The 39th edition of Scientia Pro Publica is up at Punctuated Equilibrium, the new Guardian blog from grrlscientist. This blog carnival showcases the finest science, medical and environment writing published in the blogosphereRelated posts: Scientia Pro Publica 24 is up Scientia Pro Publica 28 is up at Mauka to Makai Scientia Pro Publica: a call for submissions ..read more »

Although the tropical regions produce 75% of the worlds cocoa production only 4% of the cocoa is consumed by these regions. These regions also suffer the most from malaria. Malaria is one of the top three killers among infectious diseases. There are numerous anecdotal reports and personal subjective observations of reduced episodic malaria in people who daily drink natural unsweetened cocoa beverage. A recent publication in Medical Hypotheses reviewed the literature about possible mechanisms by which cocoa could have an antimalarial effect. Possible mechanisms of cocoa ingredients on malarial parasites and illness: Increased availability of antioxidants in plasma. Evidence .....read more »

The recent financial crisis is partly due to leaders abusing their power for self-interest. CEO's and other leaders are responsible for the promotion and welfare of their clients and workers. Instead of wielding their power for the greater good, leaders might be tempted to use their power in self-serving ways. What makes leaders use their power not to promote the welfare of others but to use it to enhance their personal interest and to increase their power an domination? An evolutionary view on leadership: The relationship between leaders and followers reflects a social contract wherein followers trust leaders to make decisions that .....read more »

9/11View more presentations from vdbroekw. As Dutch citizen don't want to suggest more involvement with 9/11 other than everybody else not living in the US or New York and witnessing this disaster. But another essay by the last psychiatrist got my attention. In this essay the focus is on the separation between the aftermath and the cause to all this suffering and victims. Separating shows this way fosters a separation between the cause and the effect; we are focusing only on the effect, because it is very hard for us to get our heads around the cause. In doing .....read more »

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After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it's better to keep goals secret. He presents research stretching as far back as the 1920s to show why people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them. No related posts. ..read more »

Nice talk by John Cleese about creativity. In a world that is always online and always connected, it's helpful to close your computer as much as possible. Remove the distractions. As Cleese says, "We don't know where we get our ideas from. We do know that we do not get them from our laptops." Thanks Presentation ZenRelated posts: The God Gene explained by John Cleese Where does creativity come from? Love is Great for Creativity, Sex for Analytical Thinking ..read more »

A daydream is a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake. Some people may devote 50% of their awake time with daydreaming. Recently a case study was published in which a 36 year old female has a long history of excessive daydreaming. As a child between 4 to 10 years of age she would spend periods of free time, sometimes several hours, walking in circles shaking a string, while imagining creative stories in which she was the central focus, i.e., ‘‘just like playing school with other kids, .....read more »

I'm having a problem. I'm an editor for the Dutch/Flemish Journal of Psychiatry. Since I'm a blogger and on twitter and using many more web 2.0 tools I'm supposed to be the expert on web 2.0 and our journal. We've revamped our website and the journal is even on twitter. We're planning presence on Facebook and LinkedIn and probably on some more of these 2.0 web tools. My problem is that before using all those tools I think we need a web strategy. When being on Facebook or LinkedIn we should know what were going to do, who can subscribe, .....read more »

In my quest to the right chocolate dose recently discovered a letter in the BMJ about this subject. The authors did a meta analysis. Their results suggest that dark chocolate is superior to placebo in reducing blood pressures of more than 140 mm Hg systolic or more than 80 mm Hg diastolic. Daily flavanol dosages ranged from 30 mg to 1 g (equivalent to 6.3 g to 100 g of milk or dark chocolate), and interventions ran for two to 18 weeks. Data were insufficient to provide confident answers on optimal dosage and time frame. However, they question the practicability as a .....read more »