"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."
e. e. cummings
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Supplements and Fat Loss -- Some good research presented by Alwyn Cosgrove.
~ The Super-Accumulation Program -- "Coach Poliquin doesn't think you have the balls to do this program. He doesn't think you're physically or mentally tough enough. If you do it correctly, you may even lose 15 pounds of muscle mass. That's right, I said lose muscle mass. Intrigued? You should be."
~ Thirty Minutes Three Times a Week is Not Enough -- "If you have heard that you get maximum benefit from exercising for 30 minutes three times a week, you've been given bad advice."
~ The Molecular Basis Of Obesity Uncovered -- "Why does the same diet make some of us gain more weight than others? The answer could be a molecule called Bsx, as scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Institute for Nutrition (DIFE), Potsdam, and the University of Cincinnati report in the current issue of Cell Metabolism. Bsx is the molecular link between spontaneous physical activity and food intake."
~ Cinnamon Can Help Control Your Blood Sugar -- "A Swedish research team has again confirmed previous studies from 2000 and 2004, showing the positive effect of cinnamon in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. "
~ Vitamin D Fights Cancer--and That's Not All -- "A single nutrient that keeps bones strong, wards off cancer, and protects against tuberculosis, diabetes, colds, and the flu. Sound too good to be true? There's more: It's free. But you're almost certainly not getting enough."
~ A daily dose of pistachios offers potential heart health benefits -- "Adding to a growing body of evidence, new research shows that a daily dose of pistachios may offer protective benefits against cardiovascular disease, according to a study published in the Volume 26, Number 2 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition."
PSYCHE
~ Need to make a decision? Get angry -- "The next time you are plagued with indecision and need a clear way out, it might help to get angry, according to a surprising new study."
~ Yoga May Help Treat Depression, Anxiety Disorders -- "Yoga's postures, controlled breathing and meditation may work together to help ease brains plagued by anxiety or depression, a new study shows."
~ A key to happiness: figuring out to keep your resolutions -- "Before I started my Happiness Project, I -- like everyone -- had repeatedly made resolutions to make positive changes in my life. Since I started the Happiness Project, I’ve managed to do better sticking to these resolutions. Recently I asked myself—why? What was different? Two reasons: accountability and salience."
~ Suffocating in a Relationship? -- "Where does "us" end and "I" begin?"
~ Book review: Living Well with Depression & Bipolar Disorder -- "John McNanamy is one of the growing number of expert patients who have written about their own health experiences and researched options for treatment. In his book, Living Well with Depression and Bipolar Disorder, McNanamy details the different types of depression and mania and methods of diagnosis. This book combines his own personal experiences, his interactions with other patients with depression or bipolar, and summarises other literature on the subject of mental health diagnosis and treatment."
~ Neural Mediators Of Attraction, Acceptance, And Rejection -- "Researchers from the University of Minnesota are reporting at the June meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping that an attractive woman's acceptance of a date with a male participant makes her appear more physically attractive to him and increases his brain activity in areas associated with reward or positive feelings. This does not occur if the woman is rejecting or unattractive."
~ Eyes Wide Shut: Closing-eyes Facilitates The Neural Processing Of Emotional Experience With Music -- "Closing the eyes is the simplest way for changing your state of mind, possibly by directing focus of attention inward to oneself. This has been long acknowledged by humans as reflected in ancient meditation methods as well as routine concentration and emotional acts. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging was used to discern the neural correlates of variations in emotional experience induced by closing the eyes."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ America: From Freedom to Fascism - full -- "Determined to find the law that requires American citizens to pay income tax, producer Aaron Russo ("The Rose," "Trading Places") set out on a journey to find the evidence. This film which is neither left, nor right-wing is a startling examination of government. It exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America since 1913 when the Federal Reserve system was fraudulently created."
~ Religion—our maelstrom of ignorance [Pharyngula] -- "We've got a new Gallup poll on evolution to agonize over. It's nothing but bad news—we are a nation of uneducated morons. Gary chose to weep over the political correlation: look how membership in the Republican party is tied to ignorance about science."
~ Let's just believe everything [Effect Measure] -- "We all know it is possible for people to hold two contradictory ideas in their head at the same time. Evolution and creationism are a case in point. Apparently in a recent USAToday/Gallup Poll, a majority of my fellow citizens responded they believe both are likely explanations for life on earth."
