"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."
~ Mark Twain
Image of the day (Srirama Raja):
BODY
~ Fitness Jargon: Understanding Your Workout -- "Almost every field of expertise has its own jargon—including fitness. Attempting to discern “reps” from “sets” and “VO2 max” from “target heart rate” and “interval training,” could cause any newcomer to go into fitness jargon overload."
~ An Apple A Day Keeps Dementia Away -- "It would seem that the old wives' tale "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" has borne fruit again in that a new study suggests that apples, bananas and oranges protect against neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's."
~ Guest Blog: Your Fitness Future Foretold -- "In this article, I'm going to predict your future and forecast exactly what kind of results you're going to get in the next 12 months. Sylvia Browne, step aside... I'm pretty good at this."
~ How to Deal with Annoying People at The Gym -- "My Top 5 Ways to Deal with Annoying People at The Gym. You could use these tips in other areas of your life too."
~ Tackling Triglycerides: 8 Ways To Solve A Big Fat Problem -- "When it comes to heart health, the largest and most common form of fat in food and the bloodstream triglycerides has taken a back seat to "bad" LDL cholesterol and "good" HDL cholesterol in the public's awareness. That's changing as researchers get a grip on how triglycerides influence the risk of heart disease, reports the February 2008 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter. Triglycerides are in the danger zone when they slide above 200 milligrams per deciliter of blood."
~ Experimental Vaccine Halts Prostate Cancer in Mice (HealthDay) -- "An experimental prostate cancer vaccine has stopped the progress of the disease in 90 percent of the mice who got it, California researchers report."
~ You call that health food? -- "Just because the label says it's good for you doesn't mean it is. Here's how to read beyond the marketing hype."
~ It’s February. How’s that diet coming? -- "It's now one month into 2008, and your eating habits may have veered a bit off course. But it's not too late — five small changes can help you cut calories and get your diet back on track."
~ The Pros and Cons of Drinking Beer -- "Sometimes even referred to as "liquid bread", beer is one of the oldest and one of most popular alcoholic beverages in the world. Brewer's yeast, one of the beer's main components, is known to be a rich source of nutrients and this means that beer may have some health benefits. Does this mean beer is a healthy drink? Let's look at the pros and cons of beer drinking and decide after."
~ HPV Causing More Oral Cancer in Men -- "The sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer in women is poised to become one of the leading causes of oral cancer in men, according to a new study."
PSYCHE/SELF
~ The Five Questions You Must Ask Your Therapist -- "Do you know how a therapist can manipulate a client in the very first conversation they have? Do you know how a therapist or self development workshop leader can use an anecdote or story to confuse a person? If they were to add a certain attitude at this point they might well illicit an emotional response from their client. And if they add a highly sensitive personal matter it could leave a person reeling. The client may well be left thinking they need to go back and get help from the person who has set them up to feel a certain way." Disclaimer -- I believe in therapy, but this is worth considering because not all therapists are good.
~ Seven Words That Can Change the World: An Elegant Theory of Universal Transformation, by Joseph Simonetta -- "Seven Words That Can Change the World is not for people who are afraid to challenge their current beliefs and philosophical alliances. At the risk of offending a few people on certain sensitive topics, Simonetta lays out a powerful philosophy that marries personal freedom with global abundance while protecting the environment and enhancing personal health. Whether or not you agree with the specific philosophies espoused by Simonetta, his eye-opening book will no doubt cause you to think more deeply about the things you do believe (and why you believe them)." Review of a free e-book.
~ Secrets of Wellbeing Series — Part 1: Authentic Happiness -- "This is the first of a seven-part series on the Secrets of Wellbeing. The reason I’m launching into this series is because I’m excited about what is happening in the field of psychology and how new research supports ancient teachings."
~ Pauses in speech -- "While I was off guest-posting elsewhere, I talked Kristina Lundholm, a PhD student in linguistics and also a speech & language pathologist, into guest-posting here. She knows a great deal more about speech errors and disfluencies than I do. This is her follow-up to my post about errors in speech."
