Candice Pert Ph.D.'s "Psychosomatic Wellness" CD: A Review

by Timothy Wilken, MD

I began using healing mediation to help my patients in the late 1970s. I created individual tapes for each patient, my scripts were based on a blend of breathing techniques, progressive muscular relaxation, autogenic training, guided imagery, and self-hypnosis. These tapes proved to be powerful tools for helping my patients heal both emotional and physical injuries.

In 2007, when I was personally challenged with a serious illness, I reached for them to help me heal myself. Since then I make it my practice to personally use healing meditation daily. While I have memorized many scripts, I am constantly searching for new healing meditations.
It was my great delight to discover Candace Pert’s Psychosomatic Wellness. She has wonderful meditations on this CD album. I try to listen to them daily. I keep them on my iPod so they are handy. There are five “songs” on the album.

The first “song” is Introduction, it explains the science behind her approach, you only need to listen to that once.

The second “song” is the healing meditation called Adaptation of Niels Bohr. I try to listen to this at least once a day. It is 25 minutes long.

The third one is also very good. It uses a series of powerful affirmations to program the subconscious with positive and healthy beliefs.  It is called Affirmations inspired by Belleruth Naperstek.  I listen to it whenever I have time. It's 16 minutes long.

The fourth “song” is a Musical Reprise. Very pleasant. It provides the perfect background for imagining your cells working to repair and heal your body. It is 7 minutes long.

The fifth and last “song” is a song. It is called Honor Who You Are. Very wise and very pleasant. It lasts 3 or 4 minutes.

I haven’t listened to any healing meditations that I like better than these. I have always known that meditating was good for me, but with practicing medicine 40 hours a week, and publishing three websites, I always had a bit of difficulty finding the time. Now, I actually look forward to listening to these. I awoke this morning at 5:30AM with need to start my day the right way. I listened to all four “songs” this morning, They were wonderful.

I am currently recommending the CD to all my patients. Take a listen, I promise that it will be good for you.

Relaxation Technique: Autogenic Training

From yee Wiki,

"Autogenic training is a relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Heinrich Schultz and first published in 1932. The technique involves the daily practice of sessions that last around 15 minutes, usually in the morning, at lunch time, and in the evening. During each session, the practitioner will repeat a set of visualisations that induce a state of relaxation. Each session can be practiced in a position chosen amongst a set of recommended postures (for example, lying down, sitting meditation). The technique can be used to alleviate many stress-induced psychosomatic disorders.

Schultz emphasized parallels to techniques in yoga and meditation. It is a method for influencing one's autonomic nervous system. Abbe Faria and Emile Coue were the forerunners of Schultz. There are many parallels to progressive relaxation. In 1963 Wolfgang Luthe discovered the significance of "autogenic discharges", paroxistic phenomena of motor, sensorial, visual and emotional nature related to the traumatic history of the patient, and developed the method of "Autogenic Abreaction". His disciple Luis de Rivera, a McGill trained psychiatrist, introduced psychodynamic concepts into Wolfgang Luthe's approach, developing "Autogenic Analysis" as a new method for uncovering the unconscious.

Herbert Benson, MD, a Harvard professor also did significant research in the area. He called it the Relaxation Response and wrote an influential book with that same title.

Example of an autogenic training session

1. Sit in the meditative posture and scan the body
2. "My right arm is heavy"
3. "My arms and legs are heavy and warm" (repeat 3 or more times)
4. "My heartbeat is calm and regular" (repeat 3 times)
5. "My solar plexus is warm" (repeat 3 times)
6. "My forehead is cool"
7. "My neck and shoulders are heavy" (repeat 3 times)
8. "I am at peace" (repeat 3 times)

9. Finish Part One by cancelling

10. Start Part Two by repeating from step 2 on to cancelling

11. Start Part Three by repeating from step 2 on to cancelling

When you end your practice, it is a good idea to cancel, to avoid your thoughts from inadvertently materializing. To cancel say "arms firm," and move your arms vigorously; say "breathe deeply," and breathe deeply; and say "open eyes," and open your eyes.

Many practitioners will choose not to cancel between the three iterations, in order to maintain a deeper relaxation.

Quite often, one will ease themselves into the "trance" by counting to ten, and exit by counting backwards from ten. This is another practice taken from progressive relaxation.

Effects of autogenic training

Autogenic training restores the balance between the activity of the sympathetic (flight or fight) and the parasympathetic (rest and digest) branches of the autonomic nervous system. This has important health benefits, as the parasympathetic activity promotes digestion and bowel movements, lowers the blood pressure, slows the heart rate, and promotes the functions of the immune system.

Contraindications

Autogenic training is contraindicated for people with heart conditions or psychotic disorders.

Clinical evidence

Autogenic training has been subject to clinical evaluation from its early days in Germany, and from the early 1980s worldwide. In 2002, a meta-analysis of 60 studies was published in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, finding significant positive effects of treatment when compared to normals over a number of diagnoses; finding these effects to be similar to best recommended rival therapies; and finding positive additional effects by patients, such as their perceived quality of life.

In Japan, four researchers from the Tokyo Psychology and Counseling Service Center have formulated a measure for reporting clinical effectiveness of autogenic training.

Autogenic training was popularized in North America particularly among practitioners by Wolfgang Luthe, who co-authored, with Schultz, a multi-volume tome on Autogenic Training. Luthe was a firm believer that autogenic training was a powerful approach that should only be offered to patients by qualified professionals.

Like many techniques (progressive relaxation, yoga, qigong, varieties of meditation) which have been developed into advanced, sophisticated processes of intervention and learning,

Autogenic training, as Luthe and Schultz wrote in their master tome, took well over a year to learn to teach and over a year to learn. But some biofeedback practitioners took the most basic elements of autogenic imagery and developed "condensed" simplified versions that were used in combination with biofeedback.

This was done at the Menninger foundation by Elmer Green, Steve Fahrio, Patricia Norris, Joe Sargent, Dale Walters and others, where they took the hand warming imagery of autogenic training and used it as an aid to develop thermal biofeedback."

