NOTE: This is going out on Christmas Eve in NYC at the same time it is already Christmas in Auckland, New Zealand and other parts of the world. So, it is both Not-Christmas and Christmas at the same time, a kind of state that Kurt Vonnegut referred to as being "Chrono-Synclastic Ifundibulated". For a brief explanation of this concept, see: http://vonnegut.wikia.com/wiki/Chrono-Synclastic_Infundibulum For a more detailed account, see the Wikipedia entry on Vonnegut's "Sirens of Titan" where the concept was introduced; see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan This state makes Christmas a magical time until you realize that you will experience something similar on New Year's Eve, indeed, you experience it all of the time which means you have a magical existence. Please don't ruin it by providing a quantum mechanical explanation because nothing kills the spirit of Christmas like overly mathematical physics theory.
The website WebMed summarizes a medical article that claims that a certain part of the brain appears to be associated/activated (i.e., "caused") by Christmas Spirit (actually, images of Christmas) . Here is a link to the WebMed article but it goes to a single page print version so you don't have to go through pages of text and adverts; see: http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20151216/are-you-a-secret-santa-or-a-grinch-brain-scans-may-tell?page=2&print=true My favorite line from article because of it's profound irony is: |The research team stumbled onto the notion of a brain-based Christmas |spirit while using MRI scans to study migraine, Haddock said. Now we have a definite association between Christmas and migraines. ;-) The "cited" source of the article is the following: |SOURCES: Matthew Lorber, M.D., acting director of child and |adolescent psychiatry, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Bryan Haddock, |medical physicist, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; |Dec. 17, 2015, BMJ By the way, at the time of this writing, it is 71 degrees Fahrenheit in NYC and it is likely to go higher. In San Diego, Weather.com says it is 58 degrees F. Cry yer eyes out SoCal! Oh, and Happy Holidays to All! Don't forget to take your SSRIs and Imitrex (for those unfamiliar with Imitrex, see: http://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-11571/imitrex-oral/details )! ;-) <- Note. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=47672 or send a blank email to leave-47672-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
