Speedlinking 8/29/07

Quote of the day:

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
~ G.K. Chesterton

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Cabbage Soup Diet: Controversial In Promising Quick Fat Loss -- "No one knows where the cabbage soup diet originated even though it has been written about by a fair number of authors already. Learn what the diet consists of and why this diet should probably be avoided."
~ The Bodybuilder's Diet Coach -- "If you're a top-level competitive bodybuilder and you're serious about getting your diet right, you go to Justin Harris. He'll help you — provided he's not busy fine-tuning his own 265-pound frame in preparation for an upcoming contest."
~ The Best in Walking Gear -- "Get our picks for the best apparel and gadgets that will help you melt off pounds."
~ High Sugar Levels In Pregnancy Linked To Childhood Obesity -- "In the largest study of its kind, US researchers have found that the risk of a child being obese goes up in line with increase in the mother's sugar levels during pregnancy. Scientists are hopeful that treating more women for diabetes during pregnancy could help to reduce the incidence of childhood obesity."
~ Antioxidants: Definitions, Facts & The Color Wheel -- "Health headlines today are always focused around the topics of antioxidants. You cannot pick foods at the store without seeing the antioxidant hype. Learn about antioxidants from the following definitions, facts, and food color wheel right here!"
~ Health Tip: Coping With Chronic Pain (HealthDay) -- "Chronic pain persists for longer than six months. Besides pain medications, the American Academy of Family Physicians offers this list of additional treatment options: Physical therapy, including stretching and strengthening exercises. Low-impact exercise, including swimming, biking and walking. Occupational therapy to learn how to change daily activities to avoid making pain worse. Behavioral therapy, such as yoga and meditation, to increase relaxation and decrease stress."
~ Bio-alarm clocks sense right time to wake -- "Morning grogginess may be a thing of the past thanks to bio-alarm clocks designed to wake sleepers at the perfect time. The clocks detect brainwaves or body movements and are programmed to wake sleepers during light sleep, which occurs periodically through the night."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ How mom holds baby can show signs of stress -- "How you hold your baby may say a lot about your mental state, British researchers said on Wednesday. Their study found that mothers who cradled their babies in the right arm showed signs of stress and could be at higher risk of depression, said Nadja Reissland, a developmental psychologist at Durham University who led the research."
~ Meaning and Retirement -- "CNN recently had an insightful article about how to put some meaning into the retirement years, pointing out that what may appear to be a dream while you are still working, can turn into a nightmare if you don't plan properly. Free time with nothing to do that really means something to you is not fun."
~ An interview with Martin Seligman -- "Beliefnet.com has an interview with Martin Seligman. (Don't click on the link if you can't bear promises of finding "eternal joy with Jesus' word," or - worse - ads for live psychic readings.)"
~ Fixing Ourselves [The Frontal Cortex] -- "Ten years ago, neuroscientists were bullish about pharmaceuticals. It sometimes seemed as if every tenured professor was starting his own drug company or consulting for someone else's drug company. But virtually none of those drugs have come to market, at least not yet."
~ How to Find Time for Yourself -- "Do you ever find yourself longing for some time for yourself? Many of us are so busy with work, school, and home life that often there is no time left over to do something that you enjoy. What follows are some ways to carve out that essential time you need to slow down, enjoy life, and rejuvenate yourself."
~ Sticky Ideas Workshop (Part 5): Emotional -- "If you want to connect — I mean, really connect — with an audience, you have to hit ‘em square in their emotions. Movie makers know this, and exploit it to the fullest, making us laugh, cry, punch the air in triumph, jump out of our seats in terror, and even swell with love for all humanity — almost on demand."
~ Music + Body Language = More Excitement -- "Seeing a band live is a much more engaging experience than listening to a recording at home. But it's not just the atmosphere of a live event, it's also the singer's facial expressions and gestures which enhances our emotional experience."
~ Blinded by Beauty -- "Are pretty people healthier?"
~ Neurotransmitter current not flowing through ion channels -- "In studying how neurotransmitters travel between cells -- by analysis of events in the dimensions of nanometers -- Cornell researchers have discovered that an electrical current thought to be present during that process does not, in fact, exist."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Biggest Loser Season 4 -- "In two seeks we get the two hour Biggest Loser 4 Premiere. Remember a few weeks ago we found out that Bob Harper and Kim Lyons but also we will have a team coached by a returning Jillian Michaels. Also as a replacement to Caroline Rhea we are now going to have soap star Alison Sweeney as the new host." I encourage my clients to watch this show -- it's good motivation.
~ Fry and Laurie: From Footlights to Fiction -- "From the venerable halls of Cambridge University in the early 1980s, emerged two of the finest comedic minds in British Comedy. From their years as writers and performers in Cambridge's Footlights troupe, through their acting stints in Jeeves and Wooster, various seasons of Blackadder, and especially their brilliant BBC sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry and Laurie..."
~ The New York Times | A Sobering Census Report: Americans' Meager Income Gains -- "The editors of The New York Times write: 'The median household income last year was still about $1,000 less than in 2000, before the onset of the last recession. In 2006, 36.5 million Americans were living in poverty - 5 million more than six years before, when the poverty rate fell to 11.3 percent.'"
~ Can Republicans Explain Why Higher Taxes Are Bad? -- "The Clinton economic boom back in the 1990s muddies the case for keeping the Bush cuts."
~ The Unexpected Fantasist -- "The Portuguese novelist and Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago is a stubborn atheist, an unreconstructed Communist, an ornery political polemicist — and the creator of some of the world’s most magical, imaginative, sweetly lyrical fiction."
~ The Gonzales Replacement Dilemma -- "In picking a new Attorney General, Bush wants to avoid a confirmation fight. But he also needs someone who backs the policies that have angered the Senate." Good luck with that.
~ 2 Years After Hurricane Katrina, Bush Sees Hope in New Orleans -- "The president, touring the city devastated by wind and flood, said he saw “a more blessed day” ahead." Too little, way too late. See also: New Orleans marks Katrina anniversary (AP) -- "Prayers, protests and a lingering disgust with the government's response to Hurricane Katrina marked the disaster's second anniversary Wednesday, with a presidential visit doing little to mollify those still displaced by the storm."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Volcanic Activity Key to Oxygen-rich Atmosphere -- "Next time you catch a breath, be thankful, for a change, that the Earth's surface is dotted with volcanoes."
~ Scientists take giant step forward in understanding exotic nuclei -- "Developing good predictive powers of how all nuclei work is critical to advance our understanding of the universe. The vast nuclear landscape, which is thought to consist of about 6,000 isotopes is not well charted and half the nuclei remain unknown."
~ EarthLink CEO: Company Must Refocus -- "EarthLink Inc. will refocus on its core business of supplying Internet access to consumers and businesses, its new chief executive said a day after announcing the company was slashing nearly half its work force."
~ Nokia takes on iTunes in digital music market -- "Nokia, the world's leading maker of mobile phones, unveiled on Wednesday a new digital music shop designed to loosen the grip of Apple's iTunes on downloads."
~ Germany mulls 'Trojan' IT viruses as anti-terror measure -- "Left-wing members of the ruling coalition have objected strongly to plans by the German interior ministry to enlist "Trojans", malicious programmes sent in electronic mail, to spy on terror suspects."
~ Supersonic 'rain' falls on newborn star -- "Astronomers at the University of Rochester have discovered five Earth-oceans` worth of water that has recently fallen into the planet-forming region around an extremely young, developing star."
~ Discovery could help stop malaria at its source -- the mosquito -- "As summer temperatures cool in the United States, fewer mosquitoes whir around our tiki torches. But mosquitoes swarming around nearly 40 percent of the world`s population will continue to spread a deadly parasitic disease — malaria. Now an interdisciplinary team led by researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has found a key link that causes malarial infection in both humans and mosquitoes."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ NEW BLOG ~ About Us_Integral Praxis 2.0 -- "This blog is a joint project. Integral Praxis is the offical homepage of the Integral Research Group (IRG). IRG is an innovative and critically informed non-profit research and development team. Our goal is to conduct practical inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural research, while collaborating with various projects and partners in the public and private spheres. IRG aims at evolving into a resource for integrative and critical understanding, and specifically as it related to practical, sustainable and positive change."
~ Ken Wilber reviews Apocalypto by Mel Gibson -- "Here is Ken Wilber's five minute review of the movie Apocalypto, cut from an Integral Spiritual Center conference call a few months ago, in which Ken lambasts the popular romantic notion of the "noble savage." I haven't seen the film yet—have you? What did you think?"
~ The happiness you can grow -- "There is a Chinese saying that 'if you want three hours of ecstasy, try gambling. For three weeks of rapture, go travelling. For three months of bliss, get married. Build a new house and you will enjoy three years of heaven. But if you want true and lasting happiness, grow and live with trees.'"
~ My body tells me it is true, so it must be and Going to the mind and body for truth -- good stuff.

Tags: truth, body mind, happiness, trees, Ken Wilber, Apocalypto, Integral Praxis, malaria, newborn star, Trojan IT virus, Nokia, Earthlink, nuclei, volcanoes, New Orleans, Katrina, Alberto Gonzales, José Saramago, taxes, American incomes, Fry and Laurie, Biggest Loser, neurotransmitters, beauty, music, sticky ideas, emotions, time to relax, self-healing brain, Martin Seligman, retirement, moms, bio-alarm clock, chronic pain, antioxidants, sugar, pregnancy, walking, diet, cabbage soup diet, speedlinking