"There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun."
~ Pablo Picasso
Image of the day:
BODY
~ Playing 6 Questions With Dr Berardi -- "I caught up with JB and tried to get him to answer 20 questions. We compromised at 6."
~ Resolution: Run More -- "The passing of another year means it’s that time again; time to look to the future and resolve to create that better you. For many, personal health and fitness become the centerpiece of the New Year’s table, so where better to begin than running? Following a simple running guideline can ensure your running resolution lasts longer than a week."
~ Applied Nutrigenomics -- "Did you know that one person's physiological response to a certain drug or supplement can be 70 times stronger than it is in another person? It all has to do with the science of Nutrigenomics." More from Dr. Berardi.
~ What Is The Stone Age Diet? -- "The Stone Age Diet has many names - the Paleolithic Diet, The Paleo Diet, the Prehistoric Diet, The Caveman diet, or the Hunter-Gatherer Diet. The theory goes that modern human genes are the result of life conditions that did not change for over a million years before the introduction of agriculture. Farming did not exist until about 10,000 years ago. Humans have been around for over one million years. The Paleolithic era ended about 20,000 years ago - before the advent of agriculture."
~ How to Choose Achievable Goals -- "You want to build muscle & lose fat this year. Eating healthy will help, but that alone doesn’t make it. You need to get stronger. More strength means more muscle. More muscle is more calories burned."
~ FDA cracks down on 'bio-identical' hormones -- "Government health officials on Wednesday began cracking down on Internet sales of custom-mixed hormones for menopausal women, a market born when doctors deemed prescription estrogen therapy too risky for many."
~ Drug that targets cannabinoid receptors cuts appetite, burns more energy -- "The first clinical studies of an experimental drug have revealed that obese people who take it for 12 weeks lose weight, even at very low doses. Short-term studies also suggest that the drug, called taranabant—the second drug designed to fight obesity by blocking cannabinoid receptors in the brain—causes people to consume fewer calories and burn more, researchers report in the January issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press."
~ Potential To Restore Range Of Motion, Accelerate Healing Using Freeze-Dried Tendon Implants -- "Donated, freeze-dried tendon grafts loaded with gene therapy may soon offer effective repair of injured tendons, a goal that has eluded surgeons to date. According to study data published in the journal Molecular Therapy, a new graft technique may provide the first effective framework around which flexor tendon tissue can reorganize as it heals."
~ Surprise -- cholesterol may actually pose benefits, study shows -- "If you`re worried about high cholesterol levels and keeping heart-healthy as you get older, don`t push aside bacon and eggs just yet. A new study says they might actually provide a benefit."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ School Popularity Affects Girls’ Weights -- "Does thinness lead to popularity for teen girls, or is it the other way around?"
~ Understanding The Role Of Stress In Just About Everything -- "Stress, to put it bluntly, is bad for you. It can kill you, in fact. A study now reveals that stress causes deterioration in everything from your gums to your heart and can make you more susceptible to everything from the common cold to cancer."
~ Embodied, Situated and Distributed Cognition -- "From 1990 to 1999, the U.S. Library of Congress and National Institute of Mental Health sponsored an interagency initiative that designated the 90’s as the Decade of the Brain. Paradoxically, the cognitive science of this decade was marked by a major methodological and conceptual change that one can summarizes as “cognition beyond the brain”. Whereas the brain was traditionally conceived as being the only seat of intelligence, many trends of research emphasized the functional entrenchment of the brain in the body, environment and culture."
~ New Year’s Resolution: Let it Be -- "A fever for change hits us all -- to get healthier, slimmer, more productive, to be better people, whatever that means to us. To start again. But is this not aggression against ourselves? And does violence not breed violence?"
~ Genetic Factors Could Enhance Risk of Depression Following Stress -- "Genetic and environmental factors can interact and increase an individual's chances of developing mental illness, as researchers demonstrated in a 2003 study published in the journal Science. In the study, researchers found that individuals with one or two copies of the S allele of the serotonin transporter gene had a greater chance of becoming depressed or suicidal following stressful events than those with two copies of the L allele."
~ How to Practice Forgiveness -- "It's been said that "to error is human, but to forgive is divine." While this is a true statement, it's also vital to forgive if you want to move forward and enjoy a life."
~ Is Modern Self-Help Just a Massive Money-Making Scam? -- "Of course self-help books vary considerably, in both quality and popularity - but are the most popular also the highest quality? In an article to be published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, Ad Bergsma looks at the most popular self-help books and asks whether their advice can really help us (Bergsma, in press)."
~ 15 Proven Tactics to Fire Up Enthusiasm -- "The journey to success is long, and enthusiasm is the fuel that sustain you. It is the fire that lights you up and keeps you moving forward in the face of difficulties. It lifts you up when the situation looks dark, and it energizes you when you are tired. That’s why Winston Churchill said that not losing enthusiasm is essential for success."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Big Brains, Small Impact -- "Later intellectual generations, including, paradoxically, the rebellious 60s cohort, do give interviews; do write articles on demand; and most evidently do participate in symposia. They grew up in a much-expanded campus universe and never left its safety. Younger intellectuals became professors who geared their work toward their colleagues and specialized journals. If this generation — my generation! — advanced into postmodernism, post-Marxism, and postcolonialism, where the Daniel Bells and Lewis Mumfords never trod, it did so by surrendering a public profile."
~ Rumi for Twentysomethings -- "His nonsectarian love for God and his passion for creation attract people of all ages, including Madonna and Deepak Chopra. But recently, younger people have been tuning in to his work, especially as UNESCO commemorates the poet’s 800th birthday this year."
~ Twelve Ways to Know the Past -- "A culture is a unique kind of inheritance. It represents a hoard that can be preserved, nurtured, imaginatively enhanced, and sometimes even invented. It can be wasted, neglected, or allowed to fall to ruin, but it cannot be spent. One cannot trade, say, some hispanidad for a bit of English stiff upper lip. But a cultural legacy is never simply given. As Goethe observed, one must acquire it in order to possess it."
~ Voting in the age of 'Dr. Phil' -- "What Americans really want when they look into a politician's eyes is to see their own images reflected back, like in Narcissus' pool. The presidency in particular has become the highest ground in the culture war." I don't agree with his whole premise, but it contains some partial truths.
~ Angry White Man: The bigoted past of Ron Paul -- "But, whoever actually wrote them, the newsletters I saw all had one thing in common: They were published under a banner containing Paul's name, and the articles (except for one special edition of a newsletter that contained the byline of another writer) seem designed to create the impression that they were written by him--and reflected his views. What they reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing--but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics."
~ Erica Jong: Tears & Fears -- "So now we have to do the hardest thing of all: not rush to judgment, wait, cultivate watchfulness not opinion mongering. Can we do it? Our democracy may depend on it. Kafka had this word over his desk: WARTEN (WAIT). Every writer must learn to do that while the unconscious works and underground forces prevail. Maybe countries have to do that too."
~ How black America can revive Obama's campaign -- "So much for the post-race horse race. The exit polls in New Hampshire were accurate for the Republicans and for the second-tier Democrats. The only miscalculation was the amount of support for Obama. That miscalculation is about race. Iowa caucus-goers stood by Barack, in part, because when voting with their bodies, in front of their neighbors, Iowans are held accountable. In the quiet, solitary space of the voting booth, some New Hampshire voters abandoned Barack."
~ Thompson Will Play as Long as 'Fred Funds' Hold Out -- "Friends of Fred Thompson, the almost-forgotten GOP presidential hopeful, plan to stay in South Carolina as long as fans pump money into his campaign." He's done, and never really got started.
~ Romney pulls ads in South Carolina, Florida -- "Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has decided to pull his advertising from South Carolina, where he was hoping to take on Mike Huckabee and John McCain, and from Florida, where Rudy Giuliani has been spending time and money."
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Glowing pig passes genes to piglets (AP) -- "A cloned pig whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of pigs for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported."
~ Coming TV Conversion Raises Fears Among Suppliers -- "Millions of Americans will need digital converter boxes when television stations make the switch from analog to digital signals in February 2009. Demand will skyrocket and companies that will supply those converters hope they're up to the task."
