"Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything."
~ Kurt Vonnegut
Image of the day:
BODY
~ The Mobility Complex -- "We'll admit it. Warm-ups suck. They're no fun, but we realize their importance. Luckily, Jimmy Smith has come up with a couple that are hugely effective while still being tolerable to us warm-up haters."
~ Keep On Track With My Food and Fitness Journals -- "A lot of us have resolved to get healthy in 2008, this includes eating healthy, drinking more water, and exercising more. One of the best proven ways to stay on track with healthy choices is by keeping a food and fitness journal because it allows you to examine and to be accountable for your lifestyle choices."
~ Beat the Crowd with Dumbbells -- "January means the gym's crowded, and a 15-minute routine can last an hour or more. Grab a pair of dumbbells, carve out some floor space, and get jacked in a jiffy with this 5-move rush routine from our Muscle Guy."
~ Tips To Get Into Shape Without Leaving The House -- "Don't have the time, money or the desire to sign up for a gym membership? That shouldn't keep you from making a New Year's resolution to get fit. Colleen Greene, wellness coordinator with MFit, the University of Michigan Health System's health promotion division, says you don't have to invest a lot of money in a gym membership or equipment to develop a successful and sustainable fitness regimen."
~ Bring In The New Year With A New Fitness Routine -- "It's that time of year again you have had your final glass of eggnog and your last bite of pumpkin pie. Now you are ready to start the year off right with a new exercise plan and to keep it up throughout the year so that fitness becomes a routine rather than just another resolution."
~ Cocaine Vaccine in the Works -- "The vaccine stimulates the immune system to attack cocaine molecules."
~ The very old may benefit from L-carnitine -- "The dietary supplement L-carnitine can lessen fatigue and boost mental function in very old people, Italian researchers report."
~ Testosterone pills not much help for men -- "Testosterone supplements don't do older men much good, Dutch researchers said on Tuesday." This study is bullshit. The dose was too small and they used pills instead of a patch or injections. Don't believe everything you read.
~ Over Half Of All Cancers Can Be Prevented By Daily Lifestyle Choices -- "Nearly half of all Americans make New Year's resolutions, most of them health-related. Stop smoking. Start exercising. Lose weight. Eat better. Unfortunately, only 10 to 15 percent of these resolutions are ever kept. Even more unfortunate is that these are exactly the things that can help everyone prevent cancer."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Science: The science of dreams - the results -- "Roger Highfield unveils the results of Telegraph research into the science of dreams and discovers that dreams are much more likely to be shaped by events of the past week than a childhood trauma."
~ Happiness may be good for your health -- "A happy heart just might be a healthier one as well, new research suggests."
~ Study Of Religious Activity Finds Benefit In Mental Health Of Women -- "For many, religious activity changes between childhood and adulthood, and a new study finds this could affect one's mental health. According to Temple University's Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active."
~ Some Antipsychotic Drugs May Be Missing Their Mark -- "Drugs that treat schizophrenia, depression and other psychotic conditions and that target a particular protein on brain cells might not be triggering the most appropriate response in those cells, new research suggests. The study by researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center examined the serotonin 2A receptor, a protein on brain cells sensitive to the neurotransmitter serotonin."
~ Is Play "Rational?" Toys and Ambiguous Causal Structure [Developing Intelligence] -- "Play is more often simply observed than studied scientifically - play behaviors occur unpredictably and, when they do occur, are highly chaotic, making it very difficult to study them in the laboratory. Despite these challenges, new work is beginning to make play accessible from a rigorous scientific framework."
~ New Year a Time for Reflection, Improvement -- "Unfortunately, this high tide of fitness zeal will likely ebb over time: surveys have shown that only about 10% of us maintain our New Year's resolutions."
~ We are Blessed, You are Blessed, I am Blessed -- "The very first day of a New Year. A good time to realize how blessed we are. Remember this as you go about your day. Remember it every day. Use it as a mantra when things get you down. Think of all your blessings, whatever they may be. Use it literally as a tool to improve your life at every step of the way. This has nothing to do with religion. It is awareness and mindfulness."
~ Change: Altered Ego -- "How to change your personality--just a little."
~ A Little Art Therapy -- "The ‘painting a day’ movement had been featured in our local paper and I was inspired by these people who had the discipline to develop such a healthy, creative habit. Everyone should have some sort of outlet. Something they truly enjoy doing and can become lost in. It is very similar to meditation in some respects. Thoughts recede, the mind quiets down and time disappears."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Books That Will Change the World -- "Twelve authors on war and peace, dissent, the environment and the empowerment of the poor provide inspiration to transform the world in 2008."
~ From the Air to the Page: The Poetry of John Ashbery -- "Prolific poet and writer John Ashbery has long been honored as one of the country's most important writers. Ashbery shares some of his poetry and talks to the NewsHour about his life and artistic endeavors."
~ Upgrading to Philosophy 2.0 -- "There was no theorizing about ghosts in the machine at an annual meeting of philosophers last Friday. Instead, they embraced technology’s implications for their field, both within the classroom and beyond."
~ Healthy food getting more expensive: study -- "The price of fruits and vegetables is climbing faster than inflation, while junk food is actually becoming cheaper, the findings of a new study suggest." This is why it's so hard for so many lower income people to eat healthy foods.
~ Virgin or Slut: Pick One -- "Welcome to contemporary American adolescence, where sexuality is either up for sale or moralized into nonexistence."
~ Could you vote for a man who abides by Moronish wisdom? -- "The recent contortions of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney show why faith should not trump reason in the public square."
~ Return of the Swift Boaters -- "Christopher Hayes | The shadowy group that smeared John Kerry in 2004 has reorganized and stands poised to do its dirty work again."
~ Bopp: The Eve of Destruction? -- "Is Mike Huckabee the stake in the heart of the Reagan Coalition?"
~ Last full day of campaign in Iowa -- "Presidential candidates are making a final plea to Iowans: turn out for tomorrow's caucuses. Democrat Barack Obama says the "only thing that counts" is showing up. And Republican Mike Huckabee is urging followers to "rent a van" or even "hijack your church's bus" to get bodies to the precincts. Polls are tight for the leading Republicans and Democrats."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ A Divide as Wolves Rebound in a Changing West -- "Sheltered for many years by federal species protection law, the gray wolves of the West are about to step out onto the high wire of life in the real world, when their status as endangered animals formally comes to an end early this year."
~ Spawning Something Fishy -- "How mackerel can breed bluefin tuna — and why that’s cause for quiet celebration."
~ Stressed Squirrels Wig Out -- "Not only do squirrels feel stress, they react to it in some surprisingly familiar ways."
~ Noble or savage? -- "The era of the hunter-gatherer was not the social and environmental Eden that some suggest." Old news, but a good article.
~ Oil Shoots to $100 Per Barrel -- "Oil prices hit $100 a barrel Wednesday for the first time ever, amid an unshakeable view that global demand for oil and petroleum products will continue to outstrip supplies."
~ Carbon sink capacity in northern forests reduced by global warming -- "An international study investigating the carbon sink capacity of northern terrestrial ecosystems discovered that the duration of the net carbon uptake period (CUP) has on average decreased due to warmer autumn temperatures."
~ Scientists find missing evolutionary link using tiny fungus crystal -- "The crystal structure of a molecule from a primitive fungus has served as a time machine to show researchers more about the evolution of life from the simple to the complex."
~ Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight -- "Two articles provide further evidence that we have hugely underestimated the number of species with which we share our planet. Today sophisticated genetic techniques mean that superficially identical animals previously classed as members of a single species, including the frogs and giraffes in these studies, could in fact come from several distinct 'cryptic' species."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ The Debeaking Machine -- "The Buddha’s teaching on Right Speech admonishes us to not lie and, though I’m not aware of the Buddha’s ever having said so, I think he’d agree that among the most damaging lies are the ones we tell ourselves. When I lie to myself, I do so to avoid the consequences and implications of the truth, and if I don’t or won’t acknowledge the truth, I can’t be guided by it. It’s unworthy to lie to others, particularly for your own advantage and especially if you think you’ve gotten away with it, but it’s tragic to succeed in lying to yourself."
~ Edge 2008: What Have You Changed Your Mind About? -- "Edge is indeed "like the crack cocaine of the thinking world." Now if only our political and religious leaders would follow suit and honestly reflect on this same question..."
~ "I Am Legend"... And A Bodhisattva? -- "Heard of the difference between eating to live and living to eat? These "dark-seekers", who crave for human flesh are the latter. "I am Legend" is the "legend" of how the self-sacrificial protagonist became legendary."
~ Regarding Honen -- "Honen is the teacher of Shinran, who founded Jodo Shinshu, and himself started the whole Pure Land movement in Japanese Buddhism as we know it.* After a nice New Year’s Day service, I felt like going back and reading about Honen."
~ An Integral Recovery Model for Drug and Alcohol Addiction -- "This article describes the Integral Recovery model in some detail, including an overview of the AQAL framework. It shows how the AQAL (“all quadrants, all stages, all lines, all states, and all types”) approach offers a refreshingly new way of looking at addiction, opening the possibility of a much more integrated and effective treatment modality."
~ The Story of Us -- "Where have we come from? Where are we going? These questions are as relevant today as they have ever been. As the older stories we have told each other about 'us' become increasingly irrelevant & sometimes dangerous, it becomes necessary that we evolve new stories, new visions and practices that will help us adapt to our global life conditions, and move forward into an uncertain future."
~ The benefits of understanding Buddhist Epistemology and Psychology -- "Buddhism asserts the mind is not merely a function of the brain nor is it an emergent property of physical processes. Buddhist epistemology - a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge - defines consciousness as: that which is clear and knowing. Consciousness, knower and awareness are synonymous. Awareness is ‘clear’ as in it is not obstructed by physical phenomena."
~ ...and now for something a little different -- "So, this year we're going to try using Thoughts Chase Thoughts as a place where opposing ideas meet, based on what we find out there in the blogosphere. We're going to take representations of opposite sides of a dispute and see how they can be reconciled. Or, at the very least, we're going to see if we can understand what the crux of the dispute is."
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