"People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest."
~ Hermann Hesse
Image of the day (David Winston):
BODY
~ You Should Be Doing This Exercise -- "It's called the face pull, and it addresses one of the biggest problem areas for guys--the external shoulder rotators. Weakness in these muscles can result in shoulder injuries, and all around poor shoulder stability, which limits the amount of weight you can lift in other exercises."
~ Bringing the Pendulum back to center -- "It is often said by futurists (those who study the past to predict the future) that there is an over-reaction to most new concepts in the short term, yet an under-reaction in the long term. We can all come up with countless examples of it – the high carb trend of a few years ago – which has become the zero carb trend recently. However, never has this concept been more apparent than in the strength and conditioning industry particularly in recent years."
~ Build Aerobic Capacity by Strengthening Leg Muscles -- "Aerobic capacity is a measure of your ability to use oxygen to do work. If your body can process more oxygen than that of another person, usually you will be able to run faster, walk or work longer, and have more energy than that person."
~ Hand washing best way to fight 'superbug' -- "The headlines are disturbing -- schools closing for disinfection, a 17-year-old dead from a drug-resistant "superbug." But health officials said on Friday it is no new emergency and the best way to deal with the bacteria is simply to wash your hands."
~ Lack of sleep may hike women's blood pressure -- "Women who regularly get fewer than seven hours of sleep each night may have a higher risk of developing high blood pressure, a new study suggests." I'd guess this is true for men as well.
~ The REAL Reasons You Want to Avoid Genetically Modified Foods -- "In this lecture, Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, summarizes the contents of his book, which explains the health dangers of genetically modified foods, and the industry cover-up." A three-part video.
~ Fast-food portions keep getting bigger -- "Fast-food restaurants may brag about their premium salads and apple fries, but for all the healthier items they've added to menus, portion bloat is bigger than ever."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Adolescents need support during family breakups -- "Family breakups take a toll on adolescents, who have high rates of psychological and social problems, including substance abuse, behavioral disorders, anxiety and depression, according to a report in the journal Pediatrics."
~ PTSD Treatments Need Further Study -- "Most posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatments lack strong evidence on their effectiveness, according to a report released today by the Institute of Medicine."
~ Key to mental 'resilience' found -- "US scientists have pinpointed a difference in brain chemistry which may explain why some people cope better than others in the face of adversity."
~ Ghosts and other childhood terrors -- "Fears are a natural part of how kids learn to understand their environment, experts say. Every developmental passage, from infancy on, is accompanied by some kind of anxiety, ranging from monsters to vacuum cleaners. Whatever the source of your little one's fear, it's how you help her confront it that's key."
~ Understanding of Mind-Body Connection Helpful for Depression Treatment -- "Physical and emotional pain share biological pathways and neurotransmitters in the central nervous system, so it is not surprising that depression causes physical and well as mental symptoms."
~ Three More Reasons Why Your Brain is Not Your Friend -- "Last week, I explained some of the ways that our brain tricks us. There’s more ways than just the three I listed that the brain works in odd and mysterious ways, causing us no end of mischief. Here’s three more...."
~ Grieving Is Essential To Let Go By Jacquiline Macaraig -- "People always talk about life. They either marvel about it, mouth-off a litany of complaints, or burst into a series of philosophical points to ponder...."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Josh Bolotsky: Rendition and the Modern Issue Film in an Era of High Broderism -- "There are several things you might expect a review of Gavin Hood's new film Rendition, out today, to begin with. Perhaps a discussion of Reese Witherspoon's first role since 2005's Walk The Line; maybe a mention of how it is the first piece of popular culture to really deal with Bush-era torture; maybe even an overall verdict on the efficacy of the film as a political thriller. I'm going to begin with a discussion of High Broderism. Allow me to explain."
~ Shelly Palmer: The End of Analog Television -- "A few weeks ago, Washington woke up and realized that February 17, 2009 was less then two years away. This wouldn't matter except that it's the day the government has chosen to be the end of analog television." This may be when I stop watching TV.
~ Deepak Chopra: Your Apocalypse or Mine? -- "Some time back I wrote a post entitled "The Seduction of Apocalypse" (April 7, 2006), pointing out the dark appeal of believing that the world is coming to an end. This seems like a good time for a follow-up, because in fact there are two versions of the apocalypse teetering on the brink, one Christian, the other Islamic."
~ Who Is Behind the Attack on Bhutto? -- "Her enemies range from al-Qaeda to the military, but whoever is reponsible, the attempt on her life could have a chilling effect on her supporters."
