"There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity."
~ Robertson Davies
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Exercise of the Week: Heavy Supports -- "With squats, fear is often the limiting factor. Part of us is afraid that a big weight will flatten us like a pancake and make people want to pour syrup onto us. Heavy Supports will cure that fear."
~ Stop Overtraining Now! Vary Your Workouts With Periodization! -- "Adding variety to an exercise program can improve adherence and can also help you stay physically challenged and mentally stimulated. Blow away your plateaus by considering the following ideas and methods of variation training."
~ Budgeting Calories Might Help Take Off Unwanted Pounds -- "If most of us could budget our calories like we budget our money, we would have a much better chance of staying in good shape. "Many of us eat so much during the holiday season, we probably never consider the cost of all those calories on the waistline until our clothes start getting tight," said Karen Brewton, M.A., R.D., L.D. with The Methodist Hospital Wellness Services in Houston. Budgeting calories like money can really help people think about how much they eat."
~ Wild mushroom can fight prostate cancer: Israeli researchers (AFP) -- "Israeli scientists claim that a wild mushroom, used in traditional Chinese medicine for a century, could treat prostate cancer, the University of Haifa said Friday."
~ Can junk food ever be good for you? -- "Snack foods filled with fruits or vegetables are growing trend. But some nutrition experts say their their better-for-you claims may be going too far."
~ Neuroprotection From Green Tea For Parkinson's Disease -- "Does the consumption of green tea, widely touted to have beneficial effects on health, also protect brain cells? Authors of a new study being published in the December 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry share new data that indicates this may be the case."
~ According To New Clinical Data, Chromium Picolinate Improves Cognitive Function -- "Nutrition 21, Inc., a leading developer and marketer of chromium-based and omega-3 fish oil-based nutritional supplements, has announced the results of a clinical study that showed daily supplementation with 1000 mcg of chromium as chromium picolinate improved cognitive function in older adults experiencing early memory decline."
~ Debating Honey: Symbiotic Food or Unnatural Poison? -- "Honey is an age-old food and medicine, dating back thousands of years at least. One would think that both believers in creation and believers in evolution would feel that honey is a symbiotic food and medicine." More than you ever wanted to know about honey.
~ Too Much Fructose Could Leave Dieters Sugar Shocked -- "Dieters should focus on limiting the amount of fructose they eat instead of cutting out starchy foods such as bread, rice and potatoes, report researchers, who propose using new dietary guidelines based on fructose to gauge how healthy foods are."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Suicide on the rise for middle-aged Americans -- "The suicide rate for middle-aged Americans has climbed to its highest point in at least 25 years, in what's being described as an unrecognized tragedy."
~ recent dopamine related papers -- Links to several scholarly papers on dopamine.
~ So, What’s In It For Me? -- "One thing I think a lot of us think when we stumble upon something in life is: what’s in it for me? Not because we are extremely selfish. But we spend all day, every day in our bodies and our lives. So I think it’s pretty natural that you think about your own life, problems and challenges a bit more than you think about other people or things."
~ depression, bipolar disorder et al -- "Links to several scholarly papers on depression and bipolar disorder.
~ FEATURE - Living Loud With Joy Rose - "Sacred Struggle and Keys to Joy" -- "The challenge it seems, is to confront whatever self you have negotiated thus far in your life; to find that “perfect, whole and complete” you. This is easier said than done. This means working through, and past, the defenses - and opening to the flow of what’s around us. This means acceptance."
~ Why Problem Solving Itself is a Puzzle, Even to Poincare and Picasso -- "The process of human creativity is both fascinating and, at the same time, mystifying. Understanding the mental processes of great thinkers offers an enormous reward to any who can replicate them: immortality. Perhaps if we really understood what was going through their minds, we too could create an object or idea that would live long after our deaths."
~ The Power of Love -- "Love is the best antidepressant."
