Author Archives: furthernewsfromtheshire

But For Vaccines, You Probably Wouldn’t Be Reading This Post

If you’ve followed my blog, you know that I didn’t get into this to change the world. There I was in Japan, with my little Samsung tablet and a cheap Bluetooth keyboard. On my own on the other side of the world, in the most foreign place I’ve ever been. I wanted to send someContinueContinue reading “But For Vaccines, You Probably Wouldn’t Be Reading This Post”

A Meditation on Beer

I trundled off to graduate school in New York City back in 1978. Things were very different in Manhattan in those days. My first “apartment” was a basement in a townhouse on Carmine Street in the West Village. I’m not talking about a basement apartment; I mean an actual basement. The only piece of furnitureContinueContinue reading “A Meditation on Beer”

Fluoride

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttlIuyMFwRw Sometimes, just by chance, events line up. My last post was about the ivermectin controversy and the way science can be distorted, either unintentionally or with malice. Then, right after I posted the piece, Robert Kennedy Jr. rolled out his “Make America Healthy Again” initiative. That led me to other views RFK Jr. hasContinueContinue reading “Fluoride”

Ivermectin, COVID, and the Politics of Medicine: A Case Study in How Science Works (and Sometimes Doesn’t)

I’ve avoided writing about politics—who needs the tsurris? But when science and policy collide, I can’t look away. Case in point: a group of New Hampshire legislators is pushing a bill to allow people to buy ivermectin without a prescription, presumably to treat COVID. So let’s take a closer look. What is ivermectin? Why didContinueContinue reading “Ivermectin, COVID, and the Politics of Medicine: A Case Study in How Science Works (and Sometimes Doesn’t)”

Fun with AI, Literary Style

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who finds AI, in its multiple forms, fascinating. I started with ChatGPT and then tried several others: Claude, Gemini, and Copilot. I eventually subscribed to Perplexity AI. I’m on a listserv for board-certified forensic psychologists and Perplexity seemed to be the best for researching topics related toContinueContinue reading “Fun with AI, Literary Style”

Pottery and Japanese Aesthetics

Lately, I’ve been thinking about pottery. I should probably back up and provide some context. When I was around 13 or so, I somehow got it in my mind to make sculptures. Maybe I tried it in art class, but I don’t recall. But I managed to obtain some self-hardening clay and made some animalContinueContinue reading “Pottery and Japanese Aesthetics”

The Old Hag-A Special Kind of Sleep Terror

It’s a night like any other. You go to bed and drop off to sleep, but just as you start to drop off, you are jolted back into wakefulness. You hear a loud humming in your ears, and you try to sit up, but you find to your dismay that you are completely paralyzed. YouContinueContinue reading “The Old Hag-A Special Kind of Sleep Terror”

Koro: The Genital Retraction Syndrome

Back when I was researching unusual psychiatric symptoms, I came across a group of diagnoses that have been referred to as “culture-bound” disorders. The term refers to specific types of disorders that occur only in a specific culture, and they tend to be caused by a specific pattern of symptoms that only occur or makeContinueContinue reading “Koro: The Genital Retraction Syndrome”

Unusual Psychiatric Disorders: Another Occasional Feature

Ever since I became a psychologist, I’ve been fascinated by some of the unusual diagnoses and syndromes that lurk in the dark corners of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, 5th Edition (DSM-5) and academic databases. At one point I even started a book on the subject, but life got inContinueContinue reading “Unusual Psychiatric Disorders: Another Occasional Feature”