In the News: New Software Can Diagnose Parkinson's Disease Simply By Listening To Your Voice

by David J. Hill
Contributing Writer, Singularity University.

Software like Apple's Siri that responds to your voice is convenient and incredibly cool, but what if a similar kind of voice analysis could diagnose disease? A new initiative aims to make detection of Parkinson's disease as easy as making a phone call. Computer algorithms developed by TED Fellow and applied mathematician Max Little can analyze vocal recordings for characteristic anomalies in an individual's voice brought on by the disease. The noninvasive method can detect Parkinson's with 86 percent accuracy in blind testing of 50 voices, and the rate increases to 99 percent when individual's have mid to late stage Parkinson's.


The Parkinson's Voice Initiative has been formed to create a database of 10,000 voice recordings from people all over the world to improve the algorithms. The goal is to make the technology available to doctors within the next two years.

As Little told the BBC, "This is machine learning. We are collecting a large amount of data when we know if someone has the disease or not and we train the database to learn how to separate out the true symptoms of the disease from other factors." The effort was announced at this year's TEDGlobal.

Here is Max Little presenting the Initiative:

Unfortunately, there are no known biomarkers for Parkinson's, so diagnostic testing focuses on evaluating degrees of tremors in the clinic. Along with these characteristic tremors, voice changes are common, such as whispering, breathiness, and a shift to higher tones. In fact, the voice can be weakened by as much as 10 decibels compared to an average speaker. Though these changes can go unnoticed by a person with a disease, relatives and friends more often pick up on it, but a computer algorithm that detects nuances of speech and subtle changes could detect abberations with much greater frequency.

The technology can scale easily as patients can do the tests themselves in minutes and are as cheap as making a local phone call. This could not only help screen people for early stages of the disease, but it could also allow doctor's to track the disease progression in patients and therapists to monitor the effectiveness of voice therapies without patients having to come into the clinic. This could save valuable resources and allow healthcare workers to have more frequent checkups on patient health remotely.

To get a sense of the change in voice that occurs, check out this video from the Parkinson Voice Project, a nonprofit organization that uses intensive therapy to help individuals with Parkinson's and other neurological disorders regain their voices:


The Initiative hopes to use the software to help with patient treatment, so that drug dosage and timing could be optimized. Additionally, clinical trials could benefit from classification methods more accurate than current methods that may fail to detect some with Parkinson's. With a database of recordings available for analysis, more sophisticated algorithms could also be developed that may lead to a scoring system for disease progression based on voice alone.
The potential of this technology goes beyond Parkinson's disease as voice changes can be caused by other neurological diseases, such stroke, multiple sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), as well as cancer that affects the throat (larynx, esophageal, neck, and even lung cancer). Voice changes also occur with viral and bacterial infection, like the common cold or flu, and are one of the characteristics of heavy smoking. So if similar types of voice recording pools could be collected and analyzed with these algorithms, the potential to detect diseases and monitor their progression could be developed.

As Gizmodo suggests, voice-analyzing algorithms might someday be integrated into a smartphone app like Siri. Even a simple app that could monitor your regular voice commands or conversations on your smartphone and pop up an alert if a significant change is detected could be a valuable tool in the coming wave of healthcare apps aimed at preventative care.
(If you are interested in participating in the study, you can find the number to call at the PCI website.)

This material published courtesy of Singularity University.

"The Charlie Rose Show" The Brain Series Year Two Online

If you have the time, you can check out the Brain Series Year Two from The Charlie Rose Show online. If interested, click on the link below.

http://www.charlierose.com/topic/science_health

In the News: Genome Brings Ancient Girl to Life

This replica of a tiny finger bone from Denisova Cave yielded an entire genome. Photo: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

by Adrian Cho, ScienceNOW

In a stunning technical feat, an international team of scientists has sequenced the genome of an archaic Siberian girl 31 times over, using a new method that amplifies single strands of DNA. The sequencing is so complete that researchers have as sharp a picture of this ancient genome as they would of a living person’s, revealing, for example that the girl had brown eyes, hair, and skin. “No one thought we would have an archaic human genome of such quality,” says Matthias Meyer, a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “Everyone was shocked by the counts. That includes me.”


That precision allows the team to compare the nuclear genome of this girl, who lived in Siberia’s Denisova Cave more than 50,000 years ago, directly to the genomes of living people, producing a “near-complete” catalog of the small number of genetic changes that make us different from the Denisovans, who were close relatives of Neandertals. “This is the genetic recipe for being a modern human,” says team leader Svante Pääbo, a paleogeneticist at the institute.

Ironically, this high-resolution genome means that the Denisovans, who are represented in the fossil record by only one tiny finger bone and two teeth, are much better known genetically than any other ancient human—including Neandertals, of which there are hundreds of specimens. The team confirms that the Denisovans interbred with the ancestors of some living humans and found that Denisovans had little genetic diversity, suggesting that their small population waned further as populations of modern humans expanded. “Meyer and the consortium have set up the field of ancient DNA to be revolutionized—again,” says Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not part of the team. Evolutionary geneticist Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania agrees: “It’s really going to move the field forward.”


Pääbo’s group first gave the field a jolt in May 2010 by reporting a low-coverage sequence (1.3 copies on average) of the composite nuclear genome from three Neandertals. They found that 1% to 4% of the DNA of Europeans and Asians, but not of Africans, was shared with Neandertals and concluded that modern humans interbred with Neandertals at low levels.

Just 7 months later, the same group published 1.9 copies on average of a nuclear genome from a girl’s pinky finger bone from Denisova Cave. They found she was neither a Neandertal nor a modern human—although bones of both species had been found in the cave—but a new lineage that they called Denisovan. The team found “Denisovan DNA” in some island Southeast Asians and concluded that their ancestors also interbred with the ancestors of Denisovans, probably in Asia.