~ Emotional Unavailability and the Bedroom -- "Much has been written about those individuals that we consider emotionally unavailable (they have difficulty being vulnerable in the emotional arena, and therefore tend to shy back from getting to that point). Much has also been written about the effect of this on their unwitting partners, who often remain blissfully unaware of the reality of their situation until years have passed, and much damage - both to them and the relationship - has been done."
~ 15 Can’t-Miss Ways to Declutter Your Mind -- "The world of stresses and worries and errands and projects and noise that we must all endure inflicts upon us a mind full of clutter and chaos."
~ Humans appear hardwired to learn by 'over imitation' -- "Children learn by imitating adults—so much so that they will rethink how an object works if they observe an adult taking unnecessary steps when using that object, according to a Yale study today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Books of The Times: Perhaps There’s Some Life in the Old Corpus -- "Nicholas Ostler's history charts Latin's rise and fall. Harry Mount's short primer makes a passionate case for studying the language."
~ Review - Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture, by Jon Savage -- "Savage sets the scope of his history to begin in 1875, with two exemplary biographies, one of an American juvenile delinquent on trial for murder, and another of a highly Romantic French-Russian girl whose published diary was a sensation in late Nineteenth Century Europe. Together they represent iconic poles of the image of youth: on the one hand, moody striving to combine the glamour of youth with adult privilege, and on the other, threatening lawlessness not yet conditioned to adult responsibility."
~ Between Liberalism and Leftism -- "Mr. Walzer's essays take exactly the opposite approach: They set up camp in the midst of the world we all live in bringing the rigor of political theory to the messiness of political debate. It makes sense that Mr. Walzer is both a professor at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and an editor of Dissent, the left-liberal journal: His theories are always also interventions."
~ Imperial March -- "President Bush has added more power to the imperial presidency than previously imagined. It's time to recalibrate the checks and balances between Congress and the president." Free log-in required.
~ All the Rage -- "Rage seems to be all the rage lately. Look around; it’s not difficult to conclude that the world is getting angrier and angrier. Our politics are angry, dominated by Bush-haters and Clinton-haters and even Nader-haters. Our popular music is angry, spiked with misogynistic rants and paranoid fantasies. Our highways run like rivers of anger"
~ Deepak Chopra: It's Hard Being Purple -- "In a country divided between red and blue states it's hard to be purple. A few years ago this didn't seem to be entirely the case. Average Americans held political views that weren't as extreme as either the far right or left. But the Iraq war has led to more polarization, and Bush's congenital inability to compromise with any opponent, which leads him to stubbornly follow failed policies, apparently out of spite, has made him far more a divider than a uniter. Yet there is a deeper historical trend at work."
~ 2007's Top 10 Rights & Liberties Stories -- "Happy holidays! Now, let's talk about fascism."
~ I kind of love Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth -- "Youth Without Youth (Sony Pictures Classics), Francis Coppola's first new film after ten years of self-professed director's block, is a vast, lumbering white elephant of a movie—but I sort of love it. Self-financed by Coppola and shot on low-budget locations in Eastern Europe, the movie has been labeled "stilted," "soporific," and "a pretentious, meandering mess." But you certainly couldn't call it conventional, predictable, or pandering."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Google Launches Knol, a Potential Wikipedia Competitor -- "Google this morning announced a test project it's calling "Knol," which will comprise a collection of authoritative articles on various subjects. The project is currently invitation-only, and represents only a minor threat to Wikipedia, Scott Gilbertson argues."
~ Stellar Opposites: Sky survey reveals new halo of stars -- "The Milky Way galaxy possesses a distinct outer halo that orbits in the opposite direction from its inner halo and the rest of the galaxy."
~ The Blogosphere Gets a Newspaper in The Issue -- "Brooklyn, NY-based The Issue aims to bring the best of the wider blogosphere into focus via a daily, human edited online newspaper that aggregates quality blog content in a single place."
~ Canadian Polar Bears Fighting for Survival -- "As ice retreats off Hudson Bay, the bears must venture further out for food."
