I read the following story in different German newspapers:
Goettingen, Germany – A baby weighing just 275 grams has been born in Germany and survived, the lowest weight for a viable birth of a boy ever recorded, doctors said Thursday. Doctors normally assume that survival is impossible at birth weights below 350 grams.
The little boy was born in June last year in the 25th week of pregnancy, said Stefan Weller, a spokesman for the University of Goettingen Hospital. He spent six months in intensive care and was finally discharged in December after growing to 3.7 kilograms.
Weller said doctors had checked every available record worldwide of premature births and found no viable birth at a lower weight.
English version found at: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312505,smallest-ever-baby-born-in-germany-and-survives.html#ixzz0hDwIdApm
In The Netherlands, abortion is legal until 24 weeks of pregnancy. So the difference between ‘a person whose life is worth it to be saved’ and ‘a bunch of cells which can be aborted’ is just one week in this case. Am I the only person who thinks this is mind-boggling?
Link to the image: sfkids.org
A few days ago Pat Robertson caused an uproar among his fellow Christians by claiming that the devastating earthquake that happened in Haiti last week was their own fault because they are cursed because they made a pact with the devil.
“They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘Ok it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another,”
Source: CBS News
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Clive Thompson over at wired.com wrote an interesting article about how what we like is affected by what people around us like. Most people will recognise this and psychologists call this phenomenon peer pressure. It’s strongest in teens, as every parent who has teen kids can affirm. In adults the process is much more subtle. Group Think, as Thompson calls it, is in psychology something entirely different. In a groupthink situation you’ve got a group who is very close and communicates in jargon. They all think along the same lines and often are led by a directive leader who tells them what to do. What happens next is that they fail to come up with the best solutions because there’s no creativity in the thinking process. In small groups this is too bad for those involved, but it can be very dangerous when it happens to large societies, for instance like the German society during 1933 − 1945.
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Today one of the articles that lit up in my feedreader drew my attention: You won’t find consciousness in the brain. The writer, Ray Tallis, who is a doctor of geriatric medicine who writes on topics ranging from consciousness to medical ethics, argues that consciousness isn’t necessarily residing in the brain. He is vocalising a minority standpoint contesting the idea that science “will be able to explain the mystery of human consciousness in terms of the activity of the brain“. The question is whether that’s true or not. Would it be that simple? When we see neural activity, does that mean we see consciousness?
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During the Christmas season a campaign launched in the UK drew my attention. I saw a lot of news sources ran the story and decided to have a look. After all, they touch upon my field of interest: psychology. Two sisters from London, Abi and Emma Moore started a campaign against the “pinkification” of the world: Pink Stinks. On their site they state what the goal of their campaign is:
PinkStinks aims to counteract the slurry of media obsession on women who are ‘famous’, ‘thin’ ‘rich’ or ‘married to famous men’, by celebrating those women that we see as inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating. On these pages we’ll point you in the direction of some of those women … some from history, some just starting out, from all walks of life. It’s amazing how great they are, and when they’re brought together in a list like this there’s a real power to them, that can only serve as an uplifting inspiration.
Also, they showcase a number of “new role models” for girls, while ranting against the feminine stereotyping of girls, dressing them in pink, selling them pink toys and most of all “force them” into stereotypical girly role models. They argue, maybe not explicit that society forces girls with a model on how to behave and how to think and how wrong that is, the current situation that is. What they don’t seem to realise is that they themselves try to do exactly the same, with other role models, other toys and other ways of dressing. It strikes me maybe because it’s all to familiar with me, with my mom being rather feministic trying to avoid the gender stereotyping. It almost seems like they have some issues with girls wanting to be girls, wanting to wear any colour pink, wanting to play with dolls and when they grow up they want to be a teacher, a nurse or wife of some famous person.
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The Dutch have a long tradition when it comes to Saint Nicholas, whose feast day they celebrate today. Even after most Dutch abandoned the Catholic tradition in earlier ages and more recently Christian symbols and culture as a whole, St. Nicholas remains. It’s not done to decorate your shop window in the Netherlands before St. Nicholas left the country and Santa Clause is frowned upon, despite the fact Santa’s history reveals he is the same person as St. Nicholas. The Dutch want St. Nicholas and want to celebrate St. Nicholas’ Eve on Dec. 5th. They also don’t want to have anything to do with Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. They are so proud they are open to other traditions, and therefore St. Nicholas needs to be “culture neutral”. Which means in the eyes of some enlightened souls that the cross on his mitre needs to be replaced by something neutral. And so they did.
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Most of you who read this blog frequently know I went to the United States last summer. Now towards the end of the year it’s still hard to grasp I really went there. I hardly can’t believe it. It was a dream come true, because one of the things I always wanted to do was visit the United States to see how it is like. During my stay, which was made possible by the great people over at SQPN, I attended SQPN’s Catholic New Media Conference, where I made a lot of new friends. One of those friends I met was Jeff Young, who started to podcast not too long ago. Over at SQPN they refer to him as the “Catholic Foodie”, because there are a number of Jeffs around already. So who is Jeff Young, and what makes him tick? I interviewed him in honour of October being the Catholic Speaker Month over at Fallible Blogma.
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It’s that time of the year again. A few weeks ago the weather was cold and damp, but today temps hit 23 degrees Celsius over here and the trees are blossoming. It’s great, but for me it has one big disadvantage: allergies! I’m always late getting started on my allergy medicine, but this year I notice my allergies start extremely early. I remember from previous years that I had to order new ones late May, early June, so this year’s allergies are extremely early and it took a while before I made the connection. I thought I had the flu because I suffered from extreme fatigue, felt sick and wanted to stay in bed all day long. I felt to miserable to do anything.
I use a feedreader to keep up-to-date with internet news, and using that I read something in the New York Times about a simple and cheap way to get rid of allergies. It already exists for thousands of years in India but it gets more popular in the West right now: the Neti Pot. According advocates is good for about anything. The device itself is fairly simple: it’s a small ceramic jug, which looks like a flattened tea pot. You put a saline solution in it and rinse your nose and sinuses with it. It treats colds, sinusitis but also hay fever. At least, it claims it does.
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What if scientists would invent a pill which enables people to erase all kinds of unwanted memories? People wouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of traumatic life events, traumatised soldiers would be enabled to live a normal life. In certain respects it would be wonderful to choose which kinds of bad memories you want to erase from your “hard drive” and which memories you want to keep. What would be the impact of such an invention on the society as a whole, or the human conscience or even human life? It may all sound like science fiction, but it might actually become reality!
People who follow this for some time already know I studied neuro-psychology. I love the field of Cognitive Neurosciences, it’s a great geeky scientific field. It’s also a relatively modern academic field, but researchers get a lot of money to do their research which helps to grow the discipline a lot. In a relatively short period in time, our knowledge about our brain and our mind has increased rapidly. One of those recent discoveries is that of the “memory molecule” called PKMzeta. I know the name doesn’t sound really original or creative, but it is how scientists work. According to scientists, this PKMzeta thing will enable us to wipe out certain memories.
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I really like practicing yoga. It clears my mind and strengthens my muscles. On top of that I notice it improves my flexibility. I feel much better altogether after starting my yoga practice. I just read an article on Science Daily in which is argued that yoga is good for you and that there are scientific reasons to prove it. In the article they write that “scientists proved that” practicing yoga is related to higher levels of the neurotransmitter GABA in one’s brain and therefore it helps to decrease anxiety and stress-related symptoms. It also would decrease depression.
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I read the following story in different German newspapers:
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