Beautiful clouds

Artist Berndnaut Smilde creates beautiful things...his project 'nimbus' lets clouds float inside deserted hotels or villas...it looks surreal!

See more at http://www.berndnaut.nl/works.htm

Summer of Photography

A beautiful reason for a citytrip to Brussels: till the 16th of September there is a photo festival (´Summer of Photography´), showing photos of the best photographers of Europe.

See also the website: http://www.summerofphotography.be/

SHOULD I BREAK UP BY SMS?

Gizmodo is a site for geeks but a very smart one for that matter.

This recent article deals with the very old question: how should we break up with someone? Is it ok to do it by texting? We had the same doubts long ago, about writing, phone-calling or meeting with someone to tell him (or her) we didn't want them anymore in our lives.

So, nothing new on this front. One thing is different though: we communicate more and more by digital means, even with family. Texting is so common that one may wonder...

Read the article here and have fun and food for thought:

http://gizmodo.com/5927787/four-times-its-okay-to-break-up-via-text?utm_source=Gizmodo+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f5a836e1bb-UA-142218-3&utm_medium=email

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COSMIC COCOON

A supernova exploded, it's shock wave trespassed the cosmic cocoon.
The image is awesome.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2303.html

(Photo: NASA)

BEAR CARE ON MOODSCOPE

Moodscope is an interesting site, specially for those who worry about mood changes (and who doesn't?).
Jon's posts are usually quite good. This one is about a bear and about us humans. Have a look:

http://www.moodscope.com/blog/

The emotional effects of an heart attack

Recent research from the Columbia University Medical Center has shown that approximately 1 in 8 of sufferers from a heart attack will develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Read more about the symptoms and possible solutions here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/stress-disorder-pervasive-after-heart-attack-study-finds/

TOO MANY WORDS?

David Silverman is a writer, a teacher and a businessman. He argues about our natural verbosity.
Have a look at the chart. Did you know iTunes agreement had so many words?
It's amazing. Do they want to confound us or are just incapable of being synthetic? Food for thought.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/07/yes_college_essays_are_ruining.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date

A DYING STAR PHOTOGRAPHED BY HUBBLE

U Cam for short, a star in the  constellation of Camelopardalis, is dying.

But that's a long process. Every few thousand years, U Cam coughs out a nearly spherical shell of gas. 

Nothing gold stays, as Robert Frost wrote in his wonderful poem. Not even a star.

(photo by NASA)

Flexible human beings

I always like to see how human beings can be so flexible and adaptive to their environments...
Hong Kong architect Gary Chang managed to squeeze 24 rooms in his little house and calls his house his “domestic transformer”.

See the video to understand why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9qnWg9kak

ANKLE BOOTS, ANYONE?

Know thy neighbour by their shoes.
An enjoyable to read article:

http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/14/what-your-shoes-say-about-you/?iid=obinsite

Stress: 3 different types

A little bit of stress can be thrilling and stimulizing, but a lot of people nowadays are experiencing too much stress.

Stress can come in several ways, and depending on the type of stress, there are different ways to deal with it. Read more about the several kinds of stress (and...what to do about it!) here: http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/stress-kinds.aspx

Higher educated cancer patients get better treatment?

Today the quite shocking results of a Dutch research (led by epidemiologist Mieke Aarts) were published: it appears that higher educated cancer patients get better treatments (and because of that: higher survival rates) than lower educated cancer patients.
Reason for this is probably that the higher educated patients are more often actively looking for more information and probable treatments, raising the chance that they will find those treatments also. Besides, they probably have better (more 'equal') conversations with their doctors: doctors will explain them more, and the patients dare to discuss more with their doctors.
Advices that the researchers provide are: doctors should treat every patient the same way, and they should empathize more with the patient so that they can adapt their way of communication.

Most EU citizens support demotivation of the use of tobacco

An EU-wide survey, published by the European Commission, shows that a majority of EU citizens (60%) supports stronger tobacco control measures to make tobacco less visible and attractive, such as keeping tobacco products out of sight in shops or curbing the use of attractive flavours and colours. 

According to this study, despite decreasing numbers, still 28% of EU citizens aged 15 and over smoke...

Read more about this EU study here: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/12/511&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Heart attack or panic attack?

