"We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities."
~ Walt Kelly
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Carbohydrate Tolerance: Frontline Fat Loss -- "There's a term used to describe people who don't control their tolerance to carbohydrates. They're called fat people. Dave Barr is here to tell you how to make carbs work for you and not against you."
~ Toxin detected after 1 shift in smoky bar: study (Reuters) -- "Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants can result in measurable levels of a toxin in workers' bodies that is known to cause lung cancer, U.S. researchers said on Thursday." AZ bars and restaurants are now smoke free.
~ Tricks to help you eat healthfully on the road -- "Amid the rush and stress of business travel, nutrition is often pushed aside. While worrying about beating traffic, making flights, preparing for meetings and presentations, who has the time or the energy to think about eating healthfully?"
~ Kroger starts selling cholesterol-reducing milk -- "Kroger Co., the largest U.S. grocery chain, said on Thursday that it would start selling a cholesterol reducing, fat-free milk in its stores this week."
~ Further Legitimization Of Fibromyalgia As A True Medical Condition -- "Fibromyalgia, a chronic, widespread pain in muscles and soft tissues accompanied by fatigue, is a fairly common condition that does not manifest any structural damage in an organ. Twenty-five years ago, Muhammad B. Yunus, MD, and colleagues published the first controlled study of the clinical characteristics of fibromyalgia syndrome." The people I know who suffer from this have no doubt it is a medical condition.
~ Fructose: Sugar's Dark Side? -- "The fructose drinkers' LDL "bad" cholesterol, blood fats, and other signs of worsening heart risk all increased. And alarmingly, their insulin sensitivity decreased -- a sign that their diabetes risk was increasing, too. To add insult to injury, the fructose drinkers gained about 3 pounds, while the glucose drinkers didn't gain weight."
~ Eight of Summer's Most Fattening Foods -- "Want to fit into that bathing suit all summer long? Eight hot-weather treats you should avoid."
PSYCHE
~ Are you Suffering from Superwoman Syndrome? -- "Find out if you're trying to do too much and it's causing you extra stress in your life."
~ Frequent Brain Stimulation In Old Age Reduces Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease -- "How often older adults read a newspaper, play chess, or engage in other mentally stimulating activities is related to the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center published June 27 in the online edition of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology."
~ Waking the Unconscious Smoker -- "The psychologists theorize that the mere perception of smoking may stimulate the “impulsive brain,” activating “scripts” like “myself as smoker” that would otherwise lie dormant."
~ Is bigotry a mental illness? -- "The Psychiatric Times has an interesting article discussing whether bigotry should be classified as a mental illness. The author concludes no, but the discussion gives an important insight into how we decide what is a mental illness and what is not."
~ A Guide to Escaping Materialism and Finding Happiness -- "Today’s materialistic world often urges us to buy the coolest gadgets, the trendiest clothes, bigger and better things, but research shows that possessions and purchases don’t buy us happiness."
~ What Drug Companies can Learn from Positive Psychology -- "But what about the things that can go less right? It’s of course important to know about pathological side effects, but I’d also like to know how a drug can affect my functioning “north of neutral.” Does the drug impede my typical feelings of vitality? Will I experience less positive affect than usual? Will I run as far and as fast? In short, will the drug prevent me from feeling my best?"
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Path for generic biologics clears Senate panel -- "A U.S. Senate panel voted on Wednesday to set a path for generic drugmakers to seek approval of cheaper, copycat versions of expensive biotechnology medicines."
~ White House Rejects Subpoenas, Showdown Looms -- "Following a Bush administration assertion of executive privilege today, reports Rachel Van Dongen for The Hill, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers immediately suggested that a contempt of Congress citation may be needed."
~ Senate Blocks Immigration Bill -- ""The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush's plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections," reports Charles Babington of the Associated Press."
~ Joyce Carol Oates named Humanist of the Year -- "Joyce Carol Oates, the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor in the Humanities, has been named the 2007 Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association."
~ Resisting the rock-novel demon -- "If DeLillo and Rushdie can’t pull it off, what hope is there for the great rock novel?"
~ China debates democracy -- "Ahead of its congress later this year, the Chinese Communist Party is tolerating a surprisingly wide-ranging debate about political reform."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Five Challengers to the iPhone -- "The iPhone looks like a great device, but it has its pros and cons and can't be all things to all people, despite the ads suggesting it might be. It's likely to be the best music-playing phone in the field and even great for Web browsing—within range of a WiFi hot spot. There are smartphones, however, that are better for consumers with other interests, be they shutterbugs or worker bees." See also: How the IPhone Breaks Industry Rules.
~ Domestic Cats May Have Ancient Roots -- "Garfield, Morris and the Aristocats get the fame, but look to the origins of today's furry felines and you find "lybica," a Middle Eastern wildcat. Domestic cats can be traced to wild progenitors that interbred well over 100,000 years ago, new research indicates."
~ New, invisible nano-fibers conduct electricity, repel dirt -- "Tiny plastic fibers could be the key to some diverse technologies in the future -- including self-cleaning surfaces, transparent electronics, and biomedical tools that manipulate strands of DNA."
~ Mysterious Clouds Creeping Out of the Arctic -- "First "night-shining" clouds of 2007 seen from the ground."
~ Potential cure for HIV discovered -- "In a breakthrough that could potentially lead to a cure for HIV infection, scientists have discovered a way to remove the virus from infected cells, a study released Thursday said."
~ Wilderness almost non-existent on planet Earth: study -- "Humans have domesticated the planet to such a degree that few untouched spots remain, researchers report in a review article published in the journal Science."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ PODCAST: The Joshua Bell Experiment, part IV—finale -- "For us as working artists, this experiment raised many questions: Can music have a transcendent effect regardless of frame? What is our take-away from this experiment, as working artists, even as non-musicians?"
~ Relativism revealing the heart -- "When there is a thorough relativism at the levels of views and stories, a sincere investigation of each story and the truth in its reversals, there is a release from attachment to any of them. There is a freedom in how we relate to them and use them in our daily life. They become only tools of temporary and practical value. An aid for this human self to navigate and operate in the world."
~ Alcoholism 'is all in the mind' says Buddhist centre -- "'This therapy is about how you manage your mind. It is about working with thoughts and seeing that they are just thoughts, not facts' - Project Director Maitreyabandhu London, UK -- BUDDHISTS have dreamed up a new method of helping fight alcoholism in the East End."
~ International Centre for Integral Studies: Online Courses -- "Its aim is to open up a field of on-going higher education and research in all areas of human development so as to generate the understanding, responsibility and skills to respond adequately to the opportunities and problems of modernity and to create a better global future." This is heavily based in the work of Sri Aurobindo.
~ Commenting on Tool and Alex Grey -- Dan Allison has some thoughts on the marriage of Tool and Alex Grey, and the lack of humility.
~ Stirring it up -- "In exploring knots, I find it helpful to allow the mind free reins in going into beliefs… attention naturally goes there anyway, since they are juicy and have a charge for us, and are intimately intertwined with the center of our life: the story of this separate I."
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment