By Laura Schaefer

Men love women. They do. But that doesn’t mean women don’t drive them crazy. Even after oceans of ink have been spilled about how the two sexes can better understand and accept each other, women still find ways to annoy men — and vice versa. Here are the top five ways she’s making you crazy right now. Ladies, are you guilty of any of these irritating behaviors? 

1. Game-playing/manufacturing drama. There are lots of ways to create drama and excitement in a relationship, but men aren’t usually fans — unless said excitement involves clothing removal. “Asking too much too soon about his past relationships” is one way women drive men nuts and create drama, says Dr. Linda R. Young, Ph.D., a psychologist and relationship coach who blogs forPsychology Today. Making him late by taking too long to get ready is another. Getting irrationally jealous over platonic friends or running hot, then cold with no explanation are just a few more. 

A 37-year-old Virginia man severely disfigured by a 1997 gun accident has received the most extensive full-face transplant in medical history, according to University of Maryland Medical Center surgeons.

Hospital officials report that Richard Lee Norris, of Hillsville, Va., is recovering well after an amazing, medically unprecedented 36-hour surgery that not only gave him a new face—from the hairline to the neck--but also teeth, a tongue, and upper and lower jaws. (See before/after photo above, right.)

A week after the full-face operation, Norris’ improvement has exceeded his doctors’ expectations. He can open and close his mouth and is already brushing his new teeth and shaving the whiskers growing on the transplanted face. He’s miraculously regained his sense of smell, which he’d lost after the accident.

“I occasionally experience myself as a cluster of flowing currents.  I
prefer this to the idea of a solid self, the identity to which so many
attach so much significance.  These currents, like the themes of one life, flow along during the waking hours, and at their best, they require no reconciling, no harmonizing.  They are “off” and may be out of place, but at least they are always in motion, in time, in place, in the form of all kinds of strange combinations moving about, not necessarily forward, sometimes against each other, contrapuntally yet without one central theme.  A form of freedom, I’d like to think, even if I am far from being totally convinced that it is. That skepticism too is one of the themes I particularly want to hold on to.  With so many dissonances in my life I have learned actually to prefer being not quite right and out of place.”

-Edward Said, from his memoir Out of Place

Source: http://www.savagechickens.com/2010/08/feelings.html

"I am going to give you a piece of advice...advice I wish I'd been told in guidance class back in high school, in between the don't-do-acid and don't-drink-and-drive films. I wish our counselors had told us'When you grow older a dreadful, horrible sensation will come over you. It's called loneliness, and you think you know what it is now, but you don't. Here is the list of the symptoms, and don't worry— loneliness is the most universal sensation on the planet. Just remember one fact—loneliness will pass. You will survive and you will be a better human for it."

— Douglas Coupland ( Shampoo Planet)

Ten psychological findings that challenge our intuitive view of how our minds work. 

Source:  www.spring.org.uk 

Some critics say psychology is just common sense, that it only confirms things we already know about ourselves.

Ironically this can be difficult to argue with because once people get some new information they tend to think it was obvious all along.

One way of battling this is to think about all the unexpected, surprising and plain weird findings that have popped out of psychology studies over the years. So here are ten of my favourite.

1. Cognitive dissonance
This is perhaps one of the weirdest and most unsettling findings in psychology.Cognitive dissonance is the idea that we find it hard to hold two contradictory beliefs, so we unconsciously adjust one to make it fit with the other.

In the classic study students found a boring task more interesting if they were paidless to take part. Our unconscious reasons like this: if I didn't do it for money, then I must have done it because it was interesting. As if by magic, a boring task becomes more interesting because otherwise I can't explain my behaviour.

The reason it's unsettling is that our minds are probably performing these sorts of rationalisations all the time, without our conscious knowledge. So how do we know what we really think?

2. Hallucinations are common
Hallucinations are like waking dreams and we tend to think of them as markers of serious mental illness.

Get hired using the fruits of psychological research on interview technique.

In a competitive marketplace it's harder than ever to stand out from others at interview.

You will have followed all the usual advice: researched the organisation beforehand, dressed professionally, arrived early, avoided vomiting on the interviewer and all the rest. Now you're starting to talk, how can you impress them?

Hiring decisions are made on more than just skills and experience. It's also about gut feelings and instinctual reactions. All sorts of subtle psychological factors come into play; so here are ten techniques which can help you give the interviewer the feeling that you are the one.

1. Schmooze but don't self-promote
Schmoozing is good. One study looked at 116 students just out of college trying to get their first job (Higgins & Judge, 2004). The students who did best at interview were the most ingratiating: they praised the organisation, complimented the interviewer, showed enthusiasm, discussed common interests, smiled and maintained eye contact.

In case you guys can't guess, I'm posting this article because I've been victimized by the wrath of insomnia. Perhaps I should be taking notes as I read along.

Source: http://www.spring.org.uk/ 

Can't get a good night's sleep? You're not alone. In surveys of what would improve people's lives, a good night's sleep frequently comes near the top of the list.

Poor sleep results in worse cognitive performance, including degraded memory, attention, performance and alertness. And in the long term insomnia is also associated with anxiety and depression. And people's sleep gets worse as they get older. After 65 years old, between 12% and 40% of people have insomnia.