Thursday, July 26, 2007

Speedlinking 7/26/07

Quote of the day:

"Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it."
~ Cullen Hightower

Image of the day:



BODY
~ Improve your chin-ups for a bigger bench press -- "Here’s a quick test of your lower trap strength. Do a full chin-up. Most will assume that if the chin clears the bar that they are successful. Test passed. Next exercise please. Not so fast."
~ Building the Case for Hybrid Training -- "Bodybuilding guru Scott Abel says that training for hypertrophy, size, thickness, density, and shape is not the same as strength training. If the question is how to gain unadulterated muscle mass, is hybrid training the answer?" I've kind of been doing this for years -- it works.
~ Delicious Low-Cal Foods -- "Makeover your shopping cart and get a list of the best low-calorie foods for your diet."
~ Metabolic Syndrome Linked to Low Magnesium Levels -- "Nobody really knows why low levels of magnesium prevent cells from responding to insulin. A leading theory is that magnesium is necessary for insulin to act after it attaches to insulin receptors on cells. Before insulin can do its job of driving sugar into cells, it must first attach to special hooks called insulin receptors on the surface of cells. Then it moves sugar into cells by activating an enzyme called tyrosine-kinase. Magnesium is necessary for this reaction to occur."
~ Confirmed: A Link Between Breast Cancer and Hormone Therapy -- "Breast cancer is second only to lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among women. This year alone, nearly 180000 women in the US will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and some 40000 will die from it...."
~ More fish oil, less vegetable oil, better for your health -- "Scientists have provided new evidence that using more fish oil than vegetable oil in the diet decreases the formation of chemicals called prostanoids, which, when produced in excess, increase inflammation in various tissues and organs."


PSYCHE
~ An Overview of Depression Recovery -- "Each person's recovery from depression is different, and WebMD offers insights into what to expect and how to help your recovery."
~ Healing Friendships During Depression Recovery -- "Recovery from depression is easier with the support of those around you. WebMD talks about how to get the support you need."
~ Talk Therapy During Your Recovery from Depression -- "Some people keep getting therapy long after they recover from depression because it helps them stay well. WebMD offers a brief summary of effective types of talk therapy."
~ Couples' faces grow more alike as they age -- "PsyBlog has picked up on a neat study from way back in '87 that found that couples faces look more alike the longer they stay together, and the researchers suggest that empathy might play a part."
~ Seven Deadly Sentiments -- "The taboo feelings we have, but can't admit." See also: Shameful Thoughts: A Primer.
~ 40 years on: Experiences of 'gay conversion therapy' -- "This Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the first major decriminalisation of male-male sexual acts in the UK. Dr Petra Boynton looks back at how the change came about and has dug up some fascinating articles on the experience of patients and professionals who took part in 'gay conversion therapy' in the 60s and 70s."
~ How to Stop Worrying -- "When you stop worrying you free the mental & emotional energy you need to live creatively & productively. Learn how to let go of obsessive thinking patterns."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Masters of the Modern -- "It’s almost impossible to talk about modern art without tipping your hat to these greats. Here are the masters who gave birth to the modern."
~ Alberto Gonzales: Lying Liar -- "Here is a Mashup created by Talkingpointsmemo.com titled "Lying Liar Edition" featuring Alberto Gonzalez and his recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee."
~ Exclusive | Emails Detail RNC Voter Suppression in 5 States -- "Truthout's Jason Leopold and Matt Renner report, 'Previously undisclosed documents detail how Republican operatives, with the knowledge of several White House officials, engaged in an illegal, racially-motivated effort to suppress tens of thousands of votes during the 2004 presidential campaign in a state where George W. Bush was trailing his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry.'"
~ Tour de France: Is Anybody Clean? -- "Just when French race officials thought it couldn't get any worse, it did." Short answer -- they're ALL doping.
~ FitFlops: Do They Really Sex Up Your Legs? -- "For women in the know, FitFlops are the must-have sandal of the summer. But can wobbly shoes really get rid of that wobbly thigh fat?" Silly people.
~ Vick pleads innocent in dogfighting case (AP) -- "Michael Vick pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal dogfighting charges and was released without bond until a Nov. 26 trial. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback then apologized to his mother and asked that judgment be withheld." If nothing else, this mess is bringing attention to the fact that crap like this is going on.
~ Dodd proposes universal health care plan -- "Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd proposed a universal health coverage plan Thursday with benefits matching those given to federal workers."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Presence of wolves allows aspen recovery in Yellowstone -- "The wolves are back, and for the first time in more than 50 years, young aspen trees are growing again in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park."
~ Senators Worried About TV 'Train Wreck' -- "On Feb. 18, 2009, tens of millions of televisions that are not equipped to receive digital signals will become useless pieces of furniture. The government is spending $5 million to let owners know so they can do something about it - a sum critics say is too measly."
~ Surprising new species of light-harvesting bacterium discovered in Yellowstone -- "In the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, a team of researchers has discovered a novel bacterium that transforms light into chemical energy."
~ Hidden order found in a quantum spin liquid -- "An international team, including scientists from the London Centre for Nanotechnology, has detected a hidden magnetic “quantum order” that extends over chains of 100 atoms in a ceramic without classical magnetism. The findings, which are published today by Science, have implications for the design of devices and materials for quantum information processing."
~ Hidden Underwater City Wows Experts -- "The ancient Greek city dates to seven centuries before Alexandria."
~ New clues to ozone depletion -- "Large quantities of ozone-depleting chemicals have been discovered in the Antarctic atmosphere by researchers from the University of Leeds, the University of East Anglia, and the British Antarctic Survey."
~ The Insects Among Us -- "Excerpts from a new book of photographs, Unseen Companions, published in the U.K., reveal the fascinating and often beautiful organisms that share our world."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Dynamics of Social Networks -- "Social networks are by nature complex phenomena -- they can never be fully known or understood, and there are an infinite number of variables that affect their evolution and their success or failure. My observation is that they are also very fragile -- while some 'bonds' of a network may be eternal or resilient, most networks as a whole seem to be in a constant state of flux, and easily disrupted. I've been trying to figure out why this is, and what might be done to make whole networks more resilient and more effective."
~ Now available: A Bird In The World (EP) -- Matthew Dallman -- "Friends, on the occasion of this my daughter Twyla’s 2nd birthday, I am excited to officially release my newest record of music: A Bird In The World. This is an EP of seven songs that celebrate the emergence of Twyla Christine Dallman."
~ NEWS: Second Life Integral -- "The Second Life Integral Community held its first day-long gathering on June 30, enabling it to test multimedia features for presenting slides, streaming audio and video in-world, while participants talk in real-time using text-based chat...."
~ The Thirty Tenets (revised) -- "I'm continuing to revise my poem based on Ken Wilber's twenty tenets of all holons (from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality), previously published on this blog as "Trinity". Here's the latest version...."
~ More on post-metaphysics redux -- "An addendum to yesterday's post."


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