From sanctuary to snake pit: the rise and fall of asylums, with this title the New Scientist has a collection of photos on the history of the asylums. Fascinating pictures one of which depicts an old ECT apparatus Most people associate the word "asylum" with squalor and brutality – an impression strengthened by portrayals in books and films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – but they were originally designed to be places of sanctuary. Christopher Payne visited and photographed 70 such institutions across the US for his book Asylum: Inside the closed world of state mental hospitals, which documents .....read more »

From 7 until 22 November, Amsterdam will be the center for chocoholics. It will be the chocolate capital of the world. Participating restaurants will have menus with chocolate, there will be chocolate workshops, chocolate high tea and much more. Have a look at the website: http://www.choca.nu (in Dutch). [gallery]Related posts: The Beauty of Pi and Chocolate A 3D Chocolate Printer From Cocao Bean to Chocolate ..read more »

From talented journalist and editor to homeless, to depression, to suicidal...and back again. Impressive story. Hope always, always finds a way. Becky Blanton planned to live in her van for a year and see the country, but when depression set in and her freelance job ended, her camping trip turned into homelessness. In this intimate talk, she describes her experience of becoming one of America's working homeless. Related posts: The Solist, about a Homeless Man with Schizophrenia Hands on Experience with Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression Old Year/New Year Dutch Grand Round 10.1 is up ..read more »

Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is "the great challenge of the age," Found his observations on teenagers impressive, does he still have teenagers himself? But I think he is right about teenagers using the Internet, using one app after the other, switching very fast.Related posts: Elderly and Internet and Computer Skills, An Update Ice Skating after 12 Years Rivalry for Google Wave: PBWorks ..read more »

Reuse of syringes, all too common in under-funded clinics, kills 1.3 million each year. Marc Koska clues us in to this devastating global problem with facts, photos and hidden-camera footage. He shares his solution: a low-cost syringe that can't be used twice. Horrifying story of the undisciplined and dangerous use of syringes in the underdeveloped countries causing a lot of harm and lives. At the end a genious solution to the problem.Related posts: 4 Reasons for Drug Companies to Move to China 6 Reasons Not To Trust Medical Publications 5 Reasons to be Cheerful with Self Help for Depression ..read more »

The course in their third year of med school about the Brains and the Sensory system in which psychiatry participates is a course of at least three months. It's made of different sub courses which each take about 3 to 4 weeks. These courses are evaluated at the end. That's to say months after the course ended because the med students are preparing for their exams and teachers are already occupied with other teaching obligations. These evaluations are mostly done by the coordinating medical specialist, most of the teacher are not present during the evaluation. In conclusion: to little to .....read more »

When you get the flu, viruses turn your cells into tiny factories that help spread the disease. In this animation, NPR's Robert Krulwich and medical animator David Bolinsky explain how a flu virus can trick a single cell into making a million more viruses. Very nice video with stunning graphics to show how your body gets invaded with virus. Seemed appropriate information in this flu season. Thanks DrVal, rlbates, and Beth HawkesRelated posts: How can technology transform the human body? Everything you always wanted to know about body piercings Google Body 3D Model ..read more »

Making a Brain cake is fun, cheap and great for Halloween parties or get-togethers. This is a basic instructable to show you how to make the details for this cake, the size and shape depends on your preferences. You can do similar designs for cupcakes or even flat cakes depending on what best fits your needs. For instructions and pictures on how to make it read: Brain Cake at Instructables.com Related posts: Making a Computer work like the Brain Brain to Neuron Voyage Making the Impossible Possible? ..read more »

This video was made by Rohit Bhargava who the famous medical blogger Kevin Pho of KevinMD on the the Blogworld Expo, about why he blogs, what results he has seen and the future of the medical blogosphere the future of Medical Blogging. He makes clear why it is important for doctors to blog. This was a week ago the Blogworld Expo, the World largest Conference on Blogging in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Would have liked to join those famous bloggers. As Laikas put it: I’m blogging in my spare time and although it has many spin-offs for my work, I .....read more »

PubMed has redesigned their interface. The changes to PubMed are outlined in this post PubMed Redesign Opinion of a Physician. Found this video on Rothman.net. He has also some posts on the redesign of PubMed. Related posts: PubMed Redesign, A Physician’s Opinion PubMed Update Biomedical Search on BioMedSearch ..read more »