"When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package."
~ John Ruskin
Image of the day:
BODY
~ The "Best" Exercises Can Revolutionize Your Program -- "One little-appreciated characteristic of a great exercise is it's ability to be continuously modified without changing it's fundamental essence. Using this criterion, "great exercises" are almost always closed-chain, free-weight, multi-articular movements."
~ How to Exercise When You Have a Lower Back Injury -- "Anyone who does strength training gets injured sooner or later. Bad technique, bad posture & ego are common causes of lower back injuries. These can make it hard to exercise. Here’s how to exercise when you have a lower back injury."
~ Exercise Helps Overweight Youngsters Learn (HealthDay) -- "Three months of daily, vigorous exercise can improve overweight kids' thinking, U.S. researchers report."
~ Boiled Nuts Help Protect Against Illness -- "For lovers of boiled peanuts, there's some good news from the health front. A new study by a group of Huntsville researchers found that boiled peanuts bring out up to four times more chemicals that help protect against disease than raw, dry or oil-roasted nuts."
~ With Pomegranates, Health is In Style This Season -- "From the fashion runway to the produce aisle, pomegranates are all the rage. The deep ruby color of pomegranates has been used to describe everything from lipstick shades to fabric colors."
~ Next Generation of Sports Doping -- "New drugs for muscle-wasting diseases could become next big thing for athletes." These drugs are the holy grail for athletes -- increased anabolism without hormone side effects.
~ Therapeutic Gene Expression Can Be Sustainable For 1 Year -- "Researchers at the Board of Governors Gene Therapeutics Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have shown for the first time that it is possible to sustain therapeutic gene expression in the central nervous system for up to a year, even in the presence of an anti-viral immune response mechanism that is normally present in humans."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Quantum Consciousness and the Penrose Fallacy [Uncertain Principles] -- "This sort of "quantum physics explains consciousness" stuff has a long history, and most of it is gibberish. In particular, there tends to be a good deal of circularity in most arguments invoking von Neumann. The "testable predictions" line is new, though, so I decided to download the paper and take a look."
~ 10 Tips for a Successful Meeting With The Boss -- "Maybe you work one-on-one with the head honcho every day or perhaps you only get a face-to-face on the very rare occasion. Whenever you get the chance to sit down and have a meeting with the big guns, it's best to make it as productive as possible."
~ Therapy: The Perfect Fit -- "Tips on choosing a therapist."
~ Therapy Watch: Should I See a He or a She? -- "Are you better served by a male or female therapist?"
~ 10 Benefits of Laughter, and How to Use It -- "For hundreds of years, it has been acknowledged that “Laughter is the best Medicine”. Breakthrough scientific research is shedding new light on the physiological beneficial effects of humor on health. Laughter can come in handy, whether it’s for dealing with an illness, the pressures of daily living, stress, coping at work even, laughter can dramatically change the quality and outlook of our lives."
~ Study Of Decision-Making In Psychiatric Patients -- "A researcher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine suggests that psychiatrists may need to approach the treatment of psychiatric patients from a new direction -- by understanding that such individuals' behavior and decision-making are based on an attempt to reach an inner equilibrium."
~ The Quiet Mind Myth: Control Your Thoughts By Ciar Andyers -- "Suppression of thought will lead to an inner struggle and will surely lead to a frustrating meditation session. Conversely, observing thought is a much gentler practice - it is an allowing rather than a forcing. When you simply observe thought and allow it to pass, there is a natural settling of the mind. This is the key. The mind will settle like a body of water."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ It Is Written -- "Such is the agenda of A. J. Jacobs' achingly funny memoir The Year of Living Biblically. Jacobs, the author of The Know-It All, begins by describing himself as a secular Jew. ("I'm Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant. Which is to say: Not very.") In spite of his own detachment from religion, he is increasingly curious about the ways it influences 21st-century American life. Rather than standing on the sidelines or casting himself as an aloof pundit, he dives in head first and decides to spend a year living all the commandments of the Bible—that's right, all of them."
~ Why blame me? It was all my brain’s fault -- " The legal profession in America is taking an increasing interest in neuroscience. There is a flourishing academic discipline of “neurolaw” and neurolawyers are penetrating the legal system. Vanderbilt University recently opened a $27 million neuroimaging centre and hopes to enrol students in a programme in the law and neuroscience."
~ Cristina Pippa: Not Taking Girls for Granted -- "Teenage girls can be surprisingly empathetic, compassionate, and idealistic, in spite of the stereotype that they are unappreciative narcissists. Oftentimes, they simply need to be given the chance and the tools to effect positive change in the world around them. Women's foundations and girls' organizations across the country have started "Girls As Grantmakers" programs which provide exactly those opportunities."
