Speedlinking 3/1/07

Quote of the day:

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought."
~ Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Image of the day:

BODY
~ The Training Strategy Handbook -- "How Should You Train?" by Christian Thibaudeau at T-Nation.
~ Non-GMO Solution To Seafood Allergies -- "Seafood allergy sufferers may soon be able to eat prawns without the fear of an adverse reaction. Chinese scientists have taken a promising step towards removing from prawns the proteins that cause an allergic response without resorting to genetic manipulation."
~ Lighten up in the weight room -- "The amount of weight you should lift is dictated by the goals you want to achieve."
~ Early sex correlates with delinquency -- "New research suggests that when teenagers and younger children engage in their first sexual intercourse far earlier than their peers that they will exhibit higher levels of delinquency in the subsequent years." My guess is that sex isn't the problem, but a symptom.
~ Study Finds Kids Gain Weight Over Summer -- "Study Finds That 5- and 6-Year-Olds Gain More Weight Over Summer Than During School Year." Damn video games.
~ Reduce your BMI, pay less for insurance -- "Amid a growing obesity epidemic in the United States, an insurance company has started giving customers another reason to slim down by being one of the first in the nation to offer discounts to customers who keep a low body-mass index." I knew this was coming. Someone like me, whose BMI is 27, will be penalized even though my bodyfat is hovering around 11%. BMI is not a good measure for healthy, muscular men.
~ Getting a Better Handle on Your Job Prevents Type 2 Diabetes -- "Left untreated, emotions can be the root of countless health issues you may be experiencing, and can even shorten your life if you let them. Based on a study of some 700 primarily male Israeli workers who complained of job burnout, add type 2 diabetes to that list."
~ Growth Hormone To Boost Athletic Performance Risks Diabetes -- "The study reports the case of a 36 year old professional body-builder who required emergency care for chest pain. He had lost 40 kg in 12 months, during which he had also experienced excessive urination, thirst, and appetite." One case is not even close to an adequate sample, and bodybuilders are not representative of the average person who wants to use growth hormone for health or weight loss.


PSYCHE
~ Overly Anxious And Driven People Prone To Irritable Bowel Syndrome -- "The researchers studied 620 people who had confirmed gastroenteritis caused by a bacterial infection. None had had IBS before, or indeed any serious bowel disorder."
~ When God Sanctions Killing, The People Listen -- "In the article, University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman and his colleagues suggest that scriptural violence sanctioned by God can increase aggression, especially in believers."
~ Greater Deficits In Emotional Facial Expression Can Indicate More Severe Alcoholism -- "Recognition of emotional facial expressions (EFEs) is a key form of non-verbal communication that is lacking among alcoholics. New findings show continuing EFE decoding deficits among alcoholics even after three months of abstinence."
~ The Rich See What They Believe -- "People see what they believe, not vice versa, when it comes to social injustice, new psychology research shows."
~ Angry? Breathing Beats Venting -- "While it is a common assumption that an angry person needs to blow off steam or risk going through the roof, research in psychology shows just the opposite. According to University of Arkansas psychologist Jeffrey M. Lohr, research has consistently showed that venting anger is at best ineffective and in some cases is even harmful."
~ Stress-related adult disease may originate in fetal development -- "According to a review in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, evidence is mounting that lifelong stress-related conditions such as depression and chronic pain may be linked to fetal growth and timing of delivery."
~ Positive Gains With Hypnosis -- "Over recent years, hypnosis has gained acceptance as a credible method of treatment within the traditional medical community. It is now recognized as credible by both the Mayo Clinic and the National Institutes of Health, as seen by the information provided on their websites."


