Speedlinking 1/15/08

Quote of the day:

"Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose."
~ Evan Esar

Image of the day (Buck Forester):


BODY
~ Men With Sensitivity -- "It's about time you callous, insensitive schlubs learned to embrace your emotions. Nah, just kidding. This article's about how to increase insulin sensitivity. Once you do that, fat loss and muscle gain are a cinch."
~ The Fit Consumer: There’s Power in What You Know -- "Aspartame is the zero-calorie sweetener that is most commonly marketed as Equal. My chiropractor refers to it as “neurotoxic” and the authors of Skinny Bitch lambaste it, pointing out that it is the cause of more complaints to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) each year than any other item it regulates. I pointed my browser towards www.eatright.org, the official website of the American Dietetic Association (ADA)—a source I have used in the past. What I found was surprising—a glowing recommendation for the sweetener."
~ Athletes Preferring Athletic Doctors -- "While it may not be proven that athletic doctors are better for athletes, a study of 4,000 female doctors found that those who are at least moderately active are much more comfortable giving advice about exercise to patients, and their advice would be more meaningful, since the active doctor sets the example about a healthy lifestyle." I purposely chose a chiropractor who lifts weights so that my doc would know what my body faces each week.
~ Probiotic drinks work ...but no one knows how or why -- "Probiotic drinks and yoghurts can have an impact on your health, according to a study."
~ FDA Says Cloned Meat Is Safe To Eat -- "The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today, 15th January, that meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs and goats, and their offspring, is as safe to eat as meat from non-cloned animals.The FDA has come to this view following years of detailed analysis and study." Maybe, but I don't want to eat it.
~ Atherosclerosis, Weight Gain Could Be Reduced By Lipoic Acid -- "A new study done with mice has discovered that supplements of lipoic acid can inhibit formation of arterial lesions, lower triglycerides, and reduce blood vessel inflammation and weight gain - all key issues for addressing cardiovascular disease." This is one of my must-have supplements.
~ Scientists create calcium-rich super carrot -- "Scientists have created a genetically modified carrot that provides extra calcium. They believe adding the orange vegetable to a normal diet could help prevent conditions such as brittle bone disease and osteoporosis."
~ Even short-term hormones raise cancer risk -- "Hormone replacement therapy can raise the risk of an uncommon type of breast cancer fourfold after just three years, U.S. researchers reported."
~ Risk Of Bone Necrosis Tripled By Popular Osteoporosis Drugs -- "A University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute study has found that a popular class of osteoporosis drugs nearly triples the risk of developing bone necrosis, a condition that can lead to disfigurement and incapacitating pain."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ 9 Ways Happiness Leads to Success -- "The psychological literature clearly shows there is a strong relationship between success and happiness. For example, people who have a comfortable income, or high status in society are usually happiest. But which one comes first, happiness or success?"
~ Pain Asymbolia and Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness -- "That is a condition called pain asymbolia where a patient is able to report that they are in pain, even saying what kind of pain it is (i.e. burning vs. piercing, etc) and yet they do not find it to be unpleasent, nor are they extremely motivated to have it stop. In fact they are completely indifferent to it. Some even laugh or giggle when they are exposed to pain-inducing stimuli (like being pricked with a needle or shocked)! I started to think about this condition from the point of view of the higher-order theory of consciousness, as I tend to do."
~ Social Anxiety: Are You The Only One? -- "One thing that strikes me at the moment in my practice is how uniquely isolated so many people are feeling -- when they have exactly the same problem! Feeling isolated and judging ourselves as different, and worse than others, tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
~ The Great Self-Help Scam? -- "Self-Help is a massive and growing industry. Are these books really selling the secrets to happiness, thinness and wealth? Or are they making profits from the comforting illusion that these things are really for sale?"
~ Men, Women, and Friendship -- "Women relate 'face-to-face' and men relate 'side-to-side.'"
~ Marriage Is Not the Key to Happiness -- "Married people are no more happier than singles."
~ Restoring Hope -- "As I meet with individuals and couples, either in my role as a church leader or in my role as the Human Resources officer for my employer, I often find people who have lost hope. They have lost hope in their careers, they have lost hope in their relationships, and they have lost hope in their personal and life goals. As I talk to these people and look for some way to help, I am reminded again and again of Rick Snyder and his Hope Theory."
~ Dopamine Involved In Aggression -- "New research from Vanderbilt University shows for the first time that the brain processes aggression as a reward - much like sex, food and drugs - offering insights into our propensity to fight and our fascination with violent sports like boxing and football.The research will be published online the week of Jan. 14 by the journal Psychopharmacology." That must be why my clients feel better after kicking the shit out of me (I hold a big pad).
~ All You Have Is Now -- "So when do we live in the present? All we have is now. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow hasn't come yet, but we insist on filling most of our present moments with wishful thoughts of the future (when things will be better), or nostalgic thoughts of the past (when things were better)."
~ The Mindful Way through Depression -- "In this book, four professionals from different backgrounds come together to present a unique approach for depression self-help."
~ Destined to Cheat? -- "New research finds those who believe in fate over free will are more likely to act immorally."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ The dubious world of religion and politics -- "The great American statesman Benjamin Franklin, a Deist, said, "I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absented myself from Christian Assemblies." President Thomas Jefferson, also a Deist, was even more anti-Christian: "The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious." President Abraham Lincoln said, "The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." But they lived in what might be considered more enlightened times: the 18th and 19th centuries."
~ Prophet Motive -- "Shakespeare, we are told, is the best-selling poet of all time. Second is Lao-tzu. Third is Kahlil Gibran, who owes his place on that list to one book, “The Prophet,” a collection of twenty-six prose poems, delivered as sermons by a fictional wise man in a faraway time and place."
~ Where it all started -- "It's rather touching when an immensely learned figure attempts to educate a dimwit, like picturing Mr Gladstone in a stiff collar reading an improving tale to a child seated on his august lap. Here, the dimwit is me, the immensely learned figure is the archaeologist Colin Renfrew - Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn - and the subject for the lesson is prehistory, the story of our species up to the first written records."
~ Politicised religion requires a militant response -- "In this political climate, it is not enough to preach cooperation. Where atheists such as myself find it possible, we do work together with believers towards political ends of the kind Norman mentions, but this has to be only one prong of a two-pronged attack. The other prong is the promotion, by argument or example, of our own beliefs and the validity of our own way of life."
~ The Case Against Hillary Clinton -- Christopher Hitchens -- "Why on earth would we choose to put the Clinton family drama at the center of our politics again?"
~ Harold Bloom: "What We Are Seeing Is the Fall of America" -- "The long-time cultural critic warns that the war in Iraq is destroying the American empire."
~ Now the Theocrats Want 'American Religious History Week' -- "With House Resolution 888, the religious right seeks to rewrite American history, turning the founding fathers into Christian fundamentalists."
~ Forget Terrorism -- "The news from Pakistan is all nuclear weapons and suicide bombers. But the average citizen cares much more about the economy."
~ Hillary's Basic Problem -- "BARBARA EHRENREICH | 'Change' may be this year's Democratic battle cry, but if you don't know how it happens, you're not likely to make it happen yourself."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Bad Air Damages Mouse DNA -- "Air pollution damages the sperm of otherwise healthy mice. Could it happen in humans?"
~ Will the World's Oceans Be Our Next Drinking Tap? -- "Desalination plants are popping up all over the world, but they may very well make the environmental crisis worse."
~ Apple Reinvents Film Biz With iTunes Movie Rentals -- "Deals with all the major film studios could help Steve Jobs revolutionize the way people watch films at home (or anywhere, really)."
~ British Group Bans Nanoparticles From Organic Certification -- "The Soil Association, which has been certifying organic food in Great Britain since 1967, says products containing nanotechnology won't get their stamp of approval."
~ New High Protein Rice Strain Developed -- "Scientists are reporting development of a high-protein variety of rice, dietary staple for half the world's population. Researchers have been trying to bolster the protein in rice for five decades. Rice already is a main source of calories as well as protein intake for billions of people, and its enrichment of protein would have a positive impact on millions of poor and malnourished people in developing countries, the report says."
~ New techniques create butanol -- biofuel superior to ethanol -- "A team of researchers headed by an environmental engineer at Washington University in St. Louis is plying new techniques to produce a biofuel superior to ethanol."
~ Distant galaxy holds key ingredients for life, astronomers report -- "Astronomers from Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, have detected for the first time the molecules methanimine and hydrogen cyanide -- two ingredients that build life-forming amino acids -- in a galaxy some 250 million light years away."
~ Dinosaurs Dealt With Adolescent Pregnancies -- "Dinosaurs grew quickly, reached sexual maturity early and died young."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ a buddhist carnival - 3rd edition, part 1 -- "welcome, friends, to january’s edition of a buddhist carnival. like last time, i’ll divide it into two parts, just to make it a bit easier to read."
~ Glimpse of the Integral Life Portal Part III: What's Your Perspective? -- "Where does your depth and passion reside? What are the subjects that you want to explore to benefit the community? We'll do our best to provide the vehicle to share your greatest gifts... that's what IntegralLife.com is all about."
~ Teaching children reverence in Buddhism -- "It’s hard for many Western Buddhists, especially those with kids, to know how to raise them as Buddhist. It’s hard too since a lot of people approach Buddhist from an intellectual/philosophical point of view. I am lucky because my wife comes from a Buddhist culture, so I learn a lot of this through her beyond the philosophy side. But for most people, how do you develop a Buddhist-family lifestyle?"
~ Practicing American Buddhism -- "In the 1960’s Shunryu Suzuki, a popular Zen teacher new to America, told his students if they wanted to practice meditation, then they should sit with him at 5:30AM. While Japanese students were required to bow 3 times after a meditation session, Shaku asked his American students to bow nine times. He made it harder for his American students than his Asian ones, and they liked the strict discipline."
~ A Diet of Choice -- "The last thing I need is another blog. I have two of them already, The Buddha Diaries and Accidental Dharma. Not to mention my blog at The Huffington Post. But this one will be a little different. It will require less thought and writing… but more real-life attention. It will be called A Diet of Choice."
~ Don’t exist? -- "In advaita circles, it is popular to say that we don’t exist… As usual, this gets really weird if it is just another belief. And it isn’t even quite true."
~ What McLuhan Could not Foresee -- "Our friend Kim Veltman sent us the following contribution, about how current Global Village trends go beyond what the old master predicted. It’s an excellent overview of current trends in communication and their social import."
~ Ockham's Razor: Can Science & Religion Coexist?-- "The following is an interview from the Australian branch of the ABC television network on December 23, 2007. Dr. Richard Eckersley was kind enough to give Integrative Spirituality persmission to reprint the transcript."
~ Dramatic Play and Brain Function: An Applied Study -- "A new educational system called "Tools of the Mind" teaches not facts and figures, but rather focuses on cognitive skills in structured play. In the largest and most compelling study yet, exposure to this curriculum in the classroom drastically improves performance on a variety of psychometric and neuropsychological tests."

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