But these genomes were too low quality to produce a reliable catalog of differences. Part of the problem was that ancient DNA is fragmentary, and most of it breaks down into single strands after it is extracted from bone.

Meyer’s breakthrough came in developing a method to start the sequencing process with single strands of DNA instead of double strands, as is usually done. By binding special molecules to the ends of a single strand, the ancient DNA was held in place while enzymes copied its sequence. The result was a sixfold to 22-fold increase in the amount of Denisovan DNA sequenced from a meager 10-milligram sample from the girl’s finger. The team was able to cover 99.9% of the mappable nucleotide positions in the genome at least once, and more than 92% of the sites at least 20 times, which is considered a benchmark for identifying sites reliably. About half of the 31 copies came from the girl’s mother and half from her father, producing a genome “of equivalent quality to a recent human genome,” says paleoanthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not part of the team.

Now, the view of the ancient genome is so clear that Meyer and his colleagues were able to detect for the first time that Denisovans, like modern humans, had 23 pairs of chromosomes, rather than 24 pairs, as in chimpanzees. By aligning the Denisovan genome with that of the reference human genome and counting mutations, the team calculated that the Denisovan and modern human populations finally split between 170,000 and 700,000 years ago.

The researchers also estimated ancient Denisovan population sizes by using methods to estimate the age of various gene lineages and the amount of difference between the chromosomes the girl inherited from her mother and father. They found that Denisovan genetic diversity, already low, shrank even more 400,000 years ago, reflecting small populations at that time. By contrast, our ancestors’ population apparently doubled before their exodus from Africa.
The team also counted the differences between Denisovans and chimps, and found that they have fewer differences than do modern people and chimps. The girl’s lineage had less time to accumulate mutations, and the “missing evolution” suggests she died about 80,000 years ago, although the date is tentative, says co-author David Reich, a population geneticist at Harvard University. If this date—the first proof that a fossil can be directly dated from its genome—holds up, it is considerably older than the very rough dates of 30,000 to more than 50,000 years for the layer of sediment where the fossils of Denisovans, Neandertals, and modern humans all were found.

The team says the new genome confirms their previous findings, showing that about 3% of the genomes of living people in Papua New Guinea come from Denisovans, while the Han and Dai on mainland China have only a trace of Denisovan DNA. Furthermore, the team determined that Papuans have more Denisovan DNA on their autosomes, inherited equally often from both parents, than on their X chromosomes, inherited twice as often from the mother. This curious pattern suggests several possible scenarios, including that male Denisovans interbred with female modern humans, or that these unions were genetically incompatible, with natural selection weeding out some of the X chromosomes, Reich says.

The new genome also suggests one odd result. By using the detailed Denisovan genome to sharpen the view of their close cousins the Neandertals, the team concludes that living East Asians have more Neandertal DNA than Europeans have. But most Neandertal fossils are from Europe; paleoanthropologist Richard Klein of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, calls the result “peculiar.”

Most exciting to Pääbo is the “nearly complete catalog” of differences in genes between the groups. This includes 111,812 single nucleotides that changed in modern humans in the past 100,000 years or so. Of those, eight were in genes associated with the wiring of the nervous system, including those involved in the growth of axons and dendrites and a gene implicated in autism. Pääbo is intrigued in particular by a change in a gene that is regulated by the so-called FOXP2 gene, implicated in speech disorders. It is “tempting to speculate that crucial aspects of synaptic transmission may have changed in modern humans,” the team wrote. Thirty-four genes are associated with disease in humans. The list suggests some obvious candidates for gene-expression studies. “The cool thing is that it isn’t an astronomically large list,” Pääbo says. “Our group and others will probably be able to analyze most of them in the next decade or two.”

Back in Leipzig, the mood is upbeat, as researchers pull fossil samples off the shelf to test anew with “Matthias’s method.” First on Pääbo’s list: Neandertal bone samples, to try to produce a Neandertal genome to rival that of the little Denisovan girl.

This story provided by ScienceNow, the daily online news service of the journal Science.

"Gold and Black" . . .

Hey dear readers...I wanna share my style from cousin's weeding..This dress designed by me, and here I will share my sketch for this dress, I love gold and black together..in black gold seems so shiny and amazing..so I'd choosed these materials together..Just look and enjoy. Bye..

XAVER

Some changes in dress . . .

Heels - Zara

Clutch - Avon

Dress - XAVER's

1912-2012: Grading the Presidents pt 4: Clinton to Obama

We now come to the final installment of our 4 part series on grading the Presidents from 1912-2012, specifically on economic policies and their ramifications to the present.

Part 1:  http://ants-and-grasshoppers.blogspot.com/2012/08/1912-2012-grading-presidents-pt-1-taft.html

Part 2: http://ants-and-grasshoppers.blogspot.com/2012/08/1912-2012-grading-presidents-pt-2.html

Part 3 : http://ants-and-grasshoppers.blogspot.com/2012/08/1912-2012-grading-presidents-pt-3.html

And quite honestly, this is by far our most difficult task.  Not only because we're talking about a very recent period of time (1993 to the present) which means all readers have preconceived biases and 'favorties', thus will judge what we write based on that pre-determined prism, but because quite honestly, most economic policy in the modern era isn't determined by Presidents but, by the Federal Reserve.

Ever since Nixon took the US off the gold standard in 1971, it has given the Fed increasing power to determine interest rates, how much money is circulated into the economy, and the overall (artificial) growth of the stock market and by extension, the perception of the economy as strong or weak.

So a President may push forth a particular piece of economic legislation or seek taxes to be lessened or raised, but in the overall day to day economy which we all are dependent, a President's power is very, very minimal.

So when we judge the accomplishments (or lack there of) concerning Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama, not only must we be consistent in not letting non-economic issues sway, but being able to analyze the health/weakness of the economy and separate Presidential from Fed actions.

Lastly, don't let party affiliations distract you.. the three of them are all good buddies and pretty much have governed economically the same way

So we begin..

