Quote of the day:
"Why shouldn't things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together."
~ George Santayana
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Rethinking the Maximum Heart Rate Formula -- "For more than forty years, fitness instructors have based exercise prescriptions on the maximum heart rate formula of 220 minus your age. A study from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan shows that this formula may be wrong (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, May 2007). The researchers found that the original formula overestimated the maximum heart rate for younger exercisers and underestimated the maximum rate for older ones. The new formula they recommend is 206.9 - (age x .67) = maximum heart rate."
~ Walking Has Major Benefits, Whatever The Problem -- "These days, it's easy for people to get confused about exercise -- how many minutes a day should they spend working out, for how long and at what exertion level. Conflicting facts and opinions abound, but one Mayo Clinic physician says the bottom line is this: walking is good, whether the outcome measurement is blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, joint problems or mental health."
~ Eating grapefruit can increase breast cancer by almost a third -- "Eating grapefruit can increase the risk of breast cancer by almost a third, a study suggests. It is thought the fruit boosts blood levels of estrogen - the hormone associated with the risk of the disease."
~ Blood Test Warns of Dangerous 'Deep Belly' Fat -- "A protein in blood points to rising amounts of a particularly lethal form of body fat around organs, scientists say. As levels of retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) rise, so do levels of "inter-abdominal fat" linked to an increased risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the researchers say."
~ Blame that bad back on your ancestors -- "A spine specialist trying to figure out why people so often have bad backs says he has come up with a new theory about when and how early humans evolved the ability to walk upright."
PSYCHE
~ Procedure Leaves OCD Patient 'Reborn' -- "Doctor Uses Deep Brain Stimulation, Sometimes Used to Treat Parkinson's, to Help OCD Sufferer."
~ Counterfactual Thinking Study Sheds Light On How We Would Have Done Things Differently -- "If you're like most people, you've probably experienced a shoulda-woulda-coulda moment; a time when we lament our missteps, saying that we should have invested in a certain stock, should have become a doctor instead of a lawyer and so on. "
~ Shifting eye therapy sucessfully treats trauma -- "A recent study has found that EMDR, a once suspect therapy that involves recalling traumatic memories while moving your eyes, is one of the most effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."
~ Comfort eating really does make people happier -- "As anyone who has dived into a chocolate cake or pizza in moments of stress will tell you, emotional eating is comforting and can cheer people up. Now researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have confirmed that comfort eating...."
~ MIT IDs mechanism behind fear -- "Researchers from MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have uncovered a molecular mechanism that governs the formation of fears stemming from traumatic events. The work could lead to the first drug to treat the millions of adults who suffer each year from persistent, debilitating fears - including hundreds of soldiers returning from conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan."
~ When failure works -- "In a way our list of expectations is an agenda that we impose upon the world and it acts as a filter for our attention. We see things not as they really are, but as either good, bad or indifferent, judged in relation to what we want.. and our attention goes to whatever we've deemed significant. It's this filtering process that allows us to create personal meaning, from a world that on the face of it seems random and meaningless. But because this filtered vision is the only way we now know of looking at life, we assume that what we are looking at is reality."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ A Life of Unrest -- "Khaled Abu Hilal’s journey is Gaza’s journey: bleak, violent and headed nowhere hopeful."
~ Discussing Impeachment -- "Bill Moyers hosted a conversation about impeachment with conservative Republican constitutional law scholar Bruce Fein and columnist John Nichols from The Nation. Crooks and Liars has the video. Nichols has a post up titled 'Cheney's Actions Put Impeachment on the Table.'"
~ The Way We Live Now: What Does It Take? -- "There is not one leading presidential candidate with a lot of Washington experience."
~ Dilemma: How Does U.S. Get Out of Iraq? -- "As public pressure to withdraw from Iraq increases, the president is losing GOP supporters in Congress."
~ Obama bemoans 'epidemic of violence' (AP) -- "Standing before a church congregation that has witnessed inner-city violence firsthand, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Sunday that more must be done to end a social ill that is 'sickening the soul of this nation.'"
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Loopy logic: Moebius strip riddle is solved at last -- "Scientists say they have cracked a nearly eight-decade-old riddle involving the Moebius strip, a mathematical phenomenon that has also become an icon of art."
~ Traditional architecture fuel-efficient -- "A study commissioned by a British architectural firm finds traditional buildings are more eco-friendly than modern ones with lots of glass."
~ The sun is not to blame for global warming -- "It’s global warming, it’s climate change, it’s our fault, no it’s volcanoes… wait, actually it’s the sun! Or maybe not. The arguments about climate change have been raging for years."
~ Valuing the commons -- "Every so often there arises an environmental controversy that tests the capacity of Americans to face reality. One such case is emerging in New York City, where Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has proposed a "congestion fee" on cars and trucks driving into Manhattan."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHISM
~ Integral discussions on peer to peer economics -- "The Open Integral blog, which usually has in-depth conversations around the theme of integral spirituality (i.e. a forum for integral philosophers who want to stay independent or critical from Ken Wilber’s increasingly authoritarian version of it), recently started a discussion on emerging integral economic systems and practices."
~ Buddhism: in the news -- "Two stories and a song have recently caught my eye."
~ Philosophy: Foundations of Happiness -- "We spend a lot of our lives searching for happiness, it seems, and never quite finding it. In my conversations with people about finding happiness there has been a surprising trend: those who have found happiness weren't looking for it, weren't expecting it, and those who are unhappy seem to mull on about their searches for happiness. And those who are searching usually point to something out there, the right partner, the right job, or the right place to live, as the panacea for unhappiness."
~ Emerging economic structures -- "In the Mackey thread I asked if capitalism, as an emergent socio-economic structure, could embody the values that Mackey represents, which seem to arise at a higher level of development. I used the analogy of trying to fit a more developed value peg into a less developed structural hole. If capitalism is the wrong hole for the job, then what is?"
~ Jeffrey Hopkins - On Compassion -- "If you're interested in the topic of Compassion as it's discussed here, please take a look at a recent book by the Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins: How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships."
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