~ Thompson Woos 'Values Voters' -- "In a speech to 2,000 conservative evangelicals at the Family Research Council's "Values Voters Summit" in Washington, Republican Fred Thompson made some headway with conservative Christians who've been left uninspired during the desultory days of his first month on the presidential campaign trail."
~ Mukasey Mum on Torture Techniques -- "Attorney General-nominee Michael Mukasey refused to say Thursday whether he considers waterboarding a form of torture, frustrating Democrats and potentially slowing his confirmation to head the Justice Department."
~ The War Was Right, the President Was Wrong -- "Five years ago, Congress and President Bush made the most consequential and, as now seems more likely than not, unfortunate decision of this country's still young century. On October 16, 2002, Bush signed a resolution authorizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Should war supporters apologize?" This is an interesting look at the reasons for supporting the Iraq War, and why it was a mistake.
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ How Singing Bats Communicate -- "Bats are the most vocal mammals other than humans, and understanding how they communicate during their nocturnal outings could lead to better treatments for human speech disorders. Thousands of bats native to Central Texas fly overhead each night singing songs of complex syllables -- but at frequencies too high for humans to hear."
~ In the pack -- "Glenn Hurowitz writes that Environmental Defense has "abandoned other green groups" by voicing support for climate change legislation introduced last week by Senators Joe Lieberman and John Warner. "Environmental Defense is once again destroying the unity of the environmental movement by endorsing this bill now despite some major weaknesses," he says."
~ Cave Speak: Did Neandertals Talk? -- "German researchers have discovered Neandertals apparently had the human variant of a gene that is linked to speech and language. A team of scientists, primarily from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, made the discovery during efforts to reconstruct a full genome of the extinct hominid."
~ Fossilized Cashew Nuts Reveal Europe Was Important Route Between Africa And South America -- "Cashew nut fossils have been identified in 47-million year old lake sediment in Germany, revealing that the cashew genus Anacardium was once distributed in Europe, remote from its modern 'native' distribution in Central and South America. It was previously proposed that Anacardium and its African sister genus, Fegimanra, diverged from their common ancestor when the landmasses of Africa and South America separated. However, this groundbreaking new data indicate that Europe may be an important biogeographic link between Africa and the New World."
~ Why 'Made in China' should increase our carbon footprint -- "Nearly a quarter of China's carbon emissions are created by goods manufactured and exported to Western consumers, according to research by University of Sussex climate change analysts Dr Tao Wang and Dr Jim Watson."
~ Swiss elections get spooky -- "High-profile applications of quantum trickery raise the question of what to call these new technologies. Philip Ball doubts that one proposal will catch on."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Researching Traditionalism -- "Recently I have been reading a lot more of Traditionalist literature, i.e. Frithjof Schuon, Rene Guenon, and others of the perennial philosophy school of thought."
~ Questioning Kazlev's Redefinitions -- "A close reading of Sections 2, 3, 4, and 6 of M. Alan Kazlev's Essay "Redefining Integral" published in Integral World."
~ Monks and Scientists to Conduct Research on Mind-Body Links -- "The Dalai Lama has always taught enlightenment — but what few people know is he says that path includes lessons in modern science. And Emory will assist Tibetans to realize His Holiness’s vision."
~ Music to Photography -- "Music is imagination, critical thought, idiosyncratic and recycling. Photography is painting with light. Writing is a release. Composition is the all-inclusive whole of my life. Art is deconstruction."
~ The Two Biggest Political Issues of the 2010s -- "What will the two biggest political issues of the 2010s be, worldwide? You might guess global warming (maybe in the 2020s), or oil price spikes or the collapse of the US dollar (they'll be old news by the 2010s), or even, as I posted yesterday, outrage over wealth and income disparity. But you'd be wrong. My prediction? It all comes down to what touches people personally, and there are two issues that will touch us all personally in the 2010s...."
~ Coming to terms with impermanance -- "One of the fundamental teachings of the Buddha is that all things are impermanent. This may seem like a *duh* from an intellectual point of view, but admit it! We still cling to jobs, relationships, possessions and our youthfulness. When they are gone, our logical appreciation of their impermanence gets flushed down the toilet as we grieve their loss."
~ Calculus of Torment -- "A notion raised in the writings of Wilber is the calculus of torment. The calculus of torment is based on the notion of the Absolute/relative truths. Namely that the world is nothing but one perception-without-a-perceiver (from the awakened state only). And we have to make choices as individual instantiations, communal networks, and the rest within that Oneness. You can’t go on a killing spree in other words because all is one and everything is self-liberated."
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment