In one study of five hundred patients undergoing dental procedures, those who were given a placebo injection and reassured that it would relieve their pain had the least discomfort—not only less than the patients who got a placebo and were told nothing but also less than the patients who got a real anesthetic without any reassuring comment that it would work. Today, it is abundantly evident that the brain is actively involved in the experience of pain.

- Complications, by Atul Gawande

A pain neuromodule is not a discrete anatomical entity but a network, linking components from virtually every region of the brain. Input is gathered from sensory nerves, memory, mood, and other centers, like members of some committee in charge of whether the music will play. If the signals reach a certain threshold, they trigger the neuromodule. And then what plays is no one-note melody. Pain is a symphony—a complex response that includes not just a distinct sensation but also motor activity, a change in emotion, a focusing of attention, a brand-new memory.

- Complications, by Atul Gawande

In Australia during the early 1980s, workers—particularly keyboard operators—experienced a sudden outbreak of disabling arm pain, which doctors labeled “repetition strain injury,” or RSI. This was not a mild case of writer’s cramp but a matter of severe pain, which started with minor discomfort during typing or other repetitive work and progressed to invalidism. The average time that a sufferer lost from work was seventy-four days. As with chronic back pain, no consistent physical abnormalities or effective treatment could be found, yet the arm pain spread like a contagion. It had hardly existed before 1981, but by its peak, in 1985, enormous numbers of workers were affected. In two Australian states, RSI disabled as much as 30 percent of the workforce in some industries; at the same time there were pockets of workers who were almost entirely unaffected. Investigators couldn't find any connection between RSI and the physical circumstances of the workers—the actual repetitiveness of their jobs or the ergonomics of their equipment. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the epidemic crashed. By 1987, it was essentially over. In the late 1990s, Australian researchers were complaining that they couldn’t find enough RSI patients to study.

- Complications, by Atul Gawande

9:47 sure feels closer to 10:00 than 9:17 feels to 9:30

قُل لمن يَحمل همّاً
إنّ هماً لا يدوم
مثل ما يفنى السرور
هكذا تفنى الهموم

- من كتاب الف ليلة وليلة

Back and arm pain are not unique in having nonphysical causes. Studies have shown that social conditions play a dominant role in many chronic-pain syndromes, including chronic pelvic pain, temporomandibular-joint disorder, and chronic tension headache, to name just a few. Again, none of this should be taken to mean that people are faking it. As Melzack’s account suggests, pain that doesn’t arise from physical injury is no less real than pain that does—in the brain it is precisely the same.

- Complications, by Atul Gawande

Imma memorize a deck of cards

In a famous 1992 paper, however, the evolutionary biologist Margie Profet made a compelling case that pregnancy sickness is actually protective. She pointed out that natural foods that are safe for adults commonly turn out to be unsafe for embryos. All plants produce toxins, and in order to be able to eat them we have evolved elaborate detoxification systems. But these systems don’t eliminate harmful chemicals completely, and embryos can be sensitive to even tiny amounts. (For example, toxins in potatoes have been found to cause neural malformations in animal fetuses, even at levels that are nontoxic to their mothers; indeed, Ireland’s heavy potato consumption may account for its having the world’s highest rate of neural defects, such as spina bifida.)

- Complications, by Atul Gawande

Dammit Ireland!

Cicero claimed he “would rather be killed than again suffer the tortures of seasickness”

"الدين مقدس، لكن كل ما نقوله عنه ليس مقدساً"

- كمال الحيدري

I hate most people There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking, I want to earn enough money so I can get away from everyone .

- There will be blood (2007)

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Ghost on a Tree, 1933, by Franz Sedlacek.

أسباب تطور البشرية:

إكتشاف النار
الثورة الصناعية
"حتى الكراش تنعجب بية"

Tomatoes are fruit, not vegetables, which makes most pizza types a fruit pie.