Approximately one sixth of the patients treated at Emergency Heart Care units is having a panic attack rather than heartproblems. Indeed a panic attack could have some of the same symptoms as a heart attack (for example: chestpain, heart palpitations, being short of breath).
In Holland, this was a reason for a psychiatrist to join the team of cardiologists, to screen every patient showing up at the Emergency Heart Care. This way, patients actually suffering from a panic attack could get the right treatment faster.

DR. GABOR MATÉ

Our colleague Mary Fowke asked me to post this text for her, since she doesn't handle the blogger dash (what a shame!)

Gabor Maté is a Hungarian - Canadian medical doctor who has thought provoking and unconventional perpectives on addictions that differ from currrent tendencies to attribute causes to genetics .He sees addictions not as distinct entities but rather as parts of a continuum with roots in childhood traumas and other environmental influences.His book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, presents addictions in this holistic, relational light, taking away their "otherness".  To him, an addiction is " any behavior that has negative consequences but that a person continues to crave and relapse into despite the negative consequences ." Maté has become a sought after speaker following the publication of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. The following is an interview in which he discusses how addiction changes the brain :http://youtu.be/oZ-FAX4Pz8I.

The origin of monogamy

Professor Sergey Gavrilets (Universiteit of Tennesse, U.S.A.) shares his theory about the evolution of monogamy in the latest edition of the journal ´Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences´. Bottom line is that lower-ranked males started using the alternative strategy of provisioning and caring, to compete with the higher-ranked males...

Read more about this interesting theory here: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/21/1200717109.abstract?sid=6bd33217-3cc3-4289-8e1a-9cb709b49a83

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

A new research (performed by the University of California) has shown that some people could be more susceptible to develop a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after experiencing a life-threatening event than others.
This susceptability seems to be inherited: there are specific variants of two genes involved (TPH1 and TPH2). Probably these the specific gene variants produce less serotonin, which could explain why these people could be more vulnerable to develop PTSD.

More research about this needs to be done in the future, but for now you can read more at http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-study-identifies-first-genes-231248.aspx

Time for an ´e-mail vacation´?

The University of California, Irvine found that being cut off from work e-mail leads to a better concentration, less multitasking, less stress and a more natural heart rate. The effect was especially clear after being cut off for a minimum of 5 days.

Read more at http://today.uci.edu/news/2012/05/nr_email_120503.php

Underwater Modern Art

Never heard of The Museum of Underwater Modern Art, until today...I would love to go there one day! A good reason to visit Mexico... Jason deCaires Taylor made beautiful underwater sculptures, check the website: http://jasondecairestaylor.com/

DANIEL KAHNEMAN

A most interesting interview by Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel prize who coined the concept of "emotional intelligence".
I found specially interesting what he says about how memory works: it builds itself not on time but on moments (peaks, both bad or good).

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/interview-with-daniel-kahneman-on-the-pitfalls-of-intuition-and-memory-a-834407.html

PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE

Some people pay a greater attention to the past, others live looking at the future. "Presentists", however, seem to be stuck in the present.
Have a look at the interesting article Jeffrey Israel wrote for BigThink:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/are-you-a-paster-presentist-or-futurian?page=1

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

A beautiful poem in the unmistakable voice of Morgan Freeman.

Because, more often than we would think, words can change the world.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FozhZHuAcCs

How to improve our body image

Now that summer has arrived, I found this research quite interesting: researchers of the University of Maastricht (NL) are focusing on the concept of body image. Preliminary findings show that depression and eating disorders could possibly be prevented when women could see their body in a more masculine kind of way. A negative body image could be prevented by teaching women to learn to experience their body more in a manner of what they can DO with it (the masculine interpretation), instead of focusing on how the body looks like (the feminine interpretation).
Final conclusions from this research are expected later this year!

BLACK HOLES

This NASA photo shows what they call a stellar homicide by an old black hole.
Dramas that are played far far away. In fact, they were played long ago.
Closer to us, the Greek drama unfolds. The future of the European dream, dreamt by my generation and the previous one is about to be played in that old that has seen so many dramas before.

