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Susan Boyle revealed she has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. The Scottish singer who shot to worldwide fame in 2009 with her jaw-dropping performance on "Britain's Got Talent" was diagnosed last year, but has now decided to reveal her news publicly for the first time. Speaking to the Observer newspaper, Boyle said, "It was the wrong diagnosis when I was a kid. "I was told I had brain damage. I always knew it was an unfair label. Now I have a clearer understanding of what's wrong and I feel relieved and a bit more relaxed about myself." Asperger's has...

Psychologists have shown humans are poor judges of their own abilities, from sense of humour to grammar. Those worst at it are the worst judges of all. You're pretty smart right? Clever, and funny too. Of course you are, just like me. But wouldn't it be terrible if we were mistaken? Psychologists have shown that we are more likely to be blind to our own failings than perhaps we realise. This could explain why some incompetent people are so annoying, and also inject a healthy dose of humility into our own sense of self-regard.

Today is the 50th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium.What great fruits the liturgical reforms have produced!  Jammed churches, long confession lines, full schools, lots of weddings and baptisms, convents bursting, seminaries churning out priests as fast as they can be ordained….Back in 1967 when the reformers were creating the Novus Ordo, an experimental “Missa Normativa” was celebrated for a groups of cardinals and bishops. After this Mass, Card. Heenan of Westminster remarked to the Synod of Bishops in Rome: At home, it is not only women and children but also fathers of families and young men who come regularly to Mass....

FLY, YOU FOOLS The Consumer Products Safety Commission wants to ban Buckyballs, the magnetic office toy for "adults with Asperger's", because kids swallow them.  ("Hey, stupid, isn't the Buckyballs story two months old?"  I'm writing a book of pornography, it's taking up a lot of my time.  "Of?")This is the kind of story that gets the public to unanimously cry, "We're a bunch of coddled babies!" and if you cried that, please recall my useful heuristic:  if you ever find yourself in complete agreement with the public, especially when "public" includes people you wanted to murder in the last election,...

It is common for kids to be teased or bullied for their physical features. Some parents nowadays, instead of teaching their child to love themselves for who they are, are changing their child's physical appearance to prevent bullying. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said plastic surgery has grown 30% in the past decade. In 2008, 160,283 children under 18 had surgery, and 76,000 surgeries were performed on teenagers in 2011. Many children undergo surgery to fix features that cause health problems, such as cleft palates or serious deformities. For example, in 2009, then-eight-year-old Ryan Cunningham of New York state was born with two perfectly...

Born Gary Matthews, the retired technology worker and a self-confessed "nerd" thinks he is a dog. The 48-year-old wears a dog collar, eats dog food from a bowl — his favorite is Pedigree – and loves milk bones and dog cookies. "I don't eat dog food every day," Matthews told ABCNews.com "It's a special thing for me to do once in awhile to get closer to feeling like a canine. I eat the canned kind. It's not bad -- it tastes OK. I eat regular human food, too, like pizza." But he has the most fun wearing his dog suit,...

My wife and I were in a restaurant having lunch the other day with one of our sons, and couldn’t help but notice a nearby family: a mom, dad, two boys, and a daughter. The daughter was middle school age, and clearly in contemporary middle school mode: ear buds securely in place, staring off into space. Every aspect of her demeanor made it clear: I don’t want to be here, and I don’t want to be with my family. So I am going to stay in my world of music and media. By plugging in, I’m tuning out. And her...

Officials at Harvard conducted a 12-year study on 43,000 women and found higher rates of depression in those consumed more pasta and other refined grains, according to Newser. The study found that women who cosumed more soda, red meat and refined grains like pasta, white bread and chips were 29 to 41 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression when compared to women who consumed more wine, coffee and vegetables.

The Psychology of Islamic Culture by EDWARD CLINE November 5, 2013 It is commendable that someone should address the psychological profile of Muslims - that is, of individuals born into the culture of Islam - and Nicolai Sennels does that in his Jihad Watch article of October 30th, "Cultural psychology: How Islam managed to stay medieval for 1,400 years." I began reading it with some eagerness. Over the years I have had nothing good to say about the psychology or mindset of anyone who was either born into the religion/ideology and never challenged it or attempted to escape it, or...

