Speedlinking 2/6/08

Quote of the day:

"The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action."
~ Frank Herbert

Image of the day:


BODY
~ (Review) How Perfect is Perfect Pushup? -- "Bowflex, Gazelle, SoloFlex, Bullworkers, Thigh Master… if it’s been sold in an infomercial at any point in its lifespan, I’ve probably got a friend who bought it and turned it into either a coat rack or a paperweight. But I never buy those items off principal. I just don’t buy into the hype. That’s why I was (at first) very skeptical about the popular Perfect Pushup device." I've tried these, and they are pretty dang nice, especially for someone like me with wrist arthritis.
~ How To Never Miss A Workout Again -- "Working out must become your new lifestyle. If you simply workout once in a while with long breaks in between, you can expect dismal results. The reason being that muscle atrophies from lack of use."
~ The 13 Super Stacks -- "The 13 best supplement stacks, including the Longevity Stack, the Traveling Man's Stack, the FFB's Stack, the Chubby Girlfriend's Stack, the Mass Stack, the Endurance Stack, and of course, the Nookie Stack."
~ Study Of Obese Mice Finds Weight Training Melts Fat And Improves Metabolism -- "When it comes to losing weight, pumping iron may be just as important as running on the treadmill, suggests a new study in the February issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press. Researchers used a genetic trick in obese mice that caused the mice's muscles to bulk up as though they had been lifting weights. The researchers found that the "genetically reprogrammed" mice lost fat and showed other signs of metabolic improvement throughout the body." Strangely enough, this works in people, too.
~ Risk Of Chronic Disease Lowered By Whole Grain Diets -- "Diets with high amounts of whole grains may help achieve significant weight loss, and also reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to a team of Penn State researchers at University Park and the College of Medicine." Consumption of whole grains has been associated with a lower body weight and lower blood pressure," said co-author Penny Kris-Etherton, distinguished professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State." It's all about the fiber.
~ Chronic pain seen altering how brain works -- "Brain scans of people in chronic pain show a state of constant activity in areas that should be at rest, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday, a finding that could help explain why pain patients have higher rates of depression, anxiety and other disorders."
~ Yoga helps survivors of natural disasters -- "A 1-week yoga program reduced stress and anxiety among survivors of the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean islands of Andaman and Nicobar in December 2004, researchers from India report."
~ Recognizing the Signs of Stress From Exercise Over-Exertion -- "It's actually a fine line between peak-training and over-training. In our keen efforts to achieve optimal fitness or build that lean, muscular physique, our diligent training can sometimes create more harm than good.:
~ Lowering LDL Cholesterol Without Drugs -- "Beyond statins, try exercise, diet, and a supplement or two."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ Study Of Relationship Negativity -- "While our relationships with children and best friends tend to become less negative as we age, we're more likely to see our spouses as irritating and demanding.That's according to a University of Michigan study that analyzed long-term patterns of relationship negativity among more than 800 adults ages 20 and older."
~ Rhodiola Herbal Extract Found to Fight Off Depression -- "The study, published in the Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, involved 80 participants, aged between 18 and 70, who were divided into three groups. The first received 340mg of Rhodiola extract daily, the second twice as much, and the third two capsules containing a placebo. The results revealed that only the groups taking Rhodiola had found benefit, with particularly significant improvements in insomnia and emotional instability, and no adverse effects."
~ Peace is a Character Strength -- "This month I thought that I would visit a topic that is near and dear to my heart: peace. I have thought about peace in many ways and from many perspectives, from the eyes of an angry brother, an anxious student, a frustrated child, and as an adult making his way in the world. Coming from positive psychology, it makes me think of the virtues and character strengths model outlined by Peterson and Seligman (2004)."
~ Feel Like a Fraud? At Times, Maybe You Should -- "Feelings of phoniness appear to alter people’s goals in unexpected ways and may also protect them against subconscious self-delusions."
~ Martin Seligman responds to unfounded criticism of positive psychology -- "Recent months has seen some unfounded and at times ridiculous criticism of the happiness and positive psychology movements. In this letter to the editor, one of the founders of the positive psychology movement and author of, among other things, “Authentic Happiness”, Martin Seligman challenges some of the absurd claims."
