"Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision."
~ Penn Jillette
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Chronic Fatigue No Longer Seen as ‘Yuppie Flu’ -- "For decades, people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome have struggled to convince doctors, employers, friends and even family members that they were not imagining their debilitating symptoms. Skeptics called the illness 'yuppie flu' and 'shirker syndrome.'"
~ 15 Things I Thought I Knew -- "Mike used to like Functional Training. He used to think Mike Mentzer was kind of a bonehead. Now he's not so sure about the former or the latter, along with a whole lot of other things. If his current rate of "unlearning" continues, he soon won't know anything!"
~ Vitamin C Does Not Stop Most People Catching Colds -- "A new review of the scientific literature says that taking regular supplements of Vitamin C to prevent colds is not justified unless you are exercising hard or living in an extremely cold place, in which case taking about 200 mg a day may cut your risk by 50 per cent. So it probably works for marathon runners, skiers, soldiers and arctic explorers, but not for most adults." This is a flawed study -- try using 2,000 mg and see what happens.
~ Men Lose Weight faster than women -- "I am paraphrasing this article from Health 24 that I thought many men would like and many women would be a little disgusted with on how men can lose weight faster than women."
~ Obesity Emerging As Possible Risk Factor For Prostate Cancer -- "Evidence is emerging that excess weight may impact the chances of surviving prostate cancer. "Evidence that weight is a risk factor is not quite conclusive, but it's close," says David Penson, M.D., associate professor of urology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC)." Fat makes estrogen, and estrogen causes cancer -- case closed.
~ Can A Pint Of Milk A Day Keep The Doctor Away? -- "Consuming a pint of milk a day or eating yogurt could help to prevent conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, suggests research published by Cardiff University. 2,375 men aged between 45 and 59 without diabetes took part in the study which ran over a 20-year period as part of the Caerphilly Prospective Study. 15 per cent had metabolic syndrome, or insulin resistance."
~ Insulin Resistance -- Not Belly Fat -- to Blame for Metabolic Syndrome -- "Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine have found that insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is the main culprit that sets the stage for the metabolic syndrome, not belly fat in and of itself." This is a chicken and egg issue -- condependent arising.
~ How Stress Erases Your Exercise Gains -- "When It Comes to Fitness, Your Own Stress Could Be Holding You Back."
PSYCHE
~ A nasal spray to shed your shyness! -- "The researchers say that the spray harnesses the powers of a feel-good hormone called oxytocin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that is involved in social recognition and bonding."
~ Bipolar Disorder: Psychiatrists Are Taking A New Approach That Aims To Treat Not Just Symptoms But The Whole Person -- "Bipolar disorder is the name now used to describe Manic Depression - the condition where mood veers between two poles or extremes - one of euphoria (mania) and the other of despair (depression). Most of us know of it - if only because of famous sufferers such as Vincent van Gogh - but although bipolar disorder is as common as diabetes, much of it goes unrecognised and inadequately treated."
~ Antidepressants: Who Needs Them? -- "The Answer: More People Than You Might Think; One Expert Explains Why."
COMMENT: There's a bigger issue here that has to do with our culture. The article says 7% of Americans have clinical depression, but I'm guessing that a higher percentage than that are using the drugs. We have become so disconnected from ourselves and others that depression and anxiety are becoming much more common. Until we learn to actively unplug from the daily stress through meditation, nature walks, or any number of other ways, the problem will get worse. We need to learn to reconnect with ourselves and others in ways that a fast-paced, work-filled life often don't allow. I'm one of these people.
~ Weight loss is all in your head -- "In the battle against fat, the heroes achieve what most of us only long for -- lasting weight loss. They're so unusual, they've become the subjects of ongoing research by scientists trying to finger just what it is that makes them stand out from the rest of dieting humanity."
~ Study Of Twins Connects Smoking Addiction With Major Depression -- "Ever wonder why smoking and depression seem to go together? A Saint Louis University School of Public Health researcher finds the connection is genetic."Some people with a history of depression may become smokers as a way of self-medicating," said Qiang John Fu, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of community health in biostatistics at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. "Some people who are smokers might become depressed when they try to give up cigarettes and can't."
~ This Wednesday: Seven tips for having an original thought or finding a solution -- "Here are seven tips for having an original thought. Some are backed up by hard science, some are folk strategies that I keep hearing about."
~ Ageing and the Positivity Effect -- "As we get older lots of depressing things start happening to our brains. We can't simultaneously manipulate as many items as we once could. We find it more difficult to retrieve memories. Our attention degrades, and so on. Essentially our brains are slowing down, just like the rest of our bodies. But, in this discouraging picture, there is one ray of hope: our emotions."
~ Bashful Psychiatrists Urged To Talk Sex -- "Just over a century after Freud 'invented' sexuality as a leading cause of psychiatric symptoms, a new survey shows that the majority of young psychiatrists feel uncomfortable about asking their patients about their sex lives and regard it as a subject best avoided. In 1905, Freud published Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality forcing the discussion of sex drive and the impact on mental health of early sexual experience into the public arena."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Psst! Gossip may be good for you -- "Stop feeling so guilty about gossiping. Researchers say that a little bit of gossip is what keeps the culture going, greasing the social machinery."
~ Can Poverty Define John Edwards? -- "Traveling on his "poverty tour," Eric Pooley assesses the risky strategy of a candidate who tells the press: don't talk about me."
~ How to fix executive privilege -- "Something is rotten in the state of congressional challenges to executive privilege. The time it takes to move a challenge through the federal courts makes any potential congressional victory either stale or irrelevant. By forcing a lawsuit, the president wins politically whether or not he wins legally."
~ Sleepless in the Senate -- "The Democrats launched an all-night offensive to force the Republicans to break with Bush on Iraq, but come morning the Republicans held firm."
~ Mark Malkoff, Comedian/Filmmaker Visits 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in One Day -- "Some people go to Starbucks every day. Comedian/Filmmaker Mark Malkoff did the unthinkable. He made a short film in which he visited and made purchases at 171 Starbucks stores in Manhattan in one day."
~ NFL's Vick faces media outrage in dog-fight case -- "Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick faced condemnation in the media on Wednesday and an uncertain future following his federal indictment on Tuesday over alleged involvement in a dog-fighting operation." There is no legal punishment that fits this crime.
~ Obama tries to peel away Clinton backers -- "Barack Obama says people are sure to love him once they get to know him. For now, though, Democrats seem to love Hillary Rodham Clinton more, so Obama is trying to turn heads with select jabs at his chief rival."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Organics for Everyone -- "Innovative programs are taking organics down from pricey co-op shelves and putting them into the hands of those in need."
~ The Superfund Is Now a Super-Letdown -- "Toxic sites are still rampant across the United States, yet legislators have let the Superfund trust dry up and have allowed corporate polluters to get away cleanup-free."
~ Skulls confirm we're all out of Africa -- "An analysis of thousands of skulls shows modern humans originated from a single point in Africa and finally lays to rest the idea of multiple origins, British scientists said on Wednesday."
~ Researchers develop inexpensive, easy process to produce solar panels -- "Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets."
~ Huge Flood Cut Britain From Europe -- "The British Isles exist thanks to an ancient megaflood."
~ A new dawn for climate prediction -- "Scientists must develop new, more adaptive approaches to predicting and monitoring climate, say climate modellers from the University of Exeter. In a 'perspectives' article published in leading journal Science, Professor Peter Cox and Professor David Stephenson argue that new prediction tools are required to help us to limit and adapt to climate change."
~ The future of biofuels is not in corn -- "The future of biofuels is not in corn, says a new report released today by Food & Water Watch, the Network for New Energy Choices, and the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment. The corn ethanol refinery industry, the beneficiary of new renewable fuel targets in the proposed energy legislation as well as proposed loan guarantee subsidies in the 2007 Farm Bill, will not significantly offset U.S. fossil fuel consumption without unacceptable environmental and economic consequences."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ I-I's CEO Robb Smith Responds -- "I was happy to see that Robb Smith, Integral Institute’s new CEO since ~May 1, 2007, responded, in his eponymous blog, to Blogmandu’s review of I-I’s disclosed finances, through August, 2006. He provides some additional insight that nonattentive outsiders, like me, didn't know or hadn’t understood."
~ Mantras and Meditation -- "Buddhists recite mantras for various reasons--though some eschew mantras altogether."
~ Drop karma (2) -- "A basic point of teaching karma is ethical awareness, i.e. responsibility, and with it the possibility of self-reliance, a strength of character necessary for any serious spiritual work. Being responsible, however, is not something you learn from a sutra, nor do you grow a spine by reciting sacred verses. Such development is deeply conditioned by socio-cultural factors, that is, by internalizing the basic notions of good and bad."
~ How Complete and Effective is your Spiritual Practice and Spiritual Lifestyle? -- "What makes a complete and balanced spiritual practice and lifestyle? How does your current spiritual practice measure up to the 18 key forms for building an effective spiritual lifestyle? Check out the 18 forms and see."
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