Speedlinking 8/28/07

Quote of the day:

"You can fool too many of the people too much of the time."
~ James Thurber

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Applied Bodybuilding Research -- "Learn more from these studies about soy protein, whole grains & fiber, green tea, and probiotics. Read on to learn about some of the studies that have been taking place." I'm still not convinced about soy, but the rest of these are good.
~ How to Design a Damn Good Program, Part 1 -- "You've heard the adage, "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." Well, Christian's about to teach you how to fish, in a matter of speaking." See also: How to Design a Damn Good Program, Part 2 -- "In part 1 of Christian's article about program design, Thibs described realistic goals, proper training splits, the correct number of exercises per muscle group, and proper exercises. Today, he'll finish off with explanations of exercise order, rest intervals, recovery, and special methods."
~ Understanding How Dietary Restriction Cleans Cells -- "Reduce, recycle and rebuild is as important to the most basic component of the human body, the cell, as it is to the environment. And a University of Florida study shows just how much the body benefits when it "goes green," at least if you're a rat: Cutting calories helps rodents live longer by boosting cells' ability to recycle damaged parts so they can maintain efficient energy production."
~ 5 Reasons Your Lower Back Hurts When Doing Deadlifts -- "Deadlifts are one of the strength training exercises that used to give me lower back pain. Why? I wasn’t using proper deadlift technique from the start. I didn’t own books like starting strength to teach me how to deadlift safely."
~ Mechanical heart removed after organ heals self -- "A 15-year-old girl has become the first Canadian to be taken off an artificial device that supports an ailing heart because her own organ healed itself." Now that is cool.
~ Make a New Assault on Salt -- "If you're like most Americans, there's too much salt in your diet, which can lead to high blood pressure and increased risk of heart attack or stroke, experts warn."
~ Nasal Spray May Ease Cluster Headaches -- "The migraine nasal spray Zomig may ease cluster headaches, but it's not approved for that use, experts report in the journal Neurology."
~ Americans fatter than ever: study -- "Americans are fatter than ever, with obesity rates up in most states and fewer people exercising, according to a study released on Monday."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ Is There Anything Good About Men? -- "American Psychological Association, Invited Address, 2007; by Roy F. Baumeister." This essay takes an evolutionary look at gender differences, and debunks a lot of the PC crap that prevents a real discussion.
~ Philosophers' Carnival #52 -- "Welcome to the 52nd edition of the Philosophers' Carnival! If you have no idea what this is, follow the previous link. Otherwise, follow the subsequent ones..." There's some good stuff here, some of which I have already linked to in the recent past.
~ 'Baby Talk' Used By Monkeys To Interact With Infants -- "Female rhesus monkeys use special vocalizations while interacting with infants, the way human adults use motherese, or "baby talk," to engage babies' attention, new research at the University of Chicago shows. "Motherese is a high pitched and musical form of speech, which may be biological in origin," said Dario Maestripieri, Associate Professor in Comparative Human Development at the University."
~ Virtual Reality Employed To Study The Foundations Of Bodily Self-Consciousness -- "A group of neuroscientists and a philosopher have devised a series of novel experiments using virtual reality that could shed light on decades of clinical data pointing to cognitive and perceptual mechanisms involved in humans' concept of self."
~ Five Things You Might Not (Want To) Know About Self Improvement -- "These five things are easy to forget about – or miss, especially when you first start learning about self improvement – I thought I’d write them down. That’s always a good way to, well, remind you of the important things and not let them get lost in everyday worries and life."
~ New books on consciousness -- "It’s been a while since we announced new books, but here we present some of the most recent titles that should grab your attention."
~ Does Semen Have Antidepressant Properties? -- "It's weird psychology study time again. If there was ever research guaranteed to make women suspicious of male researcher's motivations it's this one. Pointed out to me by a kind email correspondent (thank you!), this study tests a hypothesis put forward by Ney (1986) suggesting that prostaglandins, a component of semen, may actually be useful in treating depression." This study is flawed in so many ways, but I had to post it anyway.
~ Not all risk is created equal -- "A camper who chases a grizzly but won't risk unprotected sex. A sky diver afraid to stand up to the boss. New research shows that not all risk is created equal and people show a mixture of both risky and non-risky behaviors. The survey also shows that men are significantly riskier than women overall."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Why obesity is so high in the South -- "Mississippians need to skip the gravy, say no to the fried pickles and start taking brisk walks to fight an epidemic of obesity, experts say. According to a new study, this Deep South state is the fattest in the nation."
~ ForeignPolicy: How the Neoliberals Stitched up the Wealth of Nations for Themselves -- "Neoliberalism claims that we are best served by maximum market freedom and minimum intervention by the state. The role of government should be confined to creating and defending markets, protecting private property and defending the realm. All other functions are better discharged by private enterprise, which will be prompted by the profit motive to supply essential services."
~ David Sirota: America's Most Conservative Newspaper Teaches Dems A Lesson -- "The Colorado Springs Gazette is one of the two most conservative papers in America (the other being the Waterbury Republican-American). This is no secret to anyone who has either read the paper, or who is in the journalism industry. But the political continuum is a circle, not a line, meaning that on some issues, ultraconservatives and progressives can make common cause. Today's Gazette editorial on the bipartisan support for warrantless domestic wiretapping and spying is a good example...."
~ Famous Friends on Tour for a Halberstam Book -- "Five months after David Halberstam’s death, Joan Didion, Seymour Hersh, Bob Woodward, Anna Quindlen, Alex Kotlowitz, Paul Hendrickson, Samantha Power and Bill Walton are going on Mr. Halberstam’s book tour for him."
~ Gross: Cutting Interest Rates Won't Stop the Bleeding -- "A look at the motley group of gazillionaires, conservatives, and industrialists who are begging the Fed to cut interest rates."
~ Editor's Cut: Confronting the CEO Pay Gap -- "It's high time to tackle the gross inequities in our economy."
~ Why Gonzales Finally Caved -- "The departure of Karl Rove, a key defender, may have had something to do with it. That and the August doldrums."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Energy Department to aid biofuels creation -- "The U.S. Department of Energy says it will allocate up to $33.8 million to support commercial production of cellulosic biofuels."
~ Hot Year Blamed on Greenhouse Gases -- "'We have met the enemy, and he is us,' the comic-strip character Pogo said decades ago. A new analysis of last year's near-record temperatures in the United States suggests he was right." See also: Record Heat? Blame Global Warming.
~ Molecules line up to make the tiniest of wires -- "As technology shrinks, the computer industry is facing the complex challenge of finding ways to manufacture the minuscule components necessary."
~ Carbon Offset Buyers Go Beyond Surface Green -- "Is buying personal carbon offsets for dirty-fueled travel an effective way to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions that are heating up the Earth? And does buying them amount to an indulgence, an excuse for buyers to avoid making more substantial changes in how they live, or demanding sane climate policies?"
~ Experiment to Clarify Ancient Physics Discovery Yields More Questions -- "In approximately 600 B.C., the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletos discovered that rubbing certain materials together, such as amber and wool, can cause both to become electrically charged, one positive and one negative. This phenomenon is useful for several industrial processes, including printing and filtration, and has sparked much interest and study. Still, scientists cannot fully explain how rubbing-induced charge transfer occurs or how that transfer affects surrounding objects."
~ Coal welfare queens unite -- "Mike Millikin brings word of the horrific goings-on at a recent conference on liquid coal."
~ Mobile Phones and an Urban Garden of the Commons -- "People around the world, even children under the age of three, recognize numerous brand-name products. Yet many of us would be hard pressed to identify five edible native plants in our respective neighborhoods. We get brand attributes, but have trouble with plant attributes -- in spite of the fact that knowledge of plants' medicinal and nutritional properties was once essential to human survival on every one of Earth's continents."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Rebirth of Holons! -- Holons (from the Integral Institute) is back in its new form -- as a blog.
~ Three Evolving Relationships in The Matrix Reloaded -- "In this final installment on the second movie in The Matrix Trilogy I want to look at the relationships between Neo and Morpehus, Neo and Trinity and Neo and Smith. As I have said so far, The Matrix Reloaded takes us deeper into the questions raised in the first movie and radically subverts the simple good vs bad prophecied savior story."
~ Fully human, fully void -- "There is a an inseparable intimacy between void awake to itself, and a deepening into our humanity. In both cases, we invite void to notice itself as void, and when it does, to express itself more fully through our human life. And in both cases, we allow our human self to know and express itself more fully as universally human, and also in its uniqueness."
~ Article: Essence of Buddhism embodied in Dhammapada -- "The Dhammapada is a book of wisdom. It is an unmatched unique text, which sums up the essence of Tripitaka (Basket of Buddhist Religious Texts)."
~ The Radical Spirituality of Generation X, Part 7: Radical Authenticity -- "Even when we’re clueless, somnambulistic, zombified shmucks, we’re still being ourselves — who else could we be? Yet with authenticity, there’s a sense of direction and developmental potential — I can imagine being even more authentic than I am now — and there’s also the implication of an enlightened pinnacle, a truly radical authenticity."
~ Buddhist Geeks 34: An Antidote to Seriousness -- "In this episode (Part 1 available here) Robert Spellman delves into the liberating nature of humor and laughter. He also touches on the question of whether a genuine spiritual practice leads to a diminishing of one’s personality."

Tags: Robert Spellman, humor, Radical Authenticity, Dhammapada, fully human, The Matrix Reloaded, Holons, urban garden, coal sucks, physics, carbon offsets, record heat, biofuels, Alberto Gonzales, CEP pay gap, interest rates, David Halberstam, beyond red and blue, neoliberals, obesity in the south, risk taking, semen as antidepressant, consciousness, self-improvement, self concept, baby talk, philosopher's carnival, gender studies, obesity, cluster headaches, salt, healing heart, deadlifts, dietary restriction, program design, research, speedlinking