Monday, April 09, 2007

Speedlinking 4/9/07

[NOTE: Due to a severe lack of sleep, today's speedlinks will be abbreviated. I'll be back as usual tomorrow.]

Quote of the day:

"I loathe the expression "What makes him tick." It is the American mind, looking for simple and singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only ticks, he also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a thunderstorm."
~ James Thurber

Image of the day (Tristan Campbell):


BODY
~ Herbal Extract, Forskolin, May Help Combat Bladder Infections -- "An herbal extract, forskolin, which is currently sold as an aid for allergy or fat loss treatment, may be beneficial for patients with bladder infections when taken in combination with antibiotics, say researchers from Duke, University, USA. You can read about this new researcher in the journal Nature Medicine."
~ Mediterranean Diet Protects Kids From Allergies: Study -- "A Mediterranean-style diet loaded with fruits, vegetables and nuts may help prevent allergic rhinitis and asthma symptoms in youngsters, a British study suggests."
~ Why raiding the fridge at night is a bad idea -- "A common diet belief is that eating after 7 p.m. will make you put on weight, that those evening calories somehow add more pounds than ones consumed earlier in the day. Is that accurate?"
~ Combination Treatment For Migraine More Effective Than Single Medications -- "Combining two different types of treatment for migraine results in better symptom relief than taking either one of the medications, according to a study in the April 4 issue of JAMA."
~ Want to gain weight? Focus on muscle-building, not calories -- Good advice from Zen Habits.


PSYCHE
~ Create Connections and Spice up Sex -- "There are many techniques to help, one of which is increasing the feelings of connection. Research shows that for most couples, the more they feel "connected" the better the sex."
~ A 'traffic Light' For Neurons Means 'go' For Improving Brain Research -- "Every thought, feeling and action originates from the electrical signals emitted by diverse brain cells enmeshed in a tangle of circuits. At this fundamental level, scientists struggle to explain the mind. Worse yet, they have lacked tools to understand what's going wrong in patients with ailments such as depression or Parkinson's disease."
~ Is IQ actually AQ? (Mistaking Achievement for "Intelligence") -- "Have we been mistaking achievement for "intelligence"?"
~ Self-talk: A positive intervention under construction -- "Making self-talk constructive is a great place to put positive psychology to work. We talk to ourselves all the time. We argue. We judge. We praise. We catastrophize. We label. We cast ourselves as victims or actors. Some sorts of self-talk are more helpful than others. What we practice with ourselves we can then use when we talk to others."


CULTURE
~ An Army of Christian Right Lawyers Is Waging War on the Constitution -- " A look at the Christian Right's legal muscle leading the fight to end the separation of church and state."
~ Barbara Ehrenreich on the Importance of Collective Joy -- "In her new book, "Dancing in the Streets," Barbara Ehrenreich links the current epidemic of depression with our lack of group bonding rituals and explores how festive gatherings can be vehicles for social change." She's missing the ego-transcending element in group ritual in focusing too much on the political, but still interesting.
~ Working Flat Out And Feeling Fed Up -- "Millions of UK workers are likely to be suffering from depression and panic attacks because they are so stressed out by their jobs. This is one of the key findings of the latest 24-7 survey - a national research project conducted by the Work Life Balance Centre, Leicestershire, UK, and the universities of Keele, Coventry and Wolverhampton." Americans too.
~ Keeping the Faith -- "Pope Benedict XVI says he believes that the Roman Catholic Church in Europe faces a dire threat in secularism and that re-Christianizing the Continent is critical not only to the fate of the church but to the fate of Europe itself."
~ The Coulter Hoax: How Ann Coulter Exposed the Intelligent Design Movement -- "Coulter's treatment of evolutionary biology in her book Godless is best interpreted as a hoax, providing a scathing satire of the antievolution community."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ In New Contract, Newt Goes Green -- "Former House Speaker and possible Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich will be in Washington this week to debate Sen. John Kerry on global climate change and the environment. But don't expect Newt to be in denial mode. A source close to Gingrich says the debate will give him a chance to unveil the market- and technology-based environmental solutions that form the basis of his forthcoming book A Contract With the Earth."
~ Species Total Tops 1 Million -- "A worldwide scientific effort to catalog every living species has topped the 1 million milestone. Six years into the program the total has reached 1,009,000."
~ Bleakest Climate Report Approved -- "As the world gets hotter by degrees, millions of poor people will suffer from hunger, thirst, floods and disease unless drastic action is taken, scientists and diplomats warned Friday in their bleakest report ever on global warming."
~ Portable Refinery Makes Fuel from Food Scraps and Trash -- "The tactical biorefinery converts food waste and inorganic trash into electricity and is designed for the U.S. Army."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Empty of what? -- An excellent post from Justin at Ordinary Extraordinary on the Western misunderstanding of the concept of emptiness in Buddhism.
~ BLOG: You're Going to Be a Star: Post Your AQAL Essays on This Site -- The Ken Wilber blog is seeking submissions of AQAL articles, so that you too can be an integral star.
~ What do the colors mean? -- Joe Perez at Until explains the use of colors in his Kosmology.
~ Very concise post on metta, Buddism, and other faiths -- From Tiny Thinker at Peaceful Turmoil, a bunch of links to info on Nichiren Buddhism.
~ HHDL on Anger -- A good post from Tom at Thoughts Chase Thoughts.
~ Two ways of losing a belief: friction and investigation -- A nice post at Mystery of Existence.


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