~ 10 Common Reasons to Lie to Your Therapist -- "A few weeks ago, I wrote an article called “Why Would You Lie to Your Therapist?” that appears to have hit a nerve with clients and therapists alike. The article questioned why — when you’re paying good money for a therapist — you would spend any time lying to them. It was an honest question that psychotherapists sometimes grapple with, especially after seeing a client for awhile and then finding out some really big or important piece of information the client hadn’t previously mentioned."
~ A Simple Guide to Being Present for the Overworked and Overwhelmed -- "If I could only give one word of advice to someone trying to find peace in an overwhelming and stressful and chaotic world, it would be this: simplify. But if I could give two more words of advice, they’d be: be present."
~ Seeking Solitude: 17 Ways to Find Time for Yourself -- "In today’s world we have loneliness, but rarely solitude. Western culture tends to portray anyone who wants solitude as being anti-social or unhappy. But, as I’d like to argue, getting more time by yourself can actually increase the quality of your communication. Instead of surrounding yourself with the crowd, you can focus on having real conversations."
~ Very young found to process fear memories in unique way -- "Very young brains process memories of fear differently than more mature ones, new research indicates. The findings appear in the Feb. 6 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The work significantly advances scientific understanding of when and how fear is stored and unlearned, and introduces new thinking on the implications of fear experience early in life."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Raising Obama -- "Is he tough enough? That’s the question being asked of Barack Obama. To those who have known the candidate since boyhood, it’s not just those “dreams from my father” that make Obama a contender, but also his mother’s daring, his grandmother’s grit, and his own relentless drive."
~ Flatland: The Movie Edition -- "Edwin Abbott's beloved mathematical adventure novel Flatland (1884) is being introduced to a whole new generation of readers and viewers through Flatland: The Movie, a dramatic computer-animated adaptation starring Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Michael York, Tony Hale, and Joe Estevez."
~ Obama claims delegate lead -- "NBC News, which is projecting delegates based on the Democratic Party's complex formula, figures Obama will wind up with 840 to 849 delegates, versus 829 to 838 for Clinton."
~ Who Understands Our Electoral System? -- "It’s all about the delegates. The political mavens watching the Super Tuesday returns last night knew that the number allocated to each candidate would be the most significant indicator of the race’s direction, and the only possible answer to that nagging but nonetheless necessary question: who won?"
~ War on Iraq: The Surrender is Working: U.S. Cedes Town to 'Al Qaeda in Iraq' -- "U.S. casualties are down in large part because the military have surrendered territory to the 'terrorists.'"
~ GOOD Magazine: Vermont: Most Likely To Secede? -- "On October 3, 2007, delegates to the second North American Secessionist Convention met for two days in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to discuss how to crack the United States into manageable parts. They came representing 11 rebel groups in 36 states, under banners such as the Republic of Cascadia (wedding Oregon and Washington), Independent California (forging the world's fifth-largest economy), the United Republic of Texas (returning the Lone Star State to its lonesomeness), the League of the South (uniting the states of old Dixie), and, spearhead of the effort, the Second Vermont Republic (separating Vermont from the United States). The dominant thought among the delegates was that what they call "the U.S. experiment" had failed." Uh, OK. Right idea, wrong direction.
~ Primary: State-by-State Results -- "A state-by-state look at the results, as voters across the country make their presidential choices on Super Tuesday."
~ McCain: Frail with the Far Right -- "He may be the frontrunner, but Super Tuesday proved that the GOP constituency that matters most still hasn't bought in."
~ Haggard Leaves The Program -- "It seems he couldn't be heterosexualized - and has quit the re-programming "therapy". I hope Haggard will at some point reflect on all this, and perhaps emerge as a figure able to talk about sexual orientation with evangelicals and persuade some that it truly is an integral part of someone's psyche and soul."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Progress In Finding Alternatives To Animal Testing -- "A new plan to further reduce, refine and replace the use of animals in research and regulatory testing commonly referred to as the 3Rs Has been unveiled at a symposium marking the 10-year anniversary of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM)."
~ We Are Not a Networked Nation -- "Don’t believe the hype. Look instead at the underlying data. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency of the Department of Commerce, announced last week that the U.S. is a networked nation. Nothing could be further from the truth."
~ Helium-8 Study Gives Insight Into Nuclear Theory, Neutron Stars -- "The most neutron-rich matter that can be made on Earth--the nucleus of the helium-8 atom--has been created, trapped and characterized by researchers. This new measurement gives rise to several significant consequences in nuclear theory and the study of neutron stars."
~ 3D Holograms Coming to Theater Near You -- "Three-dimensional movies could be a reality within five years, scientists say."
~ TV Migrates to Cell Phones -- "The broadcasting industry is setting the stage for mobile TV."
~ Scientists Create See-Through Fish, Watch Cancer Grow -- "Scientists breed zebrafish with see-through bodies so they can study diseases."
~ Dinos' Veggie Diets Packed Surprising Punch -- "Diets of evergreens and ferns were more nourishing than previously thought."
~ News: "Clean" Coal Power Plant Canceled--Hydrogen Economy, Too -- "The U.S. government--and major U.S. banks--seem to have lost their appetite for coal. After spending five years and approximately $50 million on preliminary studies as well as selecting a proposed site in Mattoon, Ill., the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has scuttled plans to build the so-called FutureGen power plant. The facility would have captured the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) that is emitted when coal is burned for electricity generation. Instead, the DOE hopes to help industry add carbon capture and storage capability to advanced coal plants already in the works."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ The end of the leading edge of consciousness -- "If one has the expectation that they must find or tap into the so-called “leading edge of consciousness”, as an act necessary to the success of their artwork, then there is nothing else to say but something simple: that person is silly and that person should drop that expectation, immediately." Great post.
~ A ritual ingrained in Buddhist monks -- "Part of an ongoing campus series called "Religion, Culture and Identity," the project combines a one-day symposium and the sand mandala ritual under the umbrella title "The Creation and Contestation of Sacred Space," an exploration of the importance of sacred spaces within a variety of global religious traditions."
~ Oprah Talks to Pema Chödrön -- " Buddhism has been described as a religion, philosophy, ideology and a way of life. Pema Chödrön, one of the first Western women to become fully ordained as a Buddhist monastic and author of When Things Fall Apart, talks to Oprah about learning from pain and what it means to be a Buddhist." Includes audio of the interview.
~ Review: Alan Wallace -- Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness -- "There is a quiet revolution afoot. The last century has witnessed Buddhists and quantum physicists quietly moving into perigee, however unwittingly until the last twenty years. In Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Cloth, 176 Pages), B. Alan Wallace gives an incisive portrayal of this merging of minds and argues that these two paths are not just complementary—they are intimately related."
~ Not stage specific -- "There are of course stage specific tools, both teachings and practices, and these have practical value. But at the same time, I can’t help noticing that the tools I am currently using are not stage specific. They can be used by anyone, from novices to people familiar with the terrain, from those firmly in grips of a great deal of beliefs to those verging on the border of selfless realization."
~ The Beauty of Impermanency and the Illusion of the Ego -- "We cannot cling to something that is ungraspable, the great teachers always said. Just enjoy it. Countless poems have been written on the magnificence of the sunrise; but where is the beauty if it is always dawn?"
~ The Wisdom of Folly -- "Mulla Nasruddin Hoja appears as a whimsical character in a tradition of Sufi stories, and is portrayed as both an idiot and a sage. The Sufis use the terms “idiot” and “fool” to refer to aspects of their Divine Madness."

Tags: folly, Sufism, impermanence, Ego, stage specific tools, B. Alan Wallace, Oprah, Pema Chodron, sacred space, mandalas, leading edge of consciousness, clean coal, dinosaur diets, see-through fish, cell phones, 3D movies, nuclear theory, networked nation, animal testing, Ted Haggard, John McCain, primary results, North American Secessionist Convention, Iraq War, electoral system, Obama, Flatland, fear, memories, solitude, being present, lying to your therapist, feeling like a fraud, peace, depression, realtionship negativity, cholesterol, over training, yoga, chronic pain, whole grains, weight training, metabolism, supplement stacks, workouts, perfect push ups, speedlinking