"O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet."
~ Saint Augustine
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Free Weights Vs. Machines: Which is Better? -- "Whether you’re a seasoned gym vet or just another rookie, you’ve probably got questions about whether you should be tackling the free weights or machines when you enter the gym. The answer lies in what it is you’re looking for."
~ 4 Ways To Stay On Track -- "Eric hasn't missed a planned workout or had a cheat meal in 8 years. (Yeah, I hate him too.) Figuring out how to stay on track when life gets in the way has led to a number of useful strategies."
~ Back Pain? Try the Alexander Technique -- "Do you suffer from back problems or have difficulty breathing normally? The source of your pain may lie with your posture. Over the course of a lifetime, many people pick up habits that affect their posture in a way where standing or sitting up straight is unnatural to them. Slouching becomes the natural stance, curving spines and causing pain in our backs and joints. F. Matthias Alexander came up with a solution over 100 years ago helps many people today improve their and overall feeling in their bodies."
~ Caffeine Increases Blood Sugar In People With Type 2 Diabetes -- "A small US study suggests that people with type 2 diabetes who drink the equivalent of four cups of coffee or more a day may be causing their blood sugar levels to go up by 8 per cent (compared to non caffeine days), thus making it harder for them to manage their condition." This runs counter to some other studies, but it might be worth reducing coffee intake if you have type-II diabetes.
~ Epileptic Seizures In Adults Cut Using Modified Atkins Diet -- "A modified version of a popular high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet can significantly cut the number of seizures in adults with epilepsy, a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The Atkins-like diet, which has shown promise for seizure control in children, may offer a new lifeline for patients when drugs and other treatments fail or cause complications."
~ Don’t Break The Unspoken Rules -- "If you’ve ever been to a commercial gym for a month or longer, you know how it feels to share a gym with other people. A commercial gym is a lot like a community – we all have to share and learn to get along."
~ Physically Active People Age More Slowly -- "A new study on twins by researchers in the UK showed that people who are physically active in their leisure time aged more slowly than their more sedentary counterparts."
~ Anti Inflammatory Drug May Prevent Type 2 Diabetes -- "Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center are reporting that an inexpensive anti-inflammatory drug similar to aspirin, salsalate, may prevent type 2 diabetes by lowering blood glucose and reducing inflammation."
~ Top 6 Tips For A Healthy Weight Loss Diet -- "Modifying the diet can definitely contribute to a healthy weight loss. Here are the tips for a healthy weight loss diet." Basic, but basic is best.
~ Maladies: Hormone Levels and Chronic Fatigue -- "A new study finds that women who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome wake up with lower levels of a hormone that helps people deal with stress."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ Mapping the Most Complex Structure in the Universe: Your Brain -- "Harvard scientists have embarked upon an ambitious program to create a circuit diagram of the human brain, with the help of new machines that automatically turn brain tissue into high-resolution neural maps."
~ The Identity Dance -- "The idea that genes determine identity has been replaced with a new view in which DNA and life experience work together to mold personalities."
~ Middle age is truly depressing, study finds -- "Middle age is truly miserable, according to a study using data from 80 countries showing that depression is most common among men and women in their forties."
~ How Negative Motivation Can Help Us Overcome Problems -- "It’s called negative motivation, and many people believe that it is necessary to get people fired up. Sometimes it’s the only way to get people to understand where they went wrong."
~ 12 Techniques to Help You Live a Happy and Fulfilled Life -- "Wouldn’t it be great if there were a simple set of instructions for living a happy and fulfilled life? How about an instruction manual for life? Something along the lines of “Enjoy childhood, Explore young adulthood, Engage in a rewarding career, and Enjoy life.” Unfortunately, things are not that easy."
~ Why We Dream -- "How dreams protect and distract our brains."
~ Dreams: Night School -- "What dreams are made of."
~ 10 Things You Can Do to Cheer Yourself Up -- "Whether you have the winter blues, you're suffering from a disappointment, or you're just feeling a little down, we all have times when we could use a little lift. Here are 10 ideas to get you back on the upswing."
~ Working Memory: They Found Your Brain's Spam Filter -- "In fact, several decades of research have indicated that our capacity to hold information “in mind” for immediate use is limited to a mere three or four items. Moreover, just as people vary in height and eye color, we also vary in the capacity of this memory inbox."
~ Vive la Similarité -- "What if men and women actually live on the same planet? Turns out they don't communicate so differently after all, argues Deborah Cameron, a professor of language and communication at the University of Oxford. In her new book, The Myth of Mars and Venus: Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages? (Oxford University Press, 2007), she challenges arguments made in several influential works from the early 1990s."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ The State of the Union -- "Monday night, after six years of promises unkept or insincerely made and blunders of historic proportions, the United States is now fighting two wars, the economy is veering toward recession and the civilized world still faces horrifying dangers — and it has far less sympathy and respect for the United States."
~ The Kennedy Mystique -- "The Kennedy endorsements will help among working-class Democrats, Catholics and the millions of Americans who have followed Caroline’s path to maturity. Furthermore, here was Senator Kennedy, the consummate legislative craftsman, vouching for the fact that Obama is ready to be president on Day One."
~ From buses to blogs, a pathological individualism is poisoning public life -- "Crime may be falling, but something more intangible and just as important is moving centre stage: a pervasive anxiety about a deterioration in the everyday interactions between strangers. Typically, the aggression erupts when someone gets in someone else's way. It's a pathology of individual entitlement. What's crumbling is the civility that is so essential to wellbeing, to trust and to the conviviality of our lives."
~ Smirk of the Union -- "A small and beaten man spoke to Congress and the nation last night, convinced in his own mind he's a hero."
