Monday, October 15, 2007

Speedlinking 10/15/07

Quote of the day:

"The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Getting The Truth About The Sugar Busters Diet -- "In this decade sugar has become the new evil and more and more individuals are starting to remove it from their diets. Learn more about the benefits of this diet and see how moderation plays a key role!"
~ Training for Newbies, Part 1 -- "If you're new to bodybuilding, print out a dozen copies of this article and stick a copy on the fridge, in the can, on your girlfriend's heinie, everywhere! Memorize it. It could literally save you years of frustration!"
~ Testing your shoulder flexibility -- "The shoulder joint is probably one of the most injury prone parts of the body. Because there are so many smaller ligaments, muscles and tendons involved in this area, it can be really quite easily to strain, tear or throw the bone completely out of socket."
~ Eat 8, Feel Great -- "Find out the eight foods you should be eating every day."
~ Unlocking the Benefits of Garlic -- "For better health, bring on the garlic — and the mouthwash." Yeah, but mouthwash doesn't help -- garlic comes out in sweat. And that's no reason not to eat your garlic.
~ New Hardee’s burrito packs 920 calories -- "Hardee’s on Monday rolled out its new Country Breakfast Burrito — two egg omelets filled with bacon, sausage, diced ham, cheddar cheese, hash browns and sausage gravy, all wrapped inside a flour tortilla. The burrito contains 920 calories and 60 grams of fat." A heart-attack on a plate.
~ Can New Diet Help Kids With Autism? -- "Some parents say a wheat- and gluten-free diet alleviates autistic symptoms." There's clinical support for this idea.
~ Yoga can give women with breast cancer a boost -- "Special yoga classes can significantly improve the quality of life and well being of women with breast cancer patients -- particularly those who are not taking chemotherapy -- a new study shows."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ More are swayed by gossip than truth -- "People are influenced by gossip about others, even when it contradicts what they see with their own eyes, suggests a new study."
~ The Complex Issue of Attachment Disorders -- "Attachment may be defined as a composite of behaviors in an infant, toddler, or young child that is designed to achieve physical and emotional closeness to a mother or preferred caregiver when the child seeks comfort, support, nurturance, or protection."
~ You Own Your Thoughts, Now Control Them -- "What if it was possible to be happy even when things aren't going your way? What if there was a simple way to be happy, despite your environment, while staring adversity straight in the eyes? I know it sounds like a great idea, but doesn't seem to be very realistic at first glance. The good news is, it doesn't have to be realistic, it just has to work, and it will, if you stick with a few basic principles. The key here is in the simplicity, and in keeping yourself accountable for sticking with the following principles."
~ Types of Defense Mechanisms -- "While Sigmund Freud described a number of defense mechanisms, it was his daughter Anna Freud who provided the clearest and most comprehensive look at mechanisms of defense...."
~ The PermaParent Trap -- "Housing your twenty-something children."
~ The Physical and Mental Benefits of Daily Meditation -- "In a modern world that values activity, achievements and results, it is perhaps surprising that more people are turning to meditation. For all the activity of modern society, many still feel a fundamental need for silence, inner peace, and a moment of reflection. Meditation can reduce stress and help us relax; but, it can also give us a lot more. These are some of the benefits that daily meditation can give us."
~ Say Yes to No? -- "'Say Yes to No' is the name of a Minnesota based movement designed to save children from what they define as the contemporary US 'yes' culture of self indulgence. Psychologist and author David Walsh calls saying no a parenting strategy which will save our children from a condition he calls "discipline deficit disorder, or DDD"...."
~ How and Why We Lie to Ourselves: Cognitive Dissonance -- "The ground-breaking social psychological experiment of Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) provides a central insight into the stories we tell ourselves about why we think and behave the way we do. The experiment is filled with ingenious deception so the best way to understand it is to imagine you are taking part. So sit back, relax and travel back. The time is 1959 and you are an undergraduate student at Stanford University..."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Myanmar's “Saffron Revolution”: The Geopolitics behind the Protest Movement -- "The tragedy of Burma, whose land area is about the size of George W. Bush’s Texas, is that its population is being used as a human stage prop in a drama scripted in Washington by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the George Soros Open Society Institute, Freedom House and Gene Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institution, a US intelligence asset used to spark “non-violent” regime change around the world on behalf of the US strategic agenda." Not sure I buy this, but I thought it worth posting.
~ 3 Americans Win Economics Nobel -- "Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson won the Nobel prize in economics on Monday for developing a theory that helps explain situations in which markets work and others in which they don't."
~ Schwarzenegger signs handgun bill -- "California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill whose backers say will better help police use shells from hand guns as evidence in criminal investigations, a spokeswoman said on Sunday."
~ Schulz's family says cartoonist unfairly drawn in new bio -- "The family of Charles Schulz, famed creator of Peanuts, is unhappy with a major new biography hitting bookstores Tuesday."
~ The Raw and the Cooked: Robert Lowell and the Beats -- "Robert Lowell's 1960 statement regarding the state of poetry not only pitted the Beats against "cat-nip" academics, but publicly declared them to be a force."
~ Rights and Liberties: On Transgender Rights, Congress Needs Better Teachers -- "Members of the House could learn a lot about transgender identity from someone like Alice Miller, a scholar and former CIA analyst who waited until her 60s to transition."
~ Rubin: Grandstanding Has Consequences -- "If only the Armenian Genocide resolution was an isolated event. Its amateur hour in Congress."
~ First U.S. baby boomer applies for Social Security -- "Retired school teacher Kathleen Casey-Kirschling on Monday became the first ripple in a "silver tsunami" of retiring baby boomers applying for pension benefits that threatens to overwhelm U.S. government finances." And so the collapse begins.


