Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Speedlinking 8/7/07

Quote of the day:

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear."
~ Mark Twain

Image of the day (John Craig):


BODY
~ Total Strength Program: The Incredible Strength Program From Muscle Revolution -- "A strength-building program that's also a terrific bodybuilding program? What's next, a racecar with good mileage? A super-model who's a world-class sprinter? Welcome to the world of supramaximal holds, courtesy of Chad Waterbury."
~ What Pulling Back on the Deadlift Really Means -- "I wrote earlier that a proper deadlift should be done by bringing the hips forward, not pulling back."
~ Fat Is The New Normal, FSU Researcher Says - Changing Perceptions Of Body Weight Feed Rise In Obesity -- "American women have gotten fatter as it has become more socially acceptable to carry a few extra pounds, according to a new study."
~ Monitoring Progress: Common Training Mistakes -- "Training mistakes can lead to a frustrating lack of progress. In this article, I hope to identify and offer solutions to a number of common mistakes made by new and sometimes not so new trainers. Here is a list of some common training mistakes."
~ Training notes -- "When was the last time you reassessed where you were in relation to your training goals? If you’re not doing a regular assessment of your progress, do it now and every two weeks. If you are an you’re not progressing, why not?"
~ 'Health juices' harm baby teeth -- "Organic juices which combine sugar and fruit are the worst culprits for eroding the teeth, say the dentists."
~ Stress Management Helps in Fight Against Lupus And Other Chronic Diseases -- "Lupus is an autoimmune disease which produces antibodies causing injuries to the body's cells and tissue. It makes the immune system go out of control and the organism attack healthy cells instead of the germs on them. This pathology, which affects more than 5 million people around the world, is more developed in women of fertile age between 15 and 44 years old."