CULTURE
~ 1 In 3 Boys Heavy Porn Users, Study Shows -- "Boys aged 13 and 14 living in rural areas, are the most likely of their age group to access pornography, and parents need to be more aware of how to monitor their children's viewing habits, according to a new University of Alberta study."
~ Kids Allowed To Join Groups For Complex Reasons -- "New research at the University of Maryland looks at why kids decide to include - and exclude - other kids from their group of friends. It turns out the decision making process is much more complex than previously believed, and could even provide insights into how to intervene when children are rejected by their peers."
~ Bush Health Plan Raises Taxes by $526 Billion, Report Says -- "President George W. Bush's plan to revamp the health-care system would increase taxes on Americans by $526.2 billion over the next decade, according to a congressional estimate."
~ Civic Engagement Keeps Aging Americans Mentally Healthy After Physical Decline -- "People who continuously participate in community groups are often spared losses in psychological well-being after developing functional limitations, according to an article published in the latest issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences."
~ Iran Agrees To Join Neighbors Summit -- "Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, will join U.S. and British representatives at a regional conference here on the Iraqi security crisis."
~ Censoring Our Educators -- "State legislators across the country are trying to force university professors to zip their lips on controversial topics."
~ McCain on Letterman: I Will Run in '08 -- "Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona says he will officially enter the presidential race."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Transportation study receives outstanding paper award -- "Got a train to catch? The walk to the nearest stop has been put under scientific scrutiny, looking at distances involved and the environment along the way."
~ New evidence that global warming fuels stronger Atlantic hurricanes -- "Atmospheric scientists have uncovered fresh evidence to support the hotly debated theory that global warming has contributed to the emergence of stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean."
~ Toward tapping the potential of 'stranded' natural gas -- "Newly discovered chemical catalysts may be an answer to the century-long search for economical ways of using natural gas now burned or "flared" as waste in huge quantities, scientists in the United States and Germany report."
~ Iron in Northwest rivers fuels phytoplankton, fish populations -- "A new study suggests that the iron-rich winter runoff from Pacific Northwest streams and rivers, combined with the wide continental shelf, form a potent mechanism for fertilizing the nearshore Pacific Ocean, leading to robust phytoplankton production and fisheries."
~ Huge 'Ocean' Discovered Inside Earth -- "Scans of Earth's deep interior reveal a vast water reservoir beneath Asia that is at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean."
~ Snails Save Energy by Re-Using Mucus Trails -- "Snails save valuable energy by following each other's mucus trails a new study finds." Yummy.
~ Volcano Blows as Space Probe Flies By -- "A probe flew by just in time to witness a volcanic explosion on Jupiter's moon, Io."
~ Ning lets anyone make a social-networking website -- "A new Internet company backed by Netscape Communications co-founder Marc Andreessen launched a free service on Tuesday that enables people to make their own social-networking websites."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ From ~C4Chaos: The Next Generation is Infected with Boomeritis. See also his other post: Social Entrepreneurs: Harbingers of Conscious Capitalism.
~ Umguy, late of Ideological Putty, has started a new blog: Still Seeking. Glad to have back.
~ From Joe Perez at Until: The electromagnetic spectrum as a metaphor for the 30 tiers of Kronology.
~ From Gwen at Buddhist Geeks: Why You Can’t See Me Naked: Sex & The Middle Way -- Nice post.
~ TikkunGer and I have begun a discussion of Integral Judaism. We're doing it by email, but each of us will post an update from time to time. TikkunGer has the first one: Lets Talk Integral Judaism.
~ CJ Smith looks at a recent Andrew Cohen blog entry and likes what he sees: Meaningful Enlightenment.
~ From Hokai's Blog: Buddha and Myth.

Tags: Buddha, myth, Andrew Cohen, Integral Judaism, Buddhism, Suicide Girls, Kronology, Still Seeking, Boomeritis, Social Entrepreneurs, Ning, Io, snails, ocean inside earth, iron, natural gas, global warming, transportation, John McCain, censorship on campus, Iran, civic engagement, Bush health plan, kids and cliques, boys and porn, hypnosis, stress diseases, anger, rich people, alcoholism, religion and violence, IBS and anxiety, growth hormone, jobs and diabetes, BMI, kids get fat in summer, sex and delinquency, weight training, seafood allergies, training strategies, speedlinking