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Global Warming and Al Gore's $307 Trillion Gamble -- "Rapid economic growth, fueled by technological innovation, could solve a lot of problems."
~ Dinosaur skeleton unearthed in Argentina (AP) -- "The skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur species — a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found — has been uncovered in Argentina, scientists said Monday."
~ Scientists ramp up ability of poplar plants to disarm toxic pollutants -- "Scientists since the early '90s have seen the potential for cleaning up contaminated sites by growing plants able to take up nasty groundwater pollutants through their roots. Then the plants break certain kinds of pollutants into harmless byproducts that the plants either incorporate into their roots, stems and leaves or release into the air."
~ Free Music Service to Compete with iTunes -- "Universal Music plans to launch a new mobile music service where all songs will be free, according to a recent article in BusinessWeek. To be called "Total Music," the concept would include iPod alternatives that come with free subscriptions to the online service, and would be free of ads."
~ The Top 35 Environmental Blogs -- "There are hundreds, if not thousands, of blogs dedicated to the environment on the Internet. That's really no surprise given that environmental conservation is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and has become especially pertinent in recent years due to concerns about global warming and mega-hit documentaries like Former US Vice President Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth."
~ Thousands of bloggers unite in blitz of green tips -- "Thousands of bloggers including a European Commissioner traded tips on Monday about how to confront climate change and other environmental problems in an Internet blitz. Organizers of the October 15 U.N.-backed "Blog Action Day" said about 15,800 sites had signed up and were offering ideas to millions of people via blogs, or online diaries, ranging from planting more trees to how to recycle plastics."
~ Networking Art via Media Players -- "Creative audio that takes advantage of the ubiquity of digital media players seems natural enough. Now, as these devices develop more sophisticated screens and display functionality, will visual art follow? Here's an effort that almost makes me want to run out and buy a video iPod: untitled landscapes for portable media players."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Integral Forestry: People, Planning and Ecology in the Slocan Valley -- "In January 2004 Next Step Integral’s founder, Stephan Martineau, initiated an attempt to implement an Integral Approach to Forestry in the Slocan Valley of British-Columbia in collaboration with several grass roots organizations. The Slocan Valley seemed like the perfect candidate for such a project. How so? It had all the elements that would lead anyone to predict guaranteed failure."
~ Dan Millman on Integral Naked - The Highest Teaching -- "It is one of the remarkable blessings of the 21st century to have such unprecedented access to all the world's great spiritual traditions. While navigating this rich ocean of wisdom, how can we determine what the "highest" spiritual teaching really is? How does it relate to day-to-day life? And how can we begin to claim this truth as our very own, right now?" Includes free sample.
~ Buddhism and War -- "As the issue of Burma seems to slip away, many are still asking, 'what can I do?' From across the Buddhist world there are many suggestions, ranging from surgical strikes (Tom from Zen Unbound) to continued pacifism and khanti or patient endurance (Gary from Forest Wisdom, commenting on my last post here)."
~ Dharmic Architecture -- " I have not been reading or meditating. The latest issue of The Shambhala Sun is still unopened in its plastic. I have not been attending sangha gatherings. I find my writings rambling, wandering on about this and that, but not in their usual way. I have no new philosophic insights into emptiness or the nature of mind to share, just the daily business of living. Yet I feel that my practice is very rich at the moment, full of opportunities and learning."
~ Blog Action Day! Ecology, Politics & Consciousness -- "Today is Blog Action Day! The theme is to post anything about the environment. Good thing I just finished reading the green issue of What is Enlightenment: Ecology,Politics & Consciousness. Check it out."
~ Buddhist Geeks 41: Sharon Salzberg on Now and Then -- "Sharon Salzberg co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass., when she was twenty-three. In this episode Salzberg shares some of the insights that she’s discovered along the way, telling stories in a way that will make them accessible to new and seasoned practitioners alike. May they illuminate your day, your car ride or your walk to work as you listen."
~ The Radical Spirituality of Generation X, Part 13: In Kali’'s Garden -- "Kali is the dark Goddess of the Hindu pantheon, a representation of both time and death as well as the raw and wild sides of the Divine. Kali eliminates what is less than holy in us, what we use to shield ourselves from a frightening world. During a long foray through India, I lingered many times on this vision of Kali stamping out the proud postures of my ego. Kali proved to be an apt symbol for the stripping of those months, a stripping that ultimately revealed something transcendent. In this context, already more than a bit bruised, I entered my first serious meditation retreat, nervous but willing to go deeper. This is the chronicle of that inner journey."


No comments: