Friday, March 16, 2007

Speedlinking 3/16/07

Quote of the day:

"An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows."
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Muscles for Athletes, Part I: The Science of High-Threshold Motor Recruitment for Hypertrophy -- "This article will tell you how to put on muscle, regardless of whether you're a world-class athlete or your only athletic event is gazing at your bod in the mirror. If nothing else, you must at least read the 16 points at the end of the article!" From Christian Thibaudeau.
~ Deads VS Pulls: Are You Overlooking The "Best" Exercises Available? -- "The deadlift has an established performance record for making athletes bigger and stronger, but are there better alternatives for (most) athletes? I believe there are." From Charles Staley.
~ High blood sugar tied to increased cancer risk -- "Results of a study involving nearly 65,000 people point to an association between cancer and abnormally high blood sugar levels."
~ Grape juice best among all juices -- "Many people start their breakfast with a glass of orange juice. But a new study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry suggests that a glass of grape juice may be better than any other juice."
~ Are Common Chemicals Feeding Obesity Epidemic? (HealthDay) -- "Exposure to a class of chemicals commonly found in soap and plastics could be fueling the obesity epidemic by contributing to abdominal obesity and insulin resistance in men, a new study suggests."
~ Sexually Transmitted HPV Remains Mystery -- "Nearly every working day, Dr. Elizabeth Poynor encounters anxious young women who come to her New York City office with an HPV diagnosis. The human papillomavirus is the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases - so common that researchers estimate most people will have some form of it in their lifetime."
~ Ginkgo may not aid memory in healthy older adults -- "The popular herbal supplement ginkgo biloba may not do much for healthy older adults' memory, at least in the short term, a new study suggests."
~ Sunshine Improves Athletic Performance -- "Straight from vitamin D expert Dr. John Cannell comes a new and interesting benefit from exposing your skin to the right amount of sunshine: Improving your peak athletic performance."


PSYCHE
~ Genes plus parenting may promote shyness, anxiety -- "A mother whose child has a naturally fearful temperament may act less nurturing toward the child, triggering a vicious cycle of behavior that reinforces the child's fearfulness and shyness, researchers propose."
~ When couples are sexually out of sync -- "What's a guy to do when his partner has an insatiable appetite for sex — or wants to give it up for good? Any advice for a woman stuck in a passionless marriage? Sexploration answers your queries."
~ Taking oxytocin helps empathy -- "Brain Ethics has found an intriguing study which suggests that giving people the hormone oxytocin makes them better at reading emotion from other people's eyes."
~ What is Happiness and Can We Ever Achieve It? -- "Would you rather have a completely happy life, or a meaningful life? And are the two mutually exclusive? The topics, as well as recent neuroscience research, is addressed in a fascinating podcast over at Governomics. The podcast is here, with the transcript here."
~ Get What You Want -- "How to be persuasive with a gentle touch."
~ Hear Me Out -- "Get more out of your relationships."
~ Clearing Up Misconceptions about Boderline Personality Disorder -- "Borderline personality disorder, a DSM IV axis II diagnosis, is often misunderstood and incorrectly handled by members of the medical community. Those with the diagnosis can be challenging and frustrating, and therefore often have trouble finding a therapist who will work with them."
~ Dealing With Rejection -- "Resiliency is your "bounce back" factor. Being rejected is much easier if you're resilient! Learn a few things about surviving rejection and developing new confidence."
~ 'Manly men' bounce back better from injury -- "For years, experts have said that the strong, silent male is not one to ask for help when he's hurt, and therefore at a disadvantage when it comes to getting better. But new research says this might not be completely accurate. This masculine identity often associated with men in the armed forces and other high-risk occupations may actually encourage and quicken a man's recovery from serious injuries, says a new exploratory study from the University of Missouri-Columbia." This is why steroids speed recovery -- it's all about the testosterone.


CULTURE
~ Binge drinking, pill abuse intensify at colleges -- "Substance abuse on college campuses is nothing new, but it is taking a more extreme and dangerous form, with higher rates of frequent binge drinking and prescription drug abuse, and more negative consequences for students such as arrests and risky sexual behavior."
~ Sexual Victimization Experienced By Eighteen Percent Of Young Women -- "Sexual victimization can mean several things -- verbal coercion to have sex with an intimate partner, rape by a stranger, a woman fondled in a bar or forced intercourse when a woman is too intoxicated to consent or object."
~ Survey: Japanese too stressed for sex -- "The secret behind Japan's plunging birth rate? A record 39.7 percent of Japanese citizens ages 16-49 have not had sex for over a month —up 5 percentage points from two years ago —according to a survey published this week by the Japan Family Planning Association."
~ Promote love rather than fight hatred -- "Warm, exuberant feelings towards other categories of human being—national, religious, racial or social—are the sort of thing that Todd L. Pittinsky, a social psychologist at Harvard University, spends his time probing and testing. This is not just because he too likes to hang around people who accentuate the positive. Mr Pittinsky's hope is to turn the conventional wisdom of “conflict studies” and “race relations” upside down."
~ Israel Won't Deal With Palestinians -- "Israel won't deal with the new Palestinian government and will urge the international community not to work with the coalition, an Israeli official said."
~ Marketplace of Ideas -- "How a shady, right-wing p.r. firm is influencing opinion."
~ It's time to get rid of the dollar bill -- "This is the government's fourth attempt to move American spenders from dollar bills to dollar coins, after three flops that satisfied nobody but coin collectors. But these quite sensible efforts are destined to fail unless the Treasury finally does what it should have done long ago: Stop printing dollar bills."
~ A Way Out of Iran's Nuclear Impasse? -- "The country's U.N. ambassador is floating a promising idea, reports Walter Isaacson: to turn over ownership of Iran's enrichment plants to an international consortium."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ When Organic Isn't Really Organic -- "Genetically modified crops are making their way into the organic food supply, but one farmer has a solution."
~ Frybrid: How to Run Your Car on Grease -- "What do you get when you cross hybrid transportation with local economic support and resource reuse? Frybrid. A small company in Seattle has developed a simple system for running any diesel automobile on vegetable oil discarded from the grease traps of restaurants."
~ Winter Warmest on Record Worldwide -- "This winter was the warmest on record worldwide, the government said Thursday in the latest worrisome report focusing on changing climate. The report comes just over a month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said global warming is very likely caused by human actions and is so severe it will continue for centuries."
~ Coalition Calls for End of Incandescent Light Bulb -- "The incandescent light bulb should go the way of other outdated inventions, like the coal-burning locomotive, says a newly-formed energy coalition."
~ Scientists Study True Colors of Amazon Rainforests -- "Using NASA satellite data, Boston University scientist Ranga Myneni studied the amount and dynamics of green leaf area of Amazon rainforests. The study found a 25 percent increase in leaf area during the dry season when skies are relatively clear demonstrating that the forests are not evergreen and are more dependent on light than rain."
~ Species Evolve Faster in Cool Climates -- "A new study could overturn a long-held theory about biodiversity."
~ Photons Trapped for Record Time -- "A thought experiment conceived by Albert Einstein becomes reality."
~ AMD Talks Up 'Small-Form' Desktops -- "The world's second-largest chip maker is at the CeBIT show in Germany to drum up support for DTX, its open-standard specification for small-form-factor desktops. Advanced Micro Devices is working to shrink the size of the average desktop."
~ Chimps Cheer for Attention -- "Smart chimps use vocalizations to get attention from people."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Integral Institute pod at Zaadz has become invitation only. That sucks.
~ What do people here mean when they say “integral”? -- From Alan Kazlev at Open Integral.
~ Relationship and Exalted Narcissism? From Gary at Integral in Seattle.
~ How to perform prostrations in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition -- A video posted by Tyson Williams.
~ A deeper sense of happiness -- "For Buddhists, the highest form of happiness lies in this inner freedom rather than the freedom to acquire and consume. Happiness is determined by one’s state of mind rather than by external events. It is not subject to time and decay, or dependent on the acquisition of things and people."
~ Gebser and the integral structure -- From Ed Berge at Open Integral.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! Chad didn't write that article. Christian Th(something French) did!

Kai in NYC

william harryman said...

D'Oh! My mistake -- I fixed it. Christian is good too -- he trained his girlfriend (wife?) for figure competition and she looked great.

Peace,
Bill