Thursday, April 05, 2007

Speedlinking 4/5/07

Quote of the day:

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity."
~ Christopher Morley

Image of the day:


BODY
~ My Fat-Loss Interview For CB Athletics -- Charles Staley interviewed by Craig Ballantyne.
~ PSA May Be Poor Predictor of Lethal Prostate Cancer (HealthDay) -- "The standard prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test is not helpful in predicting lethal prostate cancers in men who are not treated but are placed under "watchful waiting" by their doctors, Swedish researchers say."
~ Get your belly beach ready -- "Admit it. Feeling self-conscious about the size of your stomach, you've been tempted to look into one of the countless products out there touting washboard abs in 30 seconds or less. But instead of buying into a quick fix this year, why not follow some of the experts' advice for kicking that spare tire for good?"
~ Combined treatment ups breast cancer survival -- "Adding chemotherapy to the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen improves the survival of early breast cancer, according to the results of two studies."
~ Activity level correlates with body size in boys -- "Boys spend nearly twice as much time in vigorous-to-hard physical activity compared with girls, Irish researchers report. And while normal-size boys were more active than overweight or obese boys, no association between activity levels and body size was seen in girls."
~ Arthritis Pain, The Brain And The Role Of Emotions -- "How does the brain process the experience of pain? Thanks to advances in neuroimaging, we now know the answer lies in a network of brain structures called the pain matrix. This matrix contains two parallel systems."
~ 3 WAYS TO REV UP WEIGHT LOSS -- "Do you already exercise and watch what you eat, but seem to be stuck in a weight-loss rut? You’re not alone! Plenty of people hit a plateau before reaching their goals. To boost your odds of slim-down success, try these fitness strategies."

~ Fiber - Why is it so Important to A Healthy Diet? -- "What is fiber? Fiber is the indigestible part of plant foods. They are usually the walls of the plant cells, skins and seeds."
~ Can green tea save your soul? -- "It turns out that there is indeed an essence that ensures health, spiritual harmony, and moral merit. It is called green tea."


PSYCHE
~ Kids With Asperger's Syndrome: 'Bullied on a Daily Basis' -- "High-Functioning Form of Autism Causes Social Awkwardness and Angst."
~ Are humans hard-wired to believe in a higher power? -- "Accounts of intense religious and spiritual experiences are topics of fascination for people around the world. Most people would agree the experience of faith is immeasurable. Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author of "Why We Believe What We Believe," wants to change all that. He's working on ways to track how the human brain processes religion and spirituality. It's all part of new field called neurotheology."
~ New Study Looks At Peer Pressure And Implications For Preventing Adolescent Substance Abuse -- "Why do young people smoke cigarettes or use alcohol or drugs? What skills do they need to avoid starting these habits? A new study by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College shows that competence skills can reduce adolescent substance use over the long term, even when friends smoke or use alcohol."
~ Emotional Responses That Helped Our Ancestors May Promote Xenophobia, Sexual Prejudices And A Range Of Other Irrational Reactions -- "Behind every wave of disgust that comes your way may be a biological imperative much greater than the urge to lose your lunch, according to a growing body of research by a UCLA anthropologist." Hmmm. . . sounds familiar.
~ Startle reflex following subliminal images of fear and sex -- "What happens if you are presented with subliminal stimuli that are normally associated with fear or sexual arousal? In a study published in Biological Psychiatry two Spanish researchers now document that both negative positive biologically relevant stimuli can be nonconsciously processed."
~ Event perceptions -- "So how do we really experience the world around us, and events as they occur? As discrete units of experiences or as one flow of experience."
~ New Yorker on child bipolar controversy -- "April 9th's New Yorker has a cracking article on the current controversy on whether it's possible (or even valid) to diagnose bipolar disorder in children."
~ Power is Corrupting [The Frontal Cortex] -- "Does power corrupt? And is absolute power absolutely corrupting? Here's some suggestive evidence . . . ."
~ Getting Serious About Happiness -- "An expert on well-being establishes the world's first Ph.D program that focuses on positive psychology."


