SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM POLYSEMY:
PODCAST: The Joshua Bell Experiment, part 1 -- "World-class musicians aren't supposed to be street performers. But that is just what violinist Joshua Bell was in a recent impromptu performance in a subway stop in the American capital city. The reactions of the commuters were ... interesting, as documented by the
Washington Post. For us as working artists, this experiment raised many questions: What exactly is this an experiment in? Is the audience response a sign of widespread cultural decline? Is Joshua Bell no better than the average rock band just starting out? What is a "venue", anyway? Join us as we explore these and more questions in this first podcast of a several part series. "
This is very cool, and I'm sorry I was unable to join the fun -- please check it out.Quote of the day:
"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."
~ Albert Einstein
Image of the day:
BODY~
Muscles for Athletes, Part II -- "This article contains so many training concepts and ideas that it'll likely keep your workouts fresh and productive for months to come. This is one you'll want to print out and save."
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Whole Grain Rehash -- "Yes, we've heard this before: The people who eat the most whole grains have lower risk of heart disease than those who eat the least. Keep in mind that the people who eat the least whole grains aren't likely eating a lower carb diet, they're eating lots of refined grains. So again, saying those who eat the most whole grains have the lowest risk of heart disease isn't necessarily true. It could be, but I'd also bet that people eating the least amount of grains overall have a lower risk of heart disease compared to those eating the most refined grains."
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Most People Cannot Raise Their Metabolism with Exercise -- "Many people believe that exercise controls weight by increasing your metabolism so you burn extra calories all day long. A review of the world's literature from the University of South Australia in Adelaide shows that you have to be in very good shape to exercise vigorously enough to increase your metabolism."
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Low-Dose CoQ10 Supplements Won't Ease Parkinson's (HealthDay) -- "Low doses of an antioxidant called coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), sold as a dietary supplement, do not appear to improve Parkinson's disease symptoms, a German study finds."
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Hair Loss In Woman - Causes And Treatment -- "Since the beginning of time, long, luxurious hair has been associated with female beauty. This stereotype puts great pressure on women to achieve this trait. Hair loss, although prevalent in men, is not rare in women. Most often hair loss in women has been concealed with wigs or weaves."
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Study Shows Lifestyle Changes Are Effective For Reducing Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors When Discontinuing Hormone Replacement Therapy -- "Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been shown to reduce many cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, but many women have stopped using HRT due to reports from the Women's Health Initiative that HRT may increase the risk of breast cancer and heart disease."
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Gentle yoga may aid migraine sufferers -- "A combination of yoga poses, breathing exercises and relaxation may help reduce the frequency and intensity of migraines, a new study suggests."
PSYCHE~
QBI Neuroscientists Edge Closer To Decoding Brain Repair -- "Neuroscientists at UQ's Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) have revealed two major discoveries, edging them closer to harnessing the brain's inherent powers of self-repair and regeneration. In findings announced in the Journal of Neuroscience, QBI neuroscientists have identified the stem cell population responsible for production of neurons, and the mechanism which drives this process."
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Push to achieve tied to Asian-American suicide rate -- "When Eliza Noh's sister killed herself, Noh set out to find out why young Asian-American women have such a high suicide rate. On "Paula Zahn Now" tonight at 8 ET, medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen examines why depression afflicts so many Asian-American women and the cultural stigma against getting help."
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Which Culture Most Controls Their Facial Emotions? -- "According to some research it's Russians! And the least control over facial emotions? Americans. These are just two relatively new findings to emerge from studying cultural differences in nonverbal behaviour."
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12 month olds, but not 6 month olds predict other people's actions -- "No, this is not like voodoo prediction where they will know what will happen 12 years hence."
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The Self Fulfilling Prophecy -- "We humans seem to prefer that other people behave as we expect them to, and we will modify or distort reality until it conforms to our expectations. And we can do this without even being aware we are doing it!"
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Dear Oprah, please stop promoting The Secret -- "Oprah, it's time to come clean about The Secret."
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New Study Examines 'Brain's Own Marijuana' -- "A researcher at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) is investigating the "brain's own marijuana" -- called endocannabinoid -- in the regulation of stress, stress-related behavior and anxiety."
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Treating Longtime Partner Like a First Date Can Boost Morale and Well-being -- "The quickest way for longtime couples to rekindle romance may be to pretend they`re strangers, according to a University of British Columbia psychology study."
CULTURE/POLITICS~
Darwin’s letters go online -- "The Darwin Correspondence Project is a database of 5,000 letters written by and to the great naturalist Charles Darwin. The database, which was compiled by researchers at the University of Cambridge, has just gone online."
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Campaign Matters: Hillary's New YouTube Video -- "Hillary Clinton is asking voters to choose her campaign theme song."