PSYCHE
~ When Worry Hijacks The Brain -- "Few things imprison a mind quite like obsessive-compulsive disorder, but better treatments are breaking its hold."
~ Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: One Pioneer's Contribution -- "He was notorious for his testy personality and loud opinions—one of which was that "neurosis is a high-class word for whining." Albert Ellis, who died last month at age 93, believed that psychotherapy should be short term, goal oriented, and efficient; his method, introduced in 1955 and now known as rational emotive behavior therapy, is one of the foundations of today's cognitive-behavioral therapy."
~ Children find food wrapped in McDonald's packaging 'six times tastier' -- "Children find food in McDonald's packaging up to six times more appetising than the identical snacks in plain wrappers, research shows. The study revealed that boys and girls as young as three found food tastier when they thought it was made by a big brand."
~ Condition distorts self-image, destroys lives -- "For KD, the mirror is a trap that lures her in at least 30 times a day. Her co-workers, assuming she’s conceited, tease her about how she checks her reflection every few minutes (“You’re fine, you look beautiful!” they tell her, laughing), but their assumptions couldn’t be farther from the truth."
~ Using strengths when you work -- "What exactly does it mean to focus on using strengths when we work instead of trying to fix weaknesses? How does it change what we do every day? What’s the first step to take? In terms of positive psychology tenets, “Use your strengths.” is a close second to Chris Peterson’s 3-word summary, “Other people matter.” See Senia’s article, Using you Strengths in a Job Search. It’s a wonderful concept, but it’s not so simple and obvious how to put it in practice."
~ The Young and Anxious -- "Are high achievers sacrificing mental health in pursuit of that A+?"
~ The neurogenetics of traumatic memories -- "Evolutionarily, enhanced memory of a highly emotional event - say, a situation when one's life is in danger - is an advantage, because that information will be potentially life-saving if that situation is encountered again. But persistent memories of such events can have adverse effects, as they can lead to conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Obama blames the press -- "As Ben Smith at Politico points out today, Barack Obama has been blaming the media for misrepresenting his position on Pakistan, articulated in his big foreign policy speech last week." It looks like the major media outlets (not including Faux News) did not misrepresent his comments.
~ MTV's Desperate Video Music Awards -- "Beyonce and Justin Timberlake lead this year's nominations, but will anyone tune in to see who wins?" Does MTV still show videos?
~ Mitt Does JFK -- "My religion is for me and how I live my life. I don't impose all my faiths and beliefs on you." You can see video here.
~ SCOTT HORTON—The FISA Bamboozlement -- "When some one writes a history of the Bush Administration’s media bamboozlement—which will be an epic tome—I wonder how they will treat the entire saga of FISA evasions. It’s a classic story of a rogue government, blissfully ignoring the law, committing felonies on a daily basis, but convincing itself of its own righteousness in the process."
~ SCOTT HORTON—Gingrich: War on Terror is Phony -- "It’s reassuring, isn’t it, to learn that at an insiders’ conference of young conservative activists, former House Speaker and G.O.P. presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich is spreading the word that the Bush Administration’s war on terror is a sham, and that the current struggle is all really just about oil. . . ."
~ The Leftwing Circus Comes to Town -- "Consider: It really takes something to make Hilary Clinton look good, but the leftwing bloggers who partake of the poisonous rhetoric that flows on the Daily Kos web site pulled it off. Of course, making Clinton look good isn't saying much when you're sharing the debating stage with the other Democratic candidates, there to kowtow to their base. When Clinton spoke the truth at the forum about lobbying practices in Washington, the crowd roundly booed her."
~ Court denies dying experimental meds -- "Terminally ill patients do not have a constitutional right to be treated with experimental drugs, even if they likely will be dead before the medicine is approved, a federal appeals court said Tuesday."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Heat wave may stress nation's power system -- "Increasing demands on an aging U.S. power infrastructure are likely to make headlines this week as temperatures in the Midwest and South approach 100 degrees. The nation`s economic growth since the 1950s has “outstripped the growth of the power system,” says Dr. Mariesa Crow, the Fred W. Finley Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla."
~ Lost forest yields several new species -- "An expedition led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to a remote corner of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has uncovered unique forests which, so far, have been found to contain six animal species new to science: a bat, a rodent, two shrews, and two frogs."
~ Weed gave up sex long ago -- "The ability of plants to self-pollinate - a big factor in the spread of weeds - is much older than previously thought in one widely studied species, leading biologists say. The findings show that at least in plant evolution, sex with others may be more trouble than it`s worth."
~ Apple Unveils New iMac -- "Apple today unveiled an all new all-in-one iMac line featuring 20- and 24-inch widescreen displays encased in elegant and professional aluminum and glass enclosures."
~ Biofuels fueling conflict -- "The rush to put biofuels in our gas tanks has given people analyzing natural resources and conflict some work to do. How are European and American policy mandates to dramatically increase the use of biofuels affecting the places that grow biofuel inputs? It seems fair to say that little consideration has been given to the potential conflict and equity impacts of this surge in demand for palm oil, sugarcane, and corn."
~ Why nectar-feeding bats need a 'power drink' to fly -- "Nectar-feeding bats burn sugar faster than any other mammal on Earth - and three times faster than even top-class athletes - ecologists have discovered. The findings, published online in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology, illustrate that because they live life on an energetic knife edge, these bats are very vulnerable to any changes in their environment that interrupt their fuel supply for even a short period."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Do I really see it? -- "It is easy enough to get something at an intellectual level, or even to have an immediate glimpse of it. ... But to get really familiar with it, to see how it plays itself out in my life, with clarity, precision and detail, as it happens, that is something quite different."
~ Religious Belief and Political Office -- "If someone, no matter how accomplished he might be, were running for president who claimed to believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or Zeus, we would surely consider him much more of a candidate for the mental ward than for the presidency of the most powerful nation on Earth. There is no way he could get elected, and, I would think, rightfully so. For who but a fool or a nut could, as an adult, believe in such ridiculous fiction?"
~ A Politics of Properly Balanced Tensions, Part I -- "This post, and its two follow-ups, will tackle the issues that Bill brought up but with my mini-analyses and with comments on what Joe, Matthew and Bill have said about it all. I hope that others of you will join the chain with your own capsulated thoughts on important issues of the day, and will speak to what overriding elements -- Compassion? Integral theory? Responsibility? Egalitarianism? -- you figure are the most germane overriding principles to guide governance." This is good -- go read it.
~ What is a relative truth relative to? -- "Any story has only a relative truth. It has limited and temporary validity only, and there is also a grain of truth in each of its reversals. And it is relative for several different reasons."
~ BLOG: Pre-order The Integral Vision Today! -- "As many of you probably already know, Ken's newest book The Integral Vision is scheduled to be released on August 14th, which you can pre-order right now. However, what you may not know is just how gorgeous this book really is—no review, regardless of how glowing it may be, can adequately convey the aesthetic milestone The Integral Vision truly represents."
~ Buddhist Economics -- "Payutto, a Thai Buddhist, examines how Buddhists can live within market economies and how they can develop a new way of economic thinking to help make the lives they want."
~ Alan Wallace Interview -- "The podcast, Skeptiko, has an excellent interview with B. Alan Wallace today."


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