CULTURE
~ Tom DeLay rises again -- "Few are buying what Tom DeLay is selling."
~ Gitmo Justice -- "David Hicks pleads guilty and goes free, while the Supreme Court denies 400 other terror suspects their day in court. Aziz Huq asks: This is justice?"
~ Obama Raises $25M, Rivaling Clinton -- "Democrat Barack Obama raked in $25 million for his presidential bid in the first three months of 2007, placing him on a par with front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton."
~ Iran: Do Sailor Releases Signal a Nuke Thaw? -- "As the British captives come home, Iran's negotiator signals that he may be willing to talk about his country's enrichment program."
~ Humor: Scientists Study Politicians' Memory Loss -- "Scientists say near-amnesia is reaching epidemic proportions among U.S. politicians." Satire by Andy Borowitz.
~ Raising Pagans -- "When Daddy is Catholic and Mommy is a Witch, what's a couple to teach their children?"
~ Burning question answered: Bones aren't Joan's -- "What had been claimed to be the charred remains of 15th-century heroine Joan of Arc turn out to be just tres faux. They're bones from an Egyptian mummy and a cat, the science journal Nature reports . . . ."
~ Faith, science: An 'evolving' relationship -- "Religion and science have clashed forever, but in America, the biggest showdown came in 1925, when evolution and creationism did battle in the Scopes Monkey Trial, and evolution won. Now, nearly a hundred years later, the scientific community is convinced human beings evolved from a common ancestor over millions of years. But guess what? The rest of the public isn't on board. In fact, polls show nearly half of us believe we were created by God, just as we are."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Income and food cost concerns affect diet: study -- "Income and education level, and the perceived price of certain foods, impact what Americans eat and the overall diet of the US adult population, according to survey data from a nationally representative group of more than 4300 Americans 20 to 65 years old."
~ Drugs in Your Drinking Water May Be Affecting Your Health -- "Finally, the news media is getting around to looking at one of the little-discussed problems with the drug-addicted health care paradigm plaguing America: How residues of drugs and personal care products are finding their way into the nation's water supplies, ending up as just one more environmental toxin."
~ How to Start a Business ... When You're 22 -- "Many people would rather be their own boss than a wage slave. Fresh grads in particular might find it tempting to take the entrepreneurial plunge, rather than start at the bottom of a steep corporate ladder."
~ The iPhone wannabes -- "Whatever you think about Steve Jobs, you must admit the guy knows how to steal a show. Of the hundreds of gadgets on display at last week's CTIA Wireless trade show—the year's big cell-phone confab—the only one with real buzz was Apple's iPhone, a product that won't be available for months."
~ Mining Companies Strip Land from Indigenous Peoples -- "Indigenous people are being forced off their lands as multinational mining corporations exploit South America's natural resources."
~ Greek Archaeologists Unearth Rich Tomb -- "Archaeologists on a Greek island have discovered a large Roman-era tomb containing gold jewelry, pottery and bronze offerings, officials said Wednesday. The building, near the village of Fiscardo on Kefalonia, contained five burials including a large vaulted grave and a stone coffin, a Culture Ministry announcement said."
~ Fascinating Spider Silk -- "Stronger than steel and more elastic than rubber: spider silk is unsurpassed in its expandability, resistance to tearing, and toughness. Spider silk would be an ideal material for a large variety of medical and technical applications, and researchers are thus interested in learning the spiders' secrets and imitating their technique."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The human self not trusting it can function well without being identified with -- "When the Ground of emptiness awakens to itself, it can be very odd for our human self. It is used to being identified with, and no it is suddenly not identified with anymore."
~ Why haven’t we awakened yet? -- "It seems that lots of folks on the spiritual circuit wonder why they haven’t awakened yet. There is a resistance to what is (which happens to be what holds it, the appearance of non-awakening, in place.) So why haven’t we awakened yet
~ Progressivism is the unquestioned assumption in today's America from Matthew at the Daily Goose.
~ Philosophy: Dali (a lama?) -- Cool post from American Buddhist.
~ Sex, God, and Terrorism -- "Here is a wonderful essay written by Toby Mitchell for The Michigan Daily, focusing on the massive divide that exists between traditional religion and modernity, in which he references some of Ken's ideas from Integral Spirituality. Enjoy!"
~ Bowing -- From ordinary extraordinary.
~ And Now, Something Really Different: Parallel Universes -- From Gary at Integral Seattle.
~ Performative contradiction? from Ed Berge at Open Integral.
~ Blog roundup reflections. Rommel (aka C4Chaos) is... from Jean at the Human Bean -- and congrats to ~C4Chaos!


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