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Theocons of the World, Unite -- "D’Souza’s thesis is that America’s cultural left brought 9/11 upon us—not, as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell infamously suggested shortly after the event, by inviting the wrath of God, but by inviting the wrath of Muslims. How? Mainly by fostering 'a decadent American culture that angers and repulses traditional societies' and by 'waging an aggressive global campaign to undermine the traditional patriarchal family and to promote secular values.'"
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The Need to Know: Justice vs. White House -- "The scene that former Deputy Attorney General James Comey described before a Senate panel yesterday was pure pulp: high-ranking officials from the White House duking it out with their counterparts at the Department of Justice at the hospital bedside of an ailing attorney general."
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The Republican Debate Report Card -- "Missed the debate? The long shots threw some jabs and the favorites played defense. Mark Halperin grades all of their performances."
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Military Cuts the Cord, Bans MySpace, MTV, YouTube -- "Just two weeks after the Army restricted troops
from blogging, on Friday the Department of Defense announced that social networking is now
off limits."
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National Satisfaction Level Dips to 25%, One of Lowest Since 1979 -- "The latest Gallup Poll finds just 25% of Americans satisfied with the way things are going in the United States, one of the 20 lowest readings Gallup has obtained on this measure first asked in 1979. The Iraq war is again mentioned as the nation's top problem, as it has been each month for over three years now."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY~
City goes on a diet — and it worked -- "The whole city of Somerville went on a diet to curb childhood obesity. And researchers say it worked."
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Google revamps its Internet search -- "Google went live Wednesday with a revamped Internet search engine that integrates video, books, maps and news into "universal" results to online queries."
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Antarctica Yields New Life -- "A "treasure trove" of new species is discovered in Antarctica's dark depths."
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West Nile Decimates Suburban Birds -- "Robin and bluebird populations have been devastated by West Nile Virus."
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Researchers Store Data in Bacteria DNA -- "These days, data get stored on disks, computer chips, hard drives and good old-fashioned paper. Scientists in Japan see something far smaller but more durable - bacteria."
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Investigating coral reefs to help understand past and future climate change -- "Increasing Earth temperatures and rising sea levels. Both of these are effects of climate change. The current concern is that human activity is changing our climate at a rate well above the natural climate cycling. Understanding how the Earth's climate system works and responds to human impact is therefore of uttermost importance."
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Inexpensive 'nanoglue' can bond nearly anything together -- "Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to bond materials that don`t normally stick together. The team`s adhesive, which is based on self-assembling nanoscale chains, could impact everything from next-generation computer chip manufacturing to energy production."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST~
The Dharma Drug: Buddhism as a Psychoactive Agent -- "The Buddhist and psychedelic paths share some certain commonalities in the expansion of consciousness in both theory and practice. Both philosophies can serve to make one a more compassionate, sentient being. Practice in Buddhism's mindfulness, as do well-planned and intentioned sessions with psychedelics give people the power to overcome habitual behaviors and attachments."
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Free Preview Night for SeattleIntegral's Shamanic Breathwork weekend in June...and Big Love -- "
Tuesday, May 22nd, Seattle Integral
will be sponsoring a Free preview evening all about the upcoming Shamanic Breathwork(TM) Process weekend happening in June."~
Right Speech -- "Hurt feelings are part of being a living, breathing, AWAKE human being. I don't try to avoid hurting people's feelings as a goal. I try to communicate information in a way that is likely to be most useful to that person, as far as I can discern."
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Tweaked stories and gridlock -- "When there is a belief in a separate self, however subtle it may appear to be, any other story is filtered through this core story. Any other story, whether told to others or oneself, is
tweaked just slightly to make this separate self look either a little better or worse than the rest of the world (as what it used to be, could have been, may be, what others are, and so on)."
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Taking and Sending -- "In practice, tonglen is a frontal assault on the defenses of the ego-self. Ego is a tenuous construction of thought, and therefore vulnerable to thought. Because of its contrived nature, ego can’t allow even the slightest doubt to threaten the credibility of its own self-view, sustaining itself by a more or less constant vigilance against the mental infiltration of discordant thought."
Tags:
tonglen, Buddhism, ego, separate self, right speech, shamanic breathwork, Dharma drug, nanoglue, coral reefs, bacterial data storage, West Nile Virus, Antarctica, Google, city on a diet, national satisfaction, military, Republican debate, Dept. of justice, Theocons, Hillary Clinton, Darwin, relationships, brain research, Oprah and the Secret, self fulfilling prophecies, infant development, facial emotions, suicide, brain repair, migraines, HRT and lifestyle choices, hair loss, Parkinson's Disease, exercise and metabolism, whole grains, muscles for athletes, speedlinking
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