"Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Image of the day:
According to OhGizmo, an artist and a palaeontologist have created a breakthrough in video game sciences by combining forces and recreating Pac-Man’s skull. The brilliant duo based their hypothetical skull on “the observation of human and various predatory animal skulls,” as well as plenty of observation of his work on the screen. And while the skulls aren’t for sale (at least, not just yet), I have no doubt schools and bio labs across the country will be trying to get their mitts on one of these as soon as possible.
BODY
~ Healthy Body Weight Throughout Adulthood May Help Delay Disability -- "Maintaining a healthy body weight throughout adulthood may help prevent or delay the onset of physical disability as we age, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues."
~ How do muscles get bigger? -- "Getting bigger muscles is the top proroity of anyone working out with weights. Lets look at how your muscles get bigger and then you can figure out what it will take for you to increase your muscle gains."
~ Cord blood stem cells produce insulin: researchers -- "Stem cells taken from the umbilical cords of newborns can be engineered to produce insulin and may someday be used to treat diabetes, U.S. and British researchers reported on Friday."
~ Cruciferous veggies may ward off bladder cancer -- "Substances found in cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, may help protect people from bladder cancer, a new study shows." And other cancers, too, since these vegetables help the body clear excess estrogen.
~ Migraine Symptoms And Causes -- "It is estimated that some 28 million people have been diagnosed as suffering from migraines in the US alone, while a further 14 million are thought to have undiagnosed migraine headaches. The World Health Organization considers migraines to be one of the most debilitating diseases of mankind. One migraine headache can put your life "on hold" for anything from a few hours to a couple of days."
~ Genes Add Up Risk Of Autoimmune Disease -- "Geneticists have identified a link between the number of copies of a specific gene an individual has and their susceptibility to autoimmune diseases like lupus. Research using DNA has revealed that people who have a below average number of copies of a gene, known as FCGR3B, have an increased risk of developing diseases caused when the body's immune system attacks its own tissue."
~ Snacking can be good for the elderly -- "Jo Spann used to be a steak-and-potatoes, three-squares-a-day type, but as the years have gone by, the 72-year-old now finds herself snacking “all the time.” A full meal now is usually a once-a-day event." This works for everyone -- if you take in the same number of calories in 3 large meals that you might in 6 smaller meals, you're more likely to store fat.
PSYCHE
~ Cure Stage Fright with a Common Blood Pressure Pill -- "Many people sweat profusely because they are nervous about appearing before an audience. An Inderal pill taken one half hour before public speaking or any other high-pressure event can prevent the sweating, shaking and other effects of stage fright. Inderal is a beta blocker commonly used to control blood pressure; it is a safe and very effective way to get rid of even the worst stage fright. Check with your doctor."
~ How You Tell the Story of Your Life -- Another look at how personal narratives can shape our health and sense of self -- from the positive psychology folks.
~ Nonverbal Behaviour -- "Nonverbal behaviour is an area of psychology that receives stacks of media attention. There are endless popular psychology pieces claiming to teach you how to tell if someone is lying or whether they like you or not. All well and good, these things are really useful to know. But where popular accounts often fail is they tend to be simplistic. This series takes a look at some of the more novel and sophisticated approaches to research in non-verbal communication. We start with a study on the 'temporal dynamics of smiling' followed by an investigation of gender differences in reading nonverbal behaviour."
~ Brain Development In Some 500 Children Across US Tracked By NIH Study -- "Children appear to approach adult levels of performance on many basic cognitive and motor skills by age 11 or 12, according to a new study coordinated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).The NIH Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Study of Normal Brain Development is tracking brain and behavioral development in about 500 healthy American children, from birth to age 18." The study should go until age 30.
~ A First Glimpse At Healthy Brain And Behavioral Development -- "Yes, there are gender differences in cognitive function, but they're more limited than previously thought. And yes, income does affect cognitive performance - but less than expected when only healthy children are considered. And while basic cognitive skills steadily improve in middle childhood, they then seem to level off - questioning the idea of a burst of brain development in adolescence."
~ Why Good Things Happen to Good People -- "New research proves the link between doing good and living a longer, healthier, happier life."
~ 7 Signs of Addictive Relationships -- "Relationships can enhance or destroy your self-worth. Here's seven ways to know whether it's time to move out of an addictive relationship (& what exactly this is)."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Hillary Clinton Unveils Plan For Reducing Health Care Costs -- "Hillary Clinton, Democratic Senator for New York and US presidential candidate made a speech at George Washington University yesterday where she unveiled her strategy for health care reform, focusing on a seven point plan to reduce healthcare costs."
~ Education Reduces Cross-Cultural Misunderstanding of Nonverbal Behaviour -- "When nonverbal behaviour varies across cultures, it's easy to misunderstand someone from a different culture to your own. Despite this, when learning a foreign language, there's not much focus on nonverbal behaviour. Perhaps there should be."
~ Tour De France Champ Used Drugs -- "Bjarne Riis became the first Tour de France winner to admit using performance-enhancing drugs to win the sport's premier race, further eroding cycling's credibility after a series of doping confessions." Cycling is a mess -- anyone competing at the highest levels is using drugs, by necessity.
~ Study: Media Focusing on Democrats -- "By a wide margin, the news media concentrated on Democratic Presidential contenders more than Republicans during the first three months of 2007, according to a study."
~ Transgender Minister Reappointed -- "A United Methodist minister who has changed gender since being chosen to lead a congregation in Baltimore will be reappointed there, church officials announced."
~ No Checks, No Balances -- "The Iraq War continues: No checks, no balances, David Corn writes. Grassroots Democrats are enraged over Congress's failure to rein in the president. But the game's not over."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Quantum Dots Reach Clinical Lab -- "Bioconjugated quantum dots - luminescent nanoparticles linked to biological molecules - have shown great promise as tools for disease diagnosis and treatment, but their medical use has been limited by the lack of specific instructions for clinicians. Now, new clinical protocols detailing how to prepare, process and quantify these tiny particles will arm laboratory physicians with the information they need to track biomarkers in cells and tissues."
~ Top 10 Most Incredible Animal Journeys -- "Animals will make extraordinary and often mysterious expeditions to find a good meal, sexy mates, and the perfect place to raise a family."
~ Berkeley, Calif., goes all crazy with the green ideas -- "Six months ago, voters in Berkeley, Calif., overwhelmingly approved a measure to reduce the city's emissions 80 percent by 2050. Now proposals have been laid out to accomplish that goal, including requiring builders to use green materials, making landlords provide free bus passes to tenants, informing residents of the size of their carbon footprint, and helping sun-ergize every roof in the city."
~ MIT-led team uncovers malaria mechanism -- "During the first 24 hours of invasion by the malaria-inducing parasite Plasmodium falciparum, red blood cells start to lose their ability to deform and squeeze through tiny blood vessels-one of the hallmarks of the deadly disease that infects nearly 400 million people each year. Now, an international team of researchers led by an MIT professor has demonstrated just why that happens."
~ Acoustic Stove Could Aid Third World -- "An acoustically-powered stove is a cooker, fridge and generator in one."
~ Conservationists Warn India Rhinos Running Out of Space -- "With their numbers on the rise, the endangered great one-horn rhinoceroses in India's main national rhino park are running out of space as authorities delay sending them to other reserves, conservationists say."
~ Female sharks may reproduce without having sex. What’s next? -- "Female sharks can reproduce without having sex, scientists have found. A female hammerhead shark has given birth without mating with a male and its offspring has no paternal DNA."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Beyond the Beyond: Post-Metaphysics Call! -- "This week on Integral Spiritual Center...."
~ Buddha and the World (Part 3) -- Deepak Chopra -- "One reason that people revere Buddha but don't follow him is that they don't feel motivated enough to seek change. They hold an image of Buddhist monks perpetually meditating, observing strict discipline, and avoiding the world. The images aren't false, but they aren't complete, either."
~ Integral Living: A Practical Guide to Remembering Joy and Resting in Equanimity -- "Based on my personal experience and a nascent understanding of developmental psychology, a truly integral, mature life is not possible until one arrives at transegoic perspectives that take the constructed self as an object requiring deep evaluation and, sometimes, purgation of ineffective coping strategies and self-limiting habits. The challenge inherent in growth to higher levels of consciousness, however, is that acquiring the activation energy to move to the next level is not generated in the absence of psychic pain."
~ BLOG: Guest Blog: Trans-Hippie Integral Consciousness (by Ewan Townhead) -- "Ken saved my life. I was floundering; overwhelmed by choice, lost through freedom, wandering the endless halls of a relativistic maze. I was ready, had been ready for some time, yearning for the lift up to the next floor, but with no map to find my way there; I was getting desperate."
~ Desiring the Desireless: Our Needs and Strategies -- "Studying dharma over the last few years has been an exciting and confusing ordeal. What has been most confusing is the concept of non-attachment to desire. In Buddhism, desire is seen as the root cause of suffering. While this certainly makes a lot of sense, there is something that doesn’t quite feel right about it. Desire after all is ever-present at all moments in all beings, guiding every action we take."
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