"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."
~ Sir Francis Bacon
Image of the day (John Craig):
BODY
~ Compound versus isolation lifts -- "Generally all weight lifting exercises can be categorized into two major types of movements; compound and isolation. Both offer different types of benefits and drawbacks and the decision of which to include in your program is largely going to be based upon your individual goals."
~ Setting calorie guidelines -- "If you are serious about fitness, nutrition and your workouts, you likely already know the importance of eating a proper diet. The cornerstone of your diet is going to be the calorie level you are eating at. It is critical that you determine the proper amount of calories that you should be taking in as this is going to be the single most important factor that determines whether you gain, lose or maintain your weight." These are general guidelines, but useful.
~ The Strong and Ripped Program -- "What's the Goal of this Program? To kick your ass, but you'll probably shed some fat and get a little stronger, too. All you'll need are a stop watch, one die (stolen from a parcheesi game), and easy access to a puke bucket."
~ Exercise of the Week: The Lumberjack Squat -- "The "lumberjack squat" isn't what people in the logging industry head off to do behind a large poplar tree after having a hearty breakfast of bran flakes. Instead, it's a helluva' cool squatting movement that doesn't compress the spine."
~ Yoga Is More Than Just Showing Up, but That Does Help -- "Enlightenment by the numbers, as in the numbers 30 days for $30."
~ Exercise And Yoga Can Improve Quality Of Life And Physical Fitness In Women With Early-Stage Breast Cancer -- "Two studies report that exercise and yoga can help maintain and in some cases improve quality of life in women with early-stage breast cancer. The first study found that resistance and aerobic exercise improved physical fitness, self-esteem and body composition, and that resistance exercise improved chemotherapy completion rates. The second study demonstrated that yoga was particularly beneficial for women who were not receiving chemotherapy during the study period."
~ Popcorn May Cause Lung Disease -- "An ingredient in microwave popcorn may cause potentially deadly lung problems."
~ Alzheimers, Dementia and Fats -- "Our brains and our whole bodies demand essential fatty acids for repair and normal functioning. Alzheimer's and dementia are a concern for every aging American."
~ How To Enhance Muscle Function -- "Skeletal muscle is composed of two types of muscle fiber, slow and fast, which have different capabilities -- slow fibers do not tire easily and are high endurance, whereas fast fibers tire easily and are low endurance. The relative amount of each fiber type is determined by muscle usage -- exercise training causes fast fibers to become slow fibers, whereas inactivity that results in muscle atrophy (for example inactivity induced by spinal cord injury and unloading caused by space flight or tail suspension) causes slow fibers to become fast fibers."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ CDC: Suicide Rate Among U.S. Girls Soars -- "The suicide rate among preteen and young teen girls spiked 76 percent, a disturbing sign that federal health officials say they can't fully explain...." This is disturbing.
~ New insights into OCD -- "Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common debilitating psychiatric disorder, yet the cause of OCD is unknown and few effective treatments are available. A recent study of mutant mice reveals a novel mechanism leading to OCD-like behaviors in mice and suggests potential new therapeutic strategies."
~ Higher social skills are uniquely human -- "A new study published today in Science reports that humans have distinctive social skills. Esther Herrmann, lead author of the study, answers Scitizen’s questions. Apes bite and try to break a tube to retrieve the food inside while children follow the experimenter’s example to get inside the tube to retrieve the prize...."
~ Faster Antidepressant Shows Promise -- "SSRIs work by preventing the brain from clearing away serotonin that has already been used, allowing excess neurotransmitters to build up and generate a signal multiple times. Dr. Guillaume Lucas has just tested a new drug that, while still focusing on serotonin, acts directly on receptors instead of slowly building up existing neurotransmitters."
~ Overcoming Jealousy -- "Overcoming jealousy has been one of my most requested topics for new articles, but in the past I’ve always declined such requests because I don’t have much personal experience in this area. I’m not prone to jealousy, so I can’t explain from personal experience how to overcome it. Nevertheless, due to the demand for such an article, I’ll risk sharing my thoughts on it anyway."
~ Design Your Life: What Would You Do If You Had Nothing To Do? -- "Let’s say you had a blank day staring at you. You didn’t have to work. You could do anything at all (although money is still a limiting factor). What would your perfect day be like?"
~ Urge Surfing to beat addictions and cravings -- "A technique known as "urge surfing" which harnesses mindfulness can be helpful for people who are experiencing cravings. Originally developed as a tool to help people struggling to battle alcohol and drug addiction, urge surfing is now being used to help people with overeating, gambling, compulsive shopping, smoking and other compulsive urges." This sounds similar to the 5-minute rule I use with compulsive eating clients -- wait five minutes when the urge hits and see if it recedes.
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Bible Belter -- Richard Dawkins -- "If you are a religious apologist invited to debate with Christopher Hitchens, decline. His witty repartee, his ready-access store of historical quotations, his bookish eloquence, his effortless flow of well-formed words, beautifully spoken in that formidable Richard Burton voice (the whole performance not dulled by other equally formidable Richard Burton habits), would threaten your arguments even if you had good ones to deploy."
~ The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME -- From Time, their picks for the best TV ever.
~ Can the Oprah Effect Make Obama President? -- "A plug from Winfrey can turn a book into a best-seller and a movie into a blockbuster. But does the Oprah effect hold true for politics too? Can Winfrey's blessing turn a candidate into a president?"
~ Antigay 'Rally' Begets Ridiculous Rhetoric; Surprises No One -- "A two-person antigay protest at the University of Iowa turned bizarre after the two men reportedly blamed the September 11 attacks on homosexuals and said the tornado that struck Iowa City in spring 2006 were caused by abortion clinics in the town, according to the Daily Iowan." This would be funny if it weren't so sad.
~ GOP Debate Seemed Removed From Economic Reality -- "How could the Republican candidates not mention the housing crisis or the rising risk of recession?"
~ Starr: Can Anyone Beat the NFL's Big 3? -- "Though the league is defined by parity and Super Bowl surprises, all the smart guys are fixated on the same three teams. Me too."
~ Fineman: Notes on New Hampshire -- "The wooing of McCain continued. Giuliani impressed Romney’s people as well-prepared. And Huckabee won the Ron Paul lightning round. A rundown of the first fall GOP debate."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ 10 Future Web Trends -- "We're well into the current era of the Web, commonly referred to as Web 2.0. Features of this phase of the Web include search, social networks, online media (music, video, etc), content aggregation and syndication (RSS), mashups (APIs), and much more. Currently the Web is still mostly accessed via a PC, but we're starting to see more Web excitement from mobile devices (e.g. iPhone) and television sets (e.g. XBox Live 360). What then can we expect from the next 10 or so years on the Web?"
~ Jungle Germs: Playgrounds Sicken Kids -- "Tests across the nation showed just how germy playgrounds really are."
~ Which is better, the iPhone or the BlackBerry? -- "On Wednesday, Apple cut the price of its top-of-the-line iPhone from a wallet-breaking $599 to a less-terrifying $399. This price reduction comes as reports have emerged that July sales of the iPhone outnumbered those of all other smartphones combined. With my battered, aging BlackBerry on its last legs, I went back to the Apple store to try to join the crowd and sell myself on trading brands. But after a few hours of side-by-side comparisons, I'm convinced more than ever that the iPhone isn't the device for me. I'll be replacing my BlackBerry with ... another BlackBerry."
~ Environmental Myths -- "Jerry Mander & John Cavanaugh | Don't believe the hype that "clean coal," "clean nuclear power" and biofuels will solve the environmental crisis."
~ Birch Trees To Edge Out Aspens In Warming World -- "Birches will likely drive out many aspens in northern forests as mounting levels of carbon dioxide force the trees to compete more fiercely for soil nutrients in the coming decades, according to a recent article. Carbon dioxide is emitted when fossil fuels are burned, and it's a heat-trapping gas blamed for global warming. But rising carbon dioxide levels also have a fertilizing effect on trees and other plants, making them grow faster than they normally would."
~ Physicists Establish 'Spooky' Quantum Communication -- "Physicists have coaxed two separate atoms to communicate with a sort of quantum intuition that Albert Einstein called "spooky." In doing so, the researchers have made an advance toward super-fast quantum computing. The research could also be a building block for a quantum internet."
~ Change from Arid to Wet Climate in Africa Altered Early Human Evolution -- "A drastic change in the climate of tropical Africa may have significantly driven early human evolution, an international team of scientists has found."
~ Possible Culprit Found in Bee Die-Off -- "The Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus may be behind the mysterious honey bee die-off."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Eighteen Ways to Invest in Life -- "Do you invest your money? Putting away a portion of your income into an investment plan creates more money later. With interest rates and financial pundits it is easy to see why financial investment makes sense. But what about investment in other areas? Do you invest in your time, brain, body or space? What about investments in the books you read and friends you meet? Although few areas of life have the precision of an investment account, applying investment principles to other situations can have incredible gains."
~ Mother Theresa Again Again: Promise Last Time -- "She saw Jesus everywhere, in everyone in the world but never inside herself. Just as Jesus on the Cross felt God everywhere but in his own suffering (My God, My God why have you abandoned ME....not them)."
~ The Nazi Occult Conspiracy -- "I've always been intrigued with the Nazi occult conspiracy. It's the stuff of legends and Hollywood movies. Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark? Cool movie."
~ Conference on After Postmodernism -- "The Conference posed a specific question: If we absorb postmodernism, if we recognize the variety and ungroundedness of grounds, but do not want to stop in arbitrariness, relativism, or aphoria, what comes after postmodernism?"
~ Buddhist Monks Release Hostages -- "A group of Buddhist monks ended a tense standoff with authorities Thursday in Myanmar by releasing 20 government officials they had taken hostage." Who says Buddhists are always peaceful?
~ Confucius Joins Jesus on Court Display -- "Napoleon, Confucius, Hammurabi and more than a dozen other historical figures have joined Jesus Christ on the wall at courthouse in a bid to reassure visitors that the court wanted nothing more than to showcase people who helped to create the laws of civilized nations." Cool.
~ Some music reviews.... -- From Cory deVos at the Holons blog.
~ How Old is the Suttapitaka? -- "A very interesting article making a scholarly case for the antiquity of the canon; How Old is the Suttapitaka by Alexander Wynn. He makes the argument that the Pali Canon was closed to new material at a very early date. One of his key arguments is that stories and doctrines that are found in other recensions are relegated to the Pali commentaries." Links to the original article.
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1 comment:
Thanks as aways for the support!!!!
Peace ~ John
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