"Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death."
~ James F. Byrnes
Image of the day:
BODY
~ The effects of over exercising -- "While exercise has obvious benefits for health and mind, some of us can overdo ourselves. In fact, a recent psychological study of gym rats found that 23 % of people who regularly exercised did so at excessive levels. It is important to keep in mind proportion when incorporating intensity into your exercise routine."
~ Questions -- "When was the last time you reviewed your personal training goals? Do you have your goals written down? Have you selected a date of accomplishment for your goals? Are you keeping a written journal of your daily tasks required to achieve your goals? If you aren’t, how will you know when you get there?"
~ Question of Strength: October -- "The true Master Blaster pontificates on shoulder training, adding muscle without putting on fat, BCAA's, whole eggs vs. egg whites, hot Asian chicks, recruiting more motor units, dumb exercises, bar speed, and his inability to love. (We made up that last one.)"
~ Muscles Can Be Strengthened at Any Age -- "You are never too old to enlarge and strengthen your muscles."
~ Nobel Prize For Medicine Goes To Scientists Working In UK And US -- "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 this year has gone to three scientists working in the US and the UK for their work on the genetic modification of embryonic stem cells. Their discoveries led to the creation of powerful "gene targeting" technologies that are now used extensively in research and therapy."
~ Classtime: reading, writing, downward dog -- "In-class yoga helps elementary students in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, get re-energized in the middle of the school day, the teacher says. She hopes it will help them better retain the material they're working on and fight pre-test jitters."
~ How to break bad eating habits -- "Bad habits are made to be broken. Learn these easy tricks to help you eat better every day."
~ How Do Cannabinoids Make Us Feel That Way? -- "Marijuana and its main psychoactive component, THC, exert a plethora of behavioral and autonomic effects on humans and animals. Some of these effects are the cause of the widespread illicit use of marijuana, while others might be involved in the potential therapeutic use of this drug for the treatment of several neuronal disorders."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Researchers are unearthing the roots of religious feeling in the neural commotion that accompanies the spiritual epiphanies of nuns, Buddhists and other people of faith -- "The spiritual quest may be as old as humankind itself, but now there is a new place to look: inside our heads. Using fMRI and other tools of modern neuroscience, researchers are attempting to pin down what happens in the brain when people experience mystical awakenings during prayer and meditation or during spontaneous utterances inspired by religious fervor."
~ Study Ties Marital Strife, Heart Disease -- "A lousy marriage might literally make you sick. Marital strife and other bad personal relationships can raise your risk for heart disease, researchers reported Monday...."
~ Are You Feeding Your Inner Rebel Candy, or Kryptonite? -- "Your rebel — the part of you that resists and fights direction (even when you’re choosing it) — loves to hear the word “should.” It’s the rallying cry of all rebellion: 'I should do this? No way!'"
~ Radical Thinking: What You Can Learn From the Timeless Philosophy of Socrates -- "During his lifetime Socrates wrote nothing down. Yet his wisdom has formed the bedrock of western philosophy. Socrates was viewed as a great teacher. But he did not claim to be a teacher. In fact, he frequently said ‘all I know is that I know nothing’. By all accounts Socrates was both poor and ugly. Yet in a society that placed tremendous value on beauty and wealth, people of all classes were magnetically drawn to his teachings and enigmatic personality."
~ Instant Calmer: 11 Easy Answers to On-the-Job Stress -- "The problem is that stress does not help the situation; it actually prevents you from being productive and getting on with the rest of your day successfully. While there are techniques to make you a more peaceful person overall, it’s still easy to fall into stress traps. So arm yourself with these easy tips and calm the stress that creeps up on you, especially at work."
~ 10 Tips for Marriage After Divorce -- "In a marriage after divorce, one or both partners may bring painful past experiences into the relationship. Here's 10 tips to make remarriage successful."
~ The Self By Ahmed Parvez -- "Personality or self is no doubt centered in the physical organism. But there are valid grounds for believing that it is not identical with the body."
~ Emotionally Charged Events Leave Their Mark On Memory -- "Researchers have uncovered new evidence in mice that may explain how emotionally charged situations can leave such a powerful mark on our memories. Surges of the stress hormone norepinephrine (also known as noradrenaline) that often accompany strong emotions spark a series of molecular events that ultimately strengthen the connections between neurons, the team reports in the October 5, 2007, issue of the journal Cell, a publication of Cell Press."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Biography of ‘Peanuts’ Creator Stirs Family -- "A biography of Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip, has some of his family members shocked and upset."
~ From the Homicidal to the Ecstatic -- "God's Silence by Franz Wright, a review from New York Review of Books by Helen Vendler." Wright is an under-appreciated poet -- and a good review from Vendler can fix that.
~ Sarah Schorno: Sports Sponsorship: When is it Too Much? -- "Recently the New York Yankees paid tribute to the late baseball great Phil Rizzuto in a touching ceremony before a home game. There were words of remembrance in front of tens of thousands of fans and the playing of Taps to honor the passing of Rizzuto. There was also a large MasterCard logo on the ceremonial podium. As corporate sponsorship becomes a larger part of major league sports, it raises the question of what can't be bought. Or better yet, what shouldn't be bought?"
~ Brian Palmer: We Can Help Burma -- "The word "issue" - the Darfur issue, the Iraq issue, the homelessness issue - is kind of irksome, but it hints at a vital fact: As Americans of a certain economic status and social class, our "issues" are other people's lives. As a journalist and as an American, I struggle to use my privilege, accorded me by birth and by experience, to unearth information and eyewitness testimony about such issues." The article offers links to organizations that can help the situation.
~ Who's afraid of socialized medicine? -- "In Washington, President Bush has just vetoed a Democratic bill to extend the State Children's Health Insurance Program for low-income children. On the campaign trail, Democratic candidates are unveiling plans to fix the health-care system, only to be denounced by their Republican rivals. In both cases, enemies of change are wheeling out an old slayer of reform proposals past."
~ Bonehead U -- "Forget about raising money for actual teaching or research. Institutions of higher learning would rather troll for money for their sports teams."
~ America must stand behind Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- "Especially disgraceful is the Dutch government's irresponsible decision to announce to these death squads, without even notifying Hirsi Ali, that after a given date she would be unprotected and easy game. (Lest I inadvertently strengthen this deplorable impression, let me swiftly add that at present she is under close guard in the United States.)"
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Study shows genetically engineered corn could affect aquatic ecosystems -- "A study by an Indiana University environmental science professor and several colleagues suggests a widely planted variety of genetically engineered corn has the potential to harm aquatic ecosystems. The study is being published online this week by the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences."
~ Newfound ancient African megadroughts may have driven the evolution of humans and fishes -- "From 135,000 to 90,000 years ago tropical Africa had megadroughts more extreme and widespread than any previously known for that region, according to new research."
~ Plant viruses from past provide ecological clues -- "Taking the medical history of a grassland may seem a bit esoteric - after all, how sick can grass be? However, scientists have discovered plant viruses from as early as 1917 containing information crucial not only for plant scientists, but for those in ecology, human health and bioterrorism."
~ UW undergrads discover more than 1,300 asteroids -- "Undergraduate astronomy students at the University of Washington combing through images from a specialized telescope have discovered more than 1,300 asteroids that had never before been observed. That is about one out of every 250 known objects in the solar system."
~ Scientists developing clean energy systems from micro-algae -- "An international consortium established by an Australian scientist is developing a clean source of energy that could see some of our future fuel and possibly water needs being generated by solar-powered bio-reactors and micro-algae while absorbing CO2."
~ Relativity Derived Without Calculus -- Possibly Centuries Ago -- "After Einstein developed his theories of special and general relativity, in 1905 and 1916, respectively, the world of physics changed dramatically. The theories, with their groundbreaking ideas on space and time, helped lead 20th century scientists to unlock the secrets of the atom and unleash the power of nuclear energy."
~ Amber Is Forever: The Making of a Death Trap -- "How do aquatic creatures wind up trapped for millennia in tree resin?"
~ Time travel may be possible but won't be economical -- "Marty McFly sped his souped up DeLoren into his parent`s past in Back to the Future, but whether we will ever make the journey to our ancestors time is as much an economic issue as one of science, according to a physics expert at The Australian National University."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Women, Buddhism and the Internet -- "Though the Internet offers us an arena of egalitarian play, and Buddhism is a fount of compassion -- a quality closely associated with women -- Western Buddhism is dominated by the galumphing presence of men, as much in the virtual world as in flesh-bone-bricks-and-morter sanghas. Why is this?"
~ The Short Shelf Life of Information (and the Long Life of Memes) -- "Most bloggers (and those in other media like radio, TV and print) have figured this out. It's not just that we have short attention spans that causes us to forget what was printed or broadcast last week -- we lose the context, so if it's important, we need to be re-briefed anew anyway."
~ BLOG: Alex Grey on Integral Naked - Integral Art: Anchoring the Seed of Liberation -- "Alex Grey and Ken Wilber explore an integral approach to art, how visionary and spiritual art can plant a seed of liberation in the mind of the viewer, and how one can recognize and anchor that realization in one's own life." Includes free sample.
~ Happy Lost Italian Explorer's Day! -- "Serendipity is described as searching for something, and in the process discovering something totally different, but which is a far greater discovery. In a nutshell, that's what Columbus did."
~ Faith in America: Buddhism in the Heartland -- "In America we have the NBC Nightly News organization with journalist Brian Williams. This past week they've been running a series titled, "Faith in America" and this past Friday the segment was on Buddhism in the heartland of America." Includes link to the video.
~ Spark: inner and outer transformations -- "Since I have been getting into photography again over the last few weeks, I notice that what I am doing is not about photography. It is about the spark I find through photography. And that is how it is with much of what I do or have a dream about doing. It is not about whatever it looks like to the world, but about the spark I find in it."
~ Buddhist Geeks 40: How Do You Sell the Dharma? -- "In our final segment with meditation instructor Ethan Nichtern, he shares his perspective on selling the dharma, transforming culture, the Shambhala tradition, and the need for more dharma teachers who aren’t necessarily enlightened."
~ Are More People Waking Up? -- "A friend of mine recently posed the question, “Is it just me, or are there a lot of people waking up these days?” It’s a really interesting question, one that I’ve thought about from time to time. And so talking it over with my partner I came up with at least six different possibilities (I’m sure there are more) that one might consider with regards to the question."
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