Bill Clinton (D)  1993-2001  Grade:  C+

Clinton finished his Presidency as the first Democrat since FDR to complete two terms of office, and in spite of certain scandals of sexual and/or constitutional ethics, left office quite popular.  But we are not interested in any of that.. only the economy.

Clinton can be called the first Wall St Democrat President.  He made no secret of his admiration and allegiance toward the financial sector, as well as doing everything humanly possible as President to help the banking sector's profits expand.

When Clinton took office the stock market's Dow was around 3,400 and would surpass 3,500 for the first time ever in May, 2003.  When Clinton's Presidency had completed, the Dow was around the 11,700 mark,  It disproportionately rose over 300% in a span of approximately 8 years.   Remember, it took approximately 210 years to get to that initial 3,400 mark.

A lot of this had to do with speculative bubbles created by the Federal Reserve to get people investing in stocks and politicians grabbed route as a means or growing the private sector.   The 'Dot-Com' bubble of the late 1990's is the best example.

But ultimately that wasn't based on Clinton policy as much as Fed Chair (at the time) Alan Greenspan's decision to take a laissez-faire attitude to the economy and let businesses essentially do as they want, trusting they were best to check n' balance themselves.

Greenspan was initially appointed by Reagan in 1987 (also re-approved by Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43)  and coincidentally, the same year, the Glass-Steagall Act which was meant to control speculation in the banking industry was repealed.

So much of the faux illusion of a prosperous US and widening economic gap between 'have' and 'have not' originated from that decrepit cadaver Greenspan we'd need another 10-20 paragraphs to get into it all.

But let's get back to Clinton and look specifically at his policies.  As we mentioned in part 3, he forcefully pushed until successful to get Republican-negotiated NAFTA approved which has had terrible consequences for millions of workers, especially those who once held good paying jobs that have been relocated mostly to the south.

Another piece of Republican-led legislation that supposed 'liberal' Democrat President Clinton signed into law was welfare reform which was part of Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America"  and introduced by those who believed welfare was partly responsible for bringing immigrants to the United States.

Some positives of Clinton's economic record were pushing forth policy that created children's health insurance which provided coverage for up to 5million kids, and legislation which reduced taxes for 97% of working Americans while raising taxes on the wealthiest 1.2%  as well as mandating balanced budgets.

So far its difficult to determine what grade to give Clinton on economic matters.

There's two questions left that needs to be answered in assessing Clinton's Presidency: During the Clinton administration was the federal budget balanced? And was the federal deficit erased?

The answer is... Yes and No to both... Depends on whether Social Security is included.

Clinton was able to acquire additional revenue to pay on the deficit by taxing the rich (good) and making some cuts to the federal budget.  Then there's the Soc. Sec surplus based on the payroll tax.  Social Security taxes brought in more than the cost of current benefits,so the figures looked better than they would if Social Security wasn’t counted.

 So like Bush 41 and Reagan before him, Clinton took from the Soc. Sec. surplus which was meant to guarantee that there would always be a secure fund for the elderly.  He spent the surplus on paying down the US deficit.  That's where the extra revenue came from to pay it down and why Social Security is still set to run out of funds by 2035.

And remember as we wrote in the last posting, every President from Reagan to Obama has taken from that surplus and used it as a 'take a penny, leave a penny' jar to fund pet projects or other programs without having to raise revenue via other means.

So in summary, we find Clinton's economic track record to be a lot like Reagan and because we found Reagan's love affair with Wall St to be destructive for so many working people, we must apply the same feelings toward Clinton; a Democrat in name only.

The entire Clinton Presidency was a continuation of the sugar-high originated during Reagan. The deficit was paid using money meant to protect Social Security and the National Debt still rose under Clinton as we spent billions upon billions to involve ourselves in the Balkans, Somalia and other humanitarian 'hotspots'.

Clinton will always be a popular President, especially among Democrats.  He's charming, affable, and at the same time intelligent.  And while overall times were good economically under Clinton, he's as much responsible for the mess we're in today as Reagan and the Bush boys.

George W Bush (R)  2001-2009  Grade: F+

Once again, this is a very difficult analysis because even more so than previous Presidents, the Fed made most economic related decisions outside of tax reduction that its hard to directly credit or blame any recent or current sitting President.

When Bush took office, the budget had a surplus.  When he left office, it had a severe deficit.   That's what funding two on-going wars with no end in sight will do to the national treasury.

The biggest pre-9/11 decision he made economically were is now-famous tax cuts to the wealthy.  Originally they were supposed to extend through the entire 2000 decade but Pres. Obama has since extended it twice and it is feared, he probably will make them permanent (though we hope not) in December.

After 9/11, Bush told everyone grieving and full of anger not to take matters into their own hands or to seek revenge..   No the best way to show the terrorists they didn't win was to keep shopping.  Keep that 1st class flight reservation to Hawaii or Sydney; keep those 24k gold diamond earrings with matching tennis bracelet, etc..

After that lunacy, Bush gave a $10billion bailout to the airline industry who showed their appreciation by dramatically scaling back daily flights, cutting out food services and every other Scrooge-like trick to maximize profit off of its customers, such as charging for luggage and pillows.

After 9/11, the country was in a recession.  How to get out of it?  Bush and Greenspan had a 'brilliant' idea of stimulating and growing a housing bubble which would grow the economy out of recession, cause the stock market to artificially skyrocket even higher, and allow people (even though with bad credit or low paying jobs) to get homes they had no normal right to expect to be able to afford.

And from this genius idea, came out the filth from the woodwork:  the predatory lenders who hoodwinked the poor into destroying their credit by attracting them to sign on the dotted line with 'teaser' APR rates.

The black and Hispanic communities in particular were very susceptible to these evil lending practices because for generations, they were so used to redlining (being purposely denied loans or offered at higher interest rates than Caucasians) that they jumped at the opportunity at home ownership.

In addition to the lender vultures were the vile Scum known as house flippers who basically bought and re-sold properties quickly, sometimes with minimal to no fixing up to make a quick profit while genuine homeowners were forced to pay 10-25% more for the home than they should have.  Some flippers would do 2..3..4 at a time and have no thought to the consequence of their actions other than making money.

And from this, came the housing collapse of 2007 which led to the beginning of the recession-depression we're all living through presently, and triggered the Wall Street crash of 2008.

And who can forget impotent Bush standing side by side which his arch nemesis, Nancy Pelosi as they both begged Congress to pass the $700 billion TARP program even though it had no oversight to check how the money was actually to be used...

Oh, and did we mention all those billions upon billions to fight and spread democracy throughout the Middle East.

During Bush's Presidency the stock market hit is historic high mark which was somewhere above 14,100 during the summer of 2007, then by the end of his second term in office eighteen months later,  dropped down to around 7,000.  

A lot of people who got wealthy under Reagan/Bush, then super-wealthy under Clinton, became Super-Duper wealthy under Bush Jr. while increasingly the bottom 99% saw their home values and 401k's begin to plummet.

Over time, we don't think historians will be too kind in evaluating Bush's economic policies, and neither will we..  The only thing that saves Bush from a complete F was that, as we've stated repeatedly, the Federal Reserve created the sugar high, the market bubbles, the asset over-valuations in the stock market and every other bad thing which causes the bottom 99% to have less upon less.

Bush in some respects, really was the naive, over-trusting dupe that he was famously portrayed as on SNL and because of that, and not having the guts or balls to Not bailout the finance industry, we give him F+

Barack Obama (D)  2009- present  Grade: F+

What can be said about Obama's economic policies?   Really little to nothing.  For that's what Obama has done for close to four years... little to nothing.

His political enemies labelled him a Socialist-- utterly wrong.  Had he been one (and one can be a socialist-capitalist), he would have pushed massive legislation in his first two years in office to copy FDR's job creation programs.   He would have pushed for a massive stimulus bill..  He would have privatized the banks and fixed the rot while maintaining governmental control.

Obama did little to nothing.

A stimulus bill was passed but very small in size, scope and cost.  He pushed a 'cash for clunkers' program to stimulate car buying in exchange for turning in your old car but that simply increased purchasing when program was in effect, then caused dramatic slow-downs in purchasing immediately after it was completed..

Obama talked a good game and did little to nothing..  He was too busy wasting away the fact he had a Democrat controlled Congress in the first half of his administration, to shove his Obamacare (a nationalized version of RomneyCare from Massachusettes); a program that most Republicans hate as being too intrusive and many Democrats hate as not being strong enough.

Unemployment kept going up and up, and when it decreased it wasn't due to massive hiring.  More like accounting tricks by the Department of Labor who scratched off millions of people out of work as not statistically counting as unemployed because they were out of work too long to matter.

Most if not all economic policies of Obama have meant to help Wall St and the financial class.  He briefly took over GM which in turn dramatically raised the prices of its vehicles then later in 2009 opened a new manufacturing plant in China

Obama has allowed Bernanke to push through QE1, QE2, two seperate "Operation Twists" and a possible QE3  without so much as a peep of dissent even though the Fed's actions have skyrocketed the National Debt from around $10 Trillion when Bush left to now close to $16 Trillion

And despite the desperation of biased sources like the National Association of Realtors, housing has not recovered.  Far from it, the industry is in the midst of a double-dip recession with no clear cut bottom point, especially when there is such a glut of new inventory; newly built homes just sitting vacant without owners.

In summation, Obama has been terrible.  In many ways he's conducted his economic policy (and foreign policy) exactly as we'd expect Bush to, had he had a 3rd term.  And in spite of all the rhetoric that Obama is a leftist, he shown himself to be equally pro-Wall St as Clinton.

No president since LBJ in the late 60s has had the guts and courage of conviction to tax the wealthy appropriately or take the needs of the every person into consideration when adopting domestic policy.

Obama came into office with an enormous amount of support and belief from others that he'd be different and set a different economic course from the Bush years.  Whether intentional or just way over his head, Obama has failed miserably and thus we give him the same grade as Bush Jr-- F+.
~ * ~   ~ * ~   ~ * ~
There's many reasons the US economy has steadily deteriorated over the last 41 years.  Weak and/or shortsighted leadership is a major reason.  No President who has taken office has any background in economics or finance. Perhaps some had business skills but you don't run government like the private sector; it is not designed nor set up to make cut-throat profit.

Because of this, no President especially from Nixon to Obama has known what to do to strengthen and protect the US economy from outside harm.  The goal is always very short-term quick fix policies that last through the mid-terms or next Presidential election.  They put too much faith and trust in despicable Fed Chairs whose interests is solely with the banks; never nations or citizenry.

And for the record, if there was a President Romney and his decisions matched his rhetoric, there is no doubt we'd be grading his "take the pain!" policies as an F as well.

Have good Labor Day weekend.. we'll be back Tuesday unless something worthy to write about before then...

Keep On Smirkin'!

In the News:Chocoholics Rejoice: Milk Chocolate May Reduce Stroke Risk in Men

Study confirms chocolate's benefits extend to men

By Jason Koebler

August 30, 2012

 

 

Chocoholic men, rejoice—new research suggests that consuming chocolate could reduce the risk of stroke in men.

Researchers studied more than 37,000 Swedish men over the course of 10 years. Men who ate more than 2 ounces of chocolate per week had a 17 percent lower chance of having a stroke than men who ate very little or no chocolate. Previous studies have shown that chocolate can reduce the risk of stroke in women, but no research measured whether it reduced the chance of stroke in men.

"The association between chocolate consumption and stroke risk was similar in men and women," according to the report, which was published in the journal Neurology on Wednesday.

Previous research has suggested that chocolate can reduce blood pressure, stimulate brain activity, and even reduce pain associated with migraines. Susanna Larsson, of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute and lead author of the report, writes that chocolate likely reduces the risk of stroke because it contains flavonoids, which have similar properties to antioxidants.

"The flavonoids may reduce the risk of stroke through several biological mechanisms, including antioxidant, anti-platelet, and anti-inflammatory effects as well as by lowering blood pressure, increasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and improving endothelial function," she wrote.

According to the study, about 90 percent of all chocolate in Sweden consumed during the study was milk chocolate, so they were unable to determine if dark chocolate reduced the risk of stroke, though dark chocolate has more flavonoids than milk chocolate.

The caffeine in chocolate could potentially play a role as well, she speculates. Coffee consumption has been shown to similarly reduce the risk of stroke, though researchers aren't sure why. But there are likely other components of chocolate that reduce stroke risk more than caffeine.

"The amount of caffeine in chocolate is low and cannot fully explain" the stroke risk reduction, she writes.

Though Thursday's news is good for anyone with a sweet tooth, Larsson warns people not to go overboard.

"Further studies are required to confirm this finding before any recommendations about chocolate consumption can be given. Because chocolate is high in sugar, saturated fat, and calories, it should be consumed in moderation," she writes.

Jason Koebler is a science and technology reporter for U.S. News & World Report.

Roy Orbison "Oh, Pretty Woman" (from Black & White Night)

Pretty woman -- actress Leigh Snowden.

After my last book list post I realized -- it's time to get a life! I need a pretty woman!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PLq0_7k1jk

My Obsessive Reading

I have an "indexing gene." I love checklists and reference data. I used to catalogue the creative credits for my favorite comic books, in pencil, on 3" x 5" index cards, during the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous dogsled races televised in the mid-seventies. I thought it was fun. Like most collectors, I would also make ultra-detailed "want lists" of missing, desired issues, and reading lists of favorite authors.

For a time in the nineties, I joined legendary comic fan Jerry Bails' indexing apa (amateur press association), apa-i. I 've contributed to the online Grand Comic Book Database., Askart, and other databases -- the ultimate versions of my old catalog card system.

These days, when I finish a nonfiction book, I write down the title and author(s) in a notebook. Sometimes I forget, but usually I record the books soon after reading. In true OCD fashion, I have to actually finish a book in order to record it. Partially finished books don't count. Believe it or not, just seeing the title/author information again helps me recall much of what I've read.

I originally read popular science and math books for the nonfiction genre, but after the 2008 financial crisis meltdown, I realized I knew nothing of business, and went on a business, economics, and investing book jag. Then in 2010, I shifted gears again to the current trend of mainly psychology and neuroscience reads. The "Behavioral Economics" business books made a nice bridge to these psychology books. I think my "psychology phase" is winding down now. What's next? Probably learning theory.

For "extra credit," I have typed out my list of my obsessesive fact-based reading conquests. You might enjoy reading a few of them yourself, so I have roughly categorized them. Frankly, after typing out this list, I'm a bit blown away at how much material I've consumed so far, and this doesn't even count all the comics, art books, magazines, and crime novels. I'm sure I've also missed a few books that I forgot to record. Here's the list, alphabetized by author.

Biography/Memoir/Military/Pop Culture

The Wire: Truth Be Told - Rafael Alvarez and David Simon

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest - Stephen E. Ambrose

Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany - Stephen E. Ambrose 

D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II - Stephen E. Ambrose

The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45 - Stephen E. Ambrose

Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness - Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele

Under Cover: An Illustrated History of American Mass-Market Paperback - Thomas L. Bonn ; Foreword by John Tebbel

Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors: A Memoir - Augusten Burroughs

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1) - Robert A. Caro

Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson) - Robert A. Caro

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York - Robert A. Caro

From Birdland to Broadway: Scenes from a Jazz Life - Bill Crow

Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller - Burke Davis

Miles: The Autobiography - Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe

Django Reinhardt - Charles Delaunay

I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron
Rod Serling: The Dreams and Nightmares of Life in the Twilight Zone/a Biography - Joel Engel

Grant Green: Rediscovering the Forgotten Genius of Jazz Guitar - Sharony Andrews Green  

Searching for Robert Johnson: The Life and Legend of the "King of the Delta Blues Singers" - Peter Guralnick

Summer of '49 - David Halberstam

The Fifties - David Halberstam  

Howard Hughes: The Secret Life - Charles Higham

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World - A. J. Jacobs

Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece - Ashley Kahn

Too Marvelous for Words: The Life and Genius of Art Tatum - James Lester

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs - A Parody by Fake Steve Jobs (Daniel Lyons)

The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History - Peter Maas 

Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia - Peter Maas

Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz - Donald L. Maggin

Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War - William Manchester

Jim Thompson: Sleep with the Devil - Michael J. McCauley

Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker - James McManus

Cornell Woolrich: First You Dream, Then You Die - Francis M. Nevins

Hardboiled America: Lurid Years of Paperbacks - Geoffrey O'Brien

Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta - Robert Palmer

Dance of the Infidels: A Portrait of Bud Powell - Francis Paudras 

Straight Life: The Story of Art Pepper - Art Pepper and Laurie Pepper

Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings - Peter Pettinger

Goodfellas - Nicholas Pileggi  

Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson - Robert Polito

Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet - Lewis B. Puller Jr.

Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton - Howard Reich and William M. Gaines

The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes 

A Bridge Too Far: The Classic History of the Greatest Battle of World War II - Cornelius Ryan 

The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day - Cornelius Ryan

Serling: The Rise and Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man - Gordon F. Sander

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash - Jean Shepherd

Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters - Jean Shepherd    

Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage - Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew

Between Covers: The Rise and Transformation of Book Publishing in America - John William Tebbel   

Off the Wall (David Berkowitz) - Charles Willeford

Something About a Soldier - Charles Willeford

Business/Economics/Finance/ Investment

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More - Chris Anderson

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions - Dan Ariely

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home - Dan Ariely

Corporate Cults: The Insidious Lure of the All-Consuming Organization - Dave Arnott

Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart - Ian Ayres

The Numerati - Stephen Baker

The Secret History of the South Sea Bubble: The World's First Great Financial Scandal - Malcolm Balen

The Cartoon Introduction to Economics: Volume One: Microeconomics - Yoram Bauman and Grady Klein 

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them: Lessons from the Life-Changing Science of Behavioral Economics - Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk - Peter L. Bernstein

Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street - Peter L. Bernstein 

The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio - William Bernstein

The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk - William J. Bernstein

The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between - William J. Bernstein

A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation - Richard M. Bookstaber

The Poker Face of Wall Street - Aaron Brown

Frozen Desire: Meaning of Money - James Buchan

Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food Taming Our Primal Instincts - Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan

Mean Markets and Lizard Brains: How to Profit from the New Science of Irrationality - Terry Burnham

The Whiz Kids: The Founding Fathers of American Business and the Legacy They Left Us - John A. Byrne

How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities - John Cassidy

25 Myths You've Got to Avoid If You Want to Manage Your Money Right: The New Rules for Financial Success - Jonathan Clements

You've Lost It, Now What? How to Beat the Bear Market and Still Retire on Time - Jonathan Clements

The Perfect Store: Inside eBay - Adam Cohen

Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk - Satyajit Das

Inventing Money: The Story of Long-Term Capital Management and the Legends Behind It - Nicholas Dunbar   

The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing: A Book for Procrastinators, the Financially Challenged, and Everyone Who Worries About Dealing with Their Money - Paul B. Farrell

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World - Niall Ferguson

The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street - Justin Fox

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy - Thomas Frank

Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went - John Kenneth Galbraith

The Age of Uncertainty - John Kenneth Galbraith

The Great Mutual Fund Trap: An Investment Recovery Plan - Gregory Baer and Gary Gensler

The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream - Jacob S. Hacker

The Reckoning - David Halberstam  

Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line - Ben Hamper

The Undercover Economist - Tim Harford

The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers - Robert L. Heilbroner

The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency - Robert Kanigel

Code Name Ginger: The Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World - Steve Kemper

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis

Moneyball - Michael Lewis

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine - Michael Lewis

The Blind Side - Michael Lewis

Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing - Roger Lowenstein

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management - Roger Lowenstein

Bull: A History of the Boom and Bust, 1982-2004 - Maggie Mahar

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller - Harry Markopolos

More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places - Michael J. Mauboussin 

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash - Charles R. Morris

Die Broke: A Radical Four-Part Financial Plan - Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine

The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It - Scott Patterson

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism - Kevin P. Phillips

Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street - William Poundstone

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) - William Poundstone

Winning the Cash Flow War: Your Ultimate Survival Guide to Making Money and Keeping It - Fred Rewey

The Madoff Chronicles: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth - Brian Ross

Company Man: The Rise and Fall of Corporate Life - Anthony Sampson

The Mind of the Market - Michael Shermer

Irrational Exuberance - Robert J. Shiller

Crashproof Your Life : A Comprehensive, Three-Part Plan for Protecting Yourself from Financial Disasters - Thomas A. Schweich

Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods -- and How Companies Create Them - Michael J. Silverstein, Neil Fiske and John Butman

The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read: Maximize Your Retirement Savings...the Smart Way! - Daniel R. Solin

The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read: Maximize Your Retirement Savings...the Smart Way! - Daniel R. Solin

The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read - Daniel R. Solin

The Wisdom of Crowds - James Surowiecki

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness - Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

The Winner's Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life - Richard H. Thaler

The History of Money - Jack Weatherford

What Goes Up: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as Told by the Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made It Happen - Eric J. Weiner

Wall Street Versus America: A Muckraking Look at the Thieves, Fakers, and Charlatans Who Are Ripping You Off - Gary Weiss

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science - Charles Wheelan and Burton G. Malkiel

The Judas Economy: The Triumph of Capital and the Betrayal of Work - William Wolman and Anne Colamosca

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power - Daniel Yergin  

Diet/Health/Medicine/Neuroscience /Psychology/Self-Help

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness - Daniel G. Amen

Healing Anxiety and Depression - Daniel G. Amen and Lisa C. Routh

10 Simple Solutions to Panic: How to Overcome Panic Attacks, Calm Physical Symptoms, and Reclaim Your Life (The New Harbinger Ten Simple Solutions Series) - Martin M. Antony and Randi E. McCabe

Prozac and the New Antidepressants: What You Need Know About Prozac Zoloft Paxil Luvox Wellbutrin Effexor Serzone Vestra Celexa St. John's Wart and Others - William S. Appleton M. D.

Art and Visual Perception - Rudolf Arnheim

NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body - Ray Audette

The Imp of the Mind: Exploring the Silent Epidemic of Obsessive Bad Thoughts - Lee Baer  

Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial - Alison Bass

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves - Sharon Begley

When in Doubt, Make Belief: An OCD-Inspired Approach to Living with Uncertainty - Jeff Bell

Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment - Tal Ben-Shahar

Coping with Anxiety: 10 Simple Ways to Relieve Anxiety, Fear and Worry - Edmund J. Bourne and Lorna Garanao

The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook - Edmund J. Bourne

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior - Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Dont Need Help - Richard Brodie

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme - Richard Brodie

Feeling Good - The New Mood Therapy - David D. Burns

When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life - David D. Burns

Syndrome X: The Complete Nutritional Program to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance - Jack Challem, Burton Berkson and Melissa Diane Smith

On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not - Robert Burton

Overcoming Obsessive Thoughts: How to Gain Control of Your OCD - David A. Clark and Christine Purdon  

Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool - Taylor Clark

The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat - Loren Cordain

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain - Antonio R. Damasio

IBS For Dummies - Carolyn Dean and L. Christine Wheeler

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - Norman Doidge

Coping with OCD: Practical Strategies for Living Well with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - Troy DuFrene and Bruce Hyman

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder For Dummies - Charles H. Elliott Ph.D. and Laura L. Smith Ph.D.

Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies - Charles H. Elliott Ph.D. and Laura L. Smith Ph.D.

Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life - Paul Ekman

Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage - Paul Ekman

Thanks: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier - Robert Emmons

Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside - Katrina Firlik

Stop Obsessing!: How to Overcome Your Obsessions and Compulsions - Edna B. Foa and Reid Wilson 

The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety: A Guide to Breaking Free from Anxiety, Phobias, and Worry Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - John P. Forsyth and Georg H. Eifert

Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3 to 1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life - Barbara Fredrickson

Stumbling on Happiness - Daniel Todd Gilbert

The Sense of Order: A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art (The Wrightsman Lectures, V. 9) - E. H. Gombrich

Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Personalized Recovery Program for Living with Uncertainty - Jonathan Grayson

Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease - Gary Greenberg

Insomniac – Gayle Greene

The Intelligent Eye - Richard L. Gregory

Mirrors in Mind - Richard L. Gregory

Odd Perceptions – Richard L. Gregory

Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average - Joseph T. Hallinan

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - Chip Heath and Dan Heath

On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits - Wray Herbert

Sleep Disorders For Dummies - Max Hirshkowitz, Patricia B. Smith and William C. Dement

Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life - Steven Johnson

Sleep Apnea - The Phantom of the Night: Overcome Sleep Apnea Syndrome and Snoring - T. Scott Johnson, William A. Broughton, Jerry Halberstadt and B. Gail Demko

Man and His Symbols - Carl Gustav Jung

Apprentice to Genius: The Making of a Scientific Dynasty (neuroscience and neuropharmacology)  - Robert Kanigel

Who Switched Off My Brain? Revised: Controlling Toxic Thoughts and Emotions - Caroline Leaf Ph.D.

The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life - Joseph LeDoux

Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are - Joseph LeDoux

How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer 

Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Jonah Lehrer

The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God - David J. Linden

The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good - David J. Linden

Of Two Minds: The Growing Disorder in American Psychiatry - T. M. Luhrmann

The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want - Sonja Lyubomirsky

101 Theory Drive: A Neuroscientist's Quest for Memory (Gary Lynch) - Terry McDermott

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School - John Medina

The Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky

Psychology Today: Taming Bipolar Disorder (Psychology Today Here to Help) - Lori Oliwenstein

The Cult of Personality Testing: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves - Annie Murphy Paul

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: A Complete Guide to Getting Well and Staying Well - Fred Penzel

Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal Control - Christopher Peterson, Steven F. Maier and Martin E. P. Seligman

The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing: The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - Judith L. Rapoport

Shadow Syndromes: The Mild Forms of Major Mental Disorders That Sabotage Us - John J. Ratey M. D. and Catherine Johnson Ph.D.

Be Different: My Adventures with Asperger's and My Advice for Fellow Aspergians, Misfits, Families, and Teachers - John Elder Robison

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's - John Elder Robison

Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment - Martin E. P. Seligman

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being - Martin E. P. Seligman   

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life - Martin E. P. Seligman

What You Can Change and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement - Martin E. P. Seligman

Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior - Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Beverly Beyette

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force - Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley

Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are - Sebastian Seung

Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life - Allen Shawn 

The Other Side of Normal: How Biology Is Providing the Clues to Unlock the Secrets of Normal and Abnormal Behavior - Jordan W. Smoller

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things - Gail Steketee 

The Impulse Factor: An Innovative Approach to Better Decision Making - Nick Tasler

Overcoming Health Anxiety - David Veale

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America - Robert Whitaker   

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies - Rob Willson and Rhena Branch

Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks - Reid Wilson

Math:

A Tour of the Calculus - David Berlinski

Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World - David Berlinski 

The Advent of the Algorithm: The Idea that Rules the World - David Berlinski

First You Build a Cloud: And Other Reflections on Physics as a Way of Life – K. C. Cole

Mind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos – K. C. Cole

The Universe and the Tea Cup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty – K. C. Cole

Archimedes' Revenge: The Joys and Perils of Mathematics - Paul Hoffman

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman

The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel

The Fractal Geometry of Nature - Benoit Mandelbrot

A Beautiful Mind (John Nash) - Sylvia Nasar

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper - John Allen Paulos

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences - John Allen Paulos

Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem - Simon Singh and John Lynch

Science:

Bursts: The Hidden Patterns Behind Everything We Do, from Your E-mail to Bloody Crusades - Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means - Albert-László Barabási

Forward Through the Rearview Mirror: Reflections on and by Marshall McLuhan - Paul Benedetti and Nancy DeHart 

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin 

Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness - John Briggs  

Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen - Mark Buchanan

The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

The Meaning of it All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist - Richard P Feynman

What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character - Richard P. Feynman 

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Malcolm Gladwell

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures - Malcolm Gladwell

Chaos: Making a New Science - James Gleick

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything - James Gleick

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman – James Gleick

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood - James Gleick

What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Information Frontier - James Gleick

Alan Turing: The Enigma - Andrew Hodges and Douglas Hofstadter

Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software - Steven Johnson

Chances Are . . .: Adventures in Probability - Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World - Kevin Kelly

Naked To The Bone: Medical Imaging In The Twentieth Century - Bettyann Kevles

John Von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence, and Much More - Norman Macrae

The Gutenberg Galaxy - Marshall McLuhan 

The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore and Shepard Fairey

Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life - Leonard Mlodinow 

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives - Leonard Mlodinow 

What the Numbers Say: A Field Guide to Mastering Our Numerical World - Derrick Niederman and David Boyum

Universal Foam: Exploring the Science of Nature's Most Mysterious Substance - Sidney Perkowitz

Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge - William Poundstone

The Prisoner's Dilemma - William Poundstone

The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century - David Salsburg

Fringes of Reason (Whole Earth) - Ted Schultz

Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences – Edward Tenner

Philosophy/ Sociology

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream - Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements - Eric Hoffer

The Age of Alienation - Bernard Murchland