"A gentleman is a man who can play the accordion but doesn't."
~ Unknown
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Eccentrics with Pavel -- "Pavel and Chad and bears, oh my! Pavel and Chad and bears, oh my! Okay, there are no bears in this article, but hey, Pavel Tsatsouline and Chad Waterbury working together ought to be exciting enough!"
~ Your Brain And Hormones May Conspire To Make You Fat -- "Why do some people get fat even when they eat relatively little? What creates that irresistible urge for a bag of potato chips or a hunk of chocolate cake, as opposed to a nice crisp apple? Can food urges be irresistible? Physiologists are unraveling the role that your hormones and brain play in urging you to eat more than you should." As always, biology is NOT destiny.
~ Green Tea Compound May Be A Therapy For Rheumatoid Arthritis -- "A new study from the University of Michigan Health System suggests that a compound in green tea may provide therapeutic benefits to people with rheumatoid arthritis. The study, presented April 29 at the Experimental Biology 2007 in Washington, D.C., looks at a potent anti-inflammatory compound derived from green tea."
~ Study Shows No Link Between Self-Weighing And Depression In Women -- "Frequent self-weighing is not associated with depression in women, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. A study being published in a recent issue of Preventive Medicine found no strong evidence linking frequent scale stepping and depression in women. In addition, self-weighing daily, rather than once every week or month, was associated with lower Body Mass Index (BMI) levels in women 40 years or older."
~ Intersterified Oils: The New Trans Fats? -- "Laws requiring trans fats or partially hydrogenated oils to be listed on nutrition labels went into effect last year, so food manufacturers are finally eliminating them from their products. One substitute that is appearing in some foods is a new type of fat made with a process called interesterification or fatty acid randomization. Interesterified oils have saturated fatty acids, usually from plants, inserted into other vegetable oils. A study from Brandeis University shows that both interesterified fats and partially hydrogenated oils raise the bad LDL and lower the good HDL cholesterol much more than the plant saturated fats found in palm, palm kernel and coconut oils."
~ Study Outlines Fat Hormone's Role in Breast Cancer (HealthDay) -- "Italian researchers are shedding light on how leptin, a hormone found in fat cells, may play a major role in the development and progression of breast cancer."
~ Scientists Prepare for Study on Cherries -- "After getting promising results from experiments with rats, University of Michigan scientists say they're preparing for a clinical study of whether eating tart cherries can help people reduce risk of heart disease and diabetes...."
~ How pistachios help the heart -- "A handful or two of pistachio nuts a day could keep heart disease at bay, research suggests. They appear to lower cholesterol and keep arteries healthy."
~ Why alcohol boosts breast cancer risk: study -- "A study in mice shows that moderate alcohol consumption stimulates the growth and progression of breast cancer by fueling the development of new blood vessels -- a process called "angiogenesis." It does this by boosting expression of a key growth factor known as vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF."
PSYCHE
~ Cannabis chemical curbs psychotic symptoms -- "One of the active chemicals in cannabis inhibits psychotic symptoms in people with schizophrenia, according to a study which compared it with a leading anti-psychotic drug." See also: Doctors: Pot Triggers Psychotic Symptoms. Hmmm, I'm confused.
~ Scientists Restore Lost Memory in Alzheimer's-Like Mice (HealthDay) -- "In a new study, mice bioengineered to mimic the fading memory of Alzheimer's patients got their memories restored -- either by being placed in stimulating environments or by receiving a drug most commonly used to fight cancer."
~ Perfectionists more stressed by pressure -- "Perfectionists are more sensitive to psychosocial stresses than their more relaxed peers, and this greater responsiveness to stress may have health consequences."
~ Are you interested in reading about creativity? -- A list of books (with links) on creativity.
~ Nobel Winning Economist Discusses His Own Asperger's Syndrome -- "The excellent economics blog Marginal Revolution pointed out this nice YouTube video of Nobel Prize winning economist Vernon Smith. Working and teaching at George Mason University, Smith has been outspoken about his own experiences with Asperger's, and his achievements serve as a powerful reminder of what many who deal with Asperger's can accomplish."
~ Emotion research needs you -- "Jeremy Dean is the author of PsyBlog and also a postgraduate psychology researcher. He's asking for people to spend 15 minutes completing some online questionnaires as part of a study on emotion."
~ Introducing Frigidity -- "Recently there has been a lot of talk, here at this blog (Kripke, Consciousness and the 'Corn, and Two Concepts of Transitive Consciousness) and over at the Brain Hammer (Me So 'Corny, Kripkenite, and Crushing Puppies, Superman) about kripke and causal theories of reference. I have been arguing that a causal theory of reference is independently motivated and if we happen to like higher-order theories of consciousness it gives us a very nice answer to several objections that seem wide spread and in fact gives us an implementation of the higher-order strategy and saves very many of the Cartesian intuitions that people have about consciousness." Geek stuff, but cool.
~ Speed Dating put to the test -- "Psychologists are very interested in first impressions, and in the nature of romantic attraction. What makes a date attractive, very quickly and in a romantic way? And what turns people off? Is falling in love just a subset of liking?"
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ ID and Junk DNA [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] -- Using "junk DNA" to disprove "intelligent design."
~ Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants -- "Online psychedelic drug archive Erowid has scanned in a copy of a classic guide to hallucinogenic plants of the world and how they are used by native peoples. The Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants is by pioneering ethnobotanist, Richard E. Schultes."
~ Spidey the Swinger -- "In 'Spider-Man 3,' our once reluctant hero gets a little cocky--until he discovers his dark side." In case you care.
~ What happens to our forces in Iraq if Bush vetoes the war spending bill? -- "This week, President Bush is expected to veto a $124.2 billion war spending bill that stipulates a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Lawmakers may revise the legislation, but in the meantime, could the armed forces run out of money?"
~ Editor's Cut: Twelve Steps to Cutting Poverty in Half -- "A bold new plan would improve the lives of 37 million American adults and children. Do we have the political will to do it?"
~ U.S. Given Map That Named America -- "German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday officially handed over to the United States the 500-year-old map that was the first to tell the world of a new land it called America."
~ Does Hillary want Gore to run? -- "Normally you don't advertise to potential donors and operatives that they might want to save their money and time for some other candidate who's not yet in the race, right? But when you think about it, a Gore entry might be good for Hillary--it would dilute the field opposing her, allowing her to maybe squeak by with a plurality victory. ..."
~ Beware the Tennessee Twosome -- "If the Tennessee twosome of Al Gore and Fred Thompson keep the political world guessing much longer about their presidential ambitions, they might find themselves crowned as front-runners. That is an exaggeration of course, but as the former Democratic vice president and one-time Republican U.S. senator turned actor keep considering their White House options, their poll numbers keep rising."
~ The Strange Death of Multiculturalism -- "The ideal of multiculturalism at home was echoed with an ideology of cultural relativism abroad, especially in the 1970's and 1980's. This evolved stealthily into a form of moral racism which held that white Europeans deserved liberal democracy but that people of different cultures had to wait for it. African dictators might do dreadful things but somehow they did not meet with condemnation from many European intellectuals, for criticism implied cultural arrogance."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Geologists Study Mount Baker Happenings -- "More than three decades after steam bursts from Mount Baker resulted in a temporary evacuation of the Baker Lake area, geologists are trying to determine what is happening beneath the volcano."
~ New VERITAS telescope array may help find 'dark matter' -- "Scientists in the Northern Hemisphere have opened a new window on the universe allowing them to explore and understand the cosmos at a much higher level of precision than was previously available. Think of it as acquiring a new pair of glasses that allow you to see more clearly. These new "glasses" are VERITAS, (the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System), a major new ground-based gamma-ray observatory, designed to provide an in-depth examination of the universe."
~ Ape gestures offer clues to the evolution of human communication -- "Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have found bonobos and chimpanzees use manual gestures of their hands, feet and limbs more flexibly than they do facial expressions and vocalizations, further supporting the evolution of human language began with gestures as the gestural origin hypothesis of language suggests."
~ Finding the God Particle [commonground] -- "Physicists in Canada have a brand new atom smasher designed to reveal one of the Universe's great secrets: Why does matter have mass? The unsexy sounding still though theoretical sub-atomic particle Hobbs boson has an ecumenical alias the "God particle." Given the pronounced views on God professed by many scientists, the name alone is interesting."
~ My little world (and yours, too) -- "Imagine, as a thought experiment, that everyone on the planet had the same share of the world's resources. It turns out your share is about six acres (2.5 hectares) of dry land. Now imagine if that were your whole world. How would you treat it?"
~ Noxious Lightning -- "Lightning is more than light and noise: It's an intense chemical factory that affects both local air quality and global climate. But how big is the effect? Researchers aren't sure. To answer the question they're developing a new technique to estimate the factory's output."
~ U.S. and China Object to Global Warming Report -- "The U.S. and China are disputing a climate report proposed by scientists." Imagine that -- the world's two largest polluters don't want the study.
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Breaking of the bread -- "I've recently begun conversations with friends about the possibility that the time has finally arrived for me to formally enter the religious life. My path of discernment has led not only to the need to embrace a particular religious community, but also the desire to follow the Spirit into the way of a community devoted to living the Apostolic calling and embracing Jesus Christ himself as the ideal model for being and becoming more fully human."
~ Buddhist Geeks 17: Genpo “Big Mind’s” Gwen -- "In this final segment with Genpo Roshi, Gwen Bell is guided through the Big Mind process. This final portion of the interview gives listeners a rare opportunity to listen to the Big Mind experience happen unscripted and raw."
~ What is Vesak? -- "On Vesak Day, Buddhists all over the world commemorate events of significance to Buddhists of all traditions: The Birth, Enlightenment and the Passing Away of Gautama Buddha."
~ Philosophy the Matrix & Kabbalah -- "I rediscovered the Matrix trilogy this weekend when I accidentally stumbled across two interesting documentaries on the series."
~ GUDO'S ANSWERS -- "Recently a guy named Gustav sent Gudo Nishijima a list of questions. He sent his answers out to several of his students. I thought you might enjoy seeing them. I have not rewritten these at all, so the funny grammar is still as I received it. Enjoy."
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