Friday, March 09, 2007

Speedlinking 3/9/07

Quote of the day:

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
~ Philip K. Dick

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Saturated Fat: Killer or Testosterone Booster? -- "We run articles about dietary fat on T-Nation fairly often, but do you truly understand fat, especially saturated fat? If you don't, you might be seriously shortchanging your health and your physique."
~ Going Deep With EDT: Your 10 Most Common Questions Answered -- "EDT is one of the simplest, most effective bodybuilding programs ever devised. If you're not familiar with it, here's your chance." From my experience, EDT is the most effective fat loss lifting program ever developed.
~ Speed up recovery with food -- "A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that eating any source of protein and sugar immediately after finishing a workout helps athletes grow larger and stronger muscles (November 2006)." Not new info, but worth repeating.
~ Health Benefits of Massage -- "Many people look upon massage as an indulgence that is simply not necessary, I have to admit that I enjoy getting a massage but was always wondering if long term massage was good for me. This way of thinking keeps them from experiencing the miraculous healing power a good massage can have. This form of therapy is not only very pleasant and relaxing but offers great health inspiring benefits."
~ Study Probes Odor, Sleep and Memory Link -- "Doctors have long advised that a good night's sleep is important for memory - but researchers now say a familiar scent wafting in the bedroom might help sometimes, too...."
~ Health Tip: Common Causes of Fever -- "Each of us has an internal thermostat in the brain that raises or lowers our body temperature. Fever occurs when the body's temperature is raised above normal."
~ Tai Chi Chuan may benefit type 2 diabetes patients -- "A new study suggests that participation in the Chinese martial art Tai Chi Chuan may help boost immune function and improve blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes."
~ Teens experimenting with steroids earlier -- "Adolescents are using muscle-building steroids at an earlier age, but most stop using these drugs as they grow older, according to more than 2,500 youth who were surveyed in 1999 and again in 2004."
~ Another Impact of Smoking During Pregnancy: Troubled Kids -- "Smoking During Pregnancy Has Long-Term Effects on Childhood Behavior, New Research Suggests."


PSYCHE
~ Pain complicates depression treatment in elderly -- "By interfering with normal activities, chronic pain can impede recovery from depression in older adults, according to findings reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society."
~ Severe PTSD Damages Children's Brains -- "The researchers found that children with post-traumatic stress disorder and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol were likely to experience a decrease in the size of the hippocampus - a brain structure important in memory processing and emotion."
~ Web program may help ward off eating disorders -- "Young women showed less dissatisfaction with their weight and shape after participating in an Internet-based eating disorder prevention program, researchers from Germany found."
~ We can judge the emotional content of pictures in as little as 13 milliseconds (with more polls!) [Cognitive Daily] -- "Two days ago, we discussed research suggesting that the emotional qualities of images affect short-term memory for those images. When you watch a movie depicting a rapid sequence of images, you're more likely to remember images that have strong emotional content -- especially images that are arousing, whether they depict positive or negative things. Most fascinating of all: when we see images for a very short time, we're more likely to remember positive images, but when we view them for a longer period, we're more likely to remember negative ones."
~ Dopamine to the Rescue: The Binding Problem [Developing Intelligence] -- "The infamous "binding problem" concerns how a coherent subjective experience of the world can emerge from the widely-distributed processing of individual object characteristics (for example, object identity and object spatial locations appear to be processed by independent neural systems)."
~ Savants and us (An FAQ) -- "The prodigious savant Daniel Tammet was just profiled on 60 Minutes, sparking a provocative email from my brainy and combative step-uncle Stan; he wants to know how savant syndrome fits into, or conflicts with, my developing understanding of talent."
~ The Call of Solitude -- "How spending time alone can enhance intimacy." Yup.
~ How to Get Your Space -- "Are you suffocating in your relationship?"
~ Love Isn't Blind -- "How to form an enduring bond."
~ Panic Attacks & Panic Disorder -- "Panic attacks can be a terrifying part of panic disorder. Treatments of both panic attacks and panic disorder are usually necessary - and not too painful!"
~ The Psychological Uncertainty Principle -- "You can't know who a person is without relating to them, and once you do that, you irrevocably change them."
~ Are You a Lightworker or a Darkworker? -- "Asking this question is like asking whether you’re a black belt in karate or jujitsu. Most likely you are neither, since most people never make such a commitment in their entire lives. Lightworkers and darkworkers combined probably account for less than 1% of the population." More on the polarity topic.


CULTURE
~ Teenagers With Retail, Service Jobs At Risk Of Injury, Robberies, Sleep Deprivation -- "Despite federal regulations intended to protect them, many teenagers in the U.S. use dangerous equipment or work long hours during the school week, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study."
~ Wisconsin Governor Rejects Federal Abstinence Education Funds -- " Cool.
~ The Evolution of Religion [EvolutionBlog] -- "With all the fuss lately about the atheistic books of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, it is easy to overlook another glut of books that tend to threaten religion. I am referring to the series of books intending to provide a scientific basis for the prevalence of religious belief."
~ Fall-out from Scooter Libby's conviction -- "Scooter Libby's conviction spells awful times for the Republicans, and for Dick Cheney in particular."
~ The battle epic 300 reviewed -- "If 300, the new battle epic based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynne Varley, had been made in Germany in the mid-1930s, it would be studied today alongside The Eternal Jew as a textbook example of how race-baiting fantasy and nationalist myth can serve as an incitement to total war. Since it's a product of the post-ideological, post-Xbox 21st century, 300 will instead be talked about as a technical achievement, the next blip on the increasingly blurry line between movies and video games."
~ A Sense of Urgency -- "John Nichols writes that as the Democratic leadership seeks a way out of Iraq, what they most lack is a sense of urgency to put an end the carnage."
~ Q&A: What Americans Don't Know About Religion Could Fill a Book -- "With roughly 9 in 10 of its citizens claiming to believe in God or a Supreme Being, America is widely acknowledged to be the most religious of modern industrial nations. Yet when it comes to knowledge about religion, it ranks among the most ill-informed."
~ Clinton Announce "New GI Bill" -- "In a speech today at the Center for American Progress, Sen. Hillary Clinton announced a "new GI Bill of Rights," to include expanded care and physical and mental screening of soldiers going into war zones--and those returning as well." Popular sentiment supports this and it's politically expedient -- she's good.
~ Which Side Are We On? -- "In early February, President Bush told a group of Wall Street executives that "income inequality is real; it's been rising for more than 25 years. ... And the question is whether we respond to the income inequality we see with policies that help lift people up, or tear others down." It's ironic that this president raised the issue of income inequality because his own trickle-down economic policies have contributed to the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, a situation worse today than at any time since the '20s."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Scientists Call for Worldwide Warning: Be Wary of Eating Fish -- "I have been warning about the health risks associated with eating mercury-contaminated fish for some time, and now the world’s leading mercury scientists are calling for worldwide attention to this serious issue." It's not as dire as Mercola makes it sound.
~ Keeping Your PC in Tune With Daylight Saving -- "The sun will be rising a bit later next week, which is a blessing for some of us and a hassle for all. A hassle because your PC may need updating to understand that daylight saving time starts this Sunday, March 11, which is three weeks earlier than in the past. It also lasts a week longer into autumn."
~ Will Biology Solve the Universe? -- "Dr. Robert Lanza, famous for his stem-cell and cloning research, believes his ideas will lead to a unified theory of the universe. It's all in the biology."
~ Taking Climate Legislation to the Hill: Four Major Bills Battle for Congress' Support -- "The concern has prompted a flurry of legislative activity on Capitol Hill, with four major bills, soon to be five, vying for support and votes, and some measure appearing likely to pass. But it remains unclear how strong it will be, how far lawmakers are willing to go in restricting U.S. industry, and whether President Bush might veto a bill."
~ Madison, Wis., Named 'Most Walkable' -- "With the thermometer hovering at 22, and the wind ripping off a frozen Lake Mendota, Rink DaVee and his brother Jim decided to take a stroll."
~ Regardless of global warming, rising CO2 levels threaten marine life -- "Like a piece of chalk dissolving in vinegar, marine life with hard shells is in danger of being dissolved by increasing acidity in the oceans."
~ The Real Value of Solar Power for Your Home -- "A green house may be attractive to homebuyers and boost your home's resale price. And in the end, you just can't put a price on the future of our planet."
~ Nobel Winner Seeks Government Deeds to Match Words -- "A global campaign to plant a billion trees has highlighted a big gap between government aid pledges and action, African Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai said on Wednesday."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Discovering Buddhism from Tyson Williams, a video.
~ Big Mind process and Kensho -- More on the Brad Warner controversy around Big Mind from Per at Mystery of Existence.
~ Identities as either/or, both/and, and none and also, Differentiating surrendering of idenitification, and changing content from Per at Mystery of Existence.
~ The Center for Sacred Sciences a link from Deep Surface.
~ Appropriate from Aaron at Anxious Living.
~ Big Mind? discussed at the Zaadz I-I pod. This is still more on the Brad Warner thing.
~ Vertical Magic and the Magic of Verticality -- Robert Godwin is as controversial as ever.


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