"The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you."
~ Rita Mae Brown
Image of the day (Tristan Campbell):
BODY
~ Pomegranate Juice May Be Good For The Prostate And Heart, Reports The Harvard Men's Health Watch -- "Two recent studies suggest that pomegranate juice may help fight prostate cancer. ... Preliminary results in test tubes, animals, and humans suggest that pomegranates may also have beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease. Studies show that pomegranate juice can protect LDL (bad) cholesterol from oxidative damage."
~ Hips Don't Lie: Fixing Your Force Couples -- "You may think you don't have any postural issues, but chances are you've got either anterior or posterior tilt. Okay, so there aren't any telethons for it, but it's serious stuff. Too much of one or the other and your performance and lifts are going to — as they say in clinical circles — suck."
~ Juggling As Neural Training/Therapy -- "Juggling is fun! It can be hard to learn at first but offers all kind of neural (i.e. brain enhancing) and physiological benefits. Particularly, juggling can help with keeping our upper extremities healthy from some of the physical dilemmas we expose our bodies to almost every day."
~ Eating beef in pregnancy may affect son's sperm -- "U.S. women who eat a lot of beef while pregnant give birth to sons who grow up to have low sperm counts, researchers reported."
~ Flavonoid-rich diets may help reduce heart disease -- "Foods rich in flavonoids -- from apples and pears to dark chocolate and red wine -- may help shield postmenopausal women from coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease and stroke, a new study shows."
~ Aspirin cuts heart, cancer deaths among women: study (AFP) -- "Women who take aspirin in moderate doses have a lower risk of dying from heart disease and cancer than women who never take it, a US medical study reported on Tuesday."
~ Sleep disruptions may increase heart disease risk -- "Relatively healthy individuals who experience sleep disruptions at night appear to have an increased risk activity of factors associated with the development of a blood clot, also referred to as a thrombus."
~ Viable probiotics might help the critically ill -- "Therapy with viable probiotics stimulates the function of the immune system in critically ill patients in intensive care, Canadian researchers report."
PSYCHE
~ 'Magic mushrooms' could treat depression -- "Scientists are to investigate a hallucinogenic chemical in "magic mushrooms" as a possible new treatment for depression, anxiety and drug dependence." It's about freakin' time.
~ Body position affects memory for events [Cognitive Daily] -- "A new study adds an unexpected method to the list of ways to spur memories about our past: body position. That's right: just holding your body in the right position means you'll have faster, more accurate access to certain memories."
~ A neural system for mindlessness -- "Your intuition is probably that when your brain isn't doing anything, then the activation in the brain would be less all over -- no parts are particularly required. However, it could also be that there is a system that comes online when everything else is offline -- sort of a master controller."
~ 10 Important Differences Between Brains and Computers [Developing Intelligence] -- "Although the brain-computer metaphor has served cognitive psychology well, research in cognitive neuroscience has revealed many important differences between brains and computers."
~ Emotion, Reason, and Moral Judgment [Mixing Memory] -- "Research on the role of emotion/intuition in moral judgments is really heating up. For decades (millennia, even), moral judgment was thought to be a conscious, principle-based process, but over the last few years, researchers have been showing that emotion and intuition, both of which operate automatically and unconsciously for the most part, play a much larger role than most philosophers and psychologists had previously been willing to admit."
~ The Sex Hormone Secrets -- "How these counterintuitive chemicals truly shape us."
~ Where poetry meets autobiography -- "Does a poem have to be "true" to be moving?" I answer, NO.
~ Do Schools Kill Our Kids’ Creativity? -- "Picasso once said: All children are born artists, the problem is remaining an artist as we grow up."
~ Love not in the stars -- "Lonely hearts who turn to horoscopes to find their perfect partner are wasting their time, according to the largest test of astrology ever carried out."
CULTURE
~ Study Details Catastrophic Impact Of Nuclear Attack On US Cities -- "The study, which the authors said was the most advanced and detailed simulation published in open scientific literature, highlights the inability of the nation's current medical system to handle casualties from a nuclear attack. It also suggests what the authors said are much needed yet relatively simple interventions that could save tens of thousands of lives."
~ DailyStrength Introduces People-Powered Healthcare -- "What do a mother with breast cancer, a retired husband with heart disease, and a teenager with MS have in common? They all go to the same place to talk openly about how they're feeling, gather strength from friends and harness the power of thousands to help them improve their health and their lives. The first social networking site of its kind, DailyStrength (http://www.dailystrength.org) launched today as a home for those facing a broad range of health, social and personal issues."
~ Catholic Bishops Denounce Catholic Theologian's Writings That Abortion, Contraception Are Morally Permissible -- "A pamphlet claiming that abortion and contraception are morally permissible under Catholic doctrine is "false teaching," the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Doctrine recently declared, the New York Times reports."
~ Peanut butter disproves evolution! [Respectful Insolence] -- "Really, this guy is making that very argument with a straight face!" [Video]
~ Where the fingers are pointing in the Bush administration meltdown -- "As clichés go, "It's not the crime, it's the coverup" is a pretty useful one. And it's particularly apt in the train wreck that is the Bush administration's U.S. attorney purge."
~ Judge says Rumsfeld can't be sued over alleged torture -- "U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, AP writes, threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job."
~ Tillmans assail Pentagon report -- "Family sees whitewash in death of soldier."
~ Linda Seger: Should We Fix the Gays or Fix Ourselves? -- "There seems to be a continual lashing out at gays, often done by those Christians who are commanded to love each other but don't seem to be very loving. The newest is a recognition by a prominent Southern Baptist who finally admits that maybe gays are born that way, but then, perhaps we should "fix" them in the womb."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ New science of metagenomics 'will transform modern microbiology' -- "The emerging field of metagenomics, where the DNA of entire communities of microbes is studied simultaneously, presents the greatest opportunity -- perhaps since the invention of the microscope -- to revolutionize understanding of the microbial world, says a new report from the National Research Council."
~ The 'best ever' marketing strategy? Maybe not, study says -- "Marketing is often filled with hype and superlatives— the greatest, the best and even “heavenly ”—but a new University of Georgia study that uncovers a curious aspect of human psychology could change how companies pitch their products."
~ Saturn Hexagon Mystifies Scientists -- "A mysterious, honeycomb-shaped feature is circling Saturn's north pole."
~ Pressure of Light Can Move Liquid -- "In a first, scientists create a jet of water using nothing but the pressure of light."
~ Pulsing light silences overactive neurons -- "Scientists at the MIT Media Lab have invented a way to reversibly silence brain cells using pulses of yellow light, offering the prospect of controlling the haywire neuron activity that occurs in diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease."
~ Scientists Closer to Understanding How Stars are Formed -- "Scientists have moved one step closer to understanding how stars are formed after the discovery of molecular oxygen in interstellar space, the Swedish Space Corporation said on Tuesday."
~ Himalayan glacier melting observed from space -- "The Himalaya, the “Roof of the World”, source of the seven largest rivers of Asia are, like other mountain chains, suffering the effects of global warming."
~ The Secret Plan to Gut the Endangered Species Act -- "Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has posted a draft of a proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. The proposed changes would accomplish administratively much of what the Bush Administration may have hoped to push through Congress before the Republicans were ousted in November."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Integral argumentation -- Humor (or satire) Ed Berge found at the Lightmind Forum. Sounds like Wyatt Earpy.
~ Walsh on Ethics -- Hokai posts a video of Roger Walsh.
~ Writing Here -- Umguy on his new blog, Still Seeking.
~ Union, dissolution and no self and Sensations as anchor and If beliefs are gone, what is left? -- Three good posts at Mystery of Existence.
~ Ken Wilber and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from ~C4Chaos.
~ Kids on sex education in Oz from Ray Harris at Open Integral -- "I was very encouraged by debate on TV last night (Insight, SBS). The topic was sex and teens. I suppose I’m encouraged because the teens largely agreed with what I’ve been saying in regards to sex education."
~ Secret My Ass -- Kate at Dating God doesn't like The Secret.
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