last year.

This discovery was followed by the discovery that all of the speakers from the most recent TED conference were video taped and each of their speeches is now available to be seen by everyone.
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Close to 107 million U.S. adults have cholesterol levels of 200 mg/dL or higher, a level that the American Heart Association says increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

What follows is a listing of the most potent foods to add to your diet if you want to fight high cholesterol and drive your levels down using your diet as a primary tool.
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An autistic savant has both a severe developmental or mental handicap, and extraordinary mental abilities not found in most people. (Think Rainman.)

Most autistic savants have very extensive mental abilities, called splinter skills. They can memorize facts, numbers, license plates, maps, and extensive lists of sports and weather statistics. Some savants can mentally note and then recall perfectly a very long sequence of music, numbers, or speech.
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As a follow up to my previous post regarding the manufacture of cocaine, I came across the attached image documenting the process of transforming normal cocaine to crack cocaine.

I actually struggled with myself as to whether or not to actually share this information, but ultimately I decided to post it for the following reasons:

• The criminals already know how to make crack cocaine. It is only the law abiding citizens that wonder what it is.
• The manufacture of crack requires that one already possess cocaine. These instructions won’t hurt anyone that doesn’t already have a serious issue on their hands.
• The information already exists on the Internet.

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If you are one of those folks that has a set walking or jogging path that you like to follow, but you don’t know exactly how far you’re covering you can use the new Geodistance.com site to help you answer that very question.

It’s quite simple to use… just zoom in on the Google Map until you’re at the magnification level desired. You can click and drag the mouse to move the maps, then when you’ve got the map where you want it in the screen simply click on the starting point to insert a starting pin and then begin clicking along the route.
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