~ Deepak Chopra: Science vs. Wisdom -- "For years Watson has been looked upon as a wise elder, and yet wisdom isn't the same as science. Sometimes an individual scientist may be wise, as Einstein was, but the tendency of science is to narrow one's vision. Great technicians pass for great scientists."
~ The Man Behind The Dilbert Desk: Scott Adams Will Now Take Your Questions -- "Although I’ve never been a regular reader of Dilbert — the silly newspapers I read most regularly, the Times and the Wall Street Journal, don’t have the good sense to run comics — I am a huge fan of Dilbert creator Scott Adams, thanks to his extraordinarily good blog."
~ Behind Burma's Discontent -- "Protesters have disappeared from the streets of Rangoon. But the hardship that sparked their demonstrations hasn't gone away."
~ Politics: The Culture War Descends on Columbia -- "David Horowitz's Islamofascism Awareness Week hits the already beleaguered campus."
~ Harry Potter and the Muggle Activists -- "Harry Potter: that best-selling fantasy series that some people assume is just entertaining reading material for kids and childish adults. And while Harry Potter is filled with a childlike magic, that magic plays out in a world whose "dark and difficult times" often mirror those of our society. The heroes that emerge from the struggles of this fantasy world can teach us something."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Eight of the World’s Most Unusual Plants -- "Weird is relative. What seems weird to me might not seem weird to you. In the plant kingdom, however, there are definitely some species that most people would acknowledge are highly unusual. In the wack spirit of Halloween, some of my findings follow."
~ 25 Unexpectedly Useful Websites for the Uncommonly Curious -- "This unique list contains links to many entertaining and/or useful websites. The sites are not listed in any particular order of importance, and this list is not intended to be an all-inclusive map of the Internet or a comprehensive source of information."
~ 5 Reasons Green Vehicles Could Take Off -- "Even as they fight tougher mileage requirements, automakers are turning out better cars."
~ Video shows buckyballs form by 'shrink wrapping' -- "The birth secret of buckyballs -- hollow spheres of carbon no wider than a strand of DNA -- has been caught on tape by researchers at Sandia National Laboratory and Rice University. An electron microscope video and computer simulations show that "shrink-wrapping" is the key; buckyballs start life as distorted, unstable sheets of graphite, shedding loosely connected threads and chains until only the perfectly spherical buckyballs remain."
~ Mystery Comet Explodes Into Brightness -- "A once-faint comet has made a sudden leap from obscurity to center stage. Comet 17P Holmes, now visible to northern hemisphere residents, increased its brightness by a factor of one million this week, going from magnitude 17 to 2. This makes it visible to the unaided eye as well as binoculars and telescopes, offering a unique viewing opportunity for sky watchers."
~ Much of U.S. Could See a Water Shortage -- "An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year."
~ World's hottest chile pepper discovered -- "Researchers at New Mexico State University recently discovered the world`s hottest chile pepper." I gotta try this!
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ God is a Christian, and God is not a Christian -- "Unity is a high value for Christians, who are called to sacrifice in order to stand together as one in Christ. However, it is possible to pay too high a price for unity. At whatever cost, the Church cannot afford to lose the sacred space in which it is possible for the higher mind of Christ to take shape."
~ Giving thanks for inspiration: Gary Snyder -- "I came face to face with Gary Snyder, one of my icons, at a poetry reading Wednesday night at Columbia University. The Pulitzer Prize winner spoke about the influence of Japanese poetics on his work and read selections from his early and more recent poetry to illustrate this influence." An Aside: Gary Snyder is one of the nicest human beings I have ever met. I hosted him at a book signing in Seattle one time, and he seriously took an interest in talking to each person he met that night, and he talked with me in between signings about poetry and shamanism. One of the highlights of my life.
~ Village party for god-man: US-Born Cult Leader on Fiji Island Treated Like a God -- An Adi Da update -- "Church minister Reverend Bola Waqalevu, who is based on nearby Vanuabalavu, said he visited the island last weekend but was unable to speak to the cult leader, also referred to as Adi Da." Thanks to Jay for the tip.
~ Discussion of the Anatta Doctrine, the concept of No-Self -- "Here is an article on the topic of Anatta Doctrine, the concept of No-Self, which as many dharma teacher's explain, is often misunderstood by Westerners."
~ Self Liberate Even the Antidote -- "This slogan is the third of the points on the actual practice - the cultivation of Bodhicitta."
~ Biopic on Tibetan Buddhist is confounding, agonizing -- "Suffering is certainly inseparable from the experience of watching "Milarepa," an agonizingly slow, dramatically misconceived biopic on famed 11th-century Tibetan Buddhist figure Jetsun Milarepa." It's worth noting that this reviewer rarely gets it right -- he's a regular here in Tucson.
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