~ How Long Will It Take? -- "This is often one of the first questions in the mind of a prospective client when they meet a therapist for the first time. The therapist often gives an answer along the lines that each "case" is individual, but how often does this answer sound like a platitude?"
~ Being an Optimist: 8 Ways to Overcome Pessimism -- "Pessimism is disastrous. It ruins hope and possibilities. If someone is pessimistic, he doesn’t hope for a better future neither do something to achieve it. The obstacles along the way seem enormous, and he doubts his ability to overcome them. At the end, he will just stay where he is, without making any progress. People can waste years, even their whole lives, because of pessimism."
~ Consciousness: The Source for Nature and Nurture? -- "It's a complex and mysterious field, so I've only offered a gloss. But we've covered enough ground to see that both sides of the debate between nature and nurture can claim part of the truth. Neither can claim to know how much the brain adapts to outside influences and how much is pre-set by genes."
~ What’s YOUR Sticking Point? -- "When we start something new, we often have a huge burst of enthusiasm and energy that carries us through the early stages. But eventually the newness wears off, and the project settles down into a daily grind. We reach a sticking point of one kind or another and get hung up."
~ How To Really Talk To Your Therapist: Four Collaborative Steps -- "People who go into therapy frequently report good experiences where the patient feels understood and well-supported by the therapist, who uses his or her therapeutic skills to facilitate a discovery and healing process."
~ carnival of eating disorders #13 -- "welcome to this month’s carnival of eating disorders, a monthly collection of interesting posts on eating disorders and related issues such as anorexia, bulimia, orthorexia, cumpulsive exercising and overeating."
CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Self-help won't help American literature -- "In fact, Oprah was not referring to a White House run of her own, but rather to the latest selection for her eponymous book club, a self-help tome called A New Earth by one Eckhart Tolle. (He is also the author of the best-selling self-help book The Power of Now, which was recently spotted in the hands of poor Britney Spears.) And not only is it the book club pick, but Oprah and Eckhart will host a series of 10 webcast discussions, each centred around one chapter - an unprecedented book club feature. This is going to be huge."
~ Who Wears the Pants? Hillary Clinton’s Prospective First Gentleman -- "Whether the aura of the Clinton name offers a potential boost for Hillary, however, is for the most part speculative, and questions remain about Bill Clinton’s impact on Hillary’s candidacy, and what role(s) he would play as “First Gentleman” in the White House."
~ Out of Context: The Real Surreal World -- "Why are the most visceral, defining moments in our life often perceived as unreal or dream-like?"
~ Review - The Faces of Terrorism - Social and Psychological Dimensions --"Scholars and policy makers discuss the moral, political, legal, cultural, and economic factors of terrorism but, ultimately, it is a matter of emotions and minds. Its psychological aspects seem to dominate over all others because the goals of terrorist groups cannot be achieved without exerting a strong pressure on the psyche of the public and governments. Terrorists believe that violent actions send their message and would make the world follow their demands."
~ Hillary and Obama, Ignore the Sleazy Pollsters Who Want You to Cave on Drug Reform -- "The Dem candidates have good positions on medical marijuana, but they need to stand up for comprehensive changes in our drug laws."
~ A Big Challenge for a 'Broken' Washington -- "More than 7 out of 10 Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction."
~ Exxon Mobil Profit Sets Record Again -- "The company reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries." That's just wrong in so many ways.
~ The Online Beat: Ann Coulter's Diabolical Campaign for Clinton -- "The right-wing diva sets out to destroy two campaigns with one slur."
~ McCain vs. the Right Wing -- "Limbaugh, Dobson, etc. claim they can't abide him. How far will he go to appease them?"
HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Is DDT Making a Comeback? -- "In Africa, where malaria kills a million children a year, some are advocating the return of DDT. Are they right?"
~ Is Yahoo Worth $44.6 billion? -- "Microsoft is paying a premium to catch up to Google."
~ No Targets Set at Climate Meeting -- "A meeting of delegates from the nations that emit the most pollutants ended without concrete targets for slashing greenhouse gas emissions."
~ Microsoft-Yahoo Merger By the Numbers -- "Microsoft's $44 billion bid for Yahoo translates into nearly $1,200 for each unique monthly visitor to Yahoo's web sites. You want more metrics? We got 'em. Get your red-hot data here!"
~ U.S. farms decline in 2007 to 2.08 mln -- "The American landscape is dotted with fewer farms as a result of consolidation and a movement of land to nonagricultural uses, the government said on Friday."
~ Seafloor Chemistry: Life's building blocks made inorganically -- "Hydrocarbons in fluids spewing from hydrothermal vents on the seafloor in the central Atlantic were produced by inorganic chemical reactions deep within the ocean crust, a finding with implications for the possible origins of life."
~ Dusty Clues: Study suggests no dearth of Earths -- "A new study suggests that many, or perhaps most, sunlike stars have planets much like Earth."
~ Airbus super-jumbo tests out new synthetic fuel -- "An Airbus A380 super jumbo, the world's largest passenger aircraft, flew here Friday from Britain using a new synthetic fuel said to be cleaner and more efficient than traditional kerosene."
~ Journey to Saturn From Your Computer -- "Want a peek at Saturn as seen from space? A new interactive 3-D viewer that uses a game engine and allows users to travel to Saturn and see it the way the Cassini spacecraft sees it is now online at NASA's Cassini page.
INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ Awakening through "instinctive" training - A Programless Program -- "I thought I'd discuss how I train (currently) and maybe it will help others. First off, realize that I attempt to bring my experience of "awakening" (for lack of a better word) into everything I do. While I may not be enlightened (whatever the heck that exactly means) I have at least awakened from the dream of separation—as some Zen or Advaita masters might put it—and so I try to carry this ever-present awareness of What-Is into my training as much as I do the rest of my life."
~ The Neurosciences of Religion: Meditation, Entheogens, Mysticism -- "In this lecture, we are going to examine the human brain directly to see how the cognitive neurosciences try to understand and explain religious and spiritual experiences. And we note first that there has been a tremendous amount of new research and new insights into the working of the human brain in the last few decades. Powerful new tools also allow us to examine the function of healthy human brains and these tools have recently been used to study the brain functions of Buddhist monks, Catholic nuns, Pentecostals speaking in tongues, and others."
~ Matthew Dallman Radio -- "Is now on the air! Now you can listen to my music, easier and with more variety than ever before. Near the top of the page, under the logo and under GooseDrops, there is a flash player that is programmed to shuffle through my work perpetually. Which means: You gotta press play!"
~ Meditation Posture -- "When I was first studying Buddhism I was daunted by meditation because I read so much about having the right posture, sitting in the 'correct fashion.' I read about the Full Lotus position the Half-Lotus position and the Burmese position. I was over-whelmed by the detailed nature of meditation positions and I was worried that I was going to 'make a mistake' I read about teachers who would hit you on your head or back if your posture didn't adhere to the complicated 'rules.'"
~ Basic Concepts of Buddhism -- "The Buddha's four realisations led to the formulation of an eightfold path, a 'middle way' that leads from suffering and rebirth to nirvana."
~ finding meaning in our lives -- "A new perspective has emerged from neuroscience in the past 20 years. What gives life its richness does not come from reason and intellect. It comes instead from a well-balanced emotional brain, that deepest and most archaic part of the nervous system. And what does a balanced emotional brain need? Above all, strong connections, full relationships. These can be found in four areas of our lives."
~ An Integral approach to the Social and Emotional Development of the Profoundly Gifted -- "Gifted children, like many individuals, must embark upon a heroic quest towards self-understanding and self-realization. Jackson's brief essay outlines an integral approach to helping children become conscious participants in their own developmental matrix & embodied life."
~ The Proust Questionnaire -- "I’ve being tagged by Danny Fisher and so he are my answers to the following questionnaire." Dang, he tagged me. :)
~ Turquoise Shadows (transcript of a conversation with Ken Wilber) -- "This is part two of my conversation on shadow with Ken Wilber (IS Call on Ch. 6 “Shadow/Disowned Self” - Part 6). I wrote a transcript of part one ("Nameless Dread at the Brink of the Transpersonal") and will transcribe the third and final section eventually."
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