Speedlinking 2/7/07

Quote of the day:

"Humankind cannot stand very much reality."
~ TS Eliot

Image of the day:

BODY
~ Lifting Weights Helps to Prevent Diabetes -- Old news, but good news.
~ Pills Or Papayas? Survey Finds Americans Want Healthful Foods, Not More Medicines -- "A new survey shows the vast majority would rather change their diets - including trying a vegetarian diet - than use medicines. According to a nationally representative survey of 1,022 adults conducted in mid-January by Opinion Research Corporation, 69 percent of Americans would prefer to try a dietary approach. Just 21 percent preferred treating diabetes with medicines." I'd have to say that there is some kind of expectation bias in this survey.
~ Sexual History Should Be An Integral Component Of Medical Assessment -- "Physicians should make taking a sexual history an integral part of medical assessment as sexual symptoms can be a sign of serious underlying disease, according to the first paper in a Series which begins in this week's issue of The Lancet."
~ Ibuprofen beats acetaminophen for period pain -- And without killing your liver the way acetaminophen does.
~ Stem cells from fat transplanted into heart -- "Doctors have implanted adult stem cells extracted from a man’s fat tissue through liposuction into his heart, in an experimental treatment for angina and heart disease, a Spanish hospital said."
~ Is work making you fat? -- "Health experts say finding ways to fit in fitness during the workday is an increasingly important strategy in the battle of the bulge."
~ Beyond the DNA: Chemical signatures reveal genetic switches in the genome.


PSYCHE
~ 2 Brains -- 1 Thought -- "Although no two brains are alike, they can display a comparable pattern of neural activity when exposed to similar sensory input. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization have now developed a mathematical method to design networks from neural cells which exhibit a predefined pattern dynamics."
~ Brain's Reward Circuit Activity Ebbs And Flows With A Woman's Hormonal Cycle -- "Fluctuations in sex hormone levels during women's menstrual cycles affect the responsiveness of their brains' reward circuitry, an imaging study at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has revealed."
~ Insomnia and the Unconscious [The Frontal Cortex].
~ Size and Sensibility -- "Self-acceptance doesn't always come with weight loss."
~ Media Messes With Men's Minds Too -- "Body image in the minds of men."
~ Slow-Wave Activity During Sleep Affected By Quality, Intensity Of Wakefulness -- "A study published in the February 1st issue of the journal SLEEP provides a first direct demonstration that the "quality" and "intensity" of wakefulness can affect slow-wave activity (SWA) during subsequent sleep."
~ Can people change from gay to straight?
~ The Universe is Relationship -- From the Art of Intimacy blog.
~ Overcoming Procrastination with Preparation and Planning.
~ Honey I Love You - Let’s Fight -- From TikkunGer: "A little while back Tamara did a post on the topic of Relationships and Good Fighting and it was quite interesting. The post discussed an audio lecture on the topic of relationships, marriage and arguments/fighting."


CULTURE
~ Democratic Lawmakers Introduce Legislation To Reform FDA, Increase Prescription Drug Regulation.
~ Discipline debate: Spanking gets a time-out -- "A proposed California law that would outlaw spanking has reignited the debate on the best way to discipline unruly tots."
~ Rev. Haggard to get online MA in Psych - Also no longer gay. You might this is something from The Onion, but no, sadly, it is true. More from CNN: Haggard "Completely Heterosexual". What a complete load of shit. Of course, The Zero Boss weighs in: Ted Haggard Says He HATES Cock! He’s CURED!
~ Why Giuliani is the G.O.P. Favorite -- "Leadership is going to be the single most important issue to G.O.P. voters. That, along with the conservative animus towards McCain, is why Rudy has the edge."
~ Obamania -- "Amy Goodman for Democracy Now hosts In These Times' Salim Muwakkil and Lynn Sweet from the Chicago Sun-Times, to discuss the politics of the Barack Obama phenomenon. Audio and video clips at the link. Salim has written about Obama and issues of race in this piece for In These Times." Should be a good conversation.
~ Feingold: Democratic Consultants Aiding and Abetting Republican Warlust -- "Discussing the political dynamics of the non-binding resolution opposing escalation in Iraq, Sirota reports the Senator saying: this is a battle between Democrats' Washington consultant class and the rest of the country - and he specifically targets the D.C. elites from the Clinton administration, who he accurately notes largely supported the war from the get-go."


HABITATS
~ Two Americas on Global Warming: 95% of Congressional Dems Polled Accept Man-Made Global Warming Compared to Only 13% of Congressional GOP [Framing Science] -- The article looks at why this might be so.
~ More efficient solar greenhouse developed -- "Researcher Rachel van Ooteghem of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research has designed a control system for an improved solar greenhouse that..."
~ Skystream Residential Wind Turbines: An Interview with Frank Greco -- "Now that sustainability is a relatively common concept (or at least people understand that climate change is a real threat), we frequently hear people asking, 'How can I live a greener life?'"
~ All Politics is Global: An Interview with Simon Rosenberg -- "Simon Rosenberg is considered among the most important strategic thinkers in American politics. As founder and president of the innovative New Democrat Network, Rosenberg has emerged from the field of traditional activists and operatives as a result of his long-range thinking and pioneering use of new media and technology to reinvent electoral politics."
~ Rare Madagascar Tortoise Hatches at Zoo -- "The Knoxville Zoo says it has become the first U.S. zoo to successfully breed Northern spider tortoises, a subspecies so rare they can no longer be exported from their native Madagascar off Africa's southeastern coast."
~ Exxon Valdez Oil-Spill Toxins Undiminished 16 Years On.
~ For the First Time Ever, a U.S. Court Halts a GMO Field Trial -- "Judge Harold Kennedy found the USDA should have required environmental impact statements before approving field trials of pesticide-resistant creeping bentgrass and Kentucky bluegrass in Oregon."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Sacred Marriage, Part One from Gary at Integral in Seattle. See also: Open Heart, Open Hands.
~ Progress on the book (the axis of the 5th dimension) -- From Joe at Until: "I think I've known for some time that writing Kronology will be the most challenging adventure I've undertaken as a writer... and perhaps in life. But what I didn't expect is just how fun the journey would be."
~ Power Dynamics and Relations in Integral from ebuddha.
~ At Indistinct Union: Fukuyama on Identity Politics.
~ Respect Those Cabinets! -- "Buddhism is about respect -- respect for oneself, respect for one's neighbors, respect for one's enemies, respect for all animals, even respect for your kitchen cabinets."
~ ~Omni-Peephole: Parallel Universes from ~C4Chaos.

Tags: parallel universes, Buddhism, Fukuyama, identity politics, integral theory, power dynamics, Joe Perez, sacred marriage, GMO crops, Exxon Valdez, Madagascar Tortoise, Simon Rosenberg, residential wind turbines, solar greenhouses, global warming, Russ Feingold, Obama, Giuliani, Ted Haggard, spanking, FDA reform, relationships, procrastination, homosexuality, sleep, media and men, weight loss, insomnia, women and hormones, brains, DNA, work and exercise, stem cells, pain killers, sexual histroy, food before supplements, weight training and diabetes, speedlinking