~ Ancient Cave Bears Were As Omnivorous As Modern Bears -- "Rather than being gentle giants, new research reveals that Pleistocene cave bears ate both plants and animals and competed for food with the other contemporary large carnivores of the time: hyaenas, lions, wolves, and our own human ancestors."
~ Molecular Basis Of Monarch Butterfly Migration Discovered -- "An ancestral circadian clock mechanism is defined in monarch butterflies, in which two proteins function as critical components. The proteins may also function as output molecules that connect the clock to the sun compass for successful navigation."
~ Deep Sea Vents: Hot, Wet, Weird -- "The ocean floor's plumbing system works in strange ways, scientists report."
~ Astronomy Team Discovers Ancestors Of Milky Way-type Galaxies -- "Astronomers have discovered galaxies in the distant universe that are ancestors of spiral galaxies like our Milky Way. They are quite small -- one-tenth the size and one-twentieth the mass of our Milky Way, and have fewer stars -- one-fortieth as many as are in the Milky Way. Several of these galaxies, sometimes 10 or more, pulled together over the ensuing few billion years to form a single spiral galaxy."
~ Rogue Black Holes Roam Milky Way -- "Hundreds of middle-weight black holes may lurk inside our own galaxy."
~ Whither the ice caps? -- "Are the ice sheets about to melt away? Andrew Revkin of the New York Times offers a news story and a blog post that explores what the scientists trying to answer the question have to say. Both are worth reading, but I found the "Dot Earth" blog post, which is just as journalistically sound as the "official" story, more interesting."
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ New Hampshire Victory for Hillary (and Science) -- "The 2008 presidential election is another history in the making. The issues are more crucial (e.g. Iraq, health care, climate change, energy policies, etc.) The race to the primaries is tighter. Thanks to Youtube, we can watch the election from anywhere in the world (I'm watching it from Ireland right now). And there's a good chance that we'll either have a first woman president, or a first black president. Historic times, indeed."
~ My Latest Guru -- "It's a reality show called “The Dog Whisperer”, and it documents the work of Cesar Milan, a famously skilled dog trainer, dealing with ordinary people's problems with their dogs. He has amazing success dealing quickly and effectively with the kinds of dog behavioral problems that most owners can't seem to make a dent in for years and years. Even more remarkable is the way he goes about it, and the understanding that he brings to both the people and the dogs."
~ Not drawn to the appeal of O-mentum -- "I keep hearing about "change", and "hope" and how Obama is the guy that will "get us there". And now all the Democratic and Republican Presidential hopefuls are trying to position themselves as agents of change. But everyone always wants those things. I think many people want something to believe in, and that Obama is the blank canvass onto which people can project that desire."
~ Surrender and Joy in the Pursuit of Excellence: Reader Discussion -- "There have been many excellent questions raised at the end of the previous post, Surrender and Joy in the Pursuit of Excellence. I have no definite answers, but I’d like to give my perspective on them here – and encourage my readers to give theirs in the comments section."
~ Who Will Be The "First Scientist"? -- "While the focus of most people in the U.S. is the Presidential primaries, a number of science bloggers had already chimed in on their "candidates" for the position of Presidential Science Adviser."
~ Living with Time to Enjoy Life -- "In each moment we have the potential to be present, or to miss it. If we miss the moment, we never get it back, and when it happened we were essentially dead. Along the journey of evolution, we seemed to picked up the habit of not living in the moment, spending time either in the past, as memories, or in the future, as planning."
~ Epiphanies to Come -- "I have been learning and letting myself change at an unprecedented rate over the past two years, and I know more change is in the cards. Somehow I know that this next great change in my ideas, my philosophy, my intentions, will be about simplicity, about making things easier. Our lives are too hard, too complicated, too busy. And most of the people I know are not very happy."
~ Obama and McCain -- "Here's a wonderful op-ed piece that just ran in the New York Times today, about some of the key distinctions between Barack Obama and John McCain. Notice the writer's keen obervation of masculine (agency, rights, justice) and feminine (communion, care, relationship) dynamics at play among these two very different candidates." Links to a David Brooks column that I think is pretty on target.
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