~ Compromise expected at climate talks -- "As the United Nations climate talks here moved toward their conclusion, delegates were meeting well into early Saturday morning in an effort to reach a compromise between the United States and its few allies in the global warming battle and the rest of the world."
~ Study Looks at Social Structure of Prison Communities -- "In community settings, there`s always at least one person or perhaps a group of individuals who are most highly respected. Prison systems are no different; one`s social status results from interpersonal dynamics. To better understand social structure in California prison communities, Brian Colwell, a researcher at the University of Missouri, recently examined peer relationships among inmates."
~ Captain Kidd Ship Found -- "Divers have found a ship abandoned by Capt. Kidd in the Caribbean in the 17th century."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ T-Shirt of the Week -- "Since my workshop "Big Love Integral: A Participatory Exploration into Conscious Romantic Relationship in an Integral Context" (phew!) starts up again next month, this seems like a good time to show off the T-Shirt!"
~ The Buddha Diaries Recommends -- "To learn more about what is planned as a collaborative site, please check out our just-launched Accidental Dharma: The Gift Wrapped in Shit, presented by The Buddha Diaries. You'll find the site's intention described there, along with several examples of the kind of story that we're looking for. We're hoping to receive your stories to post, if and when you feel moved to send them to us at AccidentalDharma@mac.com. While we can't promise to include everything we receive, we'll post every story that is in harmony with the spirit and intention of the site."
~ Ancient Wisdom, Post-Modern Living -- "Don Alverto Taxo of the Atis people of Ecuador is dedicated to bringing ancient wisdom into modern living. He travels and teaches in the United States and Europe, encouraging individuals to bring more heart and intuition to their daily lives."
~ Buddhist relic exhibit opens in Tucson -- "A Tucson exhibit will showcase relics said to date back to Siddhartha Gautama, the historical founder of Buddhism who lived about 2,500 years ago. The Heart Shrine Relic Tour's opened on Wednesday at the Anjali Yoga Studio and Day Spa, 330 E. Seventh St." I'm hoping to see this.
~ Drinking, reading, Buddhism: impossible? -- "Many of my Buddhist friends don’t drink alcohol at all. Some of them are in recovery, and a lot of them strive to keep the precepts as best they can. This means, if taking the Buddha’s words as they is written in the Pali Cannon, that they can drink no more than a dewdrop’s worth of alcohol at any time. I abstained from drinking for about a year in an attempt to keep the precepts, and it wasn’t easy. It taught me how to socialize with other people without relying on alcohol to open myself up."
~ The Porous Nature of Thought -- "My daily walks are a combination of meditation and exercise. I practice the Alexander Technique, meaning I am acutely aware of how I use my Self. The Self includes the body and mind, the whole package."
~ Paul Lonely: Luminous Poet, Postmodern Priest, Integral Visionary -- "Last month I got to meet Paul Lonely, author of what he calls a "contemporary Upanishads" - Suicide Dictionary. If you move in Integral circles and/or read the blogs of Ken Wilber or Stuart Davis, you already know that this first-time author is much touted as the visionary Integral artist-in-waiting. But whether you've heard of him or not - this book is a must read for anyone interested in poetry, religion, literature and the possibilities of a spiritual next-stage as intuited and mapped-out by Integral Theory."
Filed in: Paul Lonely, nature of thought, Buddhism, drinking, Buddhist relics, Alverto Taxo, accidental dharma, Big Love Integral, Captain Kidd, prison society, climate talks, polar bears, The Issue, Milky Way, Knol, Youth Without Youth, rights and liberties, Deepak Chopra, rage, imperialism, Thinking Politically, Teenage, latin, Nicholas Ostler, Harry Mount, learning by imitation, declutter your mind, emotional unavailablility, love, depression, problem solving, sacred struggle, bipolar disorder, selfishness, dopamine, suicide, fructose, honey, chromium picolinate, green tea, junk food, prostate cancer, budgeting calories, overtraining, squats, speedlinking
No comments:
Post a Comment