"The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it."
~ Doug Larson
Image of the day:
BODY
~ The Leptin Manifesto -- "From the Greek word leptos, meaning thin, leptin is a bizarre little protein hormone that affects energy intake and energy expenditure. If you can learn to control it, you can pretty much write your physique ticket."
~ The Only Supplements You Need To Build Muscle & Strength -- "I decided to make an article about which supplements you really need for strength training & why. Here it is."
~ Health Tip: The Benefits of Omega-3s -- "Omega-3 fatty acids -- found in fish and certain plant oils -- are crucial for healthy brain growth and development. They can also help protect the body against certain diseases and conditions."
~ High glycemic index diet boosts fatty liver risk -- "People who eat lots of high glycemic index (GI) foods not only risk gaining weight, they also run a greater risk of developing a condition that can lead to liver failure and death, finds a new study in mice. The condition is known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)."
~ Researchers name and shame 11 companies for making 'false health claims' -- "A group of young scientists today challenged the marketing claims made by 11 companies of 'health products' ranging from sandwiches to health spas. In a report they criticised the firms including Nestle and Champneys for making 'pseudo-scientific' statements that did not stand up to scrutiny."
~ Study Of Relationship Between Chronic Diseases And Stress -- "In a review of the scientific literature on the relationship between stress and disease, Carnegie Mellon University psychologist Sheldon Cohen has found that stress is a contributing factor in human disease, and in particular depression, cardiovascular disease and HIV/AIDS."
~ Investigating Link Between Male Testosterone Levels And Marital Status -- "A fascinating new study is the first outside of North America to observe lower testosterone levels among married men. Supporting a growing body of research, the study reveals that even married men who are considered aloof spouses and provide minimal parenting have much lower testosterone levels than single, unmarried men." Damn, that's a good reason to stay single. But then again, the psychological benefits of relationship probably override any negative effects from the low testosterone.
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Are You Just Shy or Do You Have a Social Phobia? -- "There's a 50% chance that you consider yourself shy. But is this 'just' shyness or is it a mental disorder? Since 1980 the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders used by psychiatrists in diagnosis has included the categories of 'social phobia' and 'social anxiety disorder'. This suggests that what would previously have been your particular way of being, has become a 'disorder' with a biological cause which needs some medication."
~ The Relaxifying Secret to Success -- "One thing that has helped me to keep striving towards where I want to go is to focus on the process instead of the outcome. You just focus on what you are doing. You don’t think about the possible outcomes of what you are doing when you are doing what you do. You detach from that. You just keep your mind focused on doing the work."
~ 10 Surefire Ways to Kill Your Crabby Mood -- "Having a happy day is well within your reach even if you are feeling totally down in the dumps. Being happy is a choice and there are things you can do to make it happen. Just like when you feel a decrease in energy, the best thing to do is to get your body moving - the same thing is true with cultivating happiness."
~ Warning: Is the Quick Fix Mentality Killing Your Progress? -- "We live in an age of information over-abundance and finite attention spans. As a result, both writers and readers have come to depend on the quick fix. People don’t have time to read drawn out explanation and analysis. They want answers up front in an easily digestible format."
~ The neurology of Alice in Wonderland -- "I've just discovered a fantastic short article on the curious neurological syndromes that appear in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It was published a couple of years ago in a clinical neuroscience journal and is freely available online as a pdf file."
~ Happier & The Pursuit of Happiness -- "Tal Ben-Shahar's latest book, Happier, brings us the latest positive psychology findings on being happy."
~ Early School Performance Predicts Substance Abuse Rates -- "Drug use and behavioral problems obviously carry the potential to disrupt one's academic life, diverting crucial time and energy from school and blurring students' abilities to focus on their studies. But researchers found the equation more notable when reversed - kids with low grades are more likely to use and abuse various substances when they become available."
~ Can an MRI See God? -- "Research in neuroscience has focused on the biological nature of consciousness. But does science explain away religious experience, or is there a deeper mystery at work?"
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ How Gay Marriage Really Will Change Hetero Marriage -- "In order for our society to accept or even tolerate same-sex marriage, a lot of fairly basic, deep-rooted ideas have to change. The way we define family. The way we think of what it means to be a man, and what it means to be a woman. The importance of sex and sexual fulfillment. What we consider natural and normal. Etc., etc., etc."
~ Generation Q -- "But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the country’s own good. When I think of the huge budget deficit, Social Security deficit and ecological deficit that our generation is leaving this generation, if they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re just not paying attention. And we’ll just keep piling it on them."
~ Use It or Lose It: Why Language Changes over Time -- "The words used the most in everyday language are the ones evolving at the slowest rate, say two new studies published in Nature." See also: Mathematicians predict the future of the past tense.
~ War on Iraq: Unable to Beat Muqtada al-Sadr, the U.S. Tries to Divide his Movement -- "While U.S. officials try to gin up a war with Iran by accusing it of meddling in Iraq's affairs, their real problem is that al Sadr's Mahdi army is determined to end the occupation and is simply too big to be beaten by military force."
~ Newcomers and Old Hands Nominated for Book Prizes -- "God and government were among the themes explored by the nonfiction finalists for the National Book Awards, which were announced yesterday." Among the nominees, in all categories, are Christopher Hitchens (non-fiction), Robert Hass (poetry), and Sherman Alexie (children's books).
~ Utne's Rough Guide to International Opinion -- "The Pew Global Attitudes Project breaks news about ever-shifting world opinion. Here's a look at some of the 2007 report's quirkier findings."
~ Grading the Republican Debate -- "Thompson was shaky but adequate in his first debate appearance, but overall it was Giuliani who dominated in Dearborn."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Environmental setting of human migrations in the circum-Pacific Region -- "A new study by Kevin Pope of Geo Eco Arc Research and John Terrell of The Field Museum adds insight into the migration of anatomically modern humans out of Africa and into Asia less than 100,000 years before present (BP)."
~ New-School 'Aether' May Shed Light on Neutron Stars -- "Among scientists, it is widely believed that there is no such thing as an aether - a medium pervading all space that allows light waves to propagate, similar to how sound needs air or water - but a part of its spirit may live on. A group of University of Maryland (UM) physicists have proposed a modern spin on the aether of old and have used it to make new predictions about the behavior of neutron stars."
~ Interoperability in Virtual Worlds: Experts Discuss Possible Futures -- "Linden Labs, makers of Second Life, announced a partnership with IBM and nearly 30 other companies today to work on creating a layer of interoperability across all online virtual worlds. This layer, the plans for which are being discussed publicly for the first time at today's Virtual Worlds Expo in San Jose, would allow users to port identities and other assets from one virtual world to another."
~ Data sharing threatens privacy -- "Analyses of personal information raise spectre of Big Brother."
~ Biofuel: The little shrub that could - maybe -- "India, like many countries, has high hopes for jatropha as a biofuel source, but little is known about how to make it a successful crop. Daemon Fairless digs for the roots of a new enthusiasm."
~ Ancient Roman Coins Found in Portugal -- "Archaeologists excavating a site in northeastern Portugal discovered 4,500 ancient Roman coins tucked away inside a wall."
~ Ethanol Crops Could Threaten Water Supply -- "When it comes to solving the fossil fuel crisis, it seems like every silver lining comes accompanied by a dark cloud."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Books on classical learning, my recommendations -- "Classical learning is a more diverse field than I ever imagined. What follows are the books that, so far, have provided the most knowledge, understanding, and wisdom about the classical learning approach. This is a list still in-progress. But I’d go to the mat for any of these selections, though some more than others, as the brief descriptions of each will indicate."
~ Emily Dickenson in a teal hue -- ""I reason, time is short" by Emily Dickenson expresses a level of faith that I think of as teal: existentialist, yearning, open, but reason-bound, and uncertain (I speak not of a fully-formed level of consciousness here, but rather of a station of emergent worldview development)."
~ A note on stations and classic texts -- "I am forced by my description of Dickenson as "of a teal hue" to reflect on the significance of stations as descriptors. Dickenson's poem expresses a sentiment that might have been uttered by any number of ancient Greek or Roman philosophers. Is it appropriate to call this sentiment teal, part of a psychological and cultural developmental meme (or altitude) that is generally taken to be late postmodern? Does doing so strip away the genuine appropriateness of using colors of an Integral Spirituality to describe any phenomena at all?"
~ Godwin's Law -- Hokai blogs about the pseudo-spiritual narcissism that is Gagdad Bob (aka, Robert Godwin).
~ The Matrix, Revisited: A New Myth Emerges in the Struggle for Authenticity -- "Lately, I’'ve been obsessed with finding ways to experience a deeper, truer self, to cultivate the elemental creational force that lies within every one of us. A serendipitous encounter with Nirvana during a meditation retreat in 2003 demonstrated to me experientially that we are so much more than physical bodies."
~ Tenzin Yongdu- The Wheel of Life - The 12 Nidanas -- "A fully ordained monk of the Kagyu lineage, Lama Karma Tenzin Yongdu took vows with His Eminence the Third Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche and became one of his close disciples. He is also a senior student of the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche."
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