High financial reward doesn´t always lead to better performances

Most people think that the higher an expected financial reward is, the harder people will work (and the better they will perform). Fact is, this is only the case when rewards are moderate.
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) found that when people get too much money for performing a certain task, they will be afraid of losing this reward and they will perform worse...
The perfect amount of reward differs per person however (and is related to the amount of fear they experience of losing money).

Read more about this research at http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13512

ISABELLA ROSSELINNI EXPLAINS IT ALL

Isabella Rossellini explains all about sex among animals.
Hilarious short movies produced by the Sundance Channel. Bees, earthworms, you name it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkm3CCX1_xk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

WEIRD TOYS

An American company produces toys based on child drawings. You can see their products here:

http://www.childsown.com/

A bit upsetting, isn'it? What's left of that space that Winnicott called the "transitional space" that is neither fantasy nor reality?

Lowering kids´ academic pressure

The American Psychological Association (APA) published an interesting research about the effect of academic pressure on kids´school performances. It turns out that lowering the pressure, by telling them learning can be difficult and failures are normal, will raise their self-esteem, lower their fear of failure and improve their school results.

Read more here: http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2012/03/academic-pressure.aspx

LISBON - STARTUP CITY

Young foreign entrepreneurs who chose Lisbon to live and work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NkJ9QrO2xo&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Clara Pracana Ph.D.
http://www.lisboncpc.org/
http://pt.linkedin.com/in/clarapracana

Platonic friendship: possible or not?

Since I started to come more regularly to Portugal, I started to notice how easy and natural male-female friendships seem here. A recent research performed by the University of Wisconsin (400 men and women participated) found however that men tend to be sexually attracted to their female friends more often than the other way around. And this could get in the way of their friendship. A Dutch research performed by 'Psychologie Magazine' (5000 participants) showed the same results.
I wonder: is my impression of Portuguese mixed friendships based on reality? Are there cultural differences?

HITCHCOCK'S DEFINITION OF HAPPINESS

Who would have guessed, uh?

OUR OTHER HALF

Another interesting study on creativity and insight on Big Think:

http://bigthink.com/humanizing-technology/undisciplined-the-creative-insight-of-the-outsider?utm_source=Big+Think+Weekly+Newsletter+Subscribers&utm_campaign=695f3944b5-The_Creative_Insight_of_the_Outsider5_4_2012&utm_medium=email

I quote:
"Numerous studies (...) are honing in on inspiration as a function of the right hemisphere of the brain – the less literal half that exceeds at making associations between things that don't obviously go together.
(...)
It turns out that sitting around waiting is definitively the wrong way to trigger right-brain creative activity. What gets the alpha waves flowing, facilitating the semi-dream-state in which we're best able to connect those unlikely dots, is a change of scenery"

SPRING AND COLOUR

Spring at last!
I took this photo while strolling under the sun. Life seems better with sun and flowers, doesn't it? It's all a question of perception - see my previous post of Rory Sutherland's TED Talk.

CYCLECHIC

Let's make Lisbon as cool as Copenhagen!
Esther posted about joggers, this one is about cycling.

http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/2012/05/four-gents-five-hats.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CycleChic-CopenhagenGirlsOnBikes+%28Copenhagen+Cycle+Chic+-+Bike+Advocacy+in+High+Heels%29

PERCEPTION AND REALITY

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/rory_sutherland_perspective_is_everything.html

A brilliant TED Talk by Rory Sutherland.

Jog to live longer

A long-term research project, in which 2000 Danish joggers were followed since 1976 by cardiologists (amongst others), shows that jogging for a minimum of 1 hour a week could increase our lives with years. Also interesting is that slow or average paces seem to be enough!
Read more about this Copenhagen City Heart Study at http://www.escardio.org/about/press/press-releases/pr-12/Pages/regular-jogging-increases-life-expectancy.aspx

Bhutan supports Gross National Happiness (GNH)

Last month there was a UN conference about happiness hosted by Bhutan, the country that supports the idea that the Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a more important measurement for the quality of life than the Gross National Product (GNP). A list of the happiest countries in the world was presented here (created by the 3 economists John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs, and based on several recent research reports). The top 5 exists of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Holland and Canada. Least happy country is Togo.
Read the whole World Happiness Report at http://issuu.com/earthinstitute/docs/world-happiness-report.

Who are the happiest kids of the Western world?

The recent World Health Organisation (WHO) study called 'Health Behaviour in School-aged Children' shows that Dutch children are the happiest in the Western world (39 countries: Europe, Canada and the US). Other happy kids are living in Armenia, Finland and Iceland. Children in Turkey, Poland, Ukraine and Romania feel least happy. Read more here: http://www.hbsc.org/news/index.aspx?ni=1064.

LIFE AND DEATH

A beautiful and poetic animation with words by Edar Allan Poe


http://vimeo.coRm/40291524

TARANTULA NEBULA

The coloured photo of the tarantula nebula, on account of what seems to be spider legs. Man has this tendency to recognize shapes already known. So many worlds out there and here we stay put and try to discover familiar shapes in spatial images. Melanie Klein used to say that the small baby started to build a geography of his world based on his mother's body.


(photo: NASA)

THE ORIGINS OF MARRIAGE

An interesting and provocative article on the origins of marriage. The author teaches anthropology.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/the-origin-of-marriage-and-the-evolution-of-divorce?utm_source=Big+Think+Weekly+Newsletter+Subscribers&utm_campaign=cd0bfeda32-You_Are_Not_Your_Brain4_27_2012&utm_medium=email

PHOTO

Talking about creativity, I've been struggling with the lack of subjects to take photos of where I stay the weekends. Then I decided to take what I have at hand and make the most of it. This was the result, a BW photo with a weird light coming in.

WHY DO WE LOOSE CREATIVITY?

Picasso once famously said that every child is an artist. This article in BigThink explores the reasons you loose creativity when you grow up.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/killing-creativity-why-kids-draw-pictures-of-monsters-and-adults-dont?page=2

'Alone time'

Some people like to spend time alone, some people don't...it appears to be very healthy though!
Gregory Feist (San Jose State University, California) found out that when being alone, our brains get some space to organize and settle our thoughts. This brings us solutions or new ideas. This relates to the fact that people are more creative when they are alone. As Picasso once said: “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible”.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

Dr. Sue Johnson is one of the leading couple therapists in the world. She wrote the book 'Hold me Tight', in which she explains the 3 different types of 'demon dialogues' that couples can use when trying to communicate or reach each other: find the bad guy, freeze and flee, and the protest polka.
Since I read about these 3 types of dialogues, I can never look at a relationship differently anymore. They are quite easy to recognize, and once we do recognize them: we can tackle them and fight them together, as a couple!

Read more about this at http://www.holdmetight.com/hold_me_tight.php

WHAT IS COACHING

Coaching is a tool designed to bring out a person's potential. It's aim is development, specially professional development.
A coach differs from a psychotherapist not only by education and training but also by using a different tool.
Although there are similarities, the tool the coach uses is made of observation ad questions.
The coach and the client have to reach an agreement about the wanted goals. Observable results are quite important and so is feedback.
In psychotherapy the issue(s) are more about the patient's problems and his personal history. It goes deeper and it takes of course longer.
Coaching is well suited when one wants a quick and showable result, focused on a specific target.

POETRY: INVICTUS by William E Henley

The poem Invictus is a high moment in poetry. Listen to Sir Alan Bates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pJcwnS1c0I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Clara Pracana Ph.D.
http://www.lisboncpc.org/
http://pt.linkedin.com/in/clarapracana

Food for thought

Odewire is a great website with many interesting subjects: from food to business, from energy to technology, to health and back! There is something for everyone's taste and it's nice to get lost here.

http://odewire.com/

Christophe Andre

Another French psychiatrist that wrote inspiring books about happiness: Christophe Andre.
In his opinion, human beings are unhappy by nature. The cause is evolutionary: in the past we always had to be alert for and worried about threats. According to him, it takes hard work to be happy. Two important things to achieve happiness, besides food and a home, are social bonds and contact with nature. And last but not least: to be able to enjoy the small things in life and to live in the moment because we never know what tomorrow brings...

See his website for more information (albeit in French): http://christopheandre.com/

COACHING: WHO CAN BENEFIT

Lately I've been pretty interested in this new tool. Coaching is for someone who wants to learn, grow and maximize his/her performance.
It may be done with individuals or teams and the aim may be personal improvement or organizational change. Many clients are time-pressured executives who want to maximize their performance or the team's.
The book in the picture is one of the basic readings.