~ READING HERODOTUS -- "Much of what we know about the ancient world we owe to Herodotus, the only travel writer in print for 2,500 years. A.P. David invites us to renew our acquaintance with the inventor of history...."
~ The free-marketeers abhor the crutch of the state - until they start limping -- "Turbo-capitalism is happy to rely on the public when it gets in trouble. Now we should demand a say the rest of the time."
~ What Would You Do? -- "On a Friday morning last January, a group of Washington, D.C., commuters played an unwitting role in an experiment. As they emerged from the L’Enfant Plaza metro station, they passed a man playing a violin. Dressed in a long-sleeved T-shirt, baseball cap, and jeans, an open case for donations at his feet, he looked like an ordinary busker. In reality, he was Joshua Bell, an internationally renowned musician. The idea was to gauge whether Bell’s virtuosic playing would entice the rushing commuters to stop and listen."
~ Survey Finds Widespread Government Misconduct -- "A survey by a private ethics research organization finds a "high incidence of ethical misconduct" among government workers at all levels and warns of major scandals to unfold. The Ethics Resource Center found that 30 percent of federal employees believe their employers have sound ethics and compliance programs. Only 1 in 10, the ERC found, say there is 'a strong ethical culture in their federal workplace.'"
~ The Economic State of the Union -- "In last night's State of the Union, Bush danced around the very real economic concerns faced by Americans. Of course, this is nothing new."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler -- "Like oil, meat is subsidized by the federal government. Like oil, meat is subject to accelerating demand as nations become wealthier, and this, in turn, sends prices higher. Finally — like oil — meat is something people are encouraged to consume less of, as the toll exacted by industrial production increases, and becomes increasingly visible."
~ The Choice between Food and Fuel -- "Food prices are skyrocketing. Arable land is becoming scarce. And forests continue to disappear across the globe. The world must decide between affordable food and biofuels."
~ Political Animals (Yes, Animals) --"Just as there are myriad strategies open to the human political animal with White House ambitions, so there are a number of nonhuman animals that behave like textbook politicians. Researchers who study highly gregarious and relatively brainy species like rhesus monkeys, baboons, dolphins, sperm whales, elephants and wolves have lately uncovered evidence that the creatures engage in extraordinarily sophisticated forms of politicking, often across large and far-flung social networks."
~ Water: Why Protecting Watersheds Is About Community and Culture -- "A new vision for Gulf-area communities gets beyond the legacy racism, classism and environmental destruction."
~ Bill Gates Aims to Save Africa -- "Enter the Gates Foundation. In September 2006, the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations announced a joint $150 million effort to create an Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Last week, the Gates Foundation upped its ante on boosting production by another $306 million. About half of these new grants will fund efforts to improve seeds and soils in Africa."
~ What Bush Should Have Said About Energy and China -- "George Bush's State of the Union Address included a $2 billion fund dedicated to helping developing countries like China produce cleaner energy, but it didn't come close to addressing the scale of the global energy crisis."
~ Global Warming Prompts First Antarctic Marine Life Census -- "The multinational survey will help determine future environmental policies in the face of global warming and other issues affecting the ecosystem."
~ The pitter patter of little feet... climbing straight up a wall -- "Building upon several years of research into the gecko's uncanny ability to climb sheer walls, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an adhesive that is the first to master the easy attach and easy release of the reptile's padded feet. The material could prove useful for a range of products, from climbing equipment to medical devices."
~ Screen-printed solar cells -- "Members of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE are traveling to Tokyo with bulky luggage these days. Their destination is Nanotech 2008, the world`s largest trade fair for nanotechnology. Their solar module, which they will be presenting in the BMBF marketing campaign ‘Nanotech Germany, is the size and shape of a door: two meters high and sixty centimeters wide."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ "Buddha Wild" goes to India Film Festival -- "Buddha Wild has been called a "heartwarming, charming and illuminating film" and "a must see film" by NY and LA Splash Magazine. It garnered critics pick in LA Weekly Magazine after a two week stint in art house cinemas in Los Angeles."
~ Current TV: My First Impressions -- "I've been following the development of Al Gore's Current TV. I'm excited to learn that Current filed for $100 IPO. RWW has an excellent review of Current. Check it out."
~ Looking at a thought from its outside and inside -- "There are two ways of releasing identification with a thought: By looking at it from the outside, recognizing it as just a thought. And by exploring it from the inside, finding the validity in its turnarounds, and releasing any sense of absolute truth in any of the versions."
~ Buddhism and Weight Loss, part 2 -- "It’s been a while since I talked about the subject of weight loss in Buddhism, but let me give you an update. In the previous post (linked above), I wanted to try eating mindfully so I wouldn’t get stuffed so much, and eat only what I need. Basically it failed. It failed after one week or so. I got discouraged and felt that I would just be fat the rest of my life."
~ Self-enquiry As a Yoga of Love: Cutting Through Spiritless Materialism -- "One thing I want to keep repeating, as often as is necessary, is that self-enquiry is not an intellectual or analytic process. It isn't even a form of discrimination at heart, though it is supported by discrimination. Primarily, it is what can only be called love, devotion, surrender - the heart."
~ Contemplation in Self & Society -- "The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society is a non-profit organization that works to integrate contemplative awareness and contemporary life, and to help create a more just, compassionate, and reflective society. The Center acknowledges that while personal transformation is important, it does not guarantee the transformation of social institutions."
~ Barack Obama: An Inspiration to the World -- "He has a deep, ingrained gift of listening to people, truly listening and realizing that their suffering was his suffering. In many cases, people who are struggling just want to be heard by someone. They want to feel like someone understands their situation and has faith that they aren't stupid, lazy or worthless because they are poor, sick or homeless. Obama has a way of uplifting people and leading them to a place where they can believe in themselves again."
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