Friday, February 09, 2007

Speedlinking 2/9/07

Quote of the day:

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible."
~ Albert Einstein

Image of the day:

BODY
~ Study: Pseudoephedrine can improve performance of runners and other athletes -- But you'll have to wrestle the meth-heads for it.
~ Parents Blind To Their Children's Weight -- "The study of more than 1100 families found that 89 per cent of parents of overweight 5 - 6 year-olds and 63 per cent of parents of overweight 10 - 12 year-olds were unaware their child was overweight."
~ Stroke victims train brains to see again -- "A new study bolsters evidence that people partially blinded by a stroke or brain injury may be able to improve their field of vision by teaching new parts of their brain to see, U.S. researchers said on Thursday."
~ Americans have adopted heart-healthier diets -- "Over the past 20 years, the diets of American adults have become more consistent with most dietary recommendations for heart disease prevention -- but the trend may not be continuing, research suggests." Not the people I see.
~ S. Africa launches biggest AIDS vaccine trial -- "South Africa, burdened with one of the world's major HIV/AIDS epidemics, unveiled plans on Thursday for its biggest AIDS vaccine trial."
~ Autism more common in U.S. than thought -- "Autism is more common in the United States than anyone had estimated, affecting about one in every 150 children, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday."
~ More Evidence Vitamin D Prevents Cancer -- From Dr. Mercola.
~ Why You Should NOT Use Bottled Water Whenever Possible -- "People pay premium prices for exotic bottled water brands like Fiji and Evian in the hopes that it is more pure than water from nearby sources. However, this puts a giant strain on both the environment and your pocketbook."
~ Fighting Fat With an Earlier Bedtime -- "A new study published in the current Child Development finds that children who sleep more tend to weigh less than children who sleep less and are less likely to be overweight five years later."


PSYCHE
~ Health Tip: Symptoms of Addiction -- "Addiction to drugs or alcohol can lead to a variety of behavioral and physical changes in teenagers."
~ Relationship Of Neonatologists' End Of Life Decisions To Their Personal Fear Of Death -- "Doctors who fear their own death say they are more prepared than other doctors to hasten death in sick newborns for whom further medical treatment is considered futile."
~ The art of decompression: Stress busters that work -- "Stress leaves us exhausted, tearful, and nervous. It also makes us more likely to struggle with high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and overeating. So what to do? Health.com brings you a slew of strategies that'll help you get your stress in check without doing you in."
~ Dads may increase daughters’ risk of bulimia -- "Fathers are important influences on their daughters’ perceptions of their weight and shape during childhood, and can increase their risk of developing an eating disorder in adolescence, research shows."
~ More spiritual help needed for the dying -- "Doctors may have to take a more active role in addressing the spiritual needs of patients with terminal illnesses, a study suggested on Thursday."
~ Getting Closer: The Art of Self-Disclosure -- "Turning an acquaintance into a good friend can be hard. Whether it's romantic or platonic, there are endless reasons why people fail to connect and maintain their relationships with each other."
~ Can music convey meaning in the same way as language? [Cognitive Daily] -- "The musical notes weren't just noises; they were intended to convey a meaning above and beyond a mere sequence of sounds. But if her music really did convey such deep meaning, why did she have to explain it to the audience beforehand? Can music ever express semantic meaning directly, without requiring a composer or someone else to "translate" for us?"
~ New Games Turn Focus to Mental Health -- "Video games, once the subject of much societal concern, have been receiving something of a PR face-lift recently through cycles of positive media coverage of the potential for healthy lifestyle improvements that come from gaming."
~ Unconscious Shopping [The Frontal Cortex] -- "Another week, another fascinating seminar over at Mind Matters. The paper in question concerns a topic near and dear to me: decision making."
~ Common gene version optimizes thinking -- but with a possible downside -- "Most people inherit a version of a gene that optimizes their brain's thinking circuitry, yet also appears to increase risk for schizophrenia, a severe mental illness marked by impaired thinking, scientists at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered."


CULTURE
~ The Ecstasy of Influence -- An essay on plagiarism in which much of the text is plagiarized, sort of.
~ Democratic Presidential Candidate Edwards Releases Universal Health Coverage Plan That Includes Employer Mandates, Regional Health Ins. Purch. Pools.
~ Supporters Push Gore 2008 -- "Veterans of Al Gore's past are quietly assembling a campaign to draft the former vice president into the 2008 presidential race — despite his repeated statements that he's not running."
~ What Pulp Fiction stole from the prophet Ezekiel -- "The Lord vows revenge against the Edomites, Moabites, Philistines, and Ammonites. Why is this chapter important in American pop-cultural history? I didn't know, either, but several readers gave me a heads-up. It's a key source for Pulp Fiction."
~ The critical buzz on Paul Auster -- "Auster's new novel—in which characters from his previous books visit an unnamed amnesiac narrator who seems to represent Auster himself—has exhausted some critics with its metafictional games. Salon sighs, 'When Auster gets cooking, he's like a magician who can amaze us by sawing a woman in half; when he's not, as in Travels in the Scriptorium, it's as if he's sawing away without a woman in the box.'"
~ Ex-Playmate Anna Nicole Smith Dies -- "Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday after collapsing at a South Florida hotel." May she find some peace.
~ NYC Cabbie Finds and Returns Gems -- "Honesty was the best policy for New York taxi driver Osman Chowdhury, who found 31 diamond rings in his cab -- and returned them to their owner."
~ Worst President Ever? -- "Is George W. Bush the worst President the United States has ever seen? Nicholas von Hoffman examines how Bush stacks up in a race to the bottom with other miserable failures who occupied the White House."
~ Gallery: Toys for Grown-Ups -- "In Japan, toys aren't just for kids. From drinking game accessories to ghost detectors, you can have fun at any age."


HABITATS
~ If Leonardo Had Made Toys -- "LEONARDO DA VINCI’S 15th-century vision of mechanical flight apparently never included fixed wings assisted by propellers or jet engines. His chief inspiration was birds, reflected in drawings of a flying machine fashioned to stay aloft by flapping its wings."
~ The Alarm Clock as a Moving Target. Catch It if You Can -- "This alarm clock doesn’t just make noise, it breaks the snooze-button habit: after the first snooze period, Clocky rolls off the nightstand and runs away."
~ AOL Founder to Launch Revolutionhealth.com -- "Steve Case's Web Site Will Include Expert Advice, Patient's Doctor Ratings."
~ Microsoft's new OS Vista spurs computer sales -- "US sales of computers carrying Microsoft's new operating system Vista soared in the week after it was launched, defying the expectations of analysts who gave Vista lackluster reviews."
~ Group Names Top 10 Polluting Refineries -- "Environmental activists on Thursday said more stringent air-quality regulations are needed for oil refineries along the Gulf Coast, a region densely populated with petroleum industry plants."
~ Sea Shepherd Ships Attack Japanese Whaling Fleet in Antarctic Waters -- "The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s two ships, the Farley Mowat and the Robert Hunter, have found the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters after six weeks of searching and attacked them."
~ Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, is a 'cosmic graffiti artist,' astronomers discover -- "Astronomers from the University of Virginia and other institutions have found that Enceladus, the sixth-largest moon of Saturn, is a "cosmic graffiti artist," pelting the surfaces of at least 11 other moons of Saturn with ice particles sprayed from its spewing surface geysers."
~ Coyote-Tracking Web Site Exposes Canine, Human Troublemakers -- "A project that tracks coyotes in real time can pinpoint which animals are at risk of becoming urban pests—and which households might be to blame." Awww, leave the poor coyotes alone.


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ BIG LOVE, Big heart, Big Life from Gary at Integral in Seattle, on relationships and love. See also Shamanic Breathwork and Open Heart. Gary is doing some good stuff, check it out.
~ The eclipse of a cry -- An excellent post from Dave at Via Negativa on poetry.
~ What is a Kronoscope? -- "Kronoscopes are one of the first applications of Kronology, the holistic symbolic system that I am developing for my forthcoming book." From Joe at Until.
~ From Lotus In the Mud: do amida buddhists meditate? - updated.
~ Inevitable Consequences! On Karma.
~ Bruce Lipton on Epigenetics -- Two videos.


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