Quote of the day:
"Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died."
~ Steven Wright
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Blood on the Barbell: Dan John -- "Blood on the Barbell is our new series describing workouts to do when your woman left you, your momma' don't love you, and even your dog doesn't care much for you. This time, Dan John brings the hurt and the healin'."
~ Diabetes can be caused by excess fat in muscles -- Not new info -- "Before insulin can do its job of driving sugar into cells, it must first attach on special hooks on the surface of cell membranes called insulin receptors. When excess fat is stored in muscles, the insulin receptors internalize so that insulin cannot attach on the hooks. This markedly increases the amount of insulin that is necessary to drive sugar into cells, and eventually huge amounts of sugar accumulate in the bloodstream to cause diabetes and damage every cell in the body."
~ Marine Omega-3 Fatty Acids Have Positive Effect On Muscle Mass, Study Shows -- "A research team led by Carole Thivierge, from Universite Laval's Institute of Nutraceutics and Functional Foods, shows that omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil have a positive effect on the metabolism of muscle proteins. This finding, published in a recent edition of the Journal of Physiology, could have significant implications in the fields of animal farming as well as human health."
~ Can An Omega-3 Fatty Acid Slow The Progression Of Alzheimer's Disease? -- "Nutritionists have long endorsed fish as part of a heart-healthy diet, and now some studies suggest that omega-3 fatty acids found in the oil of certain fish may also benefit the brain by lowering the risk of Alzheimer's disease."
~ 4 Ways to Lose Body Fat Faster -- The usual good advice: diet, hydration, smaller frequent meals, weight training.
~ More Proof That Lifting Heavy Doesn't Bulk Girls Up -- "At a bodyweight of 115lbs, Samantha Turnbull can snatch 156lbs (from floor to overhead in one graceful movement). Smantha can also clean and jerk (floor to overhead in two movements) 187lbs - that's 1.6 times her bodyweight." Damn!
PSYCHE
~ Another important element of happiness: having a sense of CONTROL over your life -- "Research shows that a key component of happiness is a sense of control over your life. The more you perceive yourself to be in control, the better you feel. A sense of control means having a feeling of autonomy, of choosing how you spend your time, of doing your own work in your own way."
~ Green Walking Beats The Blues, New Study Recommends Ecotherapy For Depression -- "Going for a green walk in a park or countryside where one is surrounded by nature reduces depression whereas walking in a shopping centre or urban setting increases depression."
~ Neuropsychoanalysis: Freud and the brain -- "Bookslut has an in-depth interview with neuropsychologist Dr Mark Solms, one of the pioneers of neuropsychoanalysis, the field that attempts to test, extend and integrate Freudian ideas with modern neuroscience."
~ Self Harming Behaviour May Be Predicted ByTest -- "Researchers have found a better way to predict self-injurious behavior by using a test that does not rely on the individual to articulate their thoughts, but instead assesses their implicit attitudes towards self-injury. This procedure addresses a major challenge in the identification of people who engage in self-injurious behavior, because such individuals are often intentionally uncommunicative in order to avoid unwanted treatment as well as unable to articulate their feelings."
~ Emoticons as a psychiatric treatment guide -- Humor.
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ The Sharpton/Hitchens smackdown -- "You know you're in for a raucous dialogue when the guy who wrote a book called God Is Not Great is the less controversial of the two speakers. A week ago, Slate contributor and God Is Not Great author Christopher Hitchens and the Rev. Al Sharpton faced off in a debate about religion at the New York Public Library. Slate Editor Jacob Weisberg moderated the event."
~ Gingrich May Run for President -- "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday there is a very good chance he'll get into the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, but he won't decide until after September."
~ What Mitt Romney Believes -- "Will the Republican's past liberal views on abortion come back to haunt him?"
~ Fever Pitch -- "Pharmaceutical companies that appeal directly to the people their products most benefit--patients--are still regarded with suspicion. The Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit that researches biomedical issues, recommended a ban on advertising new classes of drugs in a report commissioned by Congress. Until last week, Senate legislation mandating an overhaul of the FDA approval process would also have given the FDA the power to ban ads for new drugs until two years after approval. Now that the provision has been weakened, interest groups are already calling for separate legislation to cut off communication between manufacturer and consumer."
~ Cheney Sabotages Talks with Tehran -- "Leave it to Dick Cheney to dash hopes for any cooler heads to prevail between Washington and Tehran."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Mystery Solved: How Alexander the Great Defeated Tyre -- "Ancient sandbar allowed him to build a causeway to the island."
~ Using soil to lock up carbon could help offset global warming -- "In the journal Nature, Cornell biogeochemist Johannes Lehmann writes that an economical way to help offset global warming is to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by charring biomass without the use of oxygen."
~ 'Fossil' Star Is Milky Way's Oldest -- "The oldest known star in the Milky Way was born 13.2 billion years ago."
~ Scientists search for cause of bee deaths -- "A U.S. scientist says parasites, pathogens and pesticides are all possible suspects in the recent staggering decline in the number of the world's honeybees."
~ Cluster spacecraft makes a shocking discovery -- "ESA's Cluster was in the right place and time to make a shocking discovery. The four spacecraft encountered a shock wave that kept breaking and reforming - predicted only in theory."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ A special word of thanks to Julian over at Zaadz for organizing the first ever symposium on Zaadz, called Integrative Spirituality: Grounded Contemporary Perspectives. Here are the seven participants:
~ From Mike at Unknowing Mind: Interfaith Blog Event #6: Role of Faith.
~ Altitude and development -- "In Rommel’s post Don’t Confuse Dharma with Derrida, he asked several questions regarding altitude (level of development) of the assessor and assessing certain documents – in this case Wilber’s assessment of Lankavatara Sutra as a “turquoise” document."
~ Mindfulness in Each Breath -- "In video from our new partner MypathTV, Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh explains how by paying attention to inhaling and exhaling, we can become more present and alive. Watch the video."
~ The gifts of states -- "Here are a few of the gifts of states, of shifting contents of experience…"
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Thank goodness for the return of speedlinking!
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