ESSEX, March 5, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Jill Recknell is mourning the loss of her grandson, despite the fact that he is alive and well. It’s just that, according to five-year-old Zach Avery and his parents, he’s not her grandson anymore. He’s her granddaughter. Zach’s family, who live in England, says that he was a normal boy up until last year, when he became obsessed with the cartoon character Dora the Explorer and started dressing in girl’s clothing. Zach before becoming a "girl." “He just turned round to me one day and said, ‘Mummy, I’m a girl,’” Theresa Avery, Zach’s mother,...

Cats are the world’s most popular pets, outnumbering dogs by as many as three to one. This popularity is undoubtedly helped by the fact that cats are simultaneously affectionate and self-reliant... Even so, cats remain aloof and inscrutable. Dogs tend to be open, honest and biddable. Cats, on the other hand, demand we accept them on their terms but never quite reveal what those terms might be. Studies of dogs in the 1950s established the notion of a “primary socialization period,” when puppies are especially sensitive to learning how to interact with people. For dogs, this is between 7 and...

If we think of the gigantic progress made by the "gay liberation" movement in just a few decades or even years, we are astonished. The idea of homomarriage would have been unthinkable 20-30 years ago when homosexuals themselves were declaring their opposition to this institution, and even 5 years ago it would have been difficult for it to become part of the UK law. It has required a social re-education programme of vast proportions, a cultural war for general sexual freedom, of which homosexual "liberation" is part. One method of crucial importance and psychological effectiveness employed by the homosexual...

Study: Oreo Cookies As Addictive As Cocaine Research Indicates High Fat, High Sugar Foods Trigger Pleasure Center In Brain October 15, 2013 4:59 PM NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Research out of Connecticut College shows that “America’s Favorite Cookie” may be as addictive as cocaine. Connecticut College psychology professor Joseph Schroeder and four students studied in rats whether high fat, high sugar foods can be as addictive as drugs of abuse. The research looked at the behaviors and the effects the cookies had on the brain. “We found that the behavior they exhibited was equally strong for Oreo cookies as it...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The brilliance of Albert Einstein's brain may have been down to unusually well-connected left and right hemispheres, U.S. and Chinese researchers say. Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk, using a technique developed by Weiwei Men of East China Normal University's Department of Physics, says the study was the first detailed look at Einstein's corpus callosum, the brain's largest bundle of fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres and facilitating interhemispheric communication.

Nathan, born Nancy, Verhelst, 44, was given legal euthanasia, most likely a lethal injection, on Monday afternoon on the grounds of "unbearable psychological suffering". Wim Distelmans, the doctor who carried out the euthanasia, is the same doctor who late last year gave lethal injections to deaf twins who were frightened they were also going blind. "I was the girl that nobody wanted," Mr Verhelst told Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper in the hours before her death. "While my brothers were celebrated, I got a storage room above the garage as a bedroom. 'If only you had been a boy', my mother...

New guidance for psychologists will acknowledge that adolescence now effectively runs up until the age of 25 for the purposes of treating young people. So is this the new cut-off point for adulthood? "The idea that suddenly at 18 you're an adult just doesn't quite ring true," says child psychologist Laverne Antrobus, who works at London's Tavistock Clinic. "My experience of young people is that they still need quite a considerable amount of support and help beyond that age." Child psychologists are being given a new directive which is that the age range they work with is increasing from 0-18...

Adolescence no longer ends when people hit 18, according to updated guidelines being given to child psychologists. The new directive is designed to extend the age range that child psychologists can work with from 18 years old up to 25. It is hoped the initiative will stop children being 'rushed' through their childhood and feeling pressured to achieve key milestones quickly, reports the BBC.

Dream Theater's new self-titled album on Roadrunner Records arrives tomorrow (Sept. 24), and to celebrate Billboard is hosting the exclusive U.S. premiere of the video for the song "The Enemy Inside." The clip, which was directed by Bill Fishman (the Ramones, Steve Ray Vaughan), marks the first time in a long while that Dream Theater has created a strictly conceptual video to illustrate one of its songs. Instead of seeing the band, viewers will witness the torment of a soldier who's struggling with reintegrating into his life back home due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). http://youtu.be/kivbHHazxFQ Guitarist John Petrucci says...

Do violent games like Grand Theft Auto V incite violence? Poll here Scroll down, middle of page.

Aaron Alexis: Washington navy yard gunman 'obsessed with violent video games' Exclusive: The Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis played violent video games including Call of Duty for up to 16 hours at a time and friends believe it could have pushed him towards becoming a mass murderer.