~ Six days at a Scottish monastery -- "In January, I went to stay at a monastery in northern Scotland. There was, I thought at the time, no more foreign place I could visit."
~ 4th Circuit Upholds Due Process Rights of 'Enemy Combatants' -- "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, widely perceived as the most pro-government federal appeals court, has ruled against the Bush administration's position that the president has the authority to detain indefinitely anyone he unilaterally identifies as an 'enemy combatant.'"
~ More Americans Agree Bill O'Reilly Is A Better News Source Than ABC News -- "This may alarm people who prefer their news served without an opinion: More people agree that Bill O'Reilly is a better source of political information than ABC News, according to a JWT survey conducted on behalf of Adweek."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ The Common-Sense World -- Deepak Chopra -- "In a series of recent posts I've been offering evidence of the possibility that the mind exists outside the brain. This isn't a concept that pleases materialists and skeptics of various stripes. The cruder ones complain that this is all "woo woo." The ad hominem ones deride my inability to understand basic science (this isn't to be taken personally--I assume anyone who thinks outside their rigid parameters would be equally scorned). The sophisticated ones invoke statistical errors and dubious research methods. But in essence the basis of skepticism comes down to a single claim that must be true and can never be violated. This is the claim that we live in a common-sense world."
~ Apple Extends Web Browser to Windows -- "Apple Makes Safari Web Browser Available to Windows Users."
~ Scientists Dish Up Rice Vaccine to Fight Cholera -- "Cholera toxin implanted in rice provokes strong immunity in mice while surviving the rigors of acid digestion."
~ Global Warming Not Behind Kilimanjaro Meltdown -- "Forces other than global warming to blame for disappearance of famous glacier."
~ Yahoo Weighs in on Free Speech in China -- "China should not punish people for expressing their political views on the Internet, Yahoo Inc. said Monday, a day after the mother of a Chinese reporter announced she was suing the U.S. company for helping officials imprison her son."
~ Competition, loss of selfishness mark shift to supersociety -- "How social or altruistic behavior evolved has been a central and hotly debated question, particularly by those researchers engaged in the study of social insect societies - ants, bees and wasps. In these groups, this question of what drives altruism also becomes critical to further understanding of how ancestral or primitive social organizations (with hierarchies and dominance fights, and poorly developed division of labor) evolve to become the more highly sophisticated networks found in some eusocial insect collectives termed “superorganisms.”"
~ India 'Bigfoot' Sightings Prompt Probe -- "Terrified villagers claim to spot families of hairy giants in northern India."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Where to begin? -- "A while back, a couple of friends told me that my “classical artistry” and now “Great Artistry” project I’ve been developing makes sense to them as artists, especially the aspect that deals with being familiar with the Great Ideas found in the Great Books, as part of the literacy of being an artist (or, the grammar, of being an artist). Their question was, ok, I get you, no, what should I read? Where should I begin?"
~ INTEGRAL VS. INTEGRATIVE - A Reply to Scott Parker - Elliot Benjamin -- "In Scott Parker's recent Integral World essay: “Winning The Integral Game?” he calls for genuine dialogue and constructive criticism of Ken Wilber's comprehensive philosophy and integral theory. I couldn't agree with Parker more, and I think that his depiction of the two rival camps of “fans “ and “critics” is an accurate and excellent depiction of the integral dilemma over the past few years."
~ Experiencing the Mystic -- "Perhaps the most interesting event happened on the coach ride home, when I experienced my own 'opening' or mystical event. Completely unasked for, and not striven for and separate from any specific practice...."
~ Buddhist Geeks 23: Feeding the Beast -- "In this episode, Warner talks about excited states like anger, the trouble with online community, and our attachment to ego. How do we “reinforce the Self” and how do we begin to work with our anger (trigger work? just noticing?)? Two questions Brad and Gwen talk about that we invite you to discuss in the comment section at Buddhist Geeks."
~ Framing the relative and absolute in spirituality -- "How do we describe our relative and absolute nature in spiritual/religious terms?"
~ Reich, orgasm and urdhvareta -- "One area that is somewhat ignored in Integral Theory to date is the significance of the psychosexual stream to overall development. One thing I appreciate Wilber for is in pointing out the difference between the Ascender and Descender biases and his argument that an Integral approach must balance these two tendencies."
~ Going beyond the comfort zone -- "Going beyond our comfort zone is part of many forms of learning, insight, clarification, development and so on… from physical exercise to relationships to learning languages